After graduating in 1952, Dr. Hotz began practicing in Fonda, a small, southern Iowa farm town where some patients traded chickens for his services.
So the World War II fighter pilot went on reserve duty and enrolled at the University of Iowa to study dentistry.
As much as he liked the Navy, Philip Curtis Hotz was ready for something safer after being shot at by the Japanese at Okinawa and Iwo Jima.
Soon, he was having second thoughts about his future.
"He wanted to travel," said daughter Suzy Garrett. "And he didn't really like practicing in a tiny farm town."
Dr. Hotz returned to active status in the mid-1950s with the Navy Dental Corps and went on to serve in the Vietnam War before retiring in the early 1970s as a commander.
He died Dec. 13 at his home in Point Loma of complications from myeloplastic syndrome, a blood disorder that was diagnosed about two months ago, Garrett said. He was 80.
During World War II, Dr. Hotz earned a Distinguished Flying Cross and five Air Medals while flying Grumman Wildcat fighter planes in the Pacific. He served aboard the escort carrier Sargent Bay and logged 27 strikes over Okinawa and Iwo Jima.
He didn't expect to be a pilot when he joined the Navy at 17, a few months before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
While undergoing training as an aviation radioman in Great Lakes, Ill., Dr. Hotz scored high enough on tests to be recommended for flight training. And on Nov. 12, 1943, he graduated as an ensign and received his naval aviator wings in Pensacola, Fla.
While based aboard the Sargent Bay, Dr. Hotz flew artillery spotting and ground support missions, along with anti-aircraft and anti-submarine patrols, off the coast of Iwo Jima.
He performed similar duty during the Okinawa campaign.
When he returned to his Midwestern roots and enrolled at the University of Iowa, he was joined by his brother, J.J. Hotz, an Army Air Forces veteran who also became a dentist and practiced in Iowa.
After resuming active duty, Dr. Hotz served at various times in Hawaii, in Long Beach, at Camp Pendleton, in Bethesda, Md., in Great Lakes, Ill., in Japan and in San Diego.
During the Vietnam War, he served aboard the carrier Coral Sea. He received the Vietnam Service Medal and the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal.
Dr. Hotz and his wife, Marianne, settled in Point Loma upon his retirement. Within a year or so, he moved to Palm Springs to become a partner in a dental practice.
Living near a golf course, he polished a game that he had learned early in his naval career. In the early 1970s, he had a hole-in-one at Torrey Pines Golf Course, said daughter Jo Sindici.
Dr. Hotz returned to San Diego in the mid-1980s and settled into a leisurely retirement, playing chess, poker and golf and reading extensively – especially books on World War II.
"He also loved going to Las Vegas," Sindici said.
Dr. Hotz was born in Iowa City, Iowa, where he was raised from the age of 2 112 by his aunt. His parents died within a year of each other in their 30s, his father of a heart attack and his mother of pneumonia.
He played basketball at St. Mary's High School in Iowa City and graduated in the class of 1941.
His wife, a fellow native of Iowa City, died in 1986.
Survivors include his daughters, both of Point Loma; his brother, Dr. Hotz of Strawberry Point, Iowa; four grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Cremation was planned, with ashes to be scattered at sea.
