LT. Col. Eileen Gillan
169 Aviation Battalion
CT National Guard-Flight Surgeon
Balad Iraq 10/04-2/05 and 11/06-2/07
169 Aviation Battalion
CT National Guard-Flight Surgeon
Balad Iraq 10/04-2/05 and 11/06-2/07
This is not the story of someone who enlisted right out of high school to fight bad guys and defend the United States and became a battle-hardened veteran. It is the story of a remarkably talented women who, at the age of 46, left her husband and 4 children to travel 5,844 miles away from her home to use her talents developed as a pediatric oncology doctor to help the guys and gals who were fighting the bad guys. Because of what Eileen has accomplished in her non-military life and how she accomplished them might make you scratch your head, let me set the table by saying, she was named the Outstanding Teenager of Connecticut in 1972 and the Outstanding Physician of Connecticut in 2007. This is the story of your modern day, “Citizen Soldier”.
Eileen Gillan was born in Tolland Connecticut in 1954. She was one of 8 children and everyone was expected to pull their weight and do their chores. Her father was a task master and drove them hard. That work ethic would serve Eileen well throughout her life. She graduated from Tolland High School in 1972 and attended the University of Connecticut (UCONN) where she graduated in 1976. Eileen headed to California with the intent of pursuing a career as a Veterinarian but changed her mind and decided to be a doctor when her sister Mary lost her battle with Juvenile Diabetes. When she arrived in California, Eileen worked in a lab doing experiments on rats. One day she had a problem inserting a catheter into a rat. Someone suggested she “ask the guy down the hall” doing radiology research who seemed to be pretty good at that procedure. So, she did. In fact, he was so good at the catheter insertion Eileen decided to marry him. They were married in 1980.
In 1981 Eileen applied to Medical School at the University of California Irvine in 1981 and was waitlisted. Her first child was born and then 5 weeks into the semester she was notified there had been several dropouts and now she could attend medical school although 5 weeks behind. Eileen talked it over with her husband and decided to go for it. She left her 3 month old with her husband and proceeded to get all A’s. During her second year of Medical School her husband’s niece developed cancer and needed a bone marrow transplant. It was then she decided to become a pediatric oncology doctor.
Her first rotation in her residency was in pediatric oncology and she knew she had found her calling. Residents usually chose a residency in Internal Medicine (adults) or Pediatrics. She decided to do both and had to squeeze 6 years of training into 4. This will later turn out to be a good decision for America’s fighting men and women. In her spare time Eileen and her husband had three more children, just to keep things interesting. After her residency she had a Fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Orange County. Here she would sometimes work as the Flight Surgeon on helicopters transporting children. She loved the helicopters.
In 1993 Eileen and her family returned to Connecticut and she took a position as an Assistant Professor of Bone Marrow Transplant at UCONN. That year Eileen went to the Hole in the Wall Camp in Connecticut to volunteer her services. The Hole in the Wall Camp is a summer camp established by Paul Newman for children with cancer and their families. Eileen was able to bring her children to the camp and they got to know many of the children with cancer and what they had to go through. She did such a good job Paul Newman asked her to go to Ireland and set up a camp there. By 2000 Eileen became the camp Medical Director.
With the opening of the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center (CCMC) in 1996 the UCONN facility was consolidated into CCMC and she has been there for the last 24 years. As her children grew and reached college age the financial demands of the tuition coupled with repaying her loans became concerning. In talking with her husband, he suggested she join the National Guard. “They never go anywhere or doing anything, and you can get paid” he declared. At the age of 47 Eileen joined the Connecticut Army National Guard as a Major due to her medical training. That was in March of 2001. She had to learn to fire a weapon (9mm sidearm) and pass the PT requirements which consisted of pushups, sit-ups and a 2 mile run. Then came 9/11 and the National Guard now had something to do and somewhere to go.
Eventually the tap on the shoulder came and Eileen was called to deploy to Iraq. She was able to get a 6 month deferral to allow her time to transition her patients to other doctors. “I was scared. But you were with a group of people that you knew so that made it a little easier.” Eileen received her battery of vaccinations including one for Anthrax, “that was the worst”. She then flew to Ft. Bliss and caught a commercial airline flight to Kuwait. In Kuwait she boarded a C 130 and headed to Camp Anaconda in Balad Iraq some 5,000 miles from CCMC and her family. She stepped off the plane in the dark and was guided to her tent where she was informed that the base had just been mortared.
