Surgeon General of the United States Army
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the senior physician in the U.S. Army. For the head of the U.S. Public Health Service, see Surgeon General of the United States. For other uses, see Surgeon General (disambiguation).
The Surgeon General of the United States Army is the senior-most medical corps officer in the U.S. Army. In recent times, this has been a Lieutenant General who serves as Commanding General, U.S. Army Medical Command (MEDCOM) and head of the U.S. Army Medical Department (AMEDD). His (or her) office and staff are known as the Office of the Surgeon General (OTSG) and are located in Falls Church, Virginia.
Congress established the Medical Service of the Continental Army on July 27, 1775 and emplaced a "Chief physician & director general" of the Continental Army as its head at that time. The first five “surgeons general” of the U.S. Army served under this title. An Act of May 28, 1789 established a "Physician general" of the U.S. Army (only Doctors Richard Allison and James Craik served according to this nomenclature). An Act of March 13, 1813 cited the "Physician & surgeon general" of the U.S. Army. This nomenclature remained in place until the U.S. Army Medical Corps (or Medical Department) was established by the Reorganization Act of April 14, 1818. (Physicians assigned to the U.S. Army were not accorded military rank until 1847.)
Contents |
- Note: The AMEDD Museum at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas has a display on the Army Surgeons General including images of all of them except Dr. Richard Allison.
- ^ Army News Release. MG Pollock, a U.S. Army Nurse Corps officer, served as Acting Surgeon General for several months after LTG Kiley resigned in the wake of the 2007 Walter Reed Army Medical Center neglect scandal.
- ^ On 2 October 2007, Major General Eric B. Schoomaker was nominated by Defense Secretary Robert Gates as the new Surgeon General of the U.S. Army. The nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on 1 November 2007, as was his promotion to lieutenant general. He is presently the commander of the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command and the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Prior to this, MG Schoomaker was the Commanding General U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command at Fort Detrick, Maryland. Ref: Senate Confirms Maj. Gen. Schoomaker as the Army Surgeon General , U.S. Department of Defense Military Health System website; 8 November 2007.