By Will Hammock
Assistant Sports Editor
As it is with enlisted men and women headed for deployment, saying goodbye is always the roughest part. Chad Marley found that out firsthand earlier this year.
A three-time state champion wrestler at Shiloh from 1990 to 1992, Marley found leaving his wife Catherine and their then three-month-old son Max at home to be tougher than any foe he ever faced on the mat. He had waited so long to be a father, only to bid farewell for active duty just months after his son was born.
So Marley, a brigade surgeon, headed for Iraq last January knowing his only communication with his family would be daily e-mails and phone calls every other day.
“It was really the hardest part of deploying, leaving (my family),” said Marley, who will be inducted into the Shiloh Alumni Association Hall of Fame on Saturday morning. “Just knowing (my son) would change a lot in the time I would be gone. And being apart from (my wife). It was tough.”
The family had a happy homecoming with Marley last week in Chicago, where he took his periodic emergency medicine board exams. It was a week for the three to catch up, to soak up the time together.
On their third day together, 13-month-old Max called Marley “Dad” and “Da-Da.” Ten months apart were erased with those simple words.
“That meant a lot to me,” Marley said. “I just said to him, ‘All right, we’ve got some catching up to do kiddo.'”
The family will make the most of this time, which includes staying in Gwinnett with their families and attending Saturday’s event at Shiloh. Next up is a family vacation ” location yet to be determined ” before Marley’s two-plus weeks of leave ends and he heads back to Iraq on Oct. 26.
Leaving again will be trying, but it’s easier knowing the 31-year-old is working on a noble cause in Iraq, just north of Baghdad.
As a brigade surgeon, Marley doesn’t do as much surgery as he would like, but his administrative role is just as important. He oversees seven doctors and eight physician assistants to form a group that provides medical care and supplies for the 5,500 soldiers of the 1st Brigade Combat Team.
Another of his roles is working with the Iraqi medical system to improve their capabilities.
“We work to help them get equipment because they’re far behind (medically),” Marley said. “We work mainly on setting up a supply system. Once they’re up to speed on that, we can begin working with them on medical procedures.
We’re making a difference. It’s not rapid progress because we’re trying to make up 20 to 30 years of being behind. But we’re making progress.”
Working in the medical field has always been Marley’s goal since high school. He said his desire is directly linked to his mother Sandi, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when he was 5 years old. The debilitating disease was hard on her at times, making her wheelchair-bound for a few years.
Seeing Sandi’s struggles, as well as her recovery, was enough to spark her son’s interest in medicine.
“(My mom’s) doing great now,” Marley said. “Just seeing all the new medicines that have helped her and watching her improve got me thinking about (becoming a doctor). Just seeing the impact they had on her life was really cool.”
Marley set off to the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., to accomplish his goal. He wrestled through his sophomore year, but the demands of the sport cut into his academics so he gave up athletics. He put all his effort into studies, earning a double major in life sciences and nuclear engineering and scoring in the 99-plus percentile on the MCAT.
After completing his studies at the Medical College of Georgia in 2000, he spent the next four years at Madigan Hospital at the University of Washington on his emergency medicine residency.
“I’m pretty close with (Marley’s) dad Tom (who still volunteers heavily at Shiloh) and I always like to ask about Chad,” said Grayson wrestling coach Steve West, who was Marley’s coach at Shiloh. “He’s led an interesting life in such a short period of time. Being at West Point, then the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta and then in Washington. All he needs is to work in San Diego and he’ll have all four corners of the country covered.
“I’m just so proud that he is serving our country and he does it with the utmost integrity. He’s just awesome.”
West is introducing Marley with a speech at Saturday’s ceremony, which honors Marley for his accomplishments after high school in addition to what he did at Shiloh. His high school accomplishments were strong ” he won three individual Class AAAA state wrestling titles at 103, 112 and 119 pounds and went 93-3 in his career.
His coach said he wasn’t flashy or powerful, but he was effective.
“He was scrappy,” West said. “You couldn’t hold him down for anything. He just developed the skills to get the job done.”
Now Marley’s medical skills get the job done. He plans a return to Savannah’s Fort Stewart, hopefully in a hospital emergency room role, when his current deployment is complete.
Because of West Point and medical school, he still owes eight more years of service to the Army but he plans to stay enlisted for 20 years before retirement. During that time there likely will be another deployment, another brief goodbye.
“In the next eight years I’m almost positive there will be another deployment,” Marley said. “I just don’t know when. It will be tough to leave (my family) again. I know that.”
In addition to wrestler Chad Marley, Gibbs Knotts and Inga McCoy also will be inducted into the Shiloh Alumni Association Hall of Fame at 9 a.m Saturday. The three join previous inductees Michael Isenhour, Ashley Mitnick, Charlie Jordan and Angela Highbaugh.
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