Having spent years treating patients on ships and aircraft in many parts of the world, Dr. Radcliffe Coyle now offers medical services to people in Lillian, Alabama.

In October of 1995, Dr. Coyle opened Lillian Medical clinic which provides treatment for minor emergencies, as well as ongoing patient care.

"Our purpose is to give the people of Lillian somewhere to go for minor, urgent care, so that they don't have to drive to Pensacola or Foley," he said. "We also take regular patients who don't already have a doctor in the area."

Among the types of emergency treatment that Coyle provides are X-rays, laboratory work, and stitches. While he is the only doctor at the facility right now, the number of patients increases.

Coyle graduated from the University of Guadalajara, then went on to do post-graduate work in Texas. He was interning at Scott White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Texas, when he decided to "join the Navy before I got drafted".

While in the Navy, Coyle said he was the naval surgeon, then had some training in orthopedic medicine. He eventually decided to do his residency in aerospace medicine, and was based at Pensacola Naval Air Station, where he treated pilots. Later in his career, Coyle recalled that he went on to become a senior medical officer on aircraft carriers. During the min 1970s, he helped bring several groups of prisoners of war home from Vietnam after their release from enemy captivity. "I was one of the Navy doctors who helped bring them out of Hanoi," he said. "We would take them to Clark Air Force Base and then bring them home." He said former presidential candidate U.S. Sen. John McCain "was one of the boys I brought back."

Several years after that, when he was a senior flight surgeon at Point Magoo Naval Station in southern California, Coyle served as Ronald Regan's doctor when the former president stayed at his ranch.

When the time came to retire from the Navy, Coyle said he and his wife, Vicki, decided to settle in south Baldwin County because they considered it their home.

"I did my last tour here (in Pensacola) and we came back here often over the years," he said. "In 1990, we built a house on property in Lillian that we bought years ago."

Coyle said that neither he nor his wife, a former Navy nurse, liked being retired. So, after a short time they both resumed their medical careers. She works at South Baldwin Regional Medical Center in Foley and helps out at Lillian Medical Clinic.