Mission & Command History

Mission

Command History

In 1850, the United States Navy established the Naval Medical Supply Depot in Brooklyn, NY with Medical Department Officers serving as Medical Materiel Managers.

In 1853, Congress authorized a separate manufacturing laboratory which authorized the Navy Department to "produce medical supplies for the Medical Department of the Navy" at the Brooklyn facility under the direction of Surgeon Benjamin F. Bache, USN and his assistant, Passed Assistant Surgeon E. R. Squibb, USN. Doctor Squibb later resigned from the Navy and founded E. R. Squibb & Sons, Incorporated, to further his work and research on refining and purifying Ether.

In 1905, the Secretary of the Navy authorized construction of a new United States Naval Medical Supply Depot. On 26 May 1905, the new Depot was established on the grounds of the Naval Hospital in Brooklyn, NY. Between 1905 and 1941, expansion of the Navy and the preparation for war required the construction of several other buildings for the Depot.

Along with growth came the need for additional education and training of Medical Supply Officers. In 1941, a Medical Supply Management Training program was established at the "United States Medical Supply Depot" for the Hospital Corps Warrant Officers who performed the Medical Supply functions during World War II.

In 1947, the Medical Service Corps was established to ensure that the experience and training gained during World War II was retained and 252 officers received commissions in the Medical Supply Corps. Eighty percent of the officers commissioned were designated as Supply and Administration Specialists. Since 1947, Medical Service Corps Officers have served on a continual basis as Medical Logistics and Materiel Managers ashore, at sea and with the Fleet Marine Force.

The Naval School of Healthcare Administration was established in 1950 to provide additional hospital administration training, including financial and materiel management, to Medical Service Corps Officers.

On 1 July 1952, the U.S. Naval Medical Supply Depot was transferred to the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts, the predecessor of the Naval Supply Systems Command. The Bureau of Medicine and Surgery maintained the requirement for a logistics office to manage the development of Authorized Medical and Dental Allowance Lists and other programs for afloat units and to plan medical mobilization requirements to provide this management.

The Field Branch, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, was established in Brooklyn, NY on 1 July 1952 as a shore activity with the head of the organization titled "Chief" and granted the authority of an officer in charge. The Field Branch remained in Brooklyn until 1 July 1965 when it relocated to the U.S. Naval Hospital Compound in Philadelphia, PA. At the same time, the Army and Air Force Medical Logistics Field Offices relocated to the Valley Forge Army Hospital in Phoenixville, PA. Organizational changes within the Navy and the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery led to the disestablishment of the "Field Branch" and the establishment of the Naval Medical Materiel Support Command as a Navy shore activity on 1 December 1973 under a Medical Service Corps Commanding Officer in Philadelphia, PA. Our Army and Air Force counterparts, the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Agency and the Air Force Medical Logistics Office, relocated to Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD in 1974.

In August 1985, the Naval Medical Materiel Support Command Detachment was formed and located in Frederick, MD. The Naval Medical Materiel Support Command headquarters and remaining personnel moved from Philadelphia to Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD in September 1986, in joining USAMMA, AFMLO and DMSB in the Fort Detrick Armed Forces Medical Logistics community.

On 1 June 1990, the name of the Command changed to the Naval Medical Readiness Logistics Command to reflect its current mission. The Command has formal agreements with the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Coast Guard to provide medical logistics and materiel management information and medical mobilization planning assistance and has the responsibility as technical manager of the Navy's direct healthcare services contracting program.