Philip S. Cifarelli - Military Service - Vietnam and The Persian Gulf War

Vietnam and The Persian Gulf War

In 1966, recognizing the dire need created by the Vietnam War for physicians in the military, Dr. Cifarelli voluntarily enlisted in the United States Army. He served in Vietnam from 1966 through 1967, attaining the rank of Captain and serving as Chief of Medicine at the 67th Evac. Hospital in QuiNan, Vietnam. He was awarded a Bronze Star and a Letter of Commendation for his service during the war.

Dr. Cifarelli's respect and admiration for military service never faded. In 1982 he re-joined the Army, in its reserve unit as a Lt. Colonel. Two years later he attained the rank of full Colonel and continued to serve in the U.S. Army Reserves Medical Corps through most of the 1990s. During that period he was named Chief of Medicine and later Commander of the 349th General Hospital in Los Angeles, a unit called to serve in the Persian Gulf War. He also commanded the 458th MASH Unit and later served as a Consultant to the U.S. Army Surgeon General, obtaining a top secret clearance at the Pentagon. As the millennium arrived Dr. Cifarelli finally retired from the military.

Read more about this topic:  Philip S. Cifarelli, Military Service

Famous quotes containing the words vietnam, persian, gulf and/or war:

    I told them I’m not going to let Vietnam go the way of China. I told them to go back and tell those generals in Saigon that Lyndon Johnson intends to stand by our word, but by God, I want something for my money. I want ‘em to get off their butts and get out in those jungles and whip hell out of some Communists. And then I want ‘em to leave me alone, because I’ve got some bigger things to do right here at home.
    Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)

    Come, give thy soul a loose, and taste the pleasures of the poor.
    Sometimes ‘tis grateful for the rich to try
    A short vicissitude, and fit of poverty:
    A savory dish, a homely treat,
    Where all is plain, where all is neat,
    Without the stately spacious room,
    The Persian carpet, or the Tyrian loom,
    Clear up the cloudy foreheads of the great.
    Horace [Quintus Horatius Flaccus] (65–8)

    His father watched him across the gulf of years and pathos which always must divide a father from his son.
    —J.P. (John Phillips)

    Those wars are unjust which are undertaken without provocation. For only a war waged for revenge or defense can be just.
    Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)