Eye doctor supports Vietnam mission

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Jason Schaap
MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. --  On a typical day, Capt. (Dr.) Chad Thompson sees a dozen or so patients at his civilian optometry practice in Beloit. But in rural Vietnam, the Air Force Reservist recently experienced firsthand, conditions are far from what he is used to.

Dr. Thompson returned in late September from Operation Pacific Angel, a humanitarian mission designed to bring aid to Pacific areas in need. His optometry team treated more than 1,500 people from Quang Tri Province, Vietnam, in five and a half days. Dr. Thompson, a Reserve optometrist assigned to the 931st Aerospace Medicine Flight here, volunteered for the mission.

"A humanitarian mission is something I wanted to do for quite a while," he said. "It seemed like a rewarding way to spend an annual tour."

Optometry was one part of a Pacific Angel medical team that cared for more than 5,000 Quang Tri residents. Accompanying civil engineers focused on refurbishing a local medical clinic that needed plumbing, electrical and structural work. The mission marked the first time U.S. servicemembers were sent for duty in the region since the Vietnam War.

"We saw quite a few people with war injuries," Dr. Thompson said, to include a man who had lost both his legs and left a lasting impression on the life-long Kansan;

"He just about broke my hand squeezing it," the captain remembered. "He was smiling ear to ear."

Common health problems among the locals included chronic illnesses, acute illnesses, diabetes, hypertension, and parasites. Eye disease, caused by years of over exposure to the sun, kept the optometry team busy.

"They've been out farming all their lives," Dr. Thompson said of the patients. "We handed out lots of bifocals and reading glasses."

The trip was the captain's first to Southeast Asia. He went there having "no idea what to expect--other than rice, which I've sworn off," he joked.

A national staple, Vietnam is one of the top five rice producers in the world. The captain ate and saw a lot of it during the mission. The Pacific Angel team arrived during Quang Tri's rice harvest. Watching the Vietnamese farmers dry their crops out on the roads made Dr. Thompson realize he wasn't in Kansas anymore.

"They have a little bit of a technological difference there," the award winning optometrist said.

Servicemembers are known to return from humanitarian missions with rejuvenated appreciation for living conditions in the United States. Like many, Dr. Thompson hugged his family a little tighter when he got home.

"It's the simple things--clean water and food, rodent control--that we take for granted," he said.

Overall, the captain described the mission as an "amazing" experience. What he'll remember the most, he said, is the Vietnamese people.

"(The loved us ... they were so friendly, so nice," he said. "Everything went well."

The aim of Operation Pacific Angel is to improve military civic cooperation between the United States and Asia-Pacific countries. The first iteration of  Pacific Angel 2009 took place concurrently in Indonesia and Timor Leste in July, with the second and final iteration in Vietnam.


On YouTube
Click here to see a video of Capt. (Dr.) Thompson on the job (note: YouTube video may not be accessible when using a government computer)