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thedrifter
03-14-07, 07:52 AM
Army's interim surgeon general headed hospital at Fort Benning
Maj. Gen. Pollock led MACH from 2001 through 2003
BY MICK WALSH
Staff Writer

Maj. Gen. Gale S. Pollock, who has been named as a temporary replacement for Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley as the Army's surgeon general, was the first female and first nurse to take command of Fort Benning's Martin Army Community Hospital when she succeeded Col. James L. Beson in July 2001.

She remained at that post until July 2003, when she joined the staff of the U.S. Surgeon General in Washington, D.C. Col. Donald M. Bradshaw followed Pollock as MACH commander.

Kiley agreed to step down from his position Monday after weeks of intense public criticism stemming from revelations about poor conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Pollock, who was promoted to chief of the Army Nurse Corps in 2005, visited her old friends at MACH last May to speak at Nurses Week.

She spoke with nurses from the 14th Combat Support Hospital, then deployed to Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, via teleconference.

Pollock will serve until an advisory board recommends a new surgeon general.

A native of Kearny, N.J., Pollock received a bachelor of science degree in nursing from the University of Maryland, a master's in business administration from Boston University, a master's in health care administration from Baylor University, and a master's in national security and strategy from the National Defense University.

In a 2001 interview with the Ledger-Enquirer, Pollock said she got her first experience treating combat-related injuries in 1983 while treating Marines wounded in the bombing of their Beirut, Lebanon barracks. At that time she was assigned to the U.S. Army Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany.

She said that the medical staff experience the same shock toward sudden violence as troops. "And like soldiers," she said, "we must react quickly. I knew if we didn't do a good job, their families wouldn't get to see their loved ones again."

Ellie