#VeteranOfTheDay Army Veteran Mary-Margaret “Maggie” Brandt

Today’s #VeteranOfTheDay is Army Veteran Maggie Brandt, who served in the Army Reserve Medical Corps as a doctor for 21 years.

Mary-Margaret “Maggie” Brandt was born in Colorado and grew up in New Mexico. She earned her medical degree from the University of New Mexico in 1990. During an interview with the Veterans History Project, Brandt remembered that while she was a general surgery resident, she felt a need to give back to her country. She joined the Army Reserve in 1992. As a Reservist, she served at the San Antonio Military Medical Center and attended officer basic and advanced training at Fort Sam Houston. To continue her training, she accepted a role at the University of Michigan for critical care training. While in this role, Brandt deployed to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan in 2003, with the 452nd Combat Support Hospital (CSH).

In 2005, Brandt moved to the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, as the associate director of the surgical intensive care unit. She was also the program director for the critical care fellowship and worked in the critical care and trauma units. In 2007, Brandt was the theater burn consultant of a forward surgical team of 20 that performed emergency surgery in Baghdad, Iraq.  Brandt transitioned back to the states as an individual mobilization augmentee through her post with the San Antonio Military Medical Center. She also worked with trauma and burn patients during her residency in a regional burn center and fellowship at the University of Rochester. Brandt enjoyed the challenge of taking care of burn patients. She said the best part was watching her patients return to their normal lives.

Brandt returned to Afghanistan in 2011 with the 352nd CSH at Forward Operating Base Salerno as deputy commander. She later served at Fort Sam Houston as a surgical intensivist with the Institute of Surgical Research. This was her last assignment before retiring at the rank of colonel in 2013. Brandt received four commendation medals, including the Army Commendation Medal and the Army Reserve Commendation Medal, for her service in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

After retiring, Brandt attended the University of Michigan and earned a master’s degree in health service administration in 2015. Today, Brandt is the burn director and a professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center.

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Veterans History Project

This #VeteranOfTheDay profile was created with interviews submitted to the Veterans History Project. The project collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war Veterans so that future generations may hear directly from Veterans and better understand the realities of war. Find out more at http://www.loc.gov/vets/.

Contributors

Writer: Aristeo Hernandez

Editors: Erica MacSweeney, Katie Wang and Julia Pack

Fact checker: Carl Wesseln

Graphic artist: Katie Rahill