Can you tell me about your career as an Air Force Medic?
In 1970, when I enlisted in the Air Force, I was given a battery of tests to determine my future in accordance with the needs of the military. As a result of those test, it was determined that I would be an Air Traffic Controller. While I was not sure exactly what that meant, I was looking forward to learning all about it. Unfortunately my excitement was cut short once I was given an eye exam. It seems the Air Force required 20:20 vision for this career and I was near sighted, so my new vocation was terminated. Instead they decided that I would best be used as a medical specialist. So began my career. After basic training in San Antonio, Texas, I was sent to Wichita Falls, Texas to be trained at Sheppard Air Force Base. It was at Sheppard Air Force Base that all the medical training occurred, at that time. I attend the basic course for a medical specialist. Imagine in six weeks you can be a medical specialist. Wow, what is a medical specialist? I had been a Candy Striper at a local hospital when I was in High School, and someone told me it was like that, but a little more. How much was yet to be determined. As it turned out I went on to spend the next fourteen years in the medical profession. At first I was sent to Scott Air Force Base, in Illinois. My first assignment was on the Tuberculosis Ward. Back then Tuberculosis was common in Southeast Asia. So many of our Airmen were coming back with some form of it. We also took care of the wives of those Airmen that also had TB. I was first assigned to the diagnostic ward and then to the female ward. All the wards were considered contagious, so we had to go through and extensive washing and gowning when you went in and out. After that I was sent to work in the Emergency Room. I was there for three months, when I was reassigned to the family practice clinic. Again I spend three months there and then I was sent to the pediatric clinic for three months and finally to the OB/GYN clinic. I have to say I liked moving around every three months and learning all the different issues of each clinic. Most was common, but the difference was in the type of medicine and patients you saw.
Photo Credit: Rose Duval
Photo Credit: Rose Duval
In the fall of 1972 I got my first set of Overseas Orders. I was going to the Philippines. Clark Air Base in Angeles City, Philippines. When I got there I was immediately assigned to the OB/GYN clinic. There I would see and learn a great deal. As it turned out I was part of the team to treat the returning POWs and the only female POW. In my second and last year at Clark Air Force Base, I gave birth to my son, Scott Eric Duffman on August 14, 1974 at 12:05pm. Four months later we would be returning to the “State”, in fact we were going back to Scott Air Force Base. Having a child changes how you look at things and what is important. Once I had Scott I decided that I needed to have a regular schedule job, so he can have a normal life. So, I got into the orthopedic career field. This would guarantee that I would have a straight day job with weekends and holidays off. So for only a short time I did the crazy shift work and then spent the rest of my career on an 8-4 schedule allowing me to me a Mom. This also allowed me to attend night school and get a degree. In retrospect, I was an Air Force medic during Vietnam and got to treat the returning POWs and I was a there to help treat the Iranian Hostages. When I thought I was done with the Air Force, they decided that my medical skills were critical enough to call me back to active duty service. Good thing it only lasted twelve weeks.
Who was Scott Duffman
Scott with Sister Wendy at Thanksgiving (2000)
Photo Credit: Rose Duval
TO READ ABOUT Scott, CLICK ON THE PHOTO ABOVE.
Can you tell me about Scott, and what he was like growing up?
Scott was a pretty typical child. He was an only child for the first five years of his life. Surprisingly, when he sister came along, he was very accepting. Now that could be him, or as parents we did a good job of getting him use to the idea. Early on I knew I was going to have my hands full. As a military dependent, he went to the DOD schools, up until when he entered middle school in Albuquerque, New Mexico. While we were stationed at Vandenberg Air Force Base, his second grade teacher felt he was hyper-active and needed to be treated. As his mother I did not see him as hyper-active, so after a month of monitoring his diet of sugars and red dyes, I still had not seen any changes or considered him hyper-active. So to satisfy the teacher I took him to the pediatrician for an evaluation. In the end the doctor said that he was not hyper-active, but bored. It seems that he was reading and comprehending at a higher level than most 7 year olds. He suggested changing teachers. I did and Scott flourished under a twenty something teacher instead of his sixty something teacher. As a result of this Scott was put into the advanced portion of his class where he was challenged and the teacher was prepared for him.
