WASHINGTON – When a Republican congressman was critically wounded in ashooting at a baseball game last summer, U.S. President Donald Trumpdispatched his physician, an Iraq war veteran trained in emergencymedicine, to the hospital to check on his condition.
Later on that June day, Navy Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson accompanied theTrumps to meet with Representative Steve Scalise’s family and medical team.Scalise survived and has returned to Congress. Now Trump is counting onJackson to take charge at Veterans Affairs, a behemoth of a bureaucracythat has vexed a slew of decorated military officers and corporatemanagers. He takes over for David Shulkin, who came under heavy criticismin recent weeks for alleged unauthorized travel expenses.
The 50-year-old Jackson became a minor celebrity earlier this year as thetelegenic presenter of a report on Trump’s fitness, in which he said thepresident was in overall excellent health but needed to shed some weight,eat better and start exercising on a daily basis.
The Navy doctor exhausted reporters’ questions during an unusually lengthyhour-long session, at Trump’s request, and said he did not withhold anyinformation in the interests of privacy. The press conference was spoofedin a “Saturday Night Live” skit, his double-breasted uniform dripping withmedals. “Their job is to make fun of the people and the situation, so Ididn’t expect to come out smelling like a rose. My kids and some of myfriends thought it was pretty cool,” Jackson said in an interview with theAmerican Council on Science and Health.
Trump is the third president Jackson has served after coming on as thepresidential physician in 2006 during the George W. Bush administration. Hewins plaudits from Republicans and Democrats alike for his work. DavidAxelrod, a top Obama aide and strategist, tweeted after Jackson’s pressconference on Trump: “I knew Dr. Ronny Jackson in the White House. In myexperience, he was very good guy and straight shooter.” The Texas nativeworked as an autopsy assistant to earn extra money for college.
After medical school, he trained as a specialist in submarine andhyperbaric medicine and was a diving medical officer serving in Italy. Hecompleted his residency in emergency medicine and was later assigned toIraq with a Marine unit during Operation Iraqi Freedom as the emergencymedicine physician in charge of resuscitative medicine. Jackson will bringhis real-life war, management and emergency skills to an administration of1,700 facilities and 350,000 employees serving 9.05 million veterans eachyear. – Agencies