Pat Dollard | Young Americans

“It’s a terrible testament that sometimes I can’t tell whether I’m in Iraq or if I’m in West Philadelphia.”
- Major John P. Pryor, Battlefield Surgeon who volunteered to serve his country at time of war.

Courier Times:

An Army Reserves doctor from Moorestown, N.J., was killed in combat in Iraq on Christmas Day, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.

Major John P. Pryor, 42, died from wounds suffered when a mortar round exploded near his living quarters in the city of Mosul in northern Iraq. He had been serving as a battlefield surgeon with the 1st Medical Detachment, Forward Surgical Team based out of Fort Totten, N.Y.

Additional details about the circumstances surrounding Pryor’s death were not released.

“He was Moorestown’s finest. It doesn’t get any better than John,” said Moorestown Councilman Daniel Roccato, who spent time with Pryor this fall prior to his deployment on his second tour of duty to Iraq.

Pryor was deployed Dec. 6, according to his civilian employer, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where Pryor worked as trauma surgeon since 1999. He came to the hospital after completing medical school and his surgical training at the University of New York in Buffalo, according to a death notice distributed by the university.

“JP was a magical man, with boundless energy and goodness. He was a devoted son, husband, father, colleague and friend,” Dr. C. William Schwab, the university’s chief of Trauma and Critical Care, and Dr. James Mullen, interim chair of surgery, wrote in the notice. “He was an outstanding physician, gifted surgeon, teacher and mentor. At his core were many great values but his passion was (for) service to others and (he) gave back something to each and everyone of us, everyday.”

Pryor is survived by a wife and three children, according to the notice.