Major Jim Patterson: Veteran Surgeon
During his residency, Jim and his wife Jennifer began their family and were looking for extra income. It helped that both of Jim’s parents had served in the Air Force; his mother was a lieutenant and his father spent three decades in the Air Force and retired as a lieutenant colonel.
“Joining the reserves felt like the right thing to do, especially since I wanted to give service like my parents had,” he explained.
A practicing orthopaedic surgeon since 2001, Jim has spent the last two decades helping patients regain their mobility, and the Air Force was definitely not going to let that talent go to waste. He was assigned to serve as an orthopaedic surgeon at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base Hospital, and he spent his time there evaluating and operating on soldiers and their families at the base.
“I pretty much did what I did on my normal civilian days, but with a uniform on,” he said. He’d don the uniform of the day and work at the hospital on the base. He’d set a child’s broken arm or complete a knee scope on a retired major. Though he did see post-war injuries such as gunshot wounds, because of his location he did not see acute battle trauma. “I enjoyed taking care of the veterans, current soldiers, and their families,” he said.
“I would have loved to stay in the service longer since I really enjoyed my time at Wright Patt,” he said. “But when they were dissolving the IMA category and I had to move to Ready Reserve it just wasn’t in the cards for me to be gone from home three weekends every month plus two weeks a year. I had hoped to make lieutenant colonel like my dad.”
Instead, he retired as a major and came away with great experiences working with veterans and active duty. He especially remembers witnessing an extraordinary display of fanfare around a special patient when he was seeing patients at the military hospital one day.
“A two-star general came in for an evaluation for joint pain, and I was assigned her case. Though I was not the most senior ranking officer, I was by far the senior surgeon because I’d been practicing the longest,” he said. “I vividly remember the pomp and circumstance around having someone that important come in. She came with an entire entourage, including a lieutenant colonel, a major, a captain, and a sergeant. Since their responsibilities are constant, they kept working during the entire appointment. She was an impressive woman, and very nice and down to earth despite the entourage!”
Though he’s now retired from the reserves, Jim is still able to work with veterans. His home hospital is near a VA clinic, which often sends him referrals that he never refuses.
On the weekends when Jim is not in surgery, he and his family love to go boating. When the Pattersons purchased a weekend home on Indian Lake, Ohio, they bought their first pontoon— a JC TriToon 262.
“We loved the durability of that boat, and we had it for years when our kids were younger. We would do everything—skiing, boarding, tubing. And the boat was always reliable,” he said.
Recently, Jim and his wife bought a JC SportToon 26TT HTH, and they love the higher hull and smoother ride. Now that the kids are grown and much less tubing is happening, Jim and Jennifer and their family just tool around and cruise the lake.
They purchased both boats as well as a few PWCs from Spend-A-Day Marina because they’re so easy to work with.
“Mike Lange at Spend-A-Day has always been Johnny on the spot — we’ve had a couple of service emergencies and he’s accommodated us immediately. They’ve been great to work with,” he said.
Like his patients after a successful hip replacement, Jim is a satisfied customer. And he also has the gratification of knowing he’s given service to his country by helping veterans and their family members heal from their injuries.