Scott and Rose at his PJ Graduation
Photo Credit: Rose Duval
He continued in this program until he hit middle school where he was put into enhanced curriculum. To stay on par with him I had to keep him challenged, but in a fun way. From early on I encouraged the arts, language, and a team activity. So in elementary school he played soccer, and in middle school he decided he would learn the trombone, and in high school, he would learn Spanish and join the wrestling team. Soccer was fun until he was diagnosed with asthma, so that was short lived. Once in middle school he taught himself to read music, thanks to his music teacher. When I asked him if he wanted music lessons he said no, he could do it on his own. So he taught himself to play the trombone to the point that he was first chair in concerts. When I got a keyboard for the kids one Christmas, he started to teach himself how to play, but not as seriously as the trombone. By the time he got to high school he was been recruited by the marching band and he begged me to not make him do that. He was bored with the trombone and wanted to join the wrestling team. OK. So while he was a fast learner in many things he was also very giving. That may be due to the family ethos he was raised in. Our house was always the epicenter of all things happening. When I would come home from work there would always be some of the neighborhood kids or someone from school that did not live too far. Most of the time they would go home for dinner, but on occasion someone would stay. Scott’s motto was "Mi Casa es Su Casa." When I heard him tell that to a friend of his, I had to stop and ask "Wow that says a lot for a thirteen or fourteen year old to say."
In high school he was a typical and funny, and challenging teenager. I know boys have growing issues, and Scott was normal. He started high school and was small enough to be stuffed in a trash can, a harmless, so they say, hazing of the freshmen. Scott did not get that done to him, because two of the neighbor kids were juniors at the High school and looked out for Scott. The next summer he grew four inches and was having a hard time with shin splints. But the whole time in high school he was a good kid, always polite and considerate of others. In fact, after he had died and was buried at Arlington, I got an email from a young lady that said she was a classmate of Scott’s and wanted me to know that when they were in high school, she was having a personal issue at home and Scott saw her crying during lunch. He went over to her and put his arm around her shoulder and asked if she wanted to talk to someone. She and he went to the courtyard and she poured out her heart with the issues she was having. Scott just listened and after that she and Scott were friends for life. She is married now and a few years ago her husband was stationed at the Pentagon and she emailed to tell me that she and her family visit Scott all the time.
Scott
Photo Credit: Rose Duval
He was such a friend to his buddies that it caused issues once he became a PJ-and yet on the anniversary of his death, those boys, now men, make a trek to Arlington National Cemetery to be with him as they were there for his funeral. In high school, Scott and some of those boys thought it would be a great idea to climb the school’s sky light and cover it with shoe polish. Once they were outed, they humbly offered to clean it up. Needless to say that was not happening. Scott had a knack for talking himself either into something or out of something. He talked himself out of tickets as a teenager and the big one was how he took the heat for speeding when he was not driving. There is also the time that a cheerleader was driving the boys home when they started getting sick in her car. When she pulled over the police pulled up behind them and made sure all the parents were called to pick them up. But not before the poor girls new car was wasted. Scott got all the boys together the next day to detail her car. Then there was the PJ graduation party at our home that turned into a mob party. The police came to break it up, but first I was allowed to get the PJ’s into the house and some of his HS buddies. The rest were sent away, police style. After all was said, some of the high school buddies were upset with Scott for siding with his PJ brothers. Scott explained the issues and all was well. Scott should have gone to work at the State Department. I joked that once Scott left home I got a pay raise. My food bill dropped 250 dollars a month! Later on I found out that Scott was feeding the neighborhood after school. As an adult he said that he was being a good host, like his mother. Now Scott as a brother is funny, and another facet of Scott. Growing up, his sister was a pest, annoyance, put on this earth to get him in trouble. Being five years and eight months older, things changed when he got to high school and she was still in elementary school. Now he was the big brother and she was the biggest pain in his side. I felt my job was just to keep them from killing each other. But once he graduated and she finally got into high school he became the protective big brother. Once she graduated from high school and was going to University of New Mexico, he put out the word to his PJ brothers that Wendy was OFF LIMITS. Yup, off limits and needless to say she was not happy what so ever with that cloud he put over her head. Especially when it came to dating some of the hottest guys she ever met. As adults they became the closest and most loving siblings. They were honest with each other, supportive, and the most empathetic young adults you could meet. They could go out for the evening together with friends and have the best of times. After Scott enlisted and would come home on leave, they would be out doing the social scene with friends.
