Primarily assigned to Alpha Company, 2-2 Infantry (part of 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division), Sergeant Wes "Doc" Smith served in the evacuation section of the medical platoon as an evac NCO during his February 2004 to February 2005 deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In this interview, focusing on his role and that of medical support in general during Operation Phantom Fury - the decisive November 2004 urban fight that retook the Iraqi city of Fallujah - Smith discusses his experiences going in and out of the city time and again to retrieve and provide early treatment of battalion casualties. In particular, he talks at length about the under-fire evacuation of the Alpha Company executive officer, First Lieutenant Edward Iwan - actions for which he himself received the Bronze Star with "V" Device. "I don't know how close [the enemy fire] was coming to me," Smith recalled. "Like I said, I had that tunnel vision, but they said it looked like a cowboy movie or something, that I had stuff kicking up all around me when I was trying to get him up. I didn't realize that until later and my knees went weak when I heard it." Another tremendous loss for Alpha Company was the death of its commander, Captain Sean Sims, which Smith also discusses, as well the concomitant psychological impact it had on the company as a whole. The soldiers, he said, "look to the medics as not just plugging holes and giving band-aids; they seem to think of us as psychologists and counselors too, so a couple of them came over and expressed their feelings. It was hard for me to console them because I was feeling the same thing." "It was a trying experience for me," Smith said, but "a lot of my training paid off for that operation." He especially credits the battalion surgeon, Major (Dr.) Lisa DeWitt, and the physician assistant, Captain Gregory McCrum: "They tried to teach us everything they knew, almost working at their level because the platoon medics and us are the ones who are right there when the incidents happen. They taught us a lot. It taught me a lot about myself and I was pleased that my training paid off."

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