SENIOR OFFICER ORAL HISTORY

LIEUTENANT GENERAL QUINN H. BECKER

36th SURGEON GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

FOREWORD

This donated oral history transcript has been produced from an interview with
Lieutenant General Quinn H. Becker, USA, Retired, conducted by Colonel (Ret) Gary
Sadlon as part of the US Army War College/US Army Military History Institutes Senior
Officer Oral History Program.
Users of this transcript should note that the original verbatim transcription of the
recorded interview has been edited to improve coherence, continuity, and accuracy of
factual data. No statement of opinion or interpretation has been changed other than as
cited above. The views expressed in the final transcript are solely those of the
interviewee and interviewer. The US Army War College/US Army Military History
Institute assumes no responsibility for the opinions expressed, or for the general
historical accuracy of the contents of this transcript.
This transcript may be read, quoted, and cited in accordance with common
scholarly practices and the restrictions imposed by both the interviewee and interviewer.
It may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, by any means whatsoever, without first
obtaining the written permission of the Director, US Army Military History Institute,
950 Soldiers Drive, Carlisle, Pennsylvania 17013-5021.

BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE
Lieutenant General (Retired) Quinn H. Becker

Education
Northeast Louisiana State, 1948-1952
Louisiana State University, School of Medicine, 1952-1956
Internship, Tripler General Hospital, Hawaii, 1956-1957
Residency, Orthopedic Surgery, Confederate Memorial Hospital,
Shreveport, Louisiana (Army Sponsored), 1958-1961.
Assignments
Jan 1962-May 1963: Orthopedic Surgeon, U.S. Army Hospital, Fort Gordon, Georgia
Jun 1963-Jun 1964: Chief of Orthopedics, U.S Army Hospital, Fort Rucker, Alabama
Jul 1964-Jul 1965: Commanding Officer, 5th Surgical Hospital (Mobile Army),
Heidelberg, Germany
Jul 1965-Jul 1966: Division Surgeon, 3d Infantry Division, Wurzberg, Germany
Jul 1966-Dec 1966: Chief, Orthopedic Surgery, 33rd Field Hospital, Wurzberg, Germany
Jan 1967-Jul 1969: Assistant Chief, Orthopedic Service, Department of Surgery, Walter
Reed General Hospital, Washington, DC
Aug 1969-Jan 1970: Armed Forces Staff College, Norfolk, Virginia
Feb 1970-May 1970: Chief, Professional Services, 85th Evacuation Hospital, United
States Army Vietnam
Jun 1970-Feb 1971: Division Surgeon and Battalion Commander, 15th Medical
Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), United States Army Vietnam
Mar 1971-Jun 1974: Chief, Orthopedic Service and Orthopedic Residency Training,
Tripler Army Medical Center, Honolulu, Hawaii
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Jul 1974-Jun 1975: Student, United States Army War College, Carlisle Barracks,
Pennsylvania
Jul 1975-Sep 1977: Surgeon, XVIII Airborne Corps, Fort Bragg, North Carolina
Mar 1976-Sep 1977: Commander, United States Army Medical Activity, Fort Bragg,
North Carolina
Oct 1977-Jun 1980: Director of Health Care Operations, Office of the Surgeon General,
United States Army, Washington, DC
Jul 1980-Oct 1981: Commandant, United States Army Academy of Health Sciences,
Fort Sam Houston, Texas
Oct 1981-Jun 1983: Deputy Surgeon General, Office of the Surgeon General, United
States Army, Washington, DC
Jul 1983-Feb 1985: Surgeon, U.S. European Command; U.S. Army Europe; and
Commander, 7th Medical Command, Heidelberg, Germany
Feb 1985-May 1988: The Surgeon General, United States Army/Program Executive
Officer; Health Care Systems, United States Army, Falls Church, Virginia
Decorations and Badges
Distinguished Service Medal
Legion of Merit
Bronze Star Medal (with 1 Oak Leaf Cluster)
Meritorious Service Medal (with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters)
Air Medal
Army Commendation Medal
Combat Medical Badge
Parachutist Badge
Senior Flight Surgeon Badge

Lieutenant General Quinn H. Beckers Promotions

Rank

Temporary

Permanent

2LT

5 Jan 1956

1LT

2 Jun 1956

31 May 1957

CPT

1 Jul 1957

11 Jun 1959

MAJ

26 Nov 1962

LTC

23 Sep 1966

11 Jun 1973

COL

2 Jun 1971

12 Sep 1976

BG

21 Sep 1977

MG

1 Sep 1980

LTG

1 Mar 1985

11 Jun 1966

22 Jan 1982

INTERVIEWER NOTE

I wish LTG Becker could see this! I said to my battalion commander as

we were traveling along Tapline Road in Saudi Arabia, during Operation Desert
Storm, just before the ground offensive. Up and down the many desert miles of
Tapline Road, located every few kilometers apart, were combat support and
evacuation hospitals with new Deployable Medical Systems (DEPMEDS) that
were ready for action. Also, there were UH-60 medical evacuation helicopters,
blood supply units, laboratories, medical supply units, ground ambulance units,
and medical command and control organizations. I explained to my battalion
commander that LTG Becker was the most instrumental person in the Army for
making sure we had the medical equipment and the trained people needed for
this war. The equipment and medical units, including the group of people
selected to lead these units were all part of LTG Beckers work as a senior Army
Medical Department (AMEDD) leader.
As his former Aide-de-Camp, I watched him stress the importance of
modernizing field medicine doctrine, fielding new equipment, and sponsoring field
medicine training. He kept the AMEDD focused on its wartime mission. Many of
us who worked with LTG Becker consider him to be one of the most influential
battlefield medical advocates in the history of the AMEDD.
As people read his oral history, they will walk away knowing that medical
readiness was General Beckers biggest gift to military medicine. Self-described
as a field doctor, LTG Becker used the term medical readiness in the 1970s
9

and 80s to refer to the concept of the entire Army Medical Department being
prepared for its wartime missions. I really do not think that LTG Becker expected
his contributions would be used in a 1990 Middle East War, which occurred
shortly after his retirement. During his time (1970s and 80s) as a senior
strategic leader in the AMEDD, the biggest threat that faced war planners was a
large Soviet Union force attacking Western Europe. It was expected that this war
would create large numbers of casualties. LTG Becker and his medical planners
had to make sure there were deployable, fixed and warm-based hospitals,
rapid patient evacuation systems, modern medical equipment, and trained
people lots of them. From the time LTG Becker spent as the Director of Health
Care Operations in the Pentagon, Commandant at the Academy of Health
Sciences, Deputy Surgeon General, European Command Chief Surgeon and
Commander of 7th Medical Command in Europe, and as the Army Surgeon
General, he advanced battlefield medicine to care for the large number of
casualties expected in a war situation.. LTG Becker carried the banner for field
medicine along with many other readiness contributions in stateside hospitals.
Another challenge for the AMEDD in the 1980s was reestablishing
confidence in the military peacetime medical system that provided health care for
soldiers, spouses, family members, and retirees. LTG Becker, as the newly
appointed Army Surgeon General, faced intense pressure from the media,
congressional leaders, and senior army officials about the quality of medical care
in the Army. His oral history describes this situation and reveals his honest and
transparent way of handling this situation and restoring confidence in military
10

medicine. LTG Becker also explains many other interesting initiatives in this oral
history that include commissioning physician assistants, enlisted medical
training, establishing the Army Medical Department Regiment just to name a
few things that are now fully implemented.
In his oral history, LTG Beckers does not discuss fancy theories of
leadership. He would probably say that his leadership style is to care about
people let them do their jobssimple as that. Those who know Quinn Becker as
a person, realize that he gives credit and praise to others for advances in military
medicine. As a selfless soldier, he is quick to acknowledge others and deflects
credit away from himself. That is his genuine personality and his mindset.
LTG Becker has many great leadership attributes, but the one that
countless others remember is his leading by example. As often as possible, as a
General Officer, he would participate with candidates in the Expert Field Medical
Badge 12 mile road march, visiting and motivating the soldiers along the way.
Also, he would jump in the middle of a physical training session and become part
of the unit as it ran and sang in formation. As many people at Fort Sam Houston
recall, he sent the entire Academy of Health Sciences, Health Services
Command, and Brooke Army Medical Center to Camp Bullies for a field training
weekend. As one of the company commanders for this training exercise, I waited
at Camp Bullis for the buses to arrive from Fort Sam Houston, and was I ever
surprised when Major General Becker was the first soldier that stepped off the
bus! Also, in 1980, as a Brigadier General, he set the example for other
physicians by attending the first ever Combat Casualty Care Course. LTG
11

Becker enjoyed being enthusiastic and leading by example and for so many
others including myself, his leadership made us feel good about what we were
doing.
LTG Becker has a genuine and natural gift for relating to people,
regardless of rank, job, or level. Along with a friendly personality, he has many
diverse interests that include building and fixing things, welding, farming and
animals, construction, motorcycles, old Volkswagens, hiking, skiing, biking,
square dancing, and overall, just being with people. The unintended
consequence of his personality and diverse set of interests makes him the type
of person that people want to work for and he is rewarded with their loyalty, love
and respect. As the Army Surgeon General, I am convinced his success was
greatly due to his ability to he could relate many of his interests to people at all
levels, both inside his large organization and with senior warfighters in the
Pentagon. Described in War College strategic leadership terminology, LTG
Becker had a broad and experienced frame of reference which made him an
extremely effective leader. In simpler terms, LTG Becker was loaded with
wisdom.
LTG Beckers Oral History tracts his life from the time of his youth into the
military, through his assignments, culminating with the time he spent as the
number #1 guy in the Army Medical Department. Near the end of his oral history,
LTG Becker shares some reflective insights about his career and the Army. For
me, the humbling part of interviewing LTG Becker was the fact that he never had
a grand plan for his career, and he never planned to be a General, let alone the
12

Army Surgeon General. LTG Becker, his wife Marie and their children went to
assignments, where and when the Army sent them. His career was shaped
along the way with a supporting family, good people to work with, a hard work
ethic, and having a set of personal values that reflect honesty, dedication, and
selfless service. A take-away for a young officer reading this oral history is the
balance of clinical expertise, war and field medicine experience, and leadership
positions at all levels. LTG Beckers oral history is full of important lessons for
the military and medicine which applies to all ages, times, and situations.
This Oral History of Lieutenant General Quinn H. Becker is long overdue,
as his contributions to military medicine are dynamic and a rich part of the United
States Army history.
Colonel (Ret) Gary Sadlon
Oral History Interviewer
Former Aide-de-Camp (1983-85)

13

14

ORAL HISTORY
LIEUTENANT GENERAL QUINN H. BECKER

Q:

General Becker, was medicine or the military an early interest in your life?

A:

No, they really werent. Of course, after the WWII started I knew something
about the military, but I was not interested in it as a career. I thought more about
being a farmer, probably, than anything. My father was a country doctor. It kept
him working all of the time, and up at night. It was not something I wanted to do.

Q:

General Becker, as a child, what were your interests and hobbies?

A:

Well, I know that I wasnt terribly interested in sports as a young boy. I worked
on the farm and other jobs and enjoyed that more. I didnt have many hobbies,
other than I rode my bicycle a lot. Things were kind of tough in those days. This
was in the Depression so there wasnt a lot of money around for extra things and
everybody pitched in and did his part.

Q:

What do you remember about your fathers style of practicing medicine?

A:

Well, it was in a small country town and he was the doctor that did most of the
deliveries. He had to do them all in the homes. Most folks lived on the farm and
if we had bad weather or snow, he would go and stay for 3, 4, or 5 days until the
lady delivered. He worked quite hard and didnt get much money. Most people
gave him food so we had plenty of food to eat.

15

Q:

What academic areas were you most interested in during high school?

A:

I think I was most interested in the sciences, mostly biology, and mathematics. I
liked all of my subjects, but those were my favorites.

Q:

What high school did you graduate from?

Did you have any extracurricular

activities or any academic activities?

A:

I graduated from Ouachita Parish High School in Monroe, Louisiana, which was
my mothers home. We went to my mothers home in 1944 after my father died.
We had originally lived up in northern Missouri in a small town called Milan in
Sullivan County.

I went to Monroe, Louisiana, and started high school, and

finished in 1948. During high school, I played football and enjoyed it very much
and made some lifelong friendships.

Q:

Where did you go to college and what did you major in?

A:

I went to college in northeast Louisiana in Monroe.

It was called Northeast

Louisiana State College at that time. When I first started there, it was a junior
college. At the end of the second year it became a four-year school so I stayed.
The first two years I majored in agriculture and did very well in it and enjoyed it. I
also took some zoology, botany courses, and biology courses.

One of my

professors was excellent. He was a zoology teacher and he influenced me quite

a bit. I did very well in my studies and had high grades and decided at the end of
the second year that I should probably study medicine. I changed my major to
pre-med and spent the last two years studying pre-medical subjects.
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Q:

You were also enrolled in ROTC and how did this fit into your plan for pursuing a
medical career?

A:

Well, in college we had a ROTC program. I participated in that and enjoyed it

very much. It was a military police program at that time. I went to summer camp
at Fort Gordon, Georgia. I was the distinguished military graduate, so I was
commissioned a second lieutenant in the Military Police Corps upon graduation
from college. I had some interest in the military. I finished college in 1952 during
the Korean War. I was given a deferment when I was accepted down at LSU
School of medicine.

Q:

What caused you to decide to enter the military as a physician?

A:

In my senior year a new program came out. It was called the Senior Medical
Student Program. If someone signed up for that during the senior year, you
could go on Active Duty and remain in school, and draw the pay of a second
lieutenant. I was sworn in on the 10th of January 1956. That was, the beginning
of my Active Duty as a second lieutenant Medical Service Corps. I finished my
senior year with an adequate amount of money to live on.

Q:

Were there any family were military that influenced you into the military?

A:

No one in my family was military. There was no one that influenced me to enter
the military.
17

Q:

After completing medical school, you entered into a military internship at Tripler
Army Medical-what about your internship?

A:

We had a great internship.

Being a senior medical student in the military

program, they let me have my choice of internships. My first choice was Tripler
in Honolulu and I was lucky enough to get it. It was an excellent program. It was
a general internship and was well rounded. We covered all facets of medicine.
Tripler was a big, busy hospital taking care of all of the different services on the
island of Ouahers It was an outstanding opportunity for me.

Q:

During you internship at Tripler, what interested you the most so that you could
decide on a particular residency and specialty?

A:

I was interested in anesthesiology, surgery, and orthopedic surgery. I finally

decided on orthopedics and I applied for a residency. By the time I applied, all of
the military slots for orthopedic residents had been filled.

I was given the

opportunity to take any accredited civilian residency that would accept me: I
applied to several places, but my first choice was in Shreveport, Louisiana. The
hospital was called the Confederate Memorial Medical Center and was a branch
of the Charity Hospital System in Louisiana.

It was a very busy 1,000-bed

hospital with a heavy workload in orthopedics.

I was there for four years in Shreveport, all of the time on Active Duty as a
captain. I received the pay of a captain, which was certainly more than the other
18

residents made. My wife taught school and we lived fairly comfortably. It was a
very busy, hardworking residency. We were on call every other night for the first
two years.

Q:

Back while you were at Tripler and before you went on to do residency, was that
your first experience of Active Duty in the military?

A:

Yes, except for the ROTC summer camp. We were Active Duty military at Tripler
and wore our uniforms but didnt do much close order drill. Our main objective
was to learn medicine. We had many of the things that an active military unit
would have.

Q:

Upon completing your residency there at Shreveport, your first assignment was
at Fort Gordon as an orthopedic surgeon on staff. What do you remember about
Fort Gordon and that period of time?

A:

Yes, my first assignment was at Fort Gordon and I was lucky enough to be
assigned there with one of the previous residents that had been with me at
Tripler. Hed been an orthopedic resident when I was an intern out there. He
greatly influenced me because; he was there as the only orthopedic surgeon at
Fort Gordan. I came in to be his number two man. He continued to teach me
orthopedic surgery and we had a busy service. In 1962 Fort Gordon was an
extremely large and busy post and I gained a lot of experience there.

19

Q:

Did you receive any other military training before your residency?

A:

Before I went into my residency, and after the internship, I went to Fort Sam
Houston, Texas, and was there for six months in the Advanced Course. There
was a large class.

In that group there were four medical officers that later

became general officers in the Medical Corps. It taught me a lot about basic
military that I needed.

Q:

General Becker, you were at Fort Gordon for only a short period of time as an
orthopedic surgeon.

You left there to Fort Rucker. Why did you go to Fort

Rucker?
A:

Well, thats a strange story, but I was interested in being an astronaut, believe it
or not, and I could have qualified. I had my private pilots license. I, of course,
wasnt jet qualified, which was something that astronauts had to do, but it was
something that I could have done. I was very interested in it because I believed
at that time that once they got beyond the two-man program, those physicians,
and physicists, and other PH.D.s, would be on the team. This later proved to be
true.

I sent my application to Washington and they answered me with a nice letter and
said, Yes, there is a possibility of that but first you should be a flight surgeon.
So I went to San Antonio, Texas, to Brooke Air Force Base to the primary course
in Aviation Medicine and spent several months there studying Aviation Medicine.

20

I became a flight surgeon. And once that was done, the assignment people felt
that I should go to Fort Rucker, Alabama, the aviation center for the Army.

I was the chief of orthopedics, so I moved up in the world rapidly from only a staff
officer on a two-man service to the chief of a one-man service.

As a flight

surgeon, I had an opportunity to work with the aviators and medical service
Corps officers that were involved with emergency air evacuation. I really enjoyed
my time there.

It was a great assignment and I became familiar with Army

aviation.

Q:

Now what about youre training to become a flight surgeon?

How was that

conducted?
A:

Well, at Brooks Air Force Base, they had an extensive course there. You learn
all of the things that an Air Force flight surgeon had to know, which had to do with
a great deal of high altitude medicine or problems that a flight surgeon needed to
be familiar with. We learned all of that and all about how to qualify people for
aviation training, and how to disqualify them. We also learned about the different
disorders aviators might get. We learned how to investigate aircraft accidents.
All of this training helped me in my later military career.

Q:

Was Fort Rucker the first place that you really had a lot of interface with aviation,
line officers, and the Army?

Did this assignment diversify you from pure

medicine into an operational type of an assignment?

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A:

I think that it would be fair to say that thats correct. The commander at the
hospital at Fort Rucker was Colonel Spurgeon Neel. I consider Colonel Neel to
be the father of aviation medicine in the Army and also the father of medical
evacuation with helicopters. He personally influenced me a great deal by seeing
that I learned a lot more about the military. I also met many of the prominent
military officers on the post. As a flight surgeon two was required to fly to better
understand aviation and what pilots had to do. I had some time off and fly. In
later years this was to serve me well, because I took care of many, many flight
personnel and was able to help their career.

