Chapter 03: Military Experience
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Description
In this chapter, Dr. Cox talks about his military service during the Vietnam War, his work being stationed stateside at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and his treatment of patients with cancer. “We saw very large numbers of young men with Hodgkin’s disease and testicular cancer,” he said, “and women who were dependents of active-duty army personnel, with cancer of the cervix, breast, and so on.”
Identifier
CoxJD_01_20040319_C03
Publication Date
3-19-2004
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Topics Covered
The Interview Subject's Story - Professional Path; Military Experience; Professional Path; Evolution of Career; Joining MD Anderson
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Disciplines
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Oncology | Oral History
Transcript
Lesley W. Brunet, CA
I’m going to back up just a little.
James D. Cox, MD
I got way ahead.
Lesley W. Brunet, CA
No, that’s okay. You were in the service?
James D. Cox, MD
Yes.
Lesley W. Brunet, CA
That was after France? You were working in Wisconsin?
James D. Cox, MD
In 1965, I was an intern at the University of Chicago, and the Vietnam War was just building, and the draft was there. It was clear that every physician, he or she was going to go into the military one way or the other.
Lesley W. Brunet, CA
Did they have the physician draft then? They drafted everybody.
James D. Cox, MD
They drafted everybody, but virtually every physician because they needed them. So in 1965, I volunteered for the draft.
Lesley W. Brunet, CA
Get it over with.
James D. Cox, MD
And that permitted me to be a candidate for what was called the Berry Plan. The Berry plan was a way of deferring active duty in areas where the army had a shortage of specialists, and it was only for a certain list of specialists, one of which was therapeutic radiology. So I volunteered for the draft, which was the first thing and a risky thing in its own right, and then I did apply for this Berry Plan and was able to get deferred through my whole training, including France. Then I went on active duty as soon as I came back from France, and I was on active duty from July of 1970 until June or July of 1972.
Lesley W. Brunet, CA
Where did you serve?
James D. Cox, MD
I was stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center [Bethesda, Maryland].
Lesley W. Brunet, CA
So you didn’t have to go overseas?
James D. Cox, MD
I didn’t have to go overseas. Right.
Lesley W. Brunet, CA
Was that a useful—?
James D. Cox, MD
It was a very good experience. I mean, Walter Reed was the major place for cancer treatment in the United States. There were three million active-duty men in the army, and almost everybody with cancer was funneled to Walter Reed. Some went to Fitzsimons Army [Medical Center] Hospital in Denver, some went to [Camp] Letterman [General Hospital] in San Francisco, and some went to Tripler [Hospital]. But only the ones in the Far East went to Tripler Hospital in Hawaii, in Honolulu. But those were the four major hospitals, and Walter Reed was far and away the main source. We saw very large numbers of young men with Hodgkin’s disease and testicular cancer, and women who were dependents of active-duty army personnel, with cancer of the cervix, breast, and so on. So it was a good experience, and I did some stuff academically. Walter Reed was right next to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, so I did work with the pathologists and wrote a few papers.
Lesley W. Brunet, CA
That was a good time then?
James D. Cox, MD
That was a good time. I tried to make maximum use out of it. The hours were pretty good, relative to what I’m used to doing, and so I had time to do some retrospective studies of patients that had been treated there and to interact with the pathologists and try to learn stuff about the natural history, especially of lymphomas.
Lesley W. Brunet, CA
You studied a lot of different kinds of cancer.
James D. Cox, MD
Well, yes, but probably the main areas of focus have been lymphomas and cancer of the lung and, to a lesser degree, cancer of the prostate. I’ve done a few studies in other areas, head and neck, but that’s most of it.
Recommended Citation
Cox, James D. MD and Brunet, Lesley W., "Chapter 03: Military Experience" (2004). Interview Chapters. 755.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/755
Conditions Governing Access
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