So I started my military career when I was 18 years old. I was active duty in the Marine Corps and in that position I fixed everything electronic in terms of communication equipment on tanks and jeeps and backpack radios and then there was a long hiatus. I did four years I was an e5. When I got out and discovered my love of all things medical and I think that the comparison here would be that I'm diagnosing now but just different you know now I'm diagnosing people versus equipment, so clearly it's a passion. So I came into the Massachusetts National Guard in 2013 I direct Commission. I was a physician assistant fully-fledged at that point and working and I met a recruiter at a pharmacology conference and fell in love again. This is a family, make no mistake, this is a family and it's just amazing to see how we get to support each other how we are supported. I'm currently in a doctorate program the Army is paying for that I'm using the GI Bill and what a fabulous thing that is what a great opportunity it's providing me and then I'll get to take that information that degree that body of knowledge and give it back in so many ways you know. It's an amazing awesome responsibility to be a medical provider there's this giant scope of practice there is the privilege to take care of patients and in this case to take care of soldiers and if you put that in the context of an emergency such as this this virus that you know we're doing battle with now it's it's an all-hands-on-deck situation to protect people to protect our our colleagues to protect the citizens of this state to
plan and be medically ready to address whatever it's going to bring our way. I mean right now it's uncharted waters being a physician assistant in my humble opinion is one of the best professions it's certainly one of the best things that I've ever done with my life. I consider it a privilege. I consider it an awesome responsibility to take care of people breath of medical knowledge that were responsible for before I was I'm currently active duty in the Massachusetts Army National Guard right now but just prior to that a year and a half ago I was the chief physician assistant at Brigham and Women's Hospital for lung and kidney transplant so all you know also an awesome responsibility and now you know take those abilities in that body of knowledge and turn it over and and broaden it into this experience of taking care of all of the soldiers in the Army National Guard so now you know now you're you're managing not just the clinical things that you have to know but also the administrative things of planning and you can care people responding this pandemic that we're trying to get you know a handle on right now it's it's an incredible rewarding thing. You'll be so proud of what you do not just for your colleagues but for the citizens of the state for your nation it's a it's a terrific responsibility.