Surgeon General of the United States Navy

Most senior commissioned officer of the Medical Corps of the United States Navy

This article is about the senior physician in the United States Navy. For the head of the United States Public Health Service, see Surgeon General of the United States. For other uses, see Surgeon General (disambiguation).

Surgeon General of the
United States Navy

Seal of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery

Incumbent
RADM Darin K. Via

since December 5, 2023

Bureau of Medicine and Surgery
United States Navy Medical Corps
Type| Head of the medical branch of the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps
Abbreviation| SGN
Member of| Office of the Chief of Naval Operations
Reports to| Secretary of the Navy
Chief of Naval Operations
Commandant of the United States Marine Corps
Residence| Suite 5113, 7700 Arlington Boulevard, Falls Church, Virginia
Seat| Defense Health Headquarters, Falls Church, Virginia
Appointer| The president
with Senate advice and consent
Term length| 4 years
Constituting instrument| 10 U.S.C. § 8077
Formation| 1869
First holder| William Maxwell Wood
Deputy| Deputy Surgeon General of the Navy/Deputy Chief, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (Navy matters)
Chief, Medical Corps/Medical Officer of the Marine Corps (Marine matters)
Website| Official website

The surgeon general of the Navy (SGN) is the most senior commissioned officer of the Medical Corps of the United States Navy and is the principal advisor to the United States secretary of the navy, chief of naval operations and director of the defense health agency on all health and medical matters pertaining to the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps. As head of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, the surgeon general also manages Navy and Marine healthcare policy, administering the services' healthcare and biomedical research facilities as well as the various staff corps of BUMED, including the Medical Corps and an enlisted corps. The surgeon general is also a member of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations.

From 1965 to 2019, the surgeon general was appointed as a vice admiral, until the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 struck the surgeon general's statutory rank.[1] Currently the surgeon general of the Navy is the only uniformed service surgeon general to not be a three-star general or flag officer. There have been several attempts by the House of Representatives over the years to address the rank inequality but all have failed. The House version of the 2023,[2][3] 2024,[4] and 2025[5] NDAA each included a clause restoring the surgeon general's three-star rank, but the clause is removed when the Senate reconcilies their version of the NDAA with the House's. The closest acknowledgement from the Senate of the rank disparity came via the of the 2024 NDAA, when they attached a house report (H. Rept. 118-301) to it, acknowledging that the Navy does have the authority to allow the surgeon general to be designated a three-star rank, if an officer is nominated for appointment and confirmed.

## Establishment of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery

[edit]

Main article: Bureau of Medicine and Surgery

On 31 August 1842, the United States Congress passed a Navy appropriation bill that was a blueprint for efficiency. The legislation provided for five Navy bureaus United States Navy bureau system to replace the outdated Board of Navy Commissioners—Yards and Docks; Construction, Equipment, and Repair; Provisions and Clothing; Ordnance and Hydrography; and Medicine and Surgery. Heading each of the bureaus was a "Chief" to be appointed by the President of the United States.[6]

The Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) became the central administrative headquarters for the Navy Medical Department, and those names became interchangeable. The general order of 26 November 1842, which defined the duties of the new bureaus, charged BUMED with:[6]

* All medicines and medical stores of every description, used in the treatment of the sick, the diseased and the wounded;
* All boxes, vials, and other vessels containing the same;
* All clothing, beds, and bedding for the sick;
* All surgical instruments of every kind;
* The management of hospitals, so far as the patients therein are concerned;
* All appliances of every sort, used in surgical and medical practice;
* All contracts, accounts, and returns, relating to these and such other subjects as shall hereafter be assigned to this bureau.

Overseeing all of these duties, and directing the medical department, was the Chief of BUMED, William P. C. Barton. Barton served at this post until 1844. He was followed by Thomas Harris, William Whelan, Phineas Horwitz, and William Maxwell Wood. Since the days of Barton's directorship the most senior ranking physician in the Navy Medical Department has held the title of Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery.[6]

## Creation of the title

[edit]

On 3 March 1871, Congress passed legislation granting medical and other staff officers of the Navy "relative rank" with grades "equal to but not identical with the grades of the line." This Naval Appropriations Act went further than any previous Congressional action in transforming and enhancing the Navy Medical Department. The Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery now had the additional title "Surgeon General," with the relative rank of Commodore. At the helm of this "revitalized" organization stood the first Surgeon General, William Maxwell Wood (1809–1880), a man entering his 42nd year of a naval service as unusual and varied as could be. Wood had served aboard USS Poinsett, one of the first steam vessels of the Navy, and designated flagship during the "expedition for the suppression of Indian hostilities on the coast of Florida" (a.k.a. the Seminole Wars). Wood served shore duty at Sackets Harbor, New York, Baltimore, Maryland, had duty as Fleet Surgeon of the Pacific Fleet, and served under Commodore John D. Sloat in California during the Mexican–American War. However fitting he may have been as the first Navy Surgeon General, he served less than two years.[citation needed]

