• Favorite class at United States Military Academy (West Point)?

It would be hard to pick just one.  I had a broad range of academic interests and I enjoyed science classes, like biology and geology, foreign language classes (I was introduced to Russian) and my initial engineering classes like statics, dynamics and thermodynamics.

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• What was your favorite aspect of West Point (academics, athletics, military, etc.)?

One the best aspects of West Point was that the experience was a combination of all three!  I enjoyed the academics in a military setting.  I had a great athletic opportunities: my plebe year I started out on the cycling team but was eventually selected for the parachute team which became my primary extracurricular activity for my remaining three years.

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• If you could choose between any civilian college and West Point, would you still choose West Point?

Yes, I couldn’t imagine my career without my West Point education.

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• What was the worst part about West Point?

I still think it was the toughest four years of my life.  Not the worst part, but I didn’t appreciate or enjoy it in the moment nearly as much as I should have.

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• Did you find it hard to balance academics, athletics, and military life at West Point?

Yes, the system is built to pack in more activity in the day than you can schedule.  You quickly become a master of time management and setting goals and priorities.

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• What year (plebe, yearling, cow, firstie) would you say was the hardest at West Point and why?

Plebe year is definitely the biggest adjustment.  It’s a dramatic contrast from life at home in high school!

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• Was there anything that you did in high school that helped you in West Point (that you would suggest to do)?

Academics:  take the hardest classes your school offers.  Take 4 years of English, Math, Science, Social Science/History and foreign language even if your school doesn’t require it

Athletics: be a multi-sport athlete and take positions of responsibility

Leadership:  pick one or two extracurricular activities to become an expert AND rise to leadership in that activity or organization

Civic/Public responsibility:  serve and volunteer in your community

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• I heard that West Point tests cadets every semester, how did you maintain to pass those tests every semester?

There will be exams and milestones throughout your West Point experience and professional career.  They are challenges to embrace!

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• Do you think that majoring in Environmental Engineering at West Point was helpful taking the MCAT?

I think it gave me a great math and science background, but ultimately your major doesn’t matter as much as taking the standard required prerequisites for medical school.  For this reason I recommend majoring something you really enjoy and broaden yourself and differentiate yourself from typical pre-med students.

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• How rigorous was the workload from classes?

Rigorous, but doable.  It’s not so much that any single class is that hard, it’s the totality of the experience: all of your classes + all of the demands on your time.

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• Did you have fun at West Point?

Often, but it was hard work.  I ultimately met my wife near my final year at West Point and it changed my outlook on the experience quite a bit—brightened it by an order of magnitude.

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• After you graduate from West Point as a Second Lieutenant, how do you move up ranks?

It’s a mixture of time-based and eventually merit based promotion.

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• Can you explain how different USUHS is compared to any other medical school?

Biggest thing is your obligated to military service after graduation and your education has a distinctively military medicine bent.  You wear a military uniform and usually train in military hospitals because ultimately your goal is to take care of members of the military.​

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• Can you also explain how you managed to get emergency medicine as your match?

It’s a combination of academic record and matching your personality with the personality of the program.  The military does a good job of putting the right person in the right program.

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• What made you choose emergency medicine?

I like being a “jack of all trades” in a teamwork-oriented environment, punctuated excitement, and a lot of relevance to the military/deployed environment.

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• As an emergency medicine physician are there multiple paths to take (combat/ non-combat) or is it not a choice?

There are slightly different career paths, but all emergency physicians are expected to be capable of deploying overseas.  That doesn’t mean you’ll be in combat—you can be assigned to a field hospital a long way from the action.  But there is potential danger in any type of military deployment, and it's part of the uniqueness of serving as a physician in the military.

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• What was a typical day you had as an emergency medicine physician on a good day?

We work shift work, which is unique in medicine.  Sometimes you work during the day, sometimes in the evening and sometimes overnight.  The rotating schedule has both good points and bad points.  While you don’t work every day, you do still have “admin” days where you don’t have to work in the emergency department, but you may still have collateral duties or training to do.

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• What was a typical day you had as an emergency medicine physician on a bad day?

There are some days where you see some awful tragedies.  Overseas and back home in the US, the ER is the entry point into our healthcare system and we see people at their worst, having the worst experience of their lives.  We see people die and deliver that news to their families.  That can be burdensome.  Medicine, and especially emergency medicine, is a special calling.

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• What was your favorite (or best-case) emergency to have?

We call them “slam dunk” cases, where you walk in the room, you know exactly what it is, and know their something you can do about it, and the patient leaves happy.  I think of things like shoulder or finger dislocations—they feel instant relief.  I remember a few times when someone using a nail gun skewered several fingers, essentially “nailing” them together.  In the 2-3 times I saw this I was able to remove the nail and wash it out for them.  They did very well, but they are so grateful because it was a really scary experience for them!​

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• Did you ever have to interact with patients and their families, if so, how did you explain things to them (sympathy, level of terminology)?

Always, it was a critical aspect of the job.  Communicating death was the hardest part and we even have special training to do that well—it’s a skill to practice and I’m way out of practice in doing that.

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• Going on special operations as a physician, were you put in positions where you were in danger as well as your patient?

Yes, in my role in special operations, my specialty in emergency medicine was a benefit but not a requirement.  I had colleagues that were family physicians or internal medicine specialists doing the same role.  We coordinate the care of the Soldiers in the special forces unit.  Sometimes that meant going on “patrols” with them in enemy territory, but not often, and not a role that every physician is required to fill.  I volunteered for those types of jobs rather than be assigned to a hospital.

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• What was the scariest position you have been put in (either as a physician or a soldier)?

There were a few scary helicopter rides or ride in the back of an armored vehicle.

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• Have you done research on medicine in space (muscles atrophying, etc.), if so what was it about?  

Yes, I participated in a study where I was the subject (all astronauts participate).  We measure our strength and bone density before and after flight.  Most of us stay about the same or lose a little, but our exercise machines on the space station prevent it from happening to a great degree.  I also participated in a study that used mice as a subject and treated them with a special drug to see if it would help prevent bone and muscle loss.

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• Was it hard starting a family while in the military?

Yes, but I married a very understanding woman who loves the military as much as I do.​