Called to Serve a Navy Epidemiologist Braves the Unknown to Fight a Pandemic by LAURA CARNEY

Serving Our Country HONORING MILITARY MEMBERS IN STEM Called to Serve A Navy epidemiologist braves the unknown to fight a pandemic BY LAURA CARNEY THE ADVENTURE STARTED OFF LIKE MOST DO, “mm-hmm,” the kind of noise your dentist makes to with a spirit of excitement. say “everything looks OK here.” “Everyone was charged up,” says Dr. Phong Trac, a A trained toxicologist and epidemiologist, board- lieutenant commander in the Medical Service Corps of certified in preventive medicine and toxicology, and the United States Navy and an epidemiologist aboard also a young man — he’s only 36 — Trac was working the USNS Mercy. “Folks were just happy to be there, sometimes 24-hour shifts in the Operational Infec- ▲ Dr. Phong Trac in especially the reservists.” tious Diseases Division of the Naval Health Research his protective gear. The USNS Mercy was one of two hospital ships sent Center in San Diego when he was called to duty. He’d by the federal govern- been coming home every other night to greet his school ment to provide relief to psychologist wife, Jennifer (also his high school sweet- overtaxed hospitals at the heart) in Carmel Valley, San Diego, when they realized start of the coronavirus they might have to adjust their future plans. Jennifer pandemic. Their purpose? was expecting their first child. Supply care for patients When most of us were worrying about merely saying who needed general medi- hello to a stranger, Trac was setting sail to meet 1,000 cal attention, who were of them. And preparing for how he’d handle it once he COVID-19 negative. Their came back. names were apt: Mercy “We don’t know a lot yet about how this affects an and Comfort. The Mercy unborn child,” he says. left Naval Station San When we spoke in early May, 1.4 million Americans Diego on March 23 with had tested positive for coronavirus and 87,000 had died more than 800 Navy medi- from it. Dr. Trac knew better than most how infectious cal personnel (and more it was. And he’d been on the USNS Mercy before. This than 70 reservists). Trac was his sixth relief mission. was one. His first was on the Mercy in 2012, when he left He shared early photos Camp Pendleton for Indonesia, the Philippines, Viet- of his adventure on social nam and Cambodia. Next, he was deployed to South media, which brought America. A year later, he was off to Haiti for hurricane comfort to anyone who relief, and two years after that, he was sent to Papua saw them. And maybe New Guinea to set up a mobile laboratory for outbreak even inspired mercy. Even response. He also responded to the COVID-19 out- if it meant he was wearing break on the USS Kidd. a hazmat suit. When he boarded the USNS Mercy again, he was as Trac loves details. He uncertain as the rest of us as to how long he might be loves motorcycles and on it. sports cars and talks like a “There’s a lot of anxiety,” he admits, “so we try to be Los Angeleno. He ends his prepared for anything … but you don’t ever expect a sentences with a positive train to crash into your ship.” OF PHONG TRAC COURTESY PHOTO 12 Diversity in Action | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 ▲ Left: The USNS Mercy docked at the Port of Los Angeles at the start of the coronavirus pandemic to treat patients with ail- ments other than COVID-19. Right: A slew of hospital beds aboard the ship stand at the ready. Change of Plans Growing up in Los Angeles, Trac says a lot of his A week after the Mercy was safely docked in the Port of friends didn’t understand his chosen career path. Asian Los Angeles, 44-year-old Eduardo Moreno intention- Americans like himself have fought in every American ally crashed his freight locomotive 250 yards away from war since the Civil War (on both sides). And yet they it. He did it because, as he told police, he didn’t believe make up only about 4% of today’s U.S. forces, accord- “the ship was what they say it’s for.” ing to Pew Research Center. Then, a few weeks later, the unthinkable happened: “In the Asian culture, [the military’s] not very an officer onboard tested positive. The ship was meant popular, but it’s been very good to me,” he says. “I had to be a safe space for patients who didn’t have coronavi- a really great high school teacher, Michael Winters. rus. Not a place where they might contract it. He taught us to follow what you want to do but always Trac, along with 119 other sailors the person inter- think about how you can help people. I think