The College sends Dartmouth Medicine, the magazine of the medical school, to class secretaries to share news of medical school graduates who are also our undergraduate classmates. In the fall edition I came across “Late to War,” an article by Matt Putnam, orthopedic surgeon, about his decision after 9/11 to enter military service. Matt had already made volunteer medical contributions by helping to build an orthopedic service at the Polish-American Children’s Hospital in Krakow, Poland, and by working in Honduras and Kenya. Coming from a family tradition of government service going back to the Civil War and with almost all of the physicians who had mentored him earlier in his career having served in the military, Matt attempted to join the Army in 2005 but was told he was too old. However, with a general shortage of orthopedic surgeons, age became less of an issue and the Army came back to him in 2008. After formal commissioning in 2011 Matt began extensive training with his unit in areas such as trauma care, officer leadership, physical readiness and weapons use. When Matt was given his choice of assignment, he requested a mobile army surgical hospital (MASH) unit. MASH units as such no longer exist, so Matt was assigned in 2013 as the orthopedic surgeon in a forward surgical team at a forward operating base in Afghanistan within sight of the mountains of Pakistan. He handled on-base injuries and illnesses, but his chief medical activity was treating war casualties, both military and civilian. After an extended tour of duty in Afghanistan, Matt returned home to Minnesota in April 2014. He lives in Minneapolis, where he cares for patients, teaches at the University of Minnesota and conducts research in measuring and improving surgical competence. Matt’s wife, Ann, returned to school at the University of Minnesota to earn a master’s in horticulture after retiring from a career in human resources and employee benefits in the banking industry. Matt and Ann have three children. Son Morgan, 32, went to Cornell and earned a Ph.D. from Cal Tech. As part of his Rotary community service he works with veterans in a post-traumatic stress disorder program. Son Reed, 30, studied economics and Japanese at the University of Minnesota. Daughter Merril, 28, graduated from Boston College and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship. After earning a master’s in environmental engineering from the University of San Francisco, she joined the Peace Corps and worked as a water engineer for more than two years in Peru. All three children now live and work in the San Francisco Bay Area. Lt. Col. Matthew Putnam continues to serve our nation as unit commander of the 945th Forward Surgical Team in the U.S. Army Reserve.


Be safe and send news.


—Rick Sample, Retreat Farm, 1137 Manakin Road, Manakin Sabot, VA 23103; samplejr@msn.com