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you're going to find it informative. We want
to welcome to Veterans Radio today, Susan C.
Gelvin, United States Air Force. retired as a
major, has an interesting military story, and
she was in the Pentagon on 9 -11. Susan, welcome
to Veterans Radio. Thank you so much. It's really
an honor to be asked to be here. Well, you have
a unique story that should be told and we hope
our veteran radio listeners find some new facts
here that maybe they didn't know about what went
on after the plane crashed into the Pentagon.
But let's start with more basic stuff. How did
a nice kid like you from Massachusetts end up
in the Air Force? You know, it's funny because
my dad had served He actually his service landed
kind of between wars He was a radar technician
and spent some time in Libya, but he never ever
talked about it and it didn't come up until I
was you know getting ready to apply for colleges
so but that point we had moved from Massachusetts
to California because his company had transferred
him out and My dad was like, well, have you ever
thought about, you know, joining the military
and they could pay for your education and, you
know, you think about the Academy and things
like that. And I have to admit, like, I've always
been kind of a rule follower and just thinking
like I felt like I'd fit in well with just the
military way of life. But I really wanted to
be a physician. And just the more we looked into
it, the more we thought, well, then maybe the
Academy wasn't the way to go because, you know,
they definitely can put some restrictions, what
you do after the Academy. So, you know, I was
applying to various colleges and programs and
looking at ROTC. And I ended up being accepted
into a six -year program where I essentially
did my bachelor's and my medical degree in six
years. which meant I was only in college physically
for two. When I signed up for Air Force ROTC
at RPI, which was my undergrad, I got there and
the officers in charge looked at my program and
they're like, you're doing what? They have three
-year scholarships and four -year scholarships
for ROTC, but they just didn't know what to do
with this two -year program. And so they said,
well, we really don't think we can help you for
college. But when you get to med school, there's
a whole other program. So I decided to stay in
ROTC, even though I wasn't a scholarship cadet,
just because I figured, well, if I'm going to
sign up for the military, I should probably know
what I'm getting into. And I loved it. I mean,
some of the best friends I've ever made were
in Air Force ROTC. And I loved the joint mission.
I loved the idea of serving my country. And,
you know, I also learned that docs kind of get
of a bad rep in the military of not being real
officers. And I decided, well, I was going to
do the best I could to be a real officer, even
if I was just a doctor. Even if. So you ended
up getting your medical degree from Albany Medical
College in coordination with Rensselaer Poly.
Tech Institute or RPI in short order and came
out as a freshly minted captain. Where did you
do your residency and how did your military career
proceed? So with that scholarship program you
have the option to apply for a civilian deferral
to do a civilian residency but again I was like
well and for a penny and for a pound and I got
into the family medicine residency at Andrews
Air Force Base down in Maryland. And so my first
day of active duty, I was a brand new captain
and a brand new doctor. And my first rotation
was on the labor and delivery ward. And I learned
very quickly that most average officers and enlisted
who aren't in the medical field, see those captain's
bars and assume a lot about you that may or may
not be true. Though it really is a baptism of
life. This captain, this doctor, she must know
a lot to be here, right? Little did they know
it was the first week. Yep. First week wearing
the uniform every day, other than some summer
tours I had done in med school. So it was like
jumping into two deep end pools at the same time.
Well one of the things that is always interesting
in talking to people is particularly those who
go through ROTC. I don't think I've ever talked
to anybody who didn't go through that process
and felt it was really powerful in shaping them
and in giving them insight into the military.
I don't think we talked to our kids enough about
this. Was ROTC something that your dad pushed
or just something that you saw as Hey, I'm interested
in this field. I'm going to get in knee deep.
Suddenly, we were looking for how are we going
to pay for this for college and med school because
the six -year programming in these schools were
expensive. That's how it started. But I got to
tell you in very short order, pretty much by
the end of what we called our little cadet boot
camp before freshman year of college started,
I was like, these are my people. Well, it's good
to feel that grounded going into college certainly
and I should mention that you served on active
duty from 1998 to 2005 you did some reserve time
while you were in med school back 94 through
up to 98 and then you did a year in reserves
afterwards when you finally got out as a major
because of family dynamics and decisions. So
you've got a good decade or more of service here
and tell us how you came to be at the Pentagon
on September 11th of 2001. Well, my husband and
I had just gotten married. Okay, you snuck that
in. Let's tell them where you've met your husband.
