The Network Vol. II
The Network Vol. II
Emergency Room to Eastern Front
“…we were in Kyiv, and after our class, a woman in her fifties or sixties came up to me and grabbed my arm. She had seen one of my tattoos, a Ukrainian tattoo for strength. She started crying and thanked me. She was working in the labor and delivery department of her hospital and just wept with gratitude. This is one of the few times I’ve teared up myself.”
Madelyn Bank knew as a child she wanted to serve in the United States military after looking up to role models in her family like her uncle and her grandfather who also served. By the age of seventeen, she had her mother sign legal documentation to allow her to enlist prior to her eighteenth birthday. She would go to enlist into the United States Navy and attend follow on training to become a Corpsman, an occupation in the military that sees its sailors operating both in hospitals and fields environments alongside Marines. As is the case with many young Marines and Sailors, Madelyn’s first duty station would be in Okinawa, Japan, where 3rd Marine Division is headquartered and many infantry battalions are in a constant rotation through MEUs and Unit Deployment Programs. Madelyn, also known as “Maddy” worked primarily what’s called “blue side” in the naval hospital. She would get experience in the Emergency Room, the Intensive Care Unit and in the Labor and Delivery Department while occasionally be assigned to support rotating units in a varied capacity.
Maddy enlisted in 2017 which put her end of active service date in 2022. By the end of 2021 though, as much of the world watched Russian troop build ups on the border, she had already decided she would exit the military after the end of her contract and work in a teaching role in Ukraine. This would change in February 2022 as she, along with the rest of the world, watched the borderline live-streamed event of the Russo-Ukrainian War kicking off by Russian forces pushing into Ukraine from three separate fronts.
“It was frustrating. I have family that is Ukrainian, family in Ukraine. On my mom’s side and my dad’s side we have Czech, Polish and Ukrainian, a lot of the family is from Lviv originally, so this was really frustrating because I didn’t know what to do. It was scary as well, I was scared for my family, scared for the people, nobody knew how bad it was going to get. That was a turning point for me going. I booked my flight to Poland and I flew out while I was on terminal leave in June of 2022.”
Madelyn had the opportunity to work with GSMSG (Global Surgical Medical Support Group) in a training role. Prior to crossing she stayed in the small town of Jurgow in the Spisz Region of Poland being briefed on current events and recent Russian movements.
“It was eerie crossing, you know it’s always eerie crossing into a war zone. The border was absolutely packed with people coming and going too. We made our way to Lviv and stayed there for about a week training Territorial Defense units, Ukrainian military and others in TCCC (Tactical Combat Casualty Care), the intent was to spin those guys up on basic combat under fire care to help better empower combat medics. What really stuck out to me was seeing so many different walks of life in there getting training, so many different people with little to no military training or experience now having to learn this stuff to survive or help others survive.”
After their week in Lviv, Maddy and the team she was with moved to Kyiv to carry out a similar mission in teaching TCCC to the Ukrainian military, local civilians and people who worked in hospitals. To date, Global Surgical Medical Support Group has trained upwards of 20,000 people since the beginning of the invasion. During Maddy’s three week trip to Lviv and Kyiv, she says they trained over 200 people, again, varying in walks of life and occupation but with a heavy emphasis on Ukrainian military.
“One moment that sticks out to me, we were in Kyiv, and after our class, a woman in her fifties or sixties came up to me and grabbed my arm. She had seen one of my tattoos, a Ukrainian tattoo for strength. She started crying and thanked me. She was working in the labor and delivery department of her hospital and just wept with gratitude. This is one of the few times I’ve teared up myself. We also saw the damage that had happened in Bucha, the damage to buildings, a “Z Graveyard” for Russian vehicles that had been destroyed or left behind. It was surreal to see, just residential buildings and businesses peppered with shrapnel and all kinds of damage. I finished my time there in Kyiv though at the end of the three weeks. I had to go home in September, just decompress, take a break, unpack from the military and see family.”
As is the case with many people who have worked or volunteered in these types of environments for these types of missions, there is generally a calling, a yearn to come back. Sometimes this feeling presents itself as a feeling of unfinished business. Many people also experience a disconnect with the world back in the United States. There is a multitude of feelings that are experienced and that usually leads to people returning to these types of places. For Madelyn, it was these feelings but also the feeling of loyalty to family and desire to help somewhere she also called home. By the end of October, she would be on her way back to Ukraine to volunteer with another group, Atlas Global Aid.
“I was living in Kyiv, teaching English to an elementary school while also working with Atlas Aid. Although I lived in Kyiv, I was staying out in Kharkiv for awhile, and then Dnipro and Bakhmut area. I really only came back to Kyiv to teach or to get some R&R or supplies. I did a lot of similar work with Atlas that I did with GSMSG, teaching a lot of TCCC to Ukrainian military guys.”
Some of her assignments and opportunities have to be left out for a number of reasons, primarily operational security, but she had the privilege of working with incredible individuals who were actively engaged with Russians in Kharkiv and Bakhmut. These areas were experiencing intense fighting, Bakhmut specifically. Maddy recalled it “Looking like a video game or movie, the destruction you know, something out of a war game. It was insane.” Fighting was gradually picking up in the east. By now much of the forward lines of troops in the north and south had generally come to somewhat of a standstill, with large amounts of the fight done through indirect fires and strikes, while in the east the bloodiest of battles were being fought. As is with every war, those who fight or volunteer and live through it often form a strong bond with one another. With that bond comes great sacrifices and great loss. “Something changed in Dnipro. I was by Dan’s bedside in Dnipro. Daniel Swift, prior Navy SEAL who was out here fighting. He had been wounded near Bakhmut, and because of bureaucracy and a lack of a proper system set up, it took him much longer to get him a higher echelon of care. Greg was hit too, but Greg was killed. Dan ended up passing away. I knew then something needed to change. We had to do better.”
Madelyn would return to the States again in December, decompressing and collecting supplies before returning to Ukraine in January, once again returning stateside in March and then returning in April. She continues to work for Atlas Global Aid but has since moved away from supporting the Ukrainian unit she was with before in Kharkiv and now works with the GUR International Legion. She has since worked with individuals in setting up SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) and CCPs (Casualty Collection Points) for operations so that it can greater increase the life expectancy of soldiers wounded in action. Increasing their survivability is one of the primary goals, establishing better systems and methods to prevent situations like those Dan Swift was burdened by.
“I love what I do now, it’s rewarding, you can see direct results from it. We save lives, this is my bread and butter, this is what I love doing. We are able to rapidly move into an area to secure and stabilize casualties at a much more effective rate… it’s awesome.”
“If I were to tell anyone anything, it’s that everyone has an opinion, but a lot of things go out the window when you see missile strikes constantly come in. When you see them hit hospitals, schools and grocery stores, please where there’s no military presence, just people trying to live. We do what we can.”
Since writing this portion above, we have spoken to Madelyn again, who has just recently left eastern Ukraine, Bakhmut in particular and has returned to the United States. Her closing thoughts were as follows; “The last time going into Bakhmut, there were farmers who hadn’t been evacuated yet still in their fields milking their cows with artillery and shells from tanks flying over their farms casually. It was probably one of my most memorable moments to date.”