Biographical Info

Born in Wichita, Kansas on July 13th, 1977

Family Relocated to Union, Kentucky – Summer of 1989

Junior High – Ockerman Middle School

High – Boone County High freshman year

                Ryle High Sophomore through Senior Years

College – Georgetown College in Georgetown, KY (1995-1999)

·         graduated BS biology in 1999 (Summa Cum Laude)

·         Cross Country team as a walk-on Sophomore through Senior years

·         Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity

·         President’s Ambassador

·         ODK Leadership, Tri-Beta Biology, & Freshman Honoraries

·         Habitat for Humanity

·         Outstanding Student Leader Award

Post-Grad – University of Louisville School of Medicine (1999-2003)

·         Graduated MD in 2003

·         Awarded two Army Health Professions Scholarship in 200

 

Professional / Career Info

·         Commission as 2nd Lieutenant United States Army (Reserves) in August 2001 as a medical student

·         Re-commissioned as Captain up graduation in May 2003 and entered active duty June 2003

·         Pediatric Residency at the San Antonio Military Pediatric Center (2003-2006)

o        Outstanding Graduating Resident award 2006

·         Will start fellowship training in Neonatal Medicine at the University of Louisville in July 2008

·         State Medical License in 2005 and remains active

·         Pediatric Board Certified in 2006

·         Stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas in August of 2006 to present where I work as a Pediatrician at Irwin Army Community Hospital

·         Notified of pending deployment to Iraq on February 14th, 2007 (Valentine’s Day)

·         Left home – Manhattan, Kansas on Easter Sunday April 8th, 2007 for training at Ft. Bliss, Texas

·         Left U.S. soil bound for Iraq on April 13th, 2007; arrived in Kuwait on 15 April, and Camp Taji (final destination) on 20 April

 

Deployment Information

·         Camp Taji, Iraq – located about 15-20 miles Northwest of Baghdad

·         Former Iraqi Republican Guard Base located in the heart of the volatile “Sunni Triangle”.  During Saddam era was use for manufacture of chemical weapons and tank maintenance

·         Served as a Squadron Physician (the “Doc”) for the 1st Squadron of the 7th Cavalry Regiment (squadron nickname “Garryowen”), 1st Brigade Combat Team (Ironhorse Brigade), 1st Cavalry Division

·         Duties while deployed:

o        Sick call (ie. Troop medical clinic) – on call 7 days/week, 24 hours/day

§         Soldiers of our particular unit only

o        Augment the base Level II clinic – trauma, call 2-3 X per month

§         Entire population of base

o        Provide trauma care to wounded soldiers or civilians

o        Perform medical operations supporting local Iraqi population

§         Mostly children in local villages surrounding Camp Taji, our squadron has supported at least 10 of these missions

o        Teach and train Army medics

o        Provide counseling and guidance to soldiers in times of personal as well as medical need: suicide prevention, grief counseling, health & fitness support, family support

The Story of Operation IronFamily

 

I would say the “spirit” behind Operation IronFamily emerged during my medical training as a pediatric resident.  I came across an increasing number of families whose lives had been touched, and in some cases dramatically changed, by the deployment of a loved one to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  It was my job to care for the children of our military.  In the three years of my education at the San Antonio Military Pediatric Center, I treated sons and daughters of Soldiers, Airmen, Marines, and Sailors.  I saw first hand how deployments can impact a family and how the death of a loved one can change their lives forever.  My duty as a military doctor called on me to care for and about patients and their families, to practice medicine with empathy.

 

I arrived at Camp Taji about 6 months into my unit’s deployment.  I was coming in as a replacement for another physician who would be returning to the United States.  The soldiers of the 1-7 CAV, or Garryowen, had arrived in mid November 2006.  Barely one month after landing “boots on ground” four soldiers were killed when an Improvised Explosive Device hit their vehicle.  Two more soldiers died in the next 3 months.  I wasn’t in Iraq when these soldier’s lives were cut tragically short.  I never met them, but I felt I owed them something.  I felt it important to remember their service and honor their memory.  I thought about what it must be like for their families.  I had just left my family standing at the airport, waving goodbye as I boarded the plane, fully expecting me to return when the tour was over.  I imagined it was the same for these soldiers and their families.  Yet they didn’t make it home.  As a father and husband I thought a great deal about the well-being of my family, especially if something were to happen to me while deployed. 

