Oral History Interview with Susan D. Tubic

[Interview Begins]

ANDERSON: This. My name is Mary Kay Anderson. I'm talking to Dr. Susan Tubig. This is Monday, October 9th, 2023. Step two to make an myself and at least one little child there. Yep.

TUBIC: Put your down, friend. Right.

Speaker 1 If going down for a nap. Do you want to. You want to put it? Put her down. It's her.

TUBIC: Oh, good. I'm a good multitasker.

ANDERSON: Okay. Should I call you doctor or colonel or.

TUBIC: Call me, So it's fine. Okay. So go ahead.

ANDERSON: Yeah. Okay. Tell me a little bit about. We'll start right at the beginning. Tell me a little bit about where you grew up and your childhood. I know your dad was in the service. So talk to me a little bit about that.

TUBIC: I was born [XXXXXXXXXXXXXX]. If my dad had gone to dental school and it was during the Vietnam era. So because he had graduated already, he figured he was going to be drafted. So he joined the army. So he and my mom moved to Washington. I don't know exactly where he started, but it was shortly after he started that in the army that I was born. And then he went to.

ANDERSON: Washington State or Washington, DC.

TUBIC: Washington State. Okay. So Tacoma, Washington. And then. He did some residency, I believe, in the army. And then when he got sent over to Vietnam, my brother was actually born and we were in Oklahoma at the time, and then we stayed in Wisconsin for the 13 months that he was. Deployed. And then we started moving around quite a bit. So we've been in Germany, Georgia, all over the place.

ANDERSON: Your dad, your dad was a doctor.

TUBIC: He was a dentist also.

ANDERSON: Oh, okay. Okay. So tell me a little bit about being the child of a career military dad.

TUBIC: Well, it was great in the beginning because we get to move around quite a bit and to see a whole lot of stuff, but it was really, really hard. Once you got to the high school years because you know all your friends you were leaving, leaving behind. So you moved. We moved quite a bit. So it was a tradeoff. You got to see a lot. But you also had got. It's like your friends becoming rich in this day and age with Facebook, face time and everything. It's not as much. But back in the day, it was it was it was difficult. By the time I got to be, I don't know, middle school, high school, it was very, very tough. So.

ANDERSON: And where are you in the in the sibling order. You said you had a brother. How many?

TUBIC: Only two of us. Okay, hold on. Let me Just a second, Richard, for a second.

ANDERSON: Sure, No problem.

TUBIC: You know, they never go down when you want them to. There we go. Yeah. So there's only two of us. My brother and I are 18 months apart. So I know those are line 21 lines here. So there's only two of us. It was a lot easier when we had to move around quite a bit to just have two kids. Ideally, my mom would have wanted four, but. There was just two.

ANDERSON: And how did you end up in Hales Corners then?

TUBIC: Oh, that's a long story. Kind of. I started as a a dentist in Milwaukee. That's where I graduated from. And my third job was actually in Hales Corners. And it was always because I was always raised moving around quite a bit. I always wanted to have a home base, so I found a house, my first house in Hales Corners, close to my job, had a really good school system, so the kids were able to basically walk to school and I got to serve my community.

ANDERSON: Okay. So we jumped ahead quite a bit. Where did you then did where did you go? So where did you go to high school then?

TUBIC: I went to high school, both in Germany and in Georgia.

ANDERSON: Oh, okay. And then college.

TUBIC: College was. I started out in Georgia, and then at that time my parents had retired from the military, my dad specifically, and they moved back up here to Wisconsin because this is where they're from. And they wanted me to move back with them. I was being stubborn, fool and tried to stay in Georgia because, again, you know, now I've kind of got a home base. We were in Georgia for quite a number of years. So I wanted to stay there, but I was. Going to school at the same time. And since my parents wanted me to move up with them, they kind of cut me off financially. So just to get me to move with them, not in a bad way. And so I was trying to work three jobs and go to school at the same time, and that just didn't work out. So.

ANDERSON: So what What school? And this is your. This is your undergrad, right? Yeah. What's going.

TUBIC: To.

ANDERSON: Happen? Oh, okay. Okay. And then did you always want to be a dentist?

TUBIC: No. Yeah. No, I actually. No, I thought when I was about eight years old, my dad treated a girl that was approximately 11. And I don't know exactly. I know it was some gum surgery, but I don't know why he did the surgery, but he asked me to hold the flashlight on a Saturday because he had these people come over to our house and he was going to remove her sutures. And so he had me hold the flashlight. So I had to watch what he was doing. And I thought it was just the most disgusting thing I've ever seen in my life. So I never wanted to be a dentist, ever. I wanted to be a veterinarian.

ANDERSON: And. And then. But. But how did how did you change your mind?

TUBIC: That's another long story. So that's why we're here? That's right. I had been going to undergrad at Marquette because when my dad first retired, it was easier for him to get a teaching job because. Of licenses and, you know, just kind of get back to getting his feet wet. So he taught at Marquette. So one of the things that made me move up to Wisconsin was that if you teach at Marquette, you get free tuition for your kids. So I got free tuition. And there was no vet school in Wisconsin at that time. So it actually they opened up a vet school right after I graduated. I applied and I didn't get in. So, you know, vet school's very, very difficult to get into. So I had some options. I had just graduated, so I thought, well, I can work for a while. But I figured if I started making some money, I'd never go back to school or I could try for vet school again next year. But in with that, I meant that I would have to go back to school, try to get the grades up even higher. But my dad had stopped teaching at Marquette, so I would have had to pay market prices, which are very expensive. Or just sitting there in the gas station while my boyfriend at the time was pumping gas, I'm like, or I could go to dental school for a year. Try that. If I do well, I can transfer over to that school because, you know, a lot of it's anatomy and basic forces your first year. So I figured that I could just transfer. So but when I got into dental school, they challenged us and they said, you know, look left, look right. One of you is not going to be here. And so I kind of took that challenge and just stayed in dental school and never look back.

