Navy Audiology Society

A Word From The Prez

I would like to thank all the NAS members for allowing LT Meltmar and I to serve as your Vice President and President for this past year. It has been a rewarding learning experience and an opportunity to communicate with all of you. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the newsletter. One thing we have accomplished during this past year, thanks to the assistance of John Page, and Army Captain Robinette, is getting our newsletter on the MAA web page. So, look us up on the web! Have a great summer, hope to see you at MASC.
- LCDR Kelly Paul

Congratulations To Your New Representatives

LT James Davis-NAS President
LT Joy Houston-NAS Vice-President

Congratulations!

CDR Bob Rogers from Portsmouth Naval Hospital was selected as Audiologist of the Year!
Mr. Fred Giese from Naval Air Station, Brunswick, Maine was selected as Super Audiometric Technician of the Year!
Captain (sel) Kathy Hartmann has become the second Navy audiologist to attain that rank. CAPT Mark McDowall, MSC, USNR, was the first Navy audiologist to achieve CAPT and was promoted 1-Feb-92.
CDR Wolgemuth was promoted to CDR on 16 Jan 01!!!
Additionally, in Feb 01, CDR Wolgemuth and Lynn Marshall, Ph.D. co-authored a paper presented at the "Association of Research Otolaryngologists" annual meeting in St. Petersburg, Fl. The paper was titled Genetic and Auditory Determinants of Noise-induced Hearing Loss.
LT Allen Ross and wife had a second boy, Jacke Ichiro Ross, born 7 Feb 2001.
LT Michelle Mignor Grimes was married in Dec 2000 at St. Peters Basilica in the Vatican City, Rome, Italy.
From CDR Breshike: The EDIS at Okinawa received a score of 100 from JCAHO on the Oct 2000 survey

A Word From The Specialty Leader

CDR Bob Rogers

We are a team of Navy Audiologists, consisting of

22 active duty
3 reservists
approximately 42 civil service

Three active duty and three civil service have the Ph.D. Degree. We have 11 enrolled in Au.D. programs of which 8 are active duty, 2 are civil service and 1 is a reservist. Most are enrolled in the CMU Program which has a pre-negotiated tuition reduction of 30% for Federal Government Audiologists, but others are enrolled at the U. of Florida and in the Arizona School of Health Sciences. Of this group, the first Au.D. Degrees will be conferred in May.

Almost all of our civil service work in the ENT clinics at the MTF's and larger Naval Hospitals. We have a small group of civil service that do both ENT type clinical and hearing conservation, and one or two that just do hearing conservation and one that's full-time research.

We have active duty positions around the world...

2 at NMC Portsmouth
1 at NEHC
1 at Camp Lejeune N.C.
1 in Jacksonville
1 in Pensacola
3 in San Diego
1 at Camp Pendleton
1 at 29 Palms
1 at Bremerton
1 in Guam
1 in Naples
1 in Rota
2 in Yokosuka with 1 assigned to the BMC in Iwakuni
2 in Okinawa.

We also have 1 "Training" billet that we use for the Ph.D. DUINS Program. This training billet has an ongoing start authorization every three years. It is gapped in FY2001, but will be filled this fall. Our officers selected for DUINS get to pick the University they wish to attend, as long as the school and program are accredited and approved by the Navy. The payback is 5 years of which 3 must be performed as a utilization tour, currently identified as the senior billets in San Diego or Portsmouth.

We have 12 O-3's, 3 O-4's, 6 O-5's, and one O-6 selectee. We have 1 officer billet gapped. Our first Audiologist was commissioned only 22 years ago. In the past 5 years, all our O-2's have been promoted to O-3, all but 1 of our O-3's in zone have been promoted to O-4, all but 1 of our O-4's in zone have been promoted to O-5, and we've had one officer up for O-6 who did not promote. These numbers only reflect officers who fail to select to the next higher rank on two occasions or more.

We currently have 2 officers that are retirement eligible, one of which will be retiring later on this year. We have 3 officers married to active duty service members. All our officers and a hand full of civil service are CAOHC Course Directors and conduct courses regularly. We have seats with voting authority on the DoD Hearing Conservation Working Group, the DoD/Veterans Administration Audiology Strategic Planning Committee, the DoD/Veterans Administration Au.D. Steering Committee, the CNO Quality Council's Occupational Health Support/Quality Management Board and Executive Membership in MAA and NAS.

We also sit on the Medical Service Corps Clinical Specialty Leaders Subgroup and have 7 members and a Team Leader on the Navy Audiology Senior Leadership Team. The membership of this team is divided between senior active duty and civil service Audiologists. We have a combination of active duty and civil service Audiologists designated as subjected matter experts for almost all significant areas related to Navy Audiology.

Who are we anyway? We're a group of professionals working together for a common cause. That's really who we are.

Audiology Moves for FY01 (as of 6 April 01)

Most moves will take place between June and August of 2001.

CDR Breshike in Okinawa...extend for one year.
CDR Rovig at NEHC...extend for one year.
LT Cavalli at Nav Hosp Jacksonville...extend for one year.
LT Grimes (Mignor) at Nav Hosp Pensacola...to Guam as backfill for LT Williams.
LT Williams in Guam...to Pensacola as backfill for LT Mignor.
LT Schulz in Rota...RAD
LT Ross at Camp Pendleton...to Rota as backfill for LT Schultz.
LT Strickland in Okinawa...to Camp Pendleton as backfill for LT Ross.
New Accession...to Okinawa as backfill for LT Strickland.
LCDR Joseph in Yokosuka...DUINS.
LT Davis in Yokosuka...extend for one year (move into LCDR Joseph's billet[?]).
LT Meltmar at Camp Lejeune...to Yokosuka as backfill for LT Davis.
LT Houston in San Diego...to Camp Lejeune as backfill for LT Meltmar.
New Accession...to San Diego as backfill for LT Houston.
LT Gullickson in Iwakuni...to 29 Palms to backfill for LT Young.
New Accession...to Iwakuni as backfill for LT Gullickson.
LT Young at 29 Palms...FOS (billet currenty gapped).
CDR Rogers at NMC Portsmouth...Retire (effective 01 Mach 2002... with terminal leave & job/house hunting should be gone around 1st week in December 2001).
LCDR Sims at OIS...to NMC Portsmouth as backfill for CDR Rogers (Jan 2002).

NAS Dues

Have you paid your dues yet? If not, please send your check made out to The Navy Audiology Society and mail it to:

Mr. Steve Lewis
Norfolk Naval Shipyard Dispensary
Audiology Dept, Bldg 277
Portsmouth, VA 23709-5000

VA Foreign Medical Benefits Program

Offers financial relief for retirees with service connected hearing loss as long as it is certified through the VA. The Program requires prior approval but provides reimbursement for hearing aids and batteries. Digital aids are currently not covered. CDR Breshike is currently evaluating the first patients using the program and will let the community know of future developments.
(input by CDR Breshike)