As Dr. Christopher Chaput walked the hall at main Baylor toward his daughter’s military commissioning ceremony, he remarked that it looked the same as when he was a medical student in the late 1990s.

An orthopedic surgeon at UTHealth in San Antonio, he said it was special for his daughter to have been accepted to Baylor College of Medicine’s School of Medicine considering that he, and his daughter’s grandfather, both graduated from the institution. Both doctors chose surgery as their specialty.

Dr. Madeline Chaput graduated from the School of Medicine at an evening ceremony May 27 at the Smart Financial Centre in Sugar Land. Hours before, she was commissioned into the Air Force by Dr. Tim Porea, professor of pediatrics – hematology and oncology, at the annual Military Commissioning Ceremony in DeBakey Museum.

“It’s been really cool walking the same hallways that my dad and my grandpa both walked. I didn’t know I wanted to be a surgeon when I came here but that’s what ended up happening anyway,” Chaput said. “They did neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery, and I’m doing urology so it’s a little bit of variation there.”

At the ceremony, Chaput’s grandfather pinned heirloom bars on her coat, military insignia that officers wear. Since they already are medical doctors, Chaput and classmate Dr. Levi Peppel, will enter the Air Force in officer positions.

A San Antonio native, she has finished a rotation at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston. The facility is the largest medical facility and only Level 1 trauma center for the U.S. Department of Defense.

“A similar thing happened when I did my rotation at BAMC in San Antonio because my grandfather worked there when he was in the army. It was really cool, again, to see places he had been,” Chaput said. “These bars are from my other grandfather – my  great-great grandfather wore them in World War II, my grandfather wore them in Vietnam, and now I get to wear them.”

Peppel, a School of Medicine graduate, also received his military bars during the ceremony. His parents had the pleasure of pinning them.

Specializing in emergency medicine, Peppel became interested in the military when he joined the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University during his undergraduate education. He envisioned himself joining the military for more than eight years, he said.

“Baylor has really developed me into a person who is able to empathize and care for a large range of patients in an emergency care setting and has developed me as a leader for the Air Force,” Peppel said. “Baylor has allowed me to develop myself into a physician who is able to lead, and I feel confident and able to help people in their vulnerable moments.”

Peppel will start his BAMC residency in San Antonio soon. Chaput will remain at Baylor for her residency in urology.

By Julie Garcia