[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 112 (Wednesday, July 9, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S6499]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO COL DONALD A. PERSON

 Mr. INOUYE. Madam President, I would like to recognize a great 
American and true military hero who has honorably served our country 
for 49 years.
  Colonel Person was born in Fargo, ND, and entered the Army as part of 
the ``Doctor Draft'' in 1964 after earning his MD from the University 
of Minnesota School of Medicine. He served as Chief, Preventive 
Medicine, Professional Standards, and Aviation Medicine, Headquarters, 
U.S. Army Southern Command and Officer in Charge of U.S. Army 
Dispensary, Fort Clayton, Panama. For the next 20 years, Dr. Person 
remained active in the U.S. Army Reserve. During that time, he 
completed neurosurgical training, and a postdoctoral fellowship in 
microbiology, immunochemistry, and virology at the Mayo Clinic in 
Rochester, MN. Subsequently he served on the faculty in internal 
medicine and virology and epidemiology at Baylor College of Medicine in 
Houston, TX. He also trained in pediatrics while at Baylor.
  Colonel Person reinterred active duty in 1987 and was assigned as 
chief and program director in pediatrics, and chief, department of 
clinical investigation at Tripler Army Medical Center. He has 265 
publications in the medical literature and has spoken at more than 400 
meetings and seminars throughout the world. He is also a member of 60 
medical, scientific, and professional organizations. He deployed to 
much of Central and South America, Alaska, Papau New Guinea, the 
Republic of the Maldives, South Korea, Micronesia, and served in 
Operation Desert Storm.
  Additionally, Colonel Person was professor of clinical pediatrics and 
clinical public health, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of 
Hawaii at Manoa. For his leadership in the development and sustainment 
of the Pacific Island Health Care Project, he was recognized by the 
Pacific Basin Medical Association by the indigenous people of the U.S. 
Associated Pacific Islands and by the legislatures of the Republic of 
Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the 
Marshall Islands.
  Throughout his career COL Donald A. Person has served with valor and 
profoundly impacted the entire Army Medical Department. His performance 
reflects exceptionally on himself, the U.S. Army, the Department of 
Defense, and the United States of America. I extend my deepest 
appreciation to Colonel Person on behalf of a grateful Nation for his 
more than 49 years of dedicated military service.

                          ____________________