![]() In addition to serving as a resident at Walter Reed, Blanck also commanded both the U.S. ![]() “That was a monumental effort and meant a lot of people could continue to function instead of having depression, sitting at home or being discharged from the military.”īlanck became the first assistant dean of students at Bethesda’s Uniformed Services University, an institution chartered by Congress, and he also held teaching positions at Georgetown, George Washington and the Howard School of Medicine.Īs chief of Army Medicine at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, where each of the medical residents he trained successfully passed their board exams. Now, let us help you deal with your symptoms, pass the PT test,” Blanck said. “We would work with people and say, ‘Hey, we know you're sick we acknowledge it we don't know what it is. The facility later became a deployment health center. So it’s evolved into something that really takes all of use working together.”Īt Walter Reed, one of the nation’s largest military medical facilities, Blanck founded a Gulf War veteran’s treatment center built in 1993 specifically to treat Gulf War Syndrome, an unknown illness that causes muscle and joint pain, dizziness and memory lapses. “And it’s to take care of those who are injured or wounded. “Trying to keep Soldiers … healthy to fight is the first and foremost and part of our job,” he said. Blanck said preventative care, like the services Blanck provided to Soldiers in Vietnam, plays a critical role in disease prevention. While the Army’s Medical Corps and military medicine cover trauma, orthopedics, and intensive care, one aspect of its services often gets overlooked. Someone once told me, medical care today is a team sport.” “That's the evolution going from a medical corps being physician centric to now much more of a team effort. “The physician is critical to most of the care provided, but does so now as a contributing part of the team, listening to others in the team, and together coming up with the best solution for a patient,” Blanck said. The Army Medical Corps includes 4,000 physicians that specialize in various disciplines in clinical, research and operational medicine. ![]() He said that the Corps has shifted from a physician-centric focus to an emphasis on the collective efforts of the nurses, medical technicians, pharmacists and social workers. In the three decades that followed, the native of Ephrata, Pennsylvania would rise to numerous leadership positions including commanding Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and eventually becoming the Army’s 39th Surgeon General from 1996-2000.īlanck, who retired as a lieutenant general in 2000, recently reflected on the evolution of the Army Medical Corps, which celebrated its 248th anniversary Thursday. Now board certified in internal medicine, Blanck decided in 1973 that he wanted to make the Army a career. He also treated the Vietnamese people for bubonic plague.Īfter Vietnam, Blanck completed his medical residency, that included time researching tropical diseases in Malaysia. He built a makeshift medical bay in the dining facility, setting up beds and inserting IVs into the arms of the Soldiers. He often had to adapt to the challenges of the environment.īlanck, one of the first doctors of osteopathic medicine to serve in the Army, recalled one instance when members of a firing battery became ill from drinking contaminated water. “That loyalty, selfless service … it really meshed with the way I wanted to practice medicine.”įor 14 months Blanck treated Soldiers, sometimes tending to the wounded in the field in the Vietnamese towns of An Khê and Buôn Ma Thuột. ![]() “Vietnam kind of shaped my view of the military,” said Blanck, 81. During the conflict, Blanck focused primarily on preventative care: immunizations and vaccinations. military began drafting young men to serve in the Vietnam War. Then a young military physician, he deployed to the central highlands of Vietnam in September 1968, treating Soldiers on the front lines.īlanck, like many of his peers at the time, volunteered for the mission in the days before the U.S. WASHINGTON - More than 50 years ago, former Surgeon General Ronald Blanck received a harrowing introduction to the Army. (Photo Credit: National Archives) VIEW ORIGINAL Ronald Blanck, left, pins on brigadier general rank on Mack Hill, center, during a promotion ceremony.īlanck, who retired in 2000, served as the Army's surgeon general from 1996-2000 after commanding Walter Reed Army Medical Center. ![]()
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