Jose Albert Rivera – Lieutenant Colonel, United States Army

In 1989, Maryland newspapers published the obituary of “Dr. Jose Albert Rivera, pathologist, analyst, 78,” which read:

Dr. Jose Albert Rivera, 78, a retired Army pathologist and research analyst at National Institutes of Health  died of pancreatic cancer, Wednesday, August 16, 1989, at the Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. He lived in Kensington, Maryland [at 3913 Dunnel Lane]. Dr. Rivera retired in 1973 from a second career as a medical research analyst at the Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness, one of the NIH, where he worked after retiring from the Army in 1965.

Born in Lima, Peru, Dr. Rivera studied medicine at the University of San Marcos. He moved to the United States to study at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, earning his undergraduate degree there. He earned his doctoral degree from Georgetown University in 1939 and interned at Providence Hospital.

In 1942, he volunteered for the Army and was commissioned a First Lieutenant in the medical corps. He was stationed at Walter Reed Army Hospital and later assigned to Halloran General Army Hospital in New York.

In 1944, while acting as chief of pathology at Halloran, he was promoted to captain and went on a series of  assignments in Italy and France and at the 198th General Army Hospital in Berlin.

During the Korean War he served in the 1273rd Medical Field Unit of the 406th Medical General Laboratory and received a battlefield promotion to Major. After the war, he was chief of laboratory service and pathology at the U.S. Army Hospital in Tokyo.

In 1958, he was assigned to the Reserve Training Center in Washington D.C., where he remained until his retirement in 1965.

Dr. Rivera was active in many civic organizations and charities. His favorites were the Epilepsy Foundation of America, the Reserve Officers Association of the United States and the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States.

Dr. Rivera is survived by two daughters, Linda Rivera-King of Abington,  Pennsylvania, and Natalie Rivera Frederick of San Ramon, California, and three grandchildren. His wife, Anne J. Rivera, to whom he was married for 52 years, died in 1988. Services were held at Fort Myer Chapel, with burial at Arlington National Cemetery.”

Michael Robert Patterson

Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.

Reviewed by: Michael Howard