Throughout his tenure as Surgeon Common, Gillingham led roughly 44,000 Navy medical personnel by the U.S. Navy Bureau of Drugs and Surgical procedure’s (BUMED) most complete transformation since World Struggle II.
He oversaw a shift in mission from oversight of army therapy facility-based care to expeditionary, operational help, and directed BUMED’s 2023 Marketing campaign Order which prioritizes help of distributed maritime operations, expeditionary superior basing operations, and logistics operations in contested environments. The order realigned Navy Drugs instructions to make sure the enterprise is postured to raised ship agile, scalable, and totally licensed medical items.
Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Mike Gilday, who presided over the ceremony, thanked Gillingham for his management.
“He has optimized Navy Drugs to venture medical energy in help of naval superiority,” he mentioned. “He’s carried out so by unifying Navy Drugs, bringing the hospital aspect and the operational aspect collectively to make “One Navy Drugs.” Because of his management, this unified medical staff has totally shifted its focus to supporting our operational and expeditionary mission.”
Gillingham moreover led Navy Drugs’s COVID-19 response operations which included practically 190 operational missions and the deployment of greater than 5,540 active-duty Sailors to civilian hospitals, clinics, and vaccination help websites, and aboard USNS Consolation and USNS Mercy which deployed to New York Metropolis and Los Angeles respectively.
A San Diego native, Gillingham is an orthopedic surgeon with a pediatric subspecialty.
Throughout his profession, Gillingham served in varied positions all through Navy Drugs to incorporate director of Pediatric Orthopedic and Scoliosis Surgical procedure; Affiliate Orthopedic Residency Program director; and director of Surgical Companies. Whereas assigned to Naval Medical Middle San Diego, he was instrumental in establishing the Complete Fight and Complicated Casualty Care Middle.
Operationally, he served aboard the hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH-19) as employees orthopedic surgeon and as director of surgical providers. He deployed in help of Operation Iraqi Freedom II as battalion chief of Skilled Companies (Ahead) for the first Power Service Assist Group and officer accountable for the Surgical Shock Trauma Platoon, reaching a 98 % fight casualty survival price whereas offering echelon II surgical care throughout Operation Phantom Fury.
When talking about Navy Drugs’s response to COVID-19, Gillingham highlighted those that have been essential to the response.
“Unsung heroes, like our preventive and public well being medical specialists, medical researchers, laboratorians, infectious illness docs, respiratory technicians and significant care groups stepped into the breach, not just for the Navy, however for our Nation, mentioned Gillingham. “They have been the engine that projected medical energy for naval superiority, and I will likely be without end grateful for his or her experience and dedication.”
Former U.S. Navy Deputy Surgeon Common and mentor to Gillingham, retired Rear Admiral Tom Cullison, additionally supplied remarks.
“Admiral Gillingham is extremely revered all through DoD for his calmness, equanimity and his imaginative and prescient,” mentioned Cullison. “One senior chief displays the ideas of many people right here within the room by saying he expertly navigated the Navy and Marine Corps equities however he equally proud of the Protection Well being System and the Protection Well being Company.”
Gillingham spoke in regards to the related nature of army drugs and the worth of relationships.
“It’s vital to know that Navy Drugs is simply part of the army well being techniques. We don’t face our latest challenges alone,” mentioned Gillingham. “One of many true pleasures of this job was attending to know and work with my colleagues within the Army, Air Power, Coast Guard, Nationwide Guard and Reserves, Protection Well being Company and our civilian colleagues within the service and Protection Division secretariats.”
Gillingham closed his remarks saying he was assured in Navy Drugs’s future, citing dedication and teamwork.
“Those that will comply with in our footsteps will likely be much more devoted to our mission to venture medical energy for Naval superiority and they’ll do it in an extremely collaborative and inclusive means,” mentioned Gillingham.
Gillingham holds a Bachelor of Arts diploma in cultural anthropology, with excessive honors, from the College of California, San Diego, John Muir School; and a medical physician diploma from the Uniformed Companies College of the Well being Sciences (USUHS). He’s a 1986 inductee within the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Fraternity, USUHS Gamma Chapter.
Navy Drugs — comprised of roughly 44,000 highly-trained army and civilian well being care professionals — supplies enduring expeditionary medical help to the warfighter on, under, and above the ocean, and ashore.
For extra details about Navy Drugs, go to www.med.navy.mil
