As an All-American gymnast at the University of Georgia, Leah Brown got used to teammates taking hard falls and suffering pain, but it wasn’t till she got to Afghanistan that one of her comrades died.
By then, the Gym Dog star, who led the team to two national championships in the 1990s, had finished her degree at UGA and gone off to Ohio State to become an orthopedic surgeon, after which she joined the Navy.
The life-long Atlantan, a graduate of Benjamin E. Mays High School, spent eight years as a doctor in San Diego, then was deployed first to Iraq in 2006 and then Afghanistan, from which she returned this year.
Her rank is lieutenant commander, and she says she treated many shattered bones and bodies in the war zones, where her units also were mortared and shelled.
“I treated bullet wounds, IED injuries that often resulted in amputations, was in Fallujah and Ramadi, and everybody is bombarded,” she says. “We treated combat wounds in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was pretty stressful.”
The worst incident occurred when friend and Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Kevin Ebbert was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2012.
“He was a SEAL, a special operator with medical training,” says Brown, 38. “We got called in for a trauma early one day, we heard we’d get a couple of people. We waited and waited. We found out Kevin was one who was injured. He was brought in and had expired by then. That was a horrible, horrible day.”
Brown spent her last months in combat in the Tarin Kowt district of Afghanistan, where she specialized in humanitarian assistance. She cared for troops but also for many local children maimed by ordnance that exploded when they touched it.
Soon she headed an all-female team, treating young girls and older women who, according to custom, weren’t accustomed to seeing American physicians and medical technicians.
According to Navy Chief Doug Stutz, that was a big deal “due to their rigid beliefs rooted in old ways.”
Brown, now stationed in Naval Hospital Bremerton, Wash., was awarded the Bronze Star for her actions in the combat zones. She plans to leave the Navy soon and join an orthopedic practice in the Atlanta area.
Suzanne Yoculan, who was head coach of the Gym Dogs when Brown was on the team, says she “knew Leah was destined for great things the moment I met her. She had mental strength to endure every challenge placed in front of her.”
Yoculan, who led the Gym Dogs to 16 Southeastern Conference titles, says Brown “never wavered” from her dream of becoming an orthopedic surgeon.
“…She has always showed leadership under pressure, always inspired others and focused on how she could give more for the benefit of others,” Yoculan says. “I was never the least bit surprised she would become a highly decorated physician.”
Brown downplays the dangers she encountered.
“You know it can happen,” she says. “I tried not to be anywhere unsafe at night. I was armed at all times. But when you hear mortar shells landing, it becomes part of the daily backdrop.”