Q:

After you left Fort Rucker, you went on to Germany, to Heidelberg, and you
commanded a small, mobile type of surgical hospital. What about that kind of
surgical hospital and what were your duties there?

A:

I also remember when Colonel Pixley came by and interviewed all of us at Fort
Rucker. He was from the assignments branch. Colonel Pixley later became the
Surgeon General. He came by and interviewed all of us and wanted to know
what we wanted to do.

During that time at Fort Rucker, Id also gotten my

airborne wings up at Fort Benning. Colonel Neal was very generous in letting me
have a little time off to go up there and do that.

Well, with my increasing interest in aviation and airborne area, it was apparent to
Colonel Pixley, that I was interested in operational military medicine. He wanted
to know what I would like to do. I said that I would like to go to Europe and
22

command one of the field hospitals. I had a taste of that on a field exercise at
Fort Bragg, North Carolina. I went there for Swift Strike III and was assigned as
the commander of the Second Surgical Hospital. It was deployed during that
exercise and I enjoyed it a great deal. I enjoyed the field so Colonel Pixley went
back to Washington and saw to it that I got that type of assignment in Europe.

I was assigned to the 5th Surgical Hospital in Heidelberg, Germany. It was a

small MASH hospital, although at that time, officially it wasnt called a MASH.
The unit was called a Surgical Hospital Mobile Army, which is the same letters of
the acronym only reversed. I had five assigned officers, 100 very good medics
and some administrative people. Our job was to pack the hospital up when we
got called out for an emergency, and move out to the field. We would set it up
and be ready to receive casualties in a short period of time. We were in support
of V Corps. I got to know many of the people in V Corps and in our medical
group.

Being a commander of this unit I provided many experiences that I

believed served me well in later years.

Q:

What type of staff did you have in the surgical hospital, physicians, and nurses,
administrative and were they assigned to you every day?

A:

When we would go to the field, we would pick up our physicians and nurses from
the hospital in Heidelberg. Their full-time duties were at the hospital, but they
were assigned to us in case of an emergency. I did have one full-time nurse,
who was an excellent officer. She was both my training nurse and my operations
23

officer. She stayed with us all of the time and saw to it that our medics, both 91Charlies and 91-Bravos, licensed practical nurses and medics, kept their training
up-to-date. She also looked after a lot of the supplies to make sure we had what
we needed for combat. On a day-to-day basis, we had a supply officer, an
adjutant, and an XO that made up the full cadre of officers. The doctors and
nurses were not permanently assigned with us.

Q:

How did you encourage doctors and nurses to participate in their training and in
their field duties? Did they get confused whether they worked the hospital or
whether they worked for you? How did that work?

A:

Well, their first allegiance, of course, was to the hospital next door, but they knew
what their job was, if we had a war or some sort of a confrontation with the Soviet
Union they knew they would be a part of the 5 th Surgical Hospital. I would bring
them in and orient them to the field hospital. I think that was very important. We
took them all through the hospital and they met everybody. We also saw to it
that some of them went out with us on every one of our readiness exercises. We
didnt take them all out at the same time; this would have been ridiculous. One
particular exercise they participated in was called the Army Training Test (ATT).
We had to pass this each year. At this exercise I always took a large number of
doctors and nurses with us. They developed a feel for the mission and the unit.
When the ATT was over, theyd go back to their regular duties.

24

We had Ob-Gyn doctors, surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, and nurses of all

categories. There were even some administrative officers that came with us,
such as the registrar. We did not try to jam it down their throats, so to speak, but
we very carefully made sure that they knew what we were doing and what we
were capable of doing. We would also have them come over and go through the
instruments and the medications that we had to see if perhaps there was
something missing that they needed that we didnt have. We made some very
significant additions to our inventory because of that. All of them, I believe, felt
very good about their association with the 5th Surgical Hospital.

Q:

General Becker, while commanding the 5th Surgical Hospital, what relationship
did you have with your First Sergeant and the enlisted soldiers?

A:

Well Gary, Im glad you asked me that. This was probably the highlight of my
tour as a commander of a small unit. It was my first experience, of course, as a
commander. And I had not had a great deal of experience with enlisted troops,
except those who worked in the orthopedic service. I have to tell you it was one
of the great joys of being a commander; to learn and find out the great wealth of
knowledge, experience, and capabilities that our enlisted people had. We didnt
truly have a First Sergeant, because this position was vacant. We had a
temporary First Sergeant who was a senior medic, a Specialist-7, which is not
around anymore.

He was a Spec-7, a very capable fellow.

operating room technician.

Hed been an

He stepped right up and did the job of the First

Sergeant very well. He and I became very close. I know that I got in his way
25

several times, because I always try to help put up the tents and hed say, Major,
would you mind going over and sitting under that tree or go take care of
something else, somewhere else, until we get this done?

Very politely, of

course.

Every now and then one of the enlisted troops would get into some trouble. The
First Sergeant and I would deal with that as best we could. We always tried to do
it in a compassionate way, but we also had to be fair. We realized that the rest of
the unit was watching what we did and I dont think anyone could ever say
whatever we had to do wasnt fair. We took very careful consideration of what we
did. I also always consulted with my training nurse, because she was very close
to the enlisted people. She had a great feel for them and she knew them well.
Shed been there longer, of course, than I had, and had developed a good
rapport.

I think the point of all of this talk is that in dealing with the enlisted people, who
are the real heart of your unit, and without which you cannot perform your
mission, that you have to be fair, compassionate, understanding, and to get to
know them as people as well as soldiers. Of course, I tried to set an example for
them, and to see that theyre careers develop that they have a chance to
progress. They all wanted to do their job, they wanted to do it well, and they
wanted to be considered for promotion when the time came. We had one or two
around that were very junior enlisted people that didnt understand that, but we
26

worked with them also. We tried to get them so that they became very important
members of the unit.

Every one of them was an important cog in our great machine that we called the
5th Surg. Once we started to the field on an exercise, you can be assured that
that hospital was loaded on those trucks in record time and set up out in the field
ready to take casualties in a very short period of time. We were fully capable of
performing our mission. That was all due to the hard work of the good enlisted
people that we had.

Q:

With your mission with V Corps, after you treated casualties, where were the
casualties being further evacuated?

A:

As I remember, and this is not totally clear they would use the hospitals that were
set up there in Germany.

Heidelberg and Frankfurt were our main back-up

hospitals.

Q:

How did your family feel about living in Germany?

A:

We had some great quarters in Patrick Henry Village. At first, we started out in
temporary quarters at Patrick Henry Village later we moved to our permanent
quarters at Mark Twain Village, which was much closer to the 5 Surg. We had a
good life there in the military community. The kids went to the military school.
We had three kids then. One was too young to go to school, but the other two
went to school. We also had a Sunday school class for the military children and
27

in fact, I taught one for a little while when I had time. We got to meet the other
families similar to how we lived at Fort Rucker. It was further widening our
experience as a military family and it was a very good life. It was a great place
over there because we had a lot of friends, especially the people from our unit
and from the hospital. So we counted it as an extremely positive experience. Im
not sure whether my kids would totally agree with that, but I know to this day they
still talk about their time in Germany and in the schools over there.

Q:

While you were the commander of the 5 Surg, how were you able to keep your
clinical skills sharp in orthopedics?

A:

Thats always a tough problem for a clinician. What I did though, I went to the
clinics over in the hospital and saw patients when I could. Also, I went to the
operating room and the orthopedic guys over at Heidelberg Hospital felt like I
was part of the staff there. I did not spend enormous amounts of time over there,
but I was able to maintain my clinical skills.

Q:

General Becker, when you completed your tour as the Commander of 5th Surg
Hospital in Heidelberg, where did you go from there?

A:

Well, I think I was in command there about a year, maybe a little more. I went
down to see the chief surgeon for the United States Army, Europe, who was
General Douglas Kendrick at that time. General Kendrick talked to me and he
said he had an interesting job for me as the Division Surgeon for the 3d Infantry
Division. I knew enough to know that, generally, that was a Lieutenant Colonel
28

position and I was a junior Major. I asked him if that was a problem and he said
he didnt think so. He wanted me to go up to Wrzburg and be the surgeon. I
said, Well, sir, I will certainly try so I went and it was a great experience. I
learned a lot about the real Army in this position. I learned how the field Army
operates.

The G-3, for some reason, took me under his wing. I think he understood that I
didnt know that much about the field army other than my experience at the 5
Surg, I certainly didnt know about the division. I had a good assistant and a
good sergeant. They ran the office, which gave me a chance to get out with the
G-3 and some of the other senior officers in the division and learn a lot. I also
had little clinics spread out over the entire 3d Division area, which was a large
part of that Wrzburg community. There were places like Schweinfurt and other
cities where we had clinics.

They were supporting, of course, the various

battalions and the brigades in the divisions.

I got to know all of the battalions commanders and the brigade commanders,
and what their problems were with the medical support. I personally learned a
great deal there about division level and battalion level medical support. We had
all of the medical TO&E gear that went with the units. When we had a big
exercise all of the field equipment for the battalion aid stations and the medical
companies would be set up. Sometimes, we would be out as long as six weeks.

29

So it was a great education for me and I enjoyed it very much. Im not sure my
wife did, because we were gone for long periods of time.

But, again, our family life was good in Wurzburg. We lived in quarters and we
had good neighbors. My wife was a teacher and taught in the schools there as
she had done in Heidelberg. Sometimes it was part-time, and sometime it was
full-time. She enjoyed it and the kids liked the school.

We had a great division commander, who later became the DCSPER of the
Army. For some reason he liked me, and he helped in my education. He had
been in the Second World War and in the Marne Division over in Italy during
combat. He had a wealth of experience and was a real father figure for me. All
of these things enhanced my education and maturation as a military officer who
knew more than just medicine.

Q:

As Division Surgeon, what was your relationship with the brigade surgeon and
battalion aid station commanders throughout the 3d Infantry Division?

A:

I was the division surgeon and I think I did outrank all of them. They were all
captains. They came directly under my purview for their training and for any of
their medical duties. They did not belong to me as they would a commander.
They worked for the battalion commanders and the brigade commanders.
However, those commanders also looked to me to be sure their surgeons
expertise in medicine was maintained. We had continuing medical education
30

programs for them.

We saw to it that they kept up-to-speed and that the

medicine they practiced was of high quality.

Also, I had a great relationship with the medical battalion commander who was
down at Aschaffenburg. Oh, I guess it was an hours drive away. He and I got
along very well. He was a senior lieutenant colonel, Medical Service Corps,
whod also seen a lot of Active Duty, I think, in World War II. He understood that
I didnt know everything I was supposed to know and so he oriented me to the
med battalion and all that it did. I became involved in all of the activities of a
medical battalion and the deployments of the medical companies. If there were
problems that affected the possible medical wellbeing of the troops, I would take
that on as a problem and bring it up to the commanding general of the division, or
the proper staff section. Actually, I worked through the Chief of Staff. I didnt go
regularly directly to the Division Commander. I always touched base with the
Chief of Staff, who I worked for. The Chief of Staff was an old soldier and he was
very nice to my wife and I, he kept us in the inner circle of the officers of the
division. We had a lot of great parties and great camaraderie.

I think, that that assignment probably convinced me that a medical officer was an
essential part of the Army and that you needed some physicians in uniform that
knew something about the Army, other than just straight medicine. We needed
officers to give the military commanders in the field and their staffs the type of

31

medical advice, medical support, and medical planning that was needed to carry
out their mission.

Q:

As you look back at your duties as Division Surgeon, would you say that the
future military leaders should emphasize putting top quality people into TOE
assignments in order to round out their careers?

A:

Yes I agree with that. I think that a medical officer, who wants a career in the
military as a military medical officer, not just as a teacher of military medicine.

For the fellow thats going to be a general officer and somebody thats deeply
involved with the Army and in the growth and development, of the medical
department, certainly should have some experience at the battalion level, if
possible and the division level for sure.

Its not always possible to have a

medical officer be a division surgeon, but it is a great place to learn.

Our battalion medical officers learn an awful lot. They didnt learn a lot of what
happens at division headquarters, but they certainly did at the battalion level. I
think all of them realized that there is a great need for medical officers that have
military orientation and training. Division surgeon is a great training ground for
anyone that is going to go forward. Weve had some excellent senior medical
officers that have not done that. They have interfaced with the line Army in other
places, which I believe to be extremely beneficial. If you dont know where line

32

officers are coming from and what the Army is all about, youre ill prepared to
properly support the entire Army.

Q:

General Becker, following your assignment as division surgeon you were able to
stay in Wurzburg and work in the hospital. What did you do?

A:

When I had finished my tour there as the division surgeon, I went down to the
hospital in Wurzburg and was the orthopedic surgeon there. I was also the
Deputy Hospital Commander. The commander there had known me from the
division times and wed become good friends. He needed somebody to help him
with some of the duties at the hospital. I spent the majority of my time, of course,
running the orthopedic clinic, and doing orthopedic surgery. It was a good time
for me to get back into my clinical skills. As the division surgeon, I would come
down to the hospital when I had an opportunity and work there.

Q:

Your next assignment was at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington,
D.C. How did this assignment come about?

A:

I can tell you that it was the biggest surprise of my life when I was assigned to
Walter Reed Army Medical Center, because up until this time I was not working
in the big medical centers. Id only been in small hospitals, like Fort Gordon and
Fort Rucker.

The chief at Walter Reed knew about me through one of his

assistant chiefs. He had stopped by to see me at Fort Rucker because he is also

a flight surgeon.

He told the orthopedic chief about me and the chief called and

asked me if I wanted to come to Walter Reed to be on the staff there and help
33

with the training of residents. I said, Well, are you sure youve got the right
man? And he said, Yes, I have the right man. We would be very pleased to
have you here. I said, All right. Ill certainly come.

So our family moved to Silver Spring, Maryland into a little house. I went to work
as the Assistant Chief of Orthopedics. There were two assistant chiefs and the
fellow who had recommended me, George Baker, whose place I took while he
went to Vietnam. We had a great deal of hard work because we were at war.
This was in 1968, early 68, and we were receiving the casualties from Tet. We
had hundreds and hundreds of orthopedic patients there with only a small staff.
We had our residents, and we had two assistant chiefs, and the chief of
orthopedics. Our patients were very badly injured.

Walter Reed did not get the lightly injured patients. These patients all went to the
hospitals nearest their home. Only the casualties with multiple severer injuries
would come to Walter Reed. I remember from going over the medical boards on
each one of them that they usually had anywhere from 12-25 significant
diagnoses from their wounds. We had very complex patients.

The chief of orthopedics was Colonel Walt Metz.

Colonel Metz was the

consultant to the Surgeon General in orthopedic surgery.

And I got to see

another aspect of military medicine, which I had not seen before.

The very

serious problems in orthopedic surgery throughout the entire Army came to

34

Colonel Metz for solution. Often times he would call up his two assistants in and
we would consult with him on these cases. Ive seen him sit there for hours and
hours going over charts as thick as three or four inches on problems that had
come to the attention of the Surgeon General. Then he would write a lengthy
report and letter to the Surgeon General with his thoughts and recommendations.

We had to medically board almost all of our patients. One of my chores as

assistant chief was to oversee these boards, and to ensure that they were
properly prepared. This is another significant part of military medicine and I was
well indoctrinated into that. I spent a great deal of my time in the operating room
with the residents. We had pre-op conferences and post-op conferences. At
pre-op we would bring the patients record in. The resident would present the
case, and then we would all make a combined decision as to what would be
done. However, the chief of orthopedics had the last vote. On rare occasions, he
might overrule us. But for the most part, it was all a fairly unanimous decision.
They were generally fairly clear-cut cases.

We did some groundbreaking work in the treatment of war wounds there. I was
very proud of that. We did a lot of ambulatory treatment of open fractures that
were infected and we got them to heal. That was not true in civilian medicine at
that time. An infected open fracture almost always wound up as an amputation
in civilian medicine. We were able to prevent many, many of these. Doctor Metz

35

was an outstanding orthopedic surgeon and taught me an awful lot and so were
all of the other people that were on the staff.

We had a good association with the other services in the hospital, because often
our patients had multiple diagnoses. For example we were very close with
ophthalmology because we kept the patient because of his severe extremity
injuries. The ophthalmologist would come by and work on him or take him to the
operating room. We also had close rapport with the oral surgeons, because
there was an awful lot of dental work. We would help them if they needed to do
bone grafts on fractures of the jaw, etc. Of course we knew all the general
surgeons and the neurosurgeons. Occasionally people would have medical
problems, like malaria, they almost all had that, and we would be consulting with
our medicine friends. For the most part the whole medical team was very close.

Most of the time we had 600-700 patients assigned to the service and we only
had 300 beds, including those out at Forest Glen. So, once a patient was able to
dress his own wounds, meaning a stump or open wound, and take care of
himself, meaning he could either get around in a wheelchair or on crutches, we
would then let him go on convalescent leave. Then wed put somebody in the
bed that was in worse shape than he was. Now, I grant you that would not be
very well accepted today in modern medicine in civilian life, but it worked very
well. The families and the patients were extremely able to take care of these
wounds and they came back looking better than they had when they left. Their
36

mothers food agreed with them a lot and they all picked up weight. They were in
bad shape when they got to Walter Reed. It usually took them about, 4, to 8
weeks to get to Walter Reed, because most went from Vietnam to Japan first.

Q:

General Becker, what part of your former military training that became of any
value to you while you were at Walter Reed Army Medical Center?

A:

I think that all of it helped me a great deal. Certainly, I had a great deal of
empathy with the soldiers from my association with the enlisted men in my units.
But one of the big things that helped and may not be apparent was that my flight
surgeon training was invaluable. We had several people wounded who were on
flight staffs, or who had been, and some of them were very experienced aviators.
They had wounds, which actually disqualified them from service unless a waiver
could be granted. If a person could still perform the duties for which he was
trained, waivers could be granted. We had to know if one of our aviator patients
could safely operate an aircraft. I would examine them and then when they were
well enough and back in good physical condition, we would go and fly an aircraft,
either him as a pilot or with a senior pilot with us, if that was necessary, to see
how they did. Very often they had wounds of the upper extremity, which had
healed but were disqualifying. Wounds of the lower extremity, such as partial
amputations of the foot, loss of some of the toes, somewhat deformed fractures,
open fractures that had healed of the lower extremity, nerve damage; etc. would
also disqualify them. Very often we were able to return them to Active Duty,
which I think was a great service to the Army because it saved having to train
37

more aviators. Some of these aviators had two tours in Vietnam and had been
instructors at Fort Rucker. To replace them would have taken a lot of years I
found this aspect of helping the Army very satisfying.

There were many

associations that lasted throughout my military career because of those

evaluations.

Some of the other valuable military training that I had was airborne training.
Occasionally, we had someone who needed a waiver to go back on airborne duty
and I was able to help with that, too.

Q:

General Becker, as you look back at the large-scale type of war that brought
about a large number of casualties, such as Vietnam, how important do you think
these large medical centers in the United States or in Tripler are to the Army for
large scale type of conflict?

A:

Well, of course, Im a little bit prejudiced about that, but I think, if one closely
examines that question, youd be rapidly aware that, first off, civilian hospitals are
not equipped to deal with those kinds of injuries in a large scale like we had at
Walter Reed. Now, certainly, they could handle some of the small ones and
maybe we dont need every small hospital that we have. However, the large
medical centers are the real backup for all of our forward hospitals.

First off, there were military physicians who understand and treated patients
different in the military hospitals than they did in the civilian hospitals. Civilian
38

hospitals notoriously closed wounds or did all types of moving of large pieces of
skin that cover defects and a lot of surgical manipulations on open infected
fractures. This would have lost a lot more limbs and caused a lot more deaths, is
my opinion, in the Vietnam conflict. All of the military hospitals who treated them
a good deal differently, mostly non-surgical, and we were very successful. The
record speaks for itself on that.

Q:

General Becker, what type of relationship did Walter Reed have with the V.A. or
any other type of hospital that a patient would go to for long-term rehabilitation?

A:

We had a good relationship with the V.A. That was the main place that we sent
our patients who we couldnt make the prosthesis for or couldnt finish their
treatment. Incidentally, the great majority of the patients from Walter Reed were
over 100 percent disabled, especially the younger troops. They certainly could
not return to duty and many of them had significant neurological injuries that
were long, long term we sent them to the V.A. As our hospital became full of
patients it became clear that we had to evacuate the patients out to the V.A.
They did a good job with them, because we had the patients in pretty good shape
for them. However, they were not equipped at that time to handle a great mass
of acutely injured patients with open wounds and low blood volumes, etc.

Q:

Following your assignment at Walter Reed you were selected to go to the Armed
Forces Staff College. What was that school like and how did that affect your
career?
39

A:

Well, I think the Armed Forces Staff College was a great school. It gave you a
broader view of all of the services.

It wasnt just about the Army, because thats about all I knew anything about at
that time. I went down to Norfolk, Virginia, and took that course. It certainly was
not, as I look back on it now, a replacement for the Command and General Staff
School, but I did learn an awful lot about staffing procedures and that sort of
thing. Also about the other services and how they function, which stood me in
good stead for later years. I got to meet a lot of people and make a lot of
associations that lasted throughout my military career.

The Armed Forces Staff College, I think, is a worthwhile training experience for
anyone thats going to serve at a higher level, especially at the Pentagon.

Q:

Following the Armed Forces Staff College, you had deployed onto Vietnam as a
medical officer. How did that assignment come about? What did you do in
Vietnam?

A:

Well, while I was at the Armed Forces Staff College, all of the senior medical
officers in those days were expected to go to Vietnam and my turn came. I went
and I was assigned to the 85th Evacuation Hospital up at Phu Bai. Prior to going
there though, I was interviewed and went through an orientation down at the
MEDCOM headquarters down in Long Binh. It was proposed that after 6 months
I would go to the 1st Cavalry Division as the division surgeon and medical
40

battalion commander. I went to the 85th Evac and assumed my duties as the
chief of Orthopedic Service. I was the only orthopedic surgeon there that was
fully trained.

I had two young doctors that had 6 weeks OJT training in

orthopedics to help me. I was also chief of surgery and the deputy commander.
Most of the other doctors in the hospital except the commander were either
draftees or Berry Planners. We had an excellent staff. We received many,
many, many casualtieswe were always busy. We usually ran about 300 major
surgeries a month, which kept our wards full.

The hospital was not much to look at. It was inherited from the Marine Corps and
had sea island huts for wards. The operating room was a large square room,
which was about, 50 feet X 50 feet with an operating table in each corner. It was
all open and the nurse that circulated did so from the center of the room. She
could take care of all of the tables. It was, as much like MASH that you saw in the
movies as anything Ive ever seen. We operated in our fatigues with our gown
over them and wore our boots in there. It was often very wet and bloody. We
were kept quite busy with the casualties. This was in 1970, early part of 1970.
The unsung heroes in our hospital were the nurses. Many were young and
inexperienced you could not tell this after they had been there a few days. The
nurses worked 12 hours on and 12 off seven days a week. Actually it was more
liked 14 hours on and 10 off. With our medics, they cared for our post op
potientes almost on their own. The doctors were in the O.R. most of the time.
Our emergency room staffed with nurses and corpsmen was the best I have ever
41

seen. They would have IVs and airways going in a matter of 2 or 3 minutes from
the time the casualty entered the E.R. and great number of lives were saved due
mainly to the efforts of our dedicated nurses and medics.

Q:

Even before you went into Vietnam, do you remember any type of the premobilization training that you went through to prepare to go to Vietnam or was
there a train-up period as they do with force protection of yourself or anything like
that?

A:

No, I dont think I received anything like that. I think during my ROTC time Id
learned something about crawling through, under the barbed wire with the guns
firing over my head. But for this exercise, I think being a lieutenant colonel they
probably assumed I already had all of that and I didnt get much training. I had
an awful lot of training about casualties from Vietnam at Walter Reed though. I
knew what to expect and what needed to be done to get them ready to be
evacuated so that they would arrive in Japan in the best condition possible.

Q:

How about when you were at the 85th Evac Hospital? What about other than
injuries caused by wounds how about disease or non-battle injuries? Did you
have a lot of experience with that?

A:

We had some. We ran an orthopedic clinic there and there was always a few
sports injuries, fractured ankles a busted knuckle or two from a fight, and a few
things like that. But they were not many. Maybe some non-battle injuries might
have been a jeep accident or two. The great majority of our patients were true
42

battle casualties. I know that wasnt always the case, especially in the echelons
lower than us like at a battalion aid station or a medical company. We did have
some malaria that was rampant in Vietnam. Of course, we always had to be on
the lookout for that. Our medical doctor was kept busy with some of the medical
diseases. We also treated some of the Vietnamese. In orthopedics we took care
of the kids with injuries. A lot of the time theyd step on one of the little toe
popper bombs, get a frag wound, or get burnt.

I was the deputy commander and oversaw the rest of the staff, but frankly I spent
98 percent of my time doing orthopedics. I was on call every other night. When
my junior assistant was on call, if he got a complex problem, I got called. So it
was, I think, truthful to say that about 80 percent of the time I was up every night,
not all night, but Id be up once or twice. The nights I was on duty, very often I
was up all night. Then, of course, we worked all day long.

Q:

About half way through your tour you had some new duties and a new
assignment. What were those duties and how did that come about?

A:

Well, I think wed already related that it was planned that I go down to the 1st
Cavalry Division I went down and was interviewed by the division commander,
General Casey, and I was acceptable to him. In June of 1970, I went to the 1st
Cavalry Division, assumed the duties of the Division Surgeon and the Medical
Battalion Commander. This seemed like two jobs, but it was, in fact, the best job
I ever had because ordinarily in my former job as the division surgeon I had to
43

coordinate everything with the battalion commander. I spent half of my time

coordinating. Well, that was eliminated in the 1st Cav, because if the division
commander told me to do something, I was able just to go get it done, because I
had all of the troops and the where-with-all to do it.

The medical battalion was the 15th Medical Battalion and one of the great
medical battalions in the United States Army, as far as Im concerned. The 1st
Cav had its own medical evacuation helicopters in its Med Evac Platoon. We
were able to evacuate our wounded to our medical companies and to our aid
stations and take care of them there. We had the full armormentarium, to take
care of patients at that level.

Q:

What was the organization structured like in the Med Battalion command?
Companies and platoons?

A:

It was fairly standard. I was a commander and I had an XO. I had a medical
officer who was the commander of each medical company and they each had a
Medical Service Corps officer as their executive officer. They were all taking
patients and they were, in fact, running little hospitals. Our medical companies
were spread out and fully deployed. The company commanders main duty was
taking care of patients. The XO ran the administrative and the other parts of the
medical company for the commander. I think that worked out very well, even
though these medical corps officers were not truly experienced in running units,
they were very good at understanding hospitals. They caught on quickly, I can
44

tell you that, and they were very effective. The men that I had over there had
been selected from their previous jobs as battalion surgeons.
outstanding job.

They did an

They were well supported by their Medical Service Corps

officers and their first sergeants, etc.

Q:

Was there any type of surgical capability in those medical companies at all?
What was their mission?

A:

Their mission mainly was to resuscitate and get the patients ready for
evacuation. They occasionally did some emergency surgery. They had blood,
and they stabilized the wounds and the limbs. When they had patients that were
lightly wounded and they needed a little dbridement of a small wound they did
that there. They kept them in the ward until they were all right and they could go
back to duty and saved them from getting into the evacuation chain. Over there,
if a soldier got into the evacuation chain, he almost always wound up in Japan
and he was a loss to the unit. These medical companies saved hundreds of
troopers by getting them back to duty. They also kept from overloading the
replacement system.

I dont think that was true of all of the medical companies in Vietnam. At that
level, in several of the divisions, the medical helicopters over flew these medical
companies and the patients were taken directly to hospitals. That was not true in
the 1st Cavalry Division. Almost all of the patients that were taken out in front of
the medical companies were evacuated there first.
45

The Army level medical

evacuation helicopters would then pick them up and back-haul and the patients
to an army level hospital.

Q:

How would you classify the young, enlisted medic and their training and their
ability to do the job at the front line while you were in Vietnam?

A:

I think that is a great question, because it was the most amazing thing to me to
see the young medics that came over. In the division, they were under my
purview. They were certainly not under my command, but I was responsible for
their training and their qualification as a medic. I often went down to see what
they were doing. Of course, they were out with the troops. They were highly
respected by the troops and for anyone who received so little training, to be able
to do so much, were a truly amazing thing to me. They were very successful. I
never remember one complaining. I saw hundreds of them, I guess. We lost a
lot of them. I think that was one of the real eye opening experiences of my
military career was the respect and the capability that these young medics had in
combat.

Q:

While you were also in Vietnam in the 1st Cav there were probably a lot of other
officers, or other folks that you had relationships with later on in your years that
you would come back and served with later. Do you remember some of those
folks?

A:

Oh, yes, I certainly do. My chief of staff was Colonel Meyer, better known as Shy
Meyer, and he later became the Chief of Staff of the Army. In fact, I worked for
46

him later. So he and several of the other officers in there became high ranking
officers. Then the division commander later, after he got out of the Army, was in
a position involved with the medical boards and the review of medical boards and
I interfaced with him considerably later on. Several of the lieutenant colonels that
were on the staff at the time became senior officers, and, in fact, in Europe when
I served over there later, the G-3 and the lawyer, the JAG officer, were promoted
a couple or three notches above what they were in the 1st Cavalry. We all
served on the staff of United States Army Europe (USAEUR). It was a great unit.
All of the officers were outstanding and the 1st Cavalry is one of the finest
divisions in the Army. Im sure I can get an awful lot of argument about that. Id
be glad to argue anyone about it, to tell you the truth. So would any of those
officers I served with over there.

Q:

Being both, Commander and Division Surgeon how did you manage being a
major staff officer position as the division surgeon and also as a commander of a
medical battalion in Vietnam?

A:

Well, it wasnt difficult, because I had a lot of excellent help. As Ive already said,
it was a great asset to be both. The division surgeons job took about 10 percent
of my time, not including the time I went to the generals briefing every morning,
because as a principal staff officer I went every morning. Im sure that counted
as division surgeons duties, but it would have been important for the medical
battalion commander to be there, too.

That gave me the unique ability to

respond to whatever was happening that day very quickly without a lot of
47

coordination.

As medical battalion commander I worked for the support

command commander and I was never a big problem being both the Battalion
Commander and Division Surgeon.

The division surgeons duties were taken care of by a very capable Medical
Service Corps officer, a small staff, and a preventive medicine officer. One of our
bigger problems was preventive medicine and urine drug testing throughout the
division.

The battalion commanders job, of course, required more of my time. But I also
had a good executive officer there and so I was able to be out with the medical
companies quite a bit. This was necessary, I believe. I was not at home base a
great deal of the time. I spent a good deal of the time coordinating with other
levels of medical support. We had back up hospitals. One of my jobs was to go
around to each of these hospitals and visit the 1st Cav patients to see how they
were being taken care of. I would also check on them to see if they had malaria,
because any malaria patient was counted against the 1st Cavalry Division
commander.

Im not sure how that worked, but I know that the Division

Commander was very upset any time we got a malaria patient. Often when the
patients would go to one of the rear hospitals, theyd be taken off of their
suppressive medication and sure enough their malaria would appear and the
diagnoses would be made.

48

We would be charged with that patient. So I would visit all of the hospitals, see
how our patients were doing, and check on the malaria problem. Having our own
helicopters was an asset because we were able to get down to the hospitals that
were spread throughout the central part of Vietnam.

Q:

General Becker, what were your thoughts of the adequacy of medical and
surgical care provided to the 1st Cav Division?

A:

Well, of course, everybody did a great job over there, but I dont think that they
had everything that they needed. I believe that there needed to be a surgical
capability further forward than it was. The medical companies were not designed
for forward surgical care. However, we did things that they needed to do but that
should be formalized.

I always believe that you dont need a tremendous

capability up there, but you certainly need, if youre going to save more lives, you
need to be able to operate on these guys quick. You have to evacuate them
quickly and do the surgical lifesaving procedures quickly. The helicopter was
evacuating them quickly and we werent as well prepared surgically for
everything we should have been.

Also, the stabilization of the patient with blood is important, including fluids of
blood. I.V. fluids as we had in those days were not the equivalent of blood. So
we needed blood as far forward as we could get it. I still believe that thats very
important. I am aware that there are some developments that may come in the
future that my give adequate substitute for whole blood. The forward surgical
49

units that have been developed in the Army recently would fill that requirement
very well.

Q:

General Becker how did your medics and pilots assigned to you in the 1st Cav
perform during Vietnam?

A:

You know, one of the real highlights of my service in the 1st Cavalry Division was
the air medical evacuation unit and dealing with the medics throughout the
division. Weve already spoken about them and those that we had with the med
evac unit. Also, our crew chiefs, gunners, pilots, and maintenance people were
outstanding. They would truly go to the limit of their strength and endurance to
bring in a patient. They would often hover over the jungle to pick up a patient
and at the same time be taking live fire. One cannot ask for anything more out of
people than that. They were truly the real heroes of the war, as far as Im
concerned. There could never be enough said about them.

Q:

Did you have any problems or issues with disease and non-battle injury during
Vietnam?

A:

Oh, yes, in combat theres always that concern. I think in the disease category,
malaria was the biggest problem. The commanders were hard pressed by higher
commands to keep down the number of malaria patients. This meant that all of
the troops were supposed to take their suppressive medication. That was always
a problem. The best way to get them to do that was have the sergeant watch
them swallow the pill. That was done in most units and was effective. As long as
50

the troops took their medication they generally kept the malaria suppressed. I
think the truth of the matter was most of the troops in Vietnam had malaria and it
was suppressed by the medication. If you took your suppressive medication long
enough you would often not ever have a clinical case of malaria. But many of the
patients that we had in our medical companies and back at Walter Reed showed
up with malaria when they were so badly wounded that suppressive medication
was not a high priority.

There were a number of issues with the commanders getting excited about
keeping down the numbers of malaria patients, as weve alluded to before, as it
was in the past with frostbite. I dont think it was a terrible loss of manpower over
there and neither was non-battle injury. But the majority of the problems over
there, as I saw them and from where I stood and sat, were wounds from the
battle itself.

Q:

Following Vietnam, where were you assigned?

A:

I was assigned to Tripler Army Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii, where I had been an
intern. I had actually told the personnel people, send me anywhere but to the
East Coast or Hawaii, because Ive already been there. But it seems like that the
best way to get an assignment is ask not to be sent. It turned out to be a great
assignment for me, so I never tinkered with the assignment process after that.

51

I was assigned there as the Chief of the Orthopedic Service and the Director of
the Orthopedic Residency Training program. It was a great job for me. It was
entirely different from what Id been doing in a lot of my fieldwork. The residents
were outstanding and I had a good staff. I had two assistants. One was a hand
surgeon and the other was a general orthopedic surgeon. We had four residents
in each year so that made us a total of sixteen. A couple of them werent actually
at Tripler all the time. They were down getting some hand training or childrens
training at the childrens hospital in Honolulu. Also, we were still getting a lot of
casualties from Vietnam, but they were mainly troops who lived in Hawaii. The
residents were very busy all of the time. We stayed busy working with them in
the operating room and holding our pre-op, post-op conferences. We had huge
clinics, which included the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, Marines, the Coast
Guard, and even some veterans, because that hospital covered all of that for
Hawaii.

We took care of all types of patients in orthopedics. We also had a unique group
of patients. This group was involved in motorcycle accidents. It was a custom in
Hawaii to rent motorbikes or scooters to our troops coming in off of the ships
without any instruction, helmets, or anything else, and they would take off around
the islands and have all types of accidents there. So it kept us busy.

The commander of the hospital was an old friend from Walter Reed and he sent
me on some very interesting projects. I went back to Vietnam twice while I was
52

stationed at Tripler. I went back their once to determine why so many of the
Vietnamese casualties were dying of wounds. I interfaced with the Vietnamese
Surgeon General and many of the people in the U.S. Command in Vietnam. It
turned out that they didnt count anyone as killed in action out on the battlefield.
Even though someone was killed outright on the battlefield, which we always
counted as KIA, they counted as wounded. So it increased the number of people
dying of wounds in their hospital statistics. In fact, they only had about 4 percent
of their soldiers dying of wounds after they reached a treatment facility, which
was pretty good for a fairly unsophisticated medical system. Our percentage was
probably 2. They did very well, I believe.

Also, I made another trip back to Vietnam for consultation and to work on a
problem that Defense Attachs Office (DAO) in the United States Command
wanted us to work on.

The DAO was interested in them having a training

hospital, which meant that they were going to train residents and doctors. I was
sent over there to determine what sort of material they would need for this
hospital. I took a couple of folks with me that knew a lot about equipment. We
made a long list of equipment for them to put in their hospital. It turns out that the
contract read that anything that was attached to the wall the United States would
pay for and any freestanding stuff the Vietnamese paid for. So my job was to
find everything that I could that was attached to the wall so that the Vietnamese,
who didnt have much money, could have their hospital. We were able to fairly

53

well equip that hospital. Im not sure if it ever got built before Vietnam fell,
because this was very close to the end of the war.

At Tripler, the work with the residents was very satisfying and was one of the
highlights of my career. Its always a good thing to work with young people and
see them progress in their training. Many of them went on later to be training
chiefs of orthopedics. They also contributed a great deal to the orthopedic
knowledge in the United States.

Q:

General Becker, at this point while youre at Tripler and the head of the residency
program and Chief of Orthopedics, you were able to refresh your clinical skills?
Prior to this you spent a lot of time in the field units. Was there a problem in
getting your clinical skills as you came back to Tripler?

