Army Veterinary Corps marks 100 years of service

On June 3, the Veterinary Corps will celebrate its centennial with a ceremony at the U.S. Army Medical Department Museum at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, where a monument depicting aspects of the corps’ history and mission will be unveiled (see “A century of history in bronze”). The centennial is a benchmark highlighting the diverse services the corps has provided to the nation over the past 100 years, explained Maj. Troy Creason, a veterinarian and assistant to the chief of the Army Veterinary Corps. The Army Veterinary Corps’ 880 personnel include 600 active-duty Veterinary Corps officers and 280 officers in the Army Reserve. Supporting this small force of veterinary professionals are almost 1,600 enlisted food inspection specialists, 560 animal care technicians, and approximately 425 civilian employees. All told, there are just over 3,400 members that constitute the U.S. Army Veterinary Service. The vets being the ‘mechanics’ of a horse-powered Army in 1916 to developing tests for detecting botulism in canned foods during the intra–World War years, and current efforts to develop a human vaccine for Ebola, the accomplishments of the U.S. Army Veterinary Corps span the spectrum of the veterinary profession. Army Veterinary Corps marks 100 years of service years