45 years after returning home from Vietnam, a Toledo surgeon volunteers overseas to help save the lives of American troops injured in Afghanistan.
Doctor Steven Gale spent two weeks at the U.S. Army Hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. 13 ABC spoke with him at his Toledo office about how he helped get our Wounded Warriors back home.
Gale says the journey brought his own life full circle.
"It was satisfying because I was doing something. I was physically helping these soldiers that I could not help 45 years ago," says Gale.
In 1967 24-year-old Steven Gale was serving in Vietnam. His brigade was involved in the battle for Hill 875 in the Central Highlands where more than 300 soldiers were killed or wounded.
"I saw a lot of very severe wounds and a lot of dead troops that I felt helpless at the time because I was a platoon leader. I was not a medic, I was not a physician," says Gale.
When Gale returned home to the US, he left the Army.
"Because when I came home, I was received so poorly," says Gale. "I was treated as though I was persona non-grata."
Instead, Gale went to medical school.
He now has a successful medical practice as a vascular surgeon, part of Jobst Vascular Institute at Toledo Hospital.
But he still wanted to cross off the number one item on his bucket list: help American troops serving in Afghanistan.
"I said, 'I have to do this. I have to do this. I have to bring closure to this. I have to go full circle from Vietnam to Germany treating the troops with injuries that I was unable to do anything about in Vietnam,'" says Gale.
Last month Gale flew to Germany.
He spent two weeks volunteering at the U.S. Army's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center treating wounded soldiers transported from the front lines.
"Only one that we treated at Landstuhl in my two weeks didn't make it. And there were some pretty horrific injuries," says Gale.
Gale believes it's time the U.S. pulls out of Afghanistan. However, he supports the troops.
"I'd like to think that when they're on the front lines they know that we've got their back. And that's what I felt I was doing for them over there," says Gale.
Gale says he would return to Germany without hesitation.
As the largest American hospital outside the United States, LRMC is a Level 1 Trauma Center.
Since 2001, the medical staff at LRMC has treated more than 64,000 Wounded Warriors.
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