JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas –
Forty-two students from McCollum High School in the Harlandale Independent School District of San Antonio toured the U.S. Army Medical Department Center and School, Health Readiness Center of Excellence, or AMEDDC&S HRCoE, May 3 to gain insight into the varying careers Army Medicine has to offer.
The students are enrolled in McCollum's health science class and many plan to pursue health related careers.
During the tour they were welcomed by Col. Dan Bonnichsen, AMEDDC&S HRCoE chief of staff, and other key leaders. They also visited the dental department, preventative medicine, 68W combat medic training, ate lunch in a Joint Base San Antonio dining facility and had the opportunity to tour the state-of-the-art rehabilitation and therapy facilities at the Center for the Intrepid.
“To remain the best, the Army must recruit a high quality all-volunteer force so we did our best to inform the students of the many benefits to joining the Army Medicine team,” Bonnichsen said. “We wanted all attendees to understand that 99 percent of our jobs have related civilian credentials and they can earn a degree while serving in the military through the GI bill or one of the many other scholarship programs like Army ROTC or the Health Professionals Scholarship Program.”
The HRCoE is the Army’s largest civilian-accredited service school and trains more than 35,000 students annually through 192 health-related programs of instruction at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston.
HRCoE trainees represent soldiers in 104 officer and warrant officer medical areas of concentration and 24 enlisted medical military occupational specialties to include Army nurses, combat medics, doctors, dentists, veterinarians, X-ray technicians and food inspectors.
To learn more about Army Medicine, visit https://www.goarmy.com/amedd.html.