I always acted with, was commanded to leave for two weeks. “It knew I wanted to do something with public service. I was like a vacation,” he says. “They had me in a hotel. I also joined because besides paying for school, my dad was showing no symptoms. I went to the VA when I got always spoke highly of the military. Now I get to pay it retested. I think [the officer in question] already had it back, all the good things they did for my family.” before they got here.” When he tested negative, he reboarded, happy to Military Legacy rejoin his crew. The part of the military Trac loves most In China in the 1960s, Trac’s father, Tony, worked the is its diversity. And now it was becoming especially family business (shipping livestock) for his own father, handy. who was also an acupuncturist and herbalist. In 1968, “When you’re in a lot of unknown situations, it takes Tony and his father and brothers were imprisoned a lot of different kinds of people working together,” he when they refused to help the communists ship says. “Especially a situation where you’ve never expe- supplies for their war effort. rienced this thing before. There’s a camaraderie that Tony was already married to Hannah, Trac’s mom, happens. You share a bond being in an environment who’s Vietnamese, and they already had a few kids like that. There’s a ton of diversity in the Navy. Some- (Trac is the youngest of four siblings). In 1969, with her times I work in an area where 95% are Caucasian. But husband still in jail, Hannah left with their daughters then I’ll meet a woman with a thick Irish accent … and for the United States. then there was the guy from Ghana, who came here for In 1970, the U.S. Army freed Tony (his father and PHOTO COURTESY OF PHONG TRAC COURTESY PHOTO his Ph.D., so he could get his citizenship.” one of his brothers passed away while incarcerated). SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 | Diversity in Action 13 Serving Our Country he ponders. “Do I have enough testing kits and re- agents if something big happens? We’re prioritized [by the federal government], so when we left, we had access to stockpiles, people were using the PPE like water. But the last month, we were practicing conservation and using less.” Trac wasn’t surprised how rapidly the virus spread in this country — and is still spreading, in some places. “It made sense to me. You see other countries, like in Japan, they’ve gone through all this, like with SARS. It’s a cultural thing, too — people don’t look at you weird if you wear a mask there, they’re protective. In other countries, [preventive measures are] society- wide, they just go along with what the government does. You’re starting to see people with more exotic symptoms now. There’s a lot of stuff I’ve studied that was more straightforward. This is a different virus than most. It’s just the nature of viruses — they mutate. It’s ▲ Left: A team Tony joined the Army of the Republic of Vietnam and very simple but deadly.” executes emergency became an intelligence officer due to his college educa- And yet he’s optimistic. training. Right: A patient tion in Hong Kong and his fluency in English. “The “I think we’ll be shifting more to how they live is transported army basically gave my dad housing,” Trac recalls. in Asia, I think we’ll be more mindful of things we onboard the USNS In 1975, as most of the Tracs settled in Southern touch,” he says. “I haven’t hugged my parents. I don’t Mercy. California, Tony acquired sponsorship to go to Texas, want them going to the market. We think we’re invin- where he worked odd jobs for two years before saving cible. But anything has its weaknesses, any health care up enough to reunite with them. His experience and system is going to be impacted. They’ll look at pan- college degree weren’t recognized, so he went to com- demic responses better in the future because of this.” munity college to learn a trade. All in all, they were When we talked on the phone, Trac had just arrived separated nine years. But Tony never forgot the kind- home from a long day. He was in his car, preparing ness he’d been given. And he told his young son, born to enter his house through the garage, strip off his five years later, about it often. clothing, place it in the laundry and self-isolate. He’d “It’s funny,” Trac says, “my mom showed me this quarantined himself from his wife for two weeks when photo of me the other day as a kid, and I’m wearing a he got off the USNS Mercy.

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