Editor, I fear that military members and civilians may end up being their own primary-care doctors.
There have been cutbacks at Winn Army Community Hospital and patients being turned away for medical treatment at some area clinics. Whatever happened to free medical care in exchange for 21 years of service? The military medical establishment no longer can take care of its own.
This is why I think the people need to be their own doctors. They can do this by taking advantage of medical schooling at the Academy of Health Sciences Fort Sam Houston, like I did when I was in the service. I took two main courses — an operating-room-specialist course, which contained a lot of subcourses, and an aviation-and-space-medicine course. These courses were a far cry from my primary military occupational specialty, which was in the supply and logistics field. My secondary MOS was engineering. But I knew that, someday, those courses would come in handy.
I also get medical information from the academy’s website and from Merck medical books and civilian medical websites.
As for civilians, the cost of medical treatment from both doctors and insurance companies are enough to make anyone want to be their own doctor. A Liberty County EMS ambulance run of 2 miles could cost hundreds of dollars just to go to Liberty Regional Medical Center. You could cut this cost if you drive yourself to the emergency room. When I fell and hit my head on an uneven stretch of sidewalk across from OMI, I took the Liberty Transit bus to Winn hospital. I had the bleeding under control enough to take the bus. This saved federal taxpayers $700 or more. And many ER doctors charge more than $1,000 for an ER visit.
As for civilian medical schooling, we have Savannah Technical College, which has a lot of medical courses that cost less in the long run than having to pay a civilian doctor or medical insurance company. Be your own doctor.

— Robert J. Wetmore
Hinesville