Photo By NMCCL Public Affairs | Command Triad CAPT James Hancock, Commanding Officer; CAPT Shelley Perkins, Executive...... read more read more
Every day active-duty Marines and Sailors aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune answer the call to service.
On May 1, 2018, military leadership, community leaders and staff gathered at Naval Medical Center Camp Lejeune (NMCCL) to celebrate the medical center’s answer to a different call to service, 75 years ago; a call to care for those serving aboard Camp Lejeune.
While most anniversaries are spent remembering times of old, guest speaker Vice Admiral Michael Cowan (Ret.), who served as commanding officer of Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune from 1992-1996, explained Navy medicine is “ahistorical,” spending less time reflecting and more time in the present.
“We (Navy medicine) are problem solvers. We go through the day and problems come through our ER or our office or our ward,” said Cowan. “We identify the problem and we take care of them. We don’t generally have a sense of all the good things that happen around us.”
Reflecting on the advances in medicine over the last 75 years, Cowan encouraged those in attendance to take a minute to be in the moment and reflect, even though the ever-moving medical field does not often offer much time for pause and reflection.
“The Marines in attendance, the military, the Navy in uniform, the civilians take a moment to feel proud of what’s been done,” said Cowan. “It’s been a tremendous half a century and you all have something to be proud of.”
NMCCL Commanding Officer CAPT James Hancock, before introducing Cowan, reached back into history, quoting a letter from Naval Hospital New River’s first commanding officer CAPT James Riordan to one of his predecessors.
The letter outlined the hospital’s origins; emerging from swamp lands at Hospital Point riddled with trees, insects and wild animals, and transforming into the hub of medical care on the East Coast for warfighters during World War II.
Hancock explained that Riordan had a desire to answer the call to service, to provide care to those returning from war.
“Riordan in 1942 he had a sense of urgency,” said Hancock, addressing the crowd of more than 100. “I can’t say it’s exactly the same, but I very much feel a sense of urgency to not only treat the brave men and women returning from war, but to train the corpsmen, nurses and physicians to fight not only this war, but any war our great nation may fight in the future. I can only hope that he (Riordan) would be proud of the medical center we have become.”
As part of the ceremony, a commemorative flag inscribed with “Celebrating 75 Years” was hoisted above the medical center.
Guests were then invited into the Quarterdeck where Councilwoman Angelia Washington presented a proclamation from the City of Jacksonville to Hancock, outlining the partnership the medical center and the city has continued to nurture over time.
Continuing to add the medical center’s effort to lock history in place, a new plaque was unveiled honoring past commanding officers of Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune and their years of service.
Hancock’s name is the last entry on the board and will be the first name on the soon-to-be displayed Commanding Officers of Naval Medical Center Camp Lejeune Board, which will continue to be updated for years to come.
| Date Taken: | 05.01.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 05.24.2018 09:27 |
| Story ID: | 278247 |
| Location: | CAMP LEJEUNE, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 191 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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