 And now for our final highlight of the Complication. Dr. William Bill Logan, a new fellow, is an Ole Max little facial surgeon from Asheville, North Carolina. In his U.S. Army service, during the United States Operation Iraqi Freedom, Dr. Logan was assigned to the 28th Combat Support Hospital in the Green Zone in Baghdad, and later to the third Medcom, where he served as theater consultant for other dental officers and other Maxwell facial surgeons stationed in Iraq. His knowledge and expertise aided in the treatment of numerous military servicemen and women with injuries to the head and neck areas. He saved the lives of many people. Dr. Logan's service exemplifies excellence, ethics, professionalism, and leadership in a more unique way than most of us ever have. Welcome, Dr. Logan. So, I must start by offering a viewer discretion. I noticed there were several children in here. This talk will contain some imagery of the harsh reality of war, and if that's something you don't want to see, you may, I will not be offended if you leave or if you avert your eyes. Thank you, Dr. Lamb. Thank you. I am honored and humbled to stand before such an impressive group of people that represent the best of the best in dentistry. I would like to recognize the Board of Regents and my fellow inductees, whether an active, retired, or lifetime fellow, each and every one of us bring a unique qualification to the college. I'd also like to recognize my sponsor, Dr. Brad Morgan, from Canton, North Carolina. We have been colleagues and friends for over 15 years. As a matter of fact, he actually had me give an hour and a half version of this talk to the Carolina section of the college just before COVID in March of 2020, right before the entire world shut down. I promise to not be that winded today, but I can't speak as to the status of the world next week. When asked to give this address, being a new inductee, my first thought was that this must be some sort of morbid hazing ritual. But what it did force me to do was to do some research on the institution in which we are now fellows. What I found was nothing short of impressive. When we look at the American College of Dentistry, we see a membership of over 7,000 fellows representing all the specialties of dentistry. This group represents only 3.5% of all dentists in the country. As the recent American College of Dentistry newsletter stated, this is not elitism, where it is elite to have fellowship be nothing more than joining a club, but rather it is a commitment to do the work of the mission. Legacy is also very strong within the college. In that very same newsletter, I found out that there was yet another Dr. Lam who had once led the college. It is because of men like Dr. Lam and his father that allow such institutions to thrive. The college goes back over 100 years and is led by a very clear vision and mission. This vision is advancing excellence, ethics, professionalism, and leadership. As was stated, I used to be in the US Army. Being part of the American military puts you, believe it or not, in even a smaller company of people in relation to overall population. For less than one half of 1% of the population serve, only 0.45%. I was pleased to learn that an organization that has existed for over 248 years, the Army, shares some of the same values and goals as the 100 and now three-year-old American College of Dentistry. I first joined the Army in 1988. Four days after graduating high school, I found myself at Fort Benning, Georgia at the Army Infantry School for Basic Training. When you join the Army, one of the first things you expect to memorize, live, and learn are the Army values. There are seven of them and they spell the acronym Leadership, leaving out some of the vowels, L-D-R-S-H-I-P. It stands for loyalty, which is bearing true faith and allegiance by devoting yourself to something or someone. Duty, fulfilling your obligation. This can be achieved either at the individual or the team level. Respect, treat people as they should be treated. Selfless service, putting the welfare of others before your own. Honor, this is a matter of carrying out, acting, and living the values in which you hold. Integrity, do what is right, legally and morally. Personal courage, facing head-on your fears, dangers, and adversities. Jaco Willink is a retired Navy SEAL officer and co-author of the New York Times bestselling book Extreme Ownership. Recommend we all read it. I bought it for all my partners. Jaco now runs a very successful podcast as well as leadership consulting firm called Echelon Front. He offers five tips for achieving effective leadership through the lens of military institutions. Listen, listening to input and feedback from team members will ultimately improve leadership performance. Build strong relationships, gain trust, care for, and respect one another. In my short time here, I already see this as an incredible asset of the American College of Dennis. Practice discipline for discipline equals freedom. Strike a balance, pay attention, and make adjustments to be aware of staying balanced, work versus life. Take ownership as a leader when things may go wrong. Own it and fix it. To help illustrate these values and vision of the American College, I would like to introduce you to a few patients that I treated in Iraq while being deployed with the 28th Combat Support Hospital. This is where you may wanna invert your eyes. Oh, oh, okay. To July 2007, Sergeant Dan Powers was on patrol in Sotter City as a squad leader with the 118 Military Police Company, Fort Bragg, Airborne. When an Iraqi insurgent plunged a nine-inch kitchen knife into the side of his head, the story