Navy Medicine’s top researcher, Capt. Franca Jones, commander, Naval Medical Research Command (NMRC) visited Naval Medical Research Unit (NAMRU) INDO PACIFIC from July 15-26, traveling across Southeast Asia with command leadership.
Jones oversees the eight commands that comprise the Navy Medicine Research & Development (NMR&D) enterprise, which contains three overseas units, including NAMRU INDO PACIFIC. Based out of Singapore, the unit’s headquarters is the hub for a vast regional operation. With detachments in Southeast Asia and research work conducted across the INDOPACOM AOR [Area or Responsibility], NAMRU INDO PACIFIC is a critical player in global health security, with a mission to monitor and characterize emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases of military and public health significance, and to develop mitigation strategies in collaboration with the host nation.
The international tour kicked off in Hanoi, Vietnam, where Jones met with command leadership, NAMRU INDO PACIFIC’s Vietnam Detachment Director and area partners. Over the past 10 years in Vietnam, the command has partnered with local government agencies to conduct infectious disease research, focusing on malaria, influenza and respiratory pathogens.
“This work has been instrumental in guiding malaria countermeasures and elimination policies in the country,” explained Lt. Cmdr. Jose Garcia, NAMRU INDO PACIFIC’s director in Vietnam. “Looking ahead, NAMRU INDO PACIFIC aims to expand research and partnerships to further inform force health protection policy in the region.”
“Hosting Capt. Jones here in Vietnam was incredibly important,” Garcia added. “At the NAMRU outstations, it is vital for us to showcase the work being done in-country and to introduce her to our local partners.”
As the enterprise’s top scientist, Jones is keenly aware that the mission of NMR&D’s overseas commands impacts force health protection and readiness.
“We rely on strong partnerships with our host nation partners and collaborate closely with them to conduct this work in their countries”, Jones said. “Facetime with our partners is critical to maintaining and fostering partnerships to ensure we can continue to collaborate on infectious disease research of benefit to U.S. and partner nation health.”
After Vietnam, the tour moved on to Malaysia, starting with a stop in Kuala Lumpur. There, Jones’ group met with partners from the University of Malaysia and the Malaysian Armed Forces. Jones and her group also visited Kota Kinabalu, on the island of Borneo, home to the University of Malaysia Sabah.
Lt. Cmdr. Dawn Weir leads NAMRU INDO PACIFIC’s efforts in Malaysia. “My mission as the director of NAMRU INDO PACIFIC Malaysia is to execute and shape the CO’s [Commanding Officer] vision for all the command’s operations in Malaysia, including research and international engagements,” she said. “A critical aspect of this role is to foster and strengthen our strategic partnerships throughout Malaysia and leverage these partnerships to improve medical readiness and partner nation public health.”
NAMRU INDO PACIFIC has maintained a presence in Malaysia since 2009, and has increased partnerships and research efforts in the past few years. These partnerships include universities and the Malaysian Armed Forces, which were stops on the tour for Jones and staff to meet with representatives.
“Hosting our senior leaders in-country enables them to witness firsthand the strong relationships we have with our host nation partners,” Weir said. “More importantly, I think such visits demonstrate to our host nation partners the importance of our collaborative partnerships, and our commitment to continuing to work together to enhance health security in the region.”
In both Vietnam and Malaysia, NAMRU INDO PACIFIC employs one active-duty medical researcher to engage with local partners and oversee projects, which focus heavily on infectious diseases. Working back through the headquarters in Singapore, the command can coordinate funding, logistics and administrative support.
Jones’ final stop was Singapore, where she met face-to-face with unit staff, including active-duty officers, federal civil servants and locally-employed foreign nationals.
Capt. Andrew Letizia is NAMRU INDO PACIFIC’s science director, overseeing research at the command’s detachments and cooperative efforts with host nations in Australia, Korea, Laos, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea and Thailand. Letizia also travelled with Jones throughout each leg of the tour.
