LTC WALLACE BRUCKER, M.D., ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON: IN HIS OWN WORDS.

I recently returned from a deployment with the US Army to Iraq in support of the ongoing Operation Iraqi Freedom. This deployment was easily the highlight of my professional career. Perhaps the highpoint of the experience has been the reception that I have received upon my return. The questions of “why did you go” and “what did you do there” are the questions that I’ve heard the most. To answer those questions I had to first ask myself why I serve.

I served 14 years as an Active Duty officer in the Medical Corps as a physician. The lure of challenging and exciting assignments and duty in exotic, faraway locations held sway for nearly a decade and a half. During these times I had the opportunity to serve as both a General Medical Officer, Flight Surgeon in the Special Forces Unit and as an Orthopedic Surgeon in the Army’s last MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital). During these 14 short years, I deployed to Egypt, Macedonia, Kosovo Albania, Panama, Honduras, Bolivia, and Germany. Unfortunately, my time away from home increased and the children became old enough to miss me, so my wife and I decided to leave the military and begin our civilian lives.

I have now been in civilian practice for 6 years. Although civilian life and practice is full of its own challenges and regards, a part of me always missed the military as well. I hate to use the word domesticated, but at times that’s what my practice had become. Medicine seemingly took a back seat to the more mundane struggles of medical practice. I felt no escape from the nearly constant battle with insurance companies and bureaucracies for timely payment on services already rendered. Hours were spent on resubmission of documents or pre-certification for vital interventions. I battled hospitals and administrators for fairer access to the OR or for much-needed, updated equipment and supplies. More often than not, I was unsuccessful in my requests. Finally, I grew weary of a steady stream of patients and their families that seemed to be going out of their way to short circuit their own health and care. This list of problems, I’m sure, is not alien to most, if not all practitioners.

Somewhere in the midst of the seemingly pointless struggle and fight to practice our profession, I lost sight of what it means to serve and to do my job as a doctor. I felt that mid-career, I needed a change. I didn’t need a change out of medicine; I needed a change back into medicine. How to make this change was the problem. I was particularly torn on what to do next when I saw my hospital, the 212th MASH at the forefront of the 2003 invasion into Baghdad. The problem was it wasn’t “mine” anymore. As the years went on, my colleagues still in the Army related to me that the esprit was still there but they needed help; many had already been called on two or three times to serve in Iraq or Afghanistan and they, understandably, were getting tired or burned out. I knew that for personal reasons I couldn’t re-enter the Army on Active duty. Instead, I looked into and decided to enter the U.S. Army Reserves.

I have never been happier with my medical career. Shortly after taking my oath, I received orders to Iraq. Given the shortages in personnel, I was not at all surprised with very quick arrival of my orders to war. Four months later, I’m back home. While “over there” I worked with some of the finest Americans I have ever met.

Soldiers that fight in wars don’t fight because of ideology. Iraq is no exception to this rule. It’s not about whether you agree with the war or not. It’s not about the politics; professional officers stay above the fray. Once you are in the middle of things, you don’t have to believe in the war or our government. The only thing you have to believe in is yourself and your abilities. The only people you have to believe are the soldiers. “Who are these soldiers?” You might ask. They are the ones placing themselves in harm’s way day after day, month after month, year after year. Sometimes they are injured or killed. You’ll recognize them easily. He’s the one holding your hand in the ER. He’s not asking about his missing leg; he’s asking if his best friend, the one laying next to him, the buddy everyone is frantically trying to resuscitate, is going to make it. Believe me, the young men and women in our armed services have already figured out service and sacrifice.

They may seem nameless and nondescript in their armor, helmet and wrap around sunglasses when you see them on the nightly news, but who are they? They are your sons and daughters. They are the nieces and nephews of parishioners that share “the peace” with you at church. They are the grandsons or daughters of the nurse in recovery or the patient with the worn VFW cap waiting in your office. They were the kids that baby sat for you or were on the swim team with your kids. Strong, Proud, Invincible? Yes, but they remain our children, our hope, and our futures and they, at times, still need our help.

This war, like all others changes lives. Families lose loved ones. Squads lose best friends. Individuals may no longer be able to walk their daughter down the aisle as they had once promised. A mother may loose the arms she needed to hold her new baby. A soldier my lose the eyes he needed to see his sweetheart at his home coming. With every unnecessary loss of life, America loses a little bit of itself. That’s why I joined and serve. I found medicine again helping those who are fighting the fight for us. They are fighting America’s enemies to keep them at arms length, over there in those strange and exotic lands. They put themselves in harm’s way day after day because they often have more faith in us and in the future of this country than we have in ourselves. I felt that I needed to be there for them; to save or help that one soldier when he needed help the most.

Military Service isn’t for everyone. Sadly, it seems, it’s “for” fewer and fewer of us as time goes on. I hope that this trend will change. I decided to start with me. For those who consider entry in the Reserves, I can assure you, you will never regret your decision. Whether you enter because of the opportunity to travel or to learn how to jump out of the “perfectly good airplanes” at Airborne School, or you may just need some excitement and change in your life, remember this: At the end of the day, this is a chance to serve with medical colleagues second to none while caring for the most deserving patients ever. Get back to your roots. Get back to the practice of medicine and away, if only briefly, from the administrative distractions of modern medical practice. Who knows, maybe joining the Reserves will get you back on the path we all seem to stray from as time goes on.

Back to All Physician Spotlight Articles