Exactly Where He Wants to Be

In both his military and medical careers, Skip Hadaway has helped make many peoples’ lives better

by AMBER E. WILMAN

Skip at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Headhunter in Baghdad, Iraq, during 2004.

T

o be an American soldier, one has to be a truly selfless human. It takes someone who believes that the United States, as a country, and the people who call her home are worth sacrifice even unto death. Individuals who take on the role of soldier set out on a hero’s quest. Everyone is familiar with the hero’s quest; it surfaces in all forms of media. It can be found in literature, television, film, and music. Skip Hadaway is a selfless soldier for whom people can root. His medical career is fueled by a motivation to serve people, and patriotism is the greater ideal for which he quests. For him, life imitates art.

Several years ago, Skip was given a skydiving trip as a gift. It was something he never got to do while in the Army, and it was on his bucket list. He compares that first jump to a first date. It was exciting but he wasn’t sure if he liked it. He completed two more jumps and decided to get certified. Unfortunately, during his sixth solo jump, he bruised the meniscus in both knees on landing. The injury ended his skydiving career, but not the lessons he learned from it.

Skip and Ethan enjoy a relaxing Carnival cruise during the summer of 2019.

During the free fall, Skips says that you are thinking of everything you have to do to stay stable. You have to make sure no one is near you. You’re watching your altitude and hoping your parachute opens when you deploy it. Given his education and professional experience, this seems to be a metaphor for Skip’s life. 

Act I. The young hero embarks on a 24-year journey with the Arkansas Army National Guard. 

For the first 19 years, Skip was an infantryman or the literal boots on the ground. He achieved rank of Captain before resigning his commission in 1999. However, Skip returned to active service in 2003, but he did not want to return as an officer. Instead, he flew helicopters for five years and retired in 2007 as Sergeant First Class.

Andrew Lourens and Skip spent New Year 2020 playing games with the family.

Skip explains that he is most proud of carrying on a family tradition. “Both of my grandfathers and an uncle served in World War II. My father and three uncles served during Vietnam, and I just continued that tradition.”

While serving his country, Skip did two training deployments. The first in 1989 to North Umberland, England. He trained with a territorial army as part of a United States-United Kingdom exchange program. Then in 1990, Skip traveled to Honduras where he trained with the 11th Honduran Infantry Battalion. From 2003 to 2005, he served the 1st Battalion 153rd Infantry which was part of the 39th Brigade Combat Team of Arkansas Army National Guard. They were attached to the 3rd Brigade of 1st Cavalry Division out of Fort Hood. During his 24-year career, Skip was stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia, Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Fort Rucker, Alabama, and Fort Hood, Texas.

Act II. The hero, a seasoned veteran, chooses health care.

During December 2019, Maci and Skip attended the PGHS Championship Game at AT&T Stadium.

In 1996, while still serving in the Guard, Skip graduated from Texarkana College with an Associate of Applied Science in Nursing. He worked for Wadley Regional Medical Center in the Surgical and Neurosurgical ICUs.  Skip left the hospital and went to work for Texarkana Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgical Associates as a surgical and clinical assistant. While employed there, Skip graduated from Texas A&M University-Texarkana with a Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences with a concentration in Administrative Leadership. In 2012, Skip moved to Heart and Lung Specialists of Arkansas where he worked as a cardiovascular clinical manager and a surgical and clinical assistant. 

While attending Ryan and Jossie Hadaway’s wedding in June 2020, Skip visits with his father, Al Hadaway.

Skip started his medical career as a respiratory therapist, but he was only allowed to do 40 percent of what he was trained to do. He noticed that nurses had more freedom and responsibility. Keeping his dad’s words in mind, he went into nursing. As a nurse, he was doing 90 percent of his respiratory training and 60 percent of his nursing training. Working with heart surgeons allowed him further autonomy because he was doing 90 percent of all his training. Nurse Practitioner was the next logical step.

So in 2015, the hero graduated from Walden University with an M.S. in Nursing. With degree in hand, Skip went to work for De Kalb Physicians Clinic as a Family Nurse Practitioner. For the last six years, he has worked part-time in the emergency department at Wadley Regional Medical Center through Texarkana Emergency Physicians and Schumacher Clinical Partners.

Despite having 400 hours of college credit, which could have made him a doctor twice over, Skip didn’t want to be on call constantly. “I have a larger impact on trying to make peoples’ lives better,” he explains.

While Skip always kept his military and nursing careers separate, the two gave him diversity in his life. He could easily use his medical knowledge in his military career, rendering first aid if no medics were available or supporting medics if they needed assistance.

In 2018, Skip and reconnected with his high school sweetheart, Sheila Jones.

“My dad always said you could be a subject matter expert in one thing, and if that thing goes away, your job goes away. But if you are good at a hundred things, you will always have options,” Skip says.

Every specialty has different positives and negatives, but Skip’s favorite part of medicine is seeing people positively respond to therapy or treatment and get better and have a better quality of life.  “It’s called practicing, because in medicine, there is no final event. It’s always trial and error because every day is different,” Skip says. “Nothing is instantaneous. Most of the time treatment takes days if not weeks. It is all dependent on the effort that the patient puts in. Once we give them advice, it is up to them to take it.”

While Skip is a hero the people can root for, he is also a hero who roots for people. Helping people is the motivation for everything he does. “I’ve spent 24 years as a nurse and 25 years as a soldier. To be able to give back is what makes someone an American. It’s not selfish or for personal gain. It is for the betterment of everyone around you.”

Act III. The hero gets the girl and continues a life of service.

Act III of Skip’s life is still being written. In 2018, he reconnected with his high school sweetheart after a 33-year separation. Together, Skip and Shelia have six children: Ryan Hadaway, 31; Lance Hadaway, 29; Eric Fair, 29; Cori Fair, 27; Ethan Hadaway, 17; and Maci Hadaway, 17. 

“We live in the greatest country in the world with the greatest freedom and ability to live a life that we create for ourselves. To be part of that, to have served people in every capacity makes me proud to be an American,” Skip says.

At 57, Skip says he is exactly where he wants to be. Every film buff and avid reader knows that the story doesn’t end when the credits roll or with the author’s acknowledgements. Viewers and readers have to stay tuned for the sequel. In this life imitating art scenario, the quest continues.