History

our Army’s force structure.”¹⁹ This action highlighted the important and expanding role of civilian employees in the Army, and the Army’s recognition of civilian employees as an essential component of its overall strength.

On 12 November 2009 Charles G. (Gregg) Stevens was appointed as the Chief of the AMEDD Civilian Corps. He was the fourth person to hold the title of Corps Chief, following Sharon Ferguson, Dian Jamison, and Jo Ann Robertson, but he was the first to receive a written duty appointment order for that position from the Surgeon General. Stevens is the first Civilian Corps Chief in the Senior Executive Service (SES), putting the Civilian Corps Chief position at the Flag Officer level. On 1 February 2011 Stevens was also designated as the Functional Chief Representative for medical career programs, making him both the principal advisor to the Surgeon General for the Civilian Corps and the functional advisor for civilian career planning. The role of the AMEDD Civilian Corps had evolved since the Personnel Proponency Steering Committee met in 1991, and the necessity of having a Civilian Corps Chief was recognized at the highest levels of the Medical Department.

The Army Medical Department has always garnered exceptional service from its civilian employees, but the recent official acknowledgement of the Civilian Corps’ value has spurred unprecedented individual recognition for exceptional employees. On 1 February 2011 the editor of The Mercury, Mr. Jerry Harben, retired after 31 years of service to the AMEDD. Harben received the Army Medical Department 30-year service medallion, the first time a career civilian was presented this accolade. Later that month the MEDCOM Chief of Staff, Mr. Herbert A. Coley, signed a policy memorandum that allowed recognition of civilians as members of the AMEDD Regiment. Within a week of this policy announcement, the commander of the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Colonel John P. Skvorak, nominated Mr. Charles D. Rapp for recognition as a Distinguished Member of the Regiment. With the Surgeon General’s approval on 6 March 2011, Rapp became the first civilian to receive this honor.

Throughout the history of the Army Medical Department, civilians have proudly served alongside uniformed service members to provide the best possible medical care and support to the Army. Over the course of more than two centuries they have become trusted partners and colleagues in the AMEDD, a corps of dedicated and loyal professionals working diligently to accomplish essential missions. The diversity of these missions has made it difficult to group all AMEDD civilians into a single corps, but this same diversity enables a level of flexibility that makes them indispensible. Army Surgeon General Leonard D. Heaton (1959-1969) said that the responsibility of his medical administration was “to forge the separate elements into a perfectly

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¹⁹ Memo, Peter J. Schoomaker and Francis J. Harvey for wide distribution, 19 JUN 06, sub: The Army Civilian Corps, retrieved 8 MAR 11 from http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/civilianstories/elements/6_19_06csaandsecarmysignedmemo.pdf.