Navy Medicine Stories Podcast
BLUF – Navy Medicine Stories spotlights the extraordinary people behind the uniform of the Navy Medical Department. Highlighting the Nurse, Medical, Dental, and Medical Service Corps, alongside our Civilians and Hospital Corpsmen, this series goes beyond the clinic. We pair deeply personal journeys with the broader mission of global medical readiness, bridging the gap between military duty and civilian healthcare to share how Navy Medicine changes lives around the world.
Navy Medicine Advances Operational Health IT for Distributed Maritime Operations
BLUF – Navy Medicine leaders, Fleet representatives and operational health IT experts met to accelerate deployment of Joint Operational Medicine Information Systems (JOMIS), which are designed to preserve critical health information as casualties move from the point of injury through successive levels of care during distributed maritime operations. For Navy Medicine, aligning JOMIS fielding and training with Fleet readiness cycles will improve patient movement, medical logistics and clinical decision-making while giving deployed medical teams more reliable access to health information in contested environments.
NMFL Advances Expeditionary Medicine Force Design at Naval War College
BLUF – Naval Medical Forces Atlantic concluded a four-part planning effort at the Naval War College that developed practical solutions to improve how Navy Medicine generates, equips, funds, sustains and commands expeditionary medical forces, including a standardized EXMED demand-signal tool and materiel-management and financial-planning frameworks. For Navy Medicine, the effort advances a force design built for contested and distributed operations where medical units must rapidly support the Fleet and Fleet Marine Force despite limited logistics, communications and casualty-evacuation options.
Finance Friday Articles
- 10 Things You Need to Know About Investing in Stocks
- 14 Questions I’m Thinking About
- Beyond the TSP’s 5 Core Funds: L Funds, Mutual Fund Window
- Four myths about women investors
- Jerry Seinfeld’s Evergreen Career Advice
- My Favorite Mutual Fund
- My Most Contrarian Opinion Right Now
- Some Extreme Ways to Dramatically Reduce Your Tax Bill
- The 6 Financial Stages of Retirement
- The DIY Dilemma: When to Manage Your Own Money (And When to Hire Help)
- Time for an Account Checkup? Be Sure Your DFAS Information Is Up to Date
- What’s Upsetting the Bond Market?
- Which Graduate Degrees Are the Best Investment? (Why I Skipped My MBA)
Trump to nominate Hung Cao as Navy secretary
BLUF – President Donald Trump announced he will nominate Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao to serve permanently in the role, where Cao has emphasized shipbuilding, aircraft and equipment modernization, maintenance, and strengthening public trust in the Navy and Marine Corps; his nomination requires Senate confirmation. For Navy Medicine, Cao’s priorities and potential confirmation are significant because the service secretary sets Department-wide policy and resource priorities that ultimately shape medical readiness, personnel, infrastructure and support for operational forces.
https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2026/09/02/trump-to-nominate-hung-cao-as-navy-secretary
In the Line of Care: Stories from the Navy Medical Oral History Collection — How a Sigmoidoscope Saved America
BLUF – In 1976 aboard USS America, Navy surgeon Lt. Cmdr. Tom Minehan ingeniously used a medical sigmoidoscope to locate a wrench accidentally dropped inside a steam turbine and surgical forceps to remove it, restoring the carrier’s propulsion and potentially preventing about six months of repairs. For Navy Medicine, the remarkable story from BUMED’s Oral History Collection illustrates the adaptability and problem-solving skills of Navy medical personnel and how their expertise can contribute to the mission far beyond traditional patient care.
From CNP: August Sailor-to-Sailor Newsletter
The newest edition of the Sailor-to-Sailor newsletter is here! Your monthly source for essential career updates, leadership messages, and policy changes that directly impact you and your Sailors.
In this edition:
– MyNavy Hr is getting a major update: we’re going to the cloud.
– The MyNavy HR Career Development Center just wrapped up in Japan and Guam-where to next? 6th Fleet!
– Promotions, promotions, promotions! Including CWOs, officers, and chief petty officers.
– We’re in the thick of PCS season. Make sure you take advantage of your house hunting leave!
Access the full newsletter here: https://www.dvidshub.net/publication/issues/77582
Leaders: Help spread the word. Print a copy for your shop’s bulletin board, share it during quarters, or forward this email to your teams to ensure every Sailor stays informed.
