Since first being elected VFW Surgeon General in 1991, Dr. Curtis “Doc” Bohlman has accepted the position on eight subsequent occasions, making him the longest-serving surgeon general in VFW’s 125-year history.
A Vietnam War veteran who served as a flight surgeon for a gunship squadron of the First Marine Air Wing at Marble Mountain Air Facility near Da Nang in 1967-68, Bohlman’s role as VFW Surgeon General spans 33 years.
“But it seems like only yesterday that I walked around that convention center in New Orleans, a brand new wet-behind-the-ears national officer,” recalled Bohlman, a Gold Legacy Life member of VFW Post 1335 in Woodward, Oklahoma. “It is truly humbling to have been accorded such an honor and to have received their vote of confidence so many times.”
A life member of the VFW National Home and a founding director of the Oklahoma VFW Foundation, Bohlman’s devotion to the VFW spans even longer than his tenure as national surgeon general.
Affectionally called “Doc” by his peers, his decades with the VFW have amassed many a memory of which the same theme applies — a brotherly camaraderie.
“Over that many years, there have been many memorable moments,” said Bohlman, who holds a doctor of medicine degree from the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine. “Tops would be the memories I have of so many comrades across the country I have come to know. Many of us see each other only at national conventions or Southern Conference functions. A significant number now have passed, and are present only in my memory. But always with a smile.”