From 4-F to U.S. Navy Surgeon General: A Physician’s Memoir

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Discharged in 1959 after one year at the U.S. Naval Academy because of a progressive left ear hearing loss, I went on to college and medical school. In 1965, my draft board notified me that upon completion of internship in 1967 I would be drafted despite my disqualifying medical disability. Doctors with a medical disqualifying condition were being drafted because of the rapidly escalating conflict in Vietnam. I volunteered for a Navy program that made me an Ensign and paid all my expenses during my last year of medical school. After my pediatric internship ended in June 1967 I was assigned to a small Navy Hospital in Sasebo, Japan as a general medical officer. After 2 years there I reported to the Navy Hospital San Diego to complete training in general pediatrics and two additional years of training in hematology and oncology. The rest of my clinical years were spent training others in these specialties.

In 1984 I transitioned to Navy Executive Medicine and in 1987 I reported to Washington where I had several challenging assignments as the Cold War ended. I served in the most senior positions in military medicine, retiring as a Vice Admiral in 1998.