American Veterinarian Making an Impact in Iraq
How our soldiers are making a big difference in small places
By Tanya Biank
Southwest of Baghdad in an Al-Taraq schoolyard, shepherds bring their flocks of sheep and herds of goats to Neil Ahle, a veterinarian assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division.
In the United States, Ahle helps develop new foods for a pet-food company in Lawrence, Kan. On this winter day in Iraq, he notices that the cow he has just vaccinated has a curved horn set to penetrate the animal’s skull. Ahle borrows a pocket knife with a serrated blade from a soldier and saws an inch off the horn’s tip. Through a translator, he instructs the cow’s owner how to file the horn periodically.
By day’s end, the vet, recalled to active duty from retirement, has treated 85 sheep, 11 goats and 5 cows.
Army veterinarians in Iraq are concerned primarily with controlling animal diseases and reestablishing livestock farming. Like generations before them, the Iraqis in this rural region live in mud homes with straw roofs and raise animals for milk, wool and meat.
“If a region loses its way of making a living, it impacts everyone,” Ahle said.
A lack of veterinary care in a rural region that depends on raising animals as a crop could have a ripple effect on the national economy.
“The coalition has been working to restore public services such as power and water, and veterinary care is the logical next step,” Ahle said. He also establishes agricultural cooperative associations, purchases and distributes seed grains to farmers, and works on agricultural projects such as date-palm spraying to remove parasites.
Getting Iraqi veterinarians, who are afraid to travel, back into the farming villages is a challenge. The Army arranged for an Iraqi vet to help provide care in Al-Taraq, but when the vet never showed up, Ahle started without him. With help from 10th Mountain Division soldiers, Ahle provided vaccinations, dewormers and vitamins to the farm animals.
“We’d really like to see the Iraqi veterinarians step up and do this work in the rural areas,” he said. “But we will do them as necessary to support the animal-health-care needs of the farmers.”
The people appreciated the free care, and the soldiers improvised when necessary. Having no chutes to file the animals through, the soldiers used steel pickets and engineer tape as makeshift chutes.
“The pickets were a surprise,” Ahle said. “I’d expected the cows to plow right through them and keep on going, but they did channel the cows where we wanted them to go.”
When it came time to vaccinate the cows, soldiers tethered the 1,200-pound animals to a large tree in the schoolyard.
“The biggest hit of the day was when my primary ‘wrangler,’ Army soldier Frank Hutchinson, was attempting to lead a cow over to our treatment area, and she ran off across the schoolyard, towing him behind,” Ahle said. “He got about halfway before tripping and going face first into the dirt. He was a good sport about all the ribbing he took from his teammates.”