Lt. Robert Coleman is a 20-year veteran of the Navy who serves as branch head of medical evaluation board at the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED). He is also a proud “mustang.”

For three-quarters of his career, Coleman served in Hospital Corps where he rose to the grade of Chief Petty Officer. He served on multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan; as an X-Ray technician at Naval Hospital Bremerton; and as Lead Petty Officer (LPO) aboard USS Gerald Ford before to transitioning into the Medical Service Corps through the Medical Enlisted Commissioning Program (MECP).

“I think making chief is what pushed me over the edge to wanting to go officer,” said Coleman.

Coleman saw becoming an officer as not only a path to a better retirement, but also the chance to make positive impact on his shipmates.

“I wanted to be the guy who could help make Sailor’s lives better,” related Coleman. “Because too many times, especially in a position that you don’t understand where everyone’s coming from—you didn’t start from the bottom; you don’t really understand how your decision-making affects the person at the lowest end of the totem pole.”

Lt. Coleman is far from alone among officers serving in Navy Medicine.



It has been estimated that nearly a third of all active-duty officers in Navy Medicine today once served in the enlisted ranks. Of course, in the U.S. military today these individuals are better known as “mustangs” or “mustang officers.” Like their namesake—the free-roaming horse of the American West—mustang officers often tread a different path.

“We’re different,” said Capt. Ronald Fancher, a 36-year veteran and proud mustang, who serves as Navy Medicine’s Executive Liaison to the Defense Health Agency (DHA). “We’re a little rougher around the edges, and not afraid to get dirty. We’ll work hard to get something done.”

Today, if you are mustang, you are in good company. Audie Murphy, Chuck Yeager, Chesty Puller, Daniel Inouye, Jeremy “Mike” Boorda and James Mattis were all mustangs who rose through the ranks and made important contributions to their services.

“The idea of the mustang is that you still have the streak of a wild mustang, but yet you’re integrated with these stallions, and pure-breds,” said Coleman. “If you want the honest truth, you’re going to go to a mustang.”

Navy Medicine’s First Mustangs:

Whether you bleed “blue and gold,” “scarlet and gold,” “black and gold” or “blue and silver,” a mustang represents that special order of officer who had previously served in the enlisted ranks. The term is believed to have originated in the U.S. Army among volunteer soldiers who achieved “brevet” promotions during the Mexican War. In the Navy, a mustang can refer to any former enlisted personnel serving as commissioned, limited duty and/or as warrant officers.

Navy Medicine’s first mustangs were the 25 pharmacist-warrant officers who were admitted to the newly established Hospital Corps in September 1898. Each were veterans whose careers extended back decades as enlisted sailors. Among them was Cornelius O’Leary, the so-called “dean of [the] Navy pharmacists.” Prior to entering obtaining a warrant in the Hospital Corps, O’Leary served as an enlisted sailor for 37 years.

Serving alongside warrant officers like O’Leary, were three ranks of enlisted grades of sailors—Hospital Stewards, Hospital Apprentice First Class and Hospital Apprentices. In those first years of the new corps, the enlisted ranks included Hospital Steward Edward Ewel Harris and Hospital Apprentice First Class Harry Harvey. While Harris was already a trained dentist before entering the Navy, Harvey studied dentistry while serving as a hospital corpsman. After graduating from Georgetown Dental College in 1912, Harvey obtained his commission in the newly established Navy Dental Corps. In addition to being the first candidate to pass the Dental Corps entrance examination, he is the Navy’s first dentist mustang. Fellow mustang Harris would follow Harvey into the Dental Corps in August 1914.

Beginning in 1916, enlisted hospital corpsmen who had reached the grade of Chief Pharmacist’s Mate (E-7) and had a minimum of 10 years of service were eligible for promotion to pharmacy- warrant officer. And in World War II, additional opportunities to become mustangs expanded when the Navy granted select pharmacy warrant officers and senior enlisted sailors temporary appointments as commissioned Hospital Corps officers.

By July 1945, there were 1,381 temporary Hospital Corps officers. Nearly a quarter of these officers (345) eventually joined the Medical Service Corps (MSC) and several were among the 251 plankowners who were accepted into the Medical Service Corps in 1947. It can be noted that among these MSC plankowners, 71 percent had previously served as enlisted hospital corpsmen. And 100 percent of the plankowners comprising the administration and supply section (140) were mustangs.

Soon after the Medical Service Corps was founded, the first women mustangs entered Navy Medicine. Among the first was Ens. Kay Keating, an enlisted radioman-turned hospital corpsman, who in 1950 was commissioned in the Medical Service Corps. When she retired in 1972, Keating earned the distinction as the first woman in the Navy to have served in the grade of seaman and the rank of Captain.

Enlisted sailors have long been the foundation of the Medical Service Corps; and it is no understatement to say that the Medical Service Corps was established under the leadership of mustangs. Between 1954—when Capt. Willard Calkins became the first MSC Chief—to 2006 when Rear Adm. Brian Brannman was ending his tour as MSC Director, over half (57 percent) of the MSC chiefs/directors were mustangs. And of the 20 individuals who have served at the helm of the MSC from 1954 to 2023, 45 percent (9) were mustangs. This includes Rear Adm. Lewis “Red” Angelo, the first flag officer in the Medical Service Corps, who served 10 years in the Hospital Corps before obtaining his commission.

Since 1991, three MSC reserve leaders have been mustangs. These include retired Rear Adm. Marc Moritz, a podiatrist, who to date, is still the only officer in Navy Medicine to rise from grade of E-1 to E-7 in the Hospital Corps before advancing to flag rank.

