DOCTOR IN BLUE:
AN AIR FORCE PHYSICIAN’S THIRTY YEAR ADVENTURE

Doctor in Blue is Marty Victor’s memoir of his thirty-year adventure as an active duty U.S. Air Force physician with specialties in Aerospace Medicine and Family Practice, and the numerous people and places he got to know along the way. Part travelogue and part Cold War history, Doctor in Blue includes anecdotes from Marty’s training and military assignments around the world, and his personal collection of photographs from various tours of duty, including Vietnam in 1968-69.

Only because he liked their blue uniforms, Marty chose the Air Force over the Army to fulfill a college ROTC requirement. He had absolutely no thought of joining the military then. Entering college, he had looked forward to becoming a physicist and continuing his lifelong fascination with outer space. Events of 1956 made him reconsider the physics major. He was so profoundly affected by witnessing the suffering of hospitalized victims of New England's polio epidemic that he changed to pre-med that same year. 

After graduating from medical school, Marty found himself deep in debt from years of schooling. It was then, in 1963, that he joined the Air Force, planning to stay in for less than three years – just long enough to improve his economic situation somewhat. From these thoroughly random beginnings, by the mid-1960’s a dedicated physician and Air Force officer had begun to emerge. And by the late 1960’s Dr. Victor was a hospital commander well on the way to developing his own distinctive professional style.

At the time of his 1993 retirement from the Air Force, Marty had become a full Colonel with many awards and accolades to his credit, but his first priority and highest goal was still to provide the very best possible experience of medical care to all whom he served.