The American Boy

About the Book

About the Author

About the author, Frank E. Dully Jr. Born in 1932 as a native of West Hartford, Connecticut, Frank Dully is a retired medical doctor whose 25 year career as a U.S. Naval Flight Surgeon was preceded by an internship at the District of Columbia General Hospital, by a Family Practice Residency at the Bridgeport (Connecticut) Hospital, and by 5 years as a private practitioner of medicine in rural Shelton, Connecticut. His grammar school education under the tutelage of the Sisters of Mercy took place at West Hartford's Saint Thomas of the Apostle School. Four years of prep school at the Loomis Institute in nearby Windsor introduced him to the life sciences under the careful guidance and encouragement of Mr. Howard Norris. It was the beating frog's heart in Mr. Norris' Science Lab that directed his studies towards what would be his lifetime profession. Pre-med at Holy Cross College with a BS in Biology in 1954 led to the Georgetown University School of Medicine and his MD degree in 1958. He exchanged private practice for a commission as a U.S. Navy Medical Corps Lieutenant when it became clear that he was to be the richest man in the local cemetery. Electing to specialize in Aerospace Medicine after spending 15 months at sea with a destroyer squadron, he was designated a U.S. Naval Flight Surgeon in 1966. Fully half of the career that followed was spent either at sea or in support of the practice of medicine afloat on aircraft carriers or with the U.S. Marines, initially a practitioner, later as a supervisor, and ultimately as a teacher and mentor. Two of his carrier deployments were in support of the Vietnam War, USS Hornet and USS Enterprise. He won a specialized training at the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute (NAMI) in Pensacola Florida with certification in his new specialty by the American Board of Preventive Medicine in 1972. In 1982 he became the Commanding Officer of NAMI, the facility responsible for all U.S. naval aviation medicine training. Upon his retirement in 1987, he accepted the faculty position of Associate Professor of Aviation Safety at the University of Southern California, a post he held for 5 more years, continuing with them as an independent contractor for several more fruitful years. In addition to his numerous military awards, the Society of U.S. Naval Flight Surgeons honored him with their 1998 "Lifetime Achievement Award." He achieved modicum of international professional notoriety for his colorful presentation misleadingly called "Sex and The Naval Aviator." Developed from his original observations of navy pilots, in it he addressed the stress-resistant characteristics of a successful and safe pilot and how these coping skills could be overwhelmed to cause a preventable aircraft accident. He gave this live, sometimes televised stand-up presentation for about a decade to aviation audiences that ultimately totaled nearly 70,000 people. He is credited with saving many lives from sharing these insights. To become more than the annual holiday ceremonial grandfather that the geographic distances might otherwise dictate, he began writing a series of monthly letters to his grandchildren relating even from his own life that might be meaningful or amusing to them while also sprucing up the image of one who, to them, had always been elderly.