A:

I think that it was good for me to be back in clinical medicine again, even though I
did quite a bit of war surgery over in Vietnam, especially in the early part of my
tour there. I think I was pretty much at the top of my orthopedic surgical career.
After my Tripler assignment, when it came time for my new assignment, I was
selected to attend the Army War College.

It was with a great deal of

consternation that I made up my mind whether to go or not I had enough time in

by then to retire and I could have stayed in Hawaii. I had several offers of places
to practice and teach. My wife and I had many long discussions about what to
do. I finally decided that Id been in the Army a long time and I really liked the
Army so I should go and see what this War College was all about and what might
54

happen after that. In 1974, we decided to leave Hawaii, which we both loved a
great deal, and went off to the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Q:

While you were in Carlisle, how did this broaden your knowledge about the
Army?

A:

Well, of course, it broadened my outlook a great deal, because Id had kind of a

narrow look at things, even though Id served at least as high as division. I got to
be able to see things on a much broader scale, more from a total state
department or government look at things, and, of course, from multi-service and
total Army look out.

At War College, I received an overall view of how the Army fit into the big picture
of the government of the United States. I had never considered many of these
things that were happening there because Id been mainly in medical fields. It
was a tremendous experience for me. It was also a time when I could reflect on
what Id done, because we did have some time to look at things.

We had

excellent teachers there and the seminar system worked very well. I met all
types of folks from every service and the civilian hierarchy of the government.
They all had an influence over me. I also was able to do a little clinical practice
there. I made many friends, because I took care of their kids with minor or major
orthopedic problems. Some of our classmates were injured in some of the sports
activities there, especially softball.

55

The curriculum was very foreign to what Id been used to in medical schools and
universities, but it was very interesting and I think that it broadened my view of
things considerably and stood me in good stead for the years to come.

Q:

How did you become selected as the commander of Womack Army Hospital at
Fort Bragg, and also at the same time XVIII Airborne Corps as the XVIII Airborne
Corps surgeon?

A:

When I finished the year at the War College, my orders came down to go down
to the XVIII Airborne Corps as the surgeon for General Hank Emerson. This was
fine, except that the unofficial personnel system in the orthopedic service kind of
had me tagged to go to Walter Reed as the Chief of Orthopedics. This job at
Walter Reed didnt seem to be working out as many of the people in orthopedic
surgery had planned, especially the chief, Colonel Metz, who Id worked for
before. He was now the Chief of Surgery at Walter Reed.

We finally had found out that the Surgeon General, himself, had made the
decision that I go to a field unit, because the Army had challenged him fairly
severely for sending people from the War College back into clinical assignments.
He felt that I should not go to a clinical job. He looked back through my record,
or somebody had, and found I had taken airborne training about 14 years ago at
Fort Rucker. So thats how I got chosen as the XVIII Airborne Corps surgeon,
the senior medical officer in the Army on jump status. It turned out to be a great
assignment for me. I was the surgeon for a three-star general with a great staff
56

there. Of course, we were planning for all types of contingencies. That was one
of the biggest parts of our duties.

General Emerson arrived the same time I did so he had many changes in mind
for Fort Bragg and the XVIII Airborne Corps. One change was starting new
fitness program called the Pro-life Program. One of my jobs was to design that.
We also got into combat football, which had company-size units going against
each other out on the football field. It was kind of controlled mayhem, a lot of
people injured and what not. So we had to modify the way that was done.
General Emersond, some of his senior officers and I re-tooled combat football a
little bit so it was safer. It was something that the troops loved to do. We
changed it from jungle rules to real rules. We had a considerable number of
referees, and field judges, etc. to keep things under control.

We went to the field on many occasions. These were great field exercises, which
gave me a good deal of training, which I hadnt had for a long time. Id only been
there three or four months when the commander of the Womack Hospital left on
a new assignment.

I told General Emerson that I would like to be the

commander of that hospital.

He spoke to the Surgeon General and the

commander the Health Services Command, and arranged for me to be the

commander of the hospital as well as XVIII Airborne Corps surgeon.

57

So I was again in a two-hatted job, which I liked very much. The hospital
command took the majority of my time, but I still kept my hand in over at XVIII
Airborne Corps and I would go out on maneuvers with them, and go to the staff
meetings and planning sessions. I had an excellent XVIII Airborne Corps staff
which did the nuts and bolts work of writing contingency plans.

The hospital was quite a challenge and a very interesting assignment. I had a
good staff and an excellent Command Sergeant Major and Chief of Professional
services. Together we were able to provide excellent healthcare for Fort Bragg
and Pope Air Force Base, which was our neighbor there. I got the chance to work
with my chief nurse and the chief of the administrative services and all of the
various echelons of command in a hospital. It was a great experience for me and
I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was also able to do some orthopedic practice. I would
go to the clinics on occasions and work in the operating room, but I was not what
you would truly say is a fully engaged orthopedic surgeon. It was one of the
better assignments of my career.

One of the things I remember was that the Secretary of the Army came to Fort
Bragg early one morning and wanted to jump out of an airplane with a parachute.
I dont think any Secretary of the Army had every done that. He had a couple of
stipulations about it. It was that General Emerson couldnt tell anybody in the
higher echelons of command that is the Chief of Staff of the Army or the
FORSCOM commander that he was going to do it. It made for quite a bit of
58

excitement at Fort Bragg, but we all got out there and jumped. In fact, General
Emerson and I jumped out of the helicopter with the Secretary of the Army. It
was Secretary Hoffman. He was a very small fellow, well built, and in good
shape. When we landed, of course, General Emerson and I made some kind of
poor parachute landing falls. The Secretary of the Army had a stand-up landing
and we were quite amazed by this, but we soon learned that hed had about over
200 parachute jumps as a civilian. It was one of his hobbies and had not told us
about that. Of course, we were all worried and we had medics, ambulances, and
helicopters, and everything else standing by. It was a great relief that this little
exercise was over.

I think that the assignment at Fort Bragg probably did more to convince me that I
should continue my career in the Army for a long period of time, or as long as
theyd have me. I also had great friends on the staff of the Corps. One such
friend was the chief of the chaplains and the other was chief JAG.

In later

assignments, those gentlemen were both promoted to be the chief of their Corps.

Q:

General Becker, was there any time through your career that you had
contemplated on getting out of the Army and going into civilian practice and
being able to make a lot more money than what the Army was paying you?

A:

Oh yes, and the only really serious time about that was when I finished my time
in Hawaii. After I made up my mind to stay in and go to the War College it really
never was a serious consideration for me anymore.
59

Q:

General Becker, what do you think of the importance of having a network of

friends and peers in the military throughout the years and building up that
network? How has that helped you throughout the years in your assignments?

A:

I believe that that is a critical element. For me, this all started in the 1st Cavalry
Division. I made a great number of friends over there who later were scattered
throughout the Army staff. Then at the War College, there were close friends
that you got to know and they knew that they could trust you. I think they trusted
me, because I was not only their friend and classmate, but I was their physician
very often. These people were in all of the Services and in the civilian hierarchy
of the United States government. These friends were invaluable in later years in
order to get things done. Instead of having to go through a great number of
channels or to find something out I often knew somebody that could help. It was
to the betterment of the Army, and the Army Medical Department, and our
patients and our mission that this was accomplished with the least amount of
difficulty. It wasnt just a good old boys network. We never used it as that.

Also at Fort Bragg and the staff of the XVIII Airborne Corps, as I said before, two
of my closest friends down there were the chaplain and the JAG and they later
became the chief of their corps. When I was in Washington as the Surgeon
General, they, in fact, were also deputy in their corps when I was the Deputy
Surgeon General. We were very effective. These two corps and the Medical
Corps always worked together on a lot of different types of problems. So I think it
60

served the military well that this network existed and although it was informal, it
was extremely effective. It was dependent on friendship and trust. I believe that
the Army knows this and probably fosters it. I would hope so.

Q:

General Becker, as battalion commander in Vietnam and then commander of a

hospital at Fort Bragg, you had special relationships with the Command Sergeant
Majors who worked for you.

What do you think the role of the Command

Sergeant Major was for you in either role and were those two roles completely
different in how they approached their business with the enlisted soldier?
A:

The Command Sergeant Major was absolutely an essential part of what we were
trying to do in either command. They mainly were there to represent the enlisted
soldiers and to help me administer to them. Also they kept my attention toward
the importance of the enlisted soldiers, which they did very effectively. It gave
me somebody who was a friend, a confidant, somebody that we could work with.
It was an essential thing to the mission of the unit.

I always enjoyed working with the Sergeant Major and we had a great time trying
to better the lot of our enlisted soldiers. The Sergeant Major and I at Fort Bragg
would get out with our medical soldiers and take them on a run, or have a picnic
or some other get together. This allowed me to be with them and talk to them
without the rest of the hospital staff around.

The Sergeant Major was very

successful in bringing that about. If there were parties or celebrations of any kind
that had to do with the enlisted, especially promotion parties etc., I would go to
61

those. They were very satisfying to me. It was one of the fun things of being in
the Army. I think its essential that the commander do that, because many of
them they dont realize that commanders are fully dependent on their enlisted
troops and their effectiveness. The one who doesnt realize that will fall short of
being able to perform his mission.

Q:

While you were commander at Womack, it fell under the Health Services
Command. How much guidance and directive did you get? Were you given a lot
of autonomy? What was the atmosphere like?

A:

The Health Services Command was our next higher headquarters. They knew
very well that part of my allegiance was to the commander of the XVIII Airborne
Corps. They were not upset. They realized that our hospital was there for the
support of Fort Bragg. The Health Services Command was a tremendous asset
to us with the administrative support and, they gave us our budget, our guidance,
and they assigned us the people that we needed to do our job.

They felt that

Fort Bragg and the XVIII Airborne Corps had a high priority and so we always
were well taken care have. We had a big, busy general hospital, which had to be
adequately staffed.

My old friend, General Neel, who had been my colonel at Fort Rucker, was now
my commander at Health Services Command and so we were very much in tune
with one another. We made it work to the betterment of the Army and the good

62

people at Fort Bragg and XVIII Airborne Corps. It was a very pleasant situation,
and I believe an extremely successful one.

Q:

Do you feel that you were leader developed throughout the years to be able to
command large hospitals such as Womack?

A:

Thats difficult to answer. I suspect that some of my colonels and people from
the Surgeon Generals staff and what not that had come to interview me had
some idea that I might have some potential. Certainly, the Army had done some
leader preparation by sending me to the Armed Forces Staff College and to the
Army War College. However, I had really not had formal leadership training and
its very difficult in the Army medicine to do what you would call leader
development as you would say in a division where you have a lieutenant in a
platoon, and captain in the company, and a major in the battalion, etc. In this
system you do have a very formal and well-known, well-tried out and timehonored leader development system.

The Medical Department, leader

development is a little different.

Certainly, Id had an awful lot more leadership development than most physicians
had had that commanded hospitals on occasions. I didnt have any difficulty with
the command aspect, because I had good Sergeant Majors.

I realized the

seriousness of treating my enlisted soldiers correctly and how to deal with them,
both in a workplace and when they had problems or when they needed to be

63

disciplined.

I believe, that the informal system of training I had must have

worked.

Q:

While at Womack, what were your biggest clinical challenges that you had as a
hospital commander?

A:

We had several physicians there that were Berry Planners, and especially on the
general surgery service. We had about five or six of them when we only needed
about two or three. Keeping them busy and out of mischief was one of the major
challenges that we had. These Surgeons were good people, but they were not
busy enough. We learned a very valuable lesson that if youve got highly trained
clinical people, you best keep them busy, because if not they will find places
elsewhere to work, which they did. Unbeknownst to me, they were moonlighting
in various places all throughout that part of North Carolina.

We learned a

valuable lesson there.

We had a residency program there in family medicine which was a great deal of
joy for us, because we got a chance to see the residents come in green and go
out fully trained. We got a lot of good mileage out of them and we saw to it that
each one of them got a turn to go out to the field units and experience out there.
We also sent several of our other physicians out whenever the 82d Airborne
Division or the XVIII Airborne Corps would go on maneuvers or have an exercise.
We would try to send someone with them so that they would get some orientation
to the, what I call the real Army. In fact, there were several of those physicians
64

became career medical officers in the Army. This was a very effective way to
interest them in the Army, because if they dont know anything about the Army,
they certainly are not going to do much about it on their own. Once they get a
taste of it, the right kind of physician, we might be able to keep them in the Army
and have them be of great value to the government as a military physician.

Q:

General Becker, while at Fort Bragg, you were selected to become brigadier
general. What do you think caused your selection to be brigadier general?

A:

Well, Id like to think it was all of the great things that Id done, but I know better
than that. Of course, I think that General Emerson had a lot to do with my
selection. He was, I think, very pleased with what Id done, both as a hospital
commander and the corps surgeon. He knew of my background of having known
about the Army and how it functioned, and that I was really more of a soldier than
a white coat doctor.

I had many different types of assignments. People had seen me and seen what I
could do and I think that stood me in good stead. Having been through the War
College, of course, if your first assignment after the War College is successful, I
think that one could reasonably expect that they would have been seriously
considered for brigadier general, anyway.

65

Q:

General, oftentimes we see physicians that have stayed to the clinical side, or
maybe toward the Operation side. How important do you think it is for a medical
officer to be that diverse to be able to be a future leader?

A:

Well thats an excellent question and a difficult one to answer. Its difficult to
answer because I dont know what the balance is. Theres not enough time in a
lifetime to do both as well as you would like. Its a full time job to be an excellent
clinician. Its also a full time job to be an excellent commander, leader, and
medical officer. I think that the type of person that needs to be in the leadership
of the Army Medical Department, needs to have both the clinical and the field
experience. Most often what weve had are people that are much stronger on the
clinical side than they have been on the field. It seems to have worked pretty
well.

I would say that I probably had more time and more experience in the field side
than most had. However, one can do too much of the field and wind up not
knowing anything about clinical medicine. When youre in charge of a large
group of practitioners, such as is in the Army Medical Department, you dont
have much credibility with them if you are not a good doctor. My belief is that
you have to be board certified in your specialty and able to be a successful
practitioner and be recognized as a credible physician. You also have to know
how the Army functions as well as the other services, and how they interfaced,
before you really would be a successful senior officer in the Army.

66

Q:

General Becker, what was your first assignment as a general officer?

A:

I was assigned to the Surgeon Generals office as the Director of Healthcare

Operations in Washington, D.C. This was my second trip to Washington. Id
already been to Walter Reed, but Id only visited the Pentagon before that. I had
only ever visited the Surgeon Generals office on one occasion. It was a very
new experience for me. In health care operations, it was things that I had done,
especially in the XVIII Airborne Corps and the 1st Cavalry Division and Id
learned about in the War College.

The Director of Healthcare Operations in the Surgeon Generals office was in

charge of day-to-day Medical operations Army wide. He was also in charge of
the plans for medical support for any contingency the Army might face worldwide.
The third major function was Medical logistics and supply for both fixed Hospitals
and Field Units. Under the Director of Healthcare Operations there was a full
Colonel in Charge of those areas, Operations, Plans, and Supply.

This was a very wide array of support that I became involved in. One of the
major considerations was readiness. It became rapidly apparent to me that the
Army Medical Department was not as ready as it should have been to support
any kind of a large-scale war effort. Many of our plans were hollow, so to speak.
This was not unique to the Medical Department. There was also old equipment
for the field that was left over from Vietnam and it was outdated and some of it
worn out. The Army and the AMEDD needed new field equipment. We needed
67

new organizations and TO&Es so we became involved in the development of

TO&Es. We needed a great deal of new field equipment, such as field X-rays,
field-operating tables, field dental chairs, you name it, we needed it. Wed been
working on these things for many years, but we werent making great progress.

The contingency plans for Korea stated we needed certain number of beds to
support a war over there and on paper we had those beds, but in fact we were
not fully filled with good equipment lets put it that away. The same for Europe,
there was a requirement of several thousand beds for any type of contingency in
Europe. The requirement was filled with several one thousand-bed hospitals that
were over there but really had no equipment left in them. They probably, at one
time had everything, but that had since been drawn down and used up, and, in
fact, in those hospitals, there were all types of community agencies and staff
directorates. They used the space for offices and things to run their community.
One can see the reason for that, because they really didnt have any places to
put those folks and they used the old hospitals. How quick those people could
have been moved out and the hospitals set up was something that hadnt been
tested.

So we had our challenges and the Surgeon General, General Pixley, had been a
field soldier. He understood these problems and we set out to try to fix them.
We developed a new set of medical equipment for TO&E hospitals called
DEPMEDS. We did that in conjunction with the Department of Defense. This
68

came on after they saw what we were doing, of course, and that the Air Force
and many were also working on better field support. So DOD tried to bring this to
a common denominator so that we had one set of equipment for all three
services. All this worked our fairly well, except that the Air Force felt that they
needed a specific kind of dental chair. The Navy felt they needed a different one,
and the Army another. It was always a battle to settle what was really going to be
in the set.

We would settle on one piece of equipment to satisfy all three

services.

We also had to have new instrument sets for each of the specialties,
neurosurgery, orthopedics, general surgery, etc. We brought in consultants from
all three services, and developed these sets. We then put them into the TO&E
so that they could be officially part of the hospital sets.

We had to compromise on a few things since we wanted lightweight equipment

that could be easily moved on the battlefield, but that had to be developed from
scratch and there wasnt any time to do that. There were things available at that
present time that could be brought on line fairly quickly, which were heavy. So,
we wound up with our DEPMED set, which was a compromise in the first place,
because it was an agreement between the Army, Navy and Air Force. It was not
as light as it should have been but it did function. We set it up and tested it. We
worked out the bugs and I know that in later deployments the DEPMED sets
were utilized and it was an excellent way to take care of patients in the field. We
69

were able to put them in a clean environment, and a comfortable environment,

and take care of them. The biggest problem we had with mobility. We caught a
lot of flak about that. I can understand that and I can take the responsibility for it.
I know that it was a compromise and it wasnt anything that could have been
changed in any short period of time.

The Secretary for Health Affairs in the Defense Department was very much
involved in this and very interested because it was big bucks. We had numerous
meetings with them regarding DEPMEDS. Overall, we were successful in getting
this done.

The way we handled medical supplies at that time was advanced. When I was
there the Chief of Medical Supply had developed the bar code system for
medical supplies and medical equipment, and this bar code system was taken
from the civilian environment when bar coding was in its infancy. It was almost
unknown. Of course, today its used for everything. No grocery store nowadays
could even function without bar codes. It helped us a great deal.

Our medical supplies and our war reserve supplies were out of date and in great
disarray so we very carefully, over a period of time, updated those and improved
them. We changed the list that we required because we were using treatments
that were out of date and drugs that had long since expired. We had a great deal
of problems with the supply of whole blood and how we were going to get it into
70

combat. That whole system had to be revamped. We had a Chief of Laboratory,

who worked on the whole blood problem. We were able to make inroads into
that problem, also. It was a very challenging assignment and Ill be glad to
answer any questions you have about it.

