War..an awesome teacher

The article "Docs in training", Voice of the People, Dec. 8, 08, Tribune brings back similiar but different memories of the heady days of the late 1960s when the U.S. was embroiled in a brutal war that killed as many Americans that now fill the "Wall" in Washington D.C. and many more "Walls" that will never be built with the names of Americans that were wounded physically and psychologically. How many of these Americans are now dead due to injuries directly related to that war only God really knows.

Within the blurr of a few days I went from the relatively stable life of an intern at Connemaugh Valley Memorial Hospital in Johnstown PA (the hospital built by donations from around the world after the Johnstown Flood)to the entirely different world of a Naval Medical Officer and first year resident in orthopaedic surgery at the Naval Hospital in south Philadelphia PA. Along with me on this turbulent odyssey came my wife Kristina and our two very young sons, Steven and Michael.

I did not know what to expect on the first day I reported for duty to the Chief of Orthopaedics, Captain Joseph Cremona. Well my fellow first year resident, Tom Lang and I found out fast that first day. We were not only involved in being first assistants in doing surgery but actually doing some of the surgery when our staff orthopaedic surgeon mentors felt we were ready. To say the least we had to learn and do things quickly because we were constantly (daily) getting wounded naval and marine personell air evacted from Viet Nam or Japan to Fort Dix New Jersey and then transported via bus ambulances to the naval hospital. At the high point of the war we had over 1200 orthopaedic patients in the hospital.

My first responsibility was the care and treatment of almost 300 amputee patients. I learned quickly from the staff ortho surgeons, my more senior residents and especially from the savy senior nurses and corpmen who would "suggest" certain things might be considered in a particular patient. Ego was not an option that either I or my patients could afford. I learned and did it quickly all along improving my skills in diagnosis, treatment and surgical technique. The residents of which there were only two in eacy year would rotate through the various types of othopaedic practices which we were required to be trained in by the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery over the four years we trained. We had to pass tests after our second and fourth years sucessfully in order to complete our residencies successfully. Along with this our personal fitness reports from our staff surgeons had to be satisfactory.We had duty schedules, weekend schedules, night schedules and every other kind you can think of but we as a group, including the staff orthopedic surgeons never thought of it as a burden. We would work as many hours or days until the work was done and all were seen and treated. We would look around and see all these young self-sacrificing Americans, 18, 19 and 20 year olds and the occasional one in his 20s that the younger marines and naval personell would call "pop" and in some fashion feel it an honor and priviledge to have worn the same uniform and helped restore their broken bodies and lives to the best of our ability....I still feel the same to this very day and make it a practice to salute every military person in uniform I may come into contact with too this very day.