Navy Medication Readiness and Coaching Command Nice Lakes adjustments command June 1 > United States Navy > News-Tales

GREAT LAKES, Unwell. — Navy Nurse Corps Capt. Jeremy J. Hawker assumed command of Navy Medication Readiness and Coaching Command Nice Lakes June 1, in a digital and in-person ceremony at Naval Station Nice Lakes, relieving Capt. Thomas J. Nelson.

NMRTC Nice Lakes is the command situated on the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Well being Care Heart in North Chicago, Unwell. Hawker will function NMRTC Nice Lakes commander till July 15, when incoming commander Capt. Chad McKenzie completely takes over. Hawker, in addition to McKenzie, additionally tackle the function of deputy director of Lovell FHCC, which helps each the Division of Protection and Division of Veterans Affairs by offering well being care to servicemembers – together with Navy recruits – navy dependents and veterans in southeast Wisconsin and northeast Illinois.

When NMRTC Nice Lakes was established in 2019, the sources of Lovell FHCC that present medical care and assist for Division of Protection beneficiaries have been aligned below the administration oversight of the Protection Well being Company. Whereas DHA is liable for well being care supply and enterprise operations, Navy Medication retains principal duty for operational readiness of the Navy and Marine Corps. To enhance the transition, Navy Medication established the co-located NMRTC Nice Lakes at Lovell FHCC.

Nelson, a Navy trauma surgeon, assumed command of the FHCC nearly two years in the past. His subsequent task is Navy seventh Fleet Surgeon in Japan.

Presiding Officer Navy Medical Forces Atlantic Commander Rear Admiral Darin Through began his remarks by telling Nelson that Navy Medication “made the appropriate alternative sending you right here,” to the nation’s solely totally built-in federal well being care heart.

“Captain Nelson not solely took command and management of a singular command but in addition throughout what I imagine has been essentially the most essentially the most complicated and most difficult time not just for Navy Medication however for our total nation, within the trendy historical past of the world,” Through stated.

When the Navy started to face coronavirus in 2019, Navy Medication’s deal with readiness was challenged. “Underneath your steering and management, the women and men of NMRTC Nice Lakes responded with unbelievable resolve and willpower by way of important contributions and supportive operational contingencies for COVID operations,” Through continued.

Some of the distinguishing missions below Nelson’s management that Through highlighted was the transition of the Restriction of Motion (ROM) mission, to and from, Fort McCoy, Wis. for Recruit Coaching Command. NMRTC Nice Lakes and Lovell FHCC workers, with assist from 81 Navy Reserve part and lively obligation personnel, offered medical look after recruits who have been quarantined earlier than beginning Boot Camp at RTC, and led the Navy in its recruit coaching accession. “And we’re the one department of service who maintained that pipeline,” Through stated.

Naval Service Coaching Command Commander Rear Admiral Jennifer Couture, visitor speaker, additionally praised Nelson for his management through the pandemic.

“The Navy and I couldn’t have been luckier to have Tom right here in charge of NMRTC Nice Lakes throughout my rookie season at NSTC, and through this historic pandemic,” Couture stated. “By means of his management, teamwork, character, professionalism, he made an instantaneous influence on means of the Navy to perform the very important preliminary coaching mission right here at Nice Lakes, to ship prepared sailors to the fleet … new sailors our shipmates at sea are relying on to reach medically prepared for his or her arduous duties in locations just like the South China Sea, the Arabian gulf, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.”

Nelson stated whereas COVID-19 had the potential to negatively have an effect on his command tour, on the identical time, the pandemic set the stage for Lovell FHCC’s and NMRTC Nice Lakes’ “unprecedented success” in defending the pipeline of Navy enlisted sailors going to the fleet.

“To my shipmates, uniformed and civilians alike, your efforts formed Navy’s mitigation methods for safeguarding our nation’s latest sailors and recruits so they might man the fleet,” Nelson stated. “On the identical time, you rose to the duty of caring for our most susceptible beneficiaries from a well being care standpoint – our veterans.”

Hawker, who has served because the FHCC and NMRTC Nice Lakes govt officer for 2 years, pledged to proceed to strengthen the connection between the Navy and VA at Lovell FHCC. “Having served as XO, I’ve witnessed the quite a few successes of our built-in group, managing complicated situations by way of their skilled drive and collaboration. As CO, I’m excited to construct on the profitable basis already set.”

Previous to coming to Lovell FHCC, Hawker served because the senior nurse govt for Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton, the place he was vital to Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton’s COVID-19 base-wide response and led the command by way of a profitable Joint Fee survey. He has been an ICU nurse and deployed twice aboard USNS Consolation supporting Rescuer/MEDCEUR 02 and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was chosen for Obligation Underneath Instruction on the Uniformed Companies College of the Well being Sciences, the place he graduated with honors in 2008 with a graduate diploma as a Perioperative Scientific Nurse Specialist. Whereas assigned because the division head of the Perioperative Nursing Division at Naval Hospital Lemoore, Calif., he deployed to NATO Function 3 Multinational Medical Unit in Kandahar, Afghanistan, the place he served because the Head Air Evacuation Liaison.

The change of command befell at Ross Theater at Naval Station Nice Lakes and was live-streamed on the Lovell FHCC Fb web page, the place it’s out there for viewing: https://www.fb.com/lovellfhcc.

Lovell FHCC is the nation’s solely totally built-in VA and Division of Protection well being care facility. Lovell FHCC serves veterans alongside service members and their households, at its fundamental hospital in North Chicago, Unwell. Veterans are also cared for at Lovell FHCC outpatient clinics in McHenry and Evanston, Unwell., and Kenosha, Wis. The FHCC additionally operates USS Purple Rover, USS Osborne and USS Tranquillity Recruit Coaching Command clinics, and Fisher Clinic at Naval Station Nice Lakes. Roughly 3,200 Navy, VA civilian workers and civilian contractors work at Lovell FHCC.