Photo By Thomas Shrader | Lt. Gen. Mary K. Izaguirre, the U.S. Army Surgeon General and Commanding General, U.S....... read more read more
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JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Sept. 9, 2024) – The U.S. Army Medical Command welcomed Chief Warrant Officer 5 Deanna Hughes as its first Command Chief Warrant Officer in an Assumption of Responsibility ceremony at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, on Sept. 9, 2024. Lt. Gen. Mary K. Izaguirre, the U.S. Army Surgeon General and Commanding General, U.S. Army Medical Command, presided over the ceremony.
Izaguirre opened her address by discussing the importance of the Warrant Officer Corps and the Corps’ impressive record stretching back over a century. “Warrant Officers have a proud history, both in the Army and Army Medicine, starting in World War I, back when the Warrant Officer Corps was established on July 9, 1918. Army Medicine Warrants were very close behind, established the following year when the Army Medical Commanders recognized the need for a specialized cadre to maintain medical equipment,” she said.
Izaguirre commended the Warrant Officer Corps for being at the forefront of joint training with other services. “In 1947, the first Med Maintenance Repairers course began because already medical equipment was getting more complicated than we had seen. And interestingly, it trained Army, Air Force, and Navy. So, all the emphasis you hear on joint today, Warrants were way ahead of their time and were already joint from the very beginning,” she said.
Izaguirre explained that “in the beginning, our Warrants were strictly repair technicians, but today Warrant Officers operate multimillion-dollar budgets. They are at the table with key policy advisement in the Pentagon. That will be one of Chief Hughes’s big impacts for me. They oversee the entire Lifecyle of medical equipment. They purchase and distribute the equipment and supplies to ensure our troops have what they need. They manage the maintenance shops, eliminate excess or outdated equipment. They do it all!”
Izaguirre praised Hughes and her impressive career. She described how Hughes enlisted as a private in 1991 and rose rapidly through the enlisted ranks to reach the rank of Sgt.1st Class. She also served as a Platoon Sergeant in the 203rd Forward Support Battalion at Fort Moore (formerly Fort Benning), Georgia.
At this point in her career, as a Sgt. 1st Class, Hughes applied to become a Warrant Officer and excelled. “Less than five percent of Warrants ever become a Chief Warrant Officer 5, and even fewer become Command Chief Warrants,” Izaguirre pointed out.
Izaguirre went on to laud Hughes’s combat service, “She’s a proven combat veteran, serving as the Command Maintenance Officer, Task Force 30, in Afghanistan, as well as the Chief of Medical Equipment and Technology Management, Central Command (Forward). And during that assignment not only did she support locally, but she traveled all around the theater, assessing, understanding, and looking at how we could best support the mission going forward.”
The Commanding General praised Hughes’s effectiveness at building “the bench” of new Warrant Officers. Chief Hughes’s proudest achievement to date was “filling the Warrant Officer Basic Courses to capacity three years in a row,” added Izaguirre.
Izaguirre outlined the big things that will be expected of her new Command Chief Warrant Officer. “I will look to you for expert counsel, for leadership of the Warrant Officer Corps, and to integrate with the Army staff to ensure that Army Medicine is at the table, well represented on behalf of our Soldiers to ensure that they have what they need to support the front lines.”
After Izaguirre concluded her remarks, the new Command Chief Warrant Officer of MEDCOM took to the podium and expressed gratitude for being selected for this new position and her resolve to support the Medical Command to the best of her abilities.
“I am deeply honored and truly humbled to stand before you today.” Hughes stated her efforts will be “dedicated to warfighting, delivering ready combat formations, continuous transformation, and strengthening the profession.”
| Date Taken: | 09.09.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 09.11.2024 11:07 |
| Story ID: | 480573 |
| Location: | SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 68 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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