The Veteran Day ceremony in West Hartford will be held at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, 2015, rain or shine.

Submitted by Moe Fradette, Commander, American Legion Hayes-Velhage Post 96

Dr. Michael Gutman will be the guest speaker at West Hartford’s Veterans Day ceremony on Nov. 11, 2015. Submitted photo

Retired U.S. Army Lt. Colonel, Dr. Michael Gutman, will be the guest speaker for the 2015 Veterans Day Ceremony, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2015, 11 a.m., at the Connecticut Veterans Memorial West Hartford.

Dr. Gutman volunteered to join the US Army reserves shortly after 9/11 and received his commission as a Major on June 4, 2002. Over the next six years he was deployed three times to combat zones, twice to Iraq and once to Bosnia. He was part of the 405th Combat Support Hospital based in West Hartford and was the commander of the 947th Forward Surgical Team for three years.

On his first deployment to Iraq, Dr. Gutman served as the Battalion Surgeon at Abu Ghraib prison in ’03- ‘04. His second deployment was as Chief Medical Officer for the US contingent for the NATO forces based at Eagle Base in Tuszla, Bosnia in ’05-’06, and his final deployment was in Mosul in the waning days of the Iraq war in ’08-‘09 where he served as Chief of the Emergency Department in the 345th Combat Support Hospital.

Born in Israel, Dr. Gutman grew up in Canada and immigrated to the US in 1995. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Physiology and Psychology, PhD in Physiology and Medical Degree from the University of Western Ontario, London, Canada. He trained in Neurosurgery for 3 years in University of Toronto and then switched his discipline to Emergency Medicine finishing his training in Vancouver Canada at the University of British Columbia. He was an attending Emergency Physician at St. Francis Hospital from 1995 to 2014 and became Emeritus this past year. During his tenure at St. Francis Hospital he was Chief of Emergency Medical Services from ’98 to ’12.

In 2011 he and his wife Yahel Gutman, RN, opened New England Urgent Care and now have four Urgent Care Centers, located in West Hartford, Enfield, Simsbury and Bristol.

Dr. Gutman and his wife live in West Hartford and have four children ranging in age from 8 to 28. Because of their life experiences, they live in a spiritual and holistic manner, committing their lives to enriching themselves, their families and their communities.

The Connecticut Veterans Memorial West Hartford is a unique testimonial dedicated to all members of the Armed Services who served the United States beginning with the earliest conflict in our country’s history, the King Philip War, up to the present Global War on Terror.

This Veterans Memorial is a sculptural expression of time and emotion that commemorates the history of all wars. The Memorial is a circular Wall of Peace that salutes those who gave their lives for our country. The wall is constructed of blocks of polished black granite in the form of a circle. At each point along the wall when our Armed Forces went into conflict, the smooth circular wall is violently broken, and the names of the West Hartford veterans who gave their lives during that conflict are engraved on the Wall of Peace.

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