|
Blackanthem Military News
|
Last Updated:
May 22, 2012 - 5:37:21 PM |
|
|
Building Enlisted Medical Education, Training for the 21st Century
By Chief Mass Communication Specialist L.A. Shively, Navy Office of Community Outreach Public Affairs
Apr 24, 2010 - 9:40:58 AM
|
Email this article
Printer friendly page
|
Blackanthem Military News
 SAN ANTONIO, Texas - On schedule to begin classes in June, the Medical Education and Training Campus (METC) at Fort Sam Houston will be the largest consolidation of service training in Department of Defense history.
Currently commander Naval Medicine Center, Portsmouth Va., Rear Adm. William R. Kiser will be the inaugural commanding officer for METC.
Training commences with the consolidated Radiography Specialist course and over 30 academic programs available for the Navy, Army and Air Force enlisted medical personnel, with more planned for the future.
"At the end of the day, basically every course that the military has with a medical education component will be offered through the METC program," said Kiser. "That number is in the hundreds."
The 7.9 million square-foot campus will be the world's principal military medical education and training institution when fully operational in 2011 according to Army Col. Larry Hanson, who will be the first dean of METC.
"The active daily student load will be about 7,800 and we'll have about 24,500 people graduating from courses annually," Hanson said. "We'll have staff and faculty of close to 1,400 people."
Students will begin with consolidated courses where more than one service is taking the same training followed by service-specific courses.
The benefits of consolidated training enhance tri-service interoperability and joint deployment opportunities, while cutting redundant curricula, streamlining system capacity and reducing infrastructure as mandated by the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Act.
Once on campus, students, faculty, staff will have access to a state-of-the-art "Cybrary" or online library on the METC Intranet. The Cybrary offers self-paced online courses, ebooks, research material, podcasts, recorded video lectures, discussion boards and a search capability.
The facility is outfitted with computer rooms specifically for homework, research and Cybrary use. Students will also have access to furnished day rooms with flat screen televisions for lounging.
Living areas in the facility were built using a modular design. Units were manufactured in Belton, Texas, shipped to Ft. Sam Houston, staged at the site, and then lifted by crane into place.
Each module consists of two sets of living quarters for two students including living areas, walk-in closets and bathrooms according to Randy Holman program manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and spokesman for the Joint Program Management Office (JPMO), in charge of the project.
The JPMO is a joint military service entity representing a partnership between the Corps, the Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment and the Naval Facilities Engineering Command and is supported by private sector contractors.
"With a common foot print or style to the building and a common floor plan, we have the ability to modularize each of the components, which dramatically accelerates construction. Ninety-five percent of our program is design build," said Holman.
The cultural aspects in a tri-service environment are also taken under consideration at METC. Just as the Air Force calls their living quarters flights, the Navy plans to call theirs ships.
"We're committed to making sure, when our folks leave [METC] - far away from the ocean - that they will not have lost the sense of what it is to be a Sailor," Kiser said.
Comments
NO Soliciting.
Comments with links to websites or soliciting services will be removed.
Please read our Terms of use for more information.
|
Top of Page
|
|
|
|
