Surgeon General Of The United States Navy
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The surgeon general of the Navy (SGN) is the most senior
commissioned officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer, or a warrant officer. However, absent context ...
of the
Medical Corps A medical corps is generally a military branch or officer corps responsible for medical care for serving military personnel. Such officers are typically military physicians. List of medical corps The following organizations are examples of medica ...
of the
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
and is the principal advisor to the
United States Secretary of the Navy The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the United States Department of the Navy, Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States D ...
,
Chief of Naval Operations The chief of naval operations (CNO) is the professional head of the United States Navy. The position is a statutory office () held by an admiral who is a military adviser and deputy to the secretary of the Navy. In a separate capacity as a memb ...
and director of the
Defense Health Agency The Defense Health Agency (DHA) is a joint, integrated combat support agency that enables the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, and U.S. Space Force medical services to provide a medically ready force and ready medical force to Combatant Co ...
on all health and medical matters pertaining to the
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
and
United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...
. As head of the
Bureau of Medicine and Surgery The Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) is an agency of the United States Department of the Navy that manages health care activities for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. BUMED operates hospitals and other health c ...
, the surgeon general also manages Navy and Marine healthcare policy, administering the services' healthcare and biomedical research facilities as well as the various staff corps of BUMED, including the Medical Corps and an enlisted corps. The surgeon general is also a member of the
Office of the Chief of Naval Operations An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific du ...
. From 1965 to 2019, the surgeon general was appointed as a three-star vice admiral, until the
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 (; NDAA 2017Pub.L. 114-328 is a United States federal law specifying the budget and expenditures of the United States Department of Defense (DOD) for Fiscal Year 2017. History ''Nation ...
struck the surgeon general's statutory rank. The present surgeon general, Rear Admiral
Bruce L. Gillingham Bruce Lindsley Gillingham (born April 16, 1959) is a United States Navy rear admiral and orthopedic surgeon who serves as the 39th surgeon general of the United States Navy. As surgeon general, Gillingham is dual-hatted as the 43rd chief of the ...
became the first two-star admiral to hold the office in over 54 years. One version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 considered advancing the surgeon general's rank back to vice admiral. However, the final version of the bill did not include reinstating the statutory rank. Currently, the surgeon general of the Navy is the only surgeon general of a
uniformed service Uniformed services is an abstract term that are generally bodies of people in employment of a state who wear a distinct uniform that differentiates them from the public and private sector. Their purpose is to maintain the peace, security, safety, ...
to not hold a three-star rank.


Establishment of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery

On 31 August 1842, the
United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
passed a Navy appropriation bill that was a blueprint for efficiency. The legislation provided for five Navy bureaus
United States Navy bureau system The "bureau system" of the United States Navy was the Department of the Navy's material-support organization from 1842 through 1966. The bureau chiefs were largely autonomous, reporting directly to the Secretary of the Navy and managing their res ...
to replace the outdated
Board of Navy Commissioners The Board of Navy Commissioners was a United States Navy administrative body in existence from 1815 to 1842, with responsibility for the navy's material support. The three-member Board was created as part of an expansion of the U.S. Navy Departme ...
—Yards and Docks; Construction, Equipment, and Repair; Provisions and Clothing; Ordnance and Hydrography; and Medicine and Surgery. Heading each of the bureaus was a "Chief" to be appointed by the President of the United States. The Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) became the central administrative headquarters for the Navy Medical Department, and those names became interchangeable. The
general order A general order, in military and paramilitary organizations, is a published directive, originated by a commander and binding upon all personnel under his or her command. Its purpose is to enforce a policy or procedure unique to the unit's situatio ...
of 26 November 1842, which defined the duties of the new bureaus, charged BUMED with: * All medicines and medical stores of every description, used in the treatment of the sick, the diseased and the wounded; * All boxes, vials, and other vessels containing the same; * All clothing, beds, and bedding for the sick; * All surgical instruments of every kind; * The management of hospitals, so far as the patients therein are concerned; * All appliances of every sort, used in surgical and medical practice; * All contracts, accounts, and returns, relating to these and such other subjects as shall hereafter be assigned to this bureau. Overseeing all of these duties, and directing the medical department, was the Chief of BUMED, William P. C. Barton. Barton served at this post until 1844. He was followed by
Thomas Harris William Thomas Harris III (born 1940/1941) is an American writer, best known for a series of suspense novels about his most famous character, Hannibal Lecter. The majority of his works have been adapted into films and television, the most notab ...
, William Whelan, Phineas Horwitz, and
William Maxwell Wood William Maxwell Wood (May 27, 1809 – March 1, 1880) was an officer and surgeon in the United States Navy in the middle 19th century. He became the First Surgeon General of the U.S. Navy in 1871, with the equivalent rank of Commodore (USN), commod ...
. Since the days of Barton's directorship the most senior ranking physician in the Navy Medical Department has held the title of Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery.


