Colonel (Dr.) James A. Ruffer MC USAF (Ret.)
The Las Vegas, Nevada, Valley of Fire Chapter, NSDAR is honored to place into nomination for the prestigious Medal of Honor Award distinguished patriot, physician, pilot, Doctor James A. Ruffer, Marine Captain, Navy Commander and Air Force Colonel. For heroic service and bravery, Doctor Ruffer is responsible for saving the life of an American hostage and in doing so altered United States history.
Dr. James Ruffer served in three branches of the military and in three combat campaigns. In August 1969 he joined the “Bull Dogs” of Marine Attack Squadron 223 at Chu Lai, Republic of Vietnam, flying 92 close-air-support and interdiction missions. After graduating medical school Dr. Ruffer joined the Navy as a flight surgeon and served as an aviator and physician from 1979-1985. In his Marine Corps/Naval Aviation career he served as both squadron pilot and squadron flight surgeon with the famed Black Sheep of Marine Attack Squadron 214 – a once-in-history event.
In 1986 he transferred from the Navy to the Air Force and was the Officer-in-Charge of Flight Medicine at the Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards Air Force Base. That same year Dr. James Ruffer was the Project-Flight-Surgeon and medical provider for the crew of the “Voyager,” the aircraft that made a record breaking around-the-world, non-stop, un-refueled flight – the nine-day flight in which Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager made world history.
As Deputy Command Surgeon, United States Southern Command, the Republic of Panama Doctor Ruffer volunteered for a dangerous nine-month espionage and hostage-rescue mission with the Army Delta Force called “Operation Acid Gambit.” The mission saved the life of American hostage Kurt Muse in a critical and historic moment as the mission initiated combat operations of “Operation Just Cause – the Invasion of Panama.”
Dr. Ruffer volunteered for deployment as Air Transportable Clinic Commander, Senior Wing Flight Surgeon and Special Staff for “Gas Warfare Defense” to the Tactical Air Command during “Operation Desert Storm,” serving at the forward operating location.
Until forced into retirement by combat related disabilities Doctor Ruffer served his country proudly in the post 9/11 era as an award-winning lecturer and trainer of thousands of primary-care givers in the Medical Management of Chemical Casualties and in the Principles of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Warfare.
The attached biography can barely bring to light the contributions of the heroic, highly decorated American, Dr. James Allen Ruffer, whose life has been dedicated to serving the United States of America and his fellow man:
James Allen Ruffer was born 19 February 1943 at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. to Victor Jack and Ruth Ann Ruffer. MSgt. V. J. Ruffer, a career soldier and airman, served the United States of America during WWII, the Korean War and the Cold War. Birth into a military family formed the foundation for Jim Ruffer’s eminent and prestigious career.
A football star and gymnast in high school Jim graduated from San Diego State College in June 1966. The Vietnam War effort needed pilots in 1966, and Jim delayed his pursuit of being a doctor and answered the call to duty. He chose the United States Marine Corps, his older brother already being a Marine. Commissioned a Marine second lieutenant at Quantico, Virginia in December 1966 Jim went on to the Naval Air Training Command at Pensacola, Florida where, in the spring of 1967, he was chosen Student-of-the-Week out of 388 pilot trainees and became the only Marine, of his class, allowed to enter the coveted Fixed-Wing Jet “Pipeline” as opposed to the helicopter “Pipeline.” He received his Naval Aviator’s “Wings of Gold” in August 1968. He was assigned to fly the A-4 “Skyhawk” fighter-bomber of VMA-214 (“The Black Sheep” of World War II fame) at Marine Corps Air Station, El Toro, California. In August 1969 he was assigned to VMA-223 (“Bulldogs”) at Chu Lai, Republic of Vietnam, where he flew ninety-two combat missions and earned four Air Medals, awarded for “meritorious achievement in aerial flight.” After flying his fighter-bomber, by the process of “dead reckoning,” across the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean back to El Toro, Jim was reassigned to VMA-211 (“The Wake Island Avengers”) in Iwakuni, Japan; later he served as an instructor pilot, training pilots going into combat, at VMAT-102, Marine Corps Air Station, Yuma, Arizona.
Leaving the Marine Corps in the grade of captain in November 1971 Jim attended medical school at the Autonomous University of Guadalajara, Mexico, practicing medicine in rural villages, and receiving his diploma as Physician and Surgeon in June 1977. After two years of medical residency training in the United States he rejoined the military service and was commissioned a Naval Lieutenant in Pensacola, Florida. Trained as a Flight Surgeon at the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute in Pensacola he was assigned once again to Marine Corps Air Station, El Toro, CA where, as a Squadron Flight Surgeon, he rendered medical care to the men and families of the Third Marine Aircraft Wing including an assignment to his former squadron, the “Black Sheep” of VMA-214, where his former wingmen and squadron-mates warmly welcomed him as their pilot and doctor.
In June of 1982 he was transferred to Naval Air Station, Lemoore, California where he was attached to VA-127 (“Pacific Fleet Adversary”) Squadron, and again flew the A-4 Skyhawk, this time in mock combat with his “Top-Gun” squadron pilots flying against Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Allied jet fighters from around the world. During his naval tour of duty, as a flight surgeon and flyer, he carried out a spectrum of medical practice including surgery, pediatrics, obstetric (including the delivery of eight Marine babies in one twenty-four hour period), internal medicine, orthopedics, emergency medicine and flight accident investigations. After being “frocked” Commander USN Jim left the active duty naval service in June 1985 and entered the Naval Reserve. As a civilian general practitioner in the small town of Rupert, Idaho Jim’s medical career found him being “medically, all things to all people,”–a fulfillment of his dreams. However, the thrill of military service and flight soon led him back to the military, and in January of 1986 he made an inter-service transfer from the Naval Reserve to the active duty Air Force.
