Wounded and Evacuated
Brooke Army Medical Center – Fort Sam Houston, Texas
Before I start back where I left off, want to make a couple of issues clear. 1. My medical treatment at Brooke was great. The staff were excellent and very professional. I had issues with one doctor, probably because he was too professional and a hard-ass. 2. Admittedly, I was somewhat of a discipline problem. I carried over from Vietnam, where I pulled all kinds of stupid stuff in the name of “fun”. Back then I marched to my own drummer… now I march to my wife’s drumbeats 
Anyway, I returned to the ward after 3 days AWOL, explained the situation to the ward nurse (CPT) and basically she understood. She let me know that as far as she was concerned, I had never been admitted to the ward, so I couldn’t have been missing. She did the paperwork to admit me, showed me my bed, and briefed me on how to work the system. When I left the ward I had to sign out, then sign in when I came back. Since the log was seldom checked, nobody was going to be concerned about where I was. I was to report to physical therapy every week day at 10:00 and other than that I was own my own. I am thinking “what the hell, this is the same as a day care, wtf was the doc so stignant about”
Anyway, the wife checked into the guess house and my daily scheduled looked something like this. 0800 return to the ward, go to breakfast, come back sign out to PT, return and sign out to somewhere (px, library, gymn, etc) then head over to the guesthouse. Return to the ward sometime after 2000 and sign in, then leave, since there never was a bed check, nobody knew or if they did, they didn’t care.
My physical therapist was a MSC LTC (female) and for the first 15 minutes of PT, she tried to get me to flex my wrist into areas it did not want to flex, pure torture. Then after that those of us at PT did “chores” designed to provide movement for our disabled parts. The one I remember and did the most was fold towels. Admittedly it helped. As a young boy my grandparents owned a small hotel/motel and one of my daily chores was to help my grandmother fold towels, so I was almost an expert at this task and the LTC as pleased at my progress.
So after about 2-3 weeks of this boring activity, I asked if anything was going to be done or could I get out of there. This prompted the nurse to have the doc look at me specifically. So one day here comes the doc and my PT nurse. The doc asks how I am doing and has anyone told me anything. The LTC took him about my PT and about my very restricted wrist movement. The doc to verify took my left arm and then aggressively attempted to bend my wrist backwards. To this day I have recovered much of my wrist movement “down” but almost none “up” or back, so the pain was sudden and severe. My reflex action was to push the doc away by shoving him in the chest. I did this firmly and successfully. Unfortunately, he took offense at this action an told me he was going to have me court-martialled for striking an officer. The LTC attempted to explain that he caused severe pain, but he was having none of it.
He as not in any “official” chain of command, so I was referred up to a full bird (COL), who could take appropriate action. On my appt date, I asked the LTC to accompany me and she agreed. To shorten a long story, surfice it to say, after hearing the full story the COL told me to try and not do it again and dismissed me to return to the ward. But accorking to the LTC, he had a few choice words for the doc, who all of a sudden started treating me like the most important patient on the ward. But in actuality, this was strike two in our doctor/patient relationship. I did find out later he was highly respected for his work as surgeon, but well known and disliked by most stuff for his hard-ass bedside manner.
Anyway, that resulted in a lot of x-rays and electronic nerve testing (pure torture if you ask me), consultation with other specialist, etc. It was determined that further surgery would be required to remove some additional schrapnel and damaged bone. I was also given the option to have my wrist “fused” making it permanently fixed in a straight position. I turned that down as it meant I would probably never be allowed to fly again. But was informed if the next surgery was not successful, that would then be the only option.
So after three – four “wasted” weeks, I was finally scheduled for more surgery. Started all the pre-op stuff and then just waited for my turn on the schedule.
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When I last left off, I was awaiting surgery on my wrist. That went well without too many significant events. Local with all the shots in the armpit, that was less than fun. 2 surgeons talking to me about Vietnam while they pulled and tugged on my wrist. Anyway, they got a few things out and reworked the bone placement as best they could. Then off to recovery, then back to the ward for a few days.
After a check by my favorite doc (not), he said I could have a 7 day leave. I stated I thought I would get 30 days, he said I would get whatever he decided. So I go to admin to pick up my paperwork and the Sgt there says, you should get 30 days. I explained what the doc had said and he said, yep that doc is well known for being a dick. I am going to make this for 30 days, go get him to sign it. Bet he doesn’t even look at it just signs. If he looks and asks, just tell them admin made a mistake and bring it back…. sounded good to me… sure enough the doc signed it without looking at the number of days, so I was off for my 30 day convalence leave. The Sgt also gave me a letter to authorize me to move my family to Brooke due to the extended hospital stay. So I headed off to AR to visit family and to move our house trailer to San Antonio.
I knew when I got back, there would be one pissed off doctor, but at this point I didn’t really care. Visited family, made arrangements to move the trailer, wife, and child. Went back to San Antonio and got the trailer and family all situated and also bought me a used Austin Healy sports car, then reported back to the ward.
Nurse let me know the doc was fit to be tied and wanted me to report to him as soon as he got to the ward later in the afternoon. I decided to make it “official” as hell. I went home and put on my class A’s, got all my medals in order, and pinned on my new CW2 bars. I returned to the ward and when the doc got there, reported to him.
First thing he said was “Your an officer?”, I said yes I am, what diference does that make. He stated that this was the enlisted ward, what was I doing here. I said it was where I was assigned, he’d have to ask hospital admin. He stated it didn’t matter now as he was kicking me out of the ward anyway. He had prepared a letter of reprimand and called ahead to the Adjutant to inform them he was sending me over with the letter to be placed in my file and to have me reassisgned to medical holding outpatient.
The letter of reprimand was in a closed envelope so I couldn’t read it on my way over to the Adjutant. The adjutant was a aviator CPT, he had been wounded in both legs and had to wear braces, so he was off flight status and now in the AG corp. He took the letter, opened and read it, looked at me and said, you have been acting like a typical WO pilot, I agreed. He told me the doc had a reputation for bing a dickhead and then said he was going to put the letter in the official file. He crumpled it up and threw it in the garbage can. He then walked me over to personally intoduce me to Lt Hammonds the CO of the medical holding company, told me when I had time to stop by his office and he would show me how to get into the student officers club, where we weren’t supposed to be. But that’s another story…
Much to my surprise and the surprise of many who knew me in those years, I made a career of the Army. I became a lot more professional in my actions once I made that decision and in my later years I looked back on the stunts I pulled during my two tours in Vietnam and the years between tours and realized how lucky I had been to not completely destroy my career opportunites early on.
Next, my time in medical holding.
