John D. Rumisek, MD
Branch of service: U. S. Army Years of service: 1972-2001
“ John D. Rumisek, MD, was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the U. S. Army in 1972 and was released from the Inactive Reserves as COL. Rumisek MD, Medical Corps in 2001. Entering active duty at Fort Sill Oklahoma, MAJ Rumisek and his wife Joan parented a son Jay and a daughter Julia through several stateside assignments, the last as Associate Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Walter Reed AMC. Called back in support of Desert Storm, he spent nine years of active duty supporting the fighting force and retirees. Army life was a family affair for the Rumiseks, encompassing multiple moves around the country. Each was very rewarding and resulted in development of a military family. Moving was difficult, having to leave established locations as well as military and civilian friends. Love and caring deepened amongst the nuclear as well as extended military families. It was a privilege to serve and care for those who put their lives on the line to defend our nation. That service and the resultant military family cannot be forgotten and form a cornerstone to the subsequent civilian medical career enjoyed by Dr. Rumisek and his wife.”
Lindsay Snow, MD
Branch of Service: U. S. Air Force Years served: 2012-2023
“ No one in my family is a physician, and I applied to med school to spite an ex-boyfriend who told me I couldn’ t pass calculus( I got an A, in case you’ re wondering). It was only after accepting the admission offer that I saw the estimated student loan total and how long it would take to repay … and promptly fainted, probably. Summoned by my psychic distress like sharks sniffing blood in the water, a recruiter appeared, promising me that I could be whatever kind of doctor I wanted to be and live wherever, and they don’ t even make doctors run. All of these statements were lies. No one living in my family had military service, so I had no idea what I was getting myself into, and frankly, neither did the U. S. Air Force.
Although I personally hated commissioned officer training( COT) because of marching in formation and an outhouse full of black widow spiders, I later learned that my experience was like staying at the Ritz when I was trying to bond with my new father in law – a former Army paratrooper – because we had maids come clean our air conditioned dorms, among other luxuries like toilet paper.
After my second year of med school, I learned that I could be any type of doctor I wanted to be, as long as it was a type of doctor the military needed. Luckily for me, I wanted to be a primary care doctor. Family medicine has the highest deployment tempo of any specialty because we can do flight medicine, outpatient, ER, inpatient, ICU, peds, OB-GYN and adults, so the Air Force needs gobs of them.
I did a combined military-civilian residency in southwestern Illinois outside St. Louis, which was a very interesting location because on inpatient we would have someone who fell in a thresher next to someone who was a victim of a drive by shooting, and they lived less than 25 miles apart. Because onbase military primary care is essentially free to the government, we are expected to do it all. I was taught a ton of procedures – joint injections, biopsies, IUD insertions and removals, Botox for migraine, etc. – and expected to do higher level management of chronic health conditions both inpatient and outpatient.
Then I was stationed in North Dakota; if you have seen Game of Thrones, it was like living north of the Wall. It got so cold my boogers would freeze in my nose walking to my car. I got some light frostbite on my toes trying to jump my car when it was-25 outside. Meanwhile, somehow, I had become the Air Force Medical Corps breastfeeding point person; physicians and med students I had never met would reach out to me. When individual branch military medical systems were transitioned into the Defense Health Agency( DHA), some squadron commanders and flight commanders were not letting breastfeeding clinicians have time or space to pump because it wasn’ t in the new DHA regulations. I worked with some amazing fellow activeduty AF female physicians, and after a year and many, many emails, we successfully changed the regulations for all branches. Then I was asked to represent my rank at the time, Captains, for the entire medical corps as part of an advisory group to the one-star general in charge of the Air Force Medical Corps. That was really cool.
While military life was not the best long-term fit for me or my family, I am grateful for the experience, the training and the friends I made.”