Pleasantville Nursing Corps Colonel Honored

"She is a resident of Pleasantville, but she really is a citizen of the world."

New York State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins was speaking about Colonel Theresa Mercado-Sconzo, a village resident and registered nurse who deployed to work in an Abu Ghraib prison in 2005, where she headed up the detainee camps and emergency room, not long after reports of prisoner abuse and torture were exposed to the world.

Yesterday, Stewart-Cousins inducted Col. Mercado-Sconzo into the New York State Veterans Hall of Fame in Albany.

"I'm very, very honored to have nominated Colonel Theresa Mercado-Sconzo," said Stewart-Cousins of the woman who joined the Unites States Army Reserve Nursing Corps in 1987. "She's a hero."

According to a statement from the office of Stewart-Cousins, "Colonel Mercado-Sconzo’s mission at Abu Ghraib was to restore liberty to Iraq and restore honor to the United States. Her main responsibility was to oversee medical treatment at the facility’s emergency room."

While during her time in Abu Ghraib, Col. Mercado-Sconzo cared for both Iraqi citizens and United States soldiers, many of her patients were detainees.

“Our job was to provide care, oftentimes for Iraqis that had been detained. We really kept our focus on providing medical care and not on why our patients were there,” said Col. Mercado-Sconzo, who said her patients typically suffered from IED, mortar and gunshot wounds.

Though U.S. soldiers were blasted for alleged torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners a few years ago, Col. Mercado-Sconzo says she never witnessed any prisoner abuse while serving at Abu Ghraib.

“All of us in the unit knew that we would be under the microscope,” she said. “We were very cognizant that if we saw anything abnormal, we were to report it up the chain of command.”

Said Stewart-Cousins, “The Abu Ghraib scandal was a dreadful stain on our history, but it is very telling that the U.S. Army Reserve Nursing Corps looked to Colonel Mercado-Sconzo to restore honor to the United States in that very difficult moment. It is remarkable that she was able to do what she did under those circumstances,” said Senator Stewart-Cousins. “This is just a small token of our appreciation for her service and sacrifice.”

Col. Mercado-Sconzo returned from Abu Ghraib in July of 2006, but was redeployed back to Iraq a little over the year later, where she "served in the Civil Affairs Unit as Action Officer/ Deputy Team leader in Mosul, Iraq. Her orders were to coordinate missions from the Central Iraqi Government in Baghdad to the provincial governments in the north."

According to the statement, "Her unit reported directly to General David Patreaus. She returned home from that tour of duty in June 2009."

Senator Stewart-Cousins added that she was particularly proud to induct a nurse into the Veterans Hall of Fame. Later that day, Senator Stewart-Cousins passed a resolution recognizing the United States Cadet Nurse Corps, created during World War II to train U.S. nurses.

“Our combat nurses not only treat wounded U.S. troops, but they also treat civilians and even enemy detainees. They represent the compassion of the United States around the world and it is important that they are shown appreciation that is equal to their service," she said.

Concluded Col. Mercado-Sconzo, "I take this honor for all the nurses that served before me, with me and after me."