Lanny Hunter is a native of Dodge City, Kansas, born in the midst of the Dirty Thirties during the Great Depression. He received a Bachelor of Science Degree from Abilene Christian College (1958), his Doctor of Medicine from the University of Kansas (1963), and completed an internship at Ben Taub General Hospital, Houston, Texas (1964). Drafted in 1964, he volunteered for the United States Army Special Forces as a Medical Officer. He served a tour-of-duty in Vietnam with the 5th Special Forces Group in 1965/66. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Bronze Star-V, the Air Medal, the Purple Heart, and the Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Gold Star. Returning home, he continued his post-graduate medical education and established the Northern Arizona Dermatology Center in 1971 in Flagstaff, Arizona and spent forty-five years in the consultation room and operating theater. During that period, he served as President of the Medical Staff for Flagstaff Medical Center and on the hospital’s Board of Trustees.
Hunter’s life-long avocation is writing. His scientific articles and theo-philosophical essays have been published in academic literature. Five books, including a novel (some co-authored with his brother, Victor) have been published. He has also lectured in medical, military, secular, religious, spiritual, and church settings. Hunter is uniquely qualified to write Exit Wounds. He has lived the experience of war, speaking of “war is hell,” but noting the obverse, “war as heaven.” He has confronted Clinical Depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and wrestled with questions of duty, responsibility, ethics, and spirituality. He is a confessing Christian, but holds his faith with a light hand . . . not triumphantly . . . writing about it as, “The damnedest story you ever heard.” He captures the ambiguity of the Vietnam War when he writes, “Sometimes, Vietnam seems like the good old days.” In this world of meat-eaters, he is not a pacifist. Guns up!
Lanny and his wife, Carolyn, a historian and university professor, have been married sixty-five years and have four children and four grandchildren. They retired to Denver, Colorado in 2017.
