With Army tours of Afghanistan and Iraq behind him, Kevin Coates probably isn’t going to be fazed by much of what he sees from day to day as an orthopedic surgeon at Memphis Orthopaedic Group.

From his childhood in a coal-mining town near Pittsburgh, he hasn’t been one to shy away from tough challenges. He wrestled and won a state championship in high school. He played football in college at Duquesne and was an Academic All-American linebacker.

After earning a Master’s degree in physical therapy, Coates joined the Army while in medical school at the University of Pittsburgh. He did his orthopedic surgery internship and residency at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in Texas.

After completing his residency, and while stationed at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, he was deployed to Afghanistan from January to July 2009 as an orthopedic surgeon. His deployment to Iraq came two years later, from May to September 2011.

After leaving the Army, Coates did a fellowship in orthopedic surgery sports medicine at Wake Forest, where he also served as assistant team physician for the university’s sports teams. From there, it was on to Memphis, and now is one of 12 physicians with Memphis Orthopaedic Group, a division of MSK Group, P.C. He keeps a hand in sports by serving as team doctor for Munford and Brighton high schools.

Coates, the father of three, recently took time to answer some questions from Memphis Medical News.

Why did you combine your medical career with military service?

I joined the Army in my first year of medical school, but I had considered it before even starting. Every generation of my family since immigrating in the late 1800s had served in some capacity (almost all draftees, and certainly no career military men). My older brother did not serve and I knew that my younger sister would not be, either. I felt that I could not let that line of service end.

Obviously you’re risking your life by going to Afghanistan, but how dangerous was your time there?

There are varying degrees of safety. Centrally located large facilities like Bagram Airfield outside of Kabul are generally the safest areas. I was deployed with a forward surgical team to Kunar Province.

The town of Asadabad and our FOB (forward operating base) was only five miles from the Pakistani border. That was where most of our rocket and mortar attacks came from. We would receive incoming indirect fire a few times per week – all pretty poorly aimed. We only took direct fire once in my time there, although in previous years there was a soldier killed by a sniper while running on the FOB.

It also makes it difficult as there are no real lines of battle and it is nearly impossible to tell friend from foe. The local Afghani who cleaned our gym is an example. I used to talk to him daily and generally liked him. Toward the end of my tour, he brought in his uncle with a terrible forearm injury. As it turns out, his entire family was Taliban, and the forearm injury came in an Apache helicopter strike that was intended to kill him, but was successful in killing his sons, who were also Taliban commanders.

All of that said, I had several close calls but made it through unscathed.

This is a broad question, but how would you describe your service there?

I had a wide range of activities that I did while in Afghanistan. At least 80 percent of my operative load was actually on the local population. From the town of Jalalabad through the northeast extension of Afghanistan that extends to China, I was the only orthopedic surgeon. Therefore, I saw many conditions that we typically only see in textbooks here in the U.S.

Once you served in Afghanistan, why did you have to go to Iraq? Your choice or the Army’s?

That’s a complicated question, but the answer is both. It is not typical for an orthopedic surgeon to deploy more than once in four years. There are approximately 120 active duty orthopedic surgeons, so there are plenty of numbers to fill deployment slots.I was the chief of orthopedic surgery and rehabilitation at DeWitt Army Community Hospital, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, at the time. I received a tasker (notification of upcoming deployment) for one of my junior surgeons. Unfortunately, he had to retake his board exam, so I asked if the deployment could be put off until later. The response I received was that it could be put off, but I needed to supply the surgeon to fill his slot. Since I was the one that brought that upon us, I volunteered to take the slot.

How did your experience there compare to Afghanistan? Did you do the same things?

My experience in Iraq was quite different from Afghanistan. I was very busy in Afghanistan taking care of the local population. But when I was in Iraq it was 2011 and we had moved into Operation New Dawn. The responsibility for care was passed on to the Iraqis.

Our team was stationed along Main Supply Route Tampa to provide care for anyone injured while leaving Iraq. However, there was not much direct contact with insurgent forces at that time.

What was your family situation during those two deployments?

When I deployed to Afghanistan, I left the day after Christmas 2008. I was married for six years at the time and had a 2-year-old daughter. I will never forget hugging and kissing her and then walking away. At that point, it was the hardest thing I had ever had to do.

When I deployed to Iraq, Megan (my oldest) was 4 and Delaney (my middle child) was less than 1. When my wife dropped me off at Reagan National to fly off, I couldn’t even turn around to look at them after I said goodbye.

My wife, Gina, my daughters Megan (7) and Delaney (3) and my son Andrew (3 months) all live in Germantown.

What did your service over there contribute to the kind of doctor you are today?

It has made me more appreciative of life and the little things that go along with it. It has also made me comfortable in just about any situation I can find myself. I learned how to improvise and make do with the equipment that I have available. I’m not sure there is another orthopedic surgeon that has performed an emergent craniectomy.

How did you wind up at Memphis Orthopaedic Group?

Both my wife and I are from Pittsburgh originally but have not lived there since I graduated from medical school. My wife had no desire to move back to Pittsburgh, so that eliminated that as a destination and left us with no geographical ties. We have lived in San Antonio, Northern Virginia and North Carolina and have grown attached to the South. After searching for jobs, I liked the opportunity at MOG the best, so here we are!