New Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs: ‘We’re a Force Multiplier for the Warfighter’

Photo By Robert Hammer | In one of his first interviews as Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, Dr. Stephen Ferrara stated his first priority for the Military Health System is supporting the warfighter, emphasizing the distinctive nature of their mission.  

UNITED STATES

03.11.2025

Story by Robert Hammer 

Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs/Military Health System

In one of his first interviews as Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, Dr. Stephen Ferrara stated the No. 1 priority for the Military Health System is supporting the warfighter, emphasizing the distinctive “go to war” nature of the MHS mission.

“The MHS is such a unique entity, and there isn’t anything similar in the private or public sector,” said Ferrara. “We are the U.S. health care system that goes to war.”

Ferrara is a retired U.S. Navy doctor who continued to practice medicine after 25 years on active duty until being appointed into his current role on Jan. 20, 2025. Prior to his present position, he served as the deputy director for clinical operations for the National Capital Region, the Department of Defense’s largest health care network. He also served as an interventional radiologist at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and a clinical professor of radiology and radiological sciences at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

Soon after assuming his new role, he met with MHS health care personnel at several military hospitals and clinics to see “granular detail that you can only get by going and talking to the people that are doing the work … because I want them to know that I am their voice and I'm there for them,” he said.

He explained the role of the Assistant Secretary is similar to a CEO of a global corporation. “I represent the civilian leadership oversight of the military, which makes me a conduit to the Secretary of Defense and to the White House,” Ferrara said. “I can help get what our folks need to be able to succeed and be that voice, because I know their priorities are to make sure we are delivering the best health care to not only our active duty, but our retired and dependent beneficiaries.”

The MHS has a worldwide mission to provide health care to more than 9 million people at over 800 medical and dental facilities, service-specific operational units, and the TRICARE Health Plan’s worldwide network of civilian providers.

In this interview, Ferrara discussed the MHS’ unique ability to deploy medical services globally, support readiness for future wars, and spearhead innovation in medical technology. He also shared his commitment for excellence and his personal investment in the MHS.

You can watch excerpts from the interview at this link (insert link).

Question: What drove you to join the U.S. Navy and become a military doctor?

Ferrara: I love telling this story. I joined the [U.S.] Navy, because I was a senior in college when the first Gulf War broke out and I was deciding which medical school to attend … some of us remember the surge of patriotism that was around at the time, and I reflected on it. My dad was a Korean War veteran. He got the GI bill and went on to get a college degree in law school. There I was with all these opportunities. Really, it was kind of the embodiment in the American dream. When the war broke out, I knew I was going to go into a trauma-related specialty, I felt this was an opportunity for me to give back, because I know a lot of the people that do a lot of the heavy lifting for our country in harm's way are people that were like my dad. I did that in 1991 … almost 35 years later, I am still involved in the MHS. It has been such a great career and a great mission.

Question: How does the MHS support the Department of Defense in achieving its goals and objectives?

Ferrara: What makes me so proud of the MHS is that we are a force multiplier for the warfighter. We improve and increase the lethality of the warfighter, and we do that through a number of ways. If you look at what our primary mission is—supporting the warfighter in combat—it is very empowering. It is a sacred pact we have with the warfighter that when they go into harm's way, should they become ill or injured, they can have the confidence of knowing they are going to get world-class health care immediately on the battlefield and have the best opportunity to return home healthy. That empowers the warfighter to be able to take the risks necessary and have that confidence to do those difficult missions and know that we are there backing them up. I think we have seen around the world recently; most other countries do not do that for their soldiers. We have seen that in battlefields in Europe and other places in the world. That is a real strategic edge that America has because we do that. It is expensive, it is complicated, but it is 100% aligned with American values.

Question: You recently toured military hospitals and clinics. What have you taken away from those visits, and do you plan to do any more in the future?

