Molar express: When Army calls, local dentist goes
| Monday, Jun 22 2009 05:00 PM
Last Updated Monday, Jun 22 2009 05:00 PM
When someone volunteers to do the right thing for his country, it's never just one person's sacrifice. Consider the case of Steve Klein, a Bakersfield dentist and Army reservist, who goes wherever the military sends him to fill what needs filling, cap what needs capping and root canal what needs root canaling.
Klein does it because he loves his country, but his family is just as patriotic. They let him go and get along as best they can. There's his wife, Julie, his kids, Benjamin and Paige.
Then there's Klein's best friend, John Petrini, (not the late local attorney) who isn't in the military himself but still does his bit by driving from San Francisco when Klein is gone to see his buddy's patients.
Last Tuesday Klein, 51, flew into William M. Thomas Air Terminal after spending three months at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin practicing dentistry. Some might chafe at leaving family behind. Not Klein.
"We live in a cynical world," Klein said. "When someone speaks from the heart, it sounds cornball. History is my hobby and being in the Army plugs you into a larger world and something greater than yourself."
For Klein, it started a year before 9/11. He had received some fliers from the Army and was intrigued. He'd missed Vietnam, but felt military service was important. Klein joined the reserves and hasn't looked back.
Klein's gone one weekend every month, two weeks a year and for three months every five years.
"The first time in the unit, an old- time dentist put his arm around my shoulder and said, 'Don't worry, we never get called up,'" Klein said.
Sometimes that's all it takes. Confidence and a lousy prediction. Most of us can do that.
After 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan and the massive deployment, there was a demand for the human infrastructure that makes soldiering possible.
Klein, originally from Cleveland, went from reading about history to participating in it. He volunteered for humanitarian missions in Haiti, Guatemala and Honduras. He worked on an Indian reservation in South Dakota where American Indians still talk about Wounded Knee.
"Sometimes in the Army, you feel like you have walked into a movie," Klein said. "In Haiti, there were snipers on the roof. At the clinic, where these desperately poor people were waiting to see us (dentists), they locked arms so no one could cut into line."
The work hasn't just been about history.
"I found that people in other countries are grateful for Americans," he said. "The sense is that we are a force for good."
Klein's visit to Germany may have been his most memorable. Due to his faith, Klein had that sense of dread Jews sometimes have on their first trip to Germany. "On a walking tour in Berlin, I ended up at the largest synagogue in Europe," he said. "Inside were pictures of German police officials. After (Hitler's private army) tried to burn down the synagogue, the police officials ordered firemen to put out the blaze."
The synagogue still stands. So do a lot of other things.
Klein's march through history, as personally fulfilling as it may be, would not be possible without some heroism back here on the ground.
Julie, his wife, and Klein's staff are left to scramble when he leaves. Just as important, there is John Petrini, a dentist in San Francisco. He's busy. He is also on the team.
When Klein is gone, Petrini travels down I-5 with his wife, Cindy, in his 40-foot Itasca Horizon motor home, parks it in front of Klein's house in Rosedale, borrows Klein's gray Camry and takes over the practice, seeing patients on Friday and Saturday. Gratis.
"He's my best friend and it's my country too," Petrini said.
Petrini has been doing this since 2004, each time for three months. Petrini calls his latest visit, his second tour of duty.
"Whenever he calls, I'm available," Petrini said. "I have a son who is a dentist in the Navy, stationed in Okinawa."
Klein's home. No one is happier than 13-year-old Benjamin and Paige, 9. Julie is getting used to the idea.