ANDERSON: Did you enjoy it?

TUBIC: I did. I did. I mean, I had never seen a denture. So I think that was one of the things that was kind of exciting to me that you could replace somebody's teeth with something that you made, which to me very strange and like, oh, I never even seen in that sure before. So again, it was, you know, like helping animals, helping people. It seemed to be very rewarding. I seem to have a knack for it. When I was an undergrad, I took a lot of a lot of the psych psychiatrists wanted you to come in and do certain tests. And I was really good at doing everything upside down and backwards. I have no idea what they were testing for there, but I was really good at it. So a lot of dentistry is doing everything in a mirror upside down and backwards, so it was kind of a natural fit without being something that I would have chosen.

ANDERSON: Hmm. Interesting. And then when did you graduate?

TUBIC: I graduated in 1992. Don't. Don't make any more bottles. Okay? Sorry. 1992. I graduated.

ANDERSON: And what happened next then?

TUBIC: I started working full time. But by then. Alone.

ANDERSON: Sure. Why?

TUBIC: Don't do that. Okay. I didn't. I know. I see that. Yeah, Baby is going to drink that. Okay. So I had gotten married. I had my first child when I was between my junior and senior year. That doesn't fit in there. Yeah. And in quick succession, I had my second child. Right after I graduated. Yes. Yep. So now the man that I was married to at the time was kind of not working all the time. So it was basically. Me trying to do everything. He had some health issues. He wasn't really working. He really wanted to work or move to a warmer climate. So I figured if I joined the military and I did four years active duty, they would help pay back some of my student loans and give us a free move to Florida. And in that time I would be able to try to pass the boards in Florida and we could stay down there. So I was working with a recruiter for active duty, and I don't know if you're very nice. Thank you. I don't know if fate kind of intervened, but they actually had enough dentist for that cycle for active duty, but they did not have enough for reserve. So my recruiter asked me if I wanted to be a reservist rather than active duty dentist. It takes a long time when you go through the recruiting process. So by the time we were at that point, the marriage was kind of having some issues. So I was actually quite thrilled that I'd have I'd be able to stay in Wisconsin and give my kids a stable, you know, base of not moving every five minutes. So. You're going to have you're going to be helpful. And so that's what I really wanted to do. I was able to stay with my parents here. My grandparents were here. All my relatives were here. So it was it was really nice to be a reservist, which is more of a part time thing. They did offer some student loan repayment. So I kind of got the best of all worlds by being a reservist. So that's what I've done my entire career is just being in the reserves.

ANDERSON: And then when did you enter the reserves? What year?

TUBIC: It was 1999.

ANDERSON: Okay. So. Okay. And so you graduated from dental school in 93.

TUBIC: 92.

ANDERSON: 92. And and that seven years in between, you were working as a you were a working dentist. Correct. Okay. It still had to go to a boot camp. What was that like?

TUBIC: Well, I didn't actually have to go to boot camp until I was in already for three years. Oh, okay. And for the Air Force Reserve was kind of really simple. It was two weeks in Alabama. So it was it was really, really not a big deal. So that was good. I did when I transferred from the Air Force into the Army many years later, because they closed our base, I had to redo boot camp in the Army, which was a month down in Texas.

ANDERSON: Okay, so you went to boot camp twice.

TUBIC: Right. But it's for medical providers, basically. So it really wasn't like the boot camp that everybody's familiar with. Yeah. Yeah, it's really pretty easy.

ANDERSON: And. And then. And then what happened after boot camp?

TUBIC: Um, well, I had already been in my unit for about three years before they actually sent me to boot camp, so.

ANDERSON: Where where was that? That first unit?

TUBIC: The first unit was the four 40th medical squadron in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. So it was very local. It was a very tight knit group. I mean, we had some people that came and went, but there was there was a big core of us and we were all big time family. I mean, we all traveled together. You know, we had our two weeks every year where we were we would travel together as a unit. We just did everything. We took care of our own people. As far as exams, anything medical we would take care of without doing anything invasive, you know, So like the impatiens we would do, which I guess is invasive, but we would do our own immunizations. We would do our own dental exams. Anything that was needed for the soldier to stay in and, you know, check off that box of being medically fit. That's what we did.

ANDERSON: Yeah. And that was the for 40th, right.

TUBIC: Or 40th medical Squadron. Right on. General Mitchell.

ANDERSON: Oh, you were on it at General Mitchell Field. Okay, okay. I'm just writing a few notes here. And how long were you in that unit?

TUBIC: Eight years.

ANDERSON: Oh, that's a long time.

TUBIC: Yeah, it was great.

ANDERSON: And then what? What? What? After that?

TUBIC: Well, the government, knowing what they know. Practice. So they.

ANDERSON: Closed. I'm sorry. What was. What was the word? Barack. Okay.

TUBIC: Base relocation. Something. Something, I think.

ANDERSON: Okay.

TUBIC: So we've been we had been on the Brac list for, I don't know, many times before, and we had never gotten close. When we heard we were on the blacklist again, we're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. At that particular time, I happened to be called in because I believe we were still in the Iraqi war, Iraqi freedom. So they had called us in to do dental exams for the soldiers that were coming and going and kind of, you know, do paperwork and etc., etc.. So I was there for not the normal three months, but I was there for like seven weeks at a time, and then I'd be off for two weeks and then I'd go back in. So when we got Bracht, I was actually at the base full time. So that kind of was not good. We all had to find our own homes. So I lucked into finding a home right across the runway at the 128 air refueling wing. It's a guard base rather than a reserve base.

ANDERSON: Okay. Okay.

TUBIC: So I was only there for our our base actually got relocated to Pope Air Force Base down in North Carolina, which is in the middle of the Army base that's down there.

ANDERSON: Sure.

TUBIC: They had us in condemned barracks. We would come in there. I'm sorry. I'm bouncing ahead.

ANDERSON: No, it's okay. Go ahead.

