A Psychiatrist Veteran Reflects on the Real Meaning of Memorial Day

From the May 26, 2023 issue of the Transformational Times - Memorial Day

A Psychiatrist Veteran Reflects on the Real Meaning of Memorial Day 

 

 

 Michael McBride, MD, MS, CDR U.S. Navy Reserves, LTC U.S. Army Reserves  

 

 

Dr. McBride cared for Soldiers during two military deployments in Iraq, one in Afghanistan, and two in Germany. He shares thoughts about Memorial Day and remembers the toll that military service took on his father and his father’s friends during the War in Vietnam. He remembers a devastating loss with which his unit grappled and passes along important lessons every medical student should understand as they care for Veterans ...  

 

 

Memorial Day is upon us and, for most of our community, it represents the start of summer with parades, ball games, picnics, family gatherings, and celebrations to mark the holiday. It was only when I joined the Army that I learned the real meaning of the day. And my work as a psychiatrist at the Milwaukee Veterans Affairs Medical Center has driven this awareness to a deeper level. 

 

In the Veteran community, Memorial Day is the saddest day of the year -- an anniversary to remember those service members who have died, especially those who died while still wearing the uniform. I no longer say, “Happy Memorial Day” to a Veteran, as this would be equivalent to telling someone to “…have a happy funeral.”  

 

 

Vietnam War hit home, despite my father’s military service stateside  

 

My father, Fuller McBride, MD, graduated from the Medical College of Wisconsin (formerly the Marquette Medical School) in 1961, the year I was born. After completing his OB/GYN residency at St. Mary’s Hospital in Milwaukee, he started a private practice in Fond du Lac. Within a year, he was drafted into the U.S. Navy. Most of his classmates also were drafted, and if you had surgical training, you could be sent to MASH units in Vietnam. 

 

He was lucky he was assigned to the Lemoore Naval Air Station in California, where he delivered babies for families of Navy pilots. We all lived on a dusty, sunbaked military base in the middle of the San Joaquin Valley. My siblings and I built tumbleweed forts and ducked every time a jet broke the sound barrier, causing a sonic boom. I remember the fear and anxiety of my young friends whose fathers were flying missions over Vietnam. 

 

Then my mother and father’s best friend crashed his plane in the jungles of Vietnam and there was a massive search to rescue him. My mother had all her children praying, “Help Uncle Art come home safely.” Months later, they found his remains and my parents were devastated. I asked my father about this memory a few years ago. It’s one of the only times I ever saw him cry.  

 

My father was reluctant to identify himself as a Veteran. He felt guilty about not serving in Vietnam like his good friend Mike Kubly (MCW-MUMS ’63), an orthopaedic surgeon whose Milwaukee residency in orthopaedics was interrupted by his service in the Army. The Kublys and McBrides were close, and each had seven kids. My mother was able to bring her brood to the Naval base for the two years of active duty. The Kublys had to uproot and live with relatives in Monroe while Mike was stationed in Qui Nhon for a year, though they were reunited for his second year of service at Fort Gordon.  

 

When Mike Kubly returned, my father noticed he had changed, and attributed this to the trauma of caring for severely injured troops in Vietnam. I don’t know if they ever talked about it. Vietnam Veterans returned to a country that had been severely polarized by the war. I recently asked my oldest brother if he remembered any “welcome home” events after we returned from service. (I use the word we, as any time a family member joins the military, the whole family joins.) “Nobody talked about it,” my brother recalled. There were no parties or parades, or “thank you for your service.” 

 

Last December, my father made the announcement he was stopping his medical treatment and going into hospice. For selfish reasons, my siblings and I tried to talk him out of it, but he had made up his mind and his medical team agreed with the plan. 

 

For the next week, he was able to visit with family and friends. He died in peace. It was as if he scripted this as a gift for all of us on how to embrace death with integrity. He maintained a sense of humor and mindfulness that left us in awe. 

 

 

Enlisting after 9/11 

 

I lost my hearing in childhood, due to the mumps (paramyxo virus), so there were no options for me to serve in the military until 9/11, when I called an Army recruiter and told him I am a psychiatrist. The recruiter found a way to commission me as an officer in the Army Reserves Medical Corps. I volunteered for deployments to Landstuhl Army Hospital in Germany in 2003 and 2006.  

 

At that point, I left my private practice and joined the VA in 2007, as I was scheduled to deploy in 2008 to Iraq, where I served in the Combat Stress Clinic in Camp Victory Baghdad. 

 

I returned to Iraq for a second deployment in 2010 and served at the Combat Stress Clinic in Camp Liberty Baghdad.  Captain Russell Seager, a nurse practitioner at the Milwaukee VA, was part of the unit that I joined there. Russ and twelve other Soldiers were killed at Fort Hood in 2009, as they were preparing for the deployment.  Russ was a friend of mine and joined the Army at age 47, after losing over 100 pounds to qualify. He was the first Soldier shot, and his comrades took cover behind his body. There is a memorial plaque in his honor outside the Red Clinic at the Milwaukee VA. 

 

I left the Army after that tour, believing I was done serving. Then my Marine Veterans at the VA said, “Doc, you can’t be a Marine, but you could help Marines by serving in the Navy.”  So, I called the Navy recruiter and took a commission as Commander in the Navy Reserves Medical Corps. I was 50.  

 

Soon after, I volunteered for a deployment to the Combat Trauma Hospital in Kandahar, Afghanistan. 

 

Six years ago, I transferred back to the Army Reserves, hoping I could deploy again. But the Army was no longer sending psychiatrists overseas. 

 

 

Helping Veterans in Milwaukee  

 

I joined the Milwaukee VA in 2007 to help the team with the new generation of young Veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. I am the Local Recovery Coordinator and a staff psychiatrist at the VA. Trained as a child psychologist, I also offer family counseling as well as parenting groups. 

 

As a volunteer instructor with the MCW Department of Psychiatry, I run experiential groups for senior psychiatry residents and the child and adolescent psychiatry fellows.  I offer an elective to clerkship students through which they can explore any area of psychiatry that interests them. 

 

 

Since the pandemic, I have collaborated with medical students and Veterans in the development of a clinic focused on teaching clerkship students about military culture and empathy. We presented at the Psychiatry Grand Rounds on May 17, 2023.   

 

Medical students who may be reading this: 

• I ask you to remember to include in your H&P the question, “Have you served in the military?”  This is better than asking, “Are you a Veteran?” 
• Keep in mind nearly 20% of the military are women. Woman Veterans often feel invisible. 
• Assume every Veteran has been exposed to trauma. Ask any Marine about their first hour in boot camp and you will understand why. 
• If your Veteran suffers from GERD, sexual dysfunction, HTN, IBS, or chronic pain, consider all of these as a direct result of living with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. If we can help our Veterans engage in trauma treatment, we can improve all these conditions. 
• It is okay to say, “Thank you for your service.”  But follow it with, “Tell me about your service.” And since Memorial Day is upon us, ask your Veteran whom they will remember. 

 

If you would like to honor the true spirit of Memorial Day, consider attending the Memorial Day service at Wood National Cemetery on the VA grounds, beginning around 9:30 AM on Memorial Day. 

 

 

 

Michael McBride, MD, MS, served in both the U.S. Army and Navy Reserves. He has been affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at MCW in various roles since 1988, and currently practices at the Clement J. Zablocki Veteran Affairs Medical Center.