In this Health Insights Today interview, Ms. Tolen demonstrates a no-nonsense, good natured approach to issues of life and health. The lessons she learned from her service in military medicine form the basis of her service-oriented worldview, which manifests as a deep desire to work in underserved rural areas and to build a holistic primary care chiropractic practice in which prevention plays a central role.

Tell us about your work as a military medic.

I had a good time because I was able to use what I had learned in a practical and very valuable setting. That went from small things to the actual ‘I just saved a life’ kinds of things. I was fortunate have a couple of those. And best of all, my first question wasn’t, “What insurance do you have?”

How old were you when you enlisted?

I was 17. I had just graduated from high school and money had gotten tight. Pell grants for college were becoming less accessible. My boyfriend and several other people from my town were enlisting. And I thought, hey, that sounds like more fun than the regular route. It was a little bit of the rebellion in me. Or if not rebellion, at least independence.

Those can be good qualities to have. What happened after you decided to enlist?

I joined the Air Force. Because of my scores on Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery Test, I was allowed to choose my career field. I chose a medical career.

What did that training involve?

First, a six-week introduction to the Air Force. After that basic training, I went to specialty school at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas. I started out as a medical aide, which in the civilian world would be similar to a nurse’s aide.

So you begin at the beginning and go deeper from there.

In eight weeks, they turn you out of school and then you go to your first assignment, where you get on-the-job training.

What was your first assignment?

The OB [obstetrics] ward. I was stationed in California. I loved it! I had all the children I wanted and none of them were mine. I was in labor and delivery, went over to the clinic for a short time, back to OB, and then down to the emergency room. The whole time, as you make rank, you’re also advancing your training level. You do that through both on-the-job training and correspondence courses. You have to test for your skill level, and that is factored in when you test for promotion. My career field had a specialty field, the Independent Duty Medical Technician (IDMT).

What does that involve?

They send you out to the middle of nowhere and you do everything. To a great extent, you are the doctor, the dentist, the veterinarian, the pharmacist, the environmental health inspector and more. This is at remote sites where you either have too few people or they’re so mobile that they don’t want to send your higher ranking, higher skilled people.

This sounds almost like an old-time wilderness doctor.

Yes.