Navy Medicine Fast Facts, July 2026 (Medical Tactics in Naval Warfare)
Leaders,
Good day and I hope this note finds you all well. For your interest, listed below is the link to the latest edition of Navy Medicine Fast Facts.
In this issue, we are taking a slightly different approach to what we typically spotlight. Rather than highlighting specific commands, regions, events or milestones, we are turning the spotlight onto a classic and often overlooked piece of U.S. Navy medical literature: Medical Tactics in Naval Warfare.
Written 100 years ago by Cmdr. (later Rear Adm.) William Leake Mann as a 3-part study, this book examines the evolution of Navy Medicine and its critical role in operational environments. Mann’s insights on improving medical readiness, streamlining shipboard care, reducing casualty rates at sea, and executing efficient evacuations remain as relevant today as they did a century ago. As Mann notes, while naval technology continuously evolves, the fundamental physical and operational challenges facing Sailors have remained a constant across the history of Navy Medicine.
During his day, the author was viewed by some as Navy Medicine’s answer to Alfred Thayer Mahan, a visionary thinker who, as Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal noted, was instrumental in developing the “foundational principles of modern naval medicine.” We cannot agree more and think this book, and the author’s efforts to advance Navy Medicine, are deserving of another “look.”
Listed below is a link to Fast Facts as well as to Mann’s book. PDF copies of both are available, if interested.
Fast Facts, July 2026 (click on “view online” or “download”):
https://www.dvidshub.net/publication/issues/77338
Medical Tactics in Naval Warfare Link:
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.72675639&seq=9
We hope you enjoy!
V/r,
André
André B. Sobocinski
Historian
History and Archives (N00Z12)
Office of Public Affairs and Outreach
U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED)