Scope and Contents

The collection consists of approximately 8.5 linear feet of materials documenting the life of Dr. (Captain) Richard F. Bergstrom. Dr. Bergstrom served with the U.S. Army as an orthopedic surgeon with the 22nd Surgical Hospital and the 85th Evacuation Hospital in Phu Bai from 1968-1969. His duties included treating casualties from the Battle of Hamburger Hill (Hill 937). The materials include journals, correspondence, post cards, flyers/pamphlets, certificates, meeting minutes and agendas, notes, a yearbook, photographs, audiovisual records, electronic media, and artifacts. The materials are dated 1952-2022.

Biographical / Historical

Dr. (Captain) Richard Frederick Bergstrom was born on June 19, 1941 outside of Onawa, Iowa. He worked every day on the family farm and he was valedictorian of his high school class. He graduated from Iowa State in 1963 as a history major. An Army ROTC cadet in college, Dr. Bergstrom was commissioned as an artillery officer in 1963, but deferred his active-duty obligation to attend medical school at the University of Iowa.

While at medical school, he met Sheryl Bergstrom (nee Kuhl) of Aberdeen, South Dakota. They were married on February 4, 1967. After finishing medical school, the Army called him to active duty. He completed an internship in St. Petersburg, Florida, and did on-the-job orthopedics training before being sent to Vietnam in December 1968. He served with the 22nd Surgical Hospital and the 85th Evacuation Hospital in Phu Bai until the end of September 1969. Of note, Dr. Bergstrom treated casualties from the infamous battle of Hamburger Hill (Hill 937).

After leaving active duty as a captain, Dr. Bergstrom completed a general surgery residency in St. Louis followed by an orthopedics residency from 1971 to 1974 at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. He completed a hand surgery fellowship at the Kleinert Kutz Hand Center in Louisville, Kentucky. Dr. Bergstrom was the one of the first surgeons to successfully perform a multiple finger replantation (reattachment) surgery in Nebraska. Dr. Bergstrom practiced medicine for over 50 years, of which he spent over 40 years in Fremont, Nebraska.

Dr. Bergstrom’s Swedish heritage was an integral part of his life. He was fluent in Swedish and lived in Linköping, Sweden for a year while doing a fellowship in arthroscopic surgery. He co-authored and translated an orthopedics textbook from Swedish to English. Dr. Bergstrom passed away on October 14, 2022.