So I met my husband at Andrews. He at the time
was also a family physician and we got married
and Obviously, since I'd be graduating residency,
I'd be finishing my assignment at Andrew's, and
he wasn't really in the cycle, assignment cycle
for him to move yet. So since we were married,
they assigned me to an open slot at the DeLorenzo
Tricare Health Clinic, which was the big clinic
in the Pentagon. And so we'd been married, when
I started the Pentagon in July, we had been married
for a couple months. And when 9 -11 happened,
I had been there for all of five weeks. And I
had a new job as a new attending. There's another
little twist here, because anybody who's ever
been in the military and wonder how these guys
make assignments in the personnel office. So
you just got married, you're going to be assigned
to the Pentagon. What did they decide to do with
your husband at that time, I believe a major,
where did they decide to send him? So they decided
it was his turn to do a deployment at Prince
Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. So exactly a
week before 9 -11, I dropped him off at the airport.
So here you are, sort of brand new at this clinic
in the Pentagon. Tell us what your duties were.
Tell us what was going on sort of in your professional
career at that point as the events of 9 -11 unfold.
Okay, so the clinic there is actually pretty
sizable. It's tri -service, though it's run by
the Army. And we had primary care, physical therapy.
We had our own lab, radiology. We also handled
all emergency services for the building. We had
little ambulances. They were golf carts, but
they were like stretch golf carts because I could
hold a gurney. So if there was any kind of accident
or someone had a heart attack in the Pentagon,
we took care of them as well. So when I came
in, I was a family physician and I also was the
chief of the physical exam section for the Air
Force. So I was responsible for making sure that
the three to 4 ,000 Air Force people in the building
got their physical, but it was what was called
something called a PHA every year. So on the
morning of 9 -11, I'd been there about five weeks.
I still hadn't been anywhere in the building
without an escort. Usually they send an escort
with you because they get lost. They hate to
lose new doctors and new captains in the Pentagon.
It's just wandering around, don't they? Yeah,
they call it the five -sided puzzle palace and
that is no lie. To be honest, I was a little
afraid to go anywhere beyond the little, you
know, convenience shop down the hallway without
somebody with me. So I mainly stuck to the clinic
and did my work there. And the morning of 9 -11,
I mean, it was like any other clinic day. And
I remember walking up to the front desk because
I hadn't seen a patient in a little bit. And
I wondered if maybe they had no showed. And I
noticed there were a bunch of people watching
the television in the waiting area and showing
the first plane going into the first building
in New York City. And so I watched for a few
minutes. And I remember walking back to one of
my colleagues' offices and saying, hey, did you
see what's on TV? A plane flew into the World
Trade Center. And she has a really kind of dry,
sarcastic sense of humor. And she goes, well,
she goes, maybe we ought to just close up, because
I best learn next. And I mean, I kid you not,
it probably wasn't 10 minutes later when the
Pentagon was hit. I didn't feel like a big boom
or anything, but I was on my feet at the time.
My colleague said that she sort of felt like
a wump at her desk. Like if you've ever been
in a small earthquake in California, it kind
of feels like that. And your clinic was located
on the opposite side of the Pentagon from where
the plane crashed. Is that right? Yes. Yes, and
the odd thing is it had just moved from that
location, I want to say maybe a couple years
before, but the online, the website for the Pentagon,
like the things on there had not been updated.
So when this all happened, a bunch of my family
went on the Pentagon website to see if they could
figure out where I was, and they thought I was
right where the plane had hit. But yes, we were
almost directly opposite. We were right by North
parking. If you walk in, you go through the turnstiles,
we're right there on the left. So I - And did
you think - Go ahead. Did you think, oh, that's
the plane crashing into us, like my colleague
said? Or what - Now, what was your immediate
thought about what had occurred? You know, I
thought I was a pretty worldly person up to this
point, and today I realized just how naive I
was because, you know, I went back up to the
front desk and this man comes in and just starts
screaming, we've been hit, we've been hit, everybody
get out. Then this whole mass of people, which
actually there was a lot of people in the waiting
area then and the only thing I can think of is
that people knew we had a TV and as they were
coming in the building, they were stopping in
to get an update on what was going on. This wave
of people goes out and literally just sweeps
me out of the building. I get outside and I stop
and I turn around and I see all these people
running towards me. I can see smoke coming up
from far away, like I told you, the other side
of the building, like not our side. And you know,
Pentagon is old and that side actually was undergoing
some very much needed renovations. There was
places in there that had not had significant
renovations for decades. And I thought, well,
maybe a gas line blew or like something like
that. My first thought was not, oh, another plane
came and hit us. Well, and I think all of us
watching this I know I was watching it on TV
as it occurred You know that first plane you
thought well, how dumb is the pilot? I mean,
I'm not sure We as Americans necessarily Quickly
equated it to an organized terrorist attack Did
your mind ever get there that day or was the
chaos and the medical needs just so overwhelming?
It didn't matter why it happened Well, I think
I think we all got there pretty quickly and I
think to be honest most people faster than me
and a lot of rumors started flying because I
was outside for maybe ten minutes right after
we all left the building there and You'd hear
these things. Oh, I heard that there was a bomb
at Camp David and then it was a car bomb at the
Capitol. And so I think by then most people had
after the two planes in New York and this one
had moved into, oh, this was not a series of
very unfortunate events. This was planned. But
then at the same time, you're like, well, it
doesn't really matter. Like, I'm here now and
there are people that are hurt and we just got
to do what we have to do. You said Initially,
you're outside for about 10 minutes. Yeah. At
what point and how does it happen? You say, I
got to go back inside and help folks. Well, I
mean, I think after the initial confusion, like
I didn't see a lot of people from our clinic.
There was one of the nurses and we had a nursing
student with us and I didn't have a radio under
thing. And I learned at that point that normally
Every day in the clinic, we had something called
the emergency team in case something happened
in the building and there'd be, you know, some
medics, a nurse, a doc, and they would all have
a walkie talkie. And so you'd still go about
doing your normal stuff. But in case an emergency
came up, everybody was reachable and they had
go bags with all the supplies and that kind of
stuff. Well, I didn't have one of those radios
because I wasn't on the emergency team. They
didn't make me do that duty until I had gotten
my feet a little wetter there. And then one of
the other medics was outside and ran up and handed
me his radio. And it was just a, it was really
a cluster of all sorts of people talking, but
I realized that everyone was, you know, was still
back in there. So I said, well, if that's where
we're going, we're go back in the building. So
I went back inside and the first place I stopped
was the clinic. And it was like, then I put this,
I told this to Mr. Stirner, it was like, it was
kind of like mash. Like there were, the waiting
area was just people on the floor and they were
trying to start IVs, there were people with burns,
there were people with injuries. And our commander
was at Walter Reed that day. And so the next
clinical person in command, the chief nurse,
gave me her radio or told me to keep my radio
and said, I need you to go to where the plane
hit and tell me how many casualties we have there.
And I don't think she was realizing at the time
that out of everybody in the room, I hear the
least about how to get around in the building.
There's those captain bars again. Yeah, like
just we're nothing but trouble. And so like I
didn't realize that you could just cut straight
up that there were like spokes of the wheel and
that you could just cut straight up into the
center courtyard and cut across to the other
side. I hadn't been there yet. So I followed
the path ways that I had been taken on before
when I had to go to various offices when I was
in processing. And so I ended up working my way
up. I think to the fourth floor of the building.
And I thought I must be getting really close
because the smoke started getting really bad.
But again, one of the weird physics of the sort
of circular nature of the Pentagon is that once
that explosion happened, the smoke kind of got
drawn and sucked all the way around the circle.
So it was really, really smoky, but I actually
wasn't anywhere near the crash site. But there
were a lot of people milling around confused.
I ran into a couple people from the clinic and
they said, look, we have to get these people
out of here. And so we were running down just
banging on doors and directing people to the
only open ways we knew to get out of the building.
The smoke just kept getting worse and worse.
And it got to the point where we were just crawling
on our hands and knees until basically we couldn't
we couldn't find any more people. No more people
were answering knocks on doors. And then we got
a call on the radio from the security of the
Pentagon and they said, we have reports of another
plane incoming and everybody needs to get out
of the building now. Just has to be frightening.
I mean, just I know those of us who watched it
on TV were frightened, but to be on the ground,
to smell it, to breathe that smoke, to see people
who were injured. It just had to be frightening.
And I guess I'm wondering how it struck you in
the moment. To be honest, in that moment, it
hadn't really hit me yet. I don't know if that's
just, you know, a blessing from God in the way
he enables our brain to compartmentalize. But
in that moment, all I could think about was what's
the next right thing we need to do. And so we
headed back down to the clinic. They were trying
to basically get as many supplies from inside
the clinic to outside so we could get out of
the building. This is a clinic, it's not an ER,
it's not a hospital, you have limited. No, but
I will say it is one of the nicest supplied clinics
I've ever worked in in my career. Like I said,
we have a mini ER of sorts. We could do quite
a bit. before say an ambulance would arrive if
someone was in dire straits. So we had a couple
of intubation kits, we had oxygen tanks, we had
IVs, all that kind of stuff. And then we had
our own pharmacy, so there was medications. So
everyone in each of the clinic rooms had like
a little... You know, those craftsmen tool kits,
it kind of looks like that, but more hospitally
full of supplies. So they were rolling those
out. We were opening up the supply cabinets,
like filling up, you know, an empty trash bin,
all that kind of stuff. So everything. And then
we just got outside and and out in North parking.
There were quite. a few wounded out there already.
I think the majority were actually on the other
side on the outside of the south area where the
plane crashed and I would say probably half our
folks had already gone in that direction to work
out there. So we got out of the building and
then it was a matter of trying to treat the people
that we had in front of us there. I do have some
pretty indelible mental images from there. I
mean, people had jumped out windows, people had
been thrown into walls by the blast, and then
just smoke inhalation, this can be so deadly
very quickly. So we did our best to treat the
people on the ground the best we could. And then
when we stopped getting ambulances, because they
had closed all the roads for security, our head
administrative guy, he wasn't a doc, but he was
right below the doc who was the commander, just
started getting people to take people to the
hospital and even commandeered someone's SUV
himself. And they'd pull up their cars or whatever,
we'd put all the seats down, slide the gurney
in the back with a medic and send them off to
the hospital. It really sounds like the team
came together and just did what needed to be
done And that was really something that always
attracted you to the military was sort of that
higher team obligation, goal, mission. It sounds
like that's what happened that day. I mean, it
really did. I mean, was it a chaotic hot mess?
Yes. We always do the exact right thing, no,
but we did not have the supplies we needed and
we were just doing the best we could to keep
people alive until they could get to a higher
level of care. And it was, yeah, it's one of
those things that I think if any of us had had
the chance to stop and think, people are falling
apart, but it's, you train and you train and
you train and this is why. So that when you know
what hits the fan, you just, You just do. There's
also a personal side of this. I know in that
while this is going, you've got to be thinking
about your new husband. You've got to be thinking
about your mom and dad. There's no cell phone
service. And you're you're on the ground at the
Pentagon for what, 10, 12 hours? Yeah, I mean,
I was there till sometime between. like eight
and nine o 'clock that night. And at one point,
you know, we did have not quite quiet, but stiller
moments when we had done all we can do and we
were waiting. And it did occur to me, I'm like,
I don't know what my parents know. And at this
point, because all we knew was that New York
had been attacked, we had been attacked, and
there was another plane in the air. Like I'm
like, I mean, did World War III just start? Like
we had no context to put all of this in. So I
did think about my husband Steve and I thought
about my parents, but also at the same time at
that moment there was nothing I could do about
it. I mean, eventually once we had taken care
of everyone we could outside, they asked us to
go back in the building just to cut through to
get to that center courtyard so that we could
be right behind where the plane had gone in.
