— SEBRING, Fla. (November 8, 2024) -- It’s been 20 years since Dr. E. Wayne Mosley was first deployed to Afghanistan as a combat physician for the U.S. Army during Operation Enduring Freedom, but it’s something he remembers vividly to this day.
“You never forget that. We were under a combat situation and flying into Bagram (Air Base), which is this airstrip in the middle of this ring of mountains. So, they’re doing evasive flying and you’re coming in (for landing) and all the lights are off. Then they finally land, and while the engines are still running, the back of the plane drops down and (during deplaning) they’re like, grab the shoulder of the guy in front of you and don’t veer off because there are landmines,” Dr. Mosley said. “It was surreal, the entire thing.”
It was the first of five tours in Afghanistan for Dr. Mosley, who said he spent most of his active duty being deployed in Afghanistan and then in Iraq, where he served two tours, as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He is an esteemed Colonel in the U.S. Army, and has received numerous awards including the Bronze Star, given to those military members who distinguish themselves by heroic or meritorious achievement or service. He was also awarded the Combat Medic Badge and Combat Action Badge during his time serving.
Dr. Mosley is from Western Kentucky and went to medical school at the University of Kentucky. He said part of his interest in orthopedics came from the care he received as a young man.
“I actually had two knee operations before I went to med school, one in high school and one in college from football injuries, so that was part of it,” Dr. Mosley said.
He also said his time working with and watching some orthopedic doctors at a hospital in Memphis also had a major impact on him wanting to be an orthopedic doctor.
“I liked how they fixed people,” he said. “I liked the way they solved problems, so I gravitated towards orthopedics.”
While in medical school, Dr. Mosley decided to join the U.S. Army.
“I wanted to give back and serve,” Dr. Mosley said.
While serving in Afghanistan, Dr. Mosley said he was mostly located in the first station where injured people were brought to. He would perform orthopedic surgery on injured military personnel and civilians, including children.
“I've done orthopedic surgery in the combat zone anywhere from a tent to a formal hardened structure that had been built and made into a hospital,” Dr. Mosley said.
One operation he said he will always remember from his deployment, involved a village chieftain in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
“Special Forces brought in this village chieftain. He’d had a broken femur from being shot by the Russians early on in his life and he was on a crutch,” Dr. Mosley said. “He told the Special Forces that if we fixed his leg where he could walk without the crutch, he’d give them all the terrorist hot spots in the area. So, they brought him to me. We fixed his femur, and he walked out of there the same day. It was great because he just gave them all kinds of information, so it was really kind of a cool thing to do.”
While in Iraq, Dr. Mosley ran a combat support hospital. At one point, while U.S. Army leaders were there to inspect hospital operations, they had to treat more than 200 causalities in back-to-back days because of attacks from insurgents in a local village. Many of the victims were women and children. Mosley said the hospital had two operating rooms and 24 beds in it.
“The exposure you get to the local people, you get to treat them, and you get to learn about them and it gives you a whole new perspective on what's going on over there and why it's going on and just the way that they live,” Dr. Mosley said.
He also witnessed history while he was in Baghdad when the country’s first elections were held.
Dr. Mosley said he stays in touch with some of the medical personnel, including surgeons from other countries, who he served with and that they try to catch up via email every year.
He also said he keeps up with some of the patients he treated during his military service. He even made a special trip to Texas for one of them after he returned from one deployment.
“There was one guy, he was from Texas, but I took out this huge chunk of metal out of his leg from an IED explosion and we were shipping him out and he wanted the metal, but they wouldn’t let him take it. So, I snuck it back for him and took it to him after I got back from my deployment,” Dr. Mosley said.
Throughout his deployments, Dr. Mosley said he was always grateful to his wife, Jennifer, who he’s been married to for 32 years.
“Jennifer was over here keeping the family together, keeping everything together. They do as much as we do,” Dr. Mosley said.
They have four children. Their oldest son is a naval aviator, currently deployed to the eastern Mediterranean.
AdventHealth is honored to have Dr. Mosley as a member of our team, along with the many other veterans who are members of the AdventHealth Family.
Dr. Mosley has been with AdventHealth full-time since 2023. He said he is grateful to have the privilege to help his patients restore and manage their orthopedic health, an important foundation toward achieving whole health.
Learn more about AdventHealth and the different services offered at our hospitals in Sebring, Lake Placid and Wauchula.