Nursing Doctoral Candidate Honors College Faculty

July 6, 2022

FAU College of Nursing doctoral candidate Capt. David Harrow of the 45th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron (379th AES deployed) recently presented the flag displayed above to Drs. Andra Opalinski and Debra Hain for their steadfast commitment to the military community and their families. “I am very honored to receive this recognition and to be among such esteemed colleagues who care so much about our students currently serving or who previously served in the U.S. military,” said Dr. Debra Hain.

The flag was flown in honor of Dr. Marilyn Ray, College of Nursing Professor Emeritus and Colonel (Ret.), United States Air Force (USAF), Nurse Corps, and her many years of service. Ray served as a flight nurse during the Vietnam conflict. “I felt honored to bring home our wounded soldiers, airmen, navy seamen, marines, and even some Vietnamese military to our military hospitals,” Ray explained. “I loved my career as a flight nurse. On July 4, Independence Day, I was thinking about my USAF career and the joy my service brought me for 32 years.”

In February 2022, the flag was flown aboard a USAF C-17. It was part of a medical evacuation mission that originated in Baghdad, Iraq, and terminated in Ramstein, Germany. The sortie was one leg in a greater mission to return American Wounded Warriors home. In the last two decades, Ray was a qualitative research consultant to Colonel Mona Pearl Treyball, RN, Ph.D., Professor, University of Colorado, Director, Military Veteran Graduate Program, in terms of her “Caring in the Air” research of flight nurses and aeromedical technicians.