1397 INTRO TO MY INEXPERIENCED ADVENTURES INTO PARENTING Part 30

1950

BERRY PLAN

To ensure a supply of trained medical specialists for the military, in 1950 Congress passed public law 779, called the “Doctor Draft Law,” to remove healthcare professionals from the general manpower pool and place them in the Reserve Medical Corps.  From the mid-1950s to the mid-’70s, those who were training to be doctors and were eligible for the Doctor Draft had the option of requesting a deferment of service under the Armed Forces Reserve Medical Officer Commissioning and Residency Consideration Program, also known as the Berry Plan.  If the physician was granted a deferment, he could postpone military service until after specialty training, and if not, he had to enter upon completion of an internship.  Several references are made to the Berry Plan and the Doctor Draft throughout these pages. - Information from JAMA, 1961

Draft Lottery: Jay, Wisconsin, 1969. Doctor Draft Wednesday, August 26 @ 21:49:54 EDT writes "I was already in medical school at the time of the draft lottery, having entered in the fall of 1968. There was a special "Doctor Draft" that drafted all doctors after one year of internship into the military as General Medical Officers.  Introduction to war training for four weeks then straight to Vietnam. The law expired June 30, 1969, the day my internship ended, so all in my intern year were drafted unless we had made other plans. Under the Berry plan, we could complete residency first, then enter the army as a specialist, or enter the US Public Health Service, in Indian Health, Prison, or Coast Guard. I entered the Indian Health Service--great experiences that changed my life. My wife and I planned to go to Canada if the IHS had not accepted me."

Summer 1968
Amongst our best buds, who'd attended college and med school, together, as well as choosing each other to be groomsmen at their weddings before serving internships at various hospitals within the same Midwestern metropolis, each will have had his own unique military experience:
Our friend, Mickey (gynecologist) will serve in Texas
Our friend, Steve (internist) will serve in Germany
Our friend, Stuie (cardiologist) will serve in Korea
Our friend, Shuff (gastroenterologist) will serve in Vietnam and return unchanged
Our friend Neal (pediatrician) will serve in Vietnam and never be the same ...
Much to everyone's relief, everyone will return home alive and physically intact

I imagine that, at some point, stream of consciousness will tap into the most interesting aspects of each of their wartime tales as the content of one post influences the next... (For example, the bridal gown I'd borrowed to walk down the aisle in 1966 had been owned and worn by Steve's bride, whom he'd been crazy about, though, sadly, she'd become his ex before his two year tour of duty ended in a broken hearted divorce ... I've always wondered what she chose to do with 'our' tight-waisted, full skirted, ivory gown in which I'd felt like a princess bride ... I mean, thoughts of discarding that lace trimmed gown, which still has sentimental value to me, inspires a wistful reaction to this very day.)

At the same time that our best buds find themselves dispersed all over the world, Will and I can barely breathe as he rips open the official envelop in which 'our' orders will determine much about 'our' future, which remains an unforeseeable adventure into the unknown for this reason:  As life unfolds, preconceived plans undergo surprising adjustments,time and again, and here's why I'll bet that has proved as classically true for you, as well:  Personal experience creates sound reason for closed mind sets to open and expand, and each time a mind-expanding experience culminates in personal growth, we tend to reconsider the limited scope of decisions, which had felt written in stone at an earlier, inexperienced time  ...  Much more about that train of thought, later ...

Upon reflection, it blows my mind to think that Will is seen holding an official document stamped by someone in Washington whom we've never met, which will determine whether my young husband and I will be living, together, in safety, when our baby is born ... or not.  And retrospectively, I've also gained insight into this remarkable fact:  It's not uncommon for a person whom we've never met to influence the adoption of certain personality traits, acquired during childhood, which would not have been yours or mine had that specific person never been born!  Now, put that in your inner peace pipe and smoke it ... Or just wait patiently for that revelation, concerning personality development, to emerge from my depths while my brain, functioning as a well-balanced whole, is engaged in teaching a parenting class when insight into that train of thought will have reason to influence a change in my attitude concerning the inter-connectedness between cause-and-effect and the acquisition of certain traits, which may, over time, prove not to be in your best interest or mine ... once again ... Much more about that train of thought, later ...