He went on tours at Walter Reed, the 210th General Hospital, Fort Gulick, Panama, the Army Regional Hospital, Fort Knox, Kentucky, and Tripler General Hospital, Hawaii. On May 28, 1944, he married Melda Kathryn (Kay) Dove of Winchester, Virginia. She would give birth to a daughter, Kathryn Jo, and a son, Odgen Carr, Jr. In 1946, Bruton went briefly into private practice in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, but he returned to Walter Reed that same year to serve as a consultant to the Army Surgeon General's Office.