Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Neil W. McCabe | The new commanding general of the Army Reserve Medical Command, Brig. Gen. Michael L....... read more read more
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[PINELLAS PARK, Fla.] The “Warrior Medics” Soldiers of the Army Reserve Medical stood in formation to witness Maj. Gen. W. Scott Lynn relinquish command to Brig. Gen. Michael L. Yost at the April 14 ceremony at the command’s headquarters here, hosted by Army Reserve Deputy Commanding General Maj. Eugene J. LeBoeuf.
“You’re in great hands with General Yost,” said Lynn. “It has been a privilege to serve as your commanding general.”
Lynn, who begins his next assignment as the senior Army Reserve advisor to the Army Surgeon General, told the Soldiers assembled in front of him to always think of their service as medical Soldiers as a three-legged stool.
“One leg is your medical skills,” said the neuroradiologist in private practice in Alabama, he said. “One is your military expertise, and the third, infrequently discussed, is the compassion you bring to the battlefield.”
The general said the third leg of the stool is unique for the medical community.
“You will care for your Soldiers at their most vulnerable, when they are cold, afraid or possibly dying," he said.
“You may be the last person they see before they die or lose consciousness—remember to present the best face of human care and compassion to ease their suffering as you work to preserve their life,” said the former field artillery officer and veteran of the 20th Special Forces Group of the Alabama National Guard.
“It’s not so important for the infantryman, but it is for you," he said. "Nurture your compassion. Exercise it in your daily life to make it a vital element in the fabric of your character."
LeBoeuf said he was grateful for Lynn’s leadership at AR-MEDCOM, where he brought his background in combat arms and his education and experience as an engineer and medical doctor.
“The moment that Scott came to AR-MEDCOM, he was ready to combine those traits to make a difference,” the Army Reserve’s deputy commanding general said.
“AR-MEDCOM has to be at the forefront of any evolution the Army Reserve undertakes,” he said.
"He prepared our Warriors Citizens for the next combat environment,” LeBoeuf added. “Forging the counterinsurgency model that we've employed for the last few decades and transitioning our forces for large-scale combat operations.”
Large-scale combat operations are also referred to as LSCO, pronounced: lis-koh. The transition to LSCO is linked to large-scaled mobilization operations, or LSMO.
The LeBoeuf said Lynn, in addition to transforming AR-MEDCOM for Big Army’s posture transition, reached out to the Army Reserve’s other two-star medical commands, 3rd Medical Command (Deployment Support) and 807th Medical Command (Deployment Command) and other stakeholders in the military medical community.
Lynn demonstrated his collaborative mindset, he said. “Across the Army--preparing our leadership of medical and combat commanders for where the resources would strain the wartime of the future. We didn't just prepare for the future; we impacted it here.”
LeBoeuf said he has tremendous confidence in Yost as he begins his new command.
“Every senior leadership role in the Army Reserve is also as competitive as it gets the vetting process for those who take general officer commands,” he said.
“We review. Then we review again, and then we review that so we know we've got the right person for the job,” the general said.
“That's especially important to know here at AR-MEDCOM because we know that whoever takes the lead here is responsible for the medical care, not just the Army Reserve, but over 70 percent of hospital care in the Army as a whole—70 percent,” he said.
“Mike, we've got high expectations, but we know you'll build on Scott's outstanding work, leading AR-MEDCOM’s shaping our Army for the future,” he said.
Yost, an Allen, Texas resident, was joined at the ceremony by his wife Veronica and son Tyler.
The new commanding general said he was thrilled to return for another tour at AR-MEDCOM. “It is my honor to be standing here today.”
Yost said, “What a great day to be in the Army. We are living in some very turbulent and violent times right now. Our military is going through a large transformation and modernization effort to ensure that our military can continue to answer the call.”
The general said the transformation to LSCO builds on the previous two decades of the counterinsurgency fight. Counterinsurgency is also referred to as: COIN.
“We must not forget the lessons learned for the last 20 years of counterinsurgency,” he said. “That threat remains, and we continue to deal with the same actors.”
Yost committed to his new troops that he is ready for the task ahead.
