Carlton Chooses Service to Patients and Soldiers

Many physicians say medicine has always been their calling, but Dr. Scott Carlton of Jackson has always felt drawn to the military as well.

Carlton is taking part in what he calls “90 days boots on the ground” in Camp Taji near Baghdad, Iraq, this winter as part of the Mississippi Medical Command unit within the National Guard 155th Armored Brigade. He left the United States in December and will return home in March 2019.

While in Iraq, Dr. Carlton will work in a clinic setting serving outpatients alongside other American physicians. “I’ll be doing mostly sick call, taking care of minor injuries, burns, transfusions and battlefield injuries,” he said. “As a family physician, I am very wellqualified for that.”

This is his second deployment, having served with the same military unit in 2012 in Kosovo, a country in Southeastern Europe.

Serving his country has been second nature to Dr. Carlton who joined the military at the age of 17 with the encouragement of his father, who was also a soldier. Carlton

Dr. Carlton worked with other physicians during his 2012 deployment in Kosovo, and is shown with fellow family physician Dr. Shawn Baker, left, with Carlton.

Dr. Carlton in his National Guard uniform during his previous deployment in Kosovo.

Dr. Carlton expertly guides his parachute during a jump.

He spent the summer between his junior and senior years of high school serving in the National Guard, which was the beginning of a lifelong commitment.

Dr. Carlton serves as a preceptor for students from both Mississippi medical schools. He said he emphasizes the benefits of family medicine to all the medical students he works with. “I try to sell them on the rewards of family medicine,” he said. “It’s stimulating to deal with different patients all the time, and I would be bored doing one thing all day.”

Carlton said choosing family medicine was natural to him. His “aha” moment came his third year in medical school. Upon hearing that family physicians treat all ages and conditions, “It’s like a bell went off in my head,” he said. “That’s what I believe doctors are, in the first place.”

As a military doctor, he has taken a different path than other medical school graduates and, as a result, has seen a lot of different practice settings. He transferred to the Army Reserve before medical school because of scholarship opportunities. After 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 andVirginia were stationed in Hanau, Germany, for a few years then returning to the United States and 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 2004- 06, 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.