JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas -The premiere Army medicine training and education institution widely known as "AMEDD Center and School" will officially change their name to "U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence," or MEDCoE, effective Sunday, September 15, 2019.
MEDCoE will replace the longer designation of U.S. Army Medical Department Center and School, Health Readiness Center of Excellence, or AMEDDC&S HRCoE, which has been in effect since 2015. The command has called Fort Sam Houston home since 1946.
The organization traces its lineage to the Medical Field Service School, established nearly 100 years ago in 1920 at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. There have been numerous name changes over the years, but the mission of training medical professionals to support the Army remains constant.
The new designation recognizes the divestment of the former AMEDDC&S HRCoE from the U.S. Army Medical Command and further solidifies the center's alignment to the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, or TRADOC. The CoE's transition to TRADOC began on October 19, 2018 and will be complete as of October 2, 2019.
Maj. Gen. Patrick D. Sargent, Commander, of the forthcoming U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence said, "This has been a long time coming. This name change allows a unity of message with an unambiguous line drawn directly to Army medicine, with whom we are inextricably linked, while helping us continue to streamline our organization with TRADOC's other centers of excellence."
With the addition of the U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence, TRADOC oversees 32 Army schools organized under 10 centers of excellence that provide specialized training to over 500,000 soldiers and service members annually. Other specialized centers of excellence within TRADOC include Aviation, Intelligence, Cyber, Maneuver, and Fires.
The Medical CoE's mission remains to envision, design, train, educate and inspire the world's premier military medical force to enable readiness and strengthen America's Army.
The Redesignation Ceremony will be conducted at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, on Monday, September 16, 2019. For questions about the ceremony, please contact: usarmy.jbsa.medcom-ameddcs.mbx.dcomm@mail.mil
Unit Designation History.
18 months after the close of World War I, the Medical Field Service School, or MFSS, was established at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, on 15 May 1920. In 1946 the school at Carlisle closed, reopening at Fort Sam Houston with Brooke Army Medical Center as its higher headquarters. The MFSS continued to operate as an independent school at Fort Sam Houston until the Army reorganization of 1972, when it was combined with other schools to form the Academy of Health Sciences. Prior to the current realignment to U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, the unit has been aligned under a fully operational U.S. Army Medical Command since 1994.
The chronological history of official unit designations since the MFSS was established is listed below:
1920-1946: Medical Field Service School, or MFSS, at Carlisle Barracks
1946-1947: Army Medical Service School, or AMSS, aligned under Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston
1947-1955: Medical Field Service School, or MFSS
1955-1961: Army Medical Service School, or AMSS
1961-1973: Medical Field Service School, or MFSS
1973-1991: Academy of Health Sciences, or AHS, aligned under the Health Services Command, or HSC
1991: Army Medical Department Center and School, or AMEDDC&S, with AHS serving as the "school"
1993: AMEDDC&S, aligned under the U.S. Army Medical Command (Provisional)
1994: AMEDDC&S, aligned under the fully operational U.S. Army Medical Command, or MEDCOM
2015: Health Readiness Center of Excellence, or HRCoE, added to AMEDDC&S designation, Aligned under MEDCOM
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