CAPT Sandra A. Yerkes, MD MC USN Ret. Oral History

title:

CAPT Sandra A. Yerkes, MD MC USN Ret. Oral History

creator:

Yerkes, Sandra Arleen (1954 September 7 - )

subject:

Navy Medical Corps

description:

Sandra A. Yerkes was born on September 7, 1954 in Bridgeton, New Jersey and grew up there as the oldest of three children. She graduated as valedictorian from Waynestown High School, and went to Pennsylvania State University the following school year. Starting her third year of college, she was one of thirty women to receive a scholarship from the Navy while in the ROTC program. She graduated from Penn State in 1976 and was commissioned into the Navy, spending a few months with the Penn State unit until she got into the Uniformed Services University. 1976 was the first year this school was open, and it was not completely ready when the academic year kicked off that September, taking a month or so to properly set up labs and obtain the necessary equipment. Their class started with 31 people, 5 of whom (including Yerkes) were women. At USUHS, they studied medicine differently than a civilian medical student does, because not only did they provide the best care possible, but had to make recommendations to the larger unit people were serving in, including whether someone should no longer serve (in general or in specific roles) due to various health concerns. They are also all especially trained for triage in mass casualty situations. Although she didn’t expect it at first, she ended up gravitating towards psychiatry while on her clinical rotations, eventually landing on that as her specialty. After four years of schooling, she went to the Portsmouth Naval Hospital for her first internship. From there, she studied flight surgery, and her fist station in that position was at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. She was there for a 13-month rotation, then went to the Marine Corps Air Station in Buford, South Carolina for three and a half years. She then went into an 18-month residency at the National Naval Medical Center in otolaryngology, but didn’t feel it was for her and requested a change. She stayed in Bethesda, Maryland and spent a year clearing a backlog of thousands of physicals, then went into psychiatry from there. She was still listed as a flight surgeon at the time, so in 1990 her name was among the many called up for deployment in Operation Desert Shield. She worked for three months for Desert Shield, returning in November. She finished her residency in 1992 after returning from Desert Shield, then went to the Naval Hospital at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina for three years, which she loved since she could keep working with Marines. She returned to the National Naval Medical Center from there, where she worked as a training director for psychiatry and on an integration team meant to assist with the consolidation of Walter Reed and the Naval Medical Center. In November 1996, she was moved from her position in the transition team to acting as the interim chief of inpatient psychiatry at Walter Reed, which she did for 4 years. She then became the senior medical corps detailer at the Bureau of Naval Personnel, which was a position she had always wanted to hold at some point in her career since she hadn’t done anything as large or administrative-focused. From there, she became the deputy chief of the Medical Corps in 2002, which is the position she held during this interview and until her retirement on July 1, 2006. Upon her retirement Yerkes had reached the rank of captain, and for her service she was awarded a Legion of Merit, 4 Meritorious Service Awards, 2 Navy Marine Corps Commendations, and a Navy Marine Corps Achievement. A transcript of this interview is available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Bellafaire, Judy

date:

2006-03-01

type:

Moving Image

format:

VHS

identifier:

1023; 2006.1023

source:

CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

370004

coverage:

1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 1976-interview

rights:

Unrestricted