Topic: Doc Shuns Life In L.I. For Role In War

New York Daily News
May 11, 2007
By John Lauinger, Daily News Writer
Amid the solemn backdrop of Ground Zero, where the attacks of Sept. 11 roused him to serve his country, a Long Island physician received his Air Force commission.
Dr. Alan Flower, a 41-year-old father of two young boys from Bayville, was sworn in as a major in the Air Force's Medical Service Corps in a brief ceremony at a firehouse adjacent to Ground Zero.
"My feet haven't hit the ground yet," the patriotic physician said after taking his vows in front of the FDNY 9/11 Memorial outside Ladder Co. 10 and Engine Co. 10 on Liberty St. yesterday evening.
"Standing there, I can't express how honored you feel and how humbled you feel at the same time. It's an amazing feeling."
By accepting his commission, Flower has traded in his beloved Bayville, where he is a volunteer firefighter, and North Shore University Hospital at Glen Cove, where he is on the faculty, for Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, N.C.
He will train to become a flight surgeon - an assignment that could land him in Iraq or Afghanistan.
And that makes his mother, Marge, nervous.
"As a mother, I'm concerned that everything will be okay," she said.
But Flower's father, Jerry, 75, said his son is a cut above. "I'm very proud of him, very proud," he said, beaming. "He'll do a great job."