Pictured: Richard Jadick (D.O. ’97) speaking in a video for Piedmont Healthcare where he practices. Watch the video. (Image still from piedmont.org)
“Hero M.D.” Richard Jadick
In 2006, a Newsweek cover honored Navy surgeon and commander Richard Jadick (D.O. ’97) with the title “Hero M.D.” After his and others’ heroism in caring for injured Marines on the battlefields of Fallujah earned him the coveted Bronze Star as well as media attention, he penned his story in On Call in Hell: A Doctor's Iraq War Story (NAL Caliber, 2007), co-written with Thomas Hayden.
In a 2007 interview with the Albany Times-Union, Jadick noted, “When I was approached to write the book, at first I was worried that I would somehow appear to be putting myself ahead of my brothers (marines and navy hospital corpsmen). Or worse, that it would be blood money; that I might end up profiting from other people’s misfortunes, tragedies that I happened to be part of.” After receiving encouragement from his corpsmen, Marines, and relatives of those killed in action, he decided to write the book. “They really wanted me to tell these stories—stories of honor, courage, brotherhood, and service, stories of horror, and of humanity. I wanted to shine light on the hospital corpsman, and help bring about much needed changes in military medicine.”
Jadick’s book tells the story of a navy doctor who, according to the publisher, was “too old to be called up, but not too old to volunteer.” In November 2004, with the U.S. military reeling from a shortage of doctors, he chose to accompany the First Battalion, Eighth Marine Regiment, to Iraq. During the Battle of Fallujah, he and his team worked around the clock to save troops in the worst street fighting Americans had faced since Vietnam. Without Jadick, the marines would have lost at least an additional 30 men, according to his commanding officer, Lt. Col. Mark Winn.
Jadick completed his residency training in urology at the Medical College of Georgia and retired from the U.S. Navy in June of the same year after 23 years of service. Jadick finished his Navy career as chief of urology at the Naval Hospital in Jacksonville, Fla., after returning from a nine-month deployment to Afghanistan in October 2012.
Board certified with the American Board of Urology, Jadick practices at Piedmont Physicians Urology in Newnan, Ga. He and wife Melissa, a pediatrician, have three children and reside in Peachtree City, Ga. Jadick's pastimes include family vacations, sports, and volunteer work with the Independence Fund, a veteran-led 501c that provides assistance to injured warriors looking to regain physical and mental independence following injury.
