I called it "an emotional train wreck." Working as the ranking U.S. Army Medical Department officer with the Joint Detainee Operations Group, Joint Task Force 160, U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from February to June, 2002, was both the most challenging and rewarding professional experience of my life. I kept a journal, professional notes and official "Lessons Learned" from my time there and included them in my book, "Saving Grace at Guantanamo Bay: A Memoir of a Citizen Warrior." There is no more challenging military medical mission than caring for people who want to kill you. Every one of us, from young Military Police guards, to navy medical personnel, struggled daily with our professional obligations and our personal feelings. In the end, we performed admirably considering the circumstances. Were we perfect? Of course not. Was there abuse in the Gitmo detainee medical facility? Yes, but minor abuse, and every instance was taken seriously and dealt with swiftly and professionally. I was responsible for oversight of detainee (and good guy) medical, preventive medical and environmental care. I worked closely with the camp commandant (also my immediate military supervisor), the GTMO medical personnel, and the Joint Task Force Surgeon (my immediate military medical supervisor). I assisted with writing GTMO military medical protocols and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP's). I can tell you that every step of the way, and especially with regard to hunger and thirst strikes, we were morally, ethically and legally focused on doing absolutely what was in the best interest of the patient (detainee) with regard to providing the very best quality in care. That's tough when virtually no one had any experience with the situation. We trusted our training, moral character and leadership. We were constantly self-evaluating. We were constantly working to make things better for the detainees and ourselves. My hero was a young female Navy Corpsman/physical therapy specialist who worked in the detainee medical facility working with battle wounded detainees. Every day, seven days a week I would observe her working with unshackled detainees. She was brave, courageous, stoic even in her effort to heal people who if she had met them on the battlefield would have surely ended her life. I helped establish an orientation process for new guards and medical personnel so that each understood and appreciated the job of the other. Medical personnel are trained to "heal the whole person," not just the illness or wound. Military Police are trained not to fraternize with detainees. The MP's perceived the interaction of the medical personnel vis-a-vis the detainees to be too friendly. The medical personnel perceived the demeanor of the guards to be too harsh. We know that for someone to heal properly that the environment needs to be as stress free as possible. Try doing that in a detention hospital just months after the attacks of 9/11/01. Most of these guys were indeed the "worst of the worst," killing you softly with glares and glances that would frighten a ghost, let alone in-battle tested medics and MP's. No one knew what to expect from them. Tensions were high, 24/7. Many seriously wounded detainees were brought through the facility in those early days. One detainee, nicknamed "Half-Dead Bob," we thought would surely expire. we worked day and night to keep him alive from multiple issues from TB to bullet wounds. He was also suspected of being in his 70's! He lived. We celebrated his improvements. Another detainee, whom we dubbed "Wild Bill," due to his bizarre behavior (eating his flip-flops, hanging items from his genitals, screaming, crying and rocking in the fetal position). It took a while to determine that in fact this gentleman was a schizophrenic off his meds and a cold turkey heroin addict. Imagine the symptoms and behaviors. Once we verified his story with officials in an Afghani hospital we prepared him for release. I spent several hours with the man, a psych nurse and an interpreter the day we repatriated him. He told his story of being a heroin addict on the streets of Kandahar. He said when the Taliban rolled in he took an AK-47 in exchange for heroin. When the Northern Coalition and U.S. forces came through and captured him so ended the psych treatment and fix. We repatriated others with similar circumstances, declaring them no longer a threat or of any further intelligence value. When I arrived in early February 2002 we had no protocols or SOP's for thirst strikes. in fact, at the top of the hunger strike SOP it clearly said there are no protocols for thirst strikes because they are not anticipated. The first organized disruptive behavior by the detainees was a thirst strike. Easy enough to remedy, if you have a cooperative patient. They were not cooperative. We had read their al Qaeda training manuals, which included recommended disruptive techniques. Hunger strikes were recommended, but noted that they might not work. That didn't stop them from trying. There are no military medical protocols