Armed Forces Day

The ribbons were placed on the board recognizing individual hospital personnel who are currently deployed. The ribbons will remain there for the duration of the service member's deployment and new ones will be placed as others deploy. Several family members of the deployed Sailors were on hand to place their loved one's ribbon on the board during the ceremony.

Capt. David Miller of Naval Hospital Jax outlined the history of Armed Forces Day. "Armed Forces Day as a national holiday hasn't existed all that long. Through most of our history each military service celebrated its own day.

In 1950, President Harry S. Truman combined the Army, Navy, and Air Force tributes into one for all the Armed Forces. This followed the uniting of all the Armed Services under the Department of Defense after World War II ended in 1945. That was accomplished by James V. Forrestal, the first Secretary of Defense," he explained.

Lt. Andrea Hebert read a release from Marine Corps General Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. On behalf of the Joint Chiefs Pace's statement read,

"During the month of May we honor our Nation's men and women in uniform. You are quite simply the finest Armed Forces in the world, defending the United States against a ruthless enemy and demonstrating remarkable resolve on land, in the air and on the seas."

Family members of deployed Naval Hospital Jacksonville personnel gather for a yellow ribbon ceremony on the hospital quarterdeck May 18.

Pace also said, "We also pause to recognize Military Spouse Appreciation Day on the Friday before Mother's Day. Our spouses offer quiet strength and untold support. Through long deployments, you sustain our morale with your letters, emails, and the comforting knowledge that your thoughts and prayers are always with us. While we're away, you maintain a sense of stability for our families, providing a constant foundation despite daily challenges and unspoken worries. You serve this nation as well as anyone who has ever worn a uniform, and for that we are eternally grateful."

One such spouse, Katherine Gonzales was on hand with her 3-month-old son, Oscar Jr. They were pinning a yellow ribbon for HNSN Oscar Gonzales Sr. who is deployed to Joint Task Force (JTF) Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Oscar Jr. was born just 11 days before his father shipped out. Katherine said she looks forward to her husband's return. "He has six months of diaper changing he owes me," she said.

Gonzales also said she has been e-mailing pictures and keeping in close touch with him. "It has been hard being a single parent, and that is what we are for those months of deployment, she said. "It has been hard sleeping at night after being used to someone next to me."

Pinning a ribbon for Lt. Kenneth Wofford who is currently deployed to Iraq with a Shock/Trauma Platoon was his mom, Sydney and father, Ed. Mrs. Wofford said her son is due to return in September. "We look forward to seeing him come home. We pray for all of them," she stated.

Elizabeth Groh looks on as her son, Jonathon, assisted by CSCS Michel Stokes, pins a ribbon on the board for Cmdr. Jonathan Groh who is deployed to Joint Task Force Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Woffard said they use a Marine Corps message system through which loved ones can send messages to their deployed family members and have them hand-delivered in the field. She said she and her husband are very proud of their son, who is a certified nurse anesthetist and should be promoted to lieutenant commander by the time he returns.

Woffard and Gonzales are just two of the 180 service members who have deployed from Naval Hospital Jacksonville already in 2007 and who continue to deliver the best of Navy medicine to our Armed Forces abroad.

Miller noted that throughout this current conflict the hospital has sent hundreds of medical personnel not only to the battlefield but to lesser known missions as well, many of them humanitarian in nature. These deployments have been to such locations as Djibouti, Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait and JTF Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

There, they've delivered world class health care not only to members of our own Armed Forces but to allied forces, civilian casualties and even enemy combatants. The hospital is preparing to rotate about 120 personnel in and out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in June.

Seven personnel will also be going to the hospital ship USNS Comfort as it provides humanitarian care to nations with limited medical resources in the Caribbean and Central and South America.

Miller said that the enhanced survivability rate in this war, 97 percent compared to 15 percent pre-World War II, is largely due to the dedication and sacrifice of uniformed service men and women such as those from Naval Hospital Jacksonville.

Just before pausing for a moment of silence to honor Armed Forces personnel who made the ultimate sacrifice Miller noted the sacrifice Navy medicine has made in the current conflict noting that half of the Navy casualties have been hospital corpsman.

These hospital corpsmen and all of our all-volunteer Armed Forces sacrifice every day so that America remains free. Naval Hospital Jacksonville is proud to serve and honor them and their families.