4 THE CHARBONNEAU VILLAGER November 2021
Charbonneau veteran reflects on time serving in Navy
Lee Harker served as a physician in the United States Navy for 24 years
BY CLARA HOWELL
Lee Harker credits her time in the military for teaching her the leadership skills necessary to excel in her professional life .
“ For me , what the military did was it put me into positions where I was able to acquire responsibility and develop leadership skills that then served me well in the remainder of my professional career ,” said Harker , a Charbonneau resident . “ I think that it really was the foundation I had from my time in the military that allowed me to be comfortable being a leader and know I could do it well .”
Harker served as a physician in the United States Navy from 1980- 2004 .
Harker received her bachelor ’ s degree in French from the University of California at Santa Barbara , and initially joined the Navy as a medical student in 1976 on a full scholarship .
Harker decided to pursue medicine after receiving a dare her freshman year in college . She remembers taking a biology class and dissecting a rat . The teacher ’ s assistant noticed how she enjoyed science and asked why she didn ’ t major in science . Harker said she was interested in medicine but thought she had to be a science major to go to medical school . The assistant said she didn ’ t and dared her to meet with a pre-med advisor . The teacher ’ s assistant was correct .
“ My biggest problem was ( that ) I like pretty much all academic areas . I was a really bonafide nerd and geek ,” Harker said . “ By the time I finished college , half of my units — my credits for classes — were in science classes and half were in nonscience classes .
“ By the time I was finishing up my sophomore year and really getting into the science classes at that point , I was very sure it was something that I wanted to do and off I went .”
As a woman , Harker often got questions about why she didn ’ t want to be a nurse .
“ I ’ d rather give the orders than take the orders ,” she said . “ I wanted to be the person in charge .”
Harker remembers her male peers expressing anger toward her after she came out of her medical college admissions test .
“ You ’ re taking my spot away ,” she recalls them saying . “ Those were just the realities of life at the time .”
Harker ’ s mom was a single mother and had been the breadwinner and caretaker since Harker was 8 .
“ As we started looking at going to medical school and cost and everything , it became very clear that ... what she managed to save up was all going to get used up by my graduate school ,” Harker said . “ I decided I would rather owe time than money .”
So Harker made the eightyear commitment to the Navy ( she owed a year for every year the scholarship covered and training years didn ’ t count ). After medical school , she decided to stay in the Navy for 24 years .
Harker participated in active duty over the course of four years while the Navy paid for medical school . In 1980 , she went on full active duty during her first year of residency training as a pediatrician . She trained for three years . “ During that time , I had a oneyear hiatus after the first year and I was a ship ’ s medical officer for a year ,” said Harker , adding that she worked as a physician on a repair ship and other ships would tie up alongside them to receive repair
A photo of Lee Harker in the 1980 ’ s .
COURTESY PHOTO
work . “ Women didn ’ t serve on board any kind of combat vessels , so we served on support ships , service ships , ships that weren ’ t in direct combat but were supportive of the mission of the Navy for other ships .”
Once Harker completed training , she worked as a pediatrician at a
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