Lt Colonel Mark C. Losack, DC, demonstrates his commitment to his country and the chiropractic profession on the front lines in Iraq.

I never dreamed what the future held when I left the Marine Corps after Desert Storm to attend Los Angeles College of Chiropractic, now Southern California University of Health Sciences SCUHS.

It was during my time at SCUHS that I received my first exposure to the different paradigms within our profession, the struggles with the medical profession, and the internal politics of chiropractic. After graduating, I established my practice in Oceanside, Calif, and continued to serve with the Marine Corps Reserve one weekend a month and a couple of weeks each summer.

After September 11, 2001, being recalled to active duty became more probable. I did not know from one day to the next whether I would be one of those mobilized. Patients would ask, and I did not have an answer.

In October 2002, after being assured that reserves were no longer needed, I was informed that I would be mobilized in 2 weeks. Everything that I had worked toward for the past 6 years was gone. I intended to return to practice when my active duty was completed, so I did not attempt to sell my practice.

Bringing another doctor in to cover for me was not a viable option with my lease agreement. So, I called three other doctors to ask whether they would agree to take over patient care while I was away with the understanding that I would contact the patients when I returned. Can you imagine someone saying to you, “How would you like 50 new patients for free?” Or in one case, “Would you mind taking these five new personal injury patients?”

Many of you have heard the stories about my treating patients aboard a Navy ship on the way to Iraq. What you may not have heard was that the MDs were very interested in what I did and saw the value of having a chiropractor as part of the team, but their hands were tied by the Navy’s medical bureaucracy.

A Marine on another ship went down with a low back condition. I was not allowed to go to the other ship to help him. Here was a Marine, headed to combat, who was denied the help he needed because Navy Medicine in Washington, DC was not credentialing chiropractors to provide care. The tyranny of distance was never more evident. These same bureaucrats had access to chiropractic care, as did members of Congress, while out in the field those who needed chiropractic the most were denied. This callous disregard for the care of our warriors is unforgivable.

During the war, I continued to treat Marines and sailors as time permitted. At one point, I was assigned to Task Force Tripoli, whose mission was to seize Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown. With the mission accomplished, we encamped on the palace grounds. I had just finished touring a palace, when a Marine asked for an adjustment.

While setting up, I bumped my camera with my leg. Removing the camera ,I looked up at the palace and thought a picture of this would look nice on my office wall. Internet access had just been established so I was able to share the picture with my good friends, Chris MacChesney, DC, San Leandro, Calif, and Reed Phillips, DC, president of SCUHS.

Dr Phillips had told me that Department of Defense senior medical officials were telling the Chiropractic Advisory Council that chiropractors were not needed in frontline units because these troops did not need chiropractic care. In an email, I told him that the bureaucrats who said this had not spent much time in frontline units.

What I did not know was that the American Chiropractic Association was fighting to get chiropractic care for our veterans and being told chiropractic care was not necessary.

The pictures that I took in Iraq adjusting troops was proof that it was necessary. I was doing what any chiropractor would do—providing our unique care to people who needed it under the most arduous conditions. Chiropractors who treated rescue workers after 9/11 and during the California wildfires understand. The pictures were undeniable evidence of the need for chiropractors in the frontline units. It also proved that our nation’s veterans required chiropractic care.

My portable table was left behind when I joined the 1st Marine Division. I improvised using embarkation boxes, MRE (meals ready to eat) boxes, or whatever met the requirement—even the ground. What chiropractic brought to the fight was something besides Motrin (Vitamin M, as the Marines call it) for neuromusculoskeletal conditions that are rampant in an expeditionary environment. As I said before, the MDs were glad to have a chiropractor as part of the team, but had to tread lightly due to the military medical bureaucracy. However, I recently read about a journalist, who was also a neurosurgeon, stepping in and assisting in saving the lives of wounded Marines. The bureaucrats did not seem to mind that intervention.

The reaction by the Marines and sailors to chiropractic care was phenomenal. Those who had never before experienced chiropractic care were amazed. They all reported feeling and sleeping better after being adjusted. Several with chronic conditions, who were not helped with medical intervention, received immediate and lasting relief with the care I provided. Some took a wait-and-see attitude as they watched their buddies being adjusted. Eventually, they asked for care too.

The greatest validation I experienced as a chiropractor came when an infantry battalion commander sought me out and thanked me for taking care of three of his young Marines. He told me that his Marines wanted me to know they could not have made it through the war without the care I provided.

As you read this, I am in Iraq, again. I ask for your prayers and continued support. I hope that my experience will serve to rally our profession in pushing through the bureaucratic morass, making chiropractic care available to those who are or have been on the forward edge of freedom.

Semper fidelis. CP