Carlton Chooses Service to Patients and Soldiers
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completing his family medicine residency in Honolulu, Hawaii. He practiced after that at Fort Polk, Louisiana, before returning to the small town of Columbia, Mississippi. “I wanted to be a family physician in a small town in Mississippi,” Carlton said of his time in Columbia. “I had a great time doing that for 11 years.” The ballot box brought the Carltons to Jackson. Virginia, an elected member of the state House of Representatives from 200406, was accustomed to traveling to Jackson for work. But when she was elected to the Mississippi Court of Appeals, the family permanently moved to the state capital. She is serving an 8-year term after running unopposed for re-election in 2014. Dr. Carlton is currently employed as a family physician at MEA Medical Clinics, working out of the Old Canton Road clinic in Jackson. He said he is lucky to have a good work environment and adds that his partners cover for him while he’s deployed. He plans to step back into the clinic with no problems at the end of his tour. “I don’t mind giving back,” he said of his military service. “I’m glad I [have the opportunity.]” Dr. Carlton recently rotated off the MAFP Board of Directors after six years of service during his career. He served from 2005-09 while living in Columbia and from 2016-18 while in Jackson. He and his wife, Virginia, have three adult children, Rachael, Read and Phoebe.
Dr. Carlton expertly guides his parachute during a jump. the mississippi family physician
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PUBLIC AWARENESS
spent the summer between any physicians say his junior and senior years medicine has always of high school serving in the been their calling, but Dr. National Guard, which was Scott Carlton of Jackson the beginning of a lifelong has always felt drawn to the commitment. military as well. Dr. Carlton serves as Carlton is taking part a preceptor for students in what he calls “90 days from both Mississippi boots on the ground” in medical schools. He said he Camp Taji near Baghdad, emphasizes the benefits of Iraq, this winter as part of family medicine to all the the Mississippi Medical medical students he works Command unit within with. “I try to sell them on the the National Guard 155th rewards of family medicine,” Armored Brigade. He left the United States in December Dr. Carlton in his National Guard he said. “It’s stimulating to and will return home in uniform during his previous deal with different patients all the time, and I would be March 2019. deployment in Kosovo. bored doing one thing all While in Iraq, Dr. day.” Carlton will work in a clinic setting serving Carlton said choosing family medicine outpatients alongside other American was natural to him. His “aha” moment physicians. “I’ll be doing mostly sick call, came his third year in medical school. Upon taking care of minor injuries, burns, hearing that family physicians treat all ages transfusions and battlefield injuries,” he and conditions, “It’s like a bell went off in my said. “As a family physician, I am very wellhead,” he said. “That’s what I believe doctors qualified for that.” are, in the first place.” This is his second deployment, having As a military doctor, he has taken a served with the same military unit in 2012 in different path than other medical school Kosovo, a country in Southeastern Europe. graduates and, as a result, has seen a lot of Serving his country has been second different practice settings. He transferred nature to Dr. Carlton who joined the military to the Army Reserve before medical school at the age of 17 with the encouragement of because of scholarship opportunities. After his father, who was also a soldier. Carlton medical school, he matched into the Army Reserve Family Medicine Residency in Fort Benning, Georgia, where he served his internship year. Around this time, Dr. Carlton met and married Virginia Carter from Columbia, a recent graduate of the University of Mississippi School of Law. She joined the Army JAG Corps as a military lawyer and they began serving in the military together. Dr. Carlton served as an emergency room physician while he and Virginia were stationed Dr. Carlton worked with other physicians during his 2012 deployment in Hanau, Germany, for a in Kosovo, and is shown with fellow family physician Dr. Shawn Baker, few years then returning to the United States and left, with Carlton.
