During the Vietnam War, I was drafted, but instead of being sent to Vietnam as I expected, I was sent to a tropical island paradise, Tercera, in the Azores. I treated the Base Commander’s wife. What made this patient special was that her husband was court-martialing me for bringing my wife to the Azores, by paying for her transport on civilian airlines, and with her civilian passport. On top of that, we lived off base in “unauthorized housing, as did half the troops, as many servicemen could not get base housing.  That was my crime. The General was a two-star who was given command of Lajes Air Force Base as a reward for his service in Vietnam as a bomber squadron commander. He hated doctors, as the previous group of physicians before me had revealed some of his rather personal medical information. I was assigned a lawyer from the base legal service. Luckily, he had a personal connection to Strom Thurmond, who was serving as the chair of the Armed Services Committee at the time. My attorney previously worked as one of his aides while attending law school at George Washington University. Strom Thurmond would come to the Azores about every few months. In his position, he had a busy social life and frequently entertained. So he used the Class 6 store on base (liquor store) to refill his liquor cabinet, as it was the cheapest place in the world to buy alcohol, and he probably enjoyed getting away from Washington. The best French wines were under a dollar a bottle, and the hard liquor was similarly priced. When Strom landed, we were on the flight line to welcome him, and my attorney expressed my predicament to Strom Thurmond.  By then, the Portuguese government had also become involved, as they saw the General was interfering with tourism in the Azores. In any case, the General lost a star and was ordered back to the US. That terminated my court-martial and my announced punishment, punitive reassignment to Vietnam. I even attended the party to welcome the new Base Commander (see above) and I spent most of the rest of my tour of duty in the Azores.

The rest of my time in the Air Force was very pleasant. My wife and I did a lot of traveling, all courtesy of the military, skiing on Monte Blanc in France and in my hometown, Hinterstoder, Austria. We visited all the major capitals in Europe, even Constantinople. Later, I did have a very interesting and famous patient, Raymond Burr. I first saw him on TV as Perry Mason, then later as Ironside. He was in his mid-fifties when I met him. He was flying from the States to Europe. Mid-flight, he developed chest pain, and his plane made an emergency landing at Lajes AFB in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and he was brought to the only American hospital available, our hospital on base. He was a real gentleman. As it turned out, he did not have a heart attack. The severe chest pain he experienced was most likely attributable to acid reflux, which resulted in esophageal irritation.  I had a wonderful time visiting with Perry Mason, my favorite TV character. He was with us only three days, and I discharged him from the hospital so he could resume his trip to Europe.

One other noteworthy experience was one night I was on duty at the hospital when a Colonel brought in his three-year-old daughter with difficulty breathing. When I first saw her, she seemed to be quite comfortable sleeping on her father’s shoulder, until I started my examination, which started with a tongue blade depressing her tongue to look at her throat, a major mistake. I immediately saw a red, swollen lump at the base of her tongue. This disease is called epiglottitis. She immediately was unable to breathe. I was panicked. This was before I was a surgeon and did not have the skills to do a tracheotomy, which is quite a major operation, especially in a three-year-old. I did have one trick up my sleeve that I had never done, but had read about. I had access to some large-bore needles that I stuck into her trachea, just enough to give her some life-giving air. Then I put her into a mist tent with oxygen. She survived! I was overjoyed, and the Colonel was very grateful. Sometime later, he brought me a beautiful gift of a large globe of the world that he had purchased in Aviano, Italy, as that was one of his frequent destinations in his C-130 on his military missions. That globe is still sitting in my living room today. The Colonel did one more favor for me. I had acquired the only waterski boat on Tercera, but lacked a water ski and the rope you need.  Aviano was not his only destination; he frequently came to McGuire AFB near Philadelphia. There he purchased a waterski and rope for me. We had many wonderful days skiing on the Bay of Praia, I Tercera, which had seen more than one Spanish galleon laden with gold and silver several centuries before, some of them sunk by the English “pirate” Sir Francis Drake. Unfortunately, despite multiple deep dives, my diving club and I never found a single one.

When I finished my tour of duty, I went back to Ventura County. I joined a medical group in Santa Paula, practicing general medicine and handling pretty much all facets of medical care, including, of course, some surgery, internal medicine, and a relatively large obstetric practice. I delivered at least 1,000 babies over the 10 years I practiced general medicine. I encountered the usual obstetric complications, but one noteworthy event was delivering a girl who had phocomelia. That is where hands or feet are attached close to the body. In her case, one hand was attached to her shoulder like a flipper. I was pretty taken aback by this tragedy that befell her. She is now an adult, and occasionally I see her around town. I have to be careful in observing her as I do not want to be caught as if I were staring. But I am amazed at how well she has adapted to her birth defect. She seems to be oblivious to it and does everything with ease, not at all challenged by this accident of nature, most likely caused by the drug Thalidomide, which her mother had gotten in Mexico. My sadness for her at her birth was totally reversed by seeing her now.   

Two challenging and famous patients brought by ambulance from our tiny airport were Kirk Douglas and Noel Blank, son of Mel Blank, the man behind the voices of the Loony Tunes cartoons, Bugs Bunny, Wile E. Coyote, Woody Woodpecker, etc., Noel assumed that job when his father retired. The accident occurred when a single-engine plane, which was just taking off, was hit by a helicopter piloted by Noel, and both occupants of the single-engine plane were killed. Noel had serious injuries that required intensive ICU care for weeks, while Kirk Douglas had minor injuries. Noel’s most serious injury was a “flail chest” when multiple ribs on one side break, creating a section of the chest wall that moved independently from the rest of the chest. When the person so afflicted attempted to breathe, the flail segment moved inward, which was not conducive to getting air into the lungs. He required a continuous ventilator to stay alive. I got to know Noel very well and he even drew cartoon characters for my daughter. For several years thereafter, I got a call from him on the anniversary of his crash.