Eileen spent Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years in Balad as a general medical officer with a team of ”kids” providing general medical care to the base personnel. During her first deployment she “stayed within the wire” where it was relatively safe except for the daily mortar attacks. Soon that became 2nd nature; “grab your body armor and run to the bunker”. Eileen tried to be a mother to her band of kids. At Christmas she dressed up a mannequin as Santa and made the soldiers sit on its lap for pictures. I’m guessing her rank helped get that mission completed.
Eileen came home just in time for Valentine’s Day but eventually received notice she would be going back in November. This time she would go back to Camp Anaconda as a Flight Surgeon attached to an Aviation Unit for Rotary Wing aircraft (Helicopters). She was with a group of pilots from Arkansas that included two female pilots. She was responsible for keeping 100 pilots healthy and safe to fly. Eileen would fly on the Blackhawk Helicopters when they went on transport missions. She was required to learn to fly the Blackhawk and also experienced shooting the door machine gun. She was lucky and never took any enemy fire while in flight.
“We would fly from base to base. It was faster and generally safer because you could avoid IED’s, but the threat then became RPG’s.” The helicopters usually flew in pairs with the Flight Surgeon in the second helicopter. The enemy would track the first helicopter and lock in on where they wanted to fire and then wait for the second helicopter to come through that zone and fire the RPG. On January 20th Insurgents fired an RPG that took down a helicopter from her unit and killed four pilots. There were no survivors.
I asked Eileen how her background in pediatric oncology helped her in Iraq. She talked about understanding death and having compassion for those effected by death. She felt a lot of her time was spent in bereavement counseling for pilots who lost colleagues.
Upon her return home from Iraq Eileen went back to her practice at CCMC where she is known as Dr. G. and somewhat of a celebrity. Eileen has gone the extra step to help her young patients to feel better about themselves. She has arranged for professional photo shoots to show her patients that despite their cancer and changes to their appearances, they are still beautiful. She has co-authored a paper on Army Healthcare Operations in Iraq and she has seen first-hand the effects of PTSD. Four veterans she knows have taken their lives. Because her schedule isn’t busy enough Eileen is also a Pilates instructor (which she taught in Iraq), a Yoga instructor and a Master Gardener.
Thanks heavens that this overachiever underestimated what her role would be in the National Guard. Our troops all benefited from that misjudgment.
Eileen Gillan was born in Tolland Connecticut in 1954. She was one of 8 children and everyone was expected to pull their weight and do their chores. Her father was a task master and drove them hard. That work ethic would serve Eileen well throughout her life. She graduated from Tolland High School in 1972 and attended the University of Connecticut (UCONN) where she graduated in 1976. Eileen headed to California with the intent of pursuing a career as a Veterinarian but changed her mind and decided to be a doctor when her sister Mary lost her battle with Juvenile Diabetes. When she arrived in California, Eileen worked in a lab doing experiments on rats. One day she had a problem inserting a catheter into a rat. Someone suggested she “ask the guy down the hall” doing radiology research who seemed to be pretty good at that procedure. So, she did. In fact, he was so good at the catheter insertion Eileen decided to marry him. They were married in 1980.
In 1981 Eileen applied to Medical School at the University of California Irvine in 1981 and was waitlisted. Her first child was born and then 5 weeks into the semester she was notified there had been several dropouts and now she could attend medical school although 5 weeks behind. Eileen talked it over with her husband and decided to go for it. She left her 3 month old with her husband and proceeded to get all A’s. During her second year of Medical School her husband’s niece developed cancer and needed a bone marrow transplant. It was then she decided to become a pediatric oncology doctor.
Her first rotation in her residency was in pediatric oncology and she knew she had found her calling. Residents usually chose a residency in Internal Medicine (adults) or Pediatrics. She decided to do both and had to squeeze 6 years of training into 4. This will later turn out to be a good decision for America’s fighting men and women. In her spare time Eileen and her husband had three more children, just to keep things interesting. After her residency she had a Fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Orange County. Here she would sometimes work as the Flight Surgeon on helicopters transporting children. She loved the helicopters.
