Capt McClure takes reins of FH Pensacola

Capt. McClure takes reins of Fleet Hospital Pensacola

By Rod Duren,
Naval Hospital Pensacola, Fla.

Capt. Paula McClure (center) accepts the transfer of Fleet Hospital Pensacola command colors from Capt. Terry Moulton (behind flag). Fleet Hospital Pensacola Command Master Chief Pjeter Vucinaj (left) prepares to accept the flag; and return it to Leading Chief Petty Officer, Chief Hospital Corpsman Kevin Busby (background). Capt. Kevin Berry of Naval Hospital Pensacola (right) was guest speaker for the change of command.

US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Petty Officer 1st Class (Aviation Warfare) Russ Tafuri

PENSACOLA, Fla. — Captain Paula McClure, a Navy Medical Service Corps officer, is no stranger to operational missions and deploying units; or the command-wide structure of Naval Hospital Pensacola.

On Thursday (May 24), Capt. Terry Moulton “transferred the colors” of the Fleet Hospital Pensacola unit to McClure in a change of command ceremony on the Fleet Hospital Pensacola training compound, behind Naval Hospital Pensacola. The commander of Fleet Hospital Pensacola also serves as the Navy hospital executive officer.

The new command leader has served as executive officer with Fleet Hospital Camp Lejeune, NC, which included an operational tour with II Marine Expeditionary