Interview with Colonel Ralph Olsen

Partial Transcript: This is Jacob Hagan. I'm here with Colonel Olsen and Mrs. Olsen.

Partial Transcript: And then you went to University of Wisconsin for your undergraduate?

Segment Synopsis: Colonel Olsen says it was a dramatic time. For five years male freshmen did not attend the University of Wisconsin they went on active duty. In 1945, 1946, and 1947, five years of veteran freshmen descended on the campus all at the same time. The population burdened. Men’s residence halls were limited to veterans and if you weren’t a veteran then you couldn’t get into residence halls. Every single bedroom in Madison was full. Col. Olsen attended the University in the Fall of 1947. Col. Olsen lived in a hospital ward his second semester. Col. Olsen comments on the veterans having great study habits

Keywords: UW-Madison; campus; residence halls; undergraduate; veterans

Partial Transcript: So then, when did you get into medical school?

Segment Synopsis: At the end of his junior year, he went to medical school after three and a half years of college. Colonel Olsen was in ROTC for 5 years, 2 of which were medical school ROTC

Keywords: ROTC; medical school

Partial Transcript: Then when I graduated from medical school, I was given a commission in the Army Reserve.

Segment Synopsis: June 18 1954. Col. Olsen was commissioned into the reserves as a second lieutenant. Col. Olsen went to a charity hospital in central Maine after commissioning and starting his internship.

Keywords: Maine; amputations; army reserve; commission; first lieutenant; internship; medical school; surgery

Partial Transcript: Can you talk a about what your motivations were, making you decide to want to go to medical school.

Segment Synopsis: He explains that his grandfather was a doctor. Col. Olsen also wanted to have a brief military career.

Keywords: doctor; medical school; military career

Partial Transcript: And in 1984, a best buddy of mine from 101st airborne division...

Segment Synopsis: Col. Olsen moved to West Point to practice medicine in the Army.

Keywords: army; health maintenance organization; pediatrics; preferred provider organization

Partial Transcript: The army has always had a good medical corps. Not as good as it used to be.

Segment Synopsis: The army had a tradition of great specialty training. Lately, there has been a shift away from specialty training to more combat training. Doctors are being replaced by medical assistants. The surgeon general now is a registered nurse, that is probably a good thing, but I think that the army has abandoned its broad approach to specialty training, plastic surgery, research, bacteriology, so many areas.

Keywords: army; combat training; medical corps; pediatrics; plastic surgery; specialty training; surgeon general; surgery

Partial Transcript: What do you think some of the drawbacks are?

Segment Synopsis: Col. Olsen thinks that it is a well crafted army medical corps towards combat medicine. The army medical corps used to be a broad force of good medicine and that is gone now. There were a number of surgeon generals that were not academic people in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. In the old days every single battalion had a battalion surgeon. These guys were taking care of the troops and their families.

Keywords: army medical corps; battalion sugeons; combat medicine; surgeon general

Partial Transcript: What do you think about the increased use of medical assistance?

Segment Synopsis: Col. Olsen feels that medical assistants are good but they don’t have the medical school tradition.

Keywords: medical assistants, nurse practitioners; medical school; physicians

Partial Transcript: Going back, can we talk about the medical school tradition?

Segment Synopsis: Col. Olsen gives an example of the 'medical tradition' he feels medical assistants don't have behind them, the way full medical doctors do.

Keywords: battle field; medical school; nurse practitioners; physicians assistants; tradition

Partial Transcript: And they, uh, what's your opinion on the increased role of physician's assistants and nurse practitioners?

Keywords: OT; PT; nurse practitioners; physician's assistants

Subjects: Col. Olsen's wife feels that every OT and PT has a well-trained assistant that has to be licensed. They are right there just like a nurse assistant or PA would be. The nursing assistant tends to have a more personal assistant now. They realized that they are the only link between the patient and the physicians. Enlisted men were our helpers. They were terrific.

Partial Transcript: Enlisted men...were our helpers in the, they were terrific.

Segment Synopsis: Enlisted men would be doing almost everything that a nurse would do, taking care of children.

Keywords: army; enlisted medical personnel; occupational therapy; psychiatric ward

Partial Transcript: After the draft ended, the physician's draft after Vietnam, did you start to see a difference in the type of physicians that were entering the service?

Segment Synopsis: During the war in Vietnam the army was loaded with physicians, especially the national guard. The doctor draft was an interesting affair that the services benefited from.

Keywords: National Guard; Vietnam; draft; physicians

Partial Transcript: Even the officer's clubs.

This is something Jeanie wanted to bring up.

Segment Synopsis: Col Olsen discusses officer clubs and how much less important they have become. He mentions that the decrease of officer clubs has led to less drinking in the army in general, which is a good thing.

Keywords: drinking; officer's clubs

Partial Transcript: Can you talk about any other large culture shifts in the medical corps or just in the officer corps.

Segment Synopsis: There has been a shift away from drinking and that is a good thing. That was a big shift. The inclusion of black officers and enlisted was huge. For the most part black officers and enlisted seemed welcomed. The integration of the army was much smoother than the integration of the United States.

Keywords: black officers; commander's teas; conscientious objectors; culture; drinking; integration

Partial Transcript: Can you think of any other times there was any kind of a big culture shift or big events that happened?

Segment Synopsis: Considers how military demographics have changed. Conscientious objectors go into medical service to avoid baring arms. Discussion of the Berry Plan, which allowed medical students to defer the draft during their residencies. Anecdote about a doctor who was arrested for going AWOL from the Berry Plan.

Keywords: Berry Plan; conscientious objectors; medical school; military deferral