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Ortenzio attends Navy Reserve celebration at Pentagon
NEW MIDDLETOWN
Dr. Joseph A. Ortenzio Jr., a retired chiropractor and Navy Reserve senior chief petty officer, and his wife, Nancy, were among some 100 people from around the country invited to attend the kickoff of the Navy Reserve Centennial celebration at the Pentagon March 2.
“There were primarily admirals and captains in the room. I never saw so many stars and gold braids in my life,” said Dr. Ortenzio, who retired from the Navy Reserve in 1985 as a senior chief petty officer, the Navy’s second-highest enlisted rank.
Despite all the rank in attendance, the main speaker at the event, Navy Admiral Johnathon W. Greenert, chief of operations, said chief petty officers are the backbone of the Navy, Dr. Ortenzio noted with a smile.
The Ortenzios ended up at the Navy Reserve event when his dentist, Dr. Thomas Patton, alerted him the centennial planning staff was looking for a reservist to attend the ceremony. Dr. Ortenzio applied and was accepted.
A 1961 graduate of Campbell Memorial High School, Dr. Ortenzio joined the Navy in 1963 “for the benefits” and was stationed in Naples, Italy, for nearly three years.
Trained as a corpsman specializing as an X-ray technologist, when Dr. Ortenzio’s active-duty tour was over in 1966, he joined the Navy Reserve after 22 years active and reserve service.
The hoped-for benefits came his way.
The Navy paid for his higher education, which includes degrees from Lewis University in Romeoville, Ill., and Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa.
He ended his career in the Navy Reserve as a career counselor.
“I’d tell reservists considering re-enlistment about the benefits — commissary rights, health care and retirement — all for training two weeks a year and one weekend a month. I had a nearly 100 percent retainment record selling them on what sold me,” Dr. Ortenzio said.
He said at times, especially when he was trying to build his practice, first in Campbell for a few years and then in East Palestine for 35 years, it was difficult to work in the two-week and weekend training.
But he did, and Dr. Ortenzio said, “It was worth it. I’d do it all over again.”
He said his only real regret is the Navy does not commission chiropractors as they do dentists, medical doctors and osteopathic doctors.
“I would like to have been an officer in the Medical Services Corps,” Dr. Ortenzio said.
He not only was successful in convincing reservists to re-enlist, he said he was influential in steering his children toward the military in order to get their education paid for.
Both on active duty, his daughter, Navy Cmdr. Rebecca Ortenzio Lee, is a dentist in the Medical Services Corps; and his son, Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Aaron J. Ortenzio, a naval aviator, is a graduate of the Coast Guard Academy.
Because they are stationed in the Washington, D.C., area, visiting them gave the Ortenzios another reason to travel to the Navy Reserve Centennial conducted at the Pentagon in Arlington County, Va., near Washington
The Pentagon serves as headquarters of the Department of Defense and all three military services: the Army, Navy and Air Force.
The Ortenzios were impressed with the Pentagon building itself, which Dr. Ortenzio said is huge and has seven decks.
Dr. Ortenzio, who had not been to a military function for a long time, said attending the Navy Reserve Centennial and being among “patriotic, right-minded people felt good. It was great to see.”