Peter A. Sorensen, 72, of Columbia Falls died Nov. 27, 2022.
He was the eldest son born to Lucille and Ralph Sorensen in Wolf Point. After graduating from Wolf Point High School in 1969, he attended one year at Montana State University before entering the U.S. Army from 1971 to 1974 working as a 91-C, Advanced Medical Corpsman.
After leaving the U.S. Army, he returned to Montana State University, graduating with a bachelor of science in nursing in 1976. After graduating, he worked in the private sector in health care facilities, air ambulance, home health and in the small business environment.
In 1989, he entered the Air Force with an assignment to Holloman AFB, N.M., where he worked as a charge nurse. He was deployed to Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, where he found his niche in the readiness field. Following his return from Operation Shield/Storm, he returned to Saudi Arabia to set up a clinic in Riyadh. As it turns out, he spent more time in the theater than any other medic. His next assignment was to Kunsan AB, South Korea, where he was charge nurse for the emergency room for a year, then it was on to Pope AFB as a flight nurse. With this assignment came several deployments: Operation Vigilant Warrior, Operation Uphold Democracy, Cuba Operation Northern Watch, Saudi Arabia Operation Allied Forces, Operation Joint Endeavor and Bosnia.
He then went on to Yokota AB, Japan, as a flight nurse and became Chief of Standards and Evaluations. From there, he moved on to HQ AMC at Scott AFB, Ill., as Chief Joint Readiness Training Center AE section with primary training at Fort Polk, La. During his assignment, he augmented Air Operations Center at Ramstein AB in support of Operation Allied Force and Operation Shining Hope. Following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York, he worked the Crisis Action Team at HQ AMC, sourcing