Photo Credit: Rose Duval
What was it that inspired Scott to join the military and become a Pararescueman?
So many things inspired Scott. At the impressionable age of ten, Scott would go to the PJ School with his then Step-Father Larry Austin (Chief). Larry would also take him to the Pecos Mountains where they were doing survival training with the PJ students. He often spoke about what he saw and how cool it was and how one day he would be doing that. Then again as a teenager, I would often talk about their future and they could not think past what would be for dinner or plans for the weekend. Knowing how important it is to always have a plan, Mom stepped in that started the brainwashing, or strategic programing in Mom speak. When he got into High School, I would always say that he and his sister had three choices once they graduated. Go to college, get a job, or join the military. I wanted him to go on to college, but he said he was tired of school and all the college prep courses I “made” him take along with the Advance Placement courses he took.
He wanted to do something. So he went to the Air Force recruiter, on his own, and that night he told me that he was planning on enlisting. Since he was not eighteen at the time he graduated, he would need parental consent. It did not make him happy, but he understood. As it turned out he needed both parents to approval and he did not want to explain his decision to his father, so he decided to wait until he turned eighteen. Also the recruiter told him it would be less paperwork, and he would not have to deal with Mom. So I was able to help Scott out with a summer job at the company I worked at. In the meantime from May until August, he got enjoy a job and be the master of his world…once he did his regular chores around the house. He took some time to visit his father in Illinois and then had to wait for his enlistment date. The dated the Air Force gave him was October 1992. From that point on he was all about showing the world what he was made out of and how far he could go if given the chance and challenge.
When asked why he was a PJ, Scott replied- “I love saving lives, and this is the most exciting way I can think to do it.” Does that selfless answer at all surprise you?
Photo Credit: Rose Duval
I often heard Scott say this, both in the pre and post of becoming a PJ. Often the PJ’s and CCT’s are part of a news story and one time that Scott was home he brought a copy of a VHS that someone taped of a news story from Florida. Scott was one of the PJ’s interviewed. When asked that question, he gave them the same reply. He loved helping people, he knew no strangers, he loved a challenge and he found a job that rolled all of that into one and paid him for it.
The P.J. motto is “That Others May Live.” Was this attitude of others before yourself something you taught Scott, or something he learned on his own?
As a parent we teach our children to share, play nice, be polite, put others first, do your best, put yourself in the other person’s position, realize that all actions have consequences may they be good or bad. As a parent you also know that the proof in in the pudding. You never know if what you have taught them took or not. All you can do is wait to see how they handle themselves and situations. The military does the same thing and you are rewarded with promotions and raises. So, is this something I taught him or he learned on his own…I would say both. I gave him the foundation and with the help of the Air Force he took it to the next level, the higher level. For in the end, he saw what was happening and how it was going to play out and ordered his team to get low and he put himself on top of them to protect them. They all survived.
Photo Credit: Rose Duval
After Scott’s death, what was it that kept you going?
I don’t know. The first three years after Scott died I was in a fog. I was in autopilot at home and at work. I think I compartmentalized my whole life. I was angry at the Air Force. I hated the politicians that put our men and women in stupid danger. I served during Vietnam and experience doing more with less and fighting a battle that was unpopular with the general public. But Scott and the others in Iraq and Afghanistan were fighting a battle with the worst equipment. The pilots were good because they had to overcome the shortfalls of equipment. Scott and the other PJ’s and CCT’s were good because they had to overcome all kinds of adversities, such as equipment, weather, staffing, and competence. There is a hole in me and only in time have I been able to deal with it. Every single day I think of Scott and every single day I deal with my hole. But I will not hold others hostage to my loss or feelings. Scott would not like that, so we celebrate his life and all he did and touched vice how he died and what he is missing.
Scott's battlefield cross
Photo Credit: Rose Duval
How do you think Scott would like to be remembered?
Scott was a very humble young man. He never like to be the center of attention. He liked doing what he did because he loved the challenge, he loved the feeling of helping someone. I think he would like to be remembered as a dedicated PJ who loved what he did and who he did it with.
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What services was the That Others May Live Foundation able to provide to you?
Support and understanding. As a mother of a fallen, there is not much we need. But to keep our son alive. But as I have come to find out, Scott lives on in the memories of all the people he touched.