that allow detainees to harm themselves, including self-starvation. The Geneva Conventions and Law of Land Warfare require detainees to be weighed initially and then monthly. Self-starvers were monitored more closely. While I was there the first two hunger strikers, who also were the first two thirst strikers, were intubated and fed through a tube. I witnessed the initial procedure, which was accomplished in a humane and sensitive but firm way. They did not physically resist, but were restrained to ensure no harm would come to them in the process. I describe the procedure in my book. Around the world, premature infants, coma victims and others are routinely intubated for life saving reasons. So too, were these self-starvers spared the horrors of starvation. If it's OK to intubate an infant and a coma victim why not a detainee, whose only purpose is to affect the political will of the United States of America. It is how they strike back. You can call is "forced-feeding," but from my point of view it is saving a life. There are some who say we should never treat an enemy. They are trying to kill us. Why keep alive an enemy who, when well could kill you? at least 30 percent of released detainees have returned to the battlefield, some as leaders of Islamist organizations. This doesn't mean we should mistreat them or torture them or abuse them. In fact, the only institutionalized abuse at Gitmo was by detainees on guards and other detention personnel. The famous Gitmo cocktail is still served or "splashed" onto innocent caretakers and guards of these men - a concoction of bodily fluids (use your imagination). There was no torture at Gitmo. Waterboarding was an approved Enhanced Interrogation Technique (EIT), and used only by the CIA on a hand full of detainees which obtained information that saved many lives. The definition of torture internationally accepted in 2005 did not include waterboarding. It is still performed in training for certain U.S> personnel deploying overseas who might be targets for kidnapping. 664 detainees have been RELEASED from Gitmo, and NONE have been executed, beheaded, hacked to death, blown up, dragged naked and lifeless through the streets, drowned or burned alive, things our enemies have done to us and/or our allies. Gitmo remains the best, safest and most secure place on earth to keep and care for unlawful combatants who want to kill us. While I was there and later in Iraq doing pretty much the same thing in detention operations, International Committee of the Red Cross physicians I worked with told me "no one does [detention operations] better than the U.S." As part of my Lessons Learned I included the vastly better care for detainees as opposed to that for U.S. personnel while I served at Gitmo. If a specialist was needed for detainee health care it was flown in. If such specialists were needed for U.S. personnel and it wasn't available at the hospital the individual was sent home. Sick call for detainees was performed daily. Many U.S. personnel who were sick had to wait hours for transportation or walk to the nearest medical treatment facility. The skew towards more and better resources for detainees rather than for U.S. personnel was large and very disappointing. Army medical personnel like myself (I started as a combat medic, and then became a Medical Service Corps officer and am a health and physical education teacher and administrator by civilian profession) are trained to treat an enemy combatant casualty with at least the SAME level of care and urgency as a U.S. casualty. Any variation of that is NOT, in my experience (22 years in the military, 17 as an officer) representative of the intent or training by the Army Medical Department. I am retired from the military, and do not in these comments represent them, the United States Army, or U.S. Army Reserve in any way. I will tell you that 99.9 percent of all military personnel I know of who served or are serving at Gitmo or in Iraq, live by the Army values of Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage. We take our jobs and responsibilities very seriously. We are NOT torturers, abusers or anti-professional in any way, shape or form. I challenge you and your colleagues to appeal to the leadership within the Army Medical Department to observe the training of all medical personnel and to observe the detainee medical mission at Gitmo. Also, I encourage you to meet confidentially with physicians of the ICRC who have observed our detainee medical mission at Gitmo and world wide since day one. Thank you for your time and kind consideration of my comments. I would be more than happy to meet with you or discuss your ideas, perceptions and beliefs about the professionalism and protocols of detention operation medical care should you be interested. Sincerely, Montgomery J. Granger, Major, U.S. Army, Retired. Former ranking U.S. Army Medical Department officer with the Joint Detainee Operations Group, Joint Task Force 160, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Author: "Saving Grace at Guantanamo Bay: A Memoir of a Citizen Warrior."