BOOK SAMPLE EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER 15 (MACDILL)

PAGES 235-237 OF DOCTOR IN BLUE

"It is now time to relate the story of my bears. They were of no official military significance but I have had a strong personal attachment to them over the years. Everyone at the MacDill hospital knew that I had always been wearing a bear pinned to my white coat. When I first arrived at Kirtland AFB in the early 1960’s, my nurse, Elizabeth, a very Irish lady, gave me a small brown bear to wear. We named him Jeffrey. She also gave me a small green bear named Patrick Sean O’Victor who was to make an appearance only around Saint Patrick’s Day.

That brown Albuquerque bear resided on my coat until 1982, when my wing commander’s wife at Homestead decided that I needed a replacement and knitted one for me. The only times Jeffrey wasn’t on my coat were during my residency, in Vietnam, and during the six months in 1975 that I worked in SAC Headquarters. His knitted replacement remains on my coat to this day.

When I see a small child in the clinic, I always tell him or her that the bear must be touched so they can become friends. I explain that he is a very smart doctor bear and ask those that are old enough if they know what a ventriloquist does. I say that the bear is the smart one who makes my lips move so I can talk. I ask them if they believe that, and everyone always says no. “That’s good,” I would say, “because it is only a fairy tale.” It’s amazing how my relationship with the children and parents always did well when I talked to the children in that manner.

Not long after I assumed command at MacDill, I arrived at the office one morning to find a big white bear sitting on my couch. My secretary said it had been donated to Pediatrics but they were unable to keep it and it was now mine. So be it. We named him Jeremy and I promoted him to major and had the appropriate rank pinned to his shoulders. For four years, Jeremy sat on my couch except when I would put him in a wheelchair and push him around to the clinics and the wards. He was a hit everywhere he went and it gave me the opportunity to look in at the various sections of the hospital without appearing to be meddling or inspecting.

When I was about to leave MacDill for my next assignment, I asked if I could take Jeremy with me. ”No,” I was told, “He is the hospital bear.” I was then presented with a big gray bear at my farewell party. His name, so he said, was Jacob. A few weeks after I arrived at Patrick AFB, my next assignment following MacDill, a large box was delivered to my office and in it was Jeremy. He had a note pinned on him which said, “I missed you so much I ran away. Can you keep me with you?” So now I had two bears.

I brought Jeremy to our squadron Christmas party in 1991 and he sat at the head table, appropriately garbed for the season, with the senior staff and myself. I was playing Santa Claus that year and when I finished distributing presents along with my First Sergeant (and having a ball doing it) I looked over at the table and Jeremy was gone. Since it was unlikely that he had gone to the restroom, there was only one inescapable conclusion. He had been bearnapped. The following duty day, a ransom note arrived with a picture of him with tape over his mouth and his paws taped together. The note said that I would be given further instructions.

I wasn’t going to stand for that. I had notices put on every door leading out of the hospital with his picture saying that he had been bearnapped and offering a reward for his return. My wing commander and his wife happened to pay a visit and saw the notice and thought the whole thing was hilarious. Two days later, another note appeared telling me I could find him in the hospital kitchen. After I rescued him and had him returned to his usual place in my office, I had another notice posted on the doors saying that he had escaped by “bearing” his claws. He was doing fine because the bearnappers had fed him his favorite foods, honey and tuna fish. One of the good things about my job over the years was having fun with the troops and this was a good example of that. It made the commander out to be a fairly regular human being instead of just a higher ranking military officer.

As I write this, I have about forty bears of various sizes residing in my house. I have never bought a bear, but people with whom I have worked know about the stories, have seen the one on my coat, and given them to me."

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TABLE OF CONTENTS AS IT APPEARS IN DOCTOR IN BLUE

ANNOTATED GLOSSARY...................................... 1

CHAPTER ONE: THE BEGINNING........................ 5

CHAPTER TWO: DUKE.......................................... 11

CHAPTER THREE: KIRTLAND.............................. 23

CHAPTER FOUR: BALTIMORE............................. 41

CHAPTER FIVE: SAN ANTONIO........................... 49

CHAPTER SIX: OFFUTT......................................... 59

CHAPTER SEVEN: VIETNAM................................ 69

CHAPTER EIGHT: GOING HOME......................... 99

CHAPTER NINE: UPPER HEYFORD..................... 105

CHAPTER TEN: WURTSMITH.............................. 145

CHAPTER ELEVEN: OFFUTT ONCE AGAIN........ 157

CHAPTER TWELVE: CASTLE................................... 175

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: HOMESTEAD..................... 191

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: GEORGE........................... 209

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: MACDILL................................ 227

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: PATRICK................................. 253

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................... 289