JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas –
Army Col. Jack Davis, commandant of the Medical Education and Training Campus, or METC, traded in his eagle for a star when he was promoted to brigadier general during a ceremony in METC’s Anderson Hall Auditorium at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston June 7.
Davis was promoted by Maj. Gen. Barbara Holcomb, commanding general of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command, and Fort Detrick, Maryland; and Chief of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps.
Also attending were Lt. Gen. Nadja West, Surgeon General of the U.S. Army; Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan, commanding general, U.S. Army North; and Rear Adm. Tina Davidson, commander, Navy Medical, Education, Training and Logistics Command.
During the ceremony, Holcomb spoke about Davis’ early career, shared stories of his personal and professional accomplishments and talked about the importance of mentorship. She also related how Davis will assume multiple responsibilities with his promotion.
“He is not just going to be Chief of the Army Nurse Corps; he is going to have another full-time job,” she explained. “The Chief of the Nurse Corps is an appointment that goes with you. Whatever job you have, you retain that role.”
Holcomb announced that she will turn over the Chief of the Army Nurse Corps job to Davis July 1. However, there was still one important thing to accomplish before that happens.
“We’ll start today with getting him promoted and then the rest is a chapter waiting to be written,” Holcomb said. She then turned to Davis and thanked him for allowing her to promote him. “It’s my honor.”
Davis thanked his family – his wife, Jacquie, daughter Katie, son Jacob, and stepson Jeremy - for all their support and encouragement throughout his career. He also thanked all those responsible for orchestrating the ceremony.
He confessed that he was struggling for a few days with what to say when he got up to the podium.
“The other morning I was actually in the gym. I do a lot of my best thinking in the gym,” he quipped. “But I had kind of an epiphany and that epiphany was I needed to just stop, slow down and realize that this is not about me. It’s not about me at all.
“I know that we’ve all been to these ceremonies where the promoted person says something about standing on the shoulders of those who’ve come before and thanking folks for all the heavy lifting that they’ve done,” Davis continued. “While I absolutely agree with that, I want to add just a little bit to it from my perspective.
“During events like today we clearly should recognize those who have gone before and paved the way for our good fortune, freedoms, and military heritage,” Davis said. “The piece I want to add on to that, what I’d like to share, is that in addition to that rock-solid foundation I’ve come to believe that we’re all the sum of those who have been in our lives, the people who have touched us.
“We take little pieces of those people and we add them to ourselves to become what we are, or at least what we want to be,” Davis added. “Some pieces are larger than others but every piece is just as important in the total sum of who we are.”
Davis pointed out that, in a manner of speaking, his promotion is an acknowledgement of all those people getting promoted, past and present, and not about him at all.
“For that, I am profoundly grateful, honored and very humbled.”
In addition to relieving Holcomb as Chief of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, Davis will pick up the titles of deputy commanding general, Regional Health Command-Pacific/deputy command surgeon, United States Army Pacific/Senior Market Manager, Hawaii Enhanced Multi-Service Market.