Warrior Spotlight - Expeditionary Medical Facility Kuwait

The United States indeed is the land of opportunity for those who earnestly seek it. LCDR Amer Skopic, would attest to this fact.

Originally from war-torn Bosnia, LCDR Skopic was only 17 years old when he and his family were expelled from Bosnia as part of a so-called “ethnic cleansing” being instigated by Serbians in that part of the world.

He and his family resided in a Serb “occupied town” for a year before being expelled from the country he called home. “My family was offered asylum in the United States after my father was freed by the Red Cross from one of the Serb held concentration camps,” LCDR Skopic said.

Despite the harsh experience his family went through, it did not daunt this young Bosnian’s will to pursue his dreams of becoming a medical doctor in a foreign country that welcomed them with open arms.

LCDR Skopic enrolled at the Central Connecticut State University from 1993 to 1997. He worked as Certified Nursing Assistant through those years and two years after graduation, he was accepted to Medical School, completing his M.D. in 2003. He went on to specialize in Gastroenterology.

Now 36 years of age, LCDR Skopic and his wife Carrie Skopic, have two children, Ramajana, 3 years, and Zerin, 11 months. He is currently stationed at the National Naval Medical Center (NNMC) in Bethesda, MD.

He has been on active duty with the United States Navy for six years in the Medical Corps, but has been in the Navy Reserves since 1999. “I joined the Navy for multiple reasons, including the opportunity to serve and give back to country that provided so much for me and my family,” he said.

What he thought violence, hatred, and war took away from him and his family, he got back more than a hundred fold through the help of the Navy in the country he now calls home.