In 1993 Eileen and her family returned to Connecticut and she took a position as an Assistant Professor of Bone Marrow Transplant at UCONN. That year Eileen went to the Hole in the Wall Camp in Connecticut to volunteer her services. The Hole in the Wall Camp is a summer camp established by Paul Newman for children with cancer and their families. Eileen was able to bring her children to the camp and they got to know many of the children with cancer and what they had to go through. She did such a good job Paul Newman asked her to go to Ireland and set up a camp there. By 2000 Eileen became the camp Medical Director.
With the opening of the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center (CCMC) in 1996 the UCONN facility was consolidated into CCMC and she has been there for the last 24 years. As her children grew and reached college age the financial demands of the tuition coupled with repaying her loans became concerning. In talking with her husband, he suggested she join the National Guard. “They never go anywhere or doing anything, and you can get paid” he declared. At the age of 47 Eileen joined the Connecticut Army National Guard as a Major due to her medical training. That was in March of 2001. She had to learn to fire a weapon (9mm sidearm) and pass the PT requirements which consisted of pushups, sit-ups and a 2 mile run. Then came 9/11 and the National Guard now had something to do and somewhere to go.
Eventually the tap on the shoulder came and Eileen was called to deploy to Iraq. She was able to get a 6 month deferral to allow her time to transition her patients to other doctors. “I was scared. But you were with a group of people that you knew so that made it a little easier.” Eileen received her battery of vaccinations including one for Anthrax, “that was the worst”. She then flew to Ft. Bliss and caught a commercial airline flight to Kuwait. In Kuwait she boarded a C 130 and headed to Camp Anaconda in Balad Iraq some 5,000 miles from CCMC and her family. She stepped off the plane in the dark and was guided to her tent where she was informed that the base had just been mortared.
Eileen spent Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years in Balad as a general medical officer with a team of ”kids” providing general medical care to the base personnel. During her first deployment she “stayed within the wire” where it was relatively safe except for the daily mortar attacks. Soon that became 2nd nature; “grab your body armor and run to the bunker”. Eileen tried to be a mother to her band of kids. At Christmas she dressed up a mannequin as Santa and made the soldiers sit on its lap for pictures. I’m guessing her rank helped get that mission completed.
Eileen came home just in time for Valentine’s Day but eventually received notice she would be going back in November. This time she would go back to Camp Anaconda as a Flight Surgeon attached to an Aviation Unit for Rotary Wing aircraft (Helicopters). She was with a group of pilots from Arkansas that included two female pilots. She was responsible for keeping 100 pilots healthy and safe to fly. Eileen would fly on the Blackhawk Helicopters when they went on transport missions. She was required to learn to fly the Blackhawk and also experienced shooting the door machine gun. She was lucky and never took any enemy fire while in flight.
“We would fly from base to base. It was faster and generally safer because you could avoid IED’s, but the threat then became RPG’s.” The helicopters usually flew in pairs with the Flight Surgeon in the second helicopter. The enemy would track the first helicopter and lock in on where they wanted to fire and then wait for the second helicopter to come through that zone and fire the RPG. On January 20th Insurgents fired an RPG that took down a helicopter from her unit and killed four pilots. There were no survivors.
I asked Eileen how her background in pediatric oncology helped her in Iraq. She talked about understanding death and having compassion for those effected by death. She felt a lot of her time was spent in bereavement counseling for pilots who lost colleagues.
Upon her return home from Iraq Eileen went back to her practice at CCMC where she is known as Dr. G. and somewhat of a celebrity. Eileen has gone the extra step to help her young patients to feel better about themselves. She has arranged for professional photo shoots to show her patients that despite their cancer and changes to their appearances, they are still beautiful. She has co-authored a paper on Army Healthcare Operations in Iraq and she has seen first-hand the effects of PTSD. Four veterans she knows have taken their lives. Because her schedule isn’t busy enough Eileen is also a Pilates instructor (which she taught in Iraq), a Yoga instructor and a Master Gardener.
Thanks heavens that this overachiever underestimated what her role would be in the National Guard. Our troops all benefited from that misjudgment.