FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 6, 2005

MUW grad serving U.S. military in Japan after time in Iraq and with tsunami relief

By Jill D. O’Bryant

COLUMBUS, Miss. -- In addition to currently serving in Okinawa, Japan, Lt. John B. Gore of Columbus, a 2000 Mississippi University for Women graduate, also has served in Iraq and Sri Lanka in the last two years.

In the military for approximately 12 years, he is a lieutenant in the Navy Nurse Corps. He holds a bachelor of science in nursing degree from MUW.

“The W has taught me life skills as well as professional skills,” Gore said. “The educational experience at The W was fun and enlightening for me.”

He is working at the only military hospital in Japan where he serves as an operating room nurse. He has been there for 16 months and is scheduled to return to the United States in January 2006 when he will be stationed in Bremerton, Wash.
          
Gore served in Iraq at the beginning of the war in 2003. He resided on the USNS Comfort, which was in the gulf for six months. He served as an ICU nurse for an 80-bed unit and a 20-bed burn unit.

“It was not good for anybody there,” he said. “It wasn’t pleasant, but it was what I had been called to do.”

While stationed in Japan, he and 16 other service members from the U.S. Naval Hospital there were sent for a temporary humanitarian mission in Indonesia and Sri Lanka following the tsunami that struck the area Dec. 28.

He was already packed for a three-week vacation to be with his family in Mississippi, but he traded it in for the month-long assignment.

“When we told him about his deployment, and how he would be helping other people, Gore was excited and looking forward to the challenge regardless of the change to his travel plans," said Navy Capt. Jan M. Carrio, director of nursing services for the hospital.

Gore said one of the hardest aspects of being in the military is being away from family.

“It is very hard to be away from my family and I miss them a whole lot, but I know that this is what I need to do.”

He is the son of John and Debbie Gore of New Hope and Beverly and Carl Bowles of Caledonia.