A VETERAN OF THREE SERVICES AND THREE TOURS OF DUTY IN THE WAR ON TERROR
Courtesy of Jedburgh of The Small Wars Council, I bring you the remarkable Army Reserve Colonel Dr. William Bernhard, age 75 – yes, that is correct, 75 years old – also a veteran of the U.S. Navy and the Marine Corps. Colonel Bernhard is about to deploy to Afghanistan.
“…Having joined the Marine Corps in 1950, Bernhard was soon discharged due to a knee injury, which he said was a major disappointment. He joined the Navy as an anesthesiologist and served 10 years on active and reserve duty, then switched to the Army Reserve for 22 more years. When Bernhard leaves his home tomorrow, he will spend about five days at Fort Benning, Ga., before traveling to Ramstein Air Base in Germany. From there he’ll fly to Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, then convoy into Kabul, where he will connect with the Oregon Army National Guard’s 141st Support Battalion.
“I don’t sign up when I go overseas for anesthesia because I’ve done all that,” he said. “I’d much rather sign up to be a field surgeon, which means that I can work at a battalion aide station and at a trauma station, and I sign up to work also as a flight surgeon, and that gets me flying a lot of missions and taking care of aviators.” Last year, he deployed to Iraq with the Mississippi Army National Guard’s 155th Brigade Combat Team. He took charge of medical facilities at five forward operating bases west and south of Baghdad… “
Wow !
