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Hope Animal Medical Center has a big yellow ribbon tied to their sign—because the veterinarian who started Hope is now serving with the military in Afghanistan. Curious, we asked Jenifer Gustafson how a successful vet who owns a busy and successful practice came to be in a war zone. Jeni sent some photos and answered our email interview:
Q: How long have you been a veterinarian?
A: I graduated from Vet school in 1991. I have wanted to be a vet since I was seven years old but I took a longer path than some.
Q: What year did Hope open for business?
A: Hope opened in 1999.
Q: How did you come to be in military service, when, what branch of service?
A: I started in the military service just after my undergraduate college. I was a geologist so I was in the Army Corps of Engineers and was on active duty for 3 years and then the reserves for 10 years. Then I was a civilian and worked as a vet and started Hope. I decided I wanted to give back with services to my country and in 2008 I knew I could afford to dedicate some of my time away from Hope as it seems to be on the right track. When I read about all the soldiers going to defend our country I felt obligated to something and I knew I would be of great value as a vet. So I joined back into the reserves and was re-commissioned back into the Veterinary Corps. The Veterinary Corps will be combined with the Medical Corps this October.
Q: Is there a connection between your veterinarian training and what you're doing in the military? What work are you doing in the military?
A: Yes, vets are very useful here and in Iraq. Some vets work on the base and take care of the military working dogs and the are also the food inspectors to prevent diseases and contamination from acurring to the food sources for the soldiers. Other vets, like myself, are in a reach out program to help the people of Afghanistan improve and stabilize their agricultural industry. Technically, I am in a unit called Civilian Affairs and we have an MD and an Engineer to help find projects we can fund to increase the income and status of the people of this country. We actually go out into the villages and meet people and assess situations where we think we can help.
Q: How long will you be stationed in Afghanistan and when did you first arrive there?
A: My rotation is for 210 days and I will be replaced by another veterinarian. The unit I am assigned to is there for a year. I arrived in May and will leave in November.
Q: How long will you be serving in the military?
A: When I return I will still be in the reserves and can be called again to active duty. In 2011, I can change to the inactive reserves and although I can still be deployed, I don't have to perform monthly military service. I will be on inactive reserve status for 5 more years. The engineer in my unit is on inactive reserve status and they activated him for this tour.
Q: Some of your thoughts or observations about Afghanistan and/or the people of Afghanistan.
A: Kandahar City is very different than Kabul. When I was in Kabul it seems similar to a big city in the US during the 80s or 90s but Kandahar City is more like a big city in the 1800s. Of course there are educated people but they are limited to the resources and they resources have been so damaged from all the wars and lack of safety prevents a lot of reconstruction to occur. The university has no electricity or water/sewer system. They power their computers and resources from generators. The roads are very damaged and therefore it is difficult to bring goods to market or to take the goods home. There is a large nomadic population who depend on the grazing land for their livestock during the winter months when they come down from the higher elevations. The grazing land is severely damaged and needs improvement in order to support their livestock. My job is to assess the needs and design projects that can help the situation. One of the most important things is the help must be supported by the existing government and needs to be sustainable. By that I mean as we pull out, it must be able to continue and be supported by the economy or the government. For example, if we would build a school and train and pay the teachers for 5 years, after 5 years who will pay them? If no one pays them, the school will close and the building will be empty. We see that occurring. A drastic change in the military and civilian aide agencies is the stopping of performing medical or veterinary clinics for the people. It has been shown that holding a clinic and vaccinating and quickly treating the animals and then leaving often causes more problems than it solves. After we leave the area and an animal gets sick or the animal we treated gets worse we are not there to help and we will be blamed for the failure. Many diseases need more than one quick glance to be cured. Also, Afghanistan has veterinarians and they are trying to make a living. If we hold free clinics, we just took their business away and also made them look bad since we did not support them. Often the local people will not trust their veterinarian after we have held a clinic. These are thoughts I did not have before I arrived here and have interacted in the country.
Q: Are you looking forward to coming back to Athens?
A: Yes, very much. I will look at things very differently and not take it all for granted. I am looking forward to having the freedom to do what I want, when I want. This area isn't secure so in order to go out to a village it takes a convoy and lots of protection and we hope to avoid IEDs and conflicts every time. I will be glad to go to sleep and not have rocket attacks at night coming into the camp.
I have met some very nice people here who are trying to live a safe life in a country torn apart with violence and destruction. Imagine what it would be like if that were to occur in Athens. I am so glad it isn't like that in Athens.
--Jenifer, thank you for your story and photos, for your service, and for your support of Young, Foxy & Free. Come home safe this November!