TUBIC: The people that went down to Pope Air Force Base were being held in contempt barracks. It was less than great. So I was I felt very fortunate that I could stay in Wisconsin. But at the 128, I worked with another dentist, a female, who had been there for a long time. And the only things that they did were exams on Sundays, Sunday mornings, for about two hours on the pilots. Because she had been there for a long time, I was kind of her backup. So I wasn't allowed to do exams, not punitively, but just because she liked doing them. So I would be kind of her secretary. But we only saw. I don't know, 5 to 10 people a weekend. Whereas at the four 40th, I was kind of the head of the workforce. My boss was also a dentist, but he preferred to do more administrative stuff. So I was sing 125 people a day and we were working really, really hard. So when you go from that to doing 5 to 10 and you're really just taking notes, it was like, I can't do this forever. Also with the Guard, they didn't go on annual tours. As a group, you kind of had to find your two week annual tour every year on your own. Okay. You don't have to have an annual tour to have a good year. But it was just I don't know, it was just kind of there was people there from the 40th that I was familiar with because, like I said, everybody had to find a home. But. It didn't feel like. What I knew. You know, it wasn't that family atmosphere. So I decided that I was going to go down to Pope Air Force Base and fly down there once a once a month and spend the weekend down there. And that was good for about a year. Also, again, there was a lot of people that had gone down there, so I kind of had that family feel. But every weekend that we got down there, we had to clean the black mold out of the damn rooms because like I said, they were all condemned. It was it was bad. And they. I don't know. We would we would have to get vehicles. And the army was less than stellar about getting what we needed. And that seemed to be. Cuts after cuts after cuts. So one of my fellow dentist on there told me that the Army was giving pretty good bonuses if you signed up for the Army. And there was actually an army base that was right down the road from my house. So I figured, well, I'll. I'll go Army. It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but. I could pay off more of my student loans faster and. So I joined the Army and that's when I went to my second basic. Now, so.

ANDERSON: Well. What was your rank then, when you joined the Air Force Reserve for you.

TUBIC: To join you? I was seconded.

ANDERSON: Okay. And then. And then when you left to join the army, what was your rank? What were you by then?

TUBIC: I was a. Major.

ANDERSON: Okay.

TUBIC: Yeah.

ANDERSON: And now you joined. What year did you join the Army? The Army Reserve?

TUBIC: During the Army in. See, I want to say it was 2007 to 2008. I want to say it was 2009. Okay.

ANDERSON: And what was your rank then in the Army? What did they.

TUBIC: Major?

ANDERSON: It's just transferred. Okay. Okay. So talk about that transition. And at when you were talking before, you said it was a tough transition.

TUBIC: Yeah. So first of all, was working with the recruiter for the Army, and he said that I could go to the army base that was close to my house. When I actually signed on the dotted line, I was actually going to be in a Madison unit. And not only was I going to be in a Madison unit, but I was in a Madison unit that specializes in training other units how to deploy. I had never deployed overseas. I had always stayed in country. So I thought that was kind of odd that you want me to teach people how to deploy when I've never deployed myself. So I went to that that unit one time and I figured out how to transfer myself out of that unit and put myself into the 4 or 5 two, which was on Silver Spring.

ANDERSON: Mm hmm.

TUBIC: So I joined the 4 or 5 to. My first day there. I got there in time. I met some people and they said, okay, we're going to have formation. Like, okay, great. So we did formation, but there was no other dentists there. So I'm asking around, where are the other dentists? Because I knew there were some and they said, Oh, they don't they don't get here till 930. Like, okay. So I waited around for the other dentist. And the difference between the Army and the Air Force is that the army generally does not see their own people. Everything is outsourced.

ANDERSON: So what do you mean? I see. You mean for, like, medical, right? Okay.

TUBIC: Simple exams. Immunizations. Everything is outsourced. They hire civilians to come in and do all our medical stuff. So that was a little bit weird. When I talked to the dentists the first day because they didn't do dental exams and they didn't really have. A super big role. They didn't do a lot. Which sounds horrible, but, I mean, it's the truth. So they came in at 930. They ate lunch and they're pretty much gone by two. So. I kind of had an issue with that because I was used to working a full day and it was just strange to me. It was strange that we didn't see our own people. It seemed that all of these. It was just I. But I met a lot of really nice people and. I did get to a time where I could deploy and generally when I deploy, I had deployed by myself. So I guess it's not really a deployment. It's more of a mobilization or a medical. Humanitarian cert deployment. So who El Salvador for? It was only two weeks, but that was extremely rewarding. So unlike the Air Force, where we're kind of helping our own in the Air Force, we did go to an Indian reservation one year. And that was very rewarding also. But when you're in a foreign country, the people are so incredibly grateful that you're coming down to help them that you almost feel like a rock star because there's people lined up waiting to see you. There's so great anything that you can do. And it was it was two weeks of extremely hard work. But, I mean, you just felt very good after your your day.

ANDERSON: So if you don't mind backtracking a bit when you the Air Force with the Air Force, you went to the Montana Indian reservation.

TUBIC: Correct.

ANDERSON: Okay. Who initiated that mobilization? Was that the government or did they ask for you? And what kinds of things did you do?

TUBIC: That's a great question. I don't know who initiated that. I want to say public health probably had a lot to do with it because we were in a public health area. But that's completely a guess. I really don't know who initiated it. And what was your other question? I'm sorry?

ANDERSON: What what kinds of things did you do there?

TUBIC: Basically, dental fillings and extractions basically ran the gamut. Root canals, anything that needed to be done. That's what we would do.

ANDERSON: And how long? How long we were there?

TUBIC: Only two weeks. Okay. It was so. And that one was they split us up in two groups. The one group that I was with was more of a remote, remote location. There was some communication issues where they didn't know that we were really coming, so they didn't really have patience for us. So they made a few phone calls and. We didn't work really, really hard on that mission in that location. But the other people really worked very hard because they were in a hospital situation. So they had ready patients all the time.

