The Department of Defense highlighted the importance of military health care with regard to “force lethality” and military readiness in an update shared on Monday.
In an update shared by Military Health System Communications, Stephen Ferrara, who was appointed in January and is currently fulfilling the responsibilities of the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, emphasized readiness as a “strategic imperative to ensure warfighter dominance, survivability, and resilience.”
“Readiness cannot be secondary,” Ferrara said. “You cannot do readiness at the last minute. You cannot cram for readiness. When it comes to mission success, readiness is everything.”
Ferrara, who was deployed four times as an active-duty surgeon in the U.S. Navy, noted that the Military Health System is the only health care system in the country that “goes to war.”
“When America’s sons and daughters go downrange and go into harm’s way, we honor the pact we made with them and with their parents, that should they become ill or injured, they will receive prompt and effective medical attention anywhere in the world,” Ferrara said. “That is the trust that we have. That’s something that our adversaries don’t always have, and it gives us an incredible strategic edge.”
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Ferrara explained that his top priorities for the Military Health System include providing high-quality, accessible, and sustainable care, increasing the lethality of America’s warfighters, and sustaining the medical force’s skills. Ferrara said, “We have to support the warfighter, sustain our skills and strengthen our chain.”
“If we support, sustain and strengthen, that is how we build a system that will fight and win because fundamentally, this is what our job is: to fight and win,” Ferrara added. “We do this by having a ready medical force so we can provide strong battlefield care and keep guns in the fight.”
According to the Defense Department, Ferrara said part of his job is demonstrating to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth how the Military Health System aligns with the Trump administration’s emphasis on “force lethality.” Ferrara explained that the Military Health System “optimizes warfighter performance” by ensuring the readiness of military service members and the individuals responsible for providing service members with medical care and recovery.
“It starts with maintaining the ready medical force,” Ferrara stated. “We must ensure that every member of the team — from the surgeon who wields a scalpel, to the logistician who procured the scalpel; from the nurse who transfuses the blood, to the team who runs the blood bank — is at the top of their game. A team ready to go downrange to fight and win.”
© American Military News
