Readiness – Navy Medicine

A Message from the Navy Surgeon General: Readiness, Health and Partnerships

KUANTAN, Malaysia (Aug. 4, 2016) Vice Adm. C. Forrest Faison III, surgeon general of the Navy, salutes sideboys as he arrives aboard hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19). During his visit, he met with Pacific Partnership 2016 personnel, toured Mercy and held an Admiral's Call where he answered questions from the crew. Mercy is in Kuantan in support of Pacific Partnership 2016, the first time Mercy and Pacific Partnership have visited Malaysia. During the mission stop, partner nations work side-by-side with local military and civilian organizations in a search and rescue exercise, civil engineering projects, community relation events and subject matter expert exchanges. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Hank Gettys/Released)

By Vice Adm. Forrest Faison, Navy surgeon general Shipmates, Navy Medicine is dedicated to the best readiness and health in the world and it is our mission to keep Sailors, Marines and their family ready, healthy and on the job. As your 38th Navy surgeon general, I understand the significance of quality care and the increasing role patients play in …

Know This Before Supplementing

A Marine reads the ingredients on the back of a dietary supplement sold in the Marine Corps Main Exchange aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, June 8. News of a supplement containing an illegal drug was passed by commands aboard MCB Camp Lejeune and multiple Marine Corps installations across the country.

By Leisha Ferguson, Public Health Educator, Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center Dietary supplements are used by more than half of the adult population in the United States.¹ Supplement usage continues to be a very hot topic in our military community. Whether it’s in the gym while working out or during lunch break with your colleagues; the topic of …

Linking Research with Military Women’s Health and Wellbeing

By Capt. Jaqueline D. Rychnovsky, NC, USN, commanding officer, Naval Medical Research Center SILVER SPRING, Md. – The number of women in the military has steadily increased over the years, and in January of this year, Congress mandated that military women be afforded the same opportunities for combat assignment as men. As a result, women could be serving in some …

The Mosquito Fighters: A Short History of Mosquitoes in the Navy – Part 3

Naval Hospital Widow’s Island, Maine, ca. 1900. For much of the nineteenth century patients suffering mosquito-borne disease would be sent to a special quarantine
facility for treatment. In 1887, the U.S. Navy opened a quarantine hospital on Widow’s Island for Yellow Fever patients. Soon seen as obsolete, the hospital
closed in 1901 without ever having treated a patient. The hospital was ceded to the state of Maine in 1903 where it was used as a psychiatric asylum.

By André B. Sobocinski, historian, BUMED “Dryness, coolness, fresh air, sunshine, cleanliness of body, clothes and bedding, good food, pure water, temperance, refreshing sleep, occupation exercise, cheerfulness, and contentment of mind…” ~A Recipe for Good Health by Medical Inspector Albert Gihon, USN, 1871 For much of the nineteenth century the United States was losing a war to an overlooked threat. …

The Mosquito Fighters: A Short History of Mosquitoes in the Navy – Part 2

Vintage sketch of Key West, Ca 1830s. Courtesy of the Naval History and Heritage Command

By André B. Sobocinski, historian, BUMED When you … arrive at Thompson’s Island you will investigate with utmost care the origins, progress and present state of the sickness which prevails on the island and in the Squadron.” ~Secretary of the Navy Samuel Southard to Commodore John Rodgers, October 1823 W hen the United States acquired the Spanish colony of Florida …