1975-1976: CPT, USAR, Medical Corps - Internship at Letterman AMC, Presidio of San Francisco. Thereafter returned to Hawaii to complete a Kaiser/UH residency in Family Medicine.
1989-2005: initially accepted a commission in the MC, HIARNG as Battalion Surgeon, 1/487 Field Artillery and ultimately retired in 2005 at State Surgeon with the rank of COL.
and Commissioned as 2nd Lt in Air Force
1961-1964 Active duty assigned to 839th Civil Engineering Squadron in Sewart AFB, Tenn
1964-1967 Active Air Force Reserve at HQ PACAF as Construction Civil Engineer
1967 Separated from Air Force as Captain
7-1-51 Enlisted in U.S. Air Force
9-1-52 Entered AF Office Candidate School
3-30-53 Received 2nd Lt. commission
9-30-54 Transferred AF to HANG
6-30-89 Retired from AF with 30 years service as Lt. Colonel
The time I spent on active duty was a positive experience. I was able to practice my medical specialty during a time of peace although the Vietnam War had just been completed and the fall of South Vietnam brought many refugees out of the country and many into the US which included Guam because of its close proximity in the western Pacific region. Part of my duty was to help with the refugees besides tending to active duty personnel, retired personnel and their dependents on Guam. As the only otolaryngologist for military related personnel on the island of 100000 people it was a sizable patient population. It was an opportunity to adjust the medical skills I had learned from academic to everyday practice before later going into the civilian practice which I later practiced for the rest of my career. It was challenging in that I was a young doctor who was responsible for providing specialty care to a sizable population and the only such a specialist on the ground, so to speak. Backup for consultation was by telephone either 900 mi away on Okinawa or 2500 mi away in Hawaii. From a medical standpoint it was a great opportunity to truly develop personal responsibility and confidence in one's knowledge and ability.
Guam was a quiet place otherwise. It allowed me to refocus on my young family of a wife and 4 young children and to gear down from the rigorous demands and effort involved in going through professional medical residency training. There were trips to the beach to picnic, fish and shell and hikes into the jungles to see military relics. Mingling with the military families and the families of the local Guamanians was a new experience. Living in Guam put us near the Far East to which Lucille and I traveled on our first trip abroad during which we did touring on our own as a lone couple braving the travels in foreign countries with the exuberance and confidence of youth unconcerned with any risks involved. It was an opportunity to shop for many things which Asia offered at the time.
My time in the military allowed me to serve my country and yet gain many positive experiences from being in the place I was sent and seeing a different part of the world from what I had seen before. It was a positive life event which I can count on as one of many in the life which I have had since then.