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Oral history interviews with Dr. John Fildes conducted by Claytee D. White on June 10, 2021 and April 12, 2022 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. Dr. John Fildes is Professor and Inaugural Chair of the Department of Surgery at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV). Fildes graduated from the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Medicine and Surgery in Manila, Philippines in 1982. Upon returning to the United States, he completed his residency in General Surgery at the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital in the South Bronx and a fellowship in Trauma, Burns, and Surgical Critical Care in Cook County. In 1995, Fildes was hired to come to Las Vegas, Nevada by Dr. Dale Harrison. Fildes instituted policies and procedures that proved to be effective when the 1 October shooting occured in 2017. All those alive upon arrival to University Medical Center (UMC) survived. Dr. Fildes and his team used all their skills, strategies, and medical acumen to ensure those results. In the second interview, Dr. Fildes continues his history by shared thoughts about the COVID-19 pandemic and his experiences with various governmental and military assignments, including the military tradition of passing the challenge coins as a token of admiration. Finally, Fildes concludes his interviews by noting that COVID was all-consuming and tested the balance between individual rights and public health.