ROCHELLE — Dr. Tim Koritz of Rochelle served active duty in the United States Air Force from 1988-1991 as a flight surgeon. He also served in the Air Force Reserves from 1983-1988.

After graduating from Rochelle Township High School and receiving his bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Koritz was a first-year medical student at Harvard University Medical School, where he applied for and received a scholarship with the Air Force. Koritz entered the reserves and finished medical school and a yearlong internship in Seattle to get licensed before going active duty in 1988.

Back in his second and fourth years of medical school, Koritz completed month-long courses through the Air Force to get his flight surgeon's wings when his active duty time came.

“They allowed us to put in a request for where we wanted to be stationed and I was lucky enough to get my second choice, an F-15 squadron at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico,” Koritz said. “It's a beautiful area with great flying weather 300 days out of the year. There was an operational F-15 squadron, which at that time was the top of the heap in air-to-air capability.”

A flight surgeon’s top responsibility during wartime is telling the squadron commander whether or not pilots were medically fit to fly. During peacetime, Koritz’s duties included flying with pilots to determine a baseline for them and acting as the family practice doctor for pilots in the squadron and their families.

In flight surgeon school, Koritz learned medical expertise associated with flight in high-performance aircraft, such as hypoxia, decompression sickness, g-force induced loss of consciousness, spatial disorientation, and a specialty in ophthalmology due to vision being the most important sense for a pilot.

“We had survival training,” Koritz said. “It was interesting. I would never fly as pilot in command. I was always in the backseat. I had full controls back there and they let me fly all the time. We practiced everything. We were on a 24 hour recall. If something came up, we had to be ready to go in 24 hours. I'd always been an aviation nut and to be able to fly in high-performance fighters was a great opportunity for me.”

In 1989, a detachment from Koritz’ unit took six jets, 12 pilots and support staff to Howard Air Force Base in Panama right up until the invasion of Panama. Prior to the invasion, the Air Force was tasked with escorting high-value military assets to Panama. In 1990, Koritz’ unit was given a temporary duty assignment in Holland.

“That was quite interesting,” Koritz said. “Back then, Russia was still the big threat. The Air Force wanted squadrons once every two years to go and fly in the European Theatre and get used to the weather and air space. We were in southern Holland and you'd take off and you could be in East Germany in about 10 minutes. It's not a big open space like New Mexico.”

During Koritz’s time at Holloman Air Force Base he was stationed next to the White Sands Missile Range, which was the alternate landing site for the NASA space shuttle if it couldn’t get into orbit. During launches, his squadron would be on alert and Koritz had medical operations responsibilities if a landing took place.

Koritz’ squadron was not called to duty when Desert Shield and then Desert Storm took place, as they were committed to Asia as a backup for air superiority capability in monitoring North Korea as the U.S. was in another conflict. 

Early 1991 saw a personal loss for Koritz, as his brother, U.S. Air Force Major Tom Koritz, was piloting an F-15 that was shot down over Basra, Iraq on Jan. 17, 1991 during the Persian Gulf War on a mission to bomb a refinery. Tim accompanied his brother’s remains home for his burial with honors in Lawnridge Cemetery. Tom Koritz was a medical school graduate as well. The brothers grew up both fascinated by flight and followed similar paths.

“My family had an emphasis on service,” Koritz said. “My dad got through high school in three years and at age 17 enlisted in the Navy in 1944 during World War II. My brother was active duty in the Air Force from 1980-1991. My brother had the corporate knowledge, so if I ever had a question I could lean on him for advice.”

Tim Koritz left the service in 1991 to pursue his interest in clinical practice. He spent 2.5 years at the University of Iowa for his anesthesia residence. In 1994, he and his family moved back to the Northern Illinois area where he became an anesthesiologist on staff at Rockford Memorial Hospital and spent 24 years there. After 5-6 years at OSF St. James Hospital in Pontiac, Illinois as a staff anesthesiologist, he retired two years ago.

Koritz credits his military service as the reason he was able to graduate from medical school and separate from the Air Force with no debt.

“I always loved aviation and I had the opportunity to see the epitome of aviation at that time and experience it and be part of it,” Koritz said. “I had a great career in anesthesia in the Rockford Memorial operating room when it was up and running at full steam. We were the best show in town and did more surgeries than the other hospitals combined. We had excellent surgeons, anesthesia and nursing staff.”

Koritz’s service left him with a “profound respect” for military personnel and the jobs they do. And it left him with a dream fulfilled.

“They were a very professional group,” Koritz said. “I think any citizen who witnessed what went on there would be proud to be an American. Our pilots were so dedicated to their job and all they wanted to do was make sure they did a great job and improve. I can remember my very first sortie flight. One of the flight commanders took me under his wing and I had to fulfill a bunch of criteria and jump through hoops before I could actually fly a sortie. In my first one, he was flying and I was in the back seat. We were taxing out waiting to take off and I had the biggest smile on my face. It was something I'd been dreaming about for years, and there I was.”

Honoring Our American Hero is a series that prints twice a month in the News-Leader. If you know an American Hero you would like to have featured, contact Jeff Helfrich at jhelfrich@rochellenews-leader.com or call 815-561-2151.