U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence hosts milestone open graduation ceremony

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1st Lt. Darren Tanis, executive officer of the Michigan Army National Guard’s 1433rd Engineer Company, based in Fort Custer, Michigan, stands near the U.S. Capitol in Washington Feb. 3, 2021. The National Guard is supporting federal law enforcement in the nation's capital through mid-March.

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Video by Jose Rodriguez

U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence hosts milestone open graduation ceremony

U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence

Aug. 3, 2021 | 7:36

JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas –Army Medicine soldiers assigned to the U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence (MEDCoE), graduated from Advanced Individual Training (AIT), as fully qualified 68W Combat Medics today, August 3, 2021 at Joint Base San Antonio- Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

The 68W Combat Medics, the second largest Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) in the U.S. Army, have been at Fort Sam for 16 weeks of medic training, immediately following their Basic Combat Training. To graduate, the soldier medics underwent difficult training assessing their proficiency in both emergency medical treatment and combat trauma care.

With over 200 soldiers graduating in formation on Fort Sam’s main post parade field, nearly 250 friends and family able to attend in-person, and another 300 watching virtually, today’s graduation was a milestone: the first large-scale, outdoor open graduation hosted by the command since the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic began.

Up until a few weeks ago, it was uncertain if these medics would get the honor of marking their achievement with a formal ceremony in front of their loved ones. During the early days of the pandemic, Maj. Gen. Dennis LeMaster, MEDCoE Commanding General, suspended all graduations March 13, 2020 to help limit community spread of the virus and protect the training pipeline of the Army’s medical soldiers.

The MEDCoE is the Army’s largest civilian-accredited service school and trains more than 35,000 students annually through 192 health-related programs of instruction at JBSA-Fort Sam Houston. The school’s trainees represent 94 officer medical areas of concentration and 24 enlisted medical specialties: everyone from doctors, nurses and respiratory specialists to patient administration, dental assistants and veterinary specialists, though combat medics are the largest medical specialty trained at Fort Sam.