Return to Pointer View home page August 19,  2005

Ross heading to Iraq, joined Army after 9/11 

Story and photos by Eric S. Bartelt
Assistant Editor 

Lt. Col. Eugene Ross joined the Army after 9/11. He witnessed the Twin Towers burning in the distance from the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx where he was an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist at the time. He spent three days at Ground Zero helping out in a medical capacity and a few months later started the process of joining the military even though he already was successful in his medical practice and was already past the age of 50.

“We were all changed by 9/11, the sight of people jumping out of those buildings or other victims of that day…it galvanized me to do something,” said Lt. Col. Eugene Ross, chief of Otolaryngology at Keller Army Community Hospital here.

Ross had already been through a couple of life-altering changes before 9/11, the Otolaryngologist had to give up his medical practice in 1996 due to a four-vertebra cervical spine fusion due to several herniated disks.

The New York City native channeled his energy toward law and earned a law degree from New York University School of Law in 1999 and practiced for two years before recovering from his spine problems and resurrecting his medical career.

“In five years, I simply stabilized and recovered,” Ross said. “I recovered sufficiently to go back to being a doctor…time and surgery helped and I stopped doing strenuous work during the years I was practicing law.

“Time just dried up the disk disease,” added Ross, who received his MD degree in 1977 from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. “I was only back in the medical field for eight months before 9/11.”

Ross was standing on the rooftop of Montefiore Medical Center, the highest point in the Bronx, watching the Twin Towers burn and collapse before his eyes.

“I knew something important was happening that day, but you don’t realize it fully at the time,” Ross said. “Intellectually I knew it, but emotionally one doesn’t realize the magnitude historically of what’s happening in the moment -- it’s like looking at an elephant through a keyhole.”

The Ear, Nose and Throat specialist after waiting at the hospital for 36 straight hours for causalities that never came went down to Ground Zero to help out for a three-day period.

Amongst the many jobs he did, he worked out of Stuyvesant High School, which was turned into a triage center, and treated rescue workers for inhalation injuries, particles in their eyes, asthma attacks and other workman-related injuries due to clearing the debris.

After those three days, it took him two years to get enough strength to return to a place that he was haunted by.

“Having spent three days (at Ground Zero), I could not bear to go back -- it was just too painful,” Ross said. “When I went there two years later it was very difficult for me, but the place had been transformed into part shrine, part tourist attraction -- it’s not Ground Zero to me anymore.”

Twelve weeks after 9/11, Ross would journey on another life-altering road as he began the process of joining the military. Although it took more than six months to be cleared for duty, he felt it was well worth the wait to join.

“I felt a personal responsibility as a New Yorker and as an American to make a substantial contribution,” Ross said. “I had a moral obligation to do that, so I applied to the Army.”

Ross, who’s in his mid-50s, wanted to help people who were shouldering the burden of the war although he knew it was a great lifestyle change for a man his age.

“People were startled to see a man in his early 50s, already successful in his career at a time when most people have set their routine, embark on a dramatic change,” Ross explained. “I personally experienced 9/11, so (my family) were supportive of my decision and proud of the fact I chose to serve my country.”

Ross has been stationed at West Point since May 2003 and will soon be deployed to Iraq with the 12-member 207th Head and Neck Team in October.

“We’re a part of the PROFIS, Professional Filler System, and we will provide services for a combat support hospital in Iraq that is receiving the balk of the head and neck injuries.

“We will treat Soldiers and Iraqi citizens, who are injured in these violent attacks,” Ross added.

He will be joined by Maj. Raymond Cho, chief of Ophthalmology, as the only two West Point doctors to join the medical team. He expects to be quite busy during his deployment to Iraq.

“The (Otolaryngologist) who is there now says he’s been working seven days a week and has had only a handful of days off since May while doing over 100 operations a month,” Ross said. “He has a clinic six days a week and only cancels the clinic when he has an operation.”

Ross has enjoyed his time as an ENT at West Point, more so than his days practicing in Florida and New Jersey in private practice from 1982 through 1996.

“I never enjoyed a medical practice as much as this one because the patients are part of a community with a sense of duty,” Ross said. “They are cooperative and appreciate having an Otolaryngologist here It’s a very pleasant environment.”

Ross is pleased with his decision to join the military and is satisfied with the environment that has made him feel much younger and more patriotic.

“I’m a man in my mid-50s now that’s getting to live the life of a 30-year-old,” Ross exclaimed. “I’m in good physical shape because I’m in a culture of youth and vigor.

“I was thrown into a dynamic atmosphere that honestly coincides with my own personality which is being active and adventurous,” Ross added. “I’ve always looked for a challenge, such as becoming a lawyer rather than retire, going back to medicine after five years, joining the military and trying to make the most out of my life -- it’s given me a vehicle to express all the feelings that emerged from 9/11 and a lifetime of being an American citizen.”