Veterans Day: Answering the Call To Serve
John Eakin, 96, entered our hospital wearing a World War II Veteran cap. Greeted by James Saunders, Guest Services Parking Attendant and a retired Army Private, the two struck up a conversation that inspired Mr. Eakin to share his story of resilience. Soon Mr. Eakin had captured the attention of a room full of 9 South PCU clinical staff.
Making a Connection
In this case, a hat helped to link two veterans. Our available “Military Veteran” ID badge dropdown can also quickly help employees and patients or their family members to make the same powerful connection.
The Veterans Business Resource Group (BRG) created the badge dropdown with that goal in mind. Employees who are veterans can choose to wear the “Military Veteran” ID badge dropdown to identify themselves as veterans.
“We wanted to offer our veterans a way to more easily connect with other veterans while honoring them and showing our appreciation,” says Patrick Dunham, leader of the Veterans BRG. “The badges seemed like an easy option, and we get requests for them often from both new hires and seasoned employees who are veterans.”
Launched in 2019, the Veterans BRG includes employees who share a passion for our veterans and furthering a welcoming and supporting environment for them. The group also has created the Carilion Veteran Resource Guide (found on the Resources page of the Diversity and Inclusion hub) featuring veterans' resources and state benefits. Future projects are in the works.
Mr. Eakin's Story
Mr. Eakin with 9 South PCU staff. L-R: Jean Massideau, NA; Ruth Jacobs, R.N. (travel nurse), Elaina Bernardo, R.N., C.T.L.; and Kourtney Hall, L.P.N.
Imagine German soldiers just yards away unleashing machine gun fire at your every movement, then stepping in a deep, frozen mule track that sends you to your knees, injuring your ankle while artillery shell hits near you.
Mr. Eakin found himself in this exact scenario when he served in the 34th Red Bull Infantry Division in the Italian Campaign during World War II in 1945. He used his rifle as a crutch to make it back to his division’s Hospital Aide Tent Station, only to be sent back to the front lines with a wrapped, swollen ankle.
His division went on to attack and destroy two German Divisions and parts of four others in five days. On May 1, 1945, the German 34th Division surrendered to our American 34th Division, a significant victory towards ending the war.
“We could never let our guard down,” says Mr. Eakin. “Every step might be a boobie trap or mine, but I was defending our freedom. That’s what I was doing.” Mr. Eakin received a Bronze Star for his service.
Service Takes On Different Forms
There are stories like Mr. Eakin's and many others. Our own employees, who balance serving patients and their country, have their stories, too.
Suzanna Jamison, M.D., Internal Medicine, typically sees patients at our Riverside campus. As a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, Dr. Jamison responded when called by her unit to serve at Queens Hospital Center in Queens, N.Y., this past spring. At the time, it was the epicenter for fighting a massive number of COVID-19 cases. Here's her story as covered by The Roanoke Times earlier this year.
Tracy Kidd, R.N., CRMH PACU, is a hospital corpsman 2nd Class in the U.S. Navy Reserves. She responded to the call to serve this spring, too, when she boarded the USNS Comfort, a hospital ship that went to New York City. Like Dr. Jamison, Tracy was also on the pandemic's front lines treating COVID-19 patients. Tracy's story was covered by local media earlier this year, as well.
Byron Lawson, Intermediate Care and Psychiatric Technician, Inpatient Psychiatry, also served on the USNS Comfort in its mission (Operation Gotham) to New York City, where he worked in outpatient mental health rounding on all units and departments on all shifts to assess the crew's well-being. He was a resource for anything they may need. Sailors had a 48-hour notice to report to the ship for duty, so there was little time to mentally prepare.
"I worked in an outpatient mental health capacity to solve and de-escalate crew members on the floor, so we could help to decrease the need for them to require outpatient mental health services," says Byron. "This was essentially like having Carilion EAP come directly to frontline workers--offering them on-the-spot services."
Ken Simmons, a Navy Corpsman who recently joined Carilion as an intermediate care technician, is part of the team we call when a patient needs emergency, life-saving support. He plans to use his skills and training at Carilion to become an ICU nurse when he fully transfers to civilian life.
Overall, 30 Carilion employees deployed with their military reserve units this year. We don’t have all of their stories, but their commitment and extraordinary courage are to be commended.
Thank You!
Whether our veterans are employees, patients or visitors and whatever their service story is, we are grateful for their selfless sacrifice to protect our liberties.
On Veterans Day and every day, we thank all veterans and active-duty military for their service.
We invite you to leave your messages in the comments section below as a measure of thanks to our employees who have served and sacrificed for our country.