“During my tenure here, I will strive to continue the great work started and challenge you to think critically about the plan, think creatively, address the challenges we'll face, and come up with solutions to meet those challenges,” the general said.
The AR-MEDCOM Command Chief Warrant Officer, Chief Warrant Officer 5 Kestin L. Austin said she admired Lynn after working with him as a member of the command team.
“General Lynn is the epitome of what a true Army leader is," the counterinsurgency chief warrant officer said. "I'm saying that because he shows care and concern for his Soldiers. It's mission first, but people always, and he has brought them back to what a warfighter needs to be.”
Austin, a civilian military intelligence officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency, said Lynn's understanding of the transition to LSCO was critical. "In the intel community, we're looking at our peers and near-peers and what concerns we have.”
Lynn acknowledged and embraced one of the concerns: the impact of LSCO on battlefield medical care, how the modern-day battlefield disrupts how the Army treats and evacuates casualties, and how the much larger number of casualties would overwhelm our current capacity.
“He is looking forward to how do we take care of our Soldiers who are out there at the point and bring them back,” she said. “We’re talking not just onesies or twosies--large scale combat operations—you can hit a lot of people at one time.”
Austin said Lynn not only reached out to the larger military medical community, such as at NATO, but also to U.S Transportation Command to talk about the challenges to medical evacuation seen on the battlefields of Ukraine.
Master Sgt. Franklin N. Vaughan, a religious affairs specialist, at the AR-MEDCOM headquarters, said he was impressed by how Lynn brought his personal attention and compassion to the command’s suicide prevention programs.
“He was absolutely instrumental in calling attention to suicide prevention efforts here in AR-MEDCOM,” he said. “Under his leadership, we redoubled our efforts to really engage that topic and bring it to the attention of every soldier in the formation.”
The master sergeant said he was especially grateful for the suicide prevention video Lynn and his previous senior enlisted advisor, retired Command Sgt. Maj. Robert Boudnik, shot in civilian clothes at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens at the foot of Alabama's Red Mountain.
“Putting on their civilian clothing and sort of blending out of their ranks with their larger-than-life voices is what made that issue come to the forefront,” he said.
“It was huge," Vaughan said. I've never seen a CG and a CSM step up like that and humanize the subject rather than just knife-handing it from the top down.”
All six of AR-MEDCOM’s supporting elements assembled in the formation in front of the C.W. “Bill” Young Armed Forces Reserve Center: Medical Readiness and Training Command, led by Brig. Gen. Jeffrey B. McCarter and Command Sgt. Maj. Paul L. Fulmer; Northeast Medical Area Readiness Support Group, led by Col. Craig C. McFarland; Central Medical Area Readiness Support Group, led by Col. R. Dale Jackson and Command Sgt. Maj. Mario F. Miranda; Southeast Medical Area Readiness Support Group, led by Col. Stephen H. Casper and Command Sgt. Maj. Scott W. Shippy; Western Medical Area Readiness Support Group, led by Col. Rodney L. Sanders and Command Sgt. Maj. Donald W. Marr; AMEDD Army Professional Management Command, led by Col. Samuel L. Lashley and Master Sgt. Tamara A. Taylor and the AR-MEDCOM Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, led by Capt. Zachary A. Cunningham and 1st Sgt. Heath T. Blumberg.
The 8,000-Soldier strong Army Reserve Medical Command is the Army’s premier military medical professional organization, which augments, surges and expands integrated health activities the Army Medical Department and the Army in general through collective and individual training, domestic and overseas mobilizations and institutional and functional expertise.
Among the friends and family gathered for the ceremony were Maj. Gen. Tracey Smith, the commanding general of the 63rd Readiness Division and a former AR-MEDCOM chief of staff; Chief Warrant Officer 5 Matthew S. Brenner, the command chief warrant officer at 807th Medical Command (Deployment Support), who held the same position at AR-MEDCOM and Florida Army Reserve Ambassador Roger Trout and his wife Colleen.
Members of the 313th Army Band, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama provided the live music.
| Date Taken: | 04.14.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 04.16.2024 10:41 |
| Story ID: | 468518 |
| Location: | PINELLAS PARK, FL, US |
| Web Views: | 178 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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