Douglas Condit, Jr.

Mr. Condit, after completing two years of college, still had not selected a major or a career. With the war going on in Vietnam, he enlisted in the Navy to fulfill his military obligation. Given his college education, he was offered a military school, and since he had ambulance experience, he chose to become
a corpsman.

The life of a Navy corpsman is unique. The United States Marine Corps does not have any medical personnel; consequently, Navy corpsmen are assigned to Marine units to provide medical care. Upon graduation from corpsman school, Mr. Condit was assigned to school at USMC Camp Pendleton, where he learned field medicine and how to function as a Marine. After a year at Pendleton, his unit, 2nd Battalion 27th Marines, was sent to Vietnam during the Tet offensive. Mr. Condit spent a year there in combat, in the elephant grass and rice paddies.

During his deployment, Mr. Condit displayed unmatched bravery and valor. He received numerous awards for his service, including the Combat Action Ribbon, the Vietnamese Service Medal with USMC insignia and 4 bronze stars, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry and a Good Conduct Medal.

Following his service, Mr. Condit was recruited by the University of Alabama for a new program that trained former corpsmen to serve the civilian community as physician assistants (PAs). Upon graduation, he was recruited by Montefi ore Medical Center, which was experimenting with use of PAs as house officers. Mr. Condit became a PA in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, where he works to this day. His accomplishments as a PA have earned him numerous local, regional and national awards.

Like most soldiers, after serving his country overseas, Mr. Condit was driven to continue helping his community and his country through volunteerism. He is very active, assisting in registration of 500 new voters in 2008, and currently serving as Vice President of Friends of the Williamsbridge Oval.