Of the 31 specialties and subspecialties that comprise the Medical Service Corps today, the administrative and physician assistant communities have the strongest ties to the enlisted Hospital Corps community. From 1974 until 1989, physician assistants (PA) served as warrant officers in the Hospital Corps and most of these clinicians came from the enlisted Hospital Corps community. Today, 60 percent of Navy PAs come from the Hospital Corps through the Medical Service Corps Inter-service Procurement Program (MSC-IPP).

Mustang Nurses:

On August 25, 1965, George Silver, a former hospital corpsman, obtained a commissioned in the Nurse Corps becoming the Navy’s first male nurse as well as one of the first documented mustang nurses.

Outside of the Medical Service Corps, the Navy Nurse Corps has the greatest number of mustangs in its ranks with just over 30 percent of active-duty nurses having enlisted backgrounds. Among them are the Navy’s top nurse leaders—Rear Adm. (sel.) Robert Hawkins and Rear Adm. Eric Peterson.

When Hawkins took the helm of the Nurse Corps on May 13, 2023, he earned the distinction as the first active-duty mustang to lead the corps. Hawkins obtained his commission in 1993 after a 10-year career as an enlisted sailor in the Navy’s nuclear power program.

Reserve Nurse Corps Director Rear Adm. Eric Peterson is also a mustang having served combat medic in the 815th Medical Clearing Company in the North Dakota Army National Guard prior to obtaining his commission in the Nurse Corps in 1993.

Hawkins and Peterson are far from the exceptions. Although former hospital corpsmen are well-represented among nurses there are many mustang nurses serving today with non-tradition enlisted roots, among them Capt. Fredora “Toni’ McRae and Capt. Ronald Fancher.



McRae is a 38-year veteran of the Navy who originally served as a cryptologic technician before becoming a Navy nurse. While serving in Misawa, San Diego and at the National Security Agency (NSA), McRae moved up the enlisted ranks. “I loved my jobs, the mission and worked with some wonderful, wonderful people,” said McRae. While serving as CTT1 at NSA she received the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Roy Wilkins Renown Service Award which recognizes members of the Armed Forces who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and embodied the spirit of equality and human rights from Adm. Jeremy Boorda, Chief of Naval Operations and only enlisted sailor to become CNO. “At the awards ceremony “He was the first person to Congratulate, me on making Chief,” related McRae.

Not long after picking up E-7, McRae was selected for the Medical Enlisted Commissioning Program (MECP). The program allows all individuals serving in enlisted ratings a chance to earn an entry-level nursing degree and an appointment as Ensign. McRae was commissioned in May 1997.

Throughout her career as an officer, McRae was able to use those formative experiences as an enlisted sailor to what she terms a “non-traditional career” in the Nurse Corps. Whether serving in a clinical setting or on the administrative side the experiences proved foundational.

“All of those things that I learned as an enlisted sailor—how to take care of people, how to listen and understand that there is, truly three sides to a story and everything that seems one way may not always be that way,” said McRae.

Before entering the Nurse Corps, Capt. Fancher served as a nuclear engineering laboratory technician/machinist’s mate. After completing the Navy’s nuclear power training pipeline in Orlando, Florida, and Ballston Spa, New York, Fancher served aboard USS Bergall (SSN 667) as lead engineering laboratory technician. One day while on patrol the submarine’s XO comes to Fancher and asked point blank, “Why aren’t you an officer?” Fancher had applied for an ROTC Scholarship out of high school but was not accepted.

“I was impressed by the fact that he was looking for opportunities for young, enlisted guys to better themselves,” said Fancher.

Through the support of this officer, Fancher submitted an application to the Navy’s Reserve Officer Training Corps Scholarship Program. Although originally considering using the program to become a “nuke officer” he was dissuaded after his freshman year while studying chemical engineering. “You have to ask permission of the Navy to change majors, so I asked permission,” recalled Fancher. “They gave me three options: I could go to pharmacy school, nursing school, or be a supply corps officer. I had no interest in supply corps, so it was immediately off the list. And pharmacy, at the time, was a five-year bachelor’s program, so also not realistic.” Fancher ultimately decided on nursing.

Fancher went on to serve as a family nurse practitioner and a certified nurse midwife, always guided by the same principles and service instilled in him during his days as an enlisted sailor aboard submarines.

“I think being able to see that side of the fence, lived on that side of the fence absolutely plays into both my leadership style and just my outlook,” said Fancher. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for our chief’s mess and latching onto a senior enlisted leader everywhere I’ve been and then looking out for those junior sailors.”



Today, mustangs continue to make an impact on Navy Medicine, and this will not change anytime soon.

Rear Admiral Darin Via, Acting Surgeon General, is only the second head of the Navy Medical Department with enlisted roots and the first who formerly served as a hospital corpsman. And at the Navy Medicine 101 class held in June 2023, more than half of the 69 newly commissioned MSC officers, nurses, dentists and physicians attending, were mustangs who had formerly served in a spectrum of enlisted ratings in the Navy, Army and Air Force.

But perhaps the greatest legacy of mustangs today is the tight knit bond with the enlisted force.

“It’s recognizing and capitalizing on the strengths and the opportunities that you gained and gleaned being an enlisted service member, but never losing focus of that when you transition over to the officer community, and always, always making sure that you extend that arm to bring someone else up with you,” said Capt. McRae. “I’m proud to be a mustang. I love to tell people that I started my military career as an enlisted service member because I think it makes me a better officer. I think it makes me a better leader and manager and I think it makes me respected more by my enlisted colleagues that I’m honored to serve with.”

For mustangs and non-mustangs alike, it is hard to disagree with that!