Compassion earns Misawa captain Bronze Star

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Jamal Sutter
  • 35th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan --  Stories are often told of servicemembers whose heroism distinguishes them above the rest, but there are some whose sacrifice leaves prospects of hope in places where there once was none.

Capt. Timothy Harrelson, 35th Medical Operations Squadron family practice physician assistant, recently received a Bronze Star for his efforts during a deployment to Afghanistan, where he served from February to November 2008, as a member of a provincial reconstruction team.

While deployed, Captain Harrelson completed an 18-day combat mission with the 101st Airborne Division and was the first Air Force physician assistant assigned to that Army infantry unit. He stabilized more than 30 victims wounded in major Taliban offensives and treated more than 800 Afghans in other missions. Additionally, Captain Harrelson helped provide clean water to 300 Afghan families, helping drop pediatric mortality by 25 percent in Qalat, Afghanistan.

But the feat that none before him had accomplished - one that continues to save the most innocent of lives, is the role he played in the making of a product that saved children in Afghanistan from starving to death.

"Once these kids would get to a certain point in their health with malnutrition, they could no longer digest food," said Captain Harrelson, an Indian Land, S.C., native. "They would get so sick, they couldn't even digest their mother's milk."

According to the captain, the children were in need of something they could easily digest, while containing all the necessary nutrients for a healthy diet.

He and Capt. James Arnold, a family medicine physician from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, partnered and researched a paste created and used in Africa. However, because the ingredients used in this paste were not readily available in Afghanistan, duplicating the paste became a challenge for the two.

"We tried to come up with comparative substances nutritionally that we could find in Afghanistan because we wanted these programs to be sustainable when we left," he said.

Sustainability was exactly what was developed. The nutritional paste was quickly picked up by the inhabitants of Qalat and other local villages, and change for the better had taken hold.

"The bigger part of the success of that program, besides the obvious end result with the children coming back to full health over a period of time, was being able to teach the doctors and nurses in Afghanistan how to make the paste," he said. "By the time we left, we exported that program to three different locations, and they were starting to move the program forward on their own. Once they learned it, they were no longer reliant on anything other than their own supply chain and their own civic officials to make it happen."

Success did not come quickly, though. Many mixtures and ratios of ingredients were experimented with before the winning paste was developed. The first few iterations of the paste either did not have the right taste, consistency or nutritional value. Through hard work, the correct formula was found, and soon after, the results became evident.

"The first baby we had was several months old," Captain Harrelson recalled. "By the time we were treating him, he weighed right around six pounds, and he gained almost 10 pounds in two weeks."

A child would receive a 600-calorie serving a day and didn't have to exert energy to chew, he said. The paste would simply be placed on a spoon or finger, and the child would suck on it. The paste was able to feed about 30 Afghan children a month for only $5. This was beneficial since funds were sometimes low and the Afghan people needed something cost-efficient once the team left, he added.

Despite confronting what seemed to be overbearing obstacles at times, Captain Harrelson said he remains positive about his time spent in Afghanistan.

"Working in Afghanistan was a tremendous experience and it taught me a lot about personal stewardship," Captain Harrelson added. "It is amazing what a person can do even when a situation appears untenable. My job in Zabul, Afghanistan, took me far outside of my comfort zone and forced me to develop new skills and acquire new knowledge with the only alternative being failure."

Col. David Stilwell, 35th Fighter Wing commander, awarded Captain Harrelson his Bronze Star, and his achievements and recognition have brought pride to his entire chain of command.

"Captain Harrelson's accomplishments are testimony to the key role medical personnel provide in supporting a wide range of operations throughout the world," said Lt. Col. Russell Pinard, 35th MDOS commander. "Captain Harrelson was able to experience the immediate professional satisfaction of saving a life - in fact not just one life, but the lives of many others. There's nothing more rewarding for a medical professional than knowing you made a difference by saving many lives."

Colonel Pinard said Captain Harrelson's work at home station is also exceptional.

"Captain Harrelson is an outstanding provider with stellar healthcare and very high patient satisfaction," he added. "His performance and contributions to the 35th MDOS mission and the Misawa community are outstanding."