Dr. Bunch to speak at museum Saturday
Courtesy photo - Dr. Richard Bunch (right) is shown wearing his Air Guard uniform next to his brother Curt.
Dr. Richard Bunch will be the guest speaker for the 1 p.m. opening of the Othello Community Museum Saturday, June 17. Bunch will talk about his involvement with the Othello Air Force Base, which was an integral part of the community for many years.
Dr. Bunch moved to Othello in August of 1962 to join Dr. Kenneth Pershall in his medical practice. Physicians were in short supply nationwide at the time; however, rural areas were hit the hardest.
Bunch began his affiliation with the local air force radar base shortly after his arrival when he and Dr. Pershall contracted with the military facility to provide medical services.
The base clinic was staffed with medics. If airmen reported for sick call, they would be examined and diagnosed. It was up to Bunch and Pershall to confirm the analysis.
“The medics were usually spot on in their diagnosis,” Bunch said. “I was very impressed with their work.”
If the airmen required hospitalization, they would be transferred to Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane.
Dependents of the airmen were seen by Bunch and Pershall in their Othello clinic and were hospitalized locally if necessary.
“We delivered lots of babies,” Bunch said.
There was also a shortage of nurses in the 60s. But airmen occasionally arrived at the base with their spouses who were nurses. “We employed a number of them in our clinic over the years. This was a real plus for us.”
It was the era of the Cold War, and there was a heightened anxiety the Russians would attack Bunch said. There was also concern that he could be drafted.
“That (being drafted) would again leave Othello very short of medical physicians, “he said. “I did, however, join the Air Guard in Spokane (1965) which provided support for Fairchild Air Force Base.”
Bunch trained just one week per month in Spokane, so he was still able to devote most of his time to his practice in Othello.
Bunch served eight active years in the Guard and three years in the Reserves.
He bought an airplane in 1970 and then obtained his instrument and commercial pilot’s license in 1974.
Bunch said he entertained the idea of running an air ambulance until he, “found out how much the insurance would cost.”
Bunch’s positive interaction with the air base medics became the springboard for his interest in the MEDEX program. He and his physician assistants, Paul Snyder and John Betz, were heavily involved in the program from the onset. Snyder and Betz were the first two graduates of MEDEX program at the University of Washington in 1969.