Month: December 2023

Source: United States Navy

Participating ships included the Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10) and the Murasame-class general-purpose destroyer JS Ikazuchi (DD 107) of the JMSDF.

The exercise provided an opportunity to build on decades of regional cooperation allowing the maritime forces to sail together, conduct enhanced planning and advanced maritime communication operations.

“I always look forward to opportunities to work with our friends in the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. The thing that makes us such a capable multinational force is our consistent collaboration at sea, on land, and in the air,” said Cdr. Philip Herndl, commanding officer of Gabrielle Giffords. “This bilateral exercise is an example of many that we participate in together throughout the year. Each evolution makes us stronger as a united force and strengthens our ability to maintain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.”

This year marks over 70 years of partnership with Japan since the 1951 Security Treaty between the U.S. and Japan. The U.S. Navy regularly conducts exercises like these to strengthen ties among allied countries. These exercises enhance combined readiness and capabilities and support a free and open maritime environment.

Gabrielle Giffords, part of Commander, Destroyer Squadron 7, is a rotational deployment operating in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations to enhance interoperability with Allies and partners and serve as a ready-response force in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

As the U.S. Navy’s destroyer squadron forward-deployed in Southeast Asia, DESRON 7 serves as the primary tactical and operational commander of littoral combat ships rotationally deployed to Singapore, Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) 7’s Sea Combat Commander and builds partnerships through training exercises and military-to-military engagements.

U.S. 7th Fleet is the U.S. Navy’s largest forward-deployed numbered fleet and routinely interacts and operates with allies and partners in preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

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Source: United States Navy

Secretary Del Toro toured facilities and talked to high school and continuing education students about service as a fundamental aspect of our democracy and a core value that has defined our nation.

“I want to inspire these young women and men to follow their passions, whatever it is that they want to study,” said Secretary Del Toro. “I would love them to consider the military possibility, Navy and Marine Corps in particular, but these students can be the best leaders they can be in whatever profession they desire.”

During his visit, Acting Principal Kathleen Bouchard, faculty members, and students gave a tour of several facilities including laboratories for culinary arts, machining, welding, manufacturing, and robotics. 

At the conclusion of the tour, Secretary Del Toro addressed the students and faculty in the auditorium. Students were able to ask questions about military service, education, engineering, and other topics.

“I started my entire career sitting in a similar auditorium in Jamaica, New York at the Thomas A. Edison Career and Technical Education High School — a vocational school that I had to apply for just like all of you had to do here at Minuteman.” said Secretary Del Toro. “For me, it was just the beginning, and I didn’t know back then, but it was going to be the beginning of this amazing journey.”

Source: United States Navy

“I am humbled and honored to lead a team of more than 40,000 highly-trained military and civilian health care professionals who provide enduring expeditionary medical support to Sailors and Marines on, below, and above the sea, and ashore,” Via said.

“The work we do across the entire Naval Medical enterprise is vital to our national defense. We directly support warfighter readiness by optimizing the most important weapon system in our arsenal – the human weapon system that fights and wins our nation’s wars. We are integral to a successful military health system working closely with the Defense Health Agency and our sister services to ensure every Sailor, Marine and their families are healthy, ready, and on the job receiving high-quality healthcare in a timely fashion – no matter where they are around the world.”

The Naval Medicine Enterprise is led by the Surgeon General of the Navy to fulfill assigned and delegated duties as the Chief, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery prescribed by Title 10 of the United States Code to include recruiting, organizing, training, and equipping medical personnel of the Department of the Navy (DON).

As Navy Surgeon General, Via serves as the principal advisor to the Secretary of the Navy, Chief of Naval Operations, and Commandant of the Marine Corps on all health and medical matters, including strategic planning and policy development relating to such matters, directing Risk Management and Clinical Quality Management Programs, exercising DON corporate privileging, and oversight for the Navy and Marine Corps operational medical forces.

Via also leads the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, which manages Navy and Marine healthcare policy and global Navy medical research and development, which studies infectious diseases, biodefense, battlefield medicine, and warfighter performance, to increase warfighter medical readiness and survivability.