Ferrara: Town halls to me are a major priority, because I feel that having spent 25 years on active duty, I feel a very close kinship to the people that are doing the work at the military hospitals and clinics. I also understand a little bit about the size and scope of the MHS; it is a very large system. These visits help identify issues and improve morale. I want to show my appreciation and support for the workforce and let them know that their voice is heard, and their needs will be advocated for, and that they have a voice in the Pentagon.

It is always inspiring to me to see the people doing the work, because you see the folks in uniform, the ones that are 18-19-years old, all the way up through later parts of their career—and all our civilians and contracting partners who support us and their incredible ability to execute on the mission.

It is no secret that we are in challenging times, sometimes with resource limitations. There is a peace dividend, as the wars have ramped down, but the mission has not changed. [The] majority of our mission is taking care of dependents and retirees. That mission really stays the same. So, those folks must continue to execute on that mission, even when they do not necessarily have the resources that might come along with the resources that flow during wartime. They are a source of inspiration to me and helps energize me for my job. I am also able to find out about a lot of things that are going on—whether it is facilities issues, or whether it is processing issues that I would not otherwise know about—I can take back to my team for action.

The biggest takeaway is the inspiration I draw from it is the incredible morale. People are always there. They have been energetic, and they have been upbeat. They really are so mission focused, and it is a very virtuous cycle. I hope that by going to them, it helps them know that I really care about what they do. My team is working on getting to places across the whole spectrum, and not just focusing on large places, because it is good to get to small places throughout the country and overseas, because we are a complicated organization, and it is important to see them.

Question: What priorities have you set for the MHS to ensure that we are advancing the care provided to our beneficiaries?

Ferrara: My number one priority is supporting the warfighter. We are a Military Health System that goes to war, which makes us completely unique in America. We want to provide high-quality health care here in garrison, as any other top-performing health care system in America does, but we are the only ones that can go to war. I want to be keenly focused on, “are we ready to go to war?” I think we all understand that the next war will be a different battlefield landscape and medical care delivery landscape than prior wars. When I was in Afghanistan, we had 3-role-3 hospitals that were fixed facilities. We had the “golden hour.” We had air superiority. It was a difficult mission. We became really good at providing really good care.

I think if we pivot and we look at the threats in the Indo-Pacific, in that first island chain, it is much different in how it is distributed. It is a much more the tyranny of distance. I was a West Coast sailor for most of my life. I sailed from San Diego to Africa and back many times, and when you realize the ocean is 54% the surface of the Earth, the challenges of providing that health care and not having that golden hour. How do we provide prolonged field care? How do we have the people with the training, the platforms and infrastructure to be able to do that? That is my top priority.

What flows from what we do here on the continent in the MTFs—making sure that our folks always have a ready medical force so that people are getting the reps and sets they need to be able to continue to be ready to go at a moment's notice, and that they're at the top of their game. These are our force-generation platforms, and the military is a relatively young person's occupation. We can serve a full career and retire before you are 50 years old. We always have to be mindful of that. We are passing along the baton, and we are making sure that we are training that next generation. We do that through many platforms, a lot of that in our MTFs. Whether we are training surgical technologists to be able to support battlefield surgeries, whether we are training logisticians to learn how to order the supplies that are needed to enable medical teams to do what they need to do—all those kinds of things that we do so that we can succeed.

Question: Do you believe that aspect of the MHS makes us the most strong and innovative?

Ferrara: I think we are. We are certainly the strongest. We are the most resilient. I think that's part of our culture. When I joined, without a lot of forethought, I certainly did not envision that I would still be involved 35 years later. What makes this such a fulfilling and interesting type of career is we are always innovating, and it is never the same. We are not in status quo. We are doing things that are tackling new and difficult issues all the time and getting better at difficult missions.