Q:

General Becker, you had mentioned that there were problems with equipment
sets, treatment practices, the drugs in the sets and kits and outfits, and with the
type of field medicine that, when you became the Healthcare Operations Chief.
What do you think contributed to these problems that existed that you were
working on?

A:

Well, of course, thats a very complex question, but in a nutshell Id say we were
living on the things that we had left over from Vietnam and hadnt paid much
attention to them for several years. During my time and General Pixleys time out
in the field with various field units after Vietnam, it was very clear to us that most
of the equipment was outdated and, in fact, not of much value. Our sets, kits,
and outfits all had to be redone from the bottom up.

There was a great deal of material that had to be developed by R&D. Before we
could do that there was a large squabble with medical R&D as to who did what.
The problem was that the regulation that controlled all of it and had to be
rewritten and staffed. It became apparent that the Healthcare Operations part of
the Surgeon Generals Office should develop the requirements, and the rest of
the Medical Department was to react to those requirements.
71

This took a great deal of effort, as you might imagine. We worked very hard at
developing requirements and we made great progress. We had an outstanding
group of Medical Service Corps officers, some of them that I had served with in
Vietnam, and in Fort Bragg, and in other assignments that I knew and trusted, as
well as a new set of officers who I came to admire for their capabilities. They
were all more than willing and ready to make these changes. I also think that the
Army,, at that time began to get more money for these things. It must have been
very tight before. I sensed that there were other priorities that were bothering
them and that this was not one of them.

We felt we put readiness first and I think that probably the Chief of Staff and the
Secretary of Defense became more cognizant of what readiness was. Then we,
in the Medical Department, interpreted what readiness meant to Army medicine.
It meant equipment that was capable of functioning in the field and that was up to
date and modern. Also, readiness meant medical personnel that were trained to
use that equipment and trained to do their specific jobs in the field. This brought
up another set of problems about training of the basic medic all the way up
through all of our physicians. At this time training wasnt exactly what it should
have been so that was retooled and we improved it.

After a period of time in the late 1970s and early 80s, all of the sets, kits, and
outfits were revised and updated. This all, of course, cost lots of money and lots
72

of time. Lots of consultants time. We did it the right way, because we brought in
the people who used these things and had them redo them. All of the equipment
was purchased, finally, after it was approved by the Department of Defense and
fielded. This had to be done with a team of people that went out to each unit and
introduced it. We tried to do it properly. Then we had to dispose of the old stuff.
So throughout my time as the Healthcare Ops Chief, the Deputy Surgeon
General, the Commander in Europe, and the Surgeon General, I was involved in
this ever-evolving change in our readiness posture in the Army Medical
Department.

Q:

General Becker, was there a process for standardizing between the services for
medical equipment sets and kits, or helicopters, or other types of equipment in
medical areas?

A:

Oh, yes, most definitely. The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs
was deeply involved in this. There was a tri-service effort to not have each
service have a different type of hospital and type of equipment. We did probably
call them by different names, but the equipment was essentially the same. The
Congress was very distressed that each service had to have something different
and unique such as the helicopter for the Army wouldnt suffice for the Air Force
or for the Navy, etc. Also a dental chair for each of the services was just the
same. It made no big difference. The operating tables, stethoscopes, lights,
cooling units, heating units, surgical sets, on, and on, and on, and on. So it
made good sense to do this to have one set of equipment for all the services.
73

Ive got to tell you though that it was not easy. That was probably one of the
hardest things to accomplish, because there were many fixed ideas in the
services to overcome.

It was a difficult job and the Assistant Secretary of

Defense for Health Affairs had his work cut out for him, I can assure you.

Q:

General Becker, did you ever have to testify before any of the Congress folks
that were there during your tenure in Washington, D.C.?

A:

Oh, yes, many, many times. One of my jobs was also to look after hospital
construction for the Surgeon General. So I went always up to the Congress and
testified about the Armys part of the hospital budget for new hospitals, new
clinics, etc. I always accompanied the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health
Affairs any time that he testified regarding medical readiness, professional officer
development, whatever. He would testify, usually first, and then they would call
on each of us Surgeon Generals in turn to testify. I think that was probably a
good way to do it. They got all of the views and they found out if there was a
severe shortfall between what the Army wanted and what the Navy wanted, etc.
For the most part, it kept us singing off the same sheet of music. This was one of
the more tense parts of the job that I did. However, I did enjoy testifying and, for
the most part, our testimony was always well received.
successful in getting we needed.

Q:

In your position, who in the Army staff did you interface with?
74

Usually we were

A:

I, of course, with being in Operations, Plans, and Supply we had to interface on a

daily basis with the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, the DCSOPS. We had
continuous interface with the people down in the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the
plans. We had to develop the medical part of the plan. They didnt have any
medical person in the Joint Chiefs at that time. We did put somebody in there
very shortly after I got up there, because it was rapidly apparent that they needed
someone there on a daily basis to work on the medical plans, supporting
contingency operations. The Plans were somewhat out of date and there was a
lot of work to be done on them. In current operations, which there was always
something going on somewhere in the world that we were supporting, we worked
with the people in DCSOPS on that. We were very closely associated with the
DCSLOG folks and the logistics people in DOD also.

There was a great concern in the Congress about standardizing all of the
supplies, etc. for all three services. We had monthly meetings in which the
people came from all three services and from the Department of Defense and the
logistics, both medical and regular logistics. We met at Fort Detrick on a regular
basis. This was a formal organization. We would look at different items and
standardize them and approve the requests for different types of equipment, etc.
This was not always the equipment for sets, kits, and outfits, for readiness
purposes but also includes those things used by our hospitals and clinics on a
daily basis.

75

Q:

You were located within the Pentagon, the Director of Healthcare Operations.
Later when you returned back to Washington, D.C. as the Surgeon General, you
had moved away from the Pentagon to the Baileys Crossroads area. Now, what
were the advantages of being in the Pentagon or was their advantages in being
over at Baileys Crossroads? How do you feel about that?

A:

Well, for the Healthcare Operations, we were much better off in the Pentagon, I
felt. We were near the Ops people with whom we worked very closely. We were
also near the Joint Chiefs of Staff and near the supply people.

Part of the

Surgeon Generals office, I think, needed to be there and needed to be there on

a daily basis. Now, there were other parts of the Surgeon Generals office that
did not need to be and it didnt bother us a bit if the Chief Nurses office, and the
Chief of Medical Service Corps, and Chief of the Dental Corps, etc., were at a
distance from the Pentagon.

Now, not everyone agreed with me on that, but we were all easily able to get up
to the Pentagon to take care of our business. However, I felt that on current
operations and planning things, we needed a presence there and needed to be
theyre all of the time. I think that we, in fact, kept a small contingency of people
up there to be able to handle that kind of work. Maybe it was on an informal
basis, I dont remember. I know I always felt strongly about it.

I feel it would have been better if there were room in the Pentagon that the
Surgeon Generals Office be included. It always kept us closer to the Army, to
76

the Reserves, to the National Guard, to the Air Force, the Navy, and the
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs. We were all there together. It
kept us more in harmony, rather than being standoffish and trying to do our own
thing. So I would hope that someday all of these people could be together and
be able to work in close harmony, because that is the best way to do it, I believe.

Q:

General Becker, did you feel that there was a conflict between the peacetime
TDA medical missions versus the wartime readiness mission that you were trying
to handle while you were Director of Healthcare Operations?

A:

Yes, there was always a conflict between the two. Our peacetime mission had to
go on and we had to take care of our patients and that took money. It often took
money from some of the other things.

But as the Director of Healthcare

Operations, I was not too much involved with peacetime healthcare except that
we kept them supplied. Our supply and logistics part of our directorate was not
only involved with readiness it was involved with the day-to-day healthcare of the
Army and all of our patients.

So that was a constant battle and I suspect that was one of the reasons that
some of the readiness issues had taken second place in earlier years. At the
time I was there, readiness was a big issue. I know that I made it a big issue, but
I would not have been able to cause all of the things to happen if it hadnt been a
big issue with the Department of Defense and with the nation as a whole. So in
the late 1970's, something was going on in the world that brought this to the
77

forefront. I suspect it had to do with the political parties that were in power at the
time.

Q:

Did you have any initiatives toward the transition from the peacetime healthcare
mission to the wartime readiness contingency from Healthcare Operations
perspective?

A:

Oh, yes, that was one of my major duties as the Surgeon General looked to me
especially for the Reserves and Guard. I spent about a third of my time working
with the Guard and Reserves and it was one of the really enlightening and
enjoyable parts of my duties.

I was on the road most of the time and was

probably gone three or four days a week and lots of weekends.

We had a great problem in the Reserves and Guard in that the medical part of
them was hollow. They had all kinds of people serving in TO&E slots, who were
not qualified for the jobs.

We had doctors that were dermatologists serving in neurosurgeons positions,

and anesthesiologist positions, etc. We had hospital commanders in positions,
that were not qualified and we didnt have near enough qualified commanders.
There were a lot of initiatives that the surgeons for the Reserves and the Guard
worked with us on. We met with them on many occasions and wed go to their
meetings. Wed also go to many of the gatherings of their commanders and
discuss this problem to see what we could do. There were incentives that we
78

were able to talk to the Assistant Secretary of Defense about, and to the Surgeon
General, and get them initiated, which helped the Guard and the Reserves
recruit.

Also, for the Active Duty people, there was a list of physicians, nurses, and other
personnel that was supposed to fall out and go with a specific field hospital on
any contingency. These lists were dutifully made and filled, and were not worth
much more than the paper they were written on. They hadnt been exercised. In
fact, a lot of names were out of date. The people were in the wrong specialties,
and so on. That needed a lot of work because there hadnt been much attention
paid to it.

Also, the back-up US hospital support for any kind of a large war effort was not
well done. We had papers that said what all we had, but it was not there, to put it
brutally frank. Later on, in the years later in the Surgeon Generals time, some of
this was corrected by contracting with civilian hospitals to be back up for the
Army, Navy and Air Force, and also contracting with the VA for large numbers of
beds. We would never have been able to handle the casualties from a large war
in Europe using only military hospitals. We would have had to depend on the
good graces of our civilian friends to take our casualties, and they were ill
prepared to take them, because they didnt take care of that kind of patient for
the most part. We had contingency hospitals in the United States, which were
some of our old thousand bed hospitals. Most of these hospitals had been
79

changed into kindergartens, childcare centers, community service offices, etc.

All throughout the posts and they were still considered to be thousand bed
hospitals, which in nobodys imagination could ever have been turned back into a
thousand bed hospital. So that was another problem area that was in shambles.
It needed a lot of work. This must have been true for other parts of the Army
other than the Army Medical Department. Our readiness was lacking to put it
mildly.

Q:

If we had to go to war, how would we fill the wartime medical positions and were
there any problems with this system?

A:

Oh, yes, there was a great deal of problems. We had a system that weve
already talked about with the Guard and the Reserves to fill some of the TO&E
requirements when we went to war. We also had the people in the Active Duty
hospitals, which were supposed to fill positions in field hospitals when they were
activated. Of course, this would have left hospitals like Walter Reed or Fort
Bragg Hospital, etc., with almost no staff. That would have been a tremendous
problem. There would be no place to send casualties to if they came back to the
United States. With the size of the conflict we were contemplating at that time,
we would have been in a great deal of difficulty. Our professional filler list called
PROFIS was in disarray. Fort Bragg Hospital had professional fillers for several
of the small field hospitals stationed at Fort Bragg.

We didnt have enough

people there to fill all of them, and once filled, the Fort Bragg Hospital almost had
no one left. One of the things that we did was have the Reserve backfill the
80

Active Duty Hospital.

We practiced this all the time.

They would come on

weekends and work there for their training, and became familiar with the hospital,
and, in fact, several of them were assigned on the troop list, or TPFD to backfill
those hospitals.

We didnt ever have enough medical personnel to go around to fill both the field
and the peacetime requirements.

It was a tremendous problem.

This was

satisfied in later years to some extent by the contracts with the VA and civilian
hospitals that I talked about. If we had had the Guard and the Reserves to the
full strength for all of their thousand bed hospitals, etc., we would have been in a
lot better shape. We did build those up over a period of years and improved
them a great deal with a large number of incentives. We appealed to patriotism,
and we also had incentives for these folks to be part of the Reserves and the
Guard.

This was fairly successful, but certainly never 100 percent.

Ive

understood in later years that this has degenerated, considerably, after Desert
Storm.

Q:

General Becker, there were a lot of things on your plate as Director of Healthcare
Operations.

How were you able to accomplish all of those actions and get

working on them?
A:

Well, we had kind of a unique system.

It was not unique to the Medical

Department, but it was different than anything you do in civilian life, we had in
each area an action officer. Lets say the readiness plans for Korea, I had an
81

action officer on that plan and equipment. For a thousand-bed hospital, I had an
action officer. New helicopters, I had an action officer. So these were the key
people that worked these problems on a day-to-day basis and they worked very
hard. They were up-to-date on everything that was going on in that area. When
I needed to know something, I called them in and talked to them. They were
supposed to of course keep their chief up to speed, which they did and then I
was supposed to talk to him. Both the Chief of Plans and Ops, and the Chief of
Supply knew that they couldnt give me the detail that the action officer did. So it
was an accepted procedure that I worked directly with them. We always had, of
course, the senior officer present when any discussion was made about their
area. Wed make decisions on what we wanted to do and get them done. It was
a very effective system.

It didnt mean that the action officer didnt have his difficulty in dealing with the
different services, or the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or the Assistant Secretary of
Defense for Health Affairs on what he was trying to do, but they kept at it until
they got it done. One of the most rewarding experiences in my life and in my
military career was to see how these young medical Service Corp officers
dedicated themselves to this task. They have to have been very satisfied with
what they were able to get done. They worked 20 hours a day sometimes, and
seven days a week to get the job done.
accomplished nothing, I can assure you.

82

Without them we would have

Q:

General Becker, what was your follow on assignment following being the Director
of Healthcare Operations in the Office of the Surgeon General?

A:

I was selected to be the Superintendent of the Academy of Health Sciences

down at Fort Sam Houston. As I remember, I was selected for major general and
shortly thereafter was given the assignment. This assignment, I believe, was
probably strongly related to my experience in Healthcare Operations and in field
medicine.

Q:

General Becker, what were your expectations or visions as you assumed duties
as the Superintendent of the Academy of Health Sciences?

A:

Well, Im not sure that I had any great visions or expectations. I didnt know a
whole lot about the academy, except that Id been a student there once, and I
knew a bit about how it functioned and, of course, Id interfaced with them many,
many times, especially in the combat developments area while I was at
Healthcare Ops. I wanted to wait and see what was there and what the problems
were. As soon as I got there we visited each section, heard from each chief,
talked about what they felt was needed, and we started from that.

Q:

As your chiefs there briefed you, what were some of the major issues and the
areas that you thought you needed to work on, initially?

A:

One, we knew already was in agreement were that the TO&Es were out of date.
We had TO&E development being done at the academy which was one of its
missions. We wanted a light, fast surgical hospital that could move rapidly on the
83

battlefield, and come up to the clearing companies and assist them, and expand
their capabilities so that they had a surgical capability. We also wanted a light,
highly mobile surgical hospital, which was small and could be rapidly torn down,
picked up, and moved. There were other things that had to do with mobility that
we needed to work on. We knew the DEPMEDs were heavy and cumbersome,
and we needed to look at the next family of units that had to be done.

My background helped me a great deal in this area. If a clinician had taken that
job, you could see very quickly that he would have been lost. First off, I was
familiar with TO&E and what was the kind of requirement that we had in the
field? So I felt very at home with that.

In the Schoolhouse, we were teaching mainly our experiences from Vietnam, and
that was not what was needed for a war with Russia and Europe, or conflict in
Korea. It was rapidly apparent to me, and it had been apparent for a long time to
the people at the academy, that this needed to be fixed. We first had to write the
doctrine, the medical doctrine, for the support of this, or rewrite it. It was out of
date and from the doctrine then comes the teaching.

So once you get the

doctrine written, new courses have to be developed. It was something that had
to be done over a period of time. We had time, so we started out with the
rewriting of the doctrine and all of the field manuals, etc. Slowly, over a period of
time, of course, the teaching was changed.

84

It was apparent to me and Id known for a long time that the training of our basic
medic, which was one of the big jobs that the academy did, was not what it
should have been. My dream had always been that our medics should have
been EMT qualified, emergency medical technician qualified, such as any civilian
medic was that worked on any ambulance. That was not true, because we did
not have the training days, or training weeks, or training months to do that with
our medics. They had a six-week training program, which in my mind was not
long enough, and also in the minds of the teachers that ran these programs. So
we wanted to revise the curriculum and get it so that we had, and try to squeeze
out of the system more training days for our basic medic. This proved to be the
most difficult, one of the most difficult tasks that we had, because it was such a
large class and it took a lot of training days from the Army. My dream of them
becoming EMT qualified at the end of their course never came to fruition at that
time. However, I think it happened later and will soon be in the Army.

Now we did encourage them all to take the EMT course and we helped with that
and their training, but that had to be done after they went to a new assignment. If
wed really been dealing with a wartime situation, we would have been sending
medics inadequately trained, as far as I was concerned, to the front lines.

Many of other courses of instruction needed to be revised because of the

changes in doctrine. We had orthopedic technicians that were trained there and

85

they were still using the same curriculum theyd used for several years, so, there
was an awful lot of work to be done.

We were involved with the other schools throughout the Army and institutions.
The total Army analysis, that is what the Army should look like in the future, and
how many medics would be in it, how many different types of medics, etc., was
an ongoing effort at the academy. One thing that was a personal thing that
bothered me a lot was being called the superintendent. I felt that I was more like
a, a head of a high school and that was not exactly what I did. We had the title
changed to commandant. I felt that more suited what the person, did who ran the
Academy of Health Sciences. The rest of the Army was gracious in allowing us
to do that.

Q:

How did the Army Medical Department doctrine, match and synchronize with the
Armys future doctrine of how its going to fight and win?

A:

Well, we certainly wanted to reflect what the rest of the Army was doing, so that
meant that we had to be at all of the meetings where doctrine was discussed.
TRADOC, the Training and Doctrine Command, was in charge of this. So we
sent people down to TRADOC and at their various institutions and meetings
whenever this was discussed, so we would know what type of medical support
was required for what they had planned. This took time and it made it difficult to
write the doctrine, but it was essential that it be done. Once the Army decided on
what kind of an Army, and how it would fight, was settled, then we were able to
86

follow up with our piece. This, of course, all had to be approved, and the number
of spaces that we were to get was always fought over, because they were in
competition with the spaces for the armor and infantry, etc.

However, we

persevered and were I think, successful in slowly overcoming the problem of

revising the doctrine.

Q:

General Becker, were you satisfied with the officer professional development that
was provided for at the Academy of Health Sciences?

A:

Well, some of the officers received a good bit of development there, and good
courses especially the Medical Service Corps officers.