ANDERSON: Okay. And when you say they didn't know you were coming, that the tribal leaders or.

TUBIC: The location that we were at, they they weren't 100% sure when we were going to get them. There was some some lack of communication. So step by step.

ANDERSON: The that happens.

TUBIC: Yeah, it does.

ANDERSON: And do you remember you don't remember what year that might have been in Montana?

TUBIC: Roughly 2001.

ANDERSON: And then how about El Salvador?

TUBIC: El Salvador? Ruth. I think I sent this graduate. Had to be 2000. 11. It was 2011 because I just had my first mobilization at Fort McCoy. For three months, I came back and I was mobilizing to El Salvador, and we were weak in El Salvador right away.

ANDERSON: That, you know who initiated that one was at the El Salvador and government request help or.

TUBIC: I believe they did this through. Gosh, there's a. There's a whole. I think it's called Beyond the Horizons. That's who initiated the El Salvador one. Okay. So to be.

ANDERSON: And then go ahead. And then you come back from El Salvador. And then what goes on? Where are you?

TUBIC: I'm still at the 4 or 5. Two. Okay. I had been since. And so that was 2011. I had been sent back to El Salvador in one to, say 2014.

ANDERSON: Oh, so you were there twice?

TUBIC: I was there twice. Yeah. Oh, okay. And then in 2015, I was sent down to Fort Hood for a three month rotation in that rotation, basically where you were on obviously an army base and we were treating the soldiers that were there. Yeah. From the bus. Okay. So.

ANDERSON: That's our our musical accompaniment there.

TUBIC: So I've got another one that I'm going to put to bed, so. Okay.

ANDERSON: I'll let you do that.

TUBIC: Yeah. Can I just take a second? So I'm. Here we go. All right. All right. Go ahead.

ANDERSON: Okay, so 2015 where I was. Now you're, of course, your family all during this time while you're walking. Okay. And your children are growing up. And how old are they by this time?

TUBIC: They are. Let's see. My son had graduated in 2009, my oldest, so he was in college. And he had he was living right off the campus. My other sons had graduated in 2011, 2012. So. They were. They were off doing their own thing. I was in a second relationship that had two children. Both of those were born in 2004 and 26, so they were still in elementary school. When I was gone to. Fort. Can't set the course. I'm here and we're good. So my mom actually helped watch the kids quite a bit.

ANDERSON: That that works, doesn't it?

TUBIC: Yeah, it sure does. Family? Yeah.

ANDERSON: So now. So when did you join the 330th Medical Brigade?

TUBIC: Free 30th Medical Brigade was about three years ago. So they had changed the 4 or 5 two from a. Combat support hospital where they had dentist in there to a field hospital. I was told by the higher ups that. They were going to have a position for a dentist. And by this time I had made colonel. So it's hard to find a job when you're a colonel. There's not that many slots. Usually you're in an overage slot. So I was told there would be a position, and then when it actually came down to it, then they told me there was no position. So there was a guy in the unit that actually told me about the Three 30s Med Brigade. And so I got him to transfer me to the three 30th, which is in Chicago.

ANDERSON: Oh, okay.

TUBIC: Okay.

ANDERSON: So now you're going to Chicago? Right. Once a month. Correct. Okay.

TUBIC: Correct.

ANDERSON: For how long? Three years. You did that?

TUBIC: Yeah. I'm still in.

ANDERSON: Oh. Are you still there?

TUBIC: Still? Yep. I'm planning on retiring in June. So next year.

ANDERSON: Not to jump ahead, but what? What is that going to be like?

TUBIC: Retiring?

ANDERSON: Yeah.

TUBIC: You know what? I don't think it's going to skip a beat with I'm watching my my three great kids now, so hopefully I'll have a little bit more extra time to watch them on the weekends that I'm not doing my army thing.

ANDERSON: Is that is that one of them? Like it's one of them. Okay. Now, I know that you did go to Iraq and Afghanistan, so tell me how that came about.

TUBIC: I never went there.

ANDERSON: Oh, you never went? Oh, I thought. I thought you did. You went Operation Enduring Freedom.

TUBIC: I was involved in Enduring Freedom stateside.

ANDERSON: Oh, okay. Doing what?

TUBIC: Basically a supportive role. So we saw all the guys that went to overseas and came back. Oh, so Fort Bliss and Fort Hood. Fort Bliss was 2000. 19. Is that right? Yeah, I believe so. We treated all the guys that. Yeah, because it was during Covid, we treated all the guys going over, so we would just kind of make sure their dental was complete and that they had no issues and then coming back any issues that they would have, we would treat them before they went home. So if they broke any teeth or had any abscesses or any any kind of treatment, they needed to make them whole again before they actually went back home after their combat duty. We would treat them.

ANDERSON: This is in Chicago or at at Great Lakes or what?

TUBIC: Um, this was more when I was moved to Texas, to Fort Hood and Fort McCoy. Okay. That was my general role, was to get everybody healthy, going to and healthy coming from Oak.

ANDERSON: So. Okay. Okay. So tell me a little bit. Talk a little bit about being a woman and in the military. Being a woman with a with a dental degree. A doctor. Mm hmm. What what is that like?

TUBIC: Um. I guess, when I was in the Air Force. All of the the dentist were male. The people running the office were female. So I was not welcomed very eagerly with the. And see. Oh, I see. Basically because I was female, but she didn't know me. So I think being female kind of worked against me there. After she met me and kind of knew that I was no threat and I kind of had the same interests that she had, that we're here for the soldier. Well, we'll do whatever we need to do to get it done. She was fine. I don't know what her focused what was in her past. That made her a little hesitant to have me come in. But we were good because I was lower ranking. I don't think female really had anything to do with it, but I always kind of. Did whatever jobs they wanted me to do, which was fine. Like I said, my my boss was more administrative. He would rather do paperwork than see patients. So. But in the Air Force, I don't think I ever really had any problems. Being female. Same with the army. When I came into the army, it was all male. Dennis. There was a lot of times that I would being young and eager, I would put my hand in the air when volunteering for something. And the male male dentists were like, okay, fine, I guess. But I never really had any issues being female in the military. I don't ever think I was treated worse than anybody else. I think sometimes being treated. Well, maybe not as fairly as I should have been was done more with by other females than any of the males. So.

