Dr. Lee Faucher.
In honor of Memorial Day, we’re profiling six alumni and faculty who have served in the military during their surgical careers. If you also served, we would love to hear your story. Please drop us a line at michelle.oster@supportuw.org. We thank you for your service.
Lee D. Faucher, MD, FACS
Military Rank: Major, US Air Force (1984-2001)
Dr. Faucher is Professor of Surgery and Interim Chief, Division of Trauma, Acute Care Surgery, and Burn and Surgical Critical Care, at UW-Madison. He has 17 years of military service, four in the United States Air Force, and thirteen in the Air National Guard. “The military requires you to grow up quickly,” he says. “In addition to emotional and social growth that are beneficial for certain people, there are many responsibilities you learn that can’t be taught in college.”
Dr. Faucher had an early start in critical care: while still in high school in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin, he earned a license to work as an Emergency Medical Technician. Upon graduation, he joined the Air Force and worked as an Operating Room Technician (1984-88) at Malcolm Grow Medical Clinic, a hospital on Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, the home of Air Force One. During active duty, Dr. Faucher further developed his interest in medicine by watching student doctors as they trained. Next, he enrolled in college at UW-Madison, where he received his BS in zoology and his MD from the School of Medicine and Public Health, serving concurrently in Medical Squadron of the Wisconsin Air National Guard.
The teamwork skills that Dr. Faucher developed in the military inform his work in critical care today. He notes that, “While the military is very much ‘shut up and do it’ – an ethos that doesn’t always translate to our work – the whole team needs to pull their weight to accomplish the task. Experience of this type certainly does help.”