But the doctors and

nurses that were brought into the Army only came there for a very short time, and
all were supposed to receive their indoctrination back at their post, which we
learned over a period of time was not really happening.

We attempted to

improve that. Once again we had to get training years and training time, to do
that from the training time allotted to the Army. We increased those courses up
to six weeks so they really got some orientation to the military, other than being
issued their uniform and learn how to salute, and who to salute, etc. The Officer
Advance Course was also at the academy. We thought that this course needed
some revision. The Corp chiefs all agreed and we were able to accomplish a
revision with the professional development of our young officers.

The same thing occurred with the NCOs. We didnt have a NCO academy there
and it was apparent that we needed it. The Command Sergeant Major and I
87

worked with our NCO instructors very hard to accomplish this. First we had to
change our leadership development for our NCOs. As I remember, we were
somewhat deficient in training the number of NCOs as compared to the rest of
the Army. The NCO development classes, one was called BNOC, which is Basic
NCO Course. This was one of the first courses that a NCO went to. We put a lot
of effort into getting BNOC up to snuff with the rest of the Army, and the same
with the Advanced NCO course. I think that we were fairly successful in that. It
was a slow, tedious process, but it was one that was absolutely necessary and
we developed some very, very, fine medical NCOs at the academy.

I went to every graduation ceremony and also the welcoming ceremonies. I tried
to meet each one of them and talk to them for a minute, if I could. There were
literally hundreds of them on campus at any one time, so it was impossible to be
on a first name basis with very many. We made some progress in this area and
it was one of the more rewarding parts of the duty there, especially working with
the Command Sergeant Major. He was very well tuned into this.

Q:

General Becker, one of your initiatives, both in Healthcare Operations and then
at the academy, was the training for physicians for their combat casualties skills.
The result of their initiative resulted in the Combat Casualty Care course. How
did that occur?

A:

Well, that was one of the really great things that happened in the Army Medical
Department, because we had never really had a course that trained our
88

physicians for combat. We had the usual things where you had them crawl
under barbed wire sometime with machine guns firing over them, but how to take
care of a casualty under enemy fire was a difficult situation. We developed a
course, called the C-4 course, Combat Casualty Care Course. A great medical
officer developed this and we were able to get it started down there at Fort Sam
Houston, and it later became a tri-service course. As I remember, it and was well
staffed and utilized by all of the services. I was one of the first students in the
course and we would evacuate casualties by litter, under fire, and over obstacles,
and we also trained with the helicopters and other evacuation personnel. The
medics and every one of the officers that went through that learned a great deal.
I think it better prepared them for any contingency.

Q:

Was there any other types of training that you felt was necessary for clinicians to
fulfill their wartime role?

A:

Yes, I think that even though they knew through the C-4 course how to handle a
casualty in combat situation, it was clear that they needed trauma training. This
training wasnt for just surgeons, but other Medical people that would be on the
team taking care of casualties. The American College of Surgeons had a course
called Advanced Trauma Life Support, ATLS. With their permission, we were
able to train our people on ATLS and they did what was necessary to resuscitate
a severely wounded patient. This course later became a part of the C-4 course
and then it was exported to the Reserves, the Guard, and on the Active posts. It

89

became a very popular course. It was a very integral part of training military
practitioners.

Q:

General Becker, while you were at the Academy of Health Sciences, the Army
was changing the structure of the Army division. One of the big changes was
eliminating the medical battalion and moving toward the forward support battalion
concept. How do you feel about the changes that occurred?

A:

Well, of course, being an old medical battalion commander, emotionally I didnt

agree with that. But I decided that I would see how it worked. I felt that anything
that could be accomplished by a forward support battalion could be
accomplished by an informal organization supporting a Brigade as a task force.
In combat you need a company of medics, and a company of ordnance, and a
quartermaster company to support a Brigade.

In the FSB concept, these

companies became the property of the forward support battalion.

I never believed that that had to be done in a formal fashion. As I said before,
informally we could form those task forces on short notice and theyd always
worked in the past. Wed done it at Fort Bragg, I know at the 82d without any
difficulty.

However they always had the medical battalion commander and

division surgeon looking after the qualifications, the training of the medics, the
equipment and keeping that up to date all of the things that are required to really
make a medical company function. So I was not very fond of the concept. I did
follow it in later years, and, in fact, my daughter was involved in a forward
90

support battalion as a company commander. From the reports I got, and from
what I heard about the forward support battalion, it had some successes. But for
the most part, I think it still had the deficiencies that I mentioned before and it
really needed the parent battalions to look after these companies. The Army and
I never saw eye to eye on this problem, but I lost.

Q:

General Becker, what was your involvement with the Expert Field Medical Badge
(EFMB)?

A:

Well, I was very much for pushing a standard EFMB approved by the Army. It
was apparent to me after taking one of the tests that it needed to be a little
tougher, and it needed to be standardized. At the Academy of Health Science,
we took that on.

We were able over a period of time to accomplish a

standardized test and I was very proud of the Expert Field Medical Badge. It was
a tough course and those that wore it, wore it proudly. We got a lot of medical
officers to take this, as well as nurses and other officers in the AMEDD that
needed this training. It better prepared them for any type of combat.

Certainly, all of the enlisted people that took it were much better medics for
having studied and trained for it. As it developed over a period of time, many of
the medical units in the Army, as I recall, would train for several months in
preparation for the badge testing. Not all of them passed it by any means, even
though they had a lot of training invested. But it gave them something to train for

91

and all of this training was exactly what was needed for the personnel in any
medical unit.

Q:

Your assignment at the Academy of Health Sciences was for a short period of
time. What caused your assignment to change?

A:

Well, I left the academy and was assigned as the Deputy Surgeon General of the
Army. That came from General Mittemeyer, who came to Fort Sam Houston
after hed been designated the Surgeon General. He said, I want you to come
and be my Deputy Surgeon General, because you have considerable field
experience. I told him in no uncertain words that Id much rather stay at Fort
Sam Houston.

I could accomplish a great deal more there for him at the

academy. But he was insistent that I come and I think he was uneasy about his
lack of experience in all of the parts of the Army Medical Department that had to
do with field medicine and with TO&E development and readiness, so I went. I
told him that after one year, I was going to retire from the Army. He accepted
that and said, Thats fine. I need you for that year. By that time well have a
good handle on things. This job change was not in anger. It was an amiable
agreement and I understood the Armys needs.

I went to Washington, and, of course, moved my family to Fort Myer.

We

enjoyed our stay at Fort Myer. My duties as the Deputy Surgeon General were
to act as the Chief of Staff of the Surgeon Generals Office, I had a very capable

92

senior Medical Service Corps officer that assisted me with those duties in a fine
fashion.

I also maintained my close relationship and working relationships with the

Reserves and the Guard. The Surgeon General didnt have much time to do
that. I continued to visit them on occasions when I could get away. I generally
remained in the office while the Surgeon General traveled, and he did travel quite
a bit. I ensured that the papers and the output from the staff of the Surgeon
General were of the quality that was required. I continued my effort to improve
medical readiness, and through the Surgeon General, we were able to continue
to keep pressure up to improve the DEPMEDS, and the follow-on hospitals, and
the training of our medics. But, I was not as able to directly influence things as I
had been in Healthcare Ops and in the Academy. I did stay at the academy a
little over a year and a half and I got an awful lot done, or at least a lot started. In
my job as the Deputy Surgeon General, I was able to keep my eye on that
situation down at the academy and ensure that many of the things that wed
started were continued.

Q:

General Becker, when you returned back to Washington, D.C., did you see any
new trends in military medicine?

A:

Yes, I think there was a major change in medicine, and it was becoming apparent
that the public wanted a better accountability of our physicians and their
credentials, etc. The Army had to follow that same trend. We began to put into
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motion some of the things that were going on in the civilian sphere such as better
credentialing and also weeding out any incompetent, poorly trained physicians.
So there was turmoil in medicine, in general, and we needed to improve this
area.

In this respect, there was more and more coordination with the Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs. Since the Surgeon General was absent
fairly often, I went in his place to many of the meetings at Health Affairs, as I had
done as the Healthcare Ops guy. It became important that I was the continuity
for these areas. Another continuity was that during my healthcare Ops job I was
on the Reserves and Guard board that oversaw all of the problems of the
Reserve and the Guard. I was on there as a medical member. So I continued
that as the Deputy Surgeon General. There were many things I was able to
follow through on in an informal manner. General Mittemeyer and I saw eye-toeye on almost all of the issues and we worked very closely together. He was
certainly always willing to listen to me on matters of readiness and of field
medicine. We were able to continue the progress that had started in the late
1970's.

Q:

I understand while you were the Deputy Surgeon General you were just about
ready to retire.

A:

Yes thats correct. I was at an age that if I was going to get out and get a good
job in the civilian world, I needed to do it right then.
94

I promised General

Mittemeyer I would retire after a year. I put in my papers and the Chief of Staff of
the Army approved them.

About that moment, there was a change in the

command in the medical command in Europe. It became rapidly apparent that

that the job in Europe was a job that I could do and continue some of the
initiatives that I had started. I told General Mittemeyer I would take that job if he
could get my retirement papers back, which he did post haste.

Q:

General Becker, in 1983 you went to 7th Medical Command in Germany. What
type of unit was 7th Medical Command?

A:

7th Medical Command was a diverse medical command that had 11 hospitals
spread all of the way from SHAPE in Belgium, down through Germany, and down
into Italy.

We also had a medical evacuation battalion with the helicopter

ambulances. We had a finance unit, a laboratory, and we had about 67 health

clinics, many dental clinics and veterinarian clinics. These clinics were spread all
throughout Europe. It was a very diverse mission providing medical support for
military in Europe.

Q:

What type of hospitals were those 11 hospitals in Germany?

A:

Well, they were general hospitals or community hospitals, as we know them

today. They were housed, for the most part, in old German hospitals. There was
a new one up in SHAPE that had been recently built. The one in Italy was in a
former hospital of some sort. There wasnt very much new construction, and a

95

lot had to be done to those hospitals to bring them up to standard. We started

many projects to do that.

Q:

What were some of the issues with the 67 health clinics that you had in your
command?

A:

These clinics were scattered out widely and very often were on small Kasernes
or bases. The doctors were primarily young physicians just right out of their
internships, and really didnt have the leadership skills or the medical capabilities
to take on the job that they were assigned.

We tried to put family practice

doctors that had finished their training in these clinics. Where that was done, it
was very successful. The family practice docs were older, more mature, and, of
course, had more training, and had a little better feel for the Army. I must say
that the young doctors did an outstanding job under difficult conditions. They
were expected to be on-call 24 hours a day. Some of the clinics were large
enough that there were two physicians there so they could split the call, and that
worked our very well. We also had a large number of dental clinics and vet
clinics, and they were well staffed with experienced people.

Q:

To address the problems of the health clinics and the young physicians who were
just out of their internships, did you see any need for training these young
physicians or any kind of course requirements to bring their skills up to speed?

A:

Yes, it became rapidly apparent that there needed to be a course for these young
physicians and we organized that. It was called the Clinic Commanders Training
96

course. It was very successful. I think it helped the young doctors a lot since
they were doing something that was very foreign to them.

Q:

General Becker, you initiated a clinic study about half way through your tour.
What was the purpose of this study?

A:

I think it was an important piece of work because we had some clinics that were
geographically close to one another. Theyd grown up kind of historically after
World War II really, some clinics were redundant and some werent large
enough. We needed some data to show where we ought to consolidate and
concentrate our efforts. We realized we were somewhat wasting manpower,
because each clinic not only had the commander, a nurse, and medics, it had
supply people, etc., so there were always quite a few people involved with any of
the clinics.

We also thought that there was a quality of care issue with having small clinics.
A study was undertaken and it finally came to fruition, and it changed the number
and the structure of the clinics.

Some were combined and some were

eliminated.

Q:

What kind of staff did you have in 7th Medical Command?

A:

Our mission was diverse and included all types of health care. We had a chief
dental officer, who looked after all of the dental clinics and dental personnel over
there in Europe that worked for me.
97

Also, we had the chief veterinarian.

Although they did do some veterinary medicine, their main job was food
inspection. There was a lot of food purchased in Europe so this was a very
important mission, and far reaching.

The vets were scattered all over the

country. We had veterinarian techs in countries where we did not even have any
troops, because thats where they interfaced with the producers of the food, such
as Norway and Egypt.

Q:

General Becker, what other duties did you have when you were in Heidelberg,
Germany?

A:

I wore another hat as the Surgeon for the Commander of the United States Army
Europe (USAREUR). It was called the USAREUR Surgeon. In that job, I was on
the staff of the USAREUR commander. He looked to me for medical support and
for the medical training and qualification of all of the medical personnel in the
units under his command, which included both corps. The medical plans and
operations for USAEUR were done in 7th MEDCOM readiness. We worked daily
with the planners on the USAREUR staff and the operations people to insure that
our medical support plan was as it should be.

Q:

Were there any special programs that you were involved with as the Chief
Surgeon, USAREUR?

A:

Yes, there were several of them.

One that comes to mind that was very

important was The Exceptional Family Member program that was being installed
throughout the Army. Our part was to examine the children of service members
98

that had difficulty in school or had medical problems, and determine whether or
not they should be treated a little differently than the ordinary military family.
Very often we found someone that had a child that had a medical problem or a
mental problem, would have to be stationed somewhere this type of treatment
was available. We had to interface with the personnel people to assure that the
assignment for the service member was near the facilities needed to treat the
child.

This was a far-reaching program and over a period of years took up a great deal
of manpower and time. I think it was worthwhile, because a lot, more service
people than we ever thought had children with difficulties.

Not just minor

difficulties. These were some major problems, including retardation. A lot of

times service members would remain in the service, because they knew that their
child would be taken care of and they could not afford to have that care given as
a civilian.

Q:

What was your relationship with United States European Command?

A:

The European Command was down in Stuttgart and I was the surgeon. This was
my third hat that I wore. I made meetings there at Patch Barracks at Stuttgart on
a regular basis, at least once a week and more often, if necessary. Of course, I
would work medical projects for EUCOM sometimes. The SHAPE commander
was the commander of EUCOM and he had a deputy that sat in Stuttgart and

99

actually did the day-to-day running of the European Command. It was a very
interesting place being multi-service.

We were deeply involved in the Beirut bombing of the barracks where we lost a
lot of Americans. I believe that the medical people were in the basement of the
barracks and didnt survive the bombing. All the medical help had to be obtained
from outside. Patients had to be triaged and they were sent to local hospitals in
Egypt. I remember that there was an awful lot of concern about who these
patients were, and how they were doing, so we had to quickly respond to that.
Also, the evacuation of those patients became critical to the hospitals in Europe
that we arranged for.

Out of this disaster, grew some issues that became very important. One issue
was the rapid evacuation of casualties from that part of the world. The way we
had done it in the past was we had a C-9 Air Force air ambulance that went
around on a regular basis and picked up patients that needed to be evacuated
into Europe to the larger hospitals. The new plan that we initiated was more of
an emergency type plan, so if something happened we could take more patients
into Europe. We even made plans to take them into Israel, including helicopter
evacuation, if necessary. This demanded a lot of coordination with the Israelis.
This was all done through the EUCOM Surgeons Office.

100

Q:

General Becker, having three positions in Germany, seems like that was a lot of
different work and a lot of time constraints on you.

How were you able to

manage your time and workload for each of those USAREUR, European
Command, and also 7th Medical Command issues, areas like that?
A:

Well, as you might imagine, it was somewhat difficult. But I had an excellent
aide. I had a lot of aircraft support, which was always needed. The U.S. Army
Europe provided a fixed wing aircraft, and we used our own rotary wing aircraft
from our medical battalion. We also had an outstanding staff at each of the
places to do these jobs. It was not as terrible as it sounds. Everyone was tuned
into the mission. So, it went very well, although it kept me in the air traveling
most of the time because I was moving from one place to another or on a
mission for one command or the other. It did at times, spread me pretty thin.

Q:

What was your relation with the coalition of the Multi-national forces that were
part of the European Command or NATO?

A:

We had a group called the NATO Surgeons. The Surgeon Generals from the
European countries in NATO, and myself, met on a regular basis. We were
attempting to standardize items throughout NATO such as medical items,
equipment and pharmaceuticals. A lot of effort was put into this. We also looked
at the standardization of doctrine and field units. But Im afraid that this was a
little too difficult to handle. But we did make some progress on the other areas.

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I became acquainted with many outstanding physicians from other countries,

who were the medical leaders in their military establishments. Some of them
were joint service surgeons, and some were Army or Air Force Surgeon
Generals.

We looked at some of the serious problems that faced NATO from a medical
standpoint and we made some headway in solving those. At least we knew one
another very well and knew each others capabilities and shortfalls. We also
knew that if something happened, that we could depend on one another for help,
especially the care of a large number of casualties. They knew that we would
have had to put American soldiers into their hospitals, and we would be taking
their patients. Theres just no way that we could have done it otherwise. I think
that was a critical part of the NATO Medical Committees mission.

Q:

You were over in Europe in Heidelberg in all three of your positions during the
height of the Cold War. What were your major medical challenges in dealing with
the threat of a Soviet attack or any type of war?

A:

Well, I think that we were doing a pretty good job of taking care of the day-to-day
healthcare requirement.

As we talked about previously, there was a great

shortfall in the number of beds needed to take care of any type of large-scale
confrontation with the Russians. We were supposed to have several thousand
beds and they were supposed to be in some of the old hospitals that we had right
after World War II. Those hospitals were almost non-existent. Certainly, the
102

equipment was not there.

It was a major challenge for us, and it was a

continuation of the work that we had done from Healthcare Operations, and the
Deputy Surgeon Generals job, and the Academy of Health Sciences, to continue
improving the readiness.

We had several of our senior staff that spent a great deal of effort in this. We
were successful in obtaining some, one thousand bed hospitals and equipping
them. We were even able to bring Reserve units over and train in them. We had
one contingency hospital that we set up in an Air Force base hangar in England.
We had one in a carpet factory in Belgium. We also had several of the old
thousand bed hospitals that we fixed up in Germany.

So, the readiness

improved a great deal and this is one of the things that Im most proud of. We, of
course, found out later that when the Berlin wall fell, a lot of that effort was
probably for naught. But nevertheless, it was something that had to be done and
the medical people certainly were up to the challenge and got the job done, and I
was very, very proud of them.

Q:

You had previously mentioned that the hospitals and clinics needed construction
upgrades. How did this proceed?

A:

We did get some construction money to improve the hospitals, especially

Nrnberg, Landstuhl, and Frankfurt. Many of the clinics were redone. These, of
course, had been left over since World War II and in very sad shape. We spent a
good deal of money on these hospitals and got them into very good shape. I
103

spent a lot of time visiting and seeing how the projects were going. I remember
Landstuhl especially because it received a whole new heart, so to speak. The
operating rooms and the intensive care units were in a new building. The old
hospital was spread out in many large buildings, which house the wards, and so
it covered many acres. This new core was a great asset to that hospital.

