We were staying in his guest room and I noticed a picture of him in uniform, I knew he'd been an Army doc, but in the picture, I noticed he had Airborne wings on his class A uniform. I asked him about the wings.
"Funny story about those, the Army paid for my medical school and I owed them 2 years for each year I was in school. I went on active duty for 2 years in 1960, then I was transferred to the reserve, one weekend a month and a summer camp that I spent in an Army Hospital for 2 weeks.
In the summer of 67, I was called to active duty for an indefinite period of time. I didn't even know that was in my agreement, but it was. They needed orthopedic surgeons and I fit the bill.
I went to a refresher course at Fort Sam and the next thing I knew I was on a plane to Vietnam. I was assigned to an Evacuation Hospital and went to work.
Depending on what was going on, were either lounging around or working 18-20 hours a day.
During the Tet Offensive, I was working three cases at a time. I had one anesthetist, one OR Nurse, and three OR techs all of us working on three patients at a time. Fast and furious work. I was trying to save legs and arm, hands, anything, and everything. I did more amputations during that week than I'd done in 5 years of private practice. It was brutal.
When my tour was up, I was sent to Walter Reed.
Every day I ran across some poor bastard that I had cut a leg off of and now my job was to try to make things better. It was so depressing, I started to go to a counselor at the hospital. I was burned out.
I finally went to my boss and asked him if I could get a transfer, I told him I'd do induction physicals if I had to. You know the "bend over and spread your cheeks" physicals.
He said, he'd see what he could do.
6 weeks went by, he called me in. He said I have one slot for you, a Special Fores Group needs a medical officer. "I said I'll take it!"
He smiled and said, there's one problem Major, you have to be Airborne qualified. I told him, "I'll do it!"
Off I went to Fort Benning's Jump School, I was 39, pushing 40. I was fat, I drank too much, I hadn't been in shape since I played high school football and I had plenty of gray in my hair. My fellow students in Jump School were around 19 years old and all privates. They couldn't figure out what my story was.
There's no rank in Jump School, enforced equality. For three weeks I got my ass kicked, I ran, I did push-ups. I sang the Airborne songs and I lost 14 pounds. At graduation, I took my wings the hard way.
I had a week of leave, then I climbed on a jet and flew to Incirlik Air Force Base in Turkey. Our Special Forces detachment was tucked off in a far corner of the base. I spent the next year, fixing the occasional broken finger, taping sore knees and ankles. I kept the Medics up to date. I filled in at the base hospital.
I gained back the 14 pounds and more and developed my taste in scotch and did a hell of a lot of traveling in that part of the world. One of the best years of my life."
We all miss Dr. Jim.
Nice tribute and story, and well told.
ReplyDeleteWe did a doc following Rangers through their six week Sniper school training at Ft. Benning. They were working on a Bravo 4 Certification. So we spent some time around The Jump school. To get qualified at the "late age of 39" was a helluva accomplishment.