Dr. Thomas A. Dooley

Dooley served both his nation and his fellow man as a Navy corpsman, physician and humanitarian. Before he succumbed to cancer, he and another physician started MEDICO - the Medical International Cooperative Organization, which opened seven hospitals in Southeast Asia.

For his efforts and compassion, Dooley posthumously received The American Legion's 1962 Distinguished Service Medal. During the Vietnam War, Dooley's ship assisted those fleeing from the communist-held North to live in South Vietnam. He served as a medical officer at an evacuee station center at Haiphong, and when communist demands forced reduction of the medical mission, Dooley was the only Navy doctor left behind.

Dooley returned to the region as a civilian in 1956, established a hospital, and turned it over to the Laos government in 1957. He returned home to raise funds for more hospitals and to launch MEDICO.

Accepting the Legion medal on his late brother's behalf, Malcolm Dooley remarked, "As members of the armed forces, you all have very personal memories of war; and yet you choose to honor a man of peace, a man who re-discovered and used one of the most powerful weapons that exist in our arsenal today - the weapon of love ...."

Upon his graduation from medical school in 1953 at 26, Dooley re-enlisted in the Navy. A year later, he was assigned to USS Montague, which traveled to Vietnam and evacuated refugees. Dooley was seen by the CIA as a symbol of Vietnamese-American cooperation because of his humanitarian efforts.

Dooley's anti-communist views underscored his desire to secure freedom for those in Southeast Asia. He authored three books about his experiences in the region: "Deliver Us From Evil," "The Edge of Tomorrow" and "The Night They Burned the Mountain."

Diagnosed with skin cancer in 1959, Dooley died in New York two years later. When President Kennedy launched the Peace Corps, he cited Dooley as an example for the cause. A prominent Irish Catholic, Dooley aided Kennedy in his successful campaign for the presidency.

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