The concept of mentorship finds its origins in Homer’s Odyssey. In this epic, the goddess Athena assumes the form of Mentor, a trusted and loyal friend, to provide counsel to young Telemachus and his father the veteran hero Odysseus.¹ Athena’s divine guidance was adaptive, evolving to meet the specific developmental needs and life stages of each protagonist.
That model remains a cornerstone of modern surgical training and practice. To explore this further, we interviewed military surgeons across the career spectrum—from residents to retired senior officers. Their experiences confirmed the classical archetypes described by Homer within military medicine. In this context, mentorship is not a mere academic exercise but an operational imperative. It serves as the primary mechanism for sustaining the surgical mission, ensuring the transmission of clinical wisdom and radical accountability required for practice in-garrison as well as in deployed environments.
Effective mentors are trusted advisors in bidirectional relationships, distinct from the narrower scopes of advising or coaching, though they may employ strategies from both fields.² This underscores the fundamental requirement for trust in the mentoring relationship. Through sharing each other’s lived experiences, an effective mentor can better know what their charge really needs, and their charge will be more likely to follow advice even if it seems counter to their desires. The most effective mentors dynamically transition from providing a foundation, or scaffold, for the novice to providing high-level challenges for the expert. In the process, both parties are changed.
Mentorship Archetypes Across Surgical Life Stages
Starting Out
Telemachus doubted himself and needed a push out the door, not only for his safety but also to grow and develop into the person he needed to be for his family. For junior trainees, mentors must act as guides, logicians, and emotional anchors. Early in a military medical career, some of the most important guidance may not directly relate to surgery. An Army general surgeon reflected on what it meant to arrive at an interview rotation as a fourth-year medical student with no idea how to wear a uniform correctly. A retired Army orthopaedic surgeon stepped in to help. Rather than dismissing the young surgeon's problem or criticizing the student, this mentor provided direct guidance at the level the mentee needed.
Seeing Potential We Can't See
To help him overcome his self-doubt, Athena frequently reminded Telemachus of his heritage. We all remember someone telling us, through words or actions, that ‘we got this,’ even when we ourselves did not think so. A former Air Force surgeon described a mentor who provided "out-loud mentorship and sponsorship" during their second year of residency—a period marked by significant professional uncertainty. This Associate Program Director invested in the trainee’s potential before the trainee fully recognized it themselves. "He saw something in me that I could not see in myself." Through sponsorship and encouragement employed at a critical juncture, the mentor facilitated growth that exceeded the trainee's own self-expectations.
Advocacy and Institutional Protection
Effective mentorship also involves institutional advocacy. For trainees, this may manifest as a "benign dictatorship," where mentors mandate clinical exposures that provide long-term benefits not immediately apparent to the mentee. During the operational disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, one Program Director protected surgical residents’ education by resisting administrative pressures to reassign them to non-surgical roles. These efforts, often performed without fanfare, ensured that the training pipeline remained intact despite external crises. Only after we returned to work in full did we learn how much time and energy they spent protecting their residents’ education.
These stories underscored a unique theme in military surgery: the mentor’s duty to prepare surgeons for deployment and caring for those in harm’s way. Innovative clinical care, academic productivity, and hospital-based leadership are important, but what sets military surgeons apart is the focus on caring for warfighters. A tent or a ship, a small team, and a patient whose lives depend on a surgeon’s knowledge, skills, and abilities.
Accountability Without Humiliation
For the seasoned practitioner, mentorship transitions from nurturing to strategic refinement and heightened accountability. Athena tested Odysseus’s "force and fighting heart,” but also curbed his hubris. Military mentors must balance autonomy with oversight. In military environments with minimal redundancy and few checks on a surgeon’s decision-making, the margin for error is razor-thin, and mistakes carry profound consequences.
One surgeon recalled a critical documentation error made during a period of exhaustion as a junior resident. Their trauma staff attending used the moment to communicate expectations with professional kindness. They “communicated expectations in a kind way that made it clear that I needed to meet these expectations for the good of our patients. [They] showed me the detail with which I should approach every single patient... personally reviewed every single order, image and note to care for the patients as if they were family." The mentor modeled the standard of care required for the military surgical community.
Another example of "leading by example" involved a mentor who would quietly adjust patient IV fluids overnight and notify the residents via text. This act provided a silent but powerful standard of vigilance. By correcting the error without shaming the resident, the mentor established an internal benchmark for professional excellence and self-measurement.
Paying It Forward
Athena's investment in Telemachus was meant for more than Telemachus himself; it was about what he would eventually do for others. The pipeline matters as much as any individual within it. How she held Odysseus accountable at the epic’s end provides testament to that long-sighted approach.
A resident we interviewed exemplifies this continuum. Having transitioned from nurse to surgeon through the guidance of others, they now mentor others navigating commissioning and medical school pathways. This commitment ensures that when a surgeon is eventually deployed to a remote theater, they know they will not stand alone. They carry with them the collective wisdom, discipline, and radical responsibility of the mentors who preceded them.
For military surgeons, mentorship is a sacred trust, serving as the essential conduit for the transmission of clinical wisdom and the continuation of a long line of healers entrusted to care for those in harm’s way. For the good of our patient and our profession, every military surgeon bears a charge to pay this investment forward, ensuring that those who follow in our footsteps never stand alone in the operating room.
Afterword
We recently bid farewell to Norman Minner Rich, MD, FACS, DMCC. Though I never met Dr. Rich in person, I had the honor to receive an award bearing his name and have served alongside many surgeons trained by him or his mentees. On reflection for this article, I was struck by how likely it is that everyone reading this has benefited, to some extent, by his mentorship and sponsorship. It also reinforces that despite struggles and diversions off one’s intended path, with some help we can all find our way home. Thank you, Dr. Rich. For more information about Dr. Rich and his legacy, read the June ACS Brief article.
