Rotary One on One Veterans Day
The mission of Rotary Veterans Day One on One is to honor veterans and celebrate their service. There is a clear camaraderie between Veterans and Rotary and that is a commitment to
Service Above Self.
​
At this luncheon on Veterans Day, November 11, 2024, Rotarians invite Veterans to honor and pay tribute to their service.
The guest speaker is Dr. John M Wieland, MD MHCM FACS Associate Chief Medical Officer, Carle Health
Dr. John Wieland
Dr. John Wieland is a native of Bloomington/Normal, Illinois. After high school graduation, he went to the University of Notre Dame where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree. He received a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago and continued at the U of I and Cook County Hospital during his surgery residency. After finishing surgical training in Chicago, he practiced General Surgery in Bloomington/Normal for almost thirty years. Along the way, he obtained a Master’s degree in Health Care Management from Harvard University with the plan to transition from clinical practice to administrative medicine later in his career.
​
The United States Navy interrupted that plan. In 2016, Dr. Wieland received a letter from the commanding officer of the Navy Reserve that identified general surgery as one of the five critical wartime specialties that were severely understaffed. The Navy was asking mid- and late-career surgeons to consider military service under the Medical Officer Top 5 program. Dr. Wieland was the first general surgeon in the nation to be commissioned in the Navy Medical Corps under this program.
​
After finishing the Direct Commissioned Officer Indoctrination Course at Naval Station Newport, he received orders for deployment in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. On Christmas night 2017, he shipped out to the Middle East where he spent six months in a Role 2 field hospital in Iraq, with a brief trip to a Role 2 hospital in Syria. He celebrated his 57th birthday in a combat zone.
