Lance Corporal Rhian Evans - B Coy Medic, 2 RIFLES - FOB Inkerman

I am LCpl Rhian Evans and I am the B Coy medic. I am one of five females here at FOB Inkerman and have the task of telling you what life is like here in the FOB from a female’s perspective.

I will start by telling you that it is not that different from a male’s perspective! I eat the same food even though it is the same every lunch time, consisting of noodles, rice, corned beef and a bit of tuna. I wash in the same facilities as the lads do but the females have one shower sectioned off so it is more private. I do most things just like the lads, so really it is not that different but I would like my hair straighteners and to let my hair down and to use some make up occasionally, just to feel like a girl once in a while. I will have to wait for my R&R for that and I really cannot wait!

My daily routine in the FOB is to look after the everyday needs of the soldiers on camp and the Local National ‘walk-ins’ seeking medical aid from primary care and the seriously wounded. Local Nationals come into the FOB virtually everyday with some sort of medical reasons. We had one Local National come in when he had been shot during a land dispute and on another occasion, we had two Local Nationals come in with lacerations all over their backs from a knife fight. The reason for the fight was that one of them had stolen the other’s milk. We have quite a few children come in where they have fallen over and opened their heads and needed stitches to grazes that needed dressing, so in all I think we have a well trusted medical facility for the locals to come in for treatments.

My normal day in the medical centre starts at 0745 when I go and check and feed the people in The Priory (Diarrhoea & Vomiting (D&V) isolation ward) accommodation. The Priory is a HESCO building with a tin roof next to the burns pit where all the soldiers with D&V, or just showing the signs of D&V, go. It is not nice being down there and I have been unfortunate and have been down there myself. It is hot and really boring so if you have not taken a book or your Nintendo DS down there you will be pulling your hair out after a day. The average soldier will spend about 2-3 days down there. You get treated like you have leprosy; no one wants to come near you just in case they catch it, and it’s only the Doctor that can discharge you from there.

When that is done I go back up to the medical centre where I treat the soldiers that have come in on sick parade, but hardly anyone comes in unless they are dying! So my mornings are quite boring.

On most days I go on patrols into the Green Zone or sometimes we do desert patrols, so I sort out my kit to make sure that I have everything in my medical kit sorted and re-supplied, my camelpak is filled and my stretcher is secure onto my day sack and go to orders.