Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 8, 1991 TAG: 9102080182
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JANNY SCOTT LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: FRANKFURT, GERMANY LENGTH: Long
Since then, Briggs has had to lay off most of her private office staff. She has referred her patients to other doctors. Facing a 50 percent pay cut, she says she is using a home-equity loan intended for her three childrens' college bills to cover expenses for uniforms and office rent.
"I do think there's going to be a large number of people leaving the reserve who didn't appreciate what it would be like if they got called up," Briggs said at an Army hospital here this week. "The greatest thing that will impact on the medical reservists staying in is how much of a financial loss they take."
Eighty percent of the U.S. military's medical manpower resides in the reserves - the thousands of physicians, nurses, technicians, ambulance drivers and others who in peacetime devote one weekend a month and two weeks a year to being ready to back up the armed forces in the event of war.
Now the Persian Gulf war has necessitated the largest reserve call-up in history, including tens of thousands of medical reservists, many of them professionals plucked from jobs and families, scattered throughout the world and placed under extraordinary stress with few familiar sources of support.
At least 89 doctors, nurses and other medical personnel from Western Virginia have been called up, although so far most are serving stateside in naval hospitals.
From Roanoke, 55 people were sent to Portsmouth. From Staunton, 22 have been sent to Portsmouth and nine to Bethesda, Md.
However, Dr. Ward W. Stevens, who has practiced in Roanoke for 22 years and is chief of neurosurgery at Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley, has been called to active duty aboard the USS Comfort, a Navy hospital ship in the Persian Gulf.
And Dr. David Oxley, deputy chief medical examiner for Western Virginia, and Roanoke physician David P. Minichan Jr. were called up with an Army Reserve unit for possible deployment in the Mideast.
Some of the hardships the medical reservists face are illustrated strikingly by physicians, a group not known for eliciting much public sympathy, but badly needed by the military in wartime for their expertise in such fields as trauma and burn care.
For some physicians, the call-up threatens to decimate their practice. Their earnings have plummeted while many of their expenses are unchanged. Doctors in high-risk specialties, such as orthopedic surgery, still face malpractice insurance premiums in the range of $50,000 a year.
What's more, their military call-up comes at a particularly bad time, some reservists say; the economy is weak and the health-care industry is suffering. Unlike some businesses, hospitals have been unable to make up or narrow the gap between their employees' civilian and military pay.
"When we get back, there's a feeling that probably a lot of people will resign because they don't want to run the risk of being deployed again," said Lt. Col. Darleen Meservy, a chief nurse in the Army Reserve who in civilian life runs a program in occupational health nursing at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
"It's really hard to say how many people will consider getting out of the unit," said Meservy, whose responsibilities include trying to keep her reserve unit intact. "That depends on how meaningful an experience they have, if their expertise and knowledge are utilized."
Despite their own difficulties, however, few medical reservists sympathize with those who have refused to go, such as Dr. Yolanda Huet-Vaughn, 39, who surrendered to military authorities in Kansas City, Mo., Saturday after deserting her reserve unit to protest the war.
"I think it's totally wrong," Briggs said. "I think it's like using someone else's money. Particularly as a physician, you shouldn't have taken the money from the Army Reserve program. Or you should have made your decision beforehand to apply for conscientious objector status."
"No one twisted my arm to be here," said Dr. Robert Jones, 43, a family practitioner from Utah who has left behind his wife and six children to work in the hospital in Frankfurt. "We're an all-volunteer force. If there's anyone to blame, I'll blame [Iraqi President] Saddam [Hussein]. He's the turkey that got us here."
Medical reservists say that there are numerous reasons why they've become medical reservists. Many joined after a stint on active duty. Some like the extra pay from their regular training, some want the pension, and others want the continuing education credit. Many say that they are patriotic; they like the life.
Take Dr. Craig Silverton, 38, an orthopedic surgeon who was working in an emergency room in Coldwater, Mich., in 1980 when, out of a sense of adventure and duty, he joined the Air Force Reserve to be trained in para-rescue, retrieving air crew members downed behind enemy lines.
The Air Force put Silverton through a year of full-time schooling, enough hair-raising courses for a doctorate in survival. He became a medical adviser in para-rescue, finished a residency in orthopedic surgery, then went on active duty in special operations.
In late 1989, Silverton broke an ankle in a parachute jump, then performed surgery, on crutches, on men wounded in the invasion of Panama. When the buildup in the Persian Gulf began, he had returned to the reserve and was working as an orthopedic surgeon in a county hospital in Stockton, Calif.
He packed up his life one more time.
"Everybody has priorities in their life," said Silverton, a sinewy man exuding taut intensity. "At this point, supporting the country and the [hospital] commander is the No. 1 priority, not how much I make."
by CNB