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In June 1969, Group Health Cooperative and the University of Washington School of Medicine collaborate on a program to re-train military medics returning from Vietnam as professional paramedics.

UW public health professor Dr. Richard Smith conceived the effort. He enlisted Group Health's Dr. Robert Monroe as an early and enthusiastic collaborator. The program's first African American participant, Richard Turnipseed, was later trained and employed at Group Health.

Sources: Walt Crowley, To Serve the Greatest Number: A History of Group Health Cooperative of Seattle (Seattle: GHC/University of Washington Press, 1995), 127.

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