Editor’s note: This is the second in a four-part series of stories recognizing students, faculty and alumni of the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine who have served or are currently serving in the United States Armed Forces. Beyond their contributions to military medicine, these are the individuals who strengthen our organization in innumerable ways through their humility and daily dedication to put others before themselves. For that, we thank them.

Katherine Tharp’s decision to go to medical school didn’t come as an epiphany. It didn’t come with a shout from the rooftops or much fanfare at all.

It came, she says, as a result of unwavering support from her husband and an undeniable calling to military medicine.

I remember [my husband] David asking me point-blank, ‘What do you want to do with your life?’ said Katherine. I had never even considered that I would have the ability to go to medical school, but so much of my success is because of his encouragement.

Katherine, now a first-year medical student at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine campus in Temple, and her husband David Tharp, Psy.D., a Major in the Air Force Reserve and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, have, in one way or another, been involved in military medicine together since 2005.

At that time, Katherine was working for a local television station in Bryan handling advertising sales while completing a master’s degree in counseling through Texas A&M Central Texas in Tarleton when David acquired transverse myelitis, a neurological condition caused by inflammation across both sides of one segment of the spinal cord. The inflammation damages myelin, the fatty insulation that covers nerve cell fibers, causing nervous system scars that interrupt communications between the nerves in the spinal cord and the rest of the body.

“David’s initial episode of transverse myelitis got me thinking, and I wanted to know as much as possible about it,” said Katherine.

Soon after, she and David moved to Alexandria, Louisiana where Katherine put her master’s degree to work by counseling students at Louisiana College in nearby Pineville. 

Then David was chosen for the Air Force’s Air Command and Staff College, so the family moved to Montgomery, Alabama with their two boys—aged six months and 18 months at the time—where David completed strategic leadership training.

When we moved to Montgomery, we lived on [Maxwell Air Force] base, so I got to know the most amazing families that I’ve ever met,” said Katherine.  “It was a pleasure, and when I was there, it hit me like a ton of bricks. When you see the sacrifice these families make up close and personal, and how the whole community rallies around these servicemen, servicewomen and families, it’s just amazing.”

This is the population that I want to serve,” she emphasized. “Not just the military personnel, but their families, too.”

Katherine would continue to counsel young people and families, but, still the desire to do more remained.

I wanted to make a difference, and I wanted to do more than just counsel,” she said. I wanted the expertise to help these families more.”

So while in Montgomery, Katherine decided to start taking prerequisite courses to prepare her for medical school.  

“Science terrified me!” she said.  “But my husband’s illness, my interactions with the families I counseled, and David’s encouragement provided the motivation.

Less than a year later, the Tharps moved back to Texas so that David could take a job as a clinical and research psychologist at the VA Heart of Texas Health Care Network Center of Excellence for Research on Returning War Veterans at the VA hospital in Waco. The move, the Tharps said, brought them closer to the Texas A&M community and its military friendly atmosphere. 

Then, in October 2010, another move came.  However, this one, David would do on his own. He was being deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan.

“I can’t really even explain it,” Katherine said of her feelings during David’s deployment.  “At one point while David was in Kandahar, we were talking over Skype, and I heard an alarm go off.  He had to go really quickly…but I tried not to worry.”

While David was deployed, Katherine began applying to medical schools, all the while taking care of their boys.

It was so important that I go to a military friendly school,” she said.

Even before applying to the College of Medicine, Katherine met with Assistant Dean of Admissions and Diversity Leila Diaz who encouraged her to capitalize on her desire for a military friendly institution.

But Katherine’s desire for a military friendly school and her need to help military families compelled her to take a very big next step.  She joined the Air Force.

I called a friend who happens to be a colonel in the Air Force and a flight surgeon for NASA,” Katherine said.  From there, Katherine was introduced to a recruiter in San Antonio who guided her through the process.

It’s just like applying to medical school, with transcripts, essays, and more,” she said.

As a soon-to-be medical student, Katherine applied for the Armed Forces Health Professions Scholarship Program (HPSP). In November 2010, while David was still in Afghanistan, she learned that she was accepted to the College of Medicine and selected for the HPSP.

Then in April 2011 Katherine was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Medical Service Corps. Two months later she went to Commissioned Officer Training for five weeks back at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.

It’s like med school in that there’s very little time for sleep,” she said. You’re up at 4:30, then out to the PT pad for a workout until 5:30.  Then you have 10 minutes for you and your roommate to be showered and ready for breakfast.

Then it was off to class for lectures or small group sessions with a flight commander and plenty of academic testing until dinner at 7:00.  After that, group and individual study sessions occupied the evening until midnight.

After Katherine’s training ended in July, she returned home to spend time with her family for a mere two weeks before the College of Medicine’s White Coat Ceremony for incoming medical students.

“I went from basically a stay-at-home mom to med school!” she said.  Now well into her first year as a medical student, Katherine spends most of her time in class and studying.  She travels from Temple to their home near Waco on the weekends to spend time with David and the boys.

When I really need to study, David will bring the kids to Temple, she said. He’s a great dad.

Ultimately, Katherine describes medical school so far as being much harder than she thought, but she emphasizes that she’s still happy to be here. Throughout the next year and half she’ll finish her basic science courses and then transition into full-time clinical training in 2013.

“When I graduate from the College of Medicine in 2015, I’ll be a Captain and will start active duty service for four years,” she said.  “My plan is to serve for 20 years because this is what I’m passionate about.” 

“I am more passionate about helping military families than I am about just practicing medicine,” Katherine continued. “In the military, I meet all kinds of people, but the military children are particularly amazing, and I was drawn to them. They don’t have lots of time to get to know each other because they move so often, so they make lifelong connections quickly.

For Katherine, it’s not just about the military, and it’s not just about medicine.  It’s about how both interact and allow her to use her skills to do the most good.

Practicing medicine gives me an opportunity to serve in the military,” she explained. I will have a different experience than most medical students, but it’s how I choose to make a difference.

When asked in what field she wants to specialize, her response is immediate.

“Wherever I’m needed, I’ll go,” she said.   “I’d love to do pediatrics, but I will go where I’m needed.  Ultimately, I’m doing this for my children and their future opportunities, too.”

Hearing her put it into words so selflessly, it’s clear that with the support of her family and her own unstoppable gumption she will indeed answer that call.

“You don’t know what you’re capable of until you give it your best shot,” she said. I am learning that with my faith, the support of my family, and my eye consistently on the military families that are so dear to me, I am capable of doing things I never dreamed.