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By BILL NEMITZ, Staff Columnist Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Contingency Operating Base Speicher may appear to have all the comforts of home, but one thing was noticeably lacking when members of the 399th Combat Support Hospital arrived last fall.

Toilet paper.

"Iraqi toilet paper rolls are about this big," said Maj. Sherryl Kempton of Gardiner, making a 2-inch circle with her thumb and middle finger.

"And the cardboard roll in the middle is about this big," she continued, making a slightly smaller circle with her thumb and forefinger.

Meaning the rolls went fast?

"They lasted about an hour," Kempton replied.

No surprise, therefore, that when the first requests for care packages went out, toilet paper was high on many a list. And no surprise that Mainers, already famous for their eagerness to send the troops whatever they need (and then some), answered the call.

Kempton, a nurse practitioner who oversees the 399th's acute care clinic, said she's particularly grateful to the Sassy Seaside Belles, a Red Hat Society chapter whose members include her mother, Madeline Kempton of Old Orchard Beach.

"Every box they sent had toilet paper," Kempton said. "After a while, everywhere you looked, there was toilet paper. It was unbelievable."

Red hats off to the Sassy Seaside Belles.

HOMAGE BY HEALERS: Every unit likes to leave its calling card. For the 399th Combat Support Hospital, that would be the larger-than-life New England Patriots logo nearing completion on a concrete "Texas barrier" near the hospital's four helicopter landing pads.

"It's a labor of love," said Capt. Mark Pion of Lincoln, R.I., the lead artist. Assisting are Staff Sgt. Susan Featherstone of North Attleboro, Mass., and Capt. Jamie Kirby of Boston.

It's not your typical Patriots logo. Instead of a football, the crouching Patriot has his hand on a green medical bag. And rather than a three-time Super Bowl champion football team, in these parts he represents the "Patriot Medics."

Still, isn't it close enough to constitute a copyright infringement?

"I don't think (the New England Patriots) are going to mind much," Pion said from atop his ladder Tuesday. Pausing for a second, he added, "At least I hope they don't."

'SITTING DUCK' NO LONGER: Sgt. Mike MacArthur of Presque Isle will take a hospital over a prison anytime.

Three years ago, MacArthur was stationed at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad as a member of the Maine Army National Guard's 152nd Field Artillery Battalion. After returning from that deployment in early 2005, he transferred from the Guard to the Army Reserve.

Now he's back in Iraq -- not as a prison guard, but as an anesthesia technician.

"I feel safe here," MacArthur said. "Relatively safe."

Translation: Mortar attacks here at Contingency Operating Base Speicher are few and far between. At Abu Ghraib, they became so routine that MacArthur often slept through them.

"Here, the only time you have to wear your (protective) gear is when we're having drills -- and you have to wear your Kevlar (helmet) whenever you're in a vehicle," MacArthur said.

And at Abu Ghraib?

"The mortars came in constantly," he said. "We were sitting ducks."

SHOUT-OUT TO A SIBLING: Maj. Jack Twomey of Melrose, Mass., wants to say hey to his sister, Jean Twomey, in South Portland.

"Tell her I'm safe," Twomey said. "And I'm not doing anything I'm not supposed to do."

Staff Columnist Bill Nemitz can be contacted at: