I would rather the accident never occurred, but that it did on the Pacific side of The Zone was a godsend. At the time, Gorgas was rated as the #1 hospital in the world.

Military clinics are a different story entirely. I generally consider myself a little brighter than the average medic handing out Tylenol at sick call, or lining folks up for the yearly flu shots.

My eldest was severely bowlegged when he started to walk. My wife and I took him to the post clinic (Ft. Davis, Panama -- Atlantic side). The so-called 'doctor' said he would have to break his legs to straighten them. We never returned -- and his legs will be 22 years old come January 1 (born here at OSU the first morning of 1980). They are now straight, and work just fine.

My dentist in Italy was phenomenal. He did a deep root canal on me back in '87. I had another in '98. My new dentist was checking me over and took a stab in the dark, suggesting that the newer crown looked to be a military job. I told him it was the other, and he was amazed with the workmanship (I like it too). The other was an emergency job at the local Sears store (they got everything there).

My wife had a bad experience while I was in Korea and she was camping with the kids -- somewhere Stateside. She had mislaid the hammer and used a stone to pound in a tent stake. She smashed the tip of her finger. The next day at a local military clinic, she had what the medic referred to as 'rock fragments' removed. Well, the fragments were actually the bone of her fingertip.

We were moving into the guest house at Holloman AFB, NM, pending my PCS to Korea, when my middle kid (he was probably about 6-years-old at the time) decided he should fall down a flight of stairs. We took him to the local clinic and got him x-rayed. He had a hairline fracture in his left shoulder blade. We were told to take him out to the clinic at White Sands for further treatment. Well, there was a blizzard that afternoon (no, really, it does happen down there), so I took two old OD green cravats, made him a sling with one, then wrapped the other around him to immobilize his arm. Rather than driving through the storm all the way out to WSMR, my wife took him in to a clinic in Alamogordo. She told me the doctor carefully unwrapped him, check him over, then wrapped him right back up the way I had, saying we're doing just fine. However -- since the appointment at WSMR was missed, my orders were flagged, pending investigation for child neglect. My wife and I went to the Holoman clinic with the Alamogordo doctor's report, but the military doctor and his nurse, both of whom had filed to have my orders flagged, were both away on leave. Took a week to get back to clearing status.

They actually send these people to school, don't they?

And I do know what you mean, Larry.

Count myself lucky?

Daily, my man. Daily.

Dan