AARC Member Joe Buhain Named One of 50 Heroes
January 3, 2007
Visitors to the Department of Defense (DOD) web site are learning more about respiratory therapist Joseph Buhain, RRT, RCP, EMT-B. A staff sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserves, Buhain has just been named one of “50 Heroes from 50 States,” representing Minnesota.
AARC members weren’t really surprised. As they’ve learned over the past couple of years in articles on the AARC web site and in AARC Times magazine, SSG Buhain stands out from the crowd. Called up to serve in the Middle East in the spring of 2004, he did an 18 month tour of duty in Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan, caring for soldiers in a combat support hospital in Baghdad and helping rebuild the health care infrastructure in Kandahar.
He says the recognition came as a pleasant surprise, but, in typical fashion, emphasizes the great contributions of the other men and women selected. “I was honored, but still feel that I really do not fall in the same category as all these other soldiers,” says the registered respiratory therapist.
“If you look at the other soldiers honored, a lot of them sacrificed their lives in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. It is these men and women who should be honored. I just did my job.”
The DOD would disagree, noting SSG Buhain “built from scratch a respiratory school for Afghan medical students and an ICU in a hospital in Kandahar. He also trained more than 350 medical students in CPR, and took part in more than 150 missions, several of which were high risk.”
His work earned him the Bronze Star in March of 2005.
SSG Buhain’s tour of duty came to an abrupt end when a grenade was thrown at the Humvee he was riding in during a patrol through a busy market area and his knee was crushed in-between pieces of falling armor during the explosion. The injury sent him back home for surgery, and he has since recovered well enough to resume teaching duties at Saint Paul College and military missions with the 945th FST, where he is currently in charge of a 20 man surgical team. He will undergo more surgery this month, but expects to return to the Middle East in 2009.
When asked if his military service in Iraq and Afghanistan has changed him, SSG Buhain says, “Change is an understatement. Men and women who come back are never the same person…I believe that I have become better proficient as a trauma respiratory therapist and a better educator. I have experienced, developed, and managed areas in respiratory care others could not have imagined.”
You can read about Joe Buhain and his fellow heroes on the DOD’s 50 Heroes from 50 States web page.
To learn more about his experiences while in Iraq and Afghanistan, check out these articles in AARC Times:
On the Job in Iraq: RTs Tell What It’s Like To Serve in a Combat Support Hospital
You can also read a great article about Buhain that appeared on the Saint Paul College web site:
Respiratory care instructor Joseph Buhain is back from the Middle East war zone with a new perspective on care-giving—and a new appreciation for his career at Saint Paul College