Frederick M. "Skip" Burkle, Jr. (born April 29, 1940) is an American physician known for his work in human rights, international diplomacy and peacemaking, humanitarian assistance, and disaster response. He has been called "the single most talented and experienced post-conflict health specialist working for the United States government."Mistakes Were Made, The Washington Post, September 17, 2006 His medical qualifications include pediatrics, emergency medicine, psychiatry, public health, and tropical medicine.
Drafted into the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War, he served as a military physician in Vietnam and was instrumental in Operation Babylift.Operation Babylift, Ford Library Museum. Retrieved 2017-01-15
Burkle reached the rank of Captain (O-6) in the U.S. Naval Reserve before retiring.Burkle '61 to speak at service-themed commencement, Saint Michael's College. Retrieved 2017-03-20
Personal life and education Burkle was born in New Haven, CT, to Frederick and Mary Frances Burkle (née Borel). His father was an engineer with a telephone company, and his mother, one of the first women graduate students at Yale, was a teacher. He is the middle of three siblings: he has an older sister Joan, and a younger brother Richard, now deceased.
As a child, Burkle had dyslexia and unable to read until 5th grade.Tribute to Dr. Frederick Burkle, Congressional Record, (Senate - June 07, 2016). Retrieved 2017-01-15 He developed his own language, which prompted his mother to seek a psychological evaluation for him. The evaluation, done at the time when little was known about learning disabilities and their co-existence with giftedness, revealed an extremely bright but "lazy" child.
Shy and self-conscious, Burkle intensely disliked school, even though he dreamed of becoming a doctor, inspired by seeing magazine pictures of physicians who saved starving children in Africa's jungle hospitals. He attended Notre Dame High School in West Haven, CT, and while there, he met his future wife, Phyllis Dinnean, who was attending St. Mary's High School. He credits meeting Phyllis with turning his life around, as she believed in him and encouraged him to go to college. With her support and against his father's wishes, Burkle decided to apply to Saint Michael's College in Colchester, Vermont:
"She urged me to plead my case to the High School Academic Dean, a stern gray haired Brother of Holy Cross, to both loan me the application fee and forward a decent recommendation. I was shaking in my boots. He silently pondered the circumstances yet nodded his head and agreed to accept the personal risk despite the potential anger of my Father . . ."
Burkle obtained his bachelor's degree from Saint Michael's College in 1961. He was conferred an honorary doctorate by Saint Michael's College in 2009. He completed his M.D. at the University of Vermont in 1965. He was in his residency in pediatrics (completed 1968) at the Yale School of Medicine when he was drafted into the U.S. Navy. He subsequently completed a fellowship in adolescent medicine in 1970 at Harvard Medical School and a residency in psychiatry in 1974 at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. He obtained an M.P.H. at the University of California at Berkeley in 1975, a Diploma in Emergencies in Large Populations at the University of Geneva in 1989, and a Diploma in Tropical Medicine from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.Frederick "Skip" Burkle, Wilson Center. Retrieved 2017-01-02
He has been qualified in Emergency Medicine, Pediatrics, Pediatric emergency medicine, and Psychiatry, and is a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Together with his wife Phyllis, who worked as a teacher, the Burkles have raised three children, and currently reside in Hawaii.
Military service and awards In Rolling Thunder in a Gentle Land: The Vietnam War Revisited, author Andrew Wiest described how in 1968 Burkle was drafted into the U.S. Navy, deployed to South Vietnam, and assigned to the 3rd Medical Battalion. He served at Delta Med hospital at Dong Ha, a few miles south of the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) treating countless casualties and acquiring skills as a combat surgeon. Attentive to the neutrality of medical personnel, Burkle also treated civilians and enemy combatants and helped manage the bubonic plague epidemic that devastated that area of the country.Dr. Skip Burkle, Veterans Advantage, May 10, 2001 He served as the medical director of the last Viet Nam Operation Babylift out of the former Saigon in 1975.American Pediatricians at War: A Legacy of Service, Pediatrics, February 2012, VOLUME 129 / ISSUE Supplement 1
A retired Captain (O-6) in the U.S. Naval Reserve, Burkle completed combat tours in the Vietnam War (1968), the Persian Gulf War (1991) and Somalia (1992) with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Marine Divisions, and with the United States Central Command in Somalia, receiving two early promotions.
