By Martin Zeilig
Captain Cleve Kim, who works at 23 Health Services, has known since he was in grade seven that, as he says, “I wanted to be a dentist.”
He did not know, however, that it was going to be in the Canadian Armed Forces, as he said during an in-person interview with The Voxair in late November.
A native Winnipegger, Capt Kim, who has been practicing dentistry for eight years now, studied at the Dr. Gerald Niznick College of Denistry University of Manitoba.
“We had a recruitment presentation at the dental school in my first year, he said.
“That’s when I found out that the CAF needed dentists. All dentists in the military do their education in civilian schools. In my case, I did have my education partially paid for. I didn’t go into the military until my third year of dental school. It’s a four-year program.”
Capt Kim is enjoying life as a member of the CAF.
“It’s more than I expected,” he said.
“One of the big draws for dental students joining the military is having our school fees paid. There is always that promise of adventure that you don’t get as a civilian dentist. I figured that ‘Hey, that was worth a try.’”
Capt Kim got married in 2022 while based on the West Coast.
“Then, we moved here to Winnipeg,” he said, noting that his wife works as a dental hygienist at the clinic, side-by-side with him.
One of the major highlights of his career, so far, has been a three-month deployment in 2022 onboard the United States Navy’s hospital ship, COMFORT, one of two such U.S. naval ships. They provide floating, mobile, acute surgical medical facilities when called upon to the U.S. military, and hospital services to support U.S. disaster relief and humanitarian operations worldwide, notes online information from the U.S. Navy.
The other such ship is the Mercy.
Capt Kim was asked if he wanted to go on one of these missions just two months before it departed.
“It was out-of-the blue,” he offered.
“I had very little time to prep and get ready for this mission.”
The port stops were Puerto Barrios, Guatemala; Puerto Cortes, Honduras; Cartagena, Columbia; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Jeremie, Haiti.
“Typically in the past the mission carried out by these hospital ships is to provide medical and dental services to populations in need in Central America and the Caribbean,” Capt Kim explained.
“The big reason for this is because the U.S. government is trying to strengthen their relationship with these Central Caribbean and Central American countries. They have been doing this under the mission name of Continuing Promise since 2020.”
Besides himself, there were six other CAF medical personnel from across the country the mission, four medical personnel and three dental personnel.
“The way they incorporated us was to throw us into different departments,” Capt Kim continued.
“Medical personnel have a lot of different departments on the ship. They had radiology, optometry, plastic surgery, and other types of surgery. The three of us ended up being in the dental department. Even in the dental department, there are lot of different specialties that don’t exist in the CAF. We’re much more of a generalized dental provider.”
They boarded the ship, whose home base is in Norfolk, Virginia, in Miami, Florida.
“The ship is larger than any Canadian naval vessel,” Capt Kim pointed out, noting that there were 1100-1200 personnel onboard, including temporary non-military personnel, such as individuals from the civilian organization, Doctors Without Borders.
“I had my own bunk bed triple high with one hundred people in the room. The ship was originally built as a marine oil tanker. Because we were traveling to places that were underserved by medical services, they would be coming from hours away and would often wait in line the night before for hours to, potentially, see us.
“They were told from the beginning anybody is welcome but whether they can see you depends on the issue you’re presenting.”
Some people presented with some eye-opening issues, Capt Kim said.
For example, he recalls one man with “some form of very aggressive cancer” growing under his neck.
“I only saw him when I was walking into the medical site one day,” Capt Kim said.
“One patient that I saw, who was very thankful for us being there, had a big cavity on a front tooth. I ended up filling that cavity and doing a restoration. I gave that person a hand mirror afterward to see the results. After she saw what we had done, she was very happy and requested a photograph of us together. It made me feel good. That was in Guatemala.
“I was very grateful for being able to be sent on the mission, and to see all the other nations and meet all these lovely, fascinating people.”
He also observed that there were lovely murals at many of these medical sites from previous visits.
“Some of the patients had last seen medical and/or dental personnel on the ship’s last visit,” he said.
"When I was in Columbia, I became close to the translator. She brought me a gift of Columbian coffee. She was a dental student.”
Dr. Kim is also involved in Action Shooting.
“It’s something I picked up as a hobby during the COVID shutdown,” he said.
“Finally, in 2021 I took a competitor’s safety course in Victoria, B.C. during my first posting. This is to teach you how to compete with handguns. One of the reasons I took it was because it would make me feel more comfortable around firearms.”
The sport’s governing body is the International Practical Shooting Confederation.
The IPSC is recognized globally as the leading governing body in the field of practical shooting sports, encompassing disciplines such as handgun, rifle, shotgun, mini-rifle, and action air, says the IPSC website.
There are more than 200,000 shooting members in 89 countries worldwide. It organizes more than 350 high-level international matches around the globe.
“I have participated in a lot of competitions, both indoors and outdoors all over Canada,” Capt Kim said.
“There is a national championship in August here in Canada. I’m third in Manitoba in my division. Quite a few military members compete. The second highest in my division in Canada is a CAF Special Forces member.”
If he wants to do long-range shooting, then he has to ask friends, who have farmland, he added.
“I’ve met the most number of people through shooting,” Capt Kim commented.
They are some of the nicest and most welcoming people you’d want to meet.”
Just like him.
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