WASHINGTON — The jet they had leased at their own expense and filled with medical supplies taxied to a stop at Kabul International Airport. On the runway, not 50 yards away, Vance Moss saw black smoke from the charred shell of a burning plane billowing into a blue sky.
He turned to his twin brother, Vince, who was just stirring from a nap.
“Welcome to Afghanistan,” he said.
Later, Vance silently said a prayer: Please let us accomplish this.
The doctors, natives of Prince George’s County, Md., had decided in late 2005 to go on their own to treat civilians in the war- torn country. As members of the U.S. Army Reserve, they initially sought help from the military and the State Department but found no interest. So they worked connections until they found a military officer and an Afghan doctor willing to set them up.
They secured their visas, purchased medical supplies, found a translator, hired a jet and said goodbye to family and friends.
Two trips and hundreds of patients later, the 36-year-old doctors were to be honored for their humanitarian efforts Sunday at a ceremony in Atlanta. The Mosses, actors Danny Glover and Halle Berry and others are recipients of the 2008 Trumpet Awards, which recognize African-American achievement. Past honorees include Sidney Poitier, Coretta Scott King and Rosa Parks.
By the end of the month, the twins will head to Iraq with their reserve unit to treat wounded troops. In their off time, they want to treat civilians and are negotiating with the State Department for permission.
Army reservists since their sophomore year of college, the twins were called to active duty at stateside military hospitals in 2005.
As Vince, a cardiothoracic surgeon stationed at Fort Jackson, S.C., worked with soldiers who had returned from war zones, he heard their stories about the devastation wreaked on civilians.
“Innocent people were being caught up, injured and were dying because basic medical care was not available to them,” he said.
Vance, a urologist, was hearing the same tales at Fort Bliss, Texas.
“But the stories about what was happening in Afghanistan were worse,” he said. “The terrain and the culture were more diverse, which led to problems for civilians trying to find medical care.”
Neither remembers who brought it up first, but the brothers began to discuss going over to help. The Army Reserve wouldn’t send them there but did agree to provide some medical equipment, the brothers said.
Then, Col. Gary Davis, an Army doctor in Afghanistan, set them up with an Afghan physician who helped find the people they would need to move safely through the war-ravaged country, they said.
As the black smoke wafted over the Kabul airport, the brothers stepped off the plane to find a crowd watching them. Three of the children were missing a leg.
“From the very beginning, we knew we were needed,” Vance said.
