Say "Happy Birthday" to Retired Col. Wallace Capel, a former Army Flight Doc & VA Physician thankful for 100 years of life!!!

Retired Col. Wallace Capel, a former flight surgeon in the U. S. Army, celebrated his 100th birthday with family and friends earlier this month (November 28, 2015) and recently celebrated Thanksgiving with his three daughters and son.

Capel is a man with a history. He’s also very blessed, he said.

Living in Tuskegee, Ala., Capel’s living room walls are lined with medals from his military career, plaques, foreign mementos, medical degrees and honorary letters of acknowledgement from state and government officials.

“I have so many things to be grateful for and for people who helped move me up the line,” Capel said.

Between 1954 and 1973, Capel served as a ward physician, staff surgeon, division surgeon, and hospital administrator in the U.S. Army in both Korea and Vietnam. He retired from the U. S. Army Medical Corps as a colonel in 1973.

As a physician serving tours in both the Korean War and the Vietnam War, Capel was never asked to kill, like other war-time soldiers. He was sent overseas to save lives. It was a full-time job, he said.

“I stayed nice and busy most of the time and got to do a little bit of everything. I got involved in so many different things, sometimes more than I could take care of,” Capel said.

What he remembers most from his time as head of a military field hospital, is making sure the people under him were taken care of and doing their jobs well.

“For the most part, I was concerned with people, the soldiers under my command, what they were doing, how they were doing it, why they were doing it and if they were doing it properly,” Capel said.

Candy Capel, one of Capel’s daughters, recalled one story her father would tell her and her siblings of his time in Korea.

“He was invited by the Korean Medical Association to come speak to them, and my father accepted the invitation,” Candy Capel said. “He wrote out his speech, had it translated and did the entire presentation in their native language. The Korean doctors truly appreciated that.”

Most doctors would use an interpreter, Candy said.

Prior to his military service, Capel, a native of Andalusia, Ala., pursued both his undergraduate and medical degrees at Howard University in D.C., his internship at Flint-Goodridge Hospital in New Orleans and a residency at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Tuskegee.

Capel began his military service in 1954, when he was drafted. At the time, he was not at all interested in serving, Candy said.

“He actually did not want to go into the service, and he was very adamant about it. He said he wasn’t even going to show up,” Candy said. “My mother told him he was either going to serve or go to jail.

“So off he went, and he left the train station in Macon County, went into the service and he loved it,” Candy said.

Capel served 20 years before retiring as a colonel.

“I enjoyed it [my service] for the most part. It was challenging , but I learned a lot and hope I was able to leave something behind in my teaching,” Capel said. “Life was very interesting in the military.”

In 1973, Capel returned to the VA Hospital in Tuskegee as a staff physician and became chief of staff there in 1974. After another 20 years of service, he retired.

For his service, Capel was awarded the Legion of Merit; Air Medal; Army Commendation Medal; Good Conduct Medal; National Defense Service Medal; Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal; Vietnamese Service Medal; Armed Forces Reserve Medal; Vietnamese Medal of Honor; and the Vietnamese Campaign Medal.

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/local/dispatch/2015/11/25/army-flight-surgeon-thankful-100-years-life/76283162/