'The right time': Ocala psychologist, 48, joins U.S. Army Reserve

Jeff Bates, a 48-year-old local psychologist, was sworn in as a captain in the U.S. Army Reserve on Feb. 15 as family, friends and guests looked on at the Veterans Resource Center in Ocala.

Bates said as a youth hearing about his grandfathers’ military service and his work with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs convinced him joining up to serve was “the right thing” and now was “the right time.”

“This is about those who served before me and are serving now. (They) stood in the gap …and give us the freedoms we enjoy,” said Bates, who hails from a family with military history and works with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Army Capt. Jose Linares from Gainesville performed the ceremony, which included swearing an oath to support and defend the U.S. Constitution.

Following the swearing-in ceremony, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, Army Capt. Steve Petty, called six fellow members of the Marion County Memorial Honor Guard to attention to exchange Capt. Bates’ first official hand salute.

Don Kennedy, Navy veteran; Bob Levenson U.S. Marine Corp; Charles Calhoun, Navy; and Army veterans Don Poulin, Charles Dodge and Ed Sobolewski rounded out the Honor Guard delegation.

“In keeping with tradition (Bates) gave a silver dollar to the first person he returned a hand salute to,” said Petty as he held a 1972 Eisenhower dollar coin.

Bates told the assembled group that joining the Army Reserve was a family decision and one greatly influenced by the service of his two grandfathers, John Bates and Don White, both in World War II.

Bates said John Bates left college and playing football to join the Army Air Corps in the wake of the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, which drew the U.S. into World War II.

Bates had folded flags from the military honors funerals of both of his grandfathers on display at the ceremony.

The swearing-in ceremony was hosted by Marion County Veterans Helping Veterans and held in a meeting room in the Marion County Veterans Resource Center on East Silver Springs Boulevard.

Linares was accompanied by local Army recruiter Sgt. Michael Price, whose office is in Market Street at Heath Brook shopping center, and Army 1st Sgt. Matthew Barnett.

Soldiers with Army recruitment attending the ceremony were veterans of multiple deployments.

Jeff Bates is scheduled to attend a basic officer leadership course at Fort Sam Houston in Texas and then attend Army Reserve meetings once monthly and  two weeks annually.

Reserve service was compared to a part-time job by an Army officer.

Jeff Bates will be assigned work related to his profession as required by the Army. He said his Army occupation code is “73B, psychologist.”

Jeff Bates currently works with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and is currently involved with its Washington, D.C.-based Veterans Crisis Line. He travels as needed and works remotely.

The Veterans Crisis Line, reached by diailing 988 and then pressing 1 or texting 838255, is a 24/7 live support line for veterans, their concerned families and friends.

Information is available at www.veteranscrisisline.net/.

The line is open to veterans not signed up for VA benefits and responders can provide information on additional resources for veterans in crisis.

Capt. Memory Burch, public affairs officer with U.S. Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox, Kentucky, explained some details of medical recruiting in an email.

“The U.S. Army Recruiting Command's recruiting age for Army medicine is between 21 and 42 years of age, but there are age waiver opportunities for those seeking to serve in certain health care occupations,“ Burch wrote, in part.

Burch stated the number of medical professionals recruited depends upon the “needs of the Army overall” and stated in part in a later email: “(in) fiscal year 2023, (in Florida) there were three individuals who joined the Army Reserve under the same program” as Bates.

Burch stated: “All Army medicine soldiers will attend the Direct Commission Course (DCC) and the AMEDD (Army Medical Department) Basic Officer Leadership Course (BOLC).”

The DDC course, held at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, is described in part by Burch as a six-week course in the “fundamentals of being a soldier in the Army” while the BOLC, in an overview, is a course at Joint Base San Antonio “specific to those entering Army health care.” That training may last up to 14 weeks.

Mary Bates, Jeff Bates’ wife of 24 years, said she was “very excited” about her husband joining the Army Reserves while their son, Matthew, 18, called it “nerve wracking” but what his father “wants to do.”

The couple have another son, Jon, 20.

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Guests wishing Jeff Bates well included Marion County Tax Collector George Albright and Jeannie Rickman, representing U.S. Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Gainesville.

Gordon McNulty, Jeff Bates’ neighbor for about 12 years, also was on hand for the ceremony.

McNulty called Jeff Bates a “wonderful friend” and a “great asset” for the Army.

This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Ocala psychologist joins U.S. Army Reserve