Serving as a Surgeon

Marco Island resident Dr. Al Bozzo has always been something of an overachiever. 

Born and raised in Union City, New Jersey, he graduated from high school in 1954 at the age of 16. His cousin was a fighter pilot who was shot down in World War II, serving as a life-long inspiration for Bozzo. “He stayed with the National Guard and became a major,” he said. “He was my hero.” 

Bozzo enrolled at Georgetown University as a pre-med major, graduated in 1958 and entered Georgetown’s medical school, graduating from there in 1962. 

While serving his internship at a hospital in Long Island, New York, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. “Being the kind of guy I was, I called up the people in charge and said I really want to go into the Air Force,” he said. “They said, okay, fine. And I said that the thing I really wanted to do was surgery.” 

So Bozzo and his father drove to Washington, D.C. to meet with the officer assigning doctors to various bases in the U.S. “I told him I’d like to do surgery, and he said ‘well, you haven’t been trained, but here’s the deal. I have two opportunities to replace surgeons at either Schilling Air Force Base in Kansas or Warner Robins Air Force base in Georgia,’” he said 

After getting sworn in as a Captain and consulting with his father, he picked Warner Robins. “August 1st, I reported to Warner Robins with no money, no uniform, a wife, a three-year-old and a six-week-old. I also had a beard and mustache because I came from New York,” he said with a smile. 

With no housing available on the base, the executive officer at Warner Robins suggested he rent a hotel room with his family and shave before meeting with Colonel Ignatius J. Stein, the chief surgeon at the base, the next morning. 

Impressed with the young Bozzo, Stein made him his assistant surgeon and spent the next two years training him. “I went to work in the operating room,” he said. “I never had any basic training. Didn’t know how to salute. Didn’t know anything about military decorum. I just went right into the operating room.” 

Over the next two years, Stein and Bozzo performed more than 600 surgeries together. “We operated from the nose to the toes,” Bozzo said. “It was general surgery. We did trauma. We did plastic surgery. Tattoo removals. Abdominal surgery, urologic surgery. We did everything. Colonel Stein taught me how to be a surgeon.” 

Bozzo was awarded a commendation medal and was discharged from the Air Force in 1965. Shortly thereafter, Stein went on to become chief surgeon at Clark Air Base in the Philippines, which became a key logistical support base during the Vietnam War.  

Bozzo had three hospitals lined up to complete his residency, including his prior hospital in Long Island, New Jersey College of Medicine, and Georgetown, which Bozzo selected. He packed up his wife and two children and moved to Georgetown.  

At Georgetown, the young resident, who had so much surgical training from his two years with Colonel Stein, was at first relegated to basic operations such as circumcisions but quickly impressed the more senior doctors with his surgery skills.  

“I ended up being chief resident at Georgetown, chief at a private hospital, then chief at the VA hospital,” he said.  

Reflecting on his time with Stein, Bozzo said his training with Stein was critical to his future success as a doctor. “We had a phrase that covers what surgery is all about,” he said. “See on, do one, teach one. The theory is you watch one surgery being done. Then you do one yourself. Then you teach the next guy down the road. Doctor Stein taught me all the major principles of surgery.” 

After completing his residency in urology, Bozzo opened a private practice in New Jersey, where he practiced medicine for 27 years before retiring in 1996 and moving to Marco Island. 

Bozzo didn’t slow down in retirement, becoming a founder of Marco’s senior softball league in 1997. At age 86, Bozzo still plays first base today, making him the longest-running player in the league and one of its oldest players. 

He went on to become president of the Marco Island Men’s Club in 2002 and remains active with American Legion Post 404 on Marco. 

Summing up his remarkable career and retirement, Bozzo jokingly points out a peculiar element of his youth. “I was four feet eleven inches when I graduated high school at 16,” he said, standing up to show his slim and trim five-foot nine inch frame. “I grew eight inches my freshmen year.”