Many laboratorians devote their lives to the laboratory field. Working weekends and overtime in a hectic, intense environment, they are dedicated to patient diagnosis.

Some laboratorians do this and also devote their lives to their country by working in a military laboratory. Besides learning the basics of clinical laboratory science, they also need to go through basic military training and sometimes travel to dangerous locations to care for servicemen and women.

Despite the intensity of being a military laboratorian, there are many benefits, including the chance to advance their careers and experience more opportunities. ADVANCE spoke with three clinical laboratory scientists and asked them to share their stories of military life.

Ellis Frohman

For Ellis Frohman, Major, USARET, MA, MT(ASCP)SBB, CLS(NCA), a military life was expected, while a laboratory life was quite unexpected.

During a few summers after high school graduation, Frohman worked in a hospital laboratory as a student trainee. He observed and performed some tests while working there. Phlebotomy was his primary duty. Frohman enjoyed his work in the laboratory but didn't originally think of it as a career-because he had already made a commitment to military service.

"All of the adult men I knew, all of my uncles and my father were WWII veterans who felt every citizen had an obligation to serve their country in some capacity especially as a soldier," Frohman explained.

Frohman went to a state university, majored in life sciences and enrolled in the ROTC program leading to an Army commissioning upon graduation. After college, he completed nearly 2 years of active duty when he came upon an Army Fellowship for clinical laboratory officers-in civilian terms, this position is the chief technologist, laboratory manager and laboratory administrator rolled into one.

The 12-month program was NACCLS approved and qualified graduates for the ASCP registry exam. However, it required a military active duty commitment of 3 years after completion of the program.

Frohman was accepted, and after graduating and passing the registry, was assigned as the Chief Laboratory Officer at a 250-bed Army community hospital.

Years later, Frohman was accepted into the U.S. Army Blood Bank Fellowship program, leading to training for SBB certification. After more than 20 years of active military service, he retired and became the director of the Department of Laboratories at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis, MO.

Frohman pointed out that basic military training is no different for laboratory personnel than for any other serviceman or woman. "All through my military career, I had to participate in military training exercises and courses, some related to my duties as a clinical laboratory officer in a field or war environment, and some not related to laboratory science at all," ­Frohman said.

When it came to laboratory training, Frohman told ADVANCE it was no different than training in a civilian program, except for additional coursework and training in laboratory leadership positions and laboratory planning for war scenarios.

"Most military laboratories are accredited by CAP and operate under the same standards as required by CLIA and AABB standards," Frohman added. "The challenge is to maintain standards while meeting all of the special requirements of military operations."

Aside from running tests and looking through microscopes, military laboratorians may spend approximately 20-50 percent of their time devoted to military training and responsibilities, Frohman estimated. "As an officer in charge of a laboratory or blood center, I had to expect that many of the military personnel assigned to the laboratory had required duties outside of the laboratory," he explained. "Schedules had to be designed to ensure coverage for our patients and ensure military training took place."

In a managerial role, he not only had to consider scheduling and everyday employee conflict, but he also had to think about strategic planning, such as how the laboratory could be operational out of a tent or what can be accomplished without constant electrical service.

One of the greatest aspects of working in a military laboratory is all the traveling servicemen and women get to do. By traveling across the country and the world, Frohman was exposed to different cultures and got to work with different sets of diseases.

While in the Army, Frohman was stationed nationally at Fort Sam Huston, TX; Fort Knox, KY; Fort Belvoir, VA; Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, DC; and Tripler Army Medical Center, Honolulu. He was stationed overseas in Thailand, supporting the war effort in Vietnam.

He does advise laboratorians interested in a military career to keep in mind their entire family's ability to adapt to a lifestyle very different from living in a civilian community.

"I highly recommend a military career because it not only provides laboratory testing experience and training but it provides leadership training and experience that will carry you into civilian leadership roles easily and provide educational experiences your family will never forget," Frohman said.

Paul Kulvi

The military provided the laboratory education Paul Kulvi needed to become a certified laboratorian. While in college, Kulvi, SFC, USAR, CLS(NCA), M(ASCP), said his teachers steered him toward a science career. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in biology. However, after graduating in the early '80s, Kulvi was having a difficult time finding a job.

Looking into a new pathway, Kulvi approached the Army and the Air Force. The Air Force ultimately offered him a ­commission as a laboratory officer in the Biomedical Services Corp, which has an extensive MLT program for enlisted members and an MT program for officers.

Starting out, Kulvi was sent to a 2-week officer introduction course for medical service officers and then to his first duty station at the Epidemiology Division of Brooks Air Force Bases, San Antonio. He was placed in charge of the Immunofluorescent Testing Lab. "I was in charge of several airmen, and we performed almost anything involving immunofluorescent antibodies," Kulvi recalled.