Via is the first anesthesiologist and the first enlisted Corpsman to rise to the position of U.S. Navy Surgeon General.

Via is a qualified Undersea and Diving Medical Officer who served as the department head for Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit Two in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He deployed aboard USNS Comfort (TAH-20) during Operation Noble Eagle and was the department head for Fleet Hospital Three, 1st Force Service Support Group (1st FSSG), at Camp Viper, Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

He was the first commanding officer at NATO’s Role Three, Multinational Medical Unit in Kandahar, Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. Additionally, Via served as U.S. Pacific Fleet’s command surgeon, and he was the first Navy medical officer to become command surgeon for U.S. Central Command.

Via’s Flag tours include serving as deputy chief, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery for Operations, Plans and Readiness. He was appointed as the first medical flag officer to stand up Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV) N44 as the single resource sponsor for expeditionary medical capabilities. He additionally served concurrently as commander of Naval Medical Forces Atlantic and as the senior market manager of the Tidewater Military Health System.

Prior to Senate confirmation, Via was the Navy’s deputy surgeon general and deputy chief of Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. His professional activities include being a certified physician executive and clinical professor of Anesthesiology at Uniformed Services University. He has prior service as an American Board of Anesthesiology Oral Board examiner and has held numerous leadership positions within the American Society of Anesthesiologists and the Uniformed Services Society of Anesthesiologists.

Via is a native of Sullivan, Illinois. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Millikin University. Via enlisted in the U. S. Navy Reserve in 1985 as a Hospital Corpsman. In 1987 he entered active duty as an Ensign at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Science, where he earned a Doctor of Medicine in 1991. Via completed a Master of Health Care Delivery Science from Dartmouth College in 2014.

More information about Navy Medicine and the U.S. Navy Surgeon General is available on the Navy Medicine website at https://www.med.navy.mil or on the command’s Facebook, Instagram, X platform, formerly known as Twitter, or LinkedIn accounts.

Source: United States Navy

The program was hosted by the National Parks of Boston. Secretary Del Toro delivered keynote remarks about the importance of Pearl Harbor to the nation and the United States Navy.

“On that fateful morning on Dec. 7th, 1941, the world changed, thrusting the United States into a global conflict that would reshape the course of history,” said Secretary Del Toro. “Our nation found ourselves at war and under siege across the whole of the Pacific, but rather than shatter our resolve, Pearl Harbor strengthened it.”

The remembrance was followed by a wreath-laying ceremony aboard USS Cassin Young, a World War II-era destroyer named in honor of U.S. Navy Commander Cassin Young.

“16 Medals of Honor were awarded for actions on December 7 through 13 were for service aboard ships,” said Secretary Del Toro. “One was awarded to then-Commander Cassin Young, who had command of repair ship USS Vestal, moored alongside USS Arizona. Commander Young displayed remarkable calmness and decisiveness by swimming back to Vestal after being blown overboard. The ship was on fire and listing after being struck by numerous bombs, but Young’s leadership, bravery, and unwavering resolve inspired his crew, who worked tirelessly to save USS Vestal.”

Speakers for the remembrance ceremony were Anne Grimes Rand, President and CEO of the USS Constitution Museum; U.S. Navy Cmdr. Billie Farrell, commanding officer of USS Constitution; Jon Santiago, Secretary, Massachusetts Executive Office of Veterans Services; Robert Santiago, City of Boston Mayor’s Office of Veterans’ Services; and Michael Creasey, Superintendent of the National Parks of Boston.

Other distinguished guests included 103-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor Machinist’s Mate First Class Freeman Johnson, who was stationed aboard Brooklyn-class light cruiser USS St. Louis (CL-49) during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Also in attendance was retired U.S. Navy Cmdr. Joan Kelley, spouse of Medal of Honor recipient and Vietnam War veteran, retired U.S. Navy Capt. Thomas Kelley. Secretary Del Toro announced in January 2023 that future Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer DDG-140 will be named USS Thomas G. Kelley (DDG 140). Cmdr. Joan Kelley was named the sponsor of the future USS Thomas G. Kelley. 

