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AF leader shares life-long love of nursing

  • Published
  • By Prerana Korpe
  • Air Force Surgeon General Public Affairs
As a young girl, Air Force Deputy Surgeon General and Chief of the Nurse Corps Maj. Gen. Dorothy Hogg always found herself placing band-aides on dolls and requesting doctor kits and microscopes.

In the upper east corner of Maine, in the town of Limestone, the general was born the dependent of an enlisted member of the U.S. Air Force. “I was always intrigued by what my father did. He was on the law enforcement side,” said Gen. Hogg. “I just remember him in his uniform. Dad was very particular … that’s where I got a lot of my traits. He always looked so sharp in his uniform.”

Gen. Hogg recalls her father’s job being a tough one. “People would come to the house all hours of the night, saying, ‘Sergeant Cook, we need you.’”

While it was her father’s career that first introduced the general to the Air Force life, it was not until much later that she considered following in his footsteps.

Growing up, she moved around a lot –overseas to Japan when she was 5 and to Guam during middle school. Most other bases where she spent her childhood were East Coast bases –the final one being Pease Air Force Base, N.H., where she spent most of her time.

Gen. Hogg recalled always having an interest in health and medicine. “Growing up, I had a lot of family members who were nurses. I knew from a very young age that I wanted to be a nurse,” she said. “As I got older, I would read books about Clara Barton and Florence Nightingale –they fascinated me.”

A love for nursing.

In high school, the general took a nurses aid course taught in a nursing home. The class introduced Gen. Hogg to caring for older adults, which solidified her love for nursing. “Getting training in that nursing home … was probably one of the best experiences of my life,” she said.

Many of the nursing home’s residents had no family, or none who came to visit. “I got attached to several of them. I would come on my off-duty time and take them out,” said Gen. Hogg. “I would drive them in my car and we would go to the mall. I developed a lot of relationships with the residents. I suppose I was like a granddaughter to them.”

Two of the residents in particular stuck out in the general’s mind. One was an older gentleman whom she would help with morning routines, and sit and chat about where he had been and what he had done. “I remember thinking to myself, these are people who have forged the paths for us to do what we do … and to have them in a situation where they are totally dependent on somebody else and unable to care for themselves really broke my heart,” she recalled.

The greatest influence on the general’s adolescence was her high school English teacher. “I was a senior in high school and she took me under her wing,” the general said. “She introduced me to the University of Southern Maine through a college visit.”

Gen. Hogg’s teacher took her to the school of nursing because she knew that’s what she wanted to do. “[My teacher] was a very levelheaded sounding board,” said the general. “I still think of her today. I remember thinking … I want to be like her … I want to be someone who cares about somebody else like she cared about me … and she didn’t have to.”

“I think she would be incredibly proud … to know where I was at and where I am now.”

An unexpected career path.

“I am extremely humbled to be where I am today,” said the general. “I oftentimes think, ‘how did I get here?”

“While I was in school and college, [military] recruiters would talk to me … but it was not in my career plan to join the military,” said Gen. Hogg.

“I met and married my husband, who was active duty enlisted. I knew I did not want to start my career over every time he rotated assignments. So we decided I would join the Air Force,” she recalled.  “I remember thinking, ‘what do I have to lose’ … my commitment was only three years … 32 years later I am still here.”

After the first three years, Gen. Hogg’s family moved to Michigan, but she never considered getting out of the Air Force. She applied to go to nurse practitioner school and was accepted. That launched her women’s health nurse practitioner career early.

“I loved moving and experiencing a new environment every three years,” said the general. “Growing up military and having had that experience of moving around a lot, I didn’t know anything different, so it was normal to me.”

“It has been a very good career. I have been given the opportunity to do many different jobs I don’t think a civilian life would have offered me,” she said. “The Air Force has been very, very good to me. I have no regrets.”

“I love what I am doing now [as Deputy Surgeon General] because I have the opportunity to influence change, which I think is really important.”

The right things, for the right reasons.

According to the general, job performance is number one. “You have to show them that you can do the work and that you have the capability to do more.”

“What I tell people is do the best you can do wherever you’re planted,” said the general. “You will shine if you focus on your job and what’s required of you to do your job.”

In the military, not everyone gets promoted. “When you go to meet the promotion board, you could be nine out of the eight they’re going to promote and you’re not going to get promoted,” said the general. “Sometimes you can do the best you can do and still not get recognized. But is that within your control? … So why ruin the rest of your life and have a negative attitude because of it?”

“Don’t get discouraged if you’re not getting recognized,” said the general. “Keep doing the very best you can. Keep doing the right things for the right reasons and the recognition will come.”

“As a healthcare practitioner, if I know I have provided a patient with the best care I possibly could, that is my reward,” she said.

“There’s always going to be a door that’s going to open or a door that’s going to close,” said Gen. Hogg. “If something doesn’t work out, I’ll move onto the next thing. It’s important to have a positive attitude and a desire to make a difference in whatever it is that you’re doing.”

“You have to be able to look yourself in the mirror and ask, ‘did I do the best that I could do?,’” said Gen. Hogg. “If you did, then that’s good enough.”

Nothing is impossible.

“Don’t think that anything is impossible,” Gen. Hogg tells the frontline.

“If you had told me when I was a captain that I would be sitting here, I would have said there is no way,” she said.  

The general shared her aspiration was to do the very best she could in any job assigned to her. She did not imagine becoming the two star of the Air Force Nurse Corps. 

The general tells her junior nurses that any of them can be sitting in the position of Deputy Surgeon General of the U.S. Air Force.

“You can do whatever you want to do,” emphasizes the general. “If I can control my actions, be respectful and create a team atmosphere –that has always paid dividends for me.”

Fertilizing and watering your own grass.

When asked to share the best piece of advice she has ever received, the general said, “If you like the color of the grass on the other side of the fence, you need to water and fertilize your own grass.”

“[Oftentimes] people get caught up thinking life is better in another state, another place, another job, or in another relationship,” said the general. “That’s because the person on the other side of the fence is watering and fertilizing their grass.”

“You need to make where you’re at, the best that it can be,” said the general.

“Understand that you can only control what you can control. All the other stuff someone else controls and you have to be okay with that.”

Patient care.

As she progressed through her career, Gen. Hogg remained passionate about patient care. It was her desire to continue practicing in the capacity of a women’s health nurse practitioner. “I absolutely love seeing patients and taking care of them,” said the general.

Gen. Hogg maintains clinical currency and sees patients at Bolling Air Force Base at least once or twice a month.

Nurse Corps and hope for the future.

The general shared three Nurse Corps goals she is looking forward to. These include advancement of Trusted Care, growing nursing leaders and helping to promote health across the spectrum of care.

 “When I was growing up, we were very stove-piped –doctors, nurses, nurse’s aides … my hope for the future is that we are able to break down those stovepipes and see each other as valuable members of the team, with whatever skills we bring,” said the general.

“It’s a team effort,” said Gen. Hogg. “In order for us to provide safe, quality care, every member of the team is valued and valuable.”

“We are all leaders,” said the general. “We all have a responsibility to make changes, improve our unit, our job … make it better than when we found it.”