Medical mentor awarded Bronze Star

As part of a Navy embedded training team, Stover was a medical mentor supporting an Afghanistan National Army (ANA) Garrison Clinic operating in southeastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border.

Going well beyond her original assignment, Stover voluntarily mentored multiple positions including the ANA 203rd Corps Surgeon, the ANA 203rd Corps Garrison Clinic, the ANA Hospital and the Class VIII Medical Supply Warehouse to cover where there were no other medical team mentors.

Lt. Cmdr. Karen Stover visits a village school during an Afghanistan Medcap exercise in which donated supplies were distributed to the local population. Photos courtesy Lt. Cmdr. Karen Stover

As mentor to the ANA Corps Surgeon, she oversaw the facility's money and manpower assets. Although she had been tasked with standing up a hospital, when Stover arrived, the project was basically just "a piece of rebar sticking up out of the dirt."

"Now it is pretty much state of the art," Stover said proudly. "That was my baby."

It is now a 50-bed hospital and one of four military hospitals in Afghanistan. Although she oversaw the project through its development, she wasn't able to be there when Afghan President Hamid Karzai toured the hospital and congratulated those involved. By that time, Stover had returned to NH Jacksonville.

The Kansas native knew she was in for some culture shock from her first moments at the forward operating base. She recalled stepping from her vehicle, just as more than 400 ANA troops had formed up. As just the second or third uniformed female to arrive there, she found herself the center of attention. Upon seeing her, the troops rushed toward her, weapons in hand, to get a closer look.

She said it was a bit unnerving

to be surrounded and ogled by armed Afghan men - but there wasn't much she could do except to wait for the curiosity to end. It made for an interesting first day on the job.

An Afghani mother shrouded in a burkha holds her baby as Lt. Cmdr. Karen Stover examines the child during a MedCap mission to their village.

She came to care about and develop friendships with many of these soldiers. On reflection, she said some of her saddest memories were when she learned that a soldier had been killed in action. She was close to the excellent medical staff she worked with, and she also came to know some of the leaders in the region. A tragic moment for her was learning that the governor of the Province of Paktia, a courageous leader, had been assassinated.

Not all the people she encountered were so upstanding. Within weeks of her arrival, she uncovered corruption within the Afghanistan medical department. This ultimately implicated some of the high-ranking officers within the medical department and ultimately, higher echelons of the Afghanistan military. Stover conducted a 100 percent inventory of more than $2 million worth of medical supplies and equipment for the regional hospital - while exposing the theft of $30,000 in medical supplies by an Afghan medical officer.

While dealing with corruption, Stover also brought a new level of care to the ANA soldiers at the hospital. She coordinated Afghanistan's first mass immunization effort outside the capital. She utilized ANA medical staff from the 203rd Corps and garrison clinics working with ANA hospital and Kandak (Afghani) medics to provide five vaccines to 465 Afghani soldiers.

Stover's installation of practices and procedures that expedited the rapid treatment of soldiers, contributed directly to the increased operational capability of the units assigned to the ANA 203rd Corps.

All this was accomplished in a region still infiltrated by hostile Taliban insurgents. This was driven home by the fact that while she was stationed at Camp Lightning in Gardez, Afghanistan, it came under rocket attack 13 times. This included 107mm rockets fired by anti-coalition militants detonating as close as 50 meters to her camp.

Despite the dangers and challenges of the environment, she helped provide aid through Medical Civic Assistance Program (MEDCAP) operations to the civilian population. While assigned to the Gardez Embedded Training Team, Stover volunteered for many such missions throughout the 203rd area of responsibility, which included the provinces of Paktia and Paktika.

In one such mission, Stover and other medical staff treated more than 275 men, women and children in a remote village. This mission took place within 3 km of 30 known Taliban safe houses - making every trip a high-risk operation. Medical staffs were always accompanied by security forces and interpreters who kept a close eye on what was going on around them.

Lt. Cmdr. Karen Stover with Afghanistan National Army (ANA) medical staff from the Ministry of Defense Hospital, the ANA Corps Surgeon and the garrison medical staff following a dinner hosted by the Coalition Forward Operations Base. The ANA and Coalition camps were separated only by a fence and gate.

Their impact was significant although it never seemed to be enough. For instance, among other donated goods she recalled distributing more than a thousand pairs of socks to children in the village. She said, "It was heart-wrenching to touch little feet that had no socks and shoes. It was so cold - even though you wear your warm weather gear - you are freezing. As the wind cuts through you, you look around and see these people have nothing. You're out there in a tent and the wind is whipping around and they're living in mud huts."

"Even in our efforts to prevent illness there were the cultural differences that you had to adjust to," said Stover. She remembered little kids lined up for care and they've put black all around their eyes, not to be decorative, but in their culture it seemed to have something to do with keeping away disease.

Gender discrimination is also the cultural norm in Afghanistan. "In Afghan society, women are extremely repressed," Stover said. "They don't let the women come out, but when you're introduced to the women they're so glad to see you. They come into the tents wearing their burkhas (an enveloping outer garment worn by women in some Islamic traditions) and soon they are talking away as if you can understand them. It's like this is their few moments of freedom and they're just grabbing onto you to be heard." She said another fear that shadows everyday life here is that the Taliban will come back.

Even after experiencing corruption, violence and repression, Stover still holds hope for the people of Afghanistan. She said, "I think we made a huge difference. I think it takes a lot of people giving a lot of time and effort, money and repetition to make a difference with the Afghanis."

As far as the incidents of corruption, she said it is not easy to change a history of struggle. "You're dealing with 30 years of war and corruption and people struggling for everything they can get. So, even when they come into the military they may have the best of intent but it is their way. They know it's wrong but it's just the way they are. You're fighting for an idea. They're all struggling to have something."

Stover values her experience. "I would go back exactly where I was in a moment," she said. "I'd like to go see how things have progressed. I returned in November of 2006 but I've kept in touch with personnel there and I think we're continuing to make a huge difference. At least the people were given a real lifeline," she said.

Today, Stover is caring for patients at Naval Hospital Jacksonville. Her time in Afghanistan netted her one more life-changing experience. She's now married to U.S. Army National Guard Captain Bill Elliott, whom she met while both were serving in Afghanistan.

The Bronze Star Medal is a U.S. Armed Forces individual medal that is awarded for bravery, acts of merit, or meritorious service while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force.