As a navy reservist, Burkle was recalled to active duty during the Persian Gulf War of 1990–1991, and deployed to Saudi Arabia. 2012 Leiter Lecture "Future Humanitarian Crises: Challenges to Practice, Policy and Public Health" NLM in Focus, National Library of Medicine, May 4, 2012 He was assigned to al Khanjar Navy-Marine Corps Trauma Center. Just miles from the Kuwait border, this hospital was the largest field medical treatment facility in Marine Corps history. Several days before the ground war began on February 24, 1991, commanding general of the 2nd Force Service Support Group, Brig. Gen. Charles Krulak, selected Capt. Burkle to serve as Senior Medical Officer and Chief of Professional Services of the 2nd Medical Battalion at al Khanjar Navy-Marine Corps Trauma Center. When the fighting ended on February 28, the Trauma Center had treated more than 600 Allied casualties and many more Iraqi wounded.Emergency medicine in the Persian Gulf War - Part 1: Preparations for triage and combat casualty care, Annals of Emergency Medicine, Volume 23, Issue 4,1994Emergency Medicine in the Persian Gulf War--Part 2. Triage Methodology and Lessons Learned , Annals of Emergency Medicine, Volume 23, Issue 4, 1994Emergency Medicine in the Persian Gulf War--Part 3: Battlefield Casualties , Annals of Emergency Medicine, Volume 23, Issue 4, 1994
In early 2003, Burkle was appointed the interim minister of health of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. In April 2003, when faced with rapidly deteriorating social order and health of the Iraqi population after the collapse of Saddam's government, Burkle declared a public health emergency, a decision that cost him his job.Health and politics in the 2003 war with Iraq: lessons learned, The Lancet, October 9, 2004Bush promised Iraqi civilians a better future. What are their lives like now?, MSNBC, Oct 17, 2013 He was replaced by James K. Haveman Jr. who, as The Washington Post reports, tried to make Iraq's health system with a U.S. like two-tier healthcare model of private healthcare providers, co-payments and primary care.Appoint the Best to Iraq, Not the Best-Connected, The Washington Post, July 6, 2003 History Commons reported that a USAID official said the White House wanted a "loyalist."Replacing the Expert with the 'Loyalist' , History Commons. Retrieved 2017-01-15
His awards include two Bronze Star Medals (Viet Nam and PGW) one rito with Combat "Valor" (1968 Viet Nam), Combat Action Ribbon, Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Joint Meritorious Unit Citation (2 awards), Vietnamese Meritorious Medical Medal, the Humanitarian Service Medal (2 awards), and the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal.Bronze Star citation, 14 July 1991.
Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance In 1994, Burkle worked with then senator of Hawaii Daniel Inouye to develop a Center of Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (COEDMHA). At the time the CFE was located at Tripler Army Medical Center and Burkle was its first and founding director.10 U.S. Code § 182 - Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance, Legal Information Institute, Cornell University Law School. Retrieved 2017-01-13 The center has since been renamed to the Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (CFE-DM) and was moved to Ford Island in Pearl Harbor. The purpose of the center was to serve as a resource for bringing science and innovation to enhance humanitarian assistance and disaster relief by improving humanitarian civil-military coordination.The Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (CFE-DMHA), RAND Corporation. Retrieved 2017-01-13
Burkle's vision was to have the CFE serve as a civilian-led research and training institute that would enhance the capacity of the U.S. and foreign militaries to operate effectively in humanitarian assistance missions. The main tasks of the CFE were to increase militaries' understanding of the humanitarian ethos and the guiding principles of humanitarian organizations, along with promoting an understanding of the international humanitarian architecture and the key humanitarian organizations involved in humanitarian response. Dr. Burkle hired a highly experienced staff drawn from academia, the United Nations, the medical field, and the U.S. military to fulfill this vision.
He also established partnerships with a wide range of UN organizations, international non-governmental organizations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the University of Hawaii. Burkle and the staff he hired led numerous research projects and training courses including the Health Emergencies in Large Populations (H.E.L.P.) course, a training course for managing relief operations in humanitarian crises, as well as the Health Assistance Response Training Course (HART).CFE-DM Training Programs, Center For Excellence in Disaster Management. Retrieved 2017-1-13Humanitarian Assistance Response Training , Naval Education And Training Security Assistance Field Activity. Retrieved 2017-1-13Health Emergencies in Large Populations (H.E.L.P.), Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance. Retrieved 2017-1-18Humanitarian Assistance Response Training (H.A.R.T.), Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance. Retrieved 2017-01-18
The center was named a WHO Collaborating Center for Civil-Military Engagement, and was the only center so designated. After Burkle left the CFE in 2000, the WHO removed its designation.WHO Collaborating Centre for Civil-Military Cooperation, World Health Organization. Retrieved 2017-03-21
Additional international work In the late 1970s and early 80s, Burkle traveled to China to assist in treating and lecturing on malnutrition and poverty that plagued 83% of the population.The Contradictions That Define China, NewSecurityBeat blog, Environmental Change and Security Program, Wilson Center, May 27, 2010 Burkle partnered with his long-term friend and colleague Professor Zong-Hao, Li, former director at Beijing Emergency Medical Center, currently president of the China Emergency Resuscitation Association, to teach and advance emergency medicine as a specialty in China.China Daily, National section, Thursday October 11, 1990The Chief Expert Zonghao Talk About First Aid Chinese Edition by Li Zong Hao Zhu , www.yihuadichan.net. Retrieved 2017-03-29 During the 1990s he assisted in the development of the emergency medical services in hospitals in and around Beijing and on the Hainan Island.Emergency Medical Services Systems in the United States and China: A Developmental Comparison, Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, Vol. 9, No. 4, October - December 1994Emergency Medical Services System in Hong Kong: A Pearl in the South China Sea, Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, Vol. 12. No, 2, April - June 1997