How I Came to the Military

I had been working as a brain pathologist in New York at the Mount Sinai Medical Center, which is a major academic medical center directing their neuropathology unit for 25 years, mostly studying diseases like Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease, Lou Gehrig’s Disease. And the Uniformed Services University came to me and said that they were trying to recruit somebody with my skills and background, and they said, “Before you settle on this, there’s somebody you need to meet with to talk about this possible opportunity.” I said, “Who?” And they said, “It’s Dr. Charles Rice. And Dr. Rice is the President of the Uniformed Services University.” And basically he said that, “The reason why we’re interested in hiring you is to study traumatic brain injury in the military. And traumatic brain injury in the military is the number one health issue for the military. It’s a major problem that we really need to better understand.” And I said I understood that. But he said, “You need to understand a little more about this; namely that, because it’s so importan,t it’s what we call in the military part of the mission.” And he said, “You probably don’t really understand what that implies that when something is part of the mission for the military, we do it and we do it without really concern in terms of the cost involved or the people that have to be asked to accomplish it, whether it’s taking a beachhead or a mountain top or solving a medical problem.” I’d never heard anybody really talk that way and I looked him straight in the eye and I said, “Do you really mean that?” And he said, “Absolutely, I give you my word on that.” And that basically has been what’s happened. The decision to join the Department of Defense and work on this problem is one of the best decisions I ever made. This is the most important work I’ve ever done. I feel like every day I go to work I know why I'm going to work and why it’s important and that I have the opportunity to make really truly an important contribution to these service members, their families and the nation.