ANDERSON: Why don't you like best about now? You've been in 2020 or 30 years. 20 years, 25? 25. What? What are the. What's the best thing about being in the military, making the military a career?

TUBIC: Hands down, it's it's the people. You can go anywhere. And I've been to a lot of different places and everybody just treat you like family right away. Of course, there's always exceptions, but some of the best friends I've ever made, I can make a phone call tomorrow and say, you know, like this coming week, I'm going down to Texas. I can call up the lady that I met in Texas. She's another dentist and she lives in Dallas. And I could say, Hey, I'm coming down on Wednesday. Can I stay at your house? Absolutely. Not a question. The friendships that I've made have been amazing. Everybody seems like they have a common goal. We work very, very hard together. So I think that's kind of rewarding. We work hard. We play hard. Everybody's kind of on the same team. So I think that's one of the the best things about being in the military is just meeting. Great people, people that you would never meet because of location, because of whatever jobs you meet these people and you just feel an instant, I don't know, connection to. So I think that's the best thing about the military. It's also given me the opportunity to see countries be in situations I would never be in. It's given me a lot of a lot of training that I would never get on the outside. It's just been very rewarding. And I guess because I was raised military, I kind of had an inkling as to what I was getting into. But being more when I was a kid on the outside, I didn't see what probably my my dad had saved. Yeah. Yeah.

ANDERSON: Do you have any interesting stories? Interesting. Stories that you tell among friends, Maybe when you said. And say, remember the time that Dad died?

TUBIC: Gather. There's a lot. So I'm trying to think of a few that have been I mean, the I guess the first time I went to El Salvador's kind of a. Silly story, but I traveled again by myself. I met a group in Think We Flew out of Texas. So I met the group that I was going to be with for the next two weeks in Texas. And once we got down to the airport in El Salvador, there was a few rules. They told us that we should never break. The first one was never to eat any food. That and the local economy, because you can get sick. They don't wash the food like we do. Just be very careful about what you're doing. Okay. So our group got there first. There was another group that was going to come a few minutes about an hour later. So we made it through customs. We got all our stuff. We loaded up into this bus. This bus not only had curtains on the side of it, so you couldn't see out. You could move the curtain to look out, but they wanted the curtains closed. But there was a door and a curtain in the front of the bus. So between the bus driver and us, there was a door and curtains, so you couldn't really see where you were going. That's okay. That's fine. So we waited in that bus for about an hour and a half. And the other group that was supposed to meet us was delayed. Their flight was delayed. I'm getting to the point. So they decided to just. Let's just leave. We're going to go to the base. It's about three hours away. Fine. By this time, it's starting to get. Evening ish. So we're driving to the base there. Like, you know what? By the time we get to the base, the people that make the food there, they're going to be all closed down. So we're going to stop at a gas station and we're going to get some food. Breaking girl number one. So for this gas station, the bus driver parked the bus. We got out of the bus there at the entrance to greet us was two guys with AK 47. So that was different. So we got in and we kind of just did the the point and order thing. We all sat down at our food. We were still waiting for that other group. We were hoping maybe their bus was going to meet us at the gas station. So being silly Americans, we had been sitting in this gas station for a while that actually had kind of a dining room ish. They had places to sit. So everybody's getting bored. They want to go outside. So we're going outside and everybody's dressed in traditional American stuff, jeans, sweatshirts, you know. So all the people that are pulling up to the gas station are in the back of pickup trucks. Basically. That's how they travel. They have people that are driving. And then there's a big group in the back pickup truck. They're all staring at us while the guards didn't like the added attention. So they all got us into the gas station or into the dining area. And we kind of had to stay inside, which was weird and like, why we're here to help. Why? Why all the security? This is bad. So we get into the bus, we're driving to our camp. We get to the camp, The camp is right next to a prison. So we couldn't really see much that night about the prison. But we get into our camp and they're there naming people and they're like, okay, you're in this tent. And it was a tent. Basically, the fence that we were staying in big tents, about 40 women in tent, 40 guys in a tent. We all had our cots. We had mosquito netting. There was a fan up at either end of the tent. So anyway, going back, we get off the bus, they're counting people off. Go here. Go there. There's three of us left. Three women sitting there with our bags. It's late. We're tired. We've been. We've been traveling all day. We've already broken rule number one. So they're like, oh, there's only three of you. And this is total Army intelligence there. They're like, There's only three. We're expecting seven. We don't know where we're going to put you. So you're expecting more and there's less when you still don't know where you're going to put us. Okay. So they finally figured it out. They put us in this tent. It was dark. I got right next to the fan, which was great. But you put your hand up next to the fan, You didn't even feel the fan going. It was hot, hot, hot. We were traveling. Thank you. In the morning. Very nice. We were traveling in a small bus that from waist level up was all glass. We were probably traveling with. I don't know. 3 to 4 armed guards on our board. Plus, there was people that were in armed vehicles with the big guns in the turrets where they're standing up and and they're in front and behind in the middle of us because I think we have like. Four busloads. And our job was to go to these open air schools and treat people there. But the guys that are El Salvadorian guards that were with us were armed to the teeth, which is a little bit unsettling because, you know, we were there to help. We didn't think anybody would hurt us. But it ended up very well. Like I said, going back, we were right next to a prison. It was probably close to 90 degrees every day. The guards in the prison all were wearing ski masks because they didn't want the prisoners to know who they were or their families were because they might kill their families. The prisoners might get there, the guards families killed. So that was a little bit weird. What were they.