Creation of the title

On 3 March 1871, Congress passed legislation granting medical and other staff officers of the Navy "relative rank" with grades "equal to but not identical with the grades of the line." This Naval Appropriations Act went further than any previous Congressional action in transforming and enhancing the Navy Medical Department. The Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery now had the additional title "Surgeon General," with the relative rank of
Commodore Commodore may refer to: Ranks * Commodore (rank), a naval rank ** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom ** Commodore (United States) ** Commodore (Canada) ** Commodore (Finland) ** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore'' * Air commodore ...
. At the helm of this "revitalized" organization stood the first Surgeon General,
William Maxwell Wood William Maxwell Wood (May 27, 1809 – March 1, 1880) was an officer and surgeon in the United States Navy in the middle 19th century. He became the First Surgeon General of the U.S. Navy in 1871, with the equivalent rank of Commodore (USN), commod ...
(1809–1880), a man entering his 42nd year of a naval service as unusual and varied as could be. Wood had served aboard , one of the first steam vessels of the Navy, and designated flagship during the "expedition for the suppression of Indian hostilities on the coast of Florida" (a.k.a. the
Seminole Wars The Seminole Wars (also known as the Florida Wars) were three related military conflicts in Geography of Florida, Florida between the United States and the Seminole, citizens of a Native Americans in the United States, Native American nation whi ...
). Wood served shore duty at
Sackets Harbor, New York Sackets Harbor (earlier spelled Sacketts Harbor) is a village in Jefferson County, New York, United States, on Lake Ontario. The population was 1,450 at the 2010 census. The village was named after land developer and owner Augustus Sackett, who ...
,
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
, Maryland, had duty as Fleet Surgeon of the Pacific Fleet, and served under Commodore
John D. Sloat John Drake Sloat (July 26, 1781 – November 28, 1867) was a commodore in the United States Navy who, in 1846, claimed California for the United States. Life He was born at the family home of Sloat House in Sloatsburg, New York, of Dutch ancestr ...
in California during the
Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...
. However fitting he may have been as the first Navy Surgeon General, he served less than two years.


List of Chiefs of BUMED and Surgeons General of the Navy


See also

*
Surgeon General of the United States The surgeon general of the United States is the operational head of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (PHSCC) and thus the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government of the United States. Th ...
* Surgeon General of the United States Army * Surgeon General of the United States Air Force


References


Further reading

* Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, "The United States Navy Medical Department at War, 1941–1945." Washington, 1946. 757 pp.; describe the operational role of naval medical units ashore and afloa
partly online
* A History of Medicine in the Early U.S. Navy, Harold D. Langley Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000 * ''The History of the Medical Department of the United States Navy in World War II'' (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1953


External links


Navy Bureau of Medicine and SurgeryEarly Civil War Treatise on Gunshot Wounds By Surgeon General P.J. Horwitz
Shapell Manuscript Foundation {{US Navy navbox *Surgeon Medicine in the United States Navy 1869 establishments in the United States