Rhonda Cornum


Rhonda L. Cornum is a former United States Army officer and the Director of Health Strategy for TechWerks. She is a surgeon, board-certified in urology having earned a doctorate in biochemistry and nutrition from Cornell University. Cornum worked at Letterman Army Institute of Research at the Presidio of San Francisco and entered the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland in 1982. She retired in 2012 as a U.S. Army brigadier general, the Director of Comprehensive Soldier Fitness in the Army Staff G-3/5/7 division.
She commanded the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, was president of her class at the National War College, and then became the command surgeon for United States Army Forces Command. As a brigadier general, she was U.S. Army Assistant Surgeon General for Force Protection before working in the joint soldier fitness program. Brigadier General Cornum retired on 31 January 2012.

Early life and education

After her training in biochemistry, she attended the national military medical school. During her studies, she met her future husband, Kory Cornum, who would have a parallel military career in the U.S. Air Force and also attain the rank of brigadier general.

Career

At the U.S. Army Aviation Center, Cornum both researched and worked as a flight surgeon at the United States Army Aviation Center of Excellence. Her interests were focused on the human factors of flight.

Persian Gulf War

As a flight surgeon with the 229th Attack Helicopter Regiment, then-Major Cornum was aboard a Black Hawk helicopter on a search and rescue mission, looking for a downed F-16 pilot, during the Persian Gulf War. When the helicopter was shot down on February 27, 1991, she suffered two broken arms, a broken finger, a gunshot wound in the back, and other injuries. After regaining consciousness, she said her first thought was "Nobody's ever died from pain."
Cornum was captured, made a prisoner of war, and sexually assaulted by one of her Iraqi captors. She was first taken to Basra and then held prisoner for a week in Baghdad and released on March 5, 1991. In addition, she was subjected, with other prisoners, to a mock execution. Nevertheless, when she was the senior-ranking prisoner, she took responsibility for other POWs. She later co-wrote a book about her experiences, She Went to War: the Rhonda Cornum Story, with Peter Copeland.
In an interview with the New York Times, she said the sexual assault "ranks as unpleasant; that's all it ranks....everyone's made such a big deal about this indecent assault, but the only thing that makes it indecent is that it was non-consensual. I asked myself, 'Is it going to prevent me from getting out of here? Is there a risk of death attached to it? Is it permanently disabling? Is it permanently disfiguring? Lastly, is it excruciating?' If it doesn't fit one of those five categories, then it isn't important." She continued, "there's a phenomenal amount of focus on this for the women but not for the men," citing that the "mistreatment of Major Jeffrey S. Tice of the Air Force, who had a tooth explode from its socket when he was tortured with jolts of electricity."
Cornum resumed her military career after she returned to the United States. She also served as the staff urologist at Eisenhower Army medical Center at Fort Gordon, Georgia.
She testified about this to the Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Services. Initially, she did not mention this abuse, at the request of her chain of command, when first repatriated. She gave additional detail in her book.

Awards and decorations

Cornum's decorations include the Army Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal, Purple Heart, Air Medal, and Prisoner of War Medal. She is one of only seven women in history to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross.