Dinner With Captain Mitchell

Ron, Bernice and I were honored to have dinner with Captain Robert Mitchell (Bob) while we visited Pensacola.  He has had a very interesting and long career in the Navy.  He is now 92 years young and such a delightful person to converse with, especially talking about his career in the Navy and he certainly is proud of his children and grandchildren.  We had dinner at  McQuires Irish Pub in Pensacola and felt so privileged to have spent the evening with such a fine person.  I am enclosing a biography of Captain Mitchell so you will have some idea of his illustrious career.

Captain Robert E. Mitchell, MC, USN (Ret)


Naval Flight Surgeon

Honorary Naval AviatorB

CAPT Robert E. Mitchell graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1942, and received his medical degree from the McGill University Faculty of Medicine in Montreal, Canada in 1947. Performing his internship and residency at the U.S. Naval Hospitals in San Diego and Oakland, he attended the Army Medical Service Graduate School at Walter Reed Army Medical Center before being designated a Naval Flight Surgeon at Naval Air Station Pensacola in 1955. His career included service ashore and afloat, including duty as Senior Medical Officer on the carrier Shangri-La (CVA 38), Staff Medical Officer for the First Marine Aircraft Wing in Vietnam, and Senior Medical Officer and Commanding Officer of the U.S. Naval Hospital at NS Rota, Spain. He spent fifteen years in various posts at the U.S. Naval School of Aviation Medicine, and Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory, culminating with command of the latter. During this time, he played the leading role in the "Thousand Aviator Study", and a program of medical evaluation of repatriated Vietnam prisoners of war, both landmark studies that have contributed immeasurably to the medical field. Active to this day in these studies, "Doc" Mitchell is a Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association and Royal Society of Medicine, and during his career has accumulated 2,000 flight hours, including many under combat conditions.