Honoring ‘angels of mercy’ Published May 5, 2006 By By Lt. Col. Rob Steed 319th Medical Operations Squadron Commander GRAND FORKS AFB, N.D. -- National Nurses’ Week, celebrated each year beginning May 6th and ending on Florence Nightingale’s birthday, May 12th, has as this year’s motto “nurses: strength, commitment and compassion.” This is a fitting motto and perhaps nowhere is this more evident than with the nurses serving in the armed forces of our nation. Far from being consigned to rear areas, nurses in the Global War on Terror are on the ground with special operations troops, helping to keep our casualty death rates at amongst the lowest rate of any conflict in our history. At home station, our nurses are involved daily in ensuring and improving the health of our active duty population. As a result, the disease/non-battle injury rate for this conflict is also at a historical low. Both these statistics reflect the outstanding medical care available to our troops and that nurses and medical technicians are at the heart of that care system. From, my perspective the Air Force is fortunate to havesome of the finest civilian and military nurses our nation has to offer. They are professional and proficient and are routinely recognized for superior performance in our service delivery assessments. Take time this week to meet the outstanding Air Force nurses. I count myself lucky to work alongside these professionals and hope that you will take the time to learn about and acknowledge their contributions over the next week.