Free Republic

BETHESDA, Md. (NNS) -- National Naval Medical Center and Veterans Affairs are making patient care between the agencies easier with the Seamless Transition Program and benefits counseling. The Seamless Transition Program aids the transitioning process for service members injured in Iraq or Afghanistan, said Bethesda Veterans Affairs liaison Anne LaFond. "[Liaisons] work with social workers, case workers and discharge planners for service members hurt in Iraq and Afghanistan and those who are going to need follow-up care at [Veterans Affairs],” LaFond said. "We try to provide one main point of contact to the family to make sure nobody falls through...

ABOARD THE USNS COMFORT (AP) -- Navy nurse Kimberlee Flannery came to the Persian Gulf expecting to help wounded Americans. Instead, she has been caring mostly for injured enemy soldiers. Flannery admits she was "very apprehensive" when her first Iraqi soldier came aboard this U.S. Navy hospital ship. But any misgivings she might have had quickly melted away. "Then you see the pain and the agony of the people, and that whole mindset is erased," said the 23-year-old from Chillicote, Ohio. So far, the patient roster aboard the USNS Comfort off the coast of Bahrain, has been the product of...