### Chief of Bureau of Medicine and Surgery

[edit]

Image  | Name  | Dates of Tenure

|
|

| William P. C. Barton | 1842–1844
| Thomas Harris | 1844–1853
| William Whelan | 1853–1865
| Phineas J. Horwitz | 1865–1869
| William Maxwell Wood | 1869–1871

## List of chiefs of BUMED and surgeons general of the Navy

[edit]

Image  | Surgeon General  | Date(s) of tenure

|
|

| CDRE William Maxwell Wood | 1869–1871
| CDRE Jonathan M. Foltz | 1871–1872
| CDRE James C. Palmer | 1872–1873
| CDRE Joseph Beale | 1873–1877
| CDRE William Grier | 1877–1878
| CDRE J. Winthrop Taylor | 1878–1879
| CDRE Philip S. Wales | 1879–1884
| CDRE Francis M. Gunnell | 1884–1888
| CDRE J. Mills Browne | 1888–1893
| CDRE James R. Tryon | 1893–1897
| CDRE Newton L. Bates | 1897
| RADM William Knickerbocker Van Reypen | 1897–1902
| RADM Presley Marion Rixey | 1902–1910
| RADM Charles F. Stokes | 1910–1914
| RADM William Clarence Braisted | 1914–1920
| RADM Edward R. Stitt | 1920–1928
| RADM Charles E. Riggs | 1928–1933
| RADM Perceval S. Rossiter | 1933–1938
| VADM Ross T. McIntire | 1938–1946
| RADM Clifford A. Swanson | 1946–1951
| RADM H. Lamont Pugh | 1951–1955
| RADM Bartholomew W. Hogan | 1955–1961
| RADM Edward C. Kenney | 1961–1965
| VADM Robert B. Brown | 1965–1969
| VADM George M. Davis | 1969–1973
| VADM Donald L. Custis | 1973–1976
| VADM Willard P. Arentzen | 1976–1980
| VADM J. William Cox | 1980–1983
| VADM Lewis H. Seaton | 1983–1987
| VADM James A. Zimble | 1987–1991
| VADM Donald F. Hagen | 1991–1995
| VADM Harold M. Koenig | 1995–1998
| VADM Richard A. Nelson | 1998–2001
| VADM Michael L. Cowan[7] | 2001–2004
| VADM Donald Arthur | 2004–2007
| VADM Adam M. Robinson Jr. | 2007–2011
| VADM Matthew L. Nathan | 2011–2015
| VADM C. Forrest Faison III | 2015–2019
| RADM Bruce L. Gillingham | 2019–2023
| RADM Darin K. Via | 2023[8]–present

## See also

[edit]

* Surgeon General of the United States
* Surgeon General of the United States Army
* Surgeon General of the United States Air Force

## References

[edit]

1. ^ McCain, John (23 December 2016). "S.2943 - 114th Congress (2015-2016): National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017". www.congress.gov. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
2. ^ Smith, Adam (14 July 2022). "H.R.7900 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023". www.congress.gov. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
3. ^ DeFazio, Peter A. (15 December 2022). "H.R.7776 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023". www.congress.gov. Retrieved 17 December 2022.
4. ^ Rogers, Mike D. (30 June 2023). "H.R.2670 - 118th Congress (2023-2024): National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024". www.congress.gov. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
5. ^ Rep. Rogers, Mike D. [R-AL-3 (8 July 2024). "H.R.8070 - 118th Congress (2023-2024): Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025". www.congress.gov. Retrieved 27 December 2024.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
6. ^ a b c "About BUMED". U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. Archived from the original on 20 August 2014. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
7. ^ "Vice Adm. Michael L. Cowan, USN (Ret)". moaa.org. 19 September 2019.
8. ^ acting from March to December 2023

## Further reading

[edit]

* Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, "The United States Navy Medical Department at War, 1941–1945." Washington, 1946. 757 pp.; describe the operational role of naval medical units ashore and afloat partly online
* A History of Medicine in the Early U.S. Navy, Harold D. Langley Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000
* The History of the Medical Department of the United States Navy in World War II (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1953) online

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (US Navy).

* Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery
* Early Civil War Treatise on Gunshot Wounds By Surgeon General P.J. Horwitz Shapell Manuscript Foundation

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