Introduction: The Role of the Pediatrician in Military Medicine

Abstract

* Abbreviations: AAP — : American Academy of Pediatrics The year 2009 marked the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Section on Uniformed Services of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). In April 1959, the AAP’s Executive Board voted to approve the Section’s creation, an idea that was conceived nearly 2 years earlier by an army pediatrician named Major Bedford Berrey, who saw the need for an organization within the AAP’s larger umbrella that would advocate for both the unique needs of the military pediatrician as well as those of the military child and family. Counting 25 initial members from the army, navy, air force, and public health service, the Section on Military Pediatrics, as it was originally chartered, held its first organizational meeting in October 1959 at the AAP’s annual conference in Chicago, Illinois.1 Today, the Uniformed Services Section has grown to be the ninth largest section in the AAP, numbering over 900 members who practice not only in military facilities within the United States but in locations … Address correspondence to Clifton E. Yu, MD, FAAP. E-mail: clifton.yu{at}amedd.army.mil