From Immigrant Roots to Admiral Rank

As Donald Sze of the Class of 1986 planned for military retirement, his phone kept buzzing with calls and voicemails. When he returned it, the voice on the other end said he was selected to be an admiral for the US Navy. 

“Half of me wanted to believe that,” he said, “and the other half of me was thinking it was a scam, waiting for the other shoe to drop and get asked for my credit card info.” 

That moment never came, and instead, Sze was confirmed by the Senate for promotion to Rear Admiral (lower half) in July 2020. 

“According to Google, I think I'm the fifth Chinese American to make the Navy Admiral, and I'm the second naturalized Chinese American Admiral in the Navy of any specialty,” he said. 

Born in China, Sze came to the US after his father immigrated with just $100 in his pocket and worked tirelessly for two years—taking only a single day off—to bring his family over. They settled in Santa Monica, California, where his family opened a restaurant. After school, Sze worked there alongside them. He later enrolled in the University of Southern California, where he spent his first two years as an undeclared major. That changed after a conversation with a fellow student, who later became his wife. She asked him what he wanted to be, and he answered, a doctor, with his dentist uncle in mind. “That’s the only thing I knew,” he said. “I was an accidental dentist.”

But once he said it out loud, he committed to it. He enrolled in the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, now Rutgers School of Dental Medicine (RSDM), married his college sweetheart, and finished as third in the class. “I piqued in dental school,” he said. He joined the Jewish fraternity Alpha Omega as the chapter’s vice president, which had members of varying backgrounds. He was also the secretary and treasurer of the student government and the vice president of his class for all four years. 

Afterward, he went to Seton Hall at Jersey City Medical Center for his oral and maxillofacial surgery certification. He became an attending oral surgeon at Jersey City Medical Center and joined the private practice of the program director. Missing California with its weather and perpendicular streets, he returned to his home state as the last  Branemark surgical implant fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles. After the fellowship, he started working in the program director’s practice. But he craved for a change. He followed his sister’s path to VA, where he was an oral & maxillofacial attending for 27 years  and joined the Navy Reserve shortly after.

In the Navy, his military career quickly advanced. In three years, he got promoted to commander. “I said, wow, this is great. I'm the same as 007.” Over the next decade, he took on numerous leadership roles, from commanding dental units to serving as chief of staff in expeditionary medical teams capable of setting up hospitals anywhere in the world. During a deployment to Germany as the commanding officer, his team treated wounded service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.  When he returned home himself, he joined Third Fleet in San Diego, California, as the reserve fleet surgeon. “I was the subject matter expert for all things medical that had to deal with the Third Fleet,” he explained. 

Then he got the call for admiral. He was appointed the medical officer for the Marine Corps Reserve, deputy director of Navy Support Command, and later, the commander of Navy Expeditionary Medicine, setting policies and training not only for the dental corps but for all the Navy medicine. Among many of his decorations in his military career are the 2005 Rear Admiral Vaughn Memorial Award for Outstanding Reserve Dental Officer of the Year, two Legion of Merit, four Meritorious Service Medals, and three Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals, and two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals. Sze recently retired after 26 years in the military. 

“You will surprise yourself time over and over again,” he said as he reflected on his journey. “Don't let the name dental school or medical school scare you, just like don't let the military scare you. Never be afraid of the unknown and already condemn yourself that you're not capable of doing.”