Staff Sergeant Pamela Leggore on her second deployment to Iraq
When Task Force Diablo first deployed to Iraq in May of 2009 most of the unit was setting up facilities and operations after a last-minute base change. We were slated to be at Balad Air Base, we were switched to Camp Adder, also know as Tallil Ali Air Base.
While the transport and maintenance operations moved into new facilities, the MEDEVAC unit was on site and in full operation. Charlie Company, 1-52 Aviation, an active Army MEDEVAC unit, was already on site and in operation at Tallil. Pennsylvania pilots and medics joined Charlie Company operations.
Dust storms grounded many flights during the summer at Tallil, making the daytime sky a so thick with dust, it was hard to see the next truck in a ground convoy, let alone fly.
Soon after we arrived, Leggore was on a MEDEVAC mission to rescue soldiers badly injured in an attack on their convoy. The mission was successful and it was a very fast start to what has become a long career in Army medicine. In the years since 2010 when she returned from deployment, Leggore has earned a nursing degree and has recently returned from another deployment to Iraq.
Between deployments she trains other medics with the skills she learned in combat and through advanced education in the Army and as a civilian.
Staff Sergeant Pamela Leggore training medics
under simulated combat conditions at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pa.
