Capt. Gabriel Holguin visits Laredo
after months in Iraq

By Tom Moore

After four and a half months treating combat trauma and stress among U.S. soldiers in Iraq, Capt. Gabriel Holguin of the U.S. Air Force has returned to the United States. Deployed March 8, Holguin was in Iraq until July 17. A native of Laredo, Holguin is based at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He recently was able to visit Laredo and see his family for the first time since being deployed.
A clinical psychologist with the Air Force, Holguin worked in Iraq as part of an EMEDS unit -- a mobile hospital -- where he treated psychological conditions resulting from combat and wartime situations.
"The stress varied," said Holguin, who worked with "soldiers [who were] having a hard time with what they were seeing and what they were doing. Some folks were having a hard time being away from home, being away from loved ones."
The service personnel are "trained for combat, but regardless of how well-trained they were, especially younger folks, regardless of training, this was the first time they had experienced that, so they were the ones having more trouble," he said.
"Part of what they were experiencing were typical reactions, but that's normal, a very normal reaction to an abnormal situation. We knew that, although the soldiers didn't," he said.
Holguin noted that psychologists in the field are a recent development for the military, a practice that was absent in previous conflicts such as World War II and Vietnam. "I think the difference is we were out there with them," he said.
Treatment varied, Holguin said, but his main focus was to "let them know that what they were experiencing were normal reactions to abnormal situations. Once they realized that the reaction was normal, that in itself was extremely curative: this is what happens to the body and the mind when under prolonged periods of stress. Normalizing is extremely imperative, extremely healing."
How did Holguin himself deal with the stress? Most psychologists have their own professional counselor to talk to, but Holguin did not. "My wife Patricia back home was extremely important in keeping my focus out here," he said. "When I would talk to her or e-mail her, she offered words of encouragement that kept me sane. Another thing that worked was that I would always take time to realize the uniqueness of what I was doing out there. It kept me going, it kept me focused."
Holguin received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Nebraska. Upon completion of his doctorate he joined the Air Force. He was doing his residency at Andrews Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., when the Pentagon was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, and was involved in the mental health response to the attack.
"I worked at Command and Control Center, responsible for the logistical aspects of the medical and mental health response," he said. A co-facilitator for the critical incident stress management briefings for the response teams at the Pentagon, he prepared the teams for what they could expect at the trauma site: what they would see and smell, for example. "I prepared them for what they were going to experience so they could be more effective while they were there."
The experience of Iraq for Holguin was "something unprecedented. It was a once in a lifetime experience," he said. "What I got a lot, when we were able to talk to the Iraqis, to hear their stories, it usually resulted in increased motivation on our part, it gave you a kind of concrete, tangible, 'this is what you're working for.'"
Holguin does not know if he will be deployed back to Iraq, though the word could come at any time. "When I went, I found out on a Wednesday, and I was on a plane Saturday morning," he said.
In the Air Force for over two years, Holguin remains in active duty at the Kirtland Air Force Base Hospital. He is the son of Sylvia and Jesus Holguin, Jr.