 

I was no longer treating the children of service members in the comfort of the Pediatric clinic.  I was no longer talking with families about when mommy or daddy left for Iraq, how long they had been gone, and when they would be coming home.  I was now treating the deployed service member themselves and I had become one of the deployed dads I had heard so much about.  My primary military duty was now to the soldier but there was still a big part of me that wanted to continue taking care of their families.  I knew there was something that could be done to reach out to the families of our fallen service members.  I felt I was being called to serve in a combat zone by caring for the medical needs of soldiers and the needs of their families.

 

When I left for Iraq my daughter was 2 ½ years old, my son had just turned one, and my wife was 3 months pregnant with our third child.  There is no amount of preparation for the kind of separation a war brings and there is no doubt that part of my motivation for this cause stems from being away from my own family.  This was something I could do for my family and for all military families.  I consider it a great honor to have others help and support to my family while I am away.  For example, when my son Vincent John arrived a little early and in a rather dramatic fashion, I was literally humbled to tears by the outpouring of support my wife and children received.  I wasn’t able to make it home in time for his birth, but just knowing they were in good hands made all the difference in the world.  Military families often sacrifice so much and through Operation IronFamily it is my hope to give something back, to say “Thank You.”

 

The first task was to find an established charity whose primary mission was to the families of service members killed or seriously in action.  Within a few hours an internet search led me to the Children of Fallen Soldiers Relief Fund (www.cfsrf.org).  Our causes aligned perfectly and I knew it wasn’t mere coincidence.  I contacted the president and CEO, Becky Campbell, and expressed my interest in designating the relief fund as the beneficiary of a fundraising project.  Next, I had to decide what the fundraiser would be.  About ten years ago, shortly after turning twenty and running my first marathon I set a goal: to complete an Ironman Triathlon by the time I turned thirty.  For many, the Ironman is the quintessential endurance athletic event – to be able to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and run 26.2 miles in one day (back to back to back).  Completing an Ironman requires a combination of training, dedication, and motivation.  For me, finishing an Ironman would be a dream come true.  I went to the official homepage of Ironman (www.ironman.com) and found that Ironman Arizona would be held in Tempe on April 13th, 2008 – exactly one year (to the day) that I left the United States bound for Operation Iraqi Freedom.  Again, I believed this to be more than a coincidence.  Many athletes have participated in athletic events to raise money and awareness for worthy causes.  Groups such as Team in Training, the Komen Breast Cancer foundation, and the Lance Armstrong Foundation have found great success in the use of running races and bike rides to support the fight against cancer.  In a similar way, I hope that training for and participating in Ironman Arizona will increase awareness of and support for military families who have had a loved one killed or seriously wounded in action.

 

A week after I completed the on-line registration for Ironman Arizona I sent an e-mail to my family and friends telling them about the plans.  A few weeks later I received a card from one of my relatives with a newspaper clipping about a professional triathlete named Heather Gollnick.  The article, from a Tampa, Florida, newspaper praised Gollnick for her dedication to her family as well as her athletic achievements.  Heather is a mother of three and her two oldest, Jordan and Joshua, are twins.  They were born extremely premature and spent the first 9 months of their lives in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.  Needless to say, Heather and her husband Todd have a keen understanding of family support and overcoming obstacles.  In addition to being a full-time mom, Heather is an outstanding professional athlete – she is a 5 time Ironman winner and this year placed 11th amidst a strong international field at the Ironman World Championships.  One of her Ironman victories was an amazing come from behind win at Ironman Arizona in 2007.  So the very same day I was preparing to leave for Iraq, Heather was winning title number four in Tempe, Az.  In 2008 she will return to Ironman Arizona as the defending champion and I will be competing there for the first time.  The irony doesn’t stop there.  Heather competed at the inaugural Ironman Louisville in August and won title number five.  I went to medical school at the University of Louisville and next summer my family and I are moving back – I will be starting a program in Neonatal Medicine, working toward a specialization to care for premature babies.  I was so moved by the story of “Ironmom” and how she gains inspiration from her children, especially from her daughter Jordan; that I sent an e-mail to the address given in the article.  I thanked her for sharing her story and for being an example to the world of how a person can make their family a priority while achieving great things professionally.  I shared my plans for the fundraiser and my goal of Ironman Arizona and asked if she would be willing to field some questions that inevitably would arise as I trained for the first time in unique and rather harsh conditions.  The response was more than gracious.  Heather expressed her appreciation for all the men and women who serve our country and offered to “team up” with me to make this event something special.  I became a sponsored athlete of Gollnick’s Ironedge Coaching (www.ironedgecoaching.com).  Every two weeks Heather and Todd send me workouts – tailored specifically for my level of fitness and training environment.  I update them on how I’m doing, how I feel, what is working and what is not.  Recently we started to use an on-line program called Workout Log (www.workoutlog.com) which allows them to post workouts and I can then log my progress, complete with room for comments and even an athlete’s blog.  Todd and Heather have been more supportive and generous than I could ever have dreamed.  They are an amazing couple with their hearts in the right place.  I am honored to have them coaching me and humbled to call them friends. 