“On behalf of a grateful nation, thank you to all who have fought, served, and sacrificed in the long history of defending freedom around the world — and to all the families who served and sacrificed alongside them,” said Secretary Del Toro.

 

While in Boston, Secretary Del Toro will also attend a Families of the Fallen Reception, where he will reiterate the Department of the Navy’s efforts to continue to honor the legacy and selfless service of those who laid down their lives for our Nation.

He also called for all Americans to support our military services in their recruiting efforts and to call on Senator Tuberville to release his remaining hold on the additional 23 admirals and generals awaiting confirmation.

“It is simply the right thing to do to honor those that served in the past, and to honor the military families serving today.”

Source: United States Navy

NMCP’s leadership was notified by the Virginia Office of Emergency Medical Services in August 2023 that the medical center received the provisional designation as a Level II Trauma Center that means it can receive severely injured civilian patients from the local area.

“This is a significant event in the lengthy history of the nation’s oldest naval hospital, and this is why we are assembled here this morning,” said Capt. Billy Ward, the event’s master of ceremonies and NMCP’s surgical services director, following his welcome and recognition of the distinguished visitors to include Rear Adm. Darin Via, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) Surgeon General; Rear Adm. Matthew Case, Naval Medical Forces Atlantic commander/Defense Health Network Atlantic director/Chief of the Medical Services Corps; Dr. Michael Malanoski, Defense Health Agency (DHA) deputy director; and Lisa Lucas-Burke, City of Portsmouth vice mayor.

“Since achieving our provisional Level II Trauma Center designation in August, we’ve continued to strengthen our relationship with the local community and the Commonwealth,” stated Capt. Brian Feldman, Naval Medical Center Portsmouth director/Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command Portsmouth commander, as he spoke and echoed the MC’s welcome. “We are committed to being a resource to care for critically injured patients, regardless of any affiliation with the military.”

Feldman pointed out that the medical center’s staff are experienced in caring for trauma patients, and that they’ve been providing this type of care to active duty and dependents for some time.

“This military-civilian partnership is a critical win-win for two reasons,” Feldman explained. “First we take care of the people in our local community and have the opportunity to reduce preventable deaths, and it will also provide our military professionals with sustainable critical care experience supporting readiness and training to ensure that their skills are maintained to save lives in future military operations.”

Via was the next speaker and noted that the designation was especially meaningful to him since he credits Portsmouth as the place where he learned to be a true leader in Navy Medicine. He was once the medical center’s commanding officer, deputy commander, director of surgical services, anesthesia chair, and he’s always had a vested interest in Portsmouth.

“For many years we’ve celebrated Portsmouth as the ‘First and Finest’ medical center in our nation’s history, and those words ring true as we mark its designation as the first U.S. Navy led Level II Trauma Center in the nation – only the second one in the U.S. Armed Forces,” said Via. “I’m proud to say that this is a Defense Health Agency hospital that is a Level II Trauma Center.”

He explained how important it is now that emergency responders have another option when transporting acutely injured Hampton Road’s patients to area medical facilities.

Even though the medical center’s designation is provisional, the Virginia Trauma Center Designation Manual states that upon completion of one year under this designation, the medical facility will receive a modified site review. If no critical deficiencies are noted, the review team recommends an unconditional designation as a trauma center by the Virginia State Health Commissioner.

“It is not an exaggeration that together we are all contributing to our national defense with this achievement,” added Feldman on the designation.

“Today’s ribbon cutting symbolizes the resolute commitment of Navy Medicine and the entire medical center staff and the teams of health care professionals to sustaining the resources, people, and state-of-the-art health care required to ensure the optimal care for injured patients.”

Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, a nationally acclaimed, state-of-the-art military treatment facility, and its Branch Health and Community Branch Health Clinics provide medical care for veterans, warfighters, and their families. Additionally, the medical center is a premier readiness and training platform that provides superior medical training for military medical service members at the U.S. military’s oldest, continuously operating military hospital. It supports pioneering research and teaching programs to prepare new doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, and hospital corpsmen for combat operations and public health crises.