Clinical professor’s lifetime of service in US Air Force, emergency medicine, public health

Since the age of 6 James Patrick O’Neal has had a penchant for flying.

“It was just extraordinarily exciting and freeing to be up in the air,” said O’Neal, clinical professor at UGA’s Institute for Disaster Management (IDM). “The earth is down below you, and you have such a sense of being elevated above all the mundane things of life when you’re flying.”

It was this passion that would ultimately propel him through future careers.

A Georgia native, O’Neal attended Davidson College and earned his medical degree from Tulane University. When it came time to choose a medical specialty, O’Neal was unsure.

“I thought, while I’m trying to figure out what I want my life to look like, why not go into the Air Force and enjoy flying while I’m trying to make the decision?”

He spent one pivotal year as a flight surgeon in the USAF, flying F-100s in Vietnam. In addition to providing emergency medical care, flight surgeons managed environmental health and preventive medicine on base.

This experience unknowingly laid the groundwork for his future in public health. For his service, which included setting up a crucial food-borne illness surveillance system at Phan Rang AFB, he was awarded an Airman’s Medal, 3 Bronze Stars and named the Pacific Air Forces Flight Surgeon of the Year in 1971.

When O’Neal returned to civilian life, his experience in Vietnam helped clarify his medical specialty.

“I was missing the excitement that I saw in the Vietnam War. I was leaning toward emergency medicine.”

O’Neal would go on to practice emergency medicine for nearly 30 years, working as a staff physician in the emergency department at Dekalb Medical Center, then later overseeing operations as the director of emergency medicine.

Upon retiring from emergency medicine in 2002, O’Neal continued into public health, a transition aided by his previous role as a Regional EMS Medical Director in suburban Atlanta.

As he climbed the ladder in the state of Georgia’s Department of Public Health, O’Neal’s proudest achievement was the formation of the state’s trauma system. Credited as his greatest professional feat, his work allowed trauma centers to deliver care faster, thus saving countless lives across Georgia.

O’Neal retired in 2019 as the Commissioner of Public Health for the state of Georgia. He thought, perhaps, this time retirement would stick.

That proved to not be the case.

Dr. Curtis Harris, the director of UGA IDM, knew O’Neal’s unparalleled experience was a resource he couldn’t pass up. As a former mentee, Harris convinced O’Neal to come work for him.

Since 2020, Dr. O’Neal has been an instructor at IDM, consulting on grant projects and teaching DMAN 7500: Understanding Terrorism and Homeland Security.

Drawing from his time as an ER doctor and Public Health Commissioner, O’Neal shows graduate students how public health and disaster management are intrinsically linked.

“Virtually every terror event that has reached national attention can be considered a disaster of some type,” he said, “And there is not a disaster that ever happens, natural or manmade, that doesn’t affect the health of the public.”

For O’Neal, his current position has been his favorite.

“We have some absolutely brilliant young people that come through here,” he said. “To have the opportunity, not just to teach them, but to learn from them, is probably the most exciting thing I’ve ever done in my life.”