For more updates, follow MyNavy HR on social media.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MyNAVYHR
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MYNAVYHR/
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/MYNAVYHR
X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/MyNAVYHR
_________________________________________
Delivered by Defense Finance and Accounting Service
Marine Corps brings back flu shot mandate for some troops
BLUF – The Marine Corps has reinstated mandatory influenza vaccination for selected groups—including new recruits, healthcare workers, deploying Marines and hazardous-response teams—after the Pentagon ended the universal mandate in April and subsequently modified its policy following a flu outbreak at Lackland Air Force Base that sickened about 300 people and killed one. For Navy Medicine, the policy reinforces the importance of vaccination as a force-health-protection tool, particularly for medical personnel and populations living, training or operating in close quarters where infectious disease outbreaks can rapidly degrade readiness.
Navy Medicine Force’s Focus
BLUF – The Office of the Navy Medicine Force Master Chief has released a new, bi-monthly publication designed specifically for active duty and reserve Hospital Corpsmen across the fleet and operating forces.
Developed directly from fleet feedback, the two-page newsletter serves as a direct line of communication from the Force Master Chief to provide actionable career management tools and highlight operational excellence within the Hospital Corps rating.
You Made CDR! Now What?
If you are one of the lucky people who made CDR, I have some things for you to consider:
- The next 2-3 years of FITREPs may mean very little to your overall career. First, you are soon going to be in the most competitive group in Navy Medicine, Commanders scratching and clawing to make Captain. If you are at a medium to large command, no matter what you do as a junior Commander, you are likely to get a P (promotable) on your FITREPs. That is just how it works for most commands.
- This first bullet means that now is the PERFECT time to do something “alternative” (off the usual career path) or take a position that you know will get you 1/1 FITREPs or be part of a very small competitive group. Go to the War College. Take a senior operational job where you’ll get a 1/1 FITREP. Become a Detailer. Apply for fellowship or additional training because the NOB FITREPs won’t hurt you as a junior Commander or Commander Select. Now is the time to do these type of things. You don’t want to wait until you are a few years below zone for Captain. When you reach this stage you’ll need competitive EP FITREPs.
- After you are selected for your next rank is also a great time to move/PCS. Have you ever been OCONUS? If not, now would be a great time to go. You can PCS somewhere for 2-3 years and then PCS to the command where you are going to set up shop and try to make Captain. At OCONUS commands there is more turnover of staff, so major leadership jobs like Department Head and Director positions open up more frequently, setting you up to get a senior position when you return to CONUS.
- You may think I’m crazy, but it is time to start thinking about how you are going to make Captain. As I mentioned in the first bullet, getting a job that will make you a Captain is tough and competitive. Now is the time to do the things that will make you an excellent candidate for one of those jobs. Want to be a Residency Director? Maybe you should get a degree in adult or medical education. Want to be a Director? Maybe you should get a management degree like a Masters in Medical Management or an MBA. Want to be a senior operational leader? Now is the time to do Joint Professional Military Education I and/or II. Applying for an official Milestone Position is probably the easiest way to make O6 if you get one and are successful.
- Here is a list of the jobs that I think will likely make you a Captain in the Medical Corps. Other Corps will have similar lists you can likely build by getting info from your Corps Chief’s office or Detailer or by closely examining your Corps’ career pathway. Read the list…figure out which of these jobs you are going to use to make Captain…and get busy preparing yourself to get them:
- Residency Director
- Department Head in a large MTF
- Director
- Chief Medical Officer
- Officer-in-Charge
- Major committee chair
- Medical Executive Committee President
- BUMED staff
- Specialty Leader
- Deployment requiring an O-5 or O-6
- Detailer
- Senior operational leader
- Division/Group/Wing Surgeon
- CATF Surgeon
- Amphib or CVN Senior Medical Officer
Optimally you’ll have the time when you are an O5 to do multiple jobs on the preceding list. For example, as an O5 I had been a Detailer, a Specialty Leader, Department Head, Associate Director, and CO of a deployed unit. My next step was to become a Director at a major MTF, and while I was a senior LCDR and CDR I obtained a Naval Postgraduate School MBA as well as achieved certification as a Certified Physician Executive to try and make myself a competitive candidate for a Director position. Ultimately, I became the Director for Healthcare Business at NMC Portsmouth.
Congratulations on making Commander…take a deep breath…and start thinking about some of the things I mentioned in this post. Before you know it you’ll be in zone for Captain.