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Liberty doctor enters front lines of combat in Iraq, Afghanistan
LIBERTY — The life of a medical surgeon is not always paved with surgical procedures in elaborate medical facilities, high salaries and fringe benefits.
For doctors like 55-year-old Dr. Robert Marx of Liberty the surgical path is laden with small facilities filled with young people embroiled in battle, some of whom don’t even speak his language. Those, he says, are the people who need his expertise most.
Dr. Marx has just returned to the Valley after serving 10 months as a surgeon in Iraq. He has also served in Kosovo, two tours in Afghanistan, Jordan and various parts of Europe.
Dr. Marx, who has been practicing medicine since 1987, said he fully expects to be on foreign soil performing surgical procedures again in the future.
“There are a few of us who do this. We really want to keep the 18, 19 and 20-year-old kids alive and well,” he said.
Dr. Marx did not join the military directly out of high school and was not a member of Reserve Officers’ Training Corps in college. He joined the military during a surgical residency in 1989.
“The Army was in need of surgeons and new, innovative things were being done in the military. It was the opportunity to learn these things as they were being developed,” he said.
Dr. Marx gained the additional training and is now married with children and grandchildren. Even with the time spent overseas working in war zones he does not regret his decision to serve in the military.
Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.