Brian D. Allgood

West Point, 1982

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Colonel Gary B. Wilhelm on January 29, 2007:

I first met Brian in OBC in the summer of 1983. My memories are of a quiet officer who I did not get to know very well. We next met during our internship at Brooke Army Medical Center in 1986 and 1987. During that year, I had inherited a patient transferred from CT surgery who had had a Coronary Artery Bypass Graft. Her right leg was the site of the saphenous vein graft and was terribly infected. My Internal Medicine Attending and Resident both told me to transfer her back to CT surgery. While I was standing there, somewhat stunned, and not knowing what to do, along came Brian with the surgery folks. He asked me what was wrong, and I showed the infected leg to him. Brian proceeded to tell me exactly how to treat the infection, when and how to change the dressings and then walked off with his residents and attending surgeon. I did as he suggested and my patient was better in roughly 3 days. He never gave me a hard time about not knowing what to do. I next saw him in the spring of 1991, when he was a first year orthopedic resident at Brooke AMC under the tender guidance of COL Allan Bucknell. Brian had been up for over 24 hours and was presenting his admissions to the ortho department and COL Bucknell was really laying into him about all his mistakes, perceived and otherwise. Brian answered all the Chief's questions calmly and correctly, never becoming rattled. The last time I saw him was at Munson Army Health Center, Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, when he and his wife brought Wyatt to our clinic. This must have been about 2000 or 2001. Brian was in the Pre-Command Course (I think). I was on duty in the FP Clinic and treated Wyatt briefly that evening for an ear ache. Brian was cordial, and we spoke a little about the years that had passed. Then, a few days ago, I read the E-mail detailing the UH-60 crash and that he was gone. He was so helpful, so wise and yet so courteous. I did not fully know how much I thought of him until he was gone. All I can think is, the Lord must desperately need an excellent Doctor and Surgeon, because he sure did take one from us and his family, wife and son. He will not be replaced.

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