DPT Alumna Soars With the U.S. Navy

Dr. Daphne “Pole” Ryan caught her innate value for service learning and serving those who serve from her parents: Her father was a cardiothoracic surgeon in the U.S. Army and her mother was a physical therapist.

For years, the Regis alumna has soared with the U.S. Navy as an embedded physical therapy (PT) contractor. She has developed spine and musculoskeletal intervention specifically for the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Air Force, helicopter and large airframe pilots. She also teaches flight surgeons and Aeromedical Safety Officers who are deployed with aviation squadrons how to help their active duty effectively, while staying within their medical scope.

Dr. Ryan graduated from Regis University with a Master of Science in Physical Therapy in 2002 and completed her Doctorate in Physical Therapy in 2003. She spent two years at the University of Colorado under Dr. Roger Enoka obtaining a Masters of Kinesiology prior to Regis. Desiring to further expand her skill set, she applied to the Regis Physical Therapy program.

Dr. Ira Gorman was her mentor here at Regis, and the fact that they both share roots from New York State made that a perfect match. Dr. Gorman encouraged what was possible for Dr. Ryan, including running, and winning, Student Delegate for APTA Student Assembly. From there, she served on numerous APTA national and state Board of Directors and task forces and 15 years in the House of Delegates.

In 2005, Dr. Ryan moved to Washington state, where a series of fortuitous career moves and work with supportive mentors eventually brought her to working with the Navy. She took a job as an embedded PT as a contractor at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Oak Harbor, WA, in 2017; she served as a civilian PT for whom active duty could have direct access in aviation medicine.

“I am so grateful for my Regis University education,” explains Ryan. “If I had not made the most of the opportunities that came into my life every day, I would not have been able to step up to the challenge of the U.S. NAVY aviation community when it came calling.”

Dr. Ryan’s skill set for treating pain from a spine pain perspective was quickly appreciated, and the flight line and fighter jet pilots wanted her to learn their language. A partnership was born, and as CDR Jeffrey “Gazer” Pinkerton and LCDR Taylor “Dory” Burton say, “lightning struck with Doc Ryan.”

The pilots wanted Dr. Ryan to understand what their neck and backs went through in the fighter jet and the Search and Rescue helicopter to provide better interventions for the aviators and maintainers on the flight line. Her 10 years of mentoring and 900 North American Institute of Orthopaedic Manual Therapy Inc. (NAIOMT) hours set her apart from the entry-level military and other contract PTs. The pilots appreciated a provider who believed them, and gave them help that helped. They brought her into their circle of trust. She was able to use her hands and knowledge to get pilots back in the jet, out of pain, and maintainers back to their safety tasks in only one to two days, and not two to four weeks of waiting for referrals, for an appointment or being given the wrong interventions.

“Because I had worked with Tim Noteboom and paid attention to Jim Elliot’s MRI research on fatty deposits in whiplash, it was an easy correlation to make with pilots,” says Dr. Ryan. “They hurt because they were getting weaker and weaker. They needed strengthening, not stretching. It’s physics, anatomy and science!”

Dr. Ryan eventually became the first — and only — contractor from the medical side of the Navy to be granted permission to ride in the F/A-18 and other two-person airframes. She received a four-year Naval Air Training and Operating Procedures Standardization (NATOPS) designation as a Project Specialist. She did the upside-down in the water dunker to pass her All Qual Swim Physical nine times; for comparison, the actors in the film Top Gun: Maverick only did it once.

“I’ll never forget that first barrel roll and 7.5 G’s hitting the G suit and starting to tunnel out as the blood pools out of the brain,” recalls Ryan.

Dr. Ryan has flown in the F/A-18 three times to date, including the Top Gun: Maverick mission scene shown at the end of the movie. The route is through the dip in a mountain called Glacier Peak in North Cascades National Park. When she flew on a night mission with Naval Air Station Lemoore’s search and rescue helicopter, they let her hang outside the helicopter on the hoist — at 10,000 feet, in the snow, with night vision goggles on and above bear tracks!

These experiences just help Dr. Ryan to further respect her patients:

“My pilots and aircrew do have a fantastic experience as a military pilot. Yet their bodies, emotions, and time away from their families takes a toll. I hope to be able to serve them and make their load just a bit lighter."

Together with Dr. Jeffrey Jones and Baylor University and Rice University, Dr. Ryan published her observations of aviators in 2021. She will continue to teach at the U.S. Navy Aeromedical Conference in Pensacola and will be training Training Wing 5 and 6, as well as Marine Aircraft Wing 2, with 31 squadrons later this year. She is a constant resource for Commanding Officers and their squadrons on land, in air or on the boat.