Our Military Doctors are a True Blessing
Make no mistake, as in years past, our military doctors are on the front lines!
This means U.S. military medicine once again leads the way in treatments for U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Space Force personnel.
And that more than competent form of endeavor and leadership takes the form of developing breakthroughs in a wide variety of medical areas.
Those breakthroughs will inevitably have long range implications for civilian healthcare.
In recent years, it's military medicine which has led the way in wound care, brain health, telemedicine, and rehabilitative care. While other agencies and departments of the federal government are focused on basic medical research, U.S. military physicians are laser-focused more on applied research and saving lives today.
And let's not forget, from a taxpayer standpoint, military medicine provides real value to the American taxpayer.
On Monday morning, August 4, 2025, the U.S. military will kick off its 2025 Military Health System Research Symposium (MHSRS) in Kissimmee, Florida.
U.S. military physicians from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Space Force will be on hand to share the best practices from real life experiences on the battlefield concerning the unique medical needs of the war fighter, lessons learned, and what needs to be done to improve casualty rates.
What began many years ago as a conference focusing primarily on the treatment and care of the combat wounded, has evolved to cover basically all facets of military medicine, with representation from all services.
Also, our NATO allies are now beginning to show up in bigger numbers each year.
They realize that if you want to save lives today, you look to U.S. military medicine.
Over the years, MHSRS has led to many medical advancements.
These include the inception of the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM) to help those who have lost limbs on the field of battle, the discovery of blood biomarkers for traumatic brain injury (TBI), hemorrhage control technologies, wound care innovations, and many more.
And let's not forget, it was the U.S. Army's Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) which really paved the way many years ago for the use of telemedicine in the United States.
U.S. military medicine has a rich and storied history going back to Major Walter Reed's breakthrough work on yellow fever and Army Surgeon General George Miller Sternberg's pioneering efforts on bacteriology.
Great military leaders like Dwight Eisenhower knew what military medicine could do, more than anything else, to save as many American lives as possible.
A student of history, Ike knew that it was military medicine that invented the ambulance system, how we triage patients, and that military medicine had no equal in stopping the spread of infectious disease.
In World War II, military doctors under General Eisenhower's leadership, made great advancements in battlefield surgery, the use of plasma, expanded use of antibiotics to treat bacterial infections, preventive medicine and controlling malaria with the use of quinine.
President Reagan once said that “personnel is policy.” Here we see that President Trump is appointing solid military medical experts who will help continue to ensure that American military medicine leads the way.
Keith Bass, a retired Navy commander and former director of the White House Medical Unit, has been tapped to serve as assistant secretary of defense (Health Affairs), and Dr. Robert Kadlec, a retired Air Force physician who led the formation of Operation Warp Speed during COVID-19, has been nominated to serve as Assistant Secretary of Defense (Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs).
Both are outstanding choices!
And now, having respected former military doctors in Congress, like U.S. Reps. Neal Dunn, R-Fla., who served at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Richard McCormick, R-Ga., who served the as a Navy physician in Afghanistan, Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, a career Navy doctor and White House physician) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, who served as a Lt. Col. in the Army Medical Department.
All will help ensure the role of military medicine is valued on Capitol Hill.
The advancements and capabilities of military medicine also offer a great opportunity for U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr., to take advantage of, as he works to, "Make America Healthy Again." No doubt, a closer working relationship between military medicine and HHS benefits all Americans.
U.S. military medical doctors are not only saving military lives, they are advancing medical research that will continue to benefit all Americans, perhaps even saving the most ill.
We live in a dangerous world and these are challenging times globally.
U.S. military medicine remains beyond wholly committed to relentlessly battling that which ails so many of our dedicated U.S. service members.
This means our military's medicine can be more than counted on to lead the way to ensure our men and women in uniform are cared for on and off the battlefield.
We're blessed that our entire nation, will continue to benefit from U.S. military medical breakthroughs as in the past, now, and in the future.
Van Hipp is Chairman of American Defense International, Inc. He’s the former deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Army and author of "The New Terrorism: How to Fight It and Defeat It." He is the 2018 recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Sept. 11 Garden Leadership Award for National Security. Read Van Hipp's Reports — More Here.
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