ANDERSON: What were these guards guarding you from? What did what were the dangers?

TUBIC: There's a lot of drug cartels regarding us from the drug cartels on the way to our second school. So we were at each school about four days on the way to our second school. And there was a car that was coming up a hill and it was we were coming down the hill and going towards the right. There was a car that was coming up the hill and going towards the left, just the way the road was winding. They had been there approximately ten minutes before us when they were going up and making that curve. A little truck. A very high bed, but a short bed truck that was carrying something that looked like little bits of coal, but very small pieces had fallen over on top of this car that was going in the opposite direction. And so as we're coming down the hill, I kind of looked back from the bus and I could see that this truck was on top of this white car. So we got to the school and we heard through the grapevine that there was two people that were still in that white car that were being trapped from the big dump truck. And they got a winch out to pull this truck off of the little car that was there that had them and an a woman in it. And as they're watching this truck off, the winch breaks and kills the two people that happened to be in the car. So. Oh, my God, that was strange. On the way back from our third and last school on one of our last days, there was a kid that had gotten hit by a car. And was in the middle of the road and they just kind of hit and killed. They just kind of put a blanket over him. And as we went by, you can see part of the kid's body that was still on the highway. That was odd. You felt like you were on a totally different planet. You would there. Highways were two lane roads going up and down hillsides. You would come around a curve in our convoy, basically, and there would be a whole herd of cattle walking down the road. There was guys with machetes everywhere. It was just very strange. So I guess that's one of the weird stories that I tell when I talk about going to El Salvador. It was very strange the second time I went to El Salvador, and the first time we were not let off base at all. Everywhere we went, we had to be accompanied. They didn't let us do anything. We are always in our own little prison, kind of. We were behind, you know, barbed wire off in the distance towards the prison. You would see guys with AK 47 and their little ski masks making sure that the prisoners were not going to come over to our base. So that was a little unsettling. The second time I went to El Salvador, somebody had shot the El Salvadorian engineers that were working with us, shot and killed them, and they tried to bomb our base. So the first night we got there, we were told, surprise, this is what's going on now. You know, somebody tried to bomb the base. But again, that trip, once we got to the schools and everything, we were very well received. Yeah, that's good. It's okay. We took care of a lot of the drug cartels families, so they made sure that nobody bothered us, which was nice. So we felt safe there. Most of the time. All the time, Pretty much. We didn't have as much security on the second trip. But I didn't really feel like we needed it. And they got to take us out and we got to see some of the Mayan ruins and some of the good stuff that's in El Salvador. Yeah. Yes. So. But that's one story. So, yeah, that's great.

ANDERSON: That's a good one.

TUBIC: Yes.

ANDERSON: And any others that are that are memorable. When you're when your children or when this little one says, what did you do in the army? Grandma, what do you want?

TUBIC: Another quick story. When I first went down to Texas, so when I. Let me back up, I'm always back it up. That's okay. Fort McCoy, my first mope ever. I never mobilized again. One by myself in to in the army again. Party one I'm always a party. One in the army. First time I went to Fort McCoy, they put me in a barracks. That was amazing. It was like being in a hotel room. All they had to do is bring my uniforms. I had somebody contact me ahead of time telling me what to expect. Here's the workload. This is what you can expect because it's in the same state. There's occasional weekends where they'll let you go home for the weekend. For me, it was a 2.5 hour drive, so it really wasn't that far. But I had a maid. I had laundry right downstairs so I didn't have to pay for. We ate in the mess hall so I didn't have to worry about fucking anything. Very nice. You fix it. Thank you. And it was beautiful. My second mobilization. Nobody contacted me. So being silly, I assumed that everything was going to be exactly the same. So I drove all the way down to Texas with basically one suitcase of my uniforms and some civilian clothes, and nobody told me where to go except for I knew the base. So I spent the first four hours trying to figure out where I was supposed to be. Everywhere I went, everybody took me to a different department. Every department had no idea of what what I was talking about, where I was supposed to be, whatever. I did have a friend that's in a different unit that was going to be deployed down there for a year. So at least I had a contact once I got down there. So finally I get to one guy that, Oh, I see is going to walk me to the place that I'm supposed to go. He's yelling at me because he thought I was supposed to be there on a Saturday. I was actually supposed to report on Memorial Day, but I had contacted somebody before I left to find out if that was true. And they said, no, nobody's going to be here for you to in process. So don't don't report on Memorial Day. But they didn't know anything else to tell me. So finally, this guy that's all fired up and yelling at me that I should have been here on Saturday. And there's a whole bunch of training I miss walks me into this office that deals basically with people that are going overseas, which happen to be where my buddy was. He somehow heard my voice or found out that I was in the office. And so he decided to play a trick on me. And so he had everybody tell me that I was going to Afghanistan. So I'm like, No, I'm not supposed to be going to Afghanistan. They're like, No, no, no. Right here. It says You're going to Afghanistan. And I'm thinking, Well, crap, I, I don't have everything for Afghanistan. You know, I brought very little with me thinking I'm going to be in America where I can buy stuff if I need stuff. So then he finally came out and was laughing and thought it was funny. And I knew the joke was on me. But they found a barracks for me and I had my own room, which was great, but there was literally nothing in the room. There was a mattress, there was a refrigerator, a microwave, not a scrap of toilet paper in the building. There was laundry downstairs, but I was supposed to bring all this stuff and nobody ever told me anything, so. I had to hightail it over to the parks. It was not a good start to that mobilization. So I'm like, I don't have anything here. Would have been nice if somebody would have called me and told me, Hey, you know, like they did at Fort McCoy and say, this is what you expect. But that's not that's not how they how they work down there. But I did again, meet some really, really nice people. So it all worked out very well. So. But I want to say that that mobilization was probably the hardest I've ever worked. We saw patients a lot. There was a commander there that really wanted us to focus, as he says, produce as much as we could, take care of as many soldiers as we could. And he looked at. Where the army doesn't charge people money to have treatment done. He basically knew how much certain things were. And he would keep track as to how much you were producing. And that's kind of where he put your. Your value, as you know. Oh, well, this person produced, let's say, $15,000 this week. They're really doing well. So it was a little bit odd.