So that way there were medical teams on both
sides of the wreckage. because they didn't know
if they were going to find any further survivors.
They didn't know what direction they'd be easiest
to get them out. And they just basically wanted
to have medical teams ready on either side. So
we walked through and we got all set up and we
divided into our triage teams, you know, like
immediate and delayed and things like that. Talk
about that a little bit in the book. And then
it was a matter of waiting to see who would come
out. And during that waiting time, someone who
did have a cell phone on them and had battery
was very generous and just passed their phone
around and let everybody make one quick call.
So nobody could get through long distance, though.
Multiple people tried and it was just completely
it was it was completely jammed. And it's going
to show like the times, but I happened to have
my Palm Pilot in my lab coat pocket and it had
my. I remember thinking that was like the height
of technology. I had my church's phone number
in it, and we were getting some local calls through,
so I called my church and talked to the church
secretary, who was a friend of mine, and I gave
her my parents' phone numbers. And I said, can
you just please keep calling until you get through,
and tell them I'm alive, and ask them to email
Steve in Saudi and tell him I'm alive, because
I think that's probably the fastest way we can
get word to him. So I got to talk to her for
five minutes and then I passed the phone on to
my boss so she could call her family. And so
I did get that chance to put word out. But my
boss was a rock all day and my direct supervisor
and she's like a sister to me now. But when she
managed to get her sister on the phone, she started
to break a little bit. And I realized I'd like
I was actually grateful that I couldn't get a
hold of my parents because I think I might have
been done after that. Yeah, absolutely. It's
hard to stay focused and you have that situation
where you've worked all day and you're trying
to let people know that you're OK. Many, many
weren't. As you went through this and again was
said you were on the ground for probably 12 hours
here. When you get home, what's the what's the
decompress? Yeah, that was hard. I remember pulling
in to our driveway. We had a little house in
Alexandria and one of my elderly neighbors, she
was kind of like the watchdog of our cul -de
-sac. She had been sitting in her window all
day watching to see if I came home. I remember
getting out of the car. I hadn't even put my
cover back on to get in the car and I still had
the trauma gown over my lab coat. I remember
just stripping all this off and throwing it in
the trunk. I didn't even want it in the house.
I went in the house and there were probably about
30 messages on my answering machine. My best
friend from college, from ROTC, Tracy Beers,
She actually was at training in another state.
She was not a doc, she was a real officer. When
she heard what happened, she grabbed the phone
list for our church and started calling all our
friends and literally set up several nights of
people coming over to spend the night at my house
so that I wouldn't be alone. That's one of the
stories, I think, or one of the attributes of
military service people don't understand. You
make these really deep connections with people,
and they become part of the support network in
the family, don't they? Absolutely, absolutely.
And so while I'm there answering the phone, this
couple from our church, Greg and Emily Maurer,
they show up with an overnight bag and a big
pot of chili and said, we're here. So, and like,
I kind of felt bad because I actually didn't
end up spending much time with him at all because
I had so many phone calls to answer and I desperately
needed a shower. And it was just, it was still
kind of a chaotic night, but just having them
in the house and because, you know, being in
a, it was a decent size house all by yourself.
Like at night, that was already a little creepy
for me when my husband gone, but after everything
that had happened that day. It was just so nice
to know there was somebody there if I needed
them. I wasn't alone. I want to get a couple
of stories in before we run out of time. One
of the ones is, when you sent Steve off to the
Middle East and you thought, well, that's the
dangerous assignment here. Little did you know
that the dangerous assignment was going to be
in the clinic at the Pentagon on 9 -11. You ultimately,
the phones are back up and you can make some
international calls, brief calls, but you had
to use those captain bars again, didn't you?
This is the only time I ever pulled rank because
we had these, they called them hearts apart calls
where you got 15 minutes once a week to speak
to your person overseas and you'd call. For me,
I would call the operator at Andrews and he would
patch me through. I called them and And I probably
should have given them the benefit of the doubt,
but but literally they would just call off at
15 minutes without any warning. And I told them
and I said, look, this is who I am. This is where
I've been all day. This is where my husband is.
I said, this is not going to be a 15 minute call.
