Dr. Frankhouser is a native of Washington, D.C. He attended Virginia Tech for pre-med and then the University of Virginia School of Medicine. As a selectee for the “Senior Medical Student Program” of the Navy, he was commissioned an Ensign (MC) USNR in 1959 and promoted to Lieutenant (MC) USN shortly after graduating as an M.D. in 1960. Following a year of internship and a year with the Second Marine Division, he did his four year residency in General Surgery at the Naval Hospitals in San Diego and Philadelphia. In Philadelphia he married his wife (now of 51 years), Judy, who was a Navy Nurse. He earned his “Board Certification” in January 1967 and immediately deployed to Viet Nam aboard the hospital ship USS SANCTUARY (AH-17). Upon return to CONUS he was assigned to the Naval Hospital, Camp Lejeune as Assistant Chief of Surgery and was elected to Fellowship in the American College of Surgeons in 1969. After a year of private practice in Louisiana, he returned to the Navy to teach in San Diego. While there he received several honors from the civilian medical community and attended the University of San Diego School of Law (night school) for a year. He was the senior surgeon, and also primary physician, attending to our POW’s returning from Hanoi. He rewrote the mass casualty handling bill for the hospital and the “Mobile Medical Support Plan for the President” which was adopted by the White House. He was promoted to Captain (MC) USN in 1975. After serving as Chief of Surgery at several hospitals and Director of Navy Medical Facilities in BUMED he retired from the Navy in 1980. He then became Chief of Surgery of an HMO for a year and had 22 years of private practice including serving as Chief of Surgery and Chief of Staff at several civilian hospitals. He served as an “Expert Witness” in over a hundred potential or actual medical malpractice lawsuits.
Please attend this meeting to hear his story of medicine in the military