William Carter McGee’s U.S. Air Force career almost ended before it started.
McGee, a University of Virginia aerospace engineering major from Heathsville, a small town in Virginia’s Northern Neck, was moving into his apartment early one morning, lugging loads up three flights of stairs.
“After about the third or fourth load, I sat down and took a break,” he said. “I started to flex my feet, and I realized I couldn’t feel that I was flexing my feet. I noticed that I had lost feeling down there and on my right side.”
McGee texted his fellow cadets. When they saw his garbled messages, they checked on his well-being. They found him unable to speak coherently and summoned an ambulance.
“It was all these sure signs of stroke – one side’s all messed up, and you have aphasia,” McGee said. “I went to the hospital, and they did a stroke alert, because everything seemed to indicate that.”
McGee said the doctors ran a series of tests, a stroke being the most serious of potential diagnoses. The Air Force accepted the initial stroke diagnosis, and a tsunami swept through McGee’s life.
“I would lose the scholarship, and I would not be able to commission,” he said. “So effectively, it would have been over for me, as far as the military goes.”
In the fall, doctors determined McGee suffered an “abnormal migraine,” a relatively rare condition he inherited from his mother, but which had never manifested itself. Symptoms are similar to those of a stroke, but the migraine would not disqualify him from military service. Yet the Air Force continued to list the initial stroke diagnosis.
McGee felt well enough to complete a marathon after the incident. He initiated a personal crusade to have the official diagnosis changed in the Air Force’s records, compiling the results of extensive batteries of tests.
McGee is entering the service as part of the U.S. Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations. (Photo by Lathan Goumas, University Communications)
“The investigation was really on me, because with HIPAA, others couldn’t talk to my doctors or anything for me, so that was all on me to build out the report,” McGee said. “I didn’t want to send them random medical documents and tests. I sent them all those documents referenced in a two-page memo I wrote that went through the evidence chronologically.”
He submitted his lengthy appeal to the medical review board in December, then waited two months for a reply.
U.S. Air Force Tech Sgt. Dustin Kearns, from 鶹ƽ Air Force ROTC Detachment 890, assisted McGee.
“He was my biggest champion, and he would do it for any cadet,” McGee said. “He really cares for his people. He is an excellent noncommissioned officer, and he pushed really hard on my behalf.”
Kearns said the effort to reverse the diagnosis required persistence from both of them.
“We were ultimately able to get him qualified for duty again, but it took quite a bit of work,” Kearns said. “Cadet McGee did most of the legwork, going to alternate medical specialists to get the original diagnosis reinterpreted to be more in his favor. For my part, I was able to have direct talks with people who had authority in the matter, and between the two of us, we were able to get him requalified for service.
“Cadet McGee was our No. 1-ranked cadet for his class, so naturally we did not want to lose him,” Kearns said.
Wrestling with the diagnosis, it was a hard semester for McGee academically, and his grades slid – though not enough to fail – and he grew cynical.
“It was very upsetting, because at that point I was totally bought into the Air Force,” he said. “I have some friends, fourth-years at the time, who were always attacking that cynical part of me. They really kept me in the fight, kept me positive as best as they could. I spent a lot of time with them and made lifelong friends.”
