A Message from the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs
Dear Colleagues,
I opened my last couple of notes talking about the seasons. I suppose it reflects the susceptibility of my mood to the weather. When the days get warmer and the sunlight lasts longer, I always feel a renewed sense of optimism and energy. With fawns abounding and flowers blooming, Mother Nature reminds us that we are passengers, riding a beautiful, earthly cadence. Not surprisingly, humans have adapted their lives to this natural cadence—as the expression goes…you have to make hay while the sun is shining.
Summertime in the military means our operational tempo hastens, our PCS season begins, and academic years transition—for students of all ages. This flow phase of the annual cycle adds to your already busy life—the contrast of balancing barbecues and the beach with the burden of personnel gaps, deployments and drop-off schedules. For the military, summertime can feel like conducting an organizational orchestra, minding an unforgiving mission that doesn’t tolerate missing a note.
But like hay to the farmer, readiness is our yield. We make more of it while the sun is shining.
Medical readiness comes in many varieties—intellectual, physical, spiritual, procedural, technical. Together they culminate in combat readiness. As the global landscape becomes increasingly precarious, our preparatory measures become increasingly vital. We will fight the way we train. So this summer, whether we’re training on air, land, or sea, in the classroom or the operating room, we need to jealously extract the most from every experience—you never know when you’ll need to draw from that experiential well. My best memories from active duty are the deployments: often stressful but always impactful. Working outside of one’s comfort zone is common, where distant and seemingly abstract lessons suddenly become relevant.
We do all this so we can increase the lethality of the Warfighter. That’s what makes the Military Health System a force multiplier and gives America a strategic edge. It’s easy to overlook the shield and only focus on the sword, however. Winning Warfighters need both. We need to consistently remind our line leaders, in our words and in our deeds, of the value military medicine brings to the fight.
Last month a hard-charging team of medics from Hurlburt did just that.
After competing in the Cannon Air Force Base Medic Rodeo, where 18 teams from across AF Medicine got to show off their combat medical skills, they were headed to the airport and came across a head-on collision. No longer facing an exercise or competition, they sprung into real-world action to render lifesaving care while awaiting EMS.
Being ready saves lives on the highway and on the battlefield. This is one of many examples of the quiet, understated professionalism of our MHS team. It reflects the long hours of hard work and commitment it takes to be combat ready anytime, anywhere. So, whether you work in an MTF, HQ, or the operational environment, I encourage you to help drive home the message of how we enhance Warfighter readiness. I wrote about it last week and encourage you to share the message with your line leaders.
Team Hurlburt makes us proud, but I know they’re not the only ones going above and beyond—please send me your stories. Not only do I love hearing about the great work folks are doing across the MHS, but it also gives me the opportunity to brag about you to senior leaders across the DoD. Just reply to any of my messages to share your story!
Speaking of great stories, last week I had the honor of sharing in the dedication of the Roosevelt Pavilion at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. With over 500,000 square feet of state-of-the-art clinical space, the Roosevelt Pavilion carries on FDR’s vision—strengthening the chain he began forging on the Bethesda site over 85 years ago.
And finally, I also had the distinct privilege of providing the keynote address at the 63rd Plenary Session of the Committee of the Chiefs of Military Medical Service (COMEDS) in NATO. I used the opportunity to share with our NATO and other allied partners four pillars of effort in the MHS:
- Support the Warfighter
- Sustain our medical skills in times of peace
- Strengthen medical readiness and the health care chain
- Prepare for the future battlefield
It was truly an inspirational event where allied nations reaffirmed their enduring commitment to the cooperative mission of the defense and health of our forces.
Thank you for all you do and keep up the great work. I’m extremely proud to serve alongside you.
Very respectfully,
Steve
Stephen Ferrara, M.D.
Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs
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