Doctor in Iraqi War Recalls Her Experience as Clinic's Only South Asian

Dr. Monica Mirchandani was the only South Asian on staff in the medical clinic in Iraq, where she treated wounded Iraqis and Americans. (photo: IndiaNewEngland.com)

The following article is from IndiaNewEngland.com.

Doctor Monica Mirchandani did not immediately fit in after she joined the U.S. military and was deployed to Iraq.

In the midst of some 4,000 military men and women who were stationed at her base, there were only a couple of South Asians - none of whom worked in her clinic.
Brown-skinned, she looked more like an Iraqi in the eyes of some soldiers than like an American, said Mirchandani.

"The army wasn't used to having an Indian female come on board," she told a group of about 300 young Indian-Americans at an event in May. "They were looking at me like I was foreign."

But very soon, she said, things got better.

Mirchandani presented photographs from her year-long deployment to Baqhbah, Iraq, at the Young Sindhi Adults Retreat in Boston over Memorial Day weekend.

Although Mirchandani's job at the base was to provide first-response medical care to the wounded, some of whom died in front of her, she did not include any of those pictures in her presentation.

"I didn't include pictures of the patients. They were very graphic so I couldn't include them," she said.

Instead, the PowerPoint presentation featured smiling photos of her in uniform among friends and pictures of the various types of desserts available on the Iraqi base. Other slides depicted a Christmas tree with presents, a group of Americans playing in a band, a Fourth of July celebration, and soldiers relaxing around a bonfire at night.

"I had wonderful food in Iraq," she said, emphasizing the word "wonderful," before going on to a photo of Americans playing in a band at the base. "This is our holiday band."

There was a photo of her in the trauma room, where she worked, smiling.

"Just waiting, waiting for trauma," she said.

In the next image was a picture of a male soldier's room that was painted pink as a prank. Pictures of gay men were put up on his wall.

Then there were the photos of the waiting rooms in the airport at the base.

"As you can see, the army spends a lot of money building up. They actually built these hard structures that kind of look like American airports," she said, adding that her base was equipped with "all sorts of cafes," a movie theater, and even a gym.

"After being there for seven years, we can truly say parts of Iraq are beginning to look like America. Especially at the bases," she said.

Mirchandani concluded the presentation by saying that the experience was a good one.

"I really did learn a lot, I really did grow a lot from the deployment," she said. "An experience like this can only have a positive impact."

After the presentation, Mirchandani acknowledged that she saw people die, but would not say how many. She would not answer questions about her political views, saying that as a member of the military she is not allowed to comment on the subject.

When a member of the audience asked her to talk more about the negatives of her service, she focused on how she did not fit in at first because she was Indian.
"I felt very uncomfortable initially, but toward the end we bonded," she said.

One of the slides in her presentation included a photo of her with a fellow American commander, from the day when she was awarded the bronze star.

The commander congratulated her, joking that at first he thought she was "so Indian," but it turned out that she "didn't even speak Hindi fluently."

The brown complexion, however, proved to be an advantage when it came to treating wounded Iraqis who were cooperating with the Americans, Mirchandani said.

"A lot of Americans did not want to treat Iraqis," she said. "[But] I didn't care either way. When they came into the clinic, they would come to me."

Source: INDIAnewEngland.com

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