Commander's Blog

Since 2004, April has been recognized as Celebrate Diversity Month across the nation. Recently, I commented on the historic diversity of this year's USA Olympic team, and to this list we certainly can add the tremendous diversity seen throughout the Department of Defense, MEDCOM, and our own USAMMDA team. Clearly, we live in a very diverse society, and all of us bring to the table our unique talents, knowledge and merit. In fact, our dissimilar traits are what make us so similar, and by pooling together these great minds from various backgrounds, we're able to do remarkable things for our communities, our citizens and our nation. We all have positive contributions to make to our respective teams, so we should embrace our talents and never be shy about speaking up to offer suggestions to the group. Given our organization's mission to protect and preserve our Warfighters, it remains incumbent upon all of us to be proactive always – it's critical that we do.

And speaking of USAMMDA's great mission, I'm sure everyone is thankful that our Defense budget was passed recently, as this will allow us to continue with the execution of our current funding strategies while also providing an opportunity to request additional funds for important unfinanced military medical requirements. I often say that our military men and women are counting on us for this type of support, and we truly do have a responsibility to follow through with each vital need they present to us. Although some of these requests may be out of our control, we certainly have to control the things we can.

Well, one thing we can't control is the weather, and we really had a wild ride for the first day of spring in our area. We successfully survived our spring snowstorm, and only a day later, we made it through our organization's Spring Cleaning day! I have to say, after walking through the building, it's clear to see the effort put forth by everyone on the team. The neatness in office spaces, storage rooms and other areas is very noticeable, and this will certainly help us shine when Maj. Gen. Holcomb visits USAMMDA later this month. This will be an excellent opportunity for us to showcase our diverse talents in support of our mission, and we'll be highlighting some of the outstanding achievements of our team members. The Commanding General has commented on the value of our great organization, and we should feel very confident in our various contributions to Army Medicine when she comes to speak to us. I am certainly proud of our USAMMDA team, and I'm really looking forward to her visit.

As we move from winter to spring, we continue to focus on the improvements to our organization as well. We are looking to refine our strategic plan, and we anticipate some very effective changes between USAMMDA and USAMMA, as well as the roll-out of our regulatory re-engineering effort that is expected to have full operational capability by July 1 of this year. While these changes may require some extra focus and energy during the transition period, the results will certainly be worth the effort. The bottom line is that we will help make the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command a much stronger and more efficient force in Army Medicine, which will only help to improve the strength and readiness of our military force.

And finally, during the NCAA's "March Madness," I hope many of you were able to catch some of the spectacular basketball games over the past two weeks! The upsets were historic, and the championship game may provide a little more history. Personally, I am hoping to see another exciting game to close out the season! We also have the Master's golf tournament beginning this week, which should offer some memorable moments as well. If you're like me, sporting events usually provide a pleasant diversion from the critical work we do each and every day – giving us time to relax and recharge so we can stay focused on the mission.

Let's always remember that we're saving lives with everything we do here at USAMMDA!

COL Ryan Bailey