Dr. Donald Carter

In just a matter of days, a young surgeon from Oklahoma was transported across the world into an active war zone to save the lives of American soldiers. Dr. Donald Carter had only been in practice for two years, with a wife and three young daughters at home, when Vietnam became his new operating room.

"The first surgery I did when I was in Vietnam, I'd been there about 30 minutes," he recounts. "It was one [surgery] after another."

Originally from Poteau, Dr. Carter is a lifelong Oklahoman. He completed medical school at the University of Oklahoma before entering private practice, then spent a year in Vietnam operating on wounded American soldiers and Vietnamese civilians. Dr. Carter performed 1,600 surgeries while in the military, primarily serving in the 93rd Evacuation Hospital in Long Binh, the busiest hospital in the area. "We didn't work 12 hours and quit. We worked until we were through," he says.

When he returned home, Dr. Carter helped train surgeons at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, and eventually went on to become chief of surgery at the VA hospital, where he continued to care for the men and women who have served our country. Although he had retired as a surgeon, he remained active in healthcare until the age of 79.

In 2023, Dr. Carter traveled with the Chickasaw Nation to Washington, D.C., where he, alongside Marine Corps veteran David Atkins, presented a wreath at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Throughout his life and career, Dr. Carter has embodied Chickasaw qualities of strength, determination, tenacity and resilience, saving lives and serving our country with honor.