Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston –
A Navy Medicine team of San Antonio-area enlisted and
officer personnel kicked off San Antonio Navy Week April 18 with events at the
San Antonio Aquarium and the San Antonio Boys and Girls Club.
Hospital corpsmen joined Navy Medicine physicians, Navy
nurses and Medical Service Corps officers from the Joint Base San Antonio-Fort
Sam Houston-based Navy Medicine Education and Training Command, Navy Medicine
Training Support Center and Naval Medical Research Unit-San Antonio to give
children a hands-on look at science and medicine.
“We set up displays to reach out to the next generation
coming up behind us,” said Lt. Cmdr. Emily Owens, NMTSC preventive medicine
instructor at the Medical Education and Training Campus at JBSA-Fort Sam
Houston. “It’s great to show what we do, especially the science. Science is
really important, and it’s important for the children to be excited about
science. I think it’s a great opportunity to share with the community.”
Hosted by the Navy Office of Community Outreach in
Millington, Tenn., the Navy Week program gives Navy Medicine Sailors an
opportunity to raise public awareness of the Navy Medicine mission while giving
back to the community.
Navy Medicine participates in select Navy Weeks across the
nation that are typically held in locations away from the coasts and fleet
concentrated areas like Norfolk, Va., and San Diego, Calif.
Owens and her team set up a dozen Navy Medicine displays at
the aquarium and later in the day at the Boys and Girls Club. Her table of bug
samples and artificial snakes was a magnet for children as she shared the
basics of entomological science and its importance to the Navy and medicine.
Another medical display was provided by the NMTSC pharmacy
instructors from METC, where they told children about the behind-the-scenes
work of a pharmacist and even walked the children through filling a
prescription using prescription bottles and little candies.
“The kids really enjoyed it,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class
Matthew Sandlin. “I think we were the only ones with an edible display.”
San Antonio Navy Week is being celebrated in “Military City
USA” in conjunction with Fiesta San Antonio. JBSA-Fort Sam Houston is home to
hospital corps basic and advanced enlisted medical training schools co-located
with the Army and Air Force at METC.
Other Sailors participating in Navy Week and Fiesta are
visiting from the USS Constitution and USS City of Corpus Christi (SSN-705),
and locally from Navy Recruiting District San Antonio, Navy Operational Support
Center Texas, the Navy Technical Training Center Lackland (Master At Arms “A”
School) and Navy Information Operations Command Texas.
Navy Medicine is joining these commands in multiple
community outreach events visits to local schools and the Children’s Hospital
of San Antonio, participation in a Habitat for Humanity build and a multitude
of Fiesta activities across the city.