Carol Haertlein Sells, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professor of occupational therapy, recently finished a two-year stint in the Army where she helped set up a doctoral program for soldiers. Credit: COURTESY: Carol Haertlein Sells

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During Army boot camp two years ago, Carol Haertlein Sells looked around at the other 180 officer recruits in her class and did the math: She was the oldest by at least a decade.

At the time Sells was 58 and joining the military for the first time. It's not like her recruiter didn't know Sells' age, but it was the résumé of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee occupational therapy professor that was most noteworthy

And she did what she was recruited to do - help set up a new doctoral program for Army occupational therapists at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.

Now back in Wisconsin and teaching summer classes at UWM, Sells talked about the learning curve of trading academia for the military for two years.

"In the Army there are no secrets. Not only do they know your age, they know your weight," Sells joked.

Sells joined the Army in 2009 as part of a pilot program that allows qualified health care professionals to serve two years as commissioned officers.

The course for credentialed occupational therapists serving in the Army had already been developed when Sells reported for duty, but she was given the task of creating the teaching syllabus within a month, a very short turnaround. The 18-month doctoral program at Brooke, one of the U.S. military's state-of-the-art medical facilities, is only for Army occupational therapists, but the goal is to eventually extend it to other military branches.

Doctoral students take 63 credits over 18 months with only a week or two break between four semesters. A similar program in the civilian world would normally last 24 months with longer breaks. Sells taught 11 students in the doctoral program and supervised their independent research.

"It was very clinically oriented, so students spent a lot of time with wounded soldiers," Sells said, including amputees and troops recovering from burns, traumatic brain injuries and mental health issues.

The new doctoral program comes at a time when the military is increasingly relying on occupational therapists to staff traumatic brain-injury restoration centers in war zones as well as handle the growing use of pet therapy dogs assigned to combat-stress control units. Two of Sells' students are now in Afghanistan working at traumatic brain injury centers. The centers were established following a rule implemented last year that requires combat troops to leave battlefields for 24 hours after being exposed to a blast, to allow the brain to begin healing.

Occupational therapists work with patients who suffer hand and upper-extremity injuries and help troops with post-traumatic stress and anxiety issues. Many of the pet therapy dogs used by the military in combat zones are assigned to occupational therapists.

Sells said her students - who received their doctoral degrees through nearby Baylor University - will eventually command units and medical facilities.

"They'll all be moving into leadership roles, so it was a way to help shape the future," said Sells, now 60. "My students, in addition to being great occupational therapists, are really good soldiers. They all have a commitment to soldier care."

Maj. Scott Kulla was one of her students. He earned a degree in occupational therapy at UWM and served in the Wisconsin National Guard, deploying to Iraq in 2003-'04, before he decided to join the active Army. Kulla knew of Sells through UWM and was happy to hear she had joined the Army to implement the doctoral program.

"I was quite surprised to see she came here because it had to be a huge sacrifice for her," Kulla said in a phone interview from San Antonio. "She was able to bring a lot of common sense to everything we were doing and helped structure the courses."

Sells joined the Army as a captain and was promoted to major. Now that she has returned from her two-year UWM sabbatical, she's readjusting to civilian life. That means choosing something to wear besides a green uniform each day and being able to talk on a cell phone while walking, something that's not allowed in the Army. Military jargon has also crept into her vocabulary - during a recent lunch break she asked a UWM colleague if she wanted to grab some chow.

Though she could have extended her time in the Army, Sells wanted to return home to Wisconsin and continue teaching occupational therapy students at UWM. And she knew she had done what she set out to do - to help Army occupational therapists expand their knowledge and expertise.

"It was really a privilege every day to work with them. It was a privilege to serve in the Army," she said.

To read the Journal Sentinel story about when Carol Haertlein Sells joined the Army, go to jsonline.com/news/

milwaukee/41242517.html.