THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 17, 1996 TAG: 9603150239
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Random Rambles
SOURCE: Tony Stein
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
Family pride was busting its buttons in Washington a couple of weeks ago. That's because Col. Welch of the Marine Corps was retiring while Col. Welch of the Army Reserve looked on with approval and a sisterly sense of accomplishment.
The retiring Marine colonel was Ed Welch. The Reserve colonel was Chesapeake's own Dr. Nancy Welch, director of the city's Health Department. She matched her brother in rank starting last month, when eagles replaced the silver oak leaves on the shoulders of her uniform. In military jargon, it's ``Bird Colonel Nancy'' now; no more ``Light Colonel Nancy.''
Welch has been an Army Reserve doctor since 1981. She signed up because she was mostly an administrator and wanted to keep her doctoring skills honed. As for the choice of the Army Reserve, this is a lady who doesn't like rocking on a boat, so forget it, Navy. Nor does she care for flying, which put the Air Force at a definite disadvantage.
Army it was, complete with field training like night exercises in the pitch-black boondocks, obstacle courses and lots of crawling and/or slogging through mud. ``I don't mind getting muddy,'' says Welch, immaculate in a handsome pink suit as she says it. ``I don't mind getting dirty. It's better than being on a boat or in an airplane.''
Is this an ex-tomboy talking?
``Yes, I was a tomboy,'' Welch said. ``It's hard not to grow up that way when you're between two brothers.'' The growing up happened in what Welch calls ``Orlando B.D. - Before Disney.'' She said it was a whole different place from Orlando After Disney.
Among the military memories Welch has stored are the times she and other reservists were dumped in desolate darkness somewhere at a Texas base and told to find their way back to camp using only a compass. To put an extra lively touch on the excursion, flashlights were forbidden, and the wanderers were attacked with blanks and smoke bombs. ``It is,'' she said, ``sort of scary marching along at night like that.''
She has crawled, climbed, slid and descended by rope in pursuit of military fitness. She has also learned to use some weapons, but suggests that, as a shooter, she is more dangerous to friend than foe. ``The safest place to be when I'm firing is directly in front,'' she said. ``A marksman I am not.''
Some time in a military doctor's career may come the moment when he or she must treat battle casualties, and that part of Welch's training has included very realistic simulated sessions. The ``wounds'' are created with makeup, but the atmosphere is highly charged, hurried and tense. Phony wounds or not, adrenalin surges and critical lessons are learned.
Welch's Reserve unit is the 18th Field Hospital at Fort Story. The outfit will be going to Bolivia this summer to treat civilians in the jungle. Welch's specialties are preventive medicine and pediatrics, so she's doing some heavy homework in the field of tropical diseases. She's also absorbing pills and shots to make sure that she doesn't catch whatever she's supposed to be treating.
The trip will take the unit 13,000 feet up in the jungle, Welch said. She's never been in a jungle before, and she labels the whole idea ``a real fun challenge.''
There are challenges in her Chesapeake job as well. Health Department director Welch said the rapid growth of the city has brought with it an increase in communicable diseases like tuberculosis and salmonella and in sexually transmitted diseases.
``We're working with the city's physicians to make sure cases are reported early and investigated,'' she said. ``And it's important that proper water and sewerage facilities keep pace with the growth.''
Then, because physical and emotional health are so often linked, Welch talked about a challenge for Chesapeake's parents. ``In so many families,'' she said, ``mother or father or both are working to provide material things for the children. But the most important thing parents can provide is themselves.
``When children grow up and talk about their childhood, they don't talk about the material things. They talk about the things they did together, the good times and the sharing. Rather than material goals, parents should work toward the goal of giving themselves.''
Welch will not only be wearing a Health Department hat and an an Army Reserve hat this summer; she will be sporting an Olympic Games hat as well. She is going to be a volunteer usher and ticket taker for the baseball and gymnastics events. However, I'd guess that, given traffic and crowd problems, her military field training will come in handy. by CNB