Photo By Lt. Col. William Geddes | Col. Brian Friedland receives a Meritorious Service Medal from Maj. Gen. W. Scott...... read more read more
FORT GILLEM, Georgia -- Col. Brian P. Friedland relinquished duties as the commander of the Army Reserve’s Medical Department Professional Management Command (APMC) to Col. Samuel Lashley during a ceremony Aug. 23 at Fort Gillem, Georgia.
Change of command ceremonies are a military tradition that represent a transfer of authority and responsibility for units or commands. The history, tradition, and accomplishments of the command are embodied in the colors, which is the guidon or organizational flag of the unit, and represents the organization and its commander. The passing of colors from an outgoing commander to an incoming commander ensures that the unit and its Soldiers are never without official leadership, represents a continuation of trust, and signifies an allegiance of Soldiers to their unit's commander.
Maj. Gen. W. Scott Lynn, commanding general of Army Reserve Medical Command, presided over the ceremony. Lynn accepted the colors from Friedland and handed them to Lashley, symbolizing the transferring of authority.
"Thank you, Col. Friedland,” said Lynn. “We share a common background, we both served earlier in our careers as engineer officers." Lynn noted how effectively Friedland had leveraged that engineering background in using an analytic approach to solving the challenges that command of the APMC can bring.
“(We have) a tightknit group working diligently to ensure readiness of (Army Reserve) providers,” said Friedland of his team at APMC, noting they have met and overcome numerous challenges, including the return to the office after COVID and the roll out of the Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army (IPPS-A). Ultimately however, Friedland said, the focus was on provider readiness.
“We provide credentialing activities for all privileged and non-privileged providers in the Army Reserve,” said Friedland. “The credentialing says that you are able to do your job. The privileging says that you are allowed to do your job. We provide through credentialing a readiness indicator for the US Army Reserve medical community."
Lashley echoed many of Friedland’s comments. “I’m extremely blessed,” said Lashley. “I’m honored for the opportunity to get the one AGR command that we have in the program for AMEDD AGR Soldiers. I’m excited for the opportunity – Col. Friedland has done a great job of moving the command forward. I want to be able to capitalize on his successes and be able to move the command forward in support of the Army Health enterprise.”
Lashley said he wants to continue to focus on readiness as his main effort, ensuring that Soldiers in Army Reserve medicine are ready to respond to meet the demands of the warfighter.
APMC provides mission and command support to assigned and attached Army Reserve medical officers and conducts centralized credentialing for all Army Reserve medical providers. The team manages more than 1,000 Army Reserve Soldiers with critical medical specialties with personnel, training, finance, and professional credentialing. Numerous APMC Soldiers are currently deployed in support of combatant command missions worldwide.
| Date Taken: | 08.04.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 08.17.2023 10:24 |
| Story ID: | 451521 |
| Location: | FORT GILLEM, GEORGIA, US |
| Web Views: | 456 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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