Hunter-Strickland Award Recipient Named

In This Issue

By: Kelly Kotch, FHP&R Staff Writer

A critical component to keeping our deployed Service members safe and healthy is the preventive medicine, public health and health promotion activities that occur in deployed locations, especially those without a strong public health infrastructure. The men and women who perform these duties are an essential piece to our warfighting effort. The Military Health System (MHS) annually honors the individual who makes life-changing contributions in the areas of preventive medicine, public health and health promotion in support of Department of Defense deployed operations.

Lt. Col. Long, recipient of the 2009 Hunter-Strickland Award, was selected due to his outstanding leadership and service initiatives.

The honoree receives the MHS “Hunter- Strickland Excellence Award for Deployed Preventive Medicine”, named for Col. George W. Hunter, III and Capt. G. Thomas Strickland, pioneers of deployed preventive medicine. Dr. Hunter is best known for co-authoring the original “Manual of Tropical Medicine” in 1945 which eventually became Tropical Medicine and Emerging Infectious Diseases, edited by Dr. Strickland from its 6th edition until present. Their work has advanced the world’s understanding of tropical diseases.

To qualify for the Hunter-Strickland award, each Service nominates one outstanding individual who best exemplifies the work of Col. Hunter and Capt. Strickland. The nominees are judged based upon scope of responsibility, performance in a deployed setting, use of new initiatives and techniques, and the results of their actions.

The 2009 award was presented at the 2010 Force Health Protection Conference to Lieutenant Colonel Richard E. Long, Public Health Officer, Air National Guard. Lt. Col. Long served at the Combined Security Transition Command- Afghanistan from February 2009 to August 2009. During his tenure, he made a lasting impact on the Afghan National Police medical system. He was responsible for providing leadership and guidance over personnel, logistics, facilities, contracting, education and training. His support led to the development of a MEDLOG program supplying all five regions of Afghanistan with medical equipment. He coordinated ground and air transportation of medical screening kits and supplies to all provinces in Afghanistan.

Lt. Col. Long also was responsible for creating the Medical Entrance Processing for the Afghan National Police recruits and implementing the Afghan National Police Drug Testing Train the Trainer Program. More than 7,000 Afghan National Police members were screened for drug use through this program; 92,000 additional police members will be drug tested in the future.

Lt. Col. Long also served as a public health mentor to the Office of the Surgeon General of the Afghan National Police where he developed a Bloodbourne Pathogen/Infection Control Train the Trainer Program for the Afghan National Police. This program improved the health and protection of the Afghan National Police, their families, and their recruits from bloodbourne illnesses.

His leadership and initiatives were monumental in preserving and promoting the health and welfare of the Afghan National Police.