written by
Trey Ketchum, OD
LT, MSC, USN
Optometry Department Head
USNS Mercy
I graduated from Southern College of Optometry (SCO) with the class of 2021. While I was riveted by every lecture that graced my eyes and ears, I admit there were brief moments when my mind wandered towards thoughts outside the classroom. In these milliseconds my thoughts often drifted towards how my career and opportunities might differ from my soon-to-be Doctor of Optometry colleagues.
Prior to my acceptance to SCO, I was fortunate to apply and be selected for the Navy Health Professions Scholarship Program. Though the application process was lengthy, strenuous, and filled numerous instances of “hurry up and wait,” the pros appeared to outweigh the cons. With the scholarship my tuition and equipment through all four years of optometry school would be covered. I would be given a monthly stipend for living expenses, and I would be provided with a guaranteed job right out of school. The catch, however, was that I had only once choice for employer, the U.S. Navy.
Fast forward two years out from graduation, I received an email from my product line leader (aka lead optometrist in the region) laying out my selection for the upcoming Pacific Partnership 2024-1 humanitarian mission. Pacific Partnership is the largest multinational humanitarian and disaster relief mission in the Indo-Pacific. This mission is a once in a life-time opportunity to utilize what I had learned in school for an entirely different mode of practice. I would be joining a team of more than 800 military members on a joint force mission across four countries and 12,000 nautical miles in just 105 days as the Optometry Department Head. Our mission stops would include the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, Palau, and both Pohnpei and Chuuk in the Federated States of Micronesia.
Two months into the deployment and I’m on the Liwatoon-Mour, the Marshallese Hospital Ship, as part of a week-long first-of-its-kind multinational mission serving the remote atolls of the Marshall Islands. This was the first time in Pacific Partnership history that an expeditionary medical team was sent out aboard another country’s hospital ship. The optometry team, comprised of myself and one optician, joined a crew of 13 US military and 20 Marshallese providers aboard the ship. Every morning we shuttled to the coral surrounded islands to serve the 300 inhabitants with ocular examinations, spectacle correction, and in certain instances, ophthalmology referrals to the main hospital in Majuro. Meanwhile, the other half of the optometry department, Cmdr. Mary-Beth Linnell and two opticians saw patients at a local clinic in Majuro and on the densely populated island Ebeye. Our equipment for Pacific Partnership consisted of four Welch Allyn spot vision auto-refractors, two handheld Nidek keratometers, and two handheld Kowa slit lamps. All the spectacles we dispensed were prefabricated pairs with symmetrical prescriptions produced in quantities established by demographic information from previous missions. The optometry missions in Marshall Islands served 1,074 patients with 755 spectacles and 110 referrals for cataract, pterygium, or other surgical evaluations.
Three weeks pass and I’m bracing for landing aboard a Royal New Zealand Air Force NH90 helicopter. Despite the torrential downpour, we have arrived in Auki, Solomon Islands. As the helicopter departs with a whirling gust, we are surrounded by local children who will soon be our patients. While most of the Pacific Partnership team provides support for the Pacific Games on Guadalcanal in the capital Honiara, our team of five continues the optometry mission from Honiara to the less served towns Auki and Gizo. Our fly-in missions succeed in extending vision services to 1,348 patients in Auki and Gizo, in addition to the 1,147 patients that we screened in Honiara. In total, our team of two doctors and three opticians was able to dispense 2,968 prescription glasses and provide 3,619 sunglasses to the local population in the Solomon Islands.
Now another month has passed and I’m with a joint-nation U.S. and Japanese medical team shuttling across the astoundingly blue Philippines Sea for the small coral island Peleliu, of the island nation Palau. The same Peleliu where some 1,800+ American and 11,000+ Japanese lives were lost during World War II, leading to the entire island being designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark. After docking, our optometry team climbed in the back of a local pickup with our equipment and spectacle supply before speeding off to the WWII memorial adjacent clinic where we examined 100 of the 300 inhabitants of Peleliu and provided 120 Rx glasses.
Finally, I am back home at my permanent duty station in Norfolk, Virginia and able to fully appreciate the experience that my nontraditional career choice has allowed me. Across four months and four countries I was able to lead the charge in delivering care to 7,000 patients, resulting in 8,000 pairs of prescription glasses, 9,500 sunglasses, and 590 surgical referrals provided. Additionally, 50 of our patients screened were able to receive cataract and/or pterygium surgery aboard the USNS Mercy provided by the ophthalmology team. I had dreamt up many expectations about my military service during my time in optometry school, but there was no true way to know the breadth of experience and impact coming my way upon graduating from SCO. Being able to supplement my clinical schedule with once in a lifetime operational missions does make it feel as though I have gotten the better end of the deal.