After 18 months, he was assigned to the Drug Testing Lab for 6 months. "I read more gas chromatographs than I care to remember," he noted. "This was, of course, before GS-Mass Spec became the standard."

For the next 2 years, Kulvi was assigned to the virology lab, a job he thoroughly enjoyed. While in virology, he learned isolation and identification of viruses in culture, inoculation and harvesting of influenza virusesfrom eggs, and he performed virus identification using back titers and WHO anti-sera.

After 4.5 years at Brooks, Kulvi was transferred to Sheppard Air Force Base, Wichita Falls, TX, and he began teaching in the Air Force's MLT program. He noted at that time, the Air Force program was the largest accredited MLT program in the country. The program was 52 weeks long. During Phase I of the program, students rotated through chemistry, hematology and microbiology blocks, plus a week in the field at the Medical Readiness site.

During Phase II, students were assigned to one of the 19 Air Force hospitals for 35 weeks. Kulvi said this phase was just like a clinical MLT or MT internship. At the end of the course, students could sit for an MLT exam-with college credits and experience, later on they could sit for the MT exam.

Kulvi sees civilian and military labs being both alike and different at the same time. "Employees in both labs have to perform quality control, turn out test results, conduct inventory and attend in-services," he explained. "And just like in civilian labs, size, location and mission play a role.

He also mentioned military labs are staffed by both military and civilian personnel, and the military members have military duties to perform along with their lab duties.

Sergeant First Class (E-7) Kulvi is currently serving in the Army Reserve and is assigned as the senior laboratory NCO for the 396th Combat Support Hospital out of Spokane, WA. He is also employed as a medical technologist at the Madigan Army Medical Center at Fort Lewis outside of Tacoma, WA.

Kulvi's military start gave him the experience to move to a variety of jobs, including working at a variety of private labs such as LabCorp. He also worked at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, and as an adjunct professor of human biology. Kulvi is thankful for what his military experiences have brought him.

"I enjoy the camaraderie and the opportunity to pursue particular avenues of interest that may not be available in civilian hospitals and commercial labs," he said.

Nathan Johnson

Starting early, Lt. Colonel Nathan Johnson, PhD, MA, MS, MASAP, MT(ASCP), DLM, SC, SLS, joined the Louisiana Army National Guard during high school and was an enlisted supply clerk with a combat engineer unit. He enrolled at Louisiana Tech University and had completed 2 years of general science studies when he started to wonder exactly what he should do with his knowledge.

"I was making good grades but was not sure what I wanted to do professionally," Dr. Johnson recalled. His sister-in-law had graduated from Louisiana Tech with a medical technology degree and was working in a crime lab. Interested in that field, Dr. Johnson worked with the medical technology program director to get his prerequisite requirements completed so he could apply for a clinical. He fulfilled the requirements and entered the clinical program at Schumpert Medical Center, Shreveport.

About halfway through his clinical, Dr. Johnson started thinking about different types of careers in which he could use his medical technology degree.

"My brother was a physician in the Air Force at the time and he told me an Air Force Lab Officer 'was about the best job there was,'" he remembered. "At that point, I decided to look closely at the Air Force. Everything I found out about the Air Force really appealed to me."

In 1989, Dr. Johnson applied for a direct commission and was accepted into the Biomedical Sciences Corp of the Air Force.

Through his career with the Air Force, Dr. Johnson has expanded his medical laboratory training. Besides attending yearly professional conferences, he was selected to receive advanced training at the University of Utah for clinical chemistry and Mississippi State University for toxicology. The Air Force also paid for most of his tuition to obtain a graduate degree in management.

"I have always enjoyed learning and the military is definitely the place for that," Dr. Johnson noted. "We do have military-­specific training that some consider tedious, but it has always been fun to me."

Dr. Johnson said there can be minor personnel differences between Air Force and civilian labs. The Air Force labs he has worked in tend to have more MLT personnel, and the staff tend to be younger but more experienced at an earlier age. But working with all different kinds of people is what Dr. Johnson liked most.

"We get to work with great Americans from all over the country," he said. "It is always an honor to work with people who would lay down their lives for their country if called upon."

Dr. Johnson has worked with Air Force personnel at the Randolph Air Force Base, TX; Keesler Air Force Base, MS; Holloman Air Force Base, NM; Wright Patterson Air Force Base, OH; and Fort Belvior, VA.

Dr. Johnson is no longer working in the lab as he is a senior science and technology manager for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, but he encourages laboratorians to give thought to a career in the military.

Amanda Koehler (akoehler@advanceweb.com) is assistant editor of ADVANCE.