John Bunyasaranand

John served in the Army for eight years before separating to pursue his college degree. A year and a half later, September 11 brought our country into war. Determined to finish college, John stayed the academic course, and went on professionally, knowing that while he was working his buddies were deploying and fighting. Pondering this while at his desk one day, his wrist began to hurt and he thought to himself, “Guys are getting shot and blown up, and I’ve got carpal tunnel. I’m not going out like this.”

John walked away from a lucrative civil engineering career and re-enlisted to try out as a combat medic, in spite of being told he would have to go through basic training and jump school all over again. He gives his wife Mary Ann a lot of credit for taking this leap of faith with him. Meeting his team downrange as an unproven medic, John shared concerns with a physician who told him “Trust your medicine.” While managing his first bad casualty, in the dark and in the dirt, John proved his medicine.

At Campbell University, John is now working to complete a Doctor of Osteopathy degree, so that he can continue in the military as a physician and return downrange to take care of U.S. troops.