Army Medical Department - Army Strong Stories

Let the best soldiers fight!

Amy Young — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:56:00 GMT

By: Amy Young
There is no doubt that the Army is entering a massive paradigm shift, with severe troop cuts, budget crises, and a strategic shift toward decisive operations. We are all used to doing more with less but this sets historic precedence. Now more than ever, it is urgent that we recruit and retain the most talented and agile of soldiers. Failure to do so equates to mission failure. In the repeal of the DADT act, we have moved in the right direction. We put actions...read more

Wow...Way to go Navy

Kendall Mower — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 04:35:00 GMT

By: Kendall Mower
This week was the MHS Conference I'll talk more about that in another post. I wanted to post some video of the Navy drill team. They performed at the very end of our last session and they were pretty amazing. Those are wood guns that they are spinning and throwing, and yes they do have bayonets on the end of them....read more

It's that time in the career again...Time to move

Kendall Mower — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:51:00 GMT

By: Kendall Mower
I hadn't mentioned anything about it because in the military I have learned it's not official until you have orders. I have heard some people say even then it's not official until you are getting on the plane :) Orders came through this week and I beleive it's as official as it gets. Today is my last day at Fort Belvoir. I will be going back to the Office of the Surgeon General (OTSG) to work as a staff officer in a new office that was created. This...read more

National Museum of the Marine Corps

Kendall Mower — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:00:00 GMT

By: Kendall Mower
We received notice a few days ago that the power to our dental clinic would be cut for some work that was going on outside our building. In response to that our Commander lined up an Officer Professional Development (OPD) activity for us. We went down to the National Museum of the Marine Corps. Although this in an Army website...I've got to admit the museum was pretty cool. I look forward to the Army Museum that will be built by 2015 at Ft. Belvoir. I hope...read more

Broken Tooth

Kendall Mower — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 03:12:00 GMT

By: Kendall Mower
I had a patient today that had been eating something frozen and heard a crack. He had been evaluated by both our Prosthodontist and our Periodontist and was scheduled with me for an extraction and bone graft. We were taking out the center tooth that has the black color coming through. The tooth appears to have given him some problems in the past. If you look right where his lip comes down parallel to that tooth you can see a pink circle. He had an area where puss...read more

update after nine years of war surgery

Martin Baechler — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:45:00 GMT

By: Martin Baechler
My last and only post was 16 months ago. I had forgotten about it until I googled my own name and rediscovered it. I feel compelled to write for my own sake. After nine years of continuous war surgery, I have found it necessary to take a break. The Army has moved me to Fort Belvoir Community Hospital. I will still be treating wounded warriors, but not nearly as many and not so early in their rehabilitation process. My job for the last nine years has been...read more

Emergency Call

Kendall Mower — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:01:00 GMT

By: Kendall Mower
It's known by many different names in the Army Dental Corps - Emergency call, DOD, on call, and a few other names I won't mention here. Ultimately it all means the same thing - being assigned as the dentist to provide care when the dental clinic is closed. Since it is typically divided up among all the dentists assigned to an area the frequency can vary. Some locations you may only pull call a few times a year, others it may be once a month. After hours care is...read more

Let the adventure begin!

Michael Gilbert — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 02:26:00 GMT

By: Michael Gilbert
I'm starting this post to keep my friends and family updated on my experiences as a newly minted army First Lietenant. I will be going to Ft. Sam in February to begin my officer basic training as a 65D, Army Physician Assistant. This has ben a life long dream to join the Army and I got in just under the wire(age limit). I look forward to serving my country and am proud to don the uniform of the US Army....read more

Clinic cases

Kendall Mower — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 05:22:00 GMT

By: Kendall Mower
I apologized I have slacked on writing here. Things have been pretty busy, and hopefully in the coming week or so I can provide some more info on that. Realizing that I was slacking I began taking pictures today with the intention of photographing something from every case. As the day progressed however, I only got in 3. To give you an idea of what today was like the following procedures were done: - 4 exams (1 also included a 3 surface amalgam) - 1 evaluation on...read more

Ultimate Sacrafice

Kendall Mower — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 04:35:00 GMT

By: Kendall Mower
While my wife and I were driving near Fort Myer we happened to go by Arlington National Cemetery. I had never seen the cemetery during the holidays, and I had to stop for a moment. As I looked out upon the rows of perfectly lined grave stones with wreaths placed I had the opportunity to switch gears for a moment. At this time when there are so many things vying for attention, this scene made me pause and consider the ultimate sacrifice that so many have paid in the...read more

