Sheppard nurse recieves Bronze Star Published May 15, 2009 By Airman 1st Candy Miller 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Lt. Col. Susan Bassett, 882nd Training Group chief nurse, received the fourth highest combat award in the U.S. Armed Force May 5, following a 365-day deployment to Kandahar, Afghanistan. As a member of the 205th Afghan Regional Security Integration Command, her mission was to train and mentor nurses of the Afghan National Army as a counterinsurgency tactic to build the Afghan military for the Afghan government. "Receiving this award is quite an honor that I never thought I'd get to see," she said. "I was put in the right place to support the counterinsurgency." This was the most dangerous job she's ever had being in such a close proximity to the Taliban, she said. The job required her to go "outside the wire" regularly. "I thought about the dangers every day," she said. "Nurses don't usually get that close to combat. I'd call my husband on a daily basis and tell him I wasn't sure if I was coming home." Despite the dangers, she said the rewards of her job outweighed her fears. "The Afghan nurses were working with a 1940s style of nursing and I felt I had been chosen for my experience to teach the Afghan nurses to learn the equipment and upgrade their techniques," Colonel Bassett said. She said it was like stepping back in time when she saw such dire injuries without modern care. "There were some horrendous amputations," she said. "In a room with eight beds, I saw nine amputations and five suction tubes going through the chest." Colonel Bassett said the Afghan nurses have about nine months of education and only learn procedures without understanding why or how it works. They just do the procedures the doctor tells them to do on the patient, she said. Part of Colonel Bassett's job was to teach the basics of nursing, such as taking a pulse. She said her proudest moment was when she made a 36-module nursing course with all the basics of nursing. The slides were given to the senior Afghan nurses to teach to their fellow nurses, rather than Colonel Bassett teaching the whole course herself. "They were proud as can be to be able to teach," she said. "They felt so honored that they were allowed that responsibility."