Fort Carson doctors, nurses and medics gave battlefield treatment to wounded Iraqi troops during a nine-month deployment to the Middle East that ended last week.

The 10th Combat Support Hospital held a celebration of its homecoming at the post, and the unit’s commander, Col. Kimberlee Aiello, praised her troops for saving Iraqi lives.

“You provided hope to Iraqi soldiers and hope to Iraqi commanders,” she said.

The hospital unit sent “damage control” surgical teams into Iraq as that nation’s troops ramped up their fight against Islamic State insurgents. The medical teams performed emergency surgeries to stabilize Iraqi soldiers wounded in combat, keeping them alive until they could reach more sophisticated hospitals.

That was one part of a sweeping mission for the hospital unit, which provided care to troops from Egypt and Jordan to Afghanistan. More than 200 Fort Carson soldiers worked out of a headquarters in Kuwait that served as a regional military hospital responsible for the medical needs of more than 87,000 troops.

Aiello said the medical teams in Iraq were similar to those who supported American troops there after the 2003 invasion.

“This is not new to us, medically,” she said.

The concept saves lives by getting wounded troops life-saving care while saving the toughest surgical procedures for better hospitals. While the Iraqis went to local hospitals after initial care, wounded American troops from the Middle East are flown to an Army hospital in Germany, often on the same day they were injured.

The surgical teams treated more than 400 patients. In Kuwait, the hospital’s operating room stayed busy with an additional 280 surgeries.

“It was an unbelievable mission,” Aiello said.

Coming home won’t mean a long rest for the hospital troops.

The Army plans to test a new design for combat hospitals by reorganizing and equipping the unit to work in more austere environments.

The reorganization and new training will take up most of 2017.

After that, the hospital unit is bracing for a projected deployment back to the Middle East, this time with the entire unit in Iraq.