 

Training in Iraq

 

At the time I decided to train for an Ironman while deployed I didn’t have all the details worked out.  I knew I needed to swim, bike, and run but that was about it.  There was 33 meter pool at Camp Taji that opened in early May so I had a place to swim, at least for a while.  There was plenty of room within the forward operating base and as long as you stayed away from the perimeter it was relatively safe.  So I had a place to run.  One of my closest friends packed up his old road bike and shipped it to me.  I purchased an indoor trainer – a device that allows you to ride in place with varying degrees of resistance – and now I had a place to ride.  It was in no way ideal, but it was all I had so I knew I would have to make it work.  Armed with workouts from my coach and a heart full of motivation I began training in late May.  The first two months were designed to build a base in all three disciplines because I still had almost 11 months until the actual event.  At first I didn’t think things were going to be that bad in this environment.  Then one day I stepped out of my office and it felt like I stepped into an oven – it was only mid-June.  That day I suffered through a five mile run and realized that I would have to start getting creative as summer approached.  I began running at 5 in the morning, in Army talk “at 0 dark thirty.”  Even then I had to divide my workouts between running outside and running on the treadmill.  In late July and early August, when the temperature hit highs of 122 F, I did most of my longer runs indoors.  Swimming was a very refreshing change of pace, at least in the beginning.  The only lap time I could make it to was at noon and by the end of the summer the water temperature peaked at 95 F.  Biking was the most comfortable from a temperature standpoint.  I placed the bike and trainer in my office at first which allowed me to ride in air conditioned comfort.  Later I had to move the bike into a storage room that wasn’t as cool and I began watching movies or episodes of a TV series on DVD to help pass the time.  Training began to go very well and I could notice significant improvements in endurance.  Then another miraculous thing occurred.  I was put in contact with the president and founder of Endless Pools, Inc.  His company offered to donate a Fastlane Pool system to the Army and to the deployed soldiers at Camp Taji.  The Fastlane Pool is essentially a swimming treadmill.  It is a soft-shelled above ground pool coupled with a powerful turbine that creates a strong and steady current.  The speed is variable which allows a person to literally swim in place.  The pool was to be used primarily for therapy and rehabilitation but it would also be available for recreational purposes – such as training for an Ironman.  The pool arrived in late September and after a rather complicated installation process is up and running.  The outdoor pool on Camp Taji closed in October so now we have a viable option for indoor swimming. 

 

On numerous occasions I mentioned that I don’t believe

 

Now I am working on the fundraising portion.  I gave this project the name Operation IronFamily.  It is my hope that this captures the essence of what we are trying to do and who it is for.  The military coins its important missions with the term Operation.  Use of the name IronFamily has a three-fold purpose.  First, there is the obvious connection to the Ironman event in Arizona on April 13th.  Next, its primary purpose is to support military families.  Finally, it represents the idea that the military family is strong, proud, and perseveres through difficult times.  I registered for the Janus Charity Challenge which organizes fundraising efforts of Ironman competitors and directs all money to the non-profit charity of the athlete’s choice.  I was able to create a website that allows for on-line donations:

 

http://januscharitychallenge.kintera.org/az08/operation_ironfamily?faf=1&e=1376849033

 

In addition, anyone can donate by mailing contributions with checks made payable to:

 

Children of Fallen Soldiers Relief Fund

 

CFSRF
re: Operation IronFamily
P.O. Box 3968
Gaithersburg, MD 20885-3968

 

After January 15th I will be back home