Michael M
U.S. Air Force – University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine
Early in high school, Michael McCartin decided that he would join the military and serve his country post graduation. While exploring his options on which branch to go into, the mission and motto of Pararescuemen caught his attention. He liked the idea of being the guardian angel of the battlefield and serving those who serve.
In 2005 after graduating high school, Michael set off to complete a two-year selection process in the Pararescue Indoctrination Course, which consisted of numerous formal military courses. He was then assigned as a Pararescueman to the 58th Rescue Squadron located at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada. While there, he deployed twice in Support of Operation Enduring Freedom, once to Afghanistan and then to Africa.
Shortly after Michael’s second deployment, he left the active duty military in the summer of 2010 to fulfill his desire of becoming a physician. He became interested in becoming a physician on his deployment to Afghanistan; their mission was the casualty evacuation of U.S. and coalition forces. He was involved in recovering wounded service members from the point of injury and provided life-saving medical care en route to the hospital. Michael admired the confident and knowledgeable military trauma surgeons and their ability to manage critically injured patients.
Michael joined the 306th Rescue Squadron in Tucson, Arizona in 2010 as a reserve Pararescueman, and later graduated from Arizona State University’s Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Biological Sciences in May 2014. Today, he is out of the Air Force Reserves and is in his second year of medical school at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine. Michael will graduate in 2018, and will attend specialized residency training. He’s most interested in becoming an emergency medicine physician, an EMS medical director, or assisting in the training of SWAT tactical medics.