Brigadier General Timothy K. Adams took command of the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine in a ceremony at Fanshaw Field, Aberdeen Proving Ground, July 7.

Lieutenant General Eric B. Schoomaker, the Army surgeon general and commander of the U.S. Army Medical Command, passed the CHPPM colors to Adams from outgoing commander Col. Thomas M. Logan, who moves to the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, D.C., where he will serve as executive officer.

Schoomaker recognized CHPPM's contributions to Army Medicine and its disease and environmental health surveillance efforts in deployed locations.

"You are leading the effort in promoting wellness and preventive medicine in our patient population, which is exactly the path that ... the entire nation needs to take," said Schoomaker, the Army's top doctor. "And the scientists and specialists of CHPPM are [among] the heaviest deployed personnel in the Army-they operate in the remotest parts of the world inspecting, collecting samples, educating, analyzing and reporting-all in an effort to keep military service men and women safe and healthy."

The U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine's incoming commander echoed Schoomaker's thoughts.

"I know you to be a very professional, well respected and hardworking organization," Adams said. "I could not have asked to be entrusted with a better group of conscientious professionals."
Both speakers mentioned Schoomaker's recent decision to form an Army public health command as part of an overall Medical Command reorganization.

The U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine would be part of the new command, which when instituted will strengthen the Army's health promotion and disease and injury prevention programs.

The public health command is not expected to be fully operational for several years.

As USACHPPM commander, Adams has authority over an organization with worldwide presence, its headquarters located at APG and its five subordinate commands at Landstuhl, Germany; Camp Zama, Japan; Fort George G. Meade, Md.; Fort Sam Houston, Texas; and Fort Lewis, Wash. The U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Medical Command.

The center focuses on occupational and environmental health, prevention of disease and injury, and on communities or populations-Soldiers, their Family members and Army civilians, for example-rather than on individual patient care. Its almost 1,200 military and civilian personnel are experts in more than 50 scientific and technical disciplines.