By Alex McVeigh Sgt. Michael Kerns

Q: Describe your job.
A: I see patients, perform administrative duties, order supplies as well as work with some of the education programs we do here.

Most of the physical therapy we do is either pre- or post-surgery, or helping people with regular injuries. Mostly Army, Coast Guard, Marines and Navy personnel.

We teach at the regimental orientation program, as well as work with The Army Band, The Old Guard and the Fife and Drum Corps. It’s an injury prevention course because they’ve got heavy instruments and rifles, sometimes they can get shoulder problems.

We just want to keep them out of the physical therapy section.

Q: What is your background in Army medicine?
A: I was a medic with the 82nd [Airborne Division] for 10 years. I was right where the rubber meets the road, and it’s what I love to do.

Being stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C. taught me to be a Soldier, and I’m always a Soldier first, being a physical therapist just makes it even better.

I felt like I needed a change after so many years though, and now instead of saving lives, I’m helping to give lives back. It’s rewarding watching people at one of the lowest points of their life get back to normal.

Q: What’s the most challenging part of your job?
A: It’s not too challenging per se, because I love what I’m doing. Helping people get better is quite a reward.

Q: What’s your favorite part?
A: Watching people hit milestones. For example, sometimes they’ll come in with a knee that they can barely bend, and by the time we finish they have the full range of motion.

Plus you really get to know your patients well, you develop a relationship. You figure out when to push them, their limits and when they’re slacking off.

We’ve got a great team here, from the front desk, where Eunique Minick works. She’s the face of physical therapy, she books appointments and greets the patients first thing.

We’re all links in the chain, and it’s a great team from the front desk all the way back, and I really like that.

Q: Where else have you been stationed?
A: I was at Fort Drum before this. It was a huge clinic, we had seven therapists and 10 technicians. It was like an assembly line there, sometimes we’d see four patients every half hour.

I learned a lot there about patients and how a clinic operates.

But I really like it here. We see one patient per half hour, which gives us a lot of face-to-face time with the patients.

Q: What’s your philosophy as an NCO?
A: As an NCO, my job is to provide purpose, direction and motivation. When you’ve got those, anything can be done.

Having good Soldiers under you makes every NCO look better, and makes the job easier. A Soldier like Spc. Nakoln Phaipanya makes my job much easier.

Q: What’s your view on the role of education in a Soldier’s life?
A: Everybody needs education, you can always learn something.

I think that if I teach 10 people something in a classroom, and they go out and teach others, the knowledge spreads, and that’s the whole point.

Sort of like ‘‘give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”