I'm like, I'm going to try not to abuse it. But
if you cut us off, I'm going to meet you in your
supervisor's office tomorrow. I'm going to find
you. At that point, I just had no, you know,
cares left. We can laugh about it a little bit
in hindsight 20 years later, but the reality
of it is that day was traumatic and you had to
be thinking about people you were able to save,
people you weren't able to save, people maybe
didn't get the medicine they needed for the pain.
Talk a little bit about maybe those whispers
in the night that you heard. Yeah, I mean, the
nightmares were a real thing. That first night,
those were, I mean, I don't think I went to sleep
till almost two in the morning. And I woke up
to a nightmare at about four, where I was standing
in that North parking grass area and just surrounded
by people on the ground holding me by the legs
and all of them going, why won't you help me?
Why won't, why won't you help me? And when I
woke up, I remember I sat up and I knew I was
in my bed and I could still hear the voices.
And while that was probably the worst one, those
nightmares didn't go away for a while. You had
a strong faith and your church supported you,
your pastor supported you. Again, back to that
in the military, you tend to move around a lot
and you make strong family connections, support
connections in a lot of different ways. But one
way was faith based. Oh, absolutely. When I went
back in that morning at about 430, they made
the plan that, OK, we're going to send some of
you home and have you come back at night because
now we're going to 24 -7 ops so that the clinic
is always open for all the people in the building
who are dealing with the aftermath of what happened.
So I ended up leaving again probably around 9
o 'clock that morning because I was going to
be on night shift and I went straight to my church.
And I literally crumpled in my friend's arms
when she answered the door and sat with my pastor
for a long time and got the most amazing hug,
which had all the hugs in it that I couldn't
get from all the people I really needed it from,
like my parents and my husband. And just had
time to pray with him and he and his wife. Actually,
later that week I was coming home from a night
shift and I was just creeped out about going
to the house alone. I was still having nightmares.
They had me come to their house. They set me
up in one of their kids rooms who was away at
college with a TV so that I could watch the news
if I needed to. I slept in the next morning because
it was Saturday and they had breakfast all laid
out for me even though they had gone to do their
errands for the day. You can't ever put enough
gratitude on that. And I think it highlights
the importance for those of us who maybe aren't
in the center of the chaos to remember to help
those who were in the center of the chaos. I
want to point out to folks, and we're talking
to Susan Galvin, she retired as a major in the
United States Air Force, she's an M .D., but
she also, although she was in the Air Force,
she received the U .S. Army Soldiers Medal. The
Soldiers Medal is authorized to be by Congress
for the President to present to people who have
done heroic acts in the Call of Duty, and there
were a number of folks who received this for
their actions on September 11th. And as the citation
says, quote, without regard for her own life,
Captain Gelvin went to the rescue of the injured
and dying personnel to render medical care and
evacuate them to safety. Despite the continuous
danger to herself, a smoke fire in the building
collapsing, she continued to risk her life on
numerous occasions to rescue those needing medical
attention. close quote. But you, even getting
that medal left you with certain feelings of
guilt, didn't it? Oh, absolutely. I mean, we
had a lot of sessions where we had to debrief
what happened and just hearing what some of my
colleagues had done. They were far more deserving
of that medal than I was. I mean, I literally
felt like I got that medal because I got lost
in the building and just tried to do the right
thing. We're back to that new captain thing.
Yeah, I mean, I just thought you shouldn't get
a medal for being clueless, but. But we're kind
of back to that. I think we all go through this
in life, but and we wonder why me, right? Wasn't
there a lot of why you after this? Oh, oh, yeah.
You know, just why did I survive? Why did God
make it so that the clinic moved to the opposite
side of the building before this happened, you
know? Yeah, I mean, survivor guilt's a real thing.
And I remember helping a lot of patients through
that. I mean, I have a lot of my clinic visits
in the aftermath of this, especially at night,
where people come in and they just needed to
talk or cry or... Just get reality checked that
you know, you know what? it's okay that you're
alive and and and your your life is valuable
and and Let's see how we can live our lives to
to bring value to those that didn't make it And
we certainly hear that sort of men from those
who have been in combat and wonder, you know
Why did I survive and the guy next to me got
shot in the head and died? And part of that is
that survivor's guilt, but then you start thinking
about the things that wouldn't be the same, right?
