http://www.fayettevillenc.com/story.php?Template=war&Story=6284465 Dr. Ritchey, 68, answering call to serve in Iraq
By Rebekah Sanderlin
Staff writer
Staff photo by Tracy Wilcox
Dr. John Ritchey, 68, will work with the 1967th Surgical Detachment for three to six months.
John Ritchey is packing for a deployment to Iraq. At age 68, he will be going back on active duty in the Army.
Ritchey, a Fayetteville ophthalmologist, has been on inactive reserve status for 27 years. A few months ago he got a call from the U.S. Surgeon General's office saying eye surgeons were needed in Iraq and asking whether he would be willing go. He said he would.
"I felt this was an opportunity for some payback," Ritchey said. "The Army was really good to me. Most of the good things that happened in my life have been because of the Army."
Ritchey said he's been willing to serve in every major conflict since the first Gulf War, but he's never been asked.
"They called my bluff this time," he said.
He is scheduled to report to Fort Bliss in Texas on June 6, where he'll spend a week getting ready before leaving for Iraq. He will be deployed for three to six months.
He's not sure where he'll be sent in Iraq, but said he'll be working with the 1967th Surgical Detachment.
Ritchey retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel in 1977 after serving 20 years, the last four of them as an eye surgeon at Womack Army Medical Center.
He said he joined the Army because he wanted to see the world. When he was 10 years old an uncle gave him a book called "The Book of Marvels." The book chronicles the author's adventures all over the world in words and pictures. Ritchey said he knew then that he wanted to see every place mentioned in the book.
He attended West Point, where he met his wife, June, at a dance for cadets. They were married in 1957.
After West Point he worked with an air defense artillery unit for three years before going to medical school at the University of Oregon in Portland.
He spent one year in Vietnam, working as a flight surgeon for the 101st Airborne Division, then fulfilled his eye surgery residency requirements at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
He said the recent increase in violence in Iraq has him a little nervous, but not so nervous that he would back out.
"You'd be a fool not to be scared," Ritchey said, "but I went through Vietnam. It can't be much worse than that."
In Iraq, Ritchey will perform surgery on injured soldiers, particularly on their faces and eyes. He expects to see a lot of facial injuries because faces are not covered by armor.
Ritchey had to pass a physical to be allowed to make the trip. The exam included blood samples, checking his health history and making sure his heart worked well.
"I guess you have to be able to run from the Iraqis," he said.
Medical volunteer
Ritchey has been practicing volunteer medicine in war-torn and impoverished countries for years. He and his wife have spent many vacations on medical mission trips in Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, China, India, Bulgaria, El Salvador, Guyana, Peru, Tobago and Nepal.
"We always try to do a little sightseeing," Ritchey said. "But mostly it's a working vacation."
"We're looking at this (Iraq) as another volunteer trip," Ritchey said.
June Ritchey will accompany him to Fort Bliss for a week, a trip he said they're looking forward to. Ritchey was there for officer basic training and they were married in a church near the post.
"We're going to see if we can find our old apartment and the church," he said.
While he's gone, June will probably visit with family or will spend time at their vacation home in Daytona, Fla., he said. Each of the Ritcheys has a pilot's license and he said they fly their private plane to Daytona nearly every weekend.
The Ritcheys have two sons, John and Jimmy. Jimmy is an engineer in Los Angeles. John, a colonel in an Army military intelligence unit, is in Afghanistan. He's been there for seven months and his tour has been extended.
Ritchey said it's possible that his son won't be back from Afghanistan before he leaves for Iraq.
Ritchey will be sacrificing more than just his time and safety when he leaves for Iraq. He also has to give up his ophthalmology office on Valleygate Drive.
"The overhead is more than I'll be making in the military," he said.
The office will close May 1. His employees and patient records will go to New Horizons Surgical Eye Center, in the Eutaw Shopping Center. Ritchey said he may go to work there when he returns, but he hasn't made any definite plans.
Ritchey said all the sacrifices are worth it. He said he feels obligated to help the Army. And, he said, Iraq is one of the countries he has been wanting to see.
"It's hard to get to the Middle East these days any other way," he said.
