MDG doctor kept eye on goal, wins DoD, AF awards

  • Published
  • By Samuel King Jr.
  • 96th Air Base Wing
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  From humble Humboldt, Kansas, beginnings to the top of Air Force eyes, Eglin's top optometrist is coming off one "great year" and possibly looking for a new goal.

Lt. Col. Annette Williamson, 96th Aerospace Medicine Squadron, completed the hat trick of awards for her busy 2009, winning Optometrist of the Year for The Armed Forces Optometric Society, Association of Military Surgeons and the Air Force.

Not bad for a Kansas farm girl who wanted to be a writer growing up.

As the colonel reminisced about how she got to this point, each major change in her life began with a new goal.

After being accepted at Northeastern State University in Oklahoma, but without a focus, a friend easily talked her into optometry.

"That was the extent of my career counseling," laughed the tall 15-year veteran, whose big laugh is infectious. "Now I had a goal, and it turned out to be a very good goal."

She stayed at Northeastern State to earn her doctorate before settling into private practice for five years. Later, she worked in pediatric ophthalmology for three years - a career path she said she enjoyed and learned a great deal from.

"I could be silly with the kids and still handle some serious situations," said the curly-haired mother of one. "But I got bored. I no longer had a new goal to achieve."

Remembering some advice from a professor who was an Air Force reservist, military service became that new goal.

"I just could not see myself staying put the rest of my life," she said. "So I got married, joined the Air Force and moved to Sheppard Air Force Base."

Once there, she talked to her patients and asked lots of questions from the wide variety of visitors she saw. She recalled a retired general talking about time spent during the Korean War.

"Talking to my patients, finding out about them and what they do is my favorite part of my job," she said. "I've learned a lot about the Air Force that way. The more I talk to them the more I understand the small role I play in the process of putting those bombs on target."

While at Lackland AFB, she treated a patient she said she would never forget. An Airman went off-base while overseas and had corrective eye surgery. It did not go well. The Airman had 20/100 vision after the surgery even with glasses or contacts and could not qualify for a driver's license. The colonel corrected his vision down to 20/30 with custom hard contact lenses.

"He was so happy, he begged to wear them out of the office, even though they weren't the finalized pair," she said smiling. "I told him okay, but Do Not lose them."

Also at Lackland, she consulted on treatment for a patient with a tumor around the eyes. She collaborated with the dental lab to fashion a lead shield into a contact lens to be worn over the eye during radiation therapy.

For Colonel Williamson, 2009 was an "incredibly" busy year. Locally, she filled in as squadron commander of AMDS, for the deployed commander. She had an even greater impact at the Air Force level serving as the lead optometry consultant for the Optometry Optimization Initiative. The program was designed to help standardize Air Force optometry practices and maximize the capabilities of its mission.

She also stepped in as the optometry lead of the Air Force's refractive (laser-eye) surgery program due to another deployment. If that wasn't enough, she also helped found the Air Force Opthalmic Corporate Board, which helped the transition of the newly merged career fields of Optometry and Ophthalmology technicians.

"The end result of the merger is to ensure those technicians can support those doctors down range," said the Air War College graduate, who also turned 50 in 2009.

All of these extra projects, along with her daily job of running Eglin's optometry clinic caring for 8,000 active duty patients and their eyes, garnered her much deserved praise.

"From a clinical perspective, obtaining top honors as the 'Best Optometrist' for the Air Force and entire DoD is truly a phenomenal accomplishment," said Col. Gary Hurwitz, 96 AMDS commander.  "In addition to being recognized for superior clinical acumen, she has excelled as an Air Force officer, having served at both the strategic level (while on the Air Staff), and also at the operational level as flight commander and deputy squadron commander - something that kept her exceedingly busy last year, while covering as commander during my deployment. In my mind, the awards committees couldn't have selected a more deserving officer."

After reaching such a high plateau, what is the next goal in the colonel's path?

She said she'd love to deploy and experience in-theater eye-care, and she's also up for a squadron commander position this year.

"To me, squadron command is ultimately about taking care of your people, ensuring they have what they need to carry out the mission, but beyond that, command is about helping your folks set and achieve their own goals," she said. "I like the philosophy that if you take care of your people, your people will take care of the mission."

The journey from the farm to the sky came from setting goals and then reaching them, but there was one thing that guided the colonel through it all - the eye.

"After all these years, I'm still fascinated by it," she said. "No matter how many times I look into the eye, it always amazes me."