You have three lovely kids, a great marriage,
your husband continued on in the service. You
chose to focus on the family and get out of the
Air Force ultimately. Had a medical career in
the civilian world, but ultimately had to retire
from practicing medicine around 2023 because
of some Medical conditions that you sort of attribute
to that day and all that jazz you Breathed in
and all that smoke and fumes Really? That days
had an impact good and bad on your life, hasn't
it? Yeah, I mean, I mean I think I yeah, I mean
I look at my kids who are three amazing people
and I couldn't imagine a world without the minutes.
You talked about my faith is very important to
me and I believe in the sovereign tree of God.
I believe that his will is perfect. This is the
path he's put me on for my life. I love science
fiction, but I don't really believe there are
these parallel universes that would occur if
we had just made this different decision. and
I'm just thankful. If anything I've learned that
every day that I wake up and breathing is a good
day and I'm going to be thankful for it. Absolutely,
we're on the right side of the grass. As you
look back and think about what started as joining
ROTC and then doing the scholarship to get through
medical school and then active duty and reserves,
as you think back on this, did you make the right
decisions to go down that path? Yeah, I wouldn't
change a thing. And if one of your kids came
to you and said, I want to get in the, I'm going
to join the service, where's mom and dad on that?
That's funny. Our son definitely has that leaning.
You know, we also have a very realistic view
of it. Like you have to know going in what it
truly means to be, you know, to serve at the
pleasure of the government. that the mission
is always gonna come ahead of your personal needs.
And you have to be okay with that and be able
to serve conscientiously and diligently knowing
that. So I'm not sure what his final decision
is gonna be, but we just wanna make sure he goes
in with his eyes open that, you know, my husband
and I both loved our careers. We loved, I mean,
I got to do things that... doctor never get to
do. But at the same time, you need to realize
the strength of the commitment and the risks
that come with it and be willing to take the
bad with the good. Well, we appreciate the time
that Major Susan Galvin has given to Veterans
Radio today. She was a doctor at the Pentagon
on 9 -11. It's, you know, the ripple effects
of that are still being seen today. Susan, thanks
for taking time to talk to Veterans Radio. Oh,
this was, it was really just an honor being asked.
And just thank you for having me. And again,
I'll remind folks that you can find more of her
story and other amazing women who have served
in the military in a book called Beyond Belief
Series, True Stories of Women Heroes. that defy
comprehension. The editor of all of that is none
other than Doug Sterner. He puts together a great
group and they write great chapters and stories
that you probably haven't heard anywhere else.
And we're proud to bring this story of Susan
Galvin to the veteran radio listeners. We want
to give you a little advance notice. We're going
to have a veterans radio event on Sunday, September
28th, 2025. Radio on the River. We're doing a
new location on Freedom River in Livingston County,
Michigan. We want you to save the date. We're
going to have veteran storytelling and guest
speakers. We'll have raffle items, great local
musicians and food. Also, uniquely, there's going
to be an opportunity to fly in a UH -1 Huey from
the Michigan Flight Museum. And maybe you can
also win a free ride that way. Plan on supporting
Veterans Radio either by buying tickets or sponsoring
Radio on the River. Contact us at dale at veteransradio
.org or jim at veteransradio .org to get more
information, but we'd love to have you come out
and we'd certainly love to have you sponsor.
And I want to thank everybody for listening to
Veterans Radio today. I am Jim Fossone. It's
been a pleasure to be your host. I'm a Veterans
disability lawyer at Legal Help for Veterans
and you can reach us at 800 -693 -4800 or legalhelpforveterans
.com on the web. You can follow Veterans Radio
on Facebook and listen to its podcasts and internet
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That's veteransradio .org. We would again want
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law firm with a national practice before The
VA can help you on your claims and your appeals.
It can be reached at legalhelpforveterans .com
or 1 -800 -693 -4800. And PuroClean, a leader
in property emergency services. It's the paramedics
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mold and biohazard cleanups. You can reach them
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