Feb. 2, 2021

Immunization and the Fight against Disease: A Short History of Vaccines in the U.S. Navy

On December 14, 2020 the Naval Medical Center San Diego became one of the first US military installations to receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Over the next days photographs of Sailors, and Marines getting the "shot in the arm" became more widespread and with it the prospect of a post-COVID-19 world became all the more real. The administration

April 15, 2020

The Epidemic Fighters: The Origin of Navy Preventive Medicine Units

On March 20, 2020, the Navy embarked a Forward Deployable Preventive Medicine Unit (FDPMU) aboard ships of the 7th Fleet. Its mission: "to help combat the risk of and provide laboratory batch testing for COVID-19." The role of Preventive Medical Units (PMUs) in this pandemic is nothing new. PMUs have long been on the frontlines in the war against

March 31, 2020

Answering the Call: Stateside Deployments of U.S. Navy Hospital Ships

Editor's note: this blog was originally published in the Navy Live blog.On March 18, President Trump announced Navy hospital ships USNS Mercy (T-AH-19) and Comfort (T-AH-20) were to be activated and deployed stateside to serve as referral centers for non-COVID-19 patients. The longest-serving hospital ships in continuous operation in our history,

July 11, 2019

Reaching the Pinnacle: The Origin of Independent Duty Corpsmen (IDCs) in the U.S. Navy

On the night of April 17, 1918, the ammunition ship SS Florence "H" caught fire while moored in Quiberon Bay in the south coast of Brittany, France. As the ship's crew hurriedly pushed crates of smokeless powder off their decks the combustible cargo soon ignited unleashing a series of deadly explosions. In its wake was the sunken hull of the

April 6, 2018

Remembering USS Relief (AH 1), the Navy's Floating Fortress of Health

USS Relief (AH 1). Nurses with their patients, on deck in March 1921.In 1936, "Our Navy" correspondent Mary McElliott was given special access to the hospital ship USS Relief (AH 1). She would marvel over its design and capabilities writing, "If you are accustomed to thinking of a hospital ship as a large institution, with a grim, forbidding

Feb. 18, 2015

Navy Hospital Corpsmen: Ready to respond, anytime, anywhere

The history of the Hospital Corps is well documented by heroes like the corpsmen who fought at Iwo Jima, as well as the many Navy ships and buildings that bear their name. Four hospital corpsmen received the Medal of Honor for their service and bravery during the Battle of Iwo Jima, where according to Fleet Admiral Nimitz, "uncommon valor was a

Jan. 6, 2015

Honoring the Legacy of Navy Nurses Worldwide

Navy Nurse Corps POWs posing with Vice Adm. Thomas C. Kincaid, Commander of the 7th Fleet and Southwest Pacific Force, after their rescue from Los Banos, Feb. 23, 1945. They were imprisoned Jan. 6, 1942 where they were stationed in the Philippines.Rear Adm. Rebecca J. McCormick-Boyle Commander, Navy Medicine Education and Training CommandOn January