SAVING LIVES ON THE FRONT LINE Book chronicles a California outdoorsman/Navy doctor's story.
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hen he was entering his fourth and final year of medical school, Donnelly Wilkes was excited about his future as a doctor and an ensuing career in the United States Navy. But when terrorists hijacked four planes on Sept. 11, 2001, causing thousands of deaths and sent a reeling nation into mourning, Wilkes’ euphoria turned to uncertainty and fury. “The United States has been attacked! I’m astonished at the sight of the burning buildings, bewildered at how such a thing could happen to us. A feeling of dread comes over me as I stare at sobbing, terrified New Yorkers running through ashen streets,” Wilkes writes in his memoir. “My sadness quickly turns to anger, and all I can think of is ‘Oh God, what can we do now, what happens next?’” Wilkes grew up in Placerville, California, about 50 miles east of Sacramento, in a family with plenty of military ties and that also had a love for hunting and the outdoors (see our interview in the following pages). Wilkes did his undergraduate work at the University of California Irvine and attended medical school at Tulane University’s School of Medicine in New Orleans on a full Navy scholarship. Dr. Wilkes graduated from Tulane and embarked on his service as a lieutenant commander in the Navy, which would eventually take him on seven years of active duty, including two combat tours in Iraq as a field doctor in 2004 and 2008. He would be awarded the Navy Commendation Medal with Valor for his actions in the Battle of Fallujah in April 2004. These days, Dr. Wilkes runs a clinic in Southern California and still enjoys outdoor adventures in his home state and throughout the West. His book details the highs and lows of his time in combat, where he and colleagues worked tirelessly to save the lives of soldiers wounded in combat during the Iraq War. The following is excerpted from Code Red Fallujah: A Doctor’s Memoir at War by Dr. Donnelly Wilkes and published by Post Hill Press/Simon & Schuster. 48
American Shooting Journal // February 2022
STORY AND PHOTOS BY DR. DONNELLY WILKES
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hroughout the deployment our battalion worked closely with the Iraqi police, training them and conducting joint missions during offensive operations. This is in preparation for when Iraqis will eventually take over security enforcement of their cities and
