The affluent patient understood that surgery was not warranted, and a
simple plan of care was outlined.
Before departing, Dr. Neer paused to make a request: despite the
generosity of his patron’s travel provisions, Charlie was reluctant to return
home on Concorde; the flight had simply been too vexing. His benefactor
took no exception to his reaction to the flight, and promised that his staff
would make different arrangements.
When Dr. and Mrs. Neer arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport the next
day, they were ushered to an aircraft that would be a charter flight just for
them. Happily, there was no bone-chilling supersonic jet waiting for them,
but to their great surprise, a gleaming Boeing 747 anticipated them on the
tarmac. Boarding the behemoth, the Neers were shocked to learn that the
entire 747 was theirs alone, compliments of their grateful patient. The
pilot and staff greeted them, and inquired of Dr. Neer, “As we have
entirely full gas tanks and no one else on board, is there anywhere else you
would like to go on our way back to New York City?”
Charlie Neer, recalling his days as a young officer in the Army medical
corps, landing on the Normandy shore among chaos and corpses, informed
his aviator that he would love to see the English Channel, the coastal
habitations of Northern France, and most important, the Omaha and Utah
beaches.
The pilot was pleased to grant Dr. Neer’s wish.
The private charter 747 jumbo jet, with two passengers, took off from
Paris and traveled north to Normandy. Sweeping in from the east, the
massive plane banked steeply to the left, the coastal villages of Normandy
directly below. Memorial fields abounding with white crosses and broad,
sandy beaches presented themselves to the boy from Vinita, now the
world’s most famous shoulder surgeon. His first trip to Normandy was
forty-five years before, a scared and unsophisticated American who
dreamed of becoming a surgeon one day. In that time span, antibiotics
were developed, Medicare passed into law, joint replacements invented,
and the major orthopedic device companies had been founded. And
unbelievably, Charlie Neer was now returning to Normandy in his own
- Commercial jet aviation was years away during World War II, and
there is simply no way that he could ever have imagined returning to
Omaha Beach in his own gargantuan airplane. The implant revolution,