Assigned to the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert of California where he served as Officer-in-Charge of Flight Medicine, Jim enjoyed the Air Force version of jet aviation at a time when the stealth fighter and the B-1 bomber were both introduced into the Air Force’s inventory. Jim flew the F-15 Eagle and the F-4 Phantom and rendered assistance to and discovered the cause of a horrific mid-air collision. He rubbed shoulders with the likes of General Chuck Yeager and Andy Anderson, both of whom were fighter-pilot aces of WWII. Jim became the Air Force’s “Project-Flight-Surgeon” assigned to render medical care to the flight crew of the “Voyager” experimental aircraft in its non-stop, un-refueled, around-the-world flight in December of 1986; pilots Dick Rutan and Jeanna Yeager gained instant international fame for doing what had never been done before.
Reassigned to the United States Southern Command where American interests and the safety of Americans were threatened by the Panamanian Dictator, General Manuel Antonio Noriega, the Ruffer family arrived in Panama in January 1988 just as United States and Panamanian relations were plummeting and civil hardships were beginning to prevail. As Deputy Command Surgeon of United States Southern Command, Quarry Heights, United States Canal Zone Jim Ruffer was assigned as physician to the Commander-in-Chief. The Ruffer family experienced two years, two months and twenty days of duress and pathos in Panama. Endurance reached its apogee during the nine-month period preceding the “Invasion of Panama” during which Jim volunteered to render medical care and perform espionage on behalf of an American citizen, Mr. Kurt Muse, who had connections to the CIA. Jim was the only American in uniform allowed into the cellblock of the infamous Modelo Prison where the Panamanian Dictator routinely tortured and eliminated his enemies. Conditions were frightful and dangerous. Jim Ruffer never knew when he might be taken captive.
In preparations for the “Invasion of Panama” U.S. special force units had planned several special missions, one of which was the rescue of the American hostage threatened with death in the Modelo prison. By that time Jim had become the hostage’s doctor, confidant, guardian and rescuer during his nine-month period of confinement, ultimately making over 110 visits. Walking through pools of blood, with sure knowledge of the atrocities committed, Jim had provided the crucial and otherwise unobtainable information to the U.S. Army’s “Delta Force,” the unit that would carry out the rescue mission. Invasion plans were set to coincide with the “successful rescue” of the hostage; the combat operations of “Just Cause"–the Invasion of Panama– were to follow. The plan worked well, and no American lives were lost in the rescue mission. In spite of the danger, Doctor Ruffer had bravely continued his rescue mission, assuring the salvation of an American hostage and the survival of yet another American whom he discovered dying of pulmonary tuberculosis in the prison. Doctor Ruffer thus saved two American lives. Doctor Ruffer received the Bronze Star for Heroism for his valorous acts.
After the invasion Jim Ruffer was directed by his commander to personally perform the official U. S. Forces “body count” of enemy dead and develop plans for the rebuilding of Panamanian medical infrastructure. With a group of highly dedicated medical officers and enlisted personnel assigned to him he began the difficult task of uniting, at the highest level, medical officials of the Republic of Panama for cooperative and concerted efforts to refit clinics, warehouse relief supplies, control the Dengue Fever outbreak and build a transportation fleet of trucks and drivers to mobilize medical supplies to all part of the nation of Panama. During his tour in Panama Jim Ruffer had represented the United States in South America and had taught military medicine throughout that continent and had even practiced medicine amongst the aboriginal peoples of the Amazon. For his achievements he was awarded the Defense Meritorious Service Medal.
After his tour in Panama Jim was assigned to Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas and was the Air Force Director for the Joint Medical Readiness Training Center (JMRTC) where medical personnel of three military services (Army, Air Force and Navy) trained military doctors and nurses in the science of combat medicine and surgery. During this period of service the Persian Gulf War erupted and Jim instructed thousands of U. S. medical forces in the science of defense against gas warfare. He then volunteered for deployment to Saudi Arabia for “Operation Desert Storm” where he served as Wing Surgeon at the Air Force’s forward operating location, as Mobile Clinic Commander and as “Special Staff” to the Air Force’s Tactical Air Command Commander. At his forward position in Saudi Arabia, under constant “skud” missile bombardment, besides performing combat surgery he was the Air Force’s only expert trainer in the skills of chemical and biological warfare. For his achievements he was awarded the Oak Leaf Cluster to the Defense Meritorious Service Medal
In 1992, after two years and six months with the JMRTC, Jim was reassigned as an emergency medicine physician to the U.S. Air Force Hospital at R.A.F. Lakenheath in the United Kingdom of Great Britain, near to where he had lived as a schoolboy as the child of a U.S. Air Force pilot. While there he became ill and in 1994 was placed on the Temporary Disability Retirement List due to combat related disabilities. Subsequently, he was retired from the military service in the rank of colonel. For his achievements he was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal.
Retired from the military with partial recovery of his illness, and after a number of years of medical practice in the state of Utah, in rural under-served California and in the rural Mexican Republic, he responded to the events of 9/11 by returning to Nevada to teach thousands of civilian doctors, dentists and nurses in the art of chemical, biological and nuclear defense. For his contribution he was awarded the 2007 Community Partnership Award by the non-profit Southern Nevada Area Health Education Center.
Following the year 2007 Doctor Ruffer was no longer able to work. Therefore, after a "professional lifetime" of dedicated military and civilian medical service to the United States of America, Mexico, and Central and South America he retired. He and his wife, Margarita, live in Las Vegas, Nevada. Together they are the parents of ten children and thirty-five grandchildren.