CARRIBEAN SEA (Aug. 29, 2024) – The sun beats down in Kingston, Jamaica, and sweat is already dripping down Lt. Cmdr. Zachary Smith’s face. He waits on a pier as a motorcade pulls up, and a black SUV with two American flags on its hood stops directly in front of his position. The U.S. ambassador to Jamaica steps out of the vehicle and Smith approaches him. He shakes hands with the ambassador and begins to introduce himself, saying something never before said by a Medical Service Corps (MSC) officer: “Good afternoon, sir. I am the mission commander for Continuing Promise.”

“I’ve always had an understanding of how important it is for the United States to partner and work well with our allies in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean,’ said Lt. Cmdr. Zachary Smith, mission commander for Continuing Promise 2024. “But this mission drove home that point in a way that will stay with me forever.”

From combat operations to humanitarian missions, MSC officers have supported the medical needs of the Navy and upheld the strong legacy of the corps for over 77 years. This continues today, with more than 3,000 active-duty and reserve officers currently in service and supporting various Navy missions. This year, for the first time in the Navy’s history, a major humanitarian mission’s leadership, commander and deputy commander, were both MSC officers.

During Continuing Promise 2024, Smith and his deputy commander, Lt. Cmdr. Alex Balbir, were among eight MSC officers who visited five countries in the Caribbean and Latin America to provide medical care, share knowledge with local medical professionals, and strengthen partnerships within the region. During the mission, several of those officers embarked aboard the Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport ship USNS Burlington (T-EPF 10) and worked alongside other military professionals as well as civilian mariners from the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command.

Though Smith was mission commander for Continuing Promise 2024, he primarily serves as a reservist with Navy Reserve Destroyer Squadron 40 as the training officer. Out of his 27 years of military service, he has spent 15 of them as an MSC officer, while also serving previously as an enlisted service member in the U.S. Marine Corps. He is a plans, operations, and medical Intelligence (POMI) specialist and has served with the Marines. Now, he leads a mission dedicated to medical planning and execution to improve lives across a region.

“I joined the Navy Medical Service Corps because I wanted to continue to serve my country and was interested in healthcare administration,” said Smith. “Ensuring patients have the best care possible at a systemic level has always been a focus of mine.”

Ensuring people in the countries visited get quality medical care is a major facet of the ongoing Continuing Promise mission. The mission’s embarked medical team made certain that this would become a reality. Cmdr. Brent Collins, an MSC optometrist, was among them.

Currently a staff optometrist at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Collins has had a long career leading up to his involvement in Continuing Promise. His first tour was in May 2010 where he was a staff optometrist in the optometry department at Naval Medical Clinic San Diego, California. Fourteen years later, he served as the optometry lead for Continuing Promise 2024, as well as the interim medical officer-in-charge when circumstances required him to take on that role temporarily.

“This mission has helped remind me to be grateful for the little things I take for granted,” said Collins. “It has also increased my appreciation for the privilege it is to work with such a diverse and talented group of people.”

Collins was not the only MSC officer that worked with military counterparts to support the mission. Lt. Cristina Lucatero-Diaz managed all transportation operations needed to get mission personnel to the site where they worked each day. At some locations, this required her to work closely with local police and military forces to ensure the safe transit of personnel. In addition to managing transportation and accountability, Lucatero-Diaz also volunteered for community relations (COMREL) events.

Outside of Continuing Promise, she is assigned to Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command (NMRTC) Jacksonville as a healthcare administrator and serves as the patient administration officer at Naval Hospital Jacksonville. Though she is now commissioned as an MSC officer, she started her career in the Navy as a hospital corpsman in May of 2004. Nine years later she was selected for the Medical Service Corps In-service Procurement Program and received her commission.

After completing Officer Development School, she went to her first duty station as a MSC officer at Field Medical Training Battalion-West, Camp Pendleton, California, as the operations officer and the administrative/personnel officer. After almost 10 years, and four commands later, she reported to the Burlington for Continuing Promise 2024.

“My favorite moment of Continuing Promise 2024 was during a COMREL event in Costa Rica,” said Lucatero-Diaz. “I volunteered to help paint a local school; over a two-day period, I had the opportunity to meet a school staff member. He shared stories and talked about the history of Costa Rica.”

By taking part in Continuing Promise 2024, Smith, Collins, Lucatero-Diaz, and the five other MSC officers on the mission treated or supported the treatment of more than 4,800 patients. What the MSC compliment and fellow medical professionals were able to accomplish on this historic mission will be added to the incredible legacy of the MSC community, shining brightly as a beacon of hope not just across the United States Navy, but around the world.

This "Continuing the Legacy" was originally found on https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/News-Stories/Term/3087/