Reflections Magazine Issue #64 - Spring 2006 | Page 25

Alumni Feature

John Detro ’85
Captain, U.S. Army

Jenifer Hinckley ’06
Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army National Guard

William Good, Current Student
Specialist, U. S. Army

This past fall, John Detro completed his 18th year of service
in the U.S. Army and his third tour of duty in Iraq. He marked
these milestones by earning the Bronze Star, the Bronze Star
with Valor, the Army Commendation Medal with Valor, and
his second and third Purple Hearts (the first came in Iraq a few
years ago).

Many students hope to study abroad during their Siena Heights
years. But few expect to do it in uniform.

Billy Good is the Siena Heights student with the longest
commute. And the shortest. As a student in Siena’s first “totallyonline” degree cohort, he currently lives in Germany, where he
is stationed with the U.S. Army. To get to class, he goes only as
far as his computer.

“Enough,”you might say. But you’re not John Detro.
“I’ll probably do two more tours, ” he wrote in January, although he hopes the second might involve “less fighting, more
paperwork.” He returns to Iraq this spring. It will be his fifth
combat tour, four in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. He’s a bit
creakier but otherwise as upbeat and hard-driving as ever.
A biology major and chemistry minor at Siena, John enlisted
in the Army in 1987 and immediately put his studies to good
use as a medic. After returning from Operation Desert Storm,
he became a cytotechnologist (a specialist in identifying cellular
abnormalities), then went on to become a physician assistant
(PA). Along the way, he earned a second bachelor’s degree in
physician assistant studies, and master’s degrees in family medicine and orthopedics.
In 1999, things changed: John volunteered to apply his medical
skills as a Ranger.
Ranger School is one of the Army’s toughest training programs,
and John was considered old for the physically grueling course.
Undaunted, he finished at the very top of his class.
The Rangers (officially the 75th Ranger Regiment) are an elite
infantry combat unit. Rangers are “experts in leading soldiers
on difficult missions.” Not surprisingly, Ranger medics have
plenty of work.
As the PA in charge of a battalion of Ranger