Late last month, 35-year-old Florence B. Choe ‘mdash; a UCSD alumna who worked for the Naval Medical Center in San Diego ‘mdash; was shot and killed by an Afghan National Army soldier. Choe volunteered for duty in Afghanistan last summer to help create a health-care system for its army, even though her decision meant a year away from her husband and 3-year-old daughter.
Choe e-mailed colleagues and told them during a home visit a few weeks ago that she was excited about the mission’s progress. During her service at Navy hospitals in San Diego, Maryland and Okinawa, Choe earned a reputation for her hard work. She died at Forward Operating Base Shaheen in northern Afghanistan’s Balkh province, which borders Uzbekistan.
‘We’re all pretty much devastated,’ Cmdr. Con Yee Ling, a neonatologist at San Diego’s Naval Medical Center, said in a statement. ‘She went there on a humanitarian mission. We all expected her to come home.’
Choe, who was born in San Diego’s Navy hospital, earned her bachelor’s degree in biology at UCSD and a master’s degree in public health and health-care administration at San Diego State University. ‘ A few days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Choe went to the Navy recruiter and was commissioned five months later.
She is survived by her husband Lt. Cmdr. Chong ‘Jay’ Choe, a urology resident at the medical center, their 3-year-old daughter Kristin, her mother and father ‘mdash; a retired Navy culinary specialist ‘mdash; Francisca and Rufino Bacong, and two brothers, Ruffy and Ron Bacong. Choe and her husband lived in El Cajon.