ANDERSON: That's that's pretty subjective.

TUBIC: Right?

ANDERSON: Yeah.

TUBIC: Right. And I had never had that before. I just, you know, you come in, you do what you're supposed to do. And you weren't kind of judged on how much you were producing because you weren't really producing. No, it was, you know, every base is different. But you just kind of. Get there and, you know, adapt and overcome, I guess.

ANDERSON: I was just going to say, it sounds like you had you've learned to be very flexible in your life.

TUBIC: Yeah.

ANDERSON: What did did you have? All boys. Right. Your children are all boys, right?

TUBIC: It's an a girl.

ANDERSON: Did any of them serve in the military? No. No.

TUBIC: My one son at 12 years old had Green Beret, so that automatically disqualifies him. My kids are not. Aggressive in a armed forces way. And not that you would have to be, but they never really had any interest into joining the Army, Air Force, anything. My daughter. Would be the first one that I would think would join. But again, she. She has little to no interest. She has a boyfriend, so I don't think she'd be too eager living the the moving life.

ANDERSON: I'm a bit misquoted. Just popped into my head. How did your how did how does your dad feel about you being career military? Um, pretty proud.

TUBIC: Yeah, he swore me in. Which was kind of funny, cause we had an army guy swear me into the Air Force, which, you know, was a big joke for a while there, but I think he was. He was very proud. Now. If. If I was ever going to be deployed overseas in a war type. So because he had been to Vietnam. He said that he would try to. Have them take him rather than me, which was silly because he was already retired. But I don't think that I think he was proud that I was in the service, but I don't think he ever wanted me to go through what he went through when sent over to Vietnam.

ANDERSON: Yeah.

TUBIC: So and his dad was army also fought in World War Two. So it's kind of a family thing.

ANDERSON: So you retire and you say next June you're lecturing?

TUBIC: Yep.

ANDERSON: What happens then? What do you do?

TUBIC: Um. Um, I don't probably exactly the same stuff that I'm doing now, except I have one more week in a month where I don't have to be. Out of out of state.

ANDERSON: Are you going to do it? Can you do.

TUBIC: Only for a weekend?

ANDERSON: No private practice at all. You know, I'm part time.

TUBIC: Pardon me. I'm in a group practice, so I'll probably stay working until I'm probably another eight years if I can make it.

ANDERSON: Okay.

TUBIC: That's the plan right now. So.

ANDERSON: Would you do it again?

TUBIC: Yes, in a heartbeat.

ANDERSON: Why?

TUBIC: I've had no bad experiences. I mean, there's been times where you're a little bit at ease. Ill at ease, I should say. But no, I do it all over in a heartbeat. Just basically because of the people I've met. The people have been amazing. I've seen pieces of the world I'd never see. Overall, I think the experience is great. Every year at my house, I host a reunion for the 40th Medical Brigade. And I get to see people that, you know, a lot of people come every year, but some people come like every five years. But we've been doing this basically since the bay shut down and. It's the people. If nothing else, it's the people. And that's the main reason why I would do it all over again. The people are just amazing.

ANDERSON: What about, you know, the the retired veterans organizations, the VFW and any of the organizations? Are you planning on joining any of those, the Legion or American Legion?

TUBIC: The American Legion? Okay. I actually had a party for my daughter at one of the American Legion halls. And it was very nice that, you know, first class treatment, everything was great. I would I would try to help as many people as I can. I'm trying to help the soldiers now by telling them certain things that I was never told. Like keep every paperwork you ever been given in your life. Make copies of everything. Start a notebook when you first get into the military because you never know when you're going to need a certain paperwork that you didn't think was. Important. When I changed over from the Air Force to the Army, that's approximately when my son was. It was after my son, before my son graduated. But I had had enough time in where I was planning on using the GI Bill for his college. But I was told by the Army that I hadn't been in long enough to be able to use the GI Bill. By this time I had been in well over ten years and you have to turn that off. So. Anyway. So that's when I learned that the Army and the Air Force do not talk to each other. So the lucky thing was I kept all of my leave and earnings statements because somebody had told me that years ago. And keep all your paperwork. Start a big notebook. And I was able to prove that I had been in the Air Force for years and years and years. And even though it didn't work out with the GI Bill for my son, I got to use it later for my daughter.

ANDERSON: Oh, okay.

TUBIC: I having all those aliases, it really helped a lot because I got to find the right person in the army who could input all that data. And I'm able to retire now because. I can prove that I was actually in with the Air Force for eight years. So. But there's a lot. Do you learn when you first get into the service that nobody ever tells you? Everybody I run across, I'm trying to tell them certain things different for each other. Don't expect them to. So if every paperwork you've ever been given, start a four inch binder, just add to it every year. Because you never know when you're going to need something. And even in retirement now, you would think they have all of my stuff. But they asked you to give them give you paperwork that you already have. Turn this off. So there we go. Sorry about that. No, it's okay. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm a plan B for retirement right now, and they're asking me for paperwork that I feel they should have already. Like, you guys know, I was deployed. Why are you asking me for my duty to 14 when you should have it? It's all in my file. Do you guys keep track of. I think you do. Yeah. But no, I don't have really any plans to join anything specifically, but I would like to help out any way I can.

ANDERSON: You. You will stay in touch with all the people, though. You inform informally.

TUBIC: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Done the. Voice by brain gone. The flight for the veterans. On her flight. Yes. Bing, bing, bing. Yes. I was on the wait list for four years and I finally got teamed up with a lovely gentleman and we got to go on the honor flight together.

ANDERSON: Tell me about that.

