On the eve of being drafted into the Army to serve as a M.A.S.H. surgeon in Vietnam, Dr. Sims was offered a commission in the U.S. Public Health for assignment in Anchorage, Alaska.

But, he soon learned that he was being transferred from Anchorage to work as the only physician in Nome. There, he would have the awesome responsibility of rendering medical care under archaic conditions to the population of this frontier town plus thirteen Eskimo villages in the surrounding Norton Sound area.