goes that Sergeant Powers subdued his attacker and as he stood up, a teammate exclaimed, dude, you have a knife sticking out of your head. Quick thinking and cool heads prevailed. His team drove him directly to the 28th cache in the green zone. As I was walking back from dinner one evening, I saw two medics come running out, screaming that I needed to get into the ER to see what awaited. After a quick triage, which included asking if I could take a few pictures, which he responded to, a brief discussion was had as to what should be done as I decided to order a CT and see where the knife was resting. After reviewing the imagery, it was decided that he would be better served in the hands of a neurosurgeon, which we didn't have at the cache, which meant a helicopter ride up to Balad, Iraq, which was about 30 miles north. Interesting fact about that image on the left, that picture has been on the cover of the Army Times, has been on CNN, Fox News, Good Morning America, and even on a Discovery Channel show called Impaled. There was a great concern that even a small movement could be devastating. So we put a styrofoam coffee cup over the handle of the blade and made a Kerlex turbine and strapped him to the gurney for the flight to Balad. Once in Balad, the neurosurgeon performed an elective neck cut down, lassoed the carotid, just in case there would be bleeding. Before creating a bone flap and lifting the brain to expose the knife. Upon removal, as expected, profuse bleeding ensued. Sergeant Powers lost two liters of blood, or 40% of his total blood volume. The site was packed off, hemostasis was obtained, and Sergeant Powers was induced into a chemical coma for transport on what we call the flying ICU, which is a C-17 globetrotter, normally meant for over 300 personnel. The globetrotter took him back to Bethesda, Maryland. It was here less than 24 hours from the battlefield that a vascular neurosurgeon with the help of interventional radiology was able to embolize the offending vessels. After a four day stay, Sergeant Powers could begin his recovery and rehab. It was reported that his first words were, I'm back in the best place I can possibly be in the United States of America. That spot always gets me. Five months later, having redeployed to Fort Bragg, I happened to recognize a name on the hygienist schedule. Sure enough, when I went to her operatory, there was a patient with a dent in the side of his head. I was reunited with Sergeant Powers and got to hear firsthand his adventure after leaving me in the green zone. Another aside, the reason he had a dent in his head is because they left the bone flap in Iraq. And so usually the technique would be to put it in the belly in the subcutaneous area and it would travel with him but they forgot to do that. Therefore, he had to return to Bethesda where they used CT medical modeling and made him an acrylic noggin. So, two years later, Sergeant Powers redeployed with his unit to Afghanistan. Okay, a second case, and this is hard to see but let's see it. This is Sadomo and this is an ethical dilemma. Sadomo was an Iraqi civilian that got caught in the crossfires of war. He sustained obvious massive injuries to his lower jaw. What was unique about this was that it was caused by friendly fire, by US forces. And so therefore, Sadomo was considered a VIP and we were gonna do what we had to do to reconstruct his jaw in theater which was not the norm for the Iraqi population. An Iraqi hospital attempted treatment but ultimately left him to his own recovery. This is him after he came to me after 10 days he came depleted and on death's door. We plated his fractures and attempted closure of his already compromised wounds. I'm gonna get past that one. Unfortunately, his wound broke open and developed what we call a, for lack of a better term, spit fistula. This was two months later after I had done the initial closure, they were given explicit instructions on how to remove the sutures and do everything else but it just didn't happen. So it was known around the hospital that there was an ENT surgeon who had just finished a reconstructive fellowship. He was working at headquarters near the airport. I was able to telephonically consult with him and a second surgery was planned for little Sedoma. In the middle of war-torn Baghdad we performed a pectoralis flap to help reconstruct his lower jaw with, yeah we'll get past that one too. With follow-up just days before I redeployed he was doing fine. He became the darling of the hospital. You can see his X right here, I believe this is the resiliency of children. That to me appears that he's already forming a bone bridge across his defect and I hope he did well for I had to leave. I use these cases to illustrate the teamwork and the echelons of care that were required to take care of these single patients. From buddies on the battlefield, to the medics, to the oral surgeon, to the neurosurgeon, to the nurse, to the interventional radiologists, Army, Air Force, Marines, Navy, there was a common goal and that was to treat these patients with a level of excellence, ethics, professionalism and leadership. So when we travel back to our offices next week whether we practice in academics, federal service or private practice, I hope we can use these cases as an illustration or perhaps inspiration to treat every patient following the American College of Dennis vision. Keep in mind that the things we may find to be mundane and what we least expect will need to be accomplished, what may matter most to our patients. Please do all you can to be ready for it. It's been an honor and privilege to speak with you on this occasion. Thank you.