Navy Medicine Celebrates the Navy's 240th Birthday
Story Number: NNS151014-23Release Date: 10/14/2015 2:21:00 PM
A A A Email this story to a friend Print this story
By James Rosenfelder, U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery
FALLS CHURCH, Virginia (NNS) -- Navy Medicine celebrated the Navy's 240th birthday during a cake-cutting ceremony at Defense Health Headquarters, Oct. 9.
Rear Adm. Thomas Beeman, assistant deputy surgeon general for reserve affairs, delivered the ceremony remarks as the guest of honor.
"[For 240 years] we've proved that in peace and in war, a strong forward-deployed Navy is key to America's success. We've deployed, throughout history, in peace to protect the sea lanes of communication and to advance and safeguard America's relationships and ideals," said Beeman.
"In conflict, we've defeated determined enemies at sea, and in the air and ashore. Our forward-deployed naval presence delivers security, influence and responsiveness unmatched by any other service or platform," he said.
Guests in attendance of the ceremony celebrated the birthday with a traditional cake cutting, which was held as an annual renewal of each Sailor's commitment to the Navy.
As with tradition the first piece was presented to the guest of honor. The second and third pieces were given to the oldest and youngest Sailors present, Capt. Kerry Krause and Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Jorge Casasola.
Rear Adm. Beeman also highlighted the importance of the contributions made by Navy Medicine Reservists over the past 100 years.
"Trained and ready, Reservists have been mobilized in times of crisis, whether it's to support humanitarian operations or boots on the ground conflict. Today is another day for us to celebrate and honor that part of our Naval heritage," said Beeman.
Navy Medicine is a global health care network of 63,000 Navy medical personnel around the world who provide high quality health care to more than one million eligible beneficiaries. Navy Medicine personnel deploy with Sailors and Marines worldwide, providing critical mission support aboard ship, in the air, under the sea and on the battlefield.
For more news from Navy Medicine, visit
www.navy.mil/local/mednews/.