“Our research is primarily focused on viruses, bacteria, and parasites that are often not found in the U.S., and therefore don’t threaten our public health,” said Letizia. “Considering competing interests and tighter budgets, it could be easy for the U.S. military to take our eyes off these known and emerging threats. However, these pathogens can quickly spread among Sailors on a ship or Marines dug into islands in South East Asia.”
This cooperative research strategy aims to ensure military force health protection by addressing infectious diseases such as malaria, dengue fever virus and gastro-intestinal pathogens while also improving global health.|
NAMRU INDO PACIFIC keeps its finger on the pulse of potential health problems throughout the INDOPACOM region. Having the upper hand against infectious diseases in the area can mitigate exposure to U.S. service members, and helps safeguard their health and ability to act across the globe.
“We need to be prepared,” added Letizia. “We need to continue our surveillance efforts and develop countermeasures to ensure medical readiness for the joint warfighters in the INDOPACOM AOR.
“We rely on our strategic setting and excellent logistics to support 26 projects in 10 countries around the AOR,” added Letizia. “We have the ability to ship equipment and supplies to conduct complex investigations of outbreaks or support a hypothesis-driven project informing the need for additional COVID-19 booster shots among our Sailors and Marines. We are a dynamic, agile, and relevant command that uses its location to support U.S. and partner nations throughout the COCOM.”
NAMRU staff were excited to show Jones the projects the command is involved in. At the Singapore headquarters, Jones received a tour of the facilities, reviewed research presentation posters, received research briefs, held an all-hands call, presented awards and shook a lot of hands. Her visit had impacts beyond a mere meet and greet and, according to Letizia, her articulating the command’s mission on the command’s behalf is crucial to ensure ongoing support for their research work.
“Capt. Jones is a key link between the overseas laboratories, like ours and other research scientists within the NMR&D enterprise, funders, line flag officers, and of course Navy medical R&D leadership to name a few,” Letizia said. “Her insights and advocacy for our command to Navy R&D helps communicate our work to various stakeholders and improves the science we conduct and how we execute our mission.”
The typical tour length for leading NMRC and the NMR&D enterprise is a few years, allowing the commander to visit each command at least once, usually while presiding over a change of command ceremony or a similarly special event. Jones visited NAMRU EURAFCENT, another of the enterprise’s commands, this past April for the opening of a new command headquarters facility aboard Naval Air Station, Sigonella, Italy.
“NAMRU INDO PACIFIC is critical to supporting U.S. INDOPACOM and U.S. Pacific Fleet and is the furthest away from our headquarters in Maryland”, said Jones. “It is important to visit the command and meet with staff to bridge the gap in distance with meaningful conversations of how they are executing their mission and what we as a headquarters can do facilitate their work. My hope is that these meetings give them an opportunity to showcase their work to the headquarters and provide us an opportunity to recognize the strong work they are doing in support of host country and military partners in the region.”
Jones’ visit was also in part to preside over NAMRU INDO PACIFIC’s change of command, in which Capt. Jonathan Stahl was relieved by Capt. Nicholas Martin. Stahl, who has been with the unit for six years, retired this year after 30 years of service.
The role of NAMRU INDO PACIFIC and the command’s locations are unique for Navy Medicine. “In my view, what sets NAMRU INDO PACIFIC apart within Navy Medicine is its strategic location in one of the world’s most consequential regions”, said Garcia. “It is both situated at a major epicenter for emerging infectious disease threats as well as within a highly dynamic geopolitical environment.”
The NMR&D enterprise’s eight laboratories, led by NMRC, are engaged in a broad spectrum of activity from basic science in the laboratory to field studies at sites in austere and remote areas of the world to operational environments. In support of the Navy, Marine Corps and joint U.S. warfighters, researchers study infectious diseases, biological warfare detection and defense, combat casualty care, environmental health concerns, aerospace and undersea medicine, medical modeling, simulation and operational mission support, epidemiology and behavioral sciences.
