{"id":9687,"date":"2024-05-17T17:37:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-17T17:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/?p=9687"},"modified":"2024-08-10T17:38:19","modified_gmt":"2024-08-10T17:38:19","slug":"medical-service-corps-officer-gains-valuable-insight-for-future-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/2024\/05\/17\/medical-service-corps-officer-gains-valuable-insight-for-future-career\/","title":{"rendered":"Medical Service Corps Officer gains valuable insight for future career"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Story By Michelle Thum<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LANDSTUHL, Germany \u2013 A Medical Service Corps Officer from the Maryland National Guard had the opportunity to shadow Public Health Command Europe Veterinary Corps officers for a week during her 9-month rotation to Poland.

First Lt. Isabella Carr, who joined the Maryland National Guard in May 2022, took a year off from Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine to support Operation Atlantic Resolve at a Role 2 facility in Powidz, Poland.

Carr was notified of the mobilization and leaned into the experience knowing she would gain a lot of knowledge and personal growth from being able to deploy as a Platoon Leader.

\u201cMy uncle [ a very close family friend] was in the Marine Corps for 25 years and my uncle was in the Navy for 10 years, it seemed like the military had such a positive influence on their lives,\u201d said Carr. \u201cThey spoke highly of their time in the service, and I liked the idea of having a dual purpose of being a veterinarian in the U.S. Army.\u201d

On a day-to-day basis, Carr coordinates morning, evening, sick call and emergencies with Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and host nation hospitals for Soldiers forward deployed in Poland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe can provide a certain amount of care here but sometimes Soldiers need to be referred to other hospitals,\u201d said Carr. \u201cI manage evacuations and facilitate with Polish translators and hospital staff for visits at host nation facilities due to the language barrier.\u201d

Carr met Public Health Command Europe Commander Col. Paul Lang during a Medical Readiness Center, Europe site visit.

\u201cWe started chatting and I told him that I\u2019d like to become a veterinarian in the U.S. Army after my return from Poland,\u201d said Carr. \u201cCol. Lang introduced me to the Deputy Commander of Public Health Command Europe who is a veterinarian, and we went from there.\u201d

Carr was invited to shadow the veterinarians at Public Health Command Europe for a week.

\u201cI think it\u2019s really important for young people to visualize their future,\u201d said Lang. \u201cWe tend to fill the gaps of the unknown with our imagination and I wanted to make sure that she has the chance to experience and visualize her future with real-life examples.\u201d

Shortly after meeting the Public Health Command Europe Command Group, she was preparing for her trip to Germany.

\u201cI was fire hosed with information for a week and I really, really enjoyed it,\u201d said Carr. \u201cIt gave me a good idea of what the Veterinary Corps is like.\u201d

On her first day with PHCE, she was able to assist with a surgery at Veterinary Medical Center Europe, the Army’s premier, forward-deployed Role 3 medical and surgical center for Military Working Dogs, located on Pulaski Barracks, Germany.

\u201cBefore I started veterinary school, I was a veterinary technician, so it was cool to experience a surgery from the side of a veterinarian,\u201d said Carr.

During her time in Landstuhl, Carr was also able to experience more of the laboratory side in the Veterinary Corps, she toured the in-house chemical and biological laboratory.

\u201cIt was fascinating,\u201d said Carr. \u201cInitially I didn\u2019t think I would find it that intriguing but I learned something new about myself during this week and I\u2019m considering looking into the laboratory side of the VC more.\u201d

Lastly, Carr was able to work through sick calls at the Baumholder Veterinary Treatment Facility and accompany a commissary inspection and a food mission at one of the warehouses.
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Looking back at her week with PHCE, Carr is grateful for the time and people she met.

\u201cEvery single person was very passionate about their job, you don\u2019t see that often,\u201d said Carr. \u201cThey were happy to answer all of my questions and it was very refreshing to meet people who are so dedicated to the work they do, it\u2019s rare- even in the civilian world.\u201d

Carr is finishing her tour in Poland in September of 2024 and will continue working on her veterinary degree before she intends to switch over to active duty to become a Veterinary Corps officer upon completing her degree<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Story By Michelle Thum LANDSTUHL, Germany \u2013 A Medical Service Corps Officer from the Maryland National Guard had the opportunity to shadow Public Health Command Europe Veterinary Corps officers for a week during her 9-month rotation to Poland. First Lt. Isabella Carr, who joined the Maryland National Guard in May 2022, took a year off  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":9699,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9687"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9702,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9687\/revisions\/9702"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}