IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Lt. Gen. Michael S. Tucker, First Army commanding general, offered praise and respect to several veterans he visited at a VA hospital here.
Tucker went to the Iowa City VA Medical Center on Jan. 29, as part of a goodwill visit during the winter season.
Before visiting the patients, Tucker met and discussed patient care with the medical center's leaders.
Tucker himself served as deputy commanding general at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 2007 and assistant surgeon general for Warrior Care Transition, Office of the Surgeon General from 2007 to 2008.
"Their mission was to heal," Tucker said of the veterans at Walter Reed and the Warrior Transition Units.
The Iowa City VA Medical Center serves a veteran population of more than 50,000 residing in eastern Iowa, western Illinois and northeastern Missouri. Around 40 percent of these veterans receive primary care at one of the health care systems' nine community-based outpatient clinics -- including one in Galesburg, Illinois and one in Bettendorf, Iowa.
Tucker also learned that the facility serves more than 7,000 Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn veterans.
Tucker received a briefing on the medical center's mission from Dawn Oxley, acting director of the medical center; Heath Streck, associate director for operations, who also serves as a colonel in the Iowa Army National Guard; Tammy Neff, acting associate director for patient care services; and Dr. Richard Charlat, the medical center's chief of staff.
"The Iowa City VA Medical Center does really well as far as patient satisfaction," Oxley said.
As Tucker visited the in-patient care ward, he met Army veterans Ted Hall and Harold Liles. Hall served in Vietnam and was preparing for an operation on his lung. That didn't prevent Hall from enjoying Tucker's visit.
Liles served in South Korea between 1956 and 1958. He told Tucker his memories of building quonset huts while using scrap iron.
"What a neat guy," Tucker said after the visit.
Tucker also visited the Women's Health Clinic and learned of its increasing enrollment due to the growing role of females in the armed forces in the last 20 years.
Tucker made a favorable impression on one particular patient. Eugene Othon, of Clinton, Iowa, was scheduled to be discharged from the medical center. However, Othon refused to leave until he met Tucker.
"I've never met a general before," said the Air Force veteran who served from 1960 to 1965 -- including 13 months in Vietnam.
"(The staff) here are fantastic," Othon told the general. "I'm happy to meet you."
Tucker came away impressed with the medical center's staff and the patients.
"When you go to places (like the VA Medical Center), you have thoughts of inspiring the veterans, but the truth is, they inspire you," he said. "I can't help but come away from the visit feeling inspired."
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