JBSA-FORT SAM HOUSTON –
Rear Adm. Rebecca McCormick-Boyle relieved Capt. Gail Hathaway as commander of the Navy Medicine Education and Training Command during a combined change of command and retirement ceremony June 27 at the Army Medical Department Museum amphitheater at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston.
The Navy ship's bell rang out as local commanders and commanding officers from across all five military services were announced upon their arrival.
Eight strikes of the bell, followed by, "U.S. Army North, arriving," announced Lt. Gen. Perry L. Wiggins, commander of U.S. Army North and senior Army commander of JBSA-Fort Sam Houston and JBSA-Camp Bullis. Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert D. LaBrutta, 502nd Air Base Wing and JBSA commander, was announced with six bells, followed by "Joint Base San Antonio, arriving."
Wiggins and LaBrutta were two of more than 175 leaders from the military and local communities gathered for a time-honored military tradition with a nautical theme.
After welcoming the guests, Hathaway introduced the change of command's presiding officer, Rear Adm. C. Forrest Faison, the U.S. Navy deputy surgeon general. Hathaway followed Faison's comments with her personal remarks and reading of her orders.
"I am extremely proud of this command - the people who do the heavy lifting every day - and the entire Navy Medicine Education and Training enterprise," Hathaway said. "They have continued to just get the job done despite the roadblocks. It was said once, 'to be successful, you have to get up one more time than you fall.' No matter the setbacks, despite the lack of staff and despite being in three locations, this command just kept getting back up, dusting itself off and being successful."
McCormick-Boyle, who comes in from Washington, D.C., where she was chief of staff to the Navy surgeon general and the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, followed with the reading of her orders. The two exchanged salutes as Hathaway relinquished and McCormick-Boyle assumed command, and both reported to Faison that command had changed.
"Break my flag," was McCormick-Boyle's first order, and the new commander's personal two-star flag was raised up the flag pole as the brass quintet from the 323rd Army Band, "Fort Sam's Own," played two "Ruffles and Flourishes" followed by "The Admiral's March."
McCormick-Boyle, who will also continue to serve as director of the Navy Nurse Corps, a position she has held since August 2013, discussed three areas on which she plans to focus - the Navy Medicine and NMETC education and training team, partnering with other organizations and military services, and continuing Navy San Antonio efforts to reach out to the local community.
"I look forward to blooming where planted here in San Antonio in collaboration with and support of NMETC's subordinate commands to advance Navy Medicine's Force Health Protection capabilities," McCormick-Boyle said. "I am struck by the expertise and commitment to excellence of (the Navy Medicine Education and Training enterprise) senior leaders and staff.
"I look forward to deepening relationships and collaborations with my sister services - Army, Air Force and Coast Guard - as well as the Defense Health Agency, and in particular the Medical Education and Training Campus," the admiral said. "And thirdly, I look forward to community outreach here in San Antonio in the great state of Texas."
The admiral ordered her deputy, Capt. Rochelle Owens, and master of ceremonies Cmdr. Michael Enriquez the traditional Navy task - "Take charge and carry out the plan of the day," and "carry out the retirement ceremony for Capt. Hathaway."
Hathaway summarized her almost 30-year Navy career before departing with her family after four rings of the ship's bells and the traditional whistle from the Navy boatswain's pipe, called "piping the side."
"It's hard to sum up 28 years in just a few moments," Hathaway said. "So many thoughts ran through my head about my time in the Navy, from my first time stepping on a Navy ship; to getting kicked off a ship as it was getting underway because women couldn't be on war ships in 1987 without very high-level permission; to my first helicopter flight; to the first time going supersonic in an F/A-18, dropping bombs, wearing night-vision goggles and pulling Seven G's; to being one of the first Americans ever to visit the province of the Northern Moluccas in Indonesia, a completely Muslim area with little tolerance for Christians."
Hathaway, who plans to remain in San Antonio with her family, added, "I have been truly blessed to have had the best job in the Navy; no, the best job in the world. I have been truly blessed."