We celebrated the Army Dental Corps’ 99th birthday this week on 03 March! This is the best Army Ball that I’ve been to – and we’ve been to quite a few. The highlight of the week and the Ball was our guest speaker and Corps Chief, MG Czerw. We also had dentists visiting from Canada and New Zealand to teach at our annual Forensics Course. COL Trengrove is the Senior Staff Officer Health for all military medical services in New Zealand (first dentist ever to hold this prestigious position!!) and has extensive Forensics experience with the military and the police. I first met him at a conference in Singapore 2 years ago and we started talking about an exchange program for Army dentists. It is amazing that we’ve gotten it off the ground! His contribution to our Forensics Course was monumental. And I can’t wait to go to New Zealand :) MAJ Les Campbell is a Detachment Commander in Canada. I first met him at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas where we were both serving as Mock Board Examiners for the ABGD Board Exam. We instantly hit it off with our common interest in dental continuing education. We have continued to cross paths at the annual Academy of General Dentistry Meeting and Les will be a speaker for me at the meeting this year in July. I recently sent him an email requesting materials due and received an “out of office” reply saying he was in Haiti in response to the recent earthquake. I immediately thought how valuable his experience there would be to our Forensics Course and contacted his Commander to see if we could get Les to Hawaii after he returned from Haiti. MAJ Campbell had one day notice to go to Haiti and not much more to come to Hawaii. This week he has delivered the most moving presentations of his work identifying Canadians that perished in Haiti. His work could not be more current or applicable and has been invaluable to everyone this week. He has even been able to bring his wife and daughter to Hawaii and is getting important “reconnecting” time with them. I cannot thank COL Trengrove or MAJ Campbell enough!

This also goes to show the incredible networking that is possible in the Army. The most casual conversations and interactions turn in to amazing events for so many people.

MG Czerw, MAJ Les Campbell (Canada), COL P, COL Hugh Trengrove (New Zealand), COL Lavin, COL Bachand

I’m always SO proud of our residents! The Ball was at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel on Waikiki Beach. The residents and their spouses looked outstanding and we couldn’t have had a more incredible setting.
 

MAJ Chun Chan (2nd year), COL P, Mary Rondeau, CPT Alex Smith (2nd year), CPT John King (1st year), MAJ Ken Jo (1st year), Jihyun Park, COL Mark Kuba (1st year), Young Kuba, CPT Tin Le (2nd year), COL Dan Lavin (Director). (We missed CPT Le’s and MAJ Chan’s wives this year)

A bonus to the evening was being able to renew my wedding vows with my husband. We actually do this every year…we’ve both been married before and we agreed at the beginning of our marriage to dedicate all the time and energy we could into keeping it strong. It’s easy to lose focus but renewing our vows every year helps keep us from losing perspective. It’s a little thing but it works for us and has become a fun and special tradition. We were actually married on 29 February 2000 (the last day it was legal for Officers and NCOs to marry) and since the Army Dental Corps Birthday Ball is always so close we often perform the ceremony at the B-Day Ball. Other locations have included Santorini, Greece (the best!), Key West, KoleKole Pass/Hawaii, and Ko Olina/Hawaii. This year is number ten!!

My husband even arranged for a rainbow to shine over Diamond Head :)