The Next Nurses

By Tyler Francke, Oregon Veterans News Magazine

There are many motivations that may set a person upon a career in medicine. The likely chance of being first on the scene of a bloody explosion is not necessarily the most common one — but it works for Air Force veteran, USAF Reservist and Linfield College nursing student Owen Duff.

Duff served multiple deployments as an explosive ordinance disposal technician. He says he found himself gravitating toward the medical field out of necessity.

“I found myself pursuing a lot of medical work and training, because we’re around explosives all the time, and I figured I might as well know how to save a life in these traumatic environments,” Duff said. “If the worst happened, the most likely first responder was going to be me.”

Duff, who graduates in December, said his decision to go into nursing as a career was a practical one.

“EOD was a good job because there’s always explosives or chemicals or biological hazards,” he said. “So I could do that job anywhere and always have a job. Health care is the same way. I wanted a job that I enjoyed doing that could also be transferable.”

Michael Hogan, another student veteran of the Linfield nursing program, who graduated in May, said he has wanted to join the Marines since he was 12 years old and saw the cool commercials of Marines climbing mountains and plunging their sabers into the dirt.

He enlisted hoping to become an air traffic controller like his brother, but was dismayed to find out he had been assigned to UAV. He didn’t know what that was, but he had heard it meant he would be waving cones on aircraft carriers.

When he found out what it actually meant — flying unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones — he actually thought that sounded pretty cool.

Hogan did four deployments for the U.S. Marine Corps — three in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. Unlike Duff, he never got a chance to learn any hands-on medical experience during his military service.

“About the closest I came to the medical field was getting prescribed cough drops and ibuprofen,” he quipped.

Michael Hogan and Owen Duff, both military veterans and nursing students at Linfield College, say finding support in each other has been crucial to maintaining their focus on their education and future careers.

But he was inspired by people he knew on base, particularly those involved with the Medevac crews

“I remember being like, ‘You get to do that?’” he recalled. “I wanted to be more hands-on, in the moment helping people, as opposed to providing overwatch and feeling more like a third party.”

Both veterans said they have enjoyed their time as students, citing the importance of remaining focused on school and their future careers. They said leaning on each other and other students vets has been important, including a club for student vets at Linfield that Hogan resurrected after it had lain dormant for many years.

“It’s hard to not get bogged down with the things that you see your peers getting bogged down with,” Duff said. “But the wisdom and experience, to be able to hear from other vets, that’s an important piece to this whole puzzle.”

Duff took over as president after Hogan.

Hogan said another thing that has helped him stay focused is seeing other veterans achieve remarkable things, like some doctors with whom he has worked at the Portland VA Medical Center.

“I was working with all these physicians, and then I found out they were veterans, too, and I was just like, ‘That’s awesome,’” he said. “So that’s what I want to do now. I want to be a CNA, I want to work with veterans at the VA hospital, and I want to work for a long time. I don’t want to stop working until I’m, like, 85.”