Q:

Because of the large number of joint service military commands and people in
Europe, did you ever see a need for a joint medical command?

A:

Well, there was a group that came over to look at that. The Assistant Secretary
of Defense for Health Affairs came over with two senior officers. They toured all
of the Army and the Air Force facilities in Europe and visited the Navy up in
England and down in Italy. We all spent a great deal of time looking at this. The
final conclusion was that the medical care and the medical support should be
service specific.

Q:

General Becker, were there any areas that you couldnt accomplish in your
approximate year and a half when you commanded 7th Medical Command?

A:

Oh, yes. Quite a few things because the time was so short. The clinic study and
the warm basing for readiness of the hospitals were the two things that were of
importance enough to discuss. The clinic study was ongoing and several people
were involved. A lot of data had to be collected. There was a lot of concern
amongst the local commanders that we were taking away their medical support,

104

so this study had to be done properly. It was, eventually, finished and a lot of
good came from it.

As I mentioned earlier, the thousand bed hospitals and other hospitals that were
pre-positioned for war-time readiness were not actively taking patients and
werent completed. But they were completed later. General Frank Ledford was
the next commander of the Medical Command and he was able to finish this. I
think it was a source of pride for everyone that was involved with it.

Q:

General Becker, while you were in 7th Medical command did you see any of the
results of your work in Healthcare Operations or the Academy of Health Sciences
that came back to assist you when you were the commander of 7th MEDCOM?

A:

Oh, yes, because we were gradually getting better equipment and replacing
some of the old. We were transitioning into DEPMEDS. The TO&E of the units
were being improved. We finally got the Blackhawk helicopters to replace the old
workhorse Hueys. The Blackhawk was a quantum jump over what we were able
to do before, because it was a very powerful, fast helicopter and very
sophisticated.

It made an excellent air ambulance and was also a great

command and control vehicle.

So many of the things that wed worked on

previously did come to pass.

It was a gratification to me, because it was

something I had felt was needed. The Army, the Congress, and the Department
of Defense supported us in this effort.

105

Q:

As you look at your professional development throughout the years both in the
field and the clinical areas, how did your experiences help you become a better
commander of the 7th Medical Command, and staff officer for European
command, or the United States Army, Europe?

A:

Well, I think most of the jobs I had kind of pointed me in the direction of the job
that I had there, because it was a culmination of all of those things. Of course,
my previous tour in commanding the little hospital in Heidelberg, working with the
V Corps and on the readiness mission was very important. I already understood
a lot about readiness in Europe, and, of course, the jobs in all of the Healthcare
Operations, and the Surgeon Generals office, were all pointed towards Europe
and the readiness there. So I think I was fairly well prepared for that position.

Q:

General Becker, why did you leave 7th Medical Command?

A:

I was selected to be the Surgeon General for the Army and the turnover
happened to come at a time when I had not really finished the tour over in
Europe. Therefore, it was cut short.

Q:

How did you transition into your new position as the Surgeon General of the
Army?

A:

Well, I think it was a fairly difficult transition, because at the time there were
problems back in Washington and the Surgeon General at that time had been
featured in several articles in The Army Times which were not the best type of
publicity, one might say.

The Congress had some concern about the Army

106

Medical Department. Therefore, I was interviewed not only by the Secretary of

Defense, but also by the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. I
waited in Europe for several weeks before returning to Washington, D.C.,
because of the delays that the Congress had placed on the retirement of the
Surgeon General before me, General Mittemeyer. These things were eventually
all cleared up, but it took time and it was a difficult transition.

Q:

What were your priorities as the new Surgeon General?

A:

Well, it was absolutely clear to me that the Army Medical Department was under
a huge black cloud and that a lot of the respect that it had in the past had been
lost. This respect had to be restored. We had great difficulties with investigative
reporters from The Army Times.

They had previously claimed that their

investigative reporters did not have good access to information. So one of the
first things that I did was get a public information officer, a civilian. She was
outstanding. We invited all investigative reporters to come to us with any
questions that they had. If she couldnt handle them then I would.

Also, we instituted a campaign to improve the view of the Army Medical

Department that the people in the service had, that the Congress had, and that
the public had. This was a fairly rigorous campaign and included tapes that I
made, personally. These tapes were played on the various posts throughout the
world, especially over in Europe. They had to do with our intentions to give them
the quality of medical care that they deserved. That if they had questions or
107

problems with their medical care that they were to let us know so that we could
rectify these. That was the first priority, and, I must say, I think that went along
very well over a period of time. It wasnt something that was accomplished in a
couple of weeks.

The next priority was the credentialing and training of our physicians. There was
a great concern that we had physicians that were not fully qualified. We decided
that before any new civilian physicians were recruited into the Army, that the
Surgeon General, himself, would look at those records and pass on that so that
he would be able then to take full responsibility for all of the new doctors that
came in.

I looked over all of their records and personally approved or

disapproved their entry onto Active Duty.

Prior to this, we had had several

physicians who had come in that were foreign trained and they did not have the
best reputation at some of our post hospitals. There was a considerable amount
of concern about that. The credentialing of all of our physicians had to come up
to civilian standards, and we launched an all-out effort to do that. There were
many other priorities, of course, that we had, but those were the two that were
the top when we first got there.

Q:

As the Surgeon General, the Health Services Command did not directly come
under your command. How did you interface with Health Services Command?

A:

Well, even though I was not the formal commander, the Chief of Staff of the Army
told me that he looked to me for all things medical.
108

That gave me a clear

indication that I was to work very closely with the Health Services Command
commander to produce the type of medical care that was expected by the Army
staff and the Chief of Staff of the Army. We worked very closely together and
really never had any major problems.

The other thing that was apparent that needed to be done at that time was that
we needed to get with the Chief of Staff and talk about the problems that were
bothering his troops with medical care.

One of them was the appointment

system. Our appointment system was archaic and it was very difficult to get
appointments and we didnt have modern equipment to handle that. One of our
initiatives in the budget was to get money to fund adequate appointment systems
equipment for all of our hospitals. The Chief of Staff supported this fully. Many
of the hospitals were understaffed with civilian personnel, especially civilian
nurses. The Chief of Staff also fully supported that. There were several of these
and the Chief and the Army staff were very supportive of them and I am forever
grateful for that.

Q:

How necessary was Health Services Command?

A:

Oh, I think it was very necessary.

It would be impossible for the Surgeon

Generals Office, which was a staff office, to run all of the day-to-day business of
providing healthcare, which the Health Services Command did. It would have
made a huge headquarters in Washington, and, in fact, during my tour as a
Surgeon General, we had an ongoing study, an extensive study, and I might say
109

an expensive study about combining the Surgeon Generals Office and the
Health Services Command. There were several alternative ways to do this that
were considered.

We presented this to the Army staff and to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Health Affairs and others, and we decided that at that time we would not combine
the two headquarters. One big reason was that it would bring too many people
into Washington, D.C. This was not something that politically should have been
done at that time, and also this would not have been practical to move the
majority of the Surgeon Generals Office down to San Antonio where the Health
Services Command was. They really were needed in Washington. So that study,
although it was a very important one, did not come to the combination of the
Health Services Command and the Surgeon Generals Office. It did come about
in later years, as we all know.

Q:

During your tour as the Surgeon General, the Army Medical Personnel Agency
was moved under the U.S. Army Personnel Command (PERSCOM). What
brought this about?

A:

For many years, the Surgeon Generals office had its own personnel system and
the rest of the Army was taken care of under the Deputy Chief of Staff for
Personnel (DCSPER), who oversaw the PERSCOM system. There had always
been some concern by the Army staff that the Surgeon General should not have
his own personnel system. Also, there had been some problems alleged that
110

there had been manipulation of some of the promotion boards and selection
boards for command, etc. This all culminated in a problem, which was best
solved by moving the Surgeon Generals personnel people to the Armys
personnel command. This caused a great deal of concern, of course, by the
corps chiefs, because they felt that they would lose their control of assignments,
which was an important thing for them to have. The agreement was that they
would maintain that control. This was not something that I did without a great
deal of consideration, and it was really something that I had no real control over.
We were told to do it and we did it, and we tried to do it with the least amount of
turmoil possible. I know that in the years that followed this that the personnel
system continued to function almost as it had in the past.

Q:

General Becker, during you tour as the Surgeon General an initiative was started
to commission physician assistants from warrant officers to commissioned
officers. When you were Surgeon General, how did you see this commissioning
process?

A:

I was in favor of it. The P.A.s or physicians assistants had always been close
associates of mine and good friends and I respected them. We felt that it was
proper to commission them and we finally did win that battle. They became a
part of the Army Medical Specialist Corps.
improvement in their status.

111

I think it was a long overdue

Q:

Was there any pressure to bring the medical services of the respective military
services together?

A:

Oh, of course, that pressure has always been there from the Congress and the
Department of Defense, because it has always been felt that there was some
redundancy by having three Surgeon Generals and three medical services. This
was an initiative and it culminated in the formation of a joint medical command
down in San Antonio, Texas, which had under it Wilfred Hall, and BAMC and
some clinics as I remember. This command had a commander separate from
both of these hospitals.

The Congress had passed a law to give the budget for Brooke Army Medical
Center over to the Air Force. It became apparent reality that there had to be a
joint command or some arrangement, so that the budget could be distributed
properly to Brooke Army Medical Center. I was involved in some of the early
work on this. My personal feeling was that it would have been better if the Air
Force hospital (Wilford Hall) had taken a part of the staff from Brooke Army
Medical Center and assumed a parent relationship with Brooke, rather than set
up a separate joint medical command. The Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Health Affairs did not agree with this and formed the medical command.

Q:

General Becker, how did you interface with the other Surgeon Generals of the
services?

112

A:

Well, we were very close and we met on regular occasions. We had a meeting
with the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs at least weekly. We all
belonged to the same organization the AMSUS, which is the Association of
Military Surgeons and that included the Surgeon General from the Public Health,
as well as the director of the Veterans Health system. I would characterize our
association as very close and working closely together. We were not totally
combined, but most of our guidance instead of coming from the chiefs of our
military service came from the Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs. This was
the direction that Congress wanted to go. It was apparent to me that while
testifying that congress wanted to have one person they could look to, for things
medical in the Defense Department rather than talking to each Surgeon General
separately.

Q:

Was there any time or any instances where the guidance you received from
Health Affairs was different than what you received from the Chief of Staff of the
Army?

A:

I suppose there probably was, but in general, the Chief of Staff of the Army fully
realized that since we all worked for the Secretary of Defense. Whatever the
Secretary of Defense approved and the Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Health Affairs did in his name was to be done. It was never a point of major
conflict or concern.

113

Q:

General Becker, why did you see it necessary to initiate a program called We
Care?

A:

Well, I felt the Chief of Staff of the Army and most of the staff, the senior staff, felt
that the ordinary soldier and his wife and family really didnt perceive that we
cared much about them. We in fact did care and we needed to show them that.
That was the real reason to start the We Care program. I think that it worked to
some extent. We made it very clear down through the hospital commanders,
down to everyone, that they were not to be nasty to patients. They were to treat
them with respect, and to listen to their concerns, and to take care of them, and
do that with a caring attitude. If they didnt do that, we would replace them, which
we did on a few occasions. It was somewhat of a hard-nosed approach, but it
was effective and most medical people wanted the patients to feel that they care
about them. It wasnt the hardest thing in the world to do, because we had the
right kind of people already in our system.

Q:

How did you develop the future medical leaders for the Army?

A:

Well, of course, there was a formal system for doing that, where one goes to
different schools and they have ever-increasing job responsibility. My personal
approach to it was I always kept my eye out for very promising people and I
would spend some time with them. I wasnt sitting down telling them how to do
their jobs, but I would talk to them about their family, how they liked the Army,
what kind of problems they were having, the job they were doing. If they came to
me with problems, we would work them out.
114

I think one of the critical things that one must do in developing a leader is to let
them do the job. We were always very, strict about this that you give a person a
job then dont interfere with them, except that if youre having difficulties that you
need to intervene and get them something else they need to do the job with. But
you shouldnt be micro-managing what theyre trying to do.

I would take

promising folks and put them in either formal or informal jobs. A lot of times Id
just have them do some sort of project for me to see how they did. Wed give
them the praise that they deserved for it when they finished. I think that over the
years we were successful in interesting some physicians in command and
executive medicine in the Army.

I think I need to fall back for a minute and say that physicians are not naturally
inclined to be commanders, and Surgeon Generals, and Deputy Surgeon
Generals, and directors of Healthcare Ops, and battalion commanders, etc.
They went to school and spent many hard years to be clinicians. The Army
needs a certain number of dedicated clinicians to be the medical people in its
ranks that can perform the missions that Ive already mentioned. We could get
just pure clinicians by hiring them from the civilian workforce. The development
of a person, who is going to be someday the commandant of the Academy of
Health Sciences, takes a long time. It also takes an attitude on the part of a
physician to be willing to do some field things to understand what the Army is

115

about, to like soldiers, to want to ensure that they have good healthcare in both
peace and wartime.

So its a long, slow educational process that one has to do. I did that with quite a
few young physicians and I believe we were successful. Im always very proud
of those that we had mentored and looked after when they had actually become
a real valuable functioning member of the Army.

Q:

As the Surgeon General, one of your major responsibilities was in food

inspection.

Were there any issues pertaining to the food inspection, food

procurement type of things?

A:

Yes, one that I recall very distinctly was Meals Ready to Eat. This became a
national media interest item. We had several of our food packs that the Meals
Ready to Eat was in were perforated. Also we had some bad meals that came
from one contractor. This contractor was producing these perforated bags. We
had to do a large-scale investigation to find out what was going on and why this
was happening. We shut them down and that caused some political concern, as
you might imagine. We investigated the plant and we found that they had some
old equipment that was rough and had little stickers, if you will, on the equipment
that handled the bags. These little stickers would poke holes in the bags. We
were able to allow that contractor to resume once he corrected all of these
problems.

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There was a good deal of media interest and I know that I did appear on national
television eating a Meal Ready to Eat. There wasnt any problem and we werent
trying to poison our troops or anything like that. I was interviewed by some of the
national media commentators about the problem. It was just something that was
of concern for a short period of time, but it really was not a terrible problem
because millions of Meals Ready to Eat had already been consumed, and, of
course, millions more have been consumed since then.

Q:

Was the HIV/AIDS an issue during your tenure as Surgeon General?

A:

Oh, yes.

It was very much an issue. We were in the forefront of trying to

develop a HIV treatment program. We were able to set up a special ward at

Walter Reed to study the HIV patients that we had, so that we could learn more
about it. Our goal was to develop a vaccine and to find out exactly why there
were so many cases of HIV amongst our soldiers. This, of course, drew national
attention and, certainly, a lot of congressional attention.

The Army Medical

Research and Development Command one of the leaders in the United States in
the war against AIDS. So it was very much an issue and one, I think, that we did
a great deal to increase the knowledge of the public about HIV and to further the
research into some sort of prevention or cure for HIV. We all know that we
havent found that yet, but I know that military medical R&D has been a big part
of that effort.

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Q:

General Becker, what was your relation with other medical leaders of allied
nations?

A:

We had very good relationships with several of the Surgeon Generals from
different countries. They visited me in Washington. I remember several trips.
One was to see the Surgeon General in Israel. This was at a time that we
wanted to improve our relationship with them. We also were very interested in
pre-positioning hospitals and medical equipment in Israel. The Surgeon General
from Australia also invited us down there to one of their Director Generals
Training Sessions.

This was an annual event where he brought all of his senior

medical people in, including the commanders of the hospitals, and they had a
weeklong training session.

The Director General of the Australian Medical

Service for the Army often had visitors come in from other countries. My wife
and I were invited. This, I believe, was mainly to foster good relation between
the two countries. Theyve always been good. I did learn a lot more about their
medical capability and what we could expect if we had to go into a conflict
together.

I also tried to educate him and his senior officers on what our

capabilities were.

The Surgeon General of Thailand also invited us to his country. We had a lot of
close dealings medically with Thailand, because we had a branch of our Army
Medical Research and Development Command over there. It was a laboratory
that was working on infectious diseases and vaccines, as well as treatments for

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various illnesses that would occur in that part of the world. It was an important
relationship that needed to be constantly worked on.

These trips, although it would be hard for one to see an immediate result from
them, were more in the long-range good will building category. I think that was
accomplished and I was very pleased to be able to participate.

Q:

During your tenure as the Surgeon General, the Army Medical Department
Regiment was formed. What are your views on the regiment?

A:

Oh, Im very upbeat about the Medical Regiment because I think it was part of
the rebuilding of the self-respect that the medics had for themselves and also
that all the troops had for the medics. It gave us a historical basis on which to
form an association that would last past our Active Duty time.

The Medical

Regiment was also a vehicle where we could recognize some of our outstanding
people. We wanted to develop a museum to maintain a place where we could
review our heritage and our history. The regiment was extremely valuable. The
Sergeant Major in the Surgeon Generals office was very instrumental in causing
this to happen, along with a lot of other hard working dedicated people. I think it
was one of the real steps forward in the Army Medical Department and it survives
to this day and I believe is doing what it was intended to do.

Q:

Why did you establish the Senior Medical Enlisted Advisors to the Surgeon
General?
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A:

Well, in the Surgeon Generals Office, there had not been an enlisted person
other than some low ranking enlisted people that happen to work there on
occasion. There was no one to speak to the enlisted problems. We had corps
chiefs for every other corps, but no one representing the enlisted. I felt very
strongly that they needed to be represented at the table. I think this was one of
the better things that I did, and its certainly one of the things that Im most proud
of, that I was able to bring in a Sergeant Major who did in fact look after the
interests of our medical soldiers and our enlisted personnel. He did this in an
outstanding manner. I think the Medical Regiment that we discussed was a part
of this.

We also set up a wall of pictures of our Medal of Honor winners that were
enlisted. This was down at the Academy of Health Sciences where everybody,
including all enlisted students could see it. It was a matter of building pride in our
corps, and also having someone have a voice up in Washington about our
enlisted personnel. I think this improved the promotion opportunities, promotion
boards, the training of our enlisted people, and many, many, aspects of the
development of the enlisted personnel.

Another thing that grew out of it, I remember, was the NCO Academy that was
formed at Fort Sam Houston. He also had meetings with all of the sergeant
major and command sergeant majors from the major medical commands of the
Army. I would meet with them regularly and hear their problems. They would
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work on certain problems that I gave them to solve and come to me with a
solution. It was something, I think, that was way past due and I think it turned out
to be very successful.

Q:

What was your relationship with the medical forces of the Reserves and National
Guard?

