Richard Jadick

  Richard Jadick, D.O. is an American Naval surgeon who was awarded the Bronze Star with “Combat V” device for heroic valor in January, 2006. He was credited with saving the lives of 30 marines and sailors during the Second Battle of Fallujah. Jadick was a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve, assigned as a battalion surgeon to the First Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

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Background

Jadick attended Bethlehem Central High School in Delmar, New York (just south of Albany). He earned his undergraduate degree in biology from Ithaca College and received his medical training at the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Service in Iraq

Jadick was serving as a urologist at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina when he volunteered for duty in Iraq. He was an unlikely volunteer because he was 38 years old, significantly older than most combat surgeons, and his wife was nine months pregnant.

Early in his tour of duty, Jadick observed a soldier who died because he bled to death before he could be evacuated to a hospital. He decided to establish an emergency room on the battlefield, where wounded soldiers could receive treatment within a few minutes of being injured. While there, Jadick and his crew of young corpsman improvised a number of life saving techniques.

During the 11-day battle Jadick's team treated hundreds of men. Only one of those men died after reaching the hospital. Fifty-three Marines and Navy SEALs died during the battle. Jadick's commanding officer estimated that another thirty would have died if Jadick had not been working so close to the front.

Jadick's story was first documented in a Newsweek cover story titled "Hero, M.D." (although Jadick is actually a D.O., not an M.D.). He later published his own account of his experiences in a book called "On Call in Hell: A Doctor's Iraq War Story."

After Iraq

After serving a year in Iraq, Jadick returned to the United States and accepted a position as a Urology resident at the Medical College of Georgia. He remains on active duty.[1]