Ross
retires from Air Force Reserve
Mobile Register, February 15,
2005 Section: B Page: 7
Author: George Werneth
Colonel logged
28 years of military service in nursing field
Col. Candice "Candy" Ross
of Mobile retired from the Air Force Reserve on her 58th birthday Monday after
28 years of military service in the field of nursing.
In civilian life, Ross
is the associate dean for research and development at the University of
South Alabama's College of Nursing.
A veteran of Operation Desert
Storm and Somalia famine relief (Operation Restore Hope), Ross
served as a flight nurse and a clinical nurse.
She said her career
in the Air Force Reserve "provided me the
greatest opportunities, not only to serve but to learn so much. It was wonderful
camaraderie."
She said she decided to retire from the Air Force
Reserve because she was approaching her mandatory retirement
deadline and she wanted to devote more time to her civilian career. "The College of Nursing is growing so rapidly," she
said, "with new programs and more students."
Of the changes she has seen in
Air Force nursing during her career, she said, "It has become more demanding,
especially with the frequent deployments of active-duty nurses."
Ross received
a doctorate degree in nursing from the University of Texas in 1983
and a master's degree in community health nursing in 1971 from
the University of Alabama in Birmingham.
She grew up in Florence,
Ala., and moved to Mobile 10 years ago, where she began working
for the USA College of Nursing.
During the past 10 years, Ross
said, she has been doing her annual military training at
Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi.
She said she was honored Friday
with a dinner party hosted by Dr. Debra Davis, the dean of
nursing at USA.
This article reproduced with special permission from the Mobile Register.