A:

The majority of the medical support for any kind of a contingency was in the
Reserves and Guard. It was readily apparent to me that a lot of attention needed
to be paid to the Medical Reserve and Guard. I had a warm spot in my heart for
them from Healthcare Ops time, and Deputy Surgeon Generals time, and so
they all knew me and I knew them. I had a Reserve senior officer advisor and a
National Guard senior officer advisor. These were one or two-star generals.
They would bring some of their senior officers in and we would meet regularly
regarding problems in the Medical Reserve and Guard. I think that we were able
to work on a lot of these problems and over the period of time that I worked with
it, the number of people that were in their proper slots and training, etc.,
improved a great deal. Also the number of physicians we needed to go to war. I
think that special attention paid by the senior officers in the Army Medical
Department to the Reserve and Guard paid off and improved our chances of
being able to medically support a large contingency.

It was a very gratifying experience, because I got to rub elbows with a lot of very
highly qualified clinicians that I otherwise would not have had a chance to meet
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and get to know. I went to many, many Guard and Reserve meetings, including
their national meetings. We felt very close to them and that they were a part of
the force, and I hope that they felt that they were a very important part of the
medical force and were just as important in it as the Active Duty people were.
We had a concept called a One Force Concept and I truly believed in that and
promoted it.

Q:

How has technology changed the way Army medicine is practiced?

A:

Well, I think a great deal. There were some emerging technologies in my tenure
as Surgeon General and one of the things that I was instrumental in starting and
was involved in the early days of it was teleradiology.

I always felt that we

needed to be able to project x-rays and CAT scans and things of that order back
to our consultants in CONUS, the continental United States, and get their opinion
on it rather than have them up in the forward surgical hospitals. There was a
large R&D effort directed toward this and it culminated in the present day
teleradiology system that is many military hospitals, as well as civilian hospitals.

Also, telemedicine was in its infancy. We had been working with it for a long time
and it certainly was something that we needed very badly. Computers were
coming on rapidly.

There was a great deal of problem with developing the

clinical software that was needed, because it was a long and laborious process
and we were working with the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs to
develop this software. We spent literally millions of dollars over a period of
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years, but we were working ahead of the technology. We were not as successful
as we had hoped in developing these software systems and, in fact, very often
the civilian community would have them developed before we were able to. It
became apparent that a joint venture between our civilian and military experts
was needed to develop this software and to introduce into our hospitals an
automated patient care system.

Q:

While you were the Surgeon General were there any significant advances in the
health and fitness areas in the senior Army?

A:

Oh, yes, there were significant advances. We developed the Health Promotion
Program and the Fit to Win in conjunction with the DCSPER and the DCSOPS.
This was a total rework of a fitness program throughout the Army. We used a lot
of civilian consultants, including Dr. Cooper. This, I think, was a far reaching
effort that did culminate in a very successful program and did in fact improve the
health and fitness of our troops and the way we tested them for health and
fitness was revised also.

Q:

What was the Army Medical Departments involvement in the body composition
testing in the overweight program?

A:

Well, we were deeply involved in that. We tried to first of all a simple, accurate
way to determine the percent of body fat. There was a great concern in the Army
staff and in the Congress and Department of Defense that there was too much
fat in the military and that there were too many fat troops who couldnt perform in
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combat.

Being overweight also caused health problems.

A program was

instituted to estimate percent of body fat. We used pinch tests. The most valid
test was to immerse the total person and then weigh him or her. This was only
done in extreme cases. First we weighed the patient and looked at charts to see
what they should weigh, etc. Then we would measure skin fold thickness by
pinch testing to determine the percentage of body fat. If somebody had too much
body fat, they were instructed to lose weight.

They were given diets.

Medical Department was involved with that with our dieticians.

The

If that was

unsuccessful, sometimes these people were eliminated from the military.

Q:

General Becker, how did you establish continuity of effort in the Surgeon
Generals office while you were traveling or attending the numerous meetings
that you had to attend?

A:

I had a Deputy Surgeon General who ran the office when I was away and did an
outstanding job. There was a senior Medical Service Corps officer who was the
executive officer. He ran the office and insured that the quality of work that was
done was of the highest quality and timely. I think the main continuity that kept
our office together and was our secretary. Shed been the secretary for several
Surgeon Generals before me and she had the real memory of the office in her
mind. She had the files to back that up. Now, she was an outstanding person.
She was Miss Beverly McAnallen and I am very appreciative of all of the
assistance that she gave me and for her great service to the Army Medical

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Department. We would have indeed been a less than successful organization

without her effort.

Q:

Did you establish a forum to provide guidance and direction for your vision as the
Surgeon General to your medical senior leaders?

A:

Oh, yes, we had commanders conferences and I personally visited most of the
commanders in the field, the hospital commanders and unit commanders, and
talked with them, talked with their staffs, gave speeches at banquets. I attended
literally hundreds of commanders conferences on lower level that the Health
Services Command and 7th MEDCOM hosted. We always put out plenty of
information through our PAO.

We had a journal that was produced over in

Europe and we often had articles in that. The Health Services Command often
put out things that the Surgeon General wanted published. I think there was no
lack of guidance about the vision that we saw. I believe that all responded to it
very well.

I was very pleased with the response we got and the turnaround in the Army
Medical Department. During my time there I saw us come out of the media black
hole, as I called it, to a time when we were again respected for the dedicated
medics that we were. I think this worked very well. A lot of credit is due to my
Public Affairs and Information officer that came when I first came into office. She
was extremely aggressive in getting the word out and to insuring that everyone

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understood what it was that we wanted to have happen in the Army Medical
Department.

Q:

Did you receive any guidance or feedback from your senior leaders concerning
the advances that you made in rebuilding and reestablishing the Army Medical
Department?

A:

Yes, the Chief of Staff of the Army was, I believe, very pleased with our effort.
He felt that it was turning around. Of course, he worked on it, too. Everybody
did. It was a bad situation. There had been many, many negative articles about
Army medicine. We had some unfortunate deaths. We had one practitioner,
who was in the federal prison because he had impersonated an anesthesiologist.
We had some doctors that were under investigation for various and sundry
alleged crimes. It was a bad situation. We did slowly but surely work our way
out of that hole. It was one of the things that were critical in our tenure as the
Surgeon General.

Q:

Were the other services under the same kind of scrutiny at that time?

A:

Not that I recall. Im sure that all military medicine was in a state of flux, because
all of medicine was. It rubbed off on all of us. They didnt have the media
problem that we had.

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Q:

Later on, after being the Surgeon General for a couple of years, did you change
any of your priorities or missions to other things that were coming up at that
time?

A:

Certainly, because as we had worked on some of the other things they seemed
to be resolving. Then we turned our attention to some of the other problems.
One of the major problems was the aging and deterioration of our medical
facilities. We were able to testify before the Congress about these and work with
the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs to get several of our older
hospitals replaced. The one in Seattle, at Tacoma, at Fort Lewis, was one that I
remember very clearly. We worked on this one for several years, not only while I
served as Surgeon General, but before as Deputy. The hospital at Fort Sam
Houston, Brooke Army Medical Center was another one.

There was some

conflict between what we felt was an adequate hospital down there and what the
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs felt was an adequate hospital.
That was eventually resolved and a fine hospital resulted.

There was an awful lot of help from the military community in San Antonio in
resolving that issue, I might add. They all banded together to make sure that the
people in the Defense Department understood clearly what kind of hospital they
wanted there.

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Q:

General Becker, with the busy schedule that you had as both in 7th Medical
Command and then as Surgeon General you had long absences from your
family. How did your family deal with the absences?

A:

They dealt with it very well, I think; better than I probably would have. My wife
has always supported what I did and never wavered. She kept the home fires
burning, so to speak, in Washington, D.C. We had fine quarters at Fort McNair.
The wives of the other senior officers lived there and were a great support to her.
They had the same problem, I might add. We had a good social life when I was
there. We went to various and sundry Army and civilian functions and enjoyed
living in Washington and at Fort McNair. My wife was the honorary president of
our Army Medical Department Wives Club and they met frequently. She had
many friends there from past associations. They were very supportive of her.
We weathered the storm and enjoyed our tour there.

Q:

Your daughter spent numerous years in the military in the Army, and especially
during the period when you were the Surgeon General. How do you think this
affected her, you being the Surgeon General, her being in that department?

A:

I was very proud of her service. I tried to not interfere or be involved with what
she did. She made her own way and never really told people that she was the
daughter of the Surgeon General. I think, certainly, many people figured it out
pretty quick, but she was a Medical Service Corps officer and she was very
successful in her commands and in her teaching career at the academy. She
also got into the fitness arena and was very successful at that.
128

So I was

extremely proud of her. She was very careful not to use the fact that her father
was a lieutenant general to further her career either. She truly did it on her own.
Both her mother and I were very proud of her.

Q:

General Becker, what led to your decision to retire?

A:

Well, it wasnt so much a decision as it was timing, because the Surgeon General
only serves for a specified amount of time. When he retires, theres no other job
for him, or whenever he finishes that tour. I did make my tour a little shorter,
because it had been for years a policy to bring a new Surgeon General in just
about the time the budget came out and he had no input into it. I felt that the new
Surgeon General should have some input into the budget that he was to use in
his first year in office. So I retired a little early, and actually didnt serve the full
four years. The new timing has been maintained since then, I believe.

Q:

Please comment on the process of retirement and transition as it affected you

and your family.

A:

Well, retirement was not a traumatic process for us. I was about ready to retire,
because Id been under stress for so long that I knew that it would be very nice
not to have to be worrying about what was going to happen to all of the people in
the Army Medical Department or when the next calamity was going to occur. So
it was not a bad time. My wife was ready also. We already had a place out in
the country north of Washington, D.C. where we were going to retire and there
was a lot of work to do there. It went easily, it was well done. The Chief of Staff
129

of the Army presided over my ceremony and I was very pleased. He said some
nice words, as he always does. My family was there to hear that so I thought it
was a very good experience.

Q:

When you retired and went to your new house did you have any plans to do any
type of work or were you going into formal retirement?

A:

At first I did not have any plans to work. I had a lot of things I wanted to do
around the place that needed to be done and also some trips that we wanted to
take. But after a year, it became apparent to me that I needed to do something
else. So I began to look around for another job.

Q:

What type of job did you do after that year?

A:

I was hired by the Veterans Administration to be a Chief of Staff at the Veterans

Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina. The Oteen Veterans Administration
Hospital. As the Chief of Staff I was in charge of the medical staff of the hospital
and there was an administrator that ran the hospital. I reported to him and took
care of all of the clinical problems for him. I had the nurses, and the doctors, and
the dentists, all of the other professional people under me. It was a good job. It
was taxing, and challenging, and kept me fully occupied.

Q:

Was there any time when you were with the V.A. that you were able to
reestablish any projects or any work with the military?

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A:

Well thats a good question. I think that I did, of course, there are a lot of the
former Reserve and Guard people that work for the V.A. I got to interface with
them. Also I was privileged to meet with former military colleagues on medical
problems that affected both the V.A. and the military. Other than that, I was not
deeply involved with military problems.

Q:

What non-military aspects of your life are or have been important to you?

A:

Well, certainly my wife and my kids and grandkids have been very important to
me. My wife and I, after the kids were grown and gone felt like we needed to
travel and do some of the things we enjoyed doing. We enjoyed being outdoors
and hiking, and biking, and skiing, and we have pursued those interests. When
we were in North Carolina working at the V.A. hospital, we were active hikers in
the mountains. Every winter we would come to the west to ski.

Also, I felt like it was time for me to do some of my civic duties. So I joined the
Civitan Club and became involved with the local club and was later the president.
I got interested in some of the research that Civitans were doing in
developmental disabilities in young children. This was being conducted at their
International Research Center in Birmingham. I became a committee member
on Civitan International Board that monitored the operation, budgeting, and
research of the Civitan International Research Center.

Q:

Were you involved with any other organizations other than Civilian?
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A:

Oh, yes, I was deeply involved with Habitat for Humanity and am still today. I did
carpenter work and whatever was required to help build houses, and I became a
board member of the local Habitat for Humanity Board in Asheville, North
Carolina. This was very interesting to me and is still a challenge that I enjoy
doing.

Q:

General Becker, after your retirement from the V.A. were you involved with
anything more than affected military medicine or the V.A. medicine?

A:

Oh, yes, I was asked to be a member of the Transition Commission, as it was

called, in 1998. This was formed by the Congress to look into the problems of
soldiers transitioning to civilian life. This involved the use of both military and
medical facilities, and the Veterans Administration medical facilities. I served on
this for several months and we produced a lengthy report for the Congress. In
this capacity, I think I was able to bring some unique aspects of military medicine
to the table. And they better understood how the Army Medical Department
worked, because there were no other members of Army medicine on this
commission.

Q:

Since your retirement, have you been able to keep up with the trends in military
medicine?

A:

Oh, yes, to some extent. Every year the Surgeon General has called former
Surgeon Generals back and briefed them on whats going on and asked them for
help on occasions. Also, the present Surgeon General sends out a newsletter
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about every month or two indicating whats going on in military medicine. I get
papers, and journals, and things that I keep up with it on. Ive not had any real
hands-on work in that area.

Q:

General Becker what drives you and to what do you attribute your success?

A:

Well, I suspect other people can answer that better than I can. The feeling that if
a person has a job he should do it to the best of his ability has always driven me.
Also, I always wanted to treat people fair and try to get the most out of them,
because most people have some very good points. If one finds those and works
with them, they get an awful lot more out of them than they would trying to make
them do something that theyre not suited for.

I suspect my success is probably related a lot to the people Ive worked with,
helping me in my career, but also Ive been, I think, a very steady worker. I never
thought that it would be an eight-hour-a-day job. I always put everything I had
into the job. I do not believe that I was driven toward any certain goal by having
set that goal when I was a very young person and driving myself toward it. That
was not the way that it happened, as best I recalled. I never in my wildest
dreams thought that I would ever even make a career in the military, let alone be
the Surgeon General of the Army.

Q:

General Becker, youre familiar with the Zero Defect Program. What are your
comments on that?
133

A:

Well, I feel very strongly that as that program affects people that you cannot
really have a Zero Defects system. Its a terrible thing to hold people to that
sort of a standard. They have to be allowed to make mistakes, and improve, and
learn from those mistakes and not ruin their life when they make one. I think that
you can ask most people in the Army that I had considerable tolerance for people
making honest mistakes.

Now, I didnt have much tolerance for people that

made the same mistake several times and never improved. In fact, I had zero
tolerance for that.

I believe a Zero Defects program is counterproductive. It leads to lying, cheating,

and stealing. Also, its not possible in the systems that we operate to have no
defects. It just is absolutely impossible. When you have to make a report that
you had zero defects and lie about it, then that becomes counterproductive. I
see nothing wrong with having a goal of lowering the number of defects in
anything that youre trying to do. We always strive towards that in medicine and
in the military.

Q:

What do you most wish you could have accomplished during your career, both in
military and post military that you didnt get to do?

A:

Well, I did more than I ever expected so Im not worried about a lot of things I
didnt get done, but I think that I do wish that I had been a better clinical doctor. I
realize that to do that would have been to the detriment of some of the other
things I did. I would hate to think that all of the training and the early work that I
134

did in orthopedic surgery went to waste. I was a successful practitioner and

teacher of orthopedic surgery, and I think that if Id have kept at that I might have
been able to contribute a great deal to orthopedic surgery. But that was not to
be, because I had to do other things. Im sure that there are more things I could
have done as a Surgeon General of the Army and made it a better place for the
people that were coming in after me, and also to improve the medical care of our
soldiers and their families. Im sure that all of us could do better at everything we
do. But I really dont have any terrible, bad feelings about things that I didnt get
accomplished.

Q:

What counsel or advice would you offer to a soldier, officer, and physician
entering the Army today?

A:

Well, first I would tell him that the Armys not for everybody. Its certainly not for
the faint of heart. If youre looking for a light touch and an easy job, then you
must go elsewhere. But if youre looking for a place where number one, you can
contribute, number two, you can be with people that are highly motivated and
dedicated. Then the Army might be a place that you should look at. One of the
great aspects of Army life is that truly dedicated people surround you. Theyre
certainly not doing it for the money. We all make a living in the service, but
nobody gets rich. Ive never known a more dedicated group of people than the
folks that I worked with in the Army.

Q:

How do you want to be remembered?

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A:

Well, I think Id like to be remembered as the Surgeon General that really knew a
bit about field medicine and tried to improve the readiness of the Army Medical
Department, and to improve the healthcare for the soldier and his family. Other
than that, I dont have any great desires. I believe that I was able to make some
inroads in both of those areas. Im very proud of our accomplishments.

Q:

Are there any other issues we havent discussed which you would like to
address?

A:

Yes, I think that since weve had the loss of the threat from Russia our armed
services have really been downsized. I fear that may be a terrible mistake. We
dont have to be as big as we were during the height of the Cold War. Someone
needs to very carefully figure out what the size should be. I know that good
people are working on that problem, but if the Congress and our President and
his Cabinet are not supportive of the defense of this country, than I fear that our
entire defense establishment will become small and ineffective. I would certainly
hate to see that happen.

Q:

General Becker, what do you think of the new types of missions that the Army
has been taking on such as peacekeeping, stabilization of countries, and
humanitarian types of missions that our Army is engaged in?

A:

Well, I dont h have any real problem with that. I think that these are acceptable
and reasonable missions for the Army. Certainly, the Army has to remain trained
to fight as it always has been. The Army Medical Department has always been
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involved in these kinds of things on a small scale. I think now a medical leader
has to have a broader look and a broader training to accomplish these missions.
We have all types of patients that will be encountered in these peacekeeping
missions throughout the world. They have to be able to think about medical
support of these missions, which would not necessarily involve the treatment of
casualties from war wounds. I believe that its just an increased challenge for the
medical leadership to be ready on very short notice to accept these types of
missions. I know that weve been doing it for the past several years.

I am

assured that our medical leaders have been up to the challenge and have been
able to successfully complete their missions, wherever they might be in the
world.

Q:

General Becker, what is the thing that you most enjoyed about your service in the
military and to the country?

A:

I think the thing that I got the most fun out of and the real joy out of was the
people that I had an opportunity to work with and the kind of people that they
were.

Ive already spoken about their dedication and their hard work.

But

military folks, not just medical, have a great camaraderie. They can work together
to get a job done. Thats always been a pleasure to me, to be able to be with a
group of folks that when theyre given a mission, they can accomplish it. Or
when theyre given a job, they can get it done. We were a team that couldnt and
wouldnt be beat

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Ive been privileged to serve with some really outstanding people, and especially
in the Army Medical Department. Many of the young officers and enlisted troops
that Ive worked with have inspired me and many of them are certainly what one
would class as real heroes. Those who flew the med evac missions and nursed
the casualties giving their all are a source of great pride to me. Many of my
young officers that worked for me in various positions have always given much
more than 100 percent and this has always been a joy.

Back before I was an executive, when I was a clinical doctor, I derived a lot of
satisfaction training residents. Seeing them develop from a raw young doctor out
of an internship into a very capable and confident orthopedic surgeon was
always a pleasure. I was very privileged to have been able to do that. It was a
great career and if I had it to do over again I doubt I would change much.

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