Air Force nurse Major Kari A. Miller is currently the director of the nurse trauma program and the chief of the critical care nurse program for the U.S. Air Force Center for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills (C-STARS) in Baltimore, where she helps train military medical personnel who are preparing to deploy, with a focus on teaching trauma assessment, treatment, and skills.

Says Miller: “My C-STARS colleagues and I work directly with the staff of R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center [at the University of Maryland], where we see over 8,000 patients per year. The center has an excellent survival rate of 97% and our nurses and physicians are fully integrated with the civilian staff here.”

The photos here show Major Miller and her team during deployment in Ghazni, Afghanistan, in September 2010, when she earned a bronze star for leadership and performance and courage under fire. The team members earned an Army Combat Action Badge for care under fire. The photos on this page show the team treating American casualties received after an improvised explosive device detonated and the vehicle rolled over. Says Miller: “I believe we had three or four casualties with that incident and all had minor injuries. We did fly a couple of them to Bagram for further evaluation and treatment but no fatalities.”—Jacob Molyneux, […]