Photo By Amy Parr | After 29 years of Army service, Col. Scott Avery, Regional Health Command-Pacific...... read more read more
After 29 years of Army service, Col. Scott Avery, Regional Health Command-Pacific Chief of Staff, retired in a ceremony July 12 on the deck of the historic USS Missouri overlooking Pearl Harbor. Avery said the location held special significance for him as it brought his career full-circle.
While he didn’t grow up in a military family, Avery’s father served in the Navy at the end of World War II and ended up settling in the Seattle area. Growing up in Edmonds, Washington, Avery said one of his earliest childhood memories is with his father touring the “Mighty Mo” when it was moored in the Bremerton, Washington, shipyard. Although his father passed away in 2004, Avery said it was special having his own retirement ceremony on the very ship where his father first introduced him to military life. Thanking his father for imparting that knowledge and sharing of life lessons with him, Avery said, “He instilled a sense of patriotism, a sense of duty, a sense of what was right and wrong, and a work ethic that is really unparalleled.”
Sharing a quote from former President Ronald Reagan, Avery read, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.”
Noting it’s a different world from when he first put on the military uniform, Avery said he hopes he’s been able to interject those same beliefs in his own three children. “I hope my service in the military has helped pass along that freedom,” he said.
After graduating from Woodway High School, Avery attended the University of Washington. Unclear of his life direction, he was attracted to the school’s Army ROTC detachment. What started as a game of basketball, soon progressed to snowshoeing in the mountains, camping at Fort Lewis, Washington, and traveling in Chinooks. After being asked by ROTC cadre, “What are you doing this summer?” Avery said he soon found himself at Fort Benning, Georgia, for airborne school where he was jumping out of airplanes. He then returned to Washington, finished up college and said, “The rest is history.”
As the chapter on his Army service nears an end, Avery said while he had no intention of making the military a career, he has been surprised by the quickness of the last three decades. “I was four and out,” he said. But then life happened and “it was one thing after another and the next thing you know, it’s 29 years later.”
Looking back, Avery said he wouldn’t change anything about his military service. “I don’t know how you can,” he said. “It would change everything. I can’t ask for anything better than what the Army has given me the opportunity to do.”
Avery began his career as a Medical Services Corps officer. Serving three years as a medical platoon leader in Germany in support of Operation Desert Storm, he was then selected for flight school and earned his wings as a MEDEVAC dust-off pilot. He served a variety of roles including Black Hawk maintenance officer and test pilot, platoon leader and operations officer.
“Becoming a MEDEVAC pilot, deploying multiple time to the Balkans and Iraq, serving the citizens in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, picking up injured civilians off Interstate 15 in Georgia, rescuing people out of swollen rivers in North Carolina, all these experiences defined the first part of my career,” Avery said. “Those were some of the best times of my life.”
While each assignments had its own merits, Avery said they built on each other and built him. “It really wasn’t until after my service in MEDEVAC that I really found myself,” he said. “Some people might think I’m crazy. Flying, how romantic saving people’s lives on the battlefield.”
But he then began a series of assignments that challenged him in new ways. Avery said deploying to Iraq for a 15-month deployment as the chief of staff for Task Force 62nd Medical Brigade really changed him. “It was all about quality and safety and process improvement and that was a very formative time in my life.”
Using experiences gained throughout his career, Avery credits his time as both the RHC-P chief of staff, home to the Army’s largest geographically dispersed Regional Health Command in the world’s most strategically relevant region, and commander of Martin Army community Hospital, Fort Benning, Georgia, as the most rewarding times in his storied career. Memories of “being able to help other people,” those are the highlights he remembers so fondly.
Avery said throughout his career, he’s had the opportunity to work with the finest physicians, nurses, physician’s assistants, civilians and phenomenal noncommissioned officer corps. “It’s been absolutely my pleasure and I’m so thankful for the opportunity the Army’s given me.”
In remarks during the ceremony, Brig. Gen. Bertram Providence, RHC-P commanding general, said, “Seldom in our history have our Soldiers faced greater challenges. You served at a time when the stakes for our nation and our way of life were high, and the demands on our force were significant. You have answered the call to duty with the same pride and professionalism that have marked the Army through the generations preceding us.
“Your service reflects the very best of our people by defeating the enemies of freedom and the promoters of terror, by defending our homeland and way of life, and by assisting our nation to build a better future for generations yet to come. The Army has relied upon you and you have delivered.”
To that, Avery offers the advice to those following him. “Do things with a sense of purpose. You’ve got to be able to see your future and then make it happen,” he said. “I did pretty much everything I said I would do. If I put it on my 10-year plan, it happened.”
Avery said the Army offers a lot of opportunities. “You can do whatever you want. Focus and prioritize. Create bridges, don’t burn them,” he said noting the necessity of balancing family at the same time.
As Avery prepares to start the yet unwritten next chapter of his life where he’s spent more time in uniform than out, he thanked his wife and children, his parents and family for helping form him into the man and officer he is. He said it’s important to remember the words of former President John F. Kennedy. “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”
| Date Taken: | 08.14.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 08.14.2017 21:24 |
| Story ID: | 244868 |
| Location: | HONOLULU, HAWAII, US |
| Web Views: | 62 |
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