African American doctor in 1960's Air Force

Letter to St. Louis Post Dispatch
February 22, 2013


Your article about patients in Michigan not wanting medical staff of other races to care for their family members reminded me of an incident in the mid 1960's at Grand Forks AFB, ND. It was the height of the Vietnam war, and many doctors were "recruited" by the Air Force to serve both the service members and their families. Young doctors were given the "opportunity" to volunteer for the branch of service of their choice or be drafted into the Army. My husband was one of 21 doctors who chose the AF, and, along with 11 dentists, made up the medical squadron at that base.

When an African-American OB-GYN doctor arrived, there were a few white women who didn't want to be seen by him. The way the clinic worked was that the doctors took turns seeing all the patients and being on call. That way the doctors would know the women when the time came for them to deliver. The base commander made the correct decision, in my opinion. He said that any woman on base who wanted to go into the City of Grand Forks for medical care was free to do so, but the Air Force would not pay for that care.

I was a Red Cross volunteer assigned to assist the OB-GYN doctors, so I got to see how the patients learned to really like the African-American doctor. He was more patient than most of the other doctors and would listen to women talk about how hard it was giving birth with their husbands overseas, etc. As it turned out, most of the women would try to schedule their prenatal visits for the day that the African-American doctor was on duty.

Sadly, some of the civilians in the City of Grand Forks were not happy about having service members of other races coming into town. When the African-American doctor went to pick up a bucket of chicken, the staff wouldn't wait on him. When they finally took his order and he paid for it, he took it home to his family and found the bucket was full of scraps. I wasn't much of an activist yet, but I was furious and wanted to organize a boycott of that restaurant. The doctor told me not to do it because it would just make relations more strained between the Air Force and the civilians in town. He, too, was very wise, just as the base commander had been.

Susan Cunningham
Pacific, MO