Thank You USO

Kendall Mower — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 04:12:00 GMT

By: Kendall Mower
The USO made this holiday season even better for our family. Through the generous donations from people in the area the USO provided tickets to local holiday concerts and games. We chose to take advantage of tickets to 2 events. My daughter and I attended a Christmas chorale concert sponsored by the Russian Embassy at the Kennedy Center. A few days later I was able to attend the Redskins vs Vikings game on Christmas Eve with my son (believe it or not he was happy)....read more

Christmas at the Dental Clinic

Kendall Mower — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 09:00:00 GMT

By: Kendall Mower
It is pretty normal in most military units to have some kind of a holiday function. In our clinic we combined business with pleasure and had a great day. First thing in the morning we began with unit training. We had a great lecture on infection control and sterilizers by MAJ Kim. Next the assistants reviewed dental instruments. Then the festivities began at the officers club. Following an all-you-can-eat buffet (many people in the...read more

2011 Dental Corps Specialty training results

Kendall Mower — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 06:38:00 GMT

By: Kendall Mower
Each year in December the Army selects the next iteration of specialty residents. All the Army programs are accredited through the American Dental Association and are recognized outside of the military upon completion. Army training differs a little from the other services because our programs are spread across the United States at different bases, while some of the other services consolidate all of their training at one or just a few bases. The Army selects 18 months in...read more

Mock Boards

Kendall Mower — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 05:17:00 GMT

By: Kendall Mower
All the federal services have ADA accredited specialty training programs. Each service does their training a little differently. The Army has their specialty programs spread throughout different Army bases. The Navy has all of their training programs located at their post-graduate dental school at Bethesda. This building is the location of the Navy programs. Just inside of the lobby is a room dedicated to FDR and the history behind the creation...read more

Army Flag Raising

Kendall Mower — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 05:48:00 GMT

By: Kendall Mower
I'm not sure how many of you have ever seen a flag raising on an Army base, but it happens every morning. Reveille is typically broadcast on speakers around the base for the whole community to hear :) This was taken at Ft. Myer, Va. When Reveille starts everyone on post is supposed to stop, face the flag and salute. If you are driving you should stop the car and get out and salute....read more

Columbia Dental School

Kendall Mower — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 07:04:00 GMT

By: Kendall Mower
I had a little bit of an exciting time on a recruiting trip up to Columbia School of Dentistry this past week. I was flying out of Reagan National Airport and I had checked in at home. I made it through security and all the way to the gate when I checked the monitor and saw that my flight had been canceled due to mechanical issues (picture below is the airport). Normally if I were flying on my own I would have had to find the next available flight and sit around the...read more

Clinic update

Kendall Mower — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 06:44:00 GMT

By: Kendall Mower
I haven't talked about cases that have been going on in the clinic much. I guess there is a couple of reasons: 1) Not being able to connect my camera to government computers at work means that I have to try to do the pictures at home - a little more effort 2) Seeing so many things each day - I sometimes forget to grab the camera. Today I had a new experience. I was seeing a foreign officer from a Latin American country. In that country they use a type of metal in...read more

The Best Day of My Life

Dore Gilbert — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 01:11:00 GMT

By: Dore Gilbert
There are no words to adequately describe my past week in Afghanistan. I received an email from Kevin’s Company Commander giving me the go ahead to go down to Camp Leatherneck and see my son. Kevin is a Corporal and a squad leader in 1/5 Marines and has been doing daily foot patrols in the Sangin Valley of the Helmand Province in Afghanistan for the past 7 months. This is the most dangerous part of the country resulting in the highest number of casualties. It is...read more

Thanksgiving at the Dental Clinic

Kendall Mower — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 08:03:00 GMT

By: Kendall Mower
Although we didn't celebrate it on Thanksgiving, last week we had a Fort Belvoir Dental Clinic Command (Fort Belvoir and Fort Myer) get together to celebrate Thanksgiving and also get some training done. The training took up most of the morning and covered such exciting topics as cold weather injury prevention, and infection control. The afternoon was spent enjoying a Thanksgiving potluck and a game of charades. Although I won't regret my deployment...read more

Continuing Education

Kendall Mower — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 06:01:00 GMT

By: Kendall Mower
With the recent realignment that occurred Fort Belvoir and Fort Myer now fall under the command of the Fort Meade DENTAC. Recently our commander sponsored a continuing education day for all the dentists within his command (Maryland, N. Virginia, and Pennsylvania). We had presentations in Periodontics/implants, Prosthodontics, and Oral Pathology. Even learned how the different specialties compare to general contracting...read more