Kenner staff celebrates 100 years of Army Medical Service Corps

By Kenner Army Health ClinicJuly 13, 2017

Kenner staff celebrates 100 years of Army Medical Service Corps
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT LEE, Va. (July 13, 2017) -- Staff members from Kenner Army Health Clinic celebrated the Medical Service Corps' 100th birthday June 30.

Lt. Col Paul Kassebaum and Sgt. Maj. George Harwick, KAHC command team, honored the corps with an extravagant birthday bash. There was cake, trivia and games at the celebration.

The long-distinguished history of the Medical Service Corps has its origins with the appointment of different services during the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and World War I. These services pioneered the way for the MSC as it exists today.

It can trace its roots to the establishment of the Sanitary Corps on June 30, 1917. Later, the Medical Administrative Corps was established in 1920 and the Pharmacy Corps in 1943. All three were combined in 1947 to form the MSC to promote the commissioning of officers in a wide array of medical specialties. It has evolved into 23 distinct specialties, but retained the birthday of the Sanitary Corps.

The corps is now composed of medical administrative, technical and clinical support roles and includes professions as diverse as social workers, comptrollers, biochemists, and podiatrists. Together these specialties make up the behind the scenes advocators of Army Medicine. The MSC is proud to serve with Army Medicine's other distinguished corps of officers.

The birthday cake-cutting ceremony is a tradition long established where the most senior and junior MSC officers are invited to honorably cut the cake together to signify the annual renewal which every committed MSC officer makes to the Corp. The senior MSC officer represents honor, respect and experience while the junior officer represents the nurturing and development of junior officers to the future of the Corps. Traditionally, the cake is cut with a sword signifying the dedication made to the profession of arms, Army Medicine and the Nation.

At Kenner, Capt. Gregory Parker, healthcare administrator and Capt. Kathy Morales, patient administrator, joined Kassebaum, a pharmacist by trade, in cutting the MSC birthday cake. The MSC officers at Kenner look forward to strengthening the military health system through responsive and reliable clinical, scientific and administrative services.