Dr. Allen Davies

Photo courtesy of Dave Skocik

Kent County Veterans Memorial Park.
S. Little Creek Rd.
Dover, DE
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DOVER — Kent County Chapter 850, Vietnam Veterans of America, will host its Veterans Day ceremony at 2 p.m. Nov. 11 at the Kent County Veterans Memorial Park. 

The keynote speaker will be Dr. Allen Davies, who served in Vietnam as a thoracic surgeon and rode on Medivac missions with Dustoff rescue crews. His two tours in Vietnam included four days of surgery under fire at Khe Sanh. 

Born in Pittston, Pennsylvania, Nov. 16, 1935, he grew up in Avoca, Pennesyvania during WWII. After graduating from Wyoming Seminary High School, he went on to Penn State University, where he earned a degree in Chemical Engineering. 

In 1957 he was accepted at Jefferson Medical School, graduating in 1961. Dr. Davies served an internship at Jefferson Davis Hospital in Houston, Texas, under Dr. Michael DeBakey, a famous cardiothoracic surgeon. 

Dr. Davies' education continued at Jefferson Hospital for his general surgical training under world-famous surgeon, Dr. John Gibbon, who invented the heart-lung machine. At the completion of his training in 1966, Dr. Davies was drafted and immediately placed in the Berry Plan that allowed him to complete his thoracic surgery training at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston with Dr. Gerald Austin, and in England with Sir Ronald Belsey and Dr. Jack Griffiths.

He was called to active duty in December 1967 at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, then sent to Chu Lai, Vietnam, where he served with the 2nd Surgical Hospital as a Lt. Col. in the U.S. Marine Corps. Dr. Davies wrote the book “The Backside of the Firefight: A Surgeon’s Shop Notes from Vietnam.” After his service in Vietnam, he practiced as a thoracic surgeon in Wilmington, retiring in 2015.