We are looking hard at leveraging technology. How are those folks’ delivering health care in austere environments on the next battlefield? How are we going to equip them to succeed and to take great care of patients? I think we are looking to what can we do, looking at synchronous and asynchronous technologies to support them, either in the moment, remotely, or with tools they can have that are technology enabled to be able to do those things, and that is not a need in the private sector. That makes us a unique and a very exciting and interesting health care system, because we must be ready to deliver health care in any corner of the globe at any time.

One of the things that I am most proud of in the MHS, over a century and a half, a lot of the greatest innovations in medicine have come from military medicine. We continue that legacy. We sit on broad shoulders, but we know that we are not done. The next challenges will bring new innovations for us, and we try to speed ahead so that we are ready when we do.

Question: How do you see the ongoing budget discussions impacting the MHS?

Ferrara: I appreciate the question because it is important, and it is on a lot of people’s minds. I would like to start with the fact that it is my priority, as well as the administration’s, in delivering high-quality, safe health care. Supporting the warfighter will never be compromised.

I think it is also clear, and the American people understand this, there are a lot of opportunities for more efficiency across the federal government. I think as the largest department in the discretionary spending category, [DOD] would be remiss if we did not look at how we utilize the taxpayer dollar and make sure we are using it as well as we can. I think we are taking a very thoughtful approach to this. We are looking at all the areas where we spend money. We look at things where there are opportunities to leverage technology, to do things more efficiently, and with a better value. We are looking at things that are duplicative, where we could streamline, where other departments across government do some of the same functions and see if those things could be better allocated.

I think it is a process, and we are going to work through it and see where things fall when we take a zero-based budgeting approach to how we spend money—and that we will never compromise our ability to support warfighters when they go downrange. America's mothers and fathers put their children in harm’s way, and it is our solemn pact to make sure we take good care of them and money will not be an issue.

Question: What is the primary message you want to share with service members and military families as the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs?

Ferrara: The number one thing is—I am their voice. When I try to describe what the role of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs is, I do not know that I would have known that when I was early in my career. This role sits as the CEO of this large, complicated health care system, and be that person that is making the decisions on manpower, on how we resource our substantial budget, and how we utilize it most effectively. I represent the civilian leadership oversight of the military, which makes me be that conduit to the Secretary of Defense and to the White House and get what our folks need to be able to succeed. Their priorities are to make sure we are delivering the best health care to our not only our active duty, but our retired and dependent beneficiaries.

Question: What is the primary message that you want to share with the workforce serving around the world?

Ferrara: The first thing would be to extend my thanks. I have deployed four times, and I am a military spouse. My wife is still on active duty. She is deployed. When I sit down at dinner, we have 59 years in uniform and eight deployments. I know what people sacrifice. I missed a lot of birthdays, missed a lot of those things. There is a lot of sacrifice that goes into being part of the workforce and the MHS, but people do it, and they turn on a dime, and they do amazing things.

The most important thing I could say is to let them know that I appreciate what they do, I know what they do, and that I am trying to help them get what they need. I know people sometimes feel like you are a little bit … sort of isolated and alone, or you may not have a voice. We are a very large system, and I am trying to help make the system feel smaller to people, so that they do not feel as far removed, and so that that their voice is heard and that their voice does get transmitted. I think of health care as like an ecosystem where it takes everybody to build. It is not just the surgeon wielding the scalpel—which is the face they saw—but behind that surgeon is a huge cadre of people from logisticians, technologists, to nurses, to environmental services people, to facilities managers that are doing all those things to make sure that we were able to deliver.

There is a good military analogy … for a trigger-puller to do what he or she needs to do, the tail on that is immense so that they are fed, they are clothed, they are housed, they are warm, they have the ammunition they need, their weapon works. All those things so they can execute that mission, which is really the primary mission, relies on all those people. Health care is the same. There are a lot of things we are constantly doing to make sure that our people have great outcomes, and they should not have to worry, but they just know that when they go in, they trust us, and we reciprocate the trust by doing our work.

• Date Taken: 03.11.2025
• Date Posted: 03.11.2025 14:09
• Story ID: 492522
• Location: US