Earlier this month I had a chance to address a large audience from the AMEDD (Army Medical Department) in San Antonio. We had about 100 Dental Corps personnel present and about 200 medical/hospital personnel. It was a great opportunity to speak with some of our dental leadership and other colleagues. Patient safety is a very important subject within the AMEDD. The goal is to be proactive in identifying trends or behaviors that could cause an adverse outcome for a...read more

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The officers in our clinic recently had an officer professional development (OPD) event at Davidson Army Airfield across from Ft. Belvoir. The purpose of an OPD is to build Esprit de Corps and help to train officers to become future leaders. For this event we scheduled a tour of the airfield to learn about some other Army units here at Ft. Belvoir and what they do. We began by visiting one of the hangers that house the Blackhawks that have been converted to fly VIPs....read more

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What an exciting afternoon. Around 2 pm I had just seated a patient and we were talking about what we were going to do during the procedure. All of a sudden it sounded to me like a helicopter was beginning to land right outside the clinic - things were shaking a little bit and I thought it was rotor wash. I couldn't understand where a helicopter would land since we are surrounded by residential housing - maybe I was thinking there was a VIP that had broken a tooth :) As...read more

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I haven't talked about what I've done in the clinic very much - I think the reason is things have been so busy. With the new leadership there have been changes and new adjustments. With Walter Reed closing down and the summer move season we have many new dentists that have begun working with us. We have 3 new military dentists and 2 new civilian dentists. Finding room for everyone has been an ongoing project. In the clinic it seems like a...read more

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2 days into our recent vacation in Utah by son broke his arm. I have to admit he did it in style. It was during his uncle's wedding reception. He and his cousins were next door at the neighbors and he caught a bad bounce on the trampoline. When I saw him brought up into the house by my sister-in-law I just kept looking at his arm realizing that it should not bend that way. I was in a little bit of shock, and I think we set some land speed race...read more

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While coming back from a trip to San Antonio this week I was surprised to see one of my drill sergeants at the Airport. He is a TSA agent now. Drill Sergeant Rivera had been my drill sergeant back in 1996 when I went through basic training at Fort Jackson in F Company 2-39. He told me he had retired 10 years ago from the Army. Having reconnected with 2 of my drill sergeants in the last 3 months has been pretty cool (Drill Sergeant Rivera and Drill Sergeant...read more

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I thought this was too funny to pass on. I had someone mention to me that they had received a scam email claiming to be from me - but today was the first time I had seen it published. If you see anything like this it was not from me and you don't have to send me any money :) My wife was shocked to learn they had gotten her name and phone number wrong also - she's asking me who Debra is :) email scam It makes total sense though - if you do have millions of...read more

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For military medicine there are a lot of changes that have been and will continue to change around the Washington DC area. On 27 July Walter Reed Army Hospital held official ceremonies closing the hospital although it will still continue to shift its care over the next month. As part of the BRAC process it was decided many years ago that Walter Reed in it's current location would close down and that the care provided by it would be shifted to Bethesda Naval Hospital (the New...read more

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Almost 2 months after coming back from Iraq I am finally taking leave with my family. My brother got married and we timed my leave with the wedding. With almost 3 months of vacation time saved up I have to use up a lot before October 1st when we lose any additional leave over 75 days. After the wedding my dad, brother, and brother-in-law, and I went on a back packing trip in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. We followed cairns along the way...read more

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Staff rides are a way for Soldiers to learn lessons from battles from history. The goal is to look at what happened, and come up with lessons learned that you can apply in your current job. Recently our dental unit from Walter Reed, and the dental unit out of Ft. Meade went on a joint staff ride to Gettysburg. Our guide was Mr. George Wunderlich executive director at at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine. Although not from our...read more

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