medical specialty needs.
DR. WHO
“The Berry Plan created a lottery for specialties,” Dr. Ward ex-
plained. “You entered and, if you were selected and paid your own
way, you could receive a military deferment to complete a residency.
I was given the option to pursue internal medicine or anesthesiology.
I chose internal medicine.”
Under the Berry Plan, Dr. Ward studied at the University of
Michigan. When he completed his residency in 1958, he had reached
the rank of Captain (as all physicians who completed residency
before entering the military did), but the Korean War was over.
The military didn’t have the need for physicians that had fueled its
previous decisions.
“I had the choice of going into practice, pursuing academic
medicine or applying for service. I chose active duty. I applied for
service in France, Germany or England, but I was assigned to Saudi
Arabia instead,” he laughed.
Dr. Ward touched down in Saudi Arabia in 1958, a long way
from home but prepared to do his job. The hospital to which he
reported was a new one, constructed in 1955 with air conditioning
and state of the art operating rooms.
The young Dr. Ward, now a Captain in the Air Force thanks to
his medical training, went directly from years of medical education
to the supervising of a 100-bed air force hospital in Dhahran, Saudi
Arabia. “This base serviced military training missions in Africa,
Iran, Iraq and Ethiopia,” said Dr. Ward. “There were seven doctors
at the hospital, but I was the only one who was board eligible. That
put me in charge, though I had no management experience at all
other than supervising medical interns.”
In large part, the assignment was a fun one. The base served as a
training ground, not just for western allies, but Saudi princes as well.
These princes often slept in and missed their training assignments,
allowing Dr. Ward to occasionally take their place and fly in the
two-seated jets known as T-33s.
“These guys were near the end of their careers. Most of them
had been fighter pilots in World War II, and they were enjoying this
easy assignment. They had just done a movie called “The Hunters”
with Robert Mitchum,” Dr. Ward recalled. “The pilots had to get
flight time, so they asked the doctors if anyone wanted to fly. I really
enjoyed it, so I’d go when I was able.”
Although there were more good days than bad, it wasn’t all a walk
in the park. It was around midnight one day in early 1959 when Dr.
Ward received a call that a man needed his help.
“I drove to the hospital and found him struggling to breathe.
He looked ready to cash in. He was packed in ice because of the
heat and had severe chest pain. Obviously, he had suffered a heart
attack, gone into congestive heart failure and developed pulmonary
edema. There were no rapid acting diuretics then. Mercuhydrin was
available but took a day or two to act, so our options were limited,”
Dr. Ward recalled.
The only procedure that had the potential for success was a
series of rotating tourniquets placed on three extremities to reduce
the flow of blood to the heart. “We did this, moving them a notch
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