TUBIC: Oh, it was amazing. I met Ed. When we got to the airport and I was his escort and he was able to get around very well, he could walk very well, but his family couldn't afford for him. They couldn't afford to pay for him to go on the flights. So as a escort, you pay $500, which basically covers your and his flight. They treat you amazing. They feed you breakfast in the morning. Everything is just top notch. When you leave the airport, they have the fire trucks there with the water going across. When you're greeted in Washington, D.C., there's a crowd there that really yells and shouts and and makes you feel just amazing. Everywhere we went. Was. Top notch. We had this crazy motorcycle guy who was in front of the busses and he would just, you know, go really fast in front of us and all of a sudden park right in the middle of an intersection and stop everybody to let us through. Guy was insane. But it was it was really, really fun. We got to talk to a lot of the vets there. Ed felt like he shouldn't be there because he was basically a petty instructor that actually never went overseas. But he trained everybody to be physically fit to go overseas. So he felt like he really didn't deserve it. But he was a part of the. The whole war scene. So we had a really good time. We kept in contact for a little while. I haven't talked to him in a couple of years. But anybody that comes through the clinic for dental exams on the civilian side, that's a veteran. I always highly encourage them to go. Most of them feel like I shouldn't say most. A lot of the ones that I've talked to feel like they're not deserving of that. A lot of them want to just forget about the whole Vietnam slash whatever war they were in, Korean War, whatever. And I always try to encourage them to go because it's it's amazing the greeting that you get off of the plane that the public doesn't see is top notch. There's a guy playing bagpipe bagpipes. When you first get off, which, you know, bagpipes always send a chill down my spine in in the best way. There is a row of soldiers on either side. And there was probably. 75 on each side that with a salute. As soon as you get up to them, as you're walking down the aisle to to have the end of your trip, you don't see that there's two girls that put lipstick on in between each vet and give the vets a kiss on the cheek so they have the. It's just amazing. And then you hit the crowds that are there to honor you when you come back. And Ed was just blown away. This was all the veterans there just got the greeting that they should have gotten years ago. And to be a part of that was overwhelming and just amazing. Just to see mail call on the plane was was incredible. Just everything they do for these guys that gave up so much was it was great to be a part of.

ANDERSON: How old was Ed? What? What what was he, Vietnam or.

TUBIC: Ed was in the 70s. He was Vietnam. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Life had passed away. He's just a really great guy. And here in Wisconsin, for anybody that's military, you can get in contact with the Packer organization. And if you send them a flag, they'll fly the flag over Lambeau. And then they send you a box of goodies. I've done it for Ed, I've done it for a bunch of the dentists that have retired. In fact, they think maybe I'm selling the stuff on the side. They're like, Why do we trust them? Like, you know, it's for everybody. And they, they, they send you a certificate with your name on it. So, you know, it never has my name on it. It's always got other people's name on it. So I'm like, I'm legit. I'm doing this, I'm in the service. You know, most people don't know about this, but there's a lot of stuff out there that people do to honor the veterans that other people don't know about. So yeah, I also had a friend for one of the first dentists that retired. I had a friend whose son was overseas in Iraq, and he actually took one of the flags that was flying over the base in Iraq and had it sent back with a certificate that I was able to give to this retiree. He had 30 years in retiring soldier, which was touching, too. But it's it's it's amazing. And I'm always trying to. Take care of as much people. As many people as I can with things that a lot of people maybe don't know.

ANDERSON: Like other Thank you for and thank you for doing that.

TUBIC: Yeah, it's it's well-deserved.

ANDERSON: Anything we've I've. You've been talking and babysitting for about an hour and a half now. And. Congratulations to that little one. He was very well behaved.

TUBIC: Yeah.

ANDERSON: Anything else you'd like to say before we stop?

TUBIC: Not really. I just. It's is. I don't know. It's. It's a brotherhood sisterhood that I just can't fully explain. Now, I have seen the ugly sides of it. I've seen the racism. I've seen the the female against female in that, thankfully in my situation has been few and far between. I don't see as much as maybe other people see. I always find the value. I try to find the value in everybody. But I wouldn't I wouldn't trade this experience for the world.

ANDERSON: If if you don't mind, I guess I do have one last question. What would you say to young women considering the military today?

TUBIC: I think it would depend on the women in the role that they're going into. When I was down in Fort Hood, there was a young female soldier who was being. I don't know, pressured by her, her boss. I think he had an interest in her and he ended up killing her. So I think that part of me makes me that part makes me want to say, you know, if you're a young female and you're you're going in as a very low rank. Just be very careful. Don't be. I don't know what your six at all times there's there's bad people that are in the military also. So but if you're going in as a professional, as a nurse, I think if you go in as a higher rank, you you'll be less. Have less of those problems happen. Now, we know it doesn't happen very often, and I know that's not a great way to answer your question, but I think it really depends on the individual. If you have a strong individual. I think they're going to succeed no matter what role they have. And I think if you have a weaker individual. Maybe in certain circumstances. Certain certain roles. It might not be the best fit because it's changed. It's changed a lot. I think back when I was in, a lot of people went into the military because they wanted to serve their country. And now I see a lot of the people go in on a very temporary basis because they don't know what else to do with their life. Probably not the best people that should be in the military. There's a young man that I know that. She was always smarter than everybody else but couldn't. Couldn't hold down a job. And he joined the military. And in the beginning, he liked the structure and he thrived. But then once he made it out of basic and went on to more of a specialized schooling for what he was going to do, he could not deal with it. He refused. A lot of the things that the military said was mandatory. Like the Covid shot. And it really didn't end up for him very well. I think in his circumstance, when he told me he was thinking about going in the military, I'm like, this is not going to work for you because of his personality. So I think it's right for some people. I think for the majority of. The women. If you go in with your eyes open. I think it's a great career, especially as a reservist, because you're not you know, you do 24 seven. But the right person I would highly encourage. So.

ANDERSON: On that note. I will. Thank you. Okay.

[Interview Ends]