THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 13, 1996 TAG: 9603120277
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: CHARLENE CASON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
Ask Lt. Cmdr. Reggie McNeil how he got to where he is today and he'll tell you the story. But be patient: It's a long story, a good story, one of a little luck and a lot of hard work.
He is animated, articulate and athletic - his handshake alone announces he's an avid racquetball player. His energy, like the racquetball, bounces off walls, filling his office with an almost visible air of positiveness.
``God puts us on a path, and we may not know what lies at the end,'' said McNeil, 45. ``We have no choice but to walk it. The only thing you can control is your attitude.''
McNeil's attitude, thanks to a devoutly Catholic mother, has always been, ``People would see you for what you are within, not for what you are on the outside.''
Believing everyone agreed with his mother and looked at him for what he was made of, not his race, McNeil took advantage of what fate handed him.
Over the past 25 years he has worked his way up from a corpsman who accidentally landed in the Navy to officer in charge of the Norfolk Naval Shipyard branch medical clinic, which serves nearly 9,000 military and civilian workers.
His goals are to become a Navy captain, and be commanding officer of a naval hospital.
According to those who know him, he will probably reach both goals in record time.
``Reggie is fun-loving and gregarious, but he's aggressive in a nice sort of way,'' said Capt. Larry Seible, who has known McNeil for more than four years.
``He knows how to get doors opened. He works hard and, with a little luck, he's made his own fate.''
McNeil never intended to join the military. He was a pre-med student in 1970 when he learned the fraternity brother who was supposed to register him and 20 other students for exemption from the draft didn't do it.
So he joined the Navy as a corpsman, where luck and a great attitude combined to hand McNeil one training school after another.
Like when he was stationed in a nice, warm clinic in Japan and heard a friend complaining about the hardship assignment he was headed to. McNeil offered to take it instead, and he ended up deployed with a Marine ranger unit at the base of Mount Fuji, where he was the sole medic for 225 Marines.
``That was a self-actualizing job,'' he said. ``Cold but good.''
Or the time he ran into a black captain that McNeil had idolized back when the doctor was a commander and McNeil was a young corpsman.
``He asked me what I had been doing, looked at my record and suggested I apply to the Navy's first physician's assistant school,'' said McNeil. ``It was a prototype, a highly visible school.''
Or when, as a lieutenant, he went to see Rear Adm. Bill McDaniel, who was then the commanding officer of Portsmouth Naval Medical Center. McNeil thought he was going to inform the admiral about something in his department at the hospital, but actually he was being interviewed for a position as the admiral's aide.
Since August 1994, McNeil has been officer in charge of the shipyard branch medical clinic.
As a medical service corps officer, McNeil no longer sees patients; his role is administrative now.
But few medical service corps officers have the medical experience he's had. His training, he said, helps him communicate with staff members, understand patients' problems and deliver effective preventive medicine in ``times that demand we have a sense of wellness.''
He has brought cohesiveness to the clinic, according to optometrist Paula Boone.
``He makes the clinic operate more as a unit, rather than as separate departments as we had in the past,'' she said. ``He's concerned that we operate as a team.''
McNeil is ``consistent in what he requires, is stern but approachable,'' she said. ``And he is definitely a role model in his demeanor and appearance.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MOTOYA NAKAMURA/The Virginian-Pilot
Lt. Cmdr. Reggie McNeil says his goals are to become a Navy captain,
and be commanding officer of a naval hospital. Those who know the
45-year-old have no doubts he'll achieve both.
by CNB