Dr. Cindy Tamminga ’79
Dr. Cindy Tamminga graduated from Timothy Christian Schools in June of 1979, back when the graduation exercises were held in the high school gymnasium. She went on to Nurses’ Training and upon graduation from West Suburban School of Nursing she worked as a nurse in West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park. Later on she enrolled in Medical School at Rush Presbyterian in Chicago. Cindy served as an internal medicine doctor in the Naval Hospital on the island of Guam, the Portsmouth Naval Hospital in Norfolk/Portsmouth Virginia and San Diego Naval Hospital. While in San Diego she received her degree in infection diseases.
Cindy was transferred to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This was at the time when there were several hundred detainees being held there. When administering care to the detainees, who spoke very little English, if any at all, she was accompanied by a marine for safety precautions. She was also accompanied by an interpreter
Dr. Tamminga served deployments in the Middle East. Each deployment consisted of working with a Medical Team, in Field Hospitals they set up themselves, in the deserts of Kuwait. From there many of the injured were sent to the Army Medical Hospital in Germany. There were times when the injured were accompanied on that journey by a doctor or a nurse. From there most of them were sent to the States.
After Cindy’s second deployment in the Middle East she was offered the opportunity to attend a military institute in Washington, D.C., where she received a Masters Degree in Public Health.
Dr. Tamminga has been in the U.S. Navy for seventeen years. She is an officer with the rank of Commander. She has led medical teams to Egypt doing research in infectious diseases. She has seen deplorable conditions in the clinics and hospitals there; unsanitary conditions that would breed disease.
In the fall of 2007, Cindy was a member of the Pacific Fleet Partnership on board the USS Pelileu, a Navy vessel named after a small Pacific island. This was basically a Good Will cruise called the TIGER CRUISE. At each destination, members of the ship’s departments would leave the ship, go ashore, and give help where needed. The Seas Bees went ashore with heavy equipment to build or repair. Doctors and dentists went ashore to work in clinics, hospitals, schools and orphanages. Her ship went to the Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and then on to San Diego, home port of the USS Pelileu. The Executive Officer of the ship was from New York and an avid Mets fan. Cindy, an avid fan of the Chicago Cubs, had many baseball discussions with him, going all the way back to the fateful year of 1969.
Dr. Cindy Tamminga is presently stationed at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, MD. She divides her time with patients in the hospital as well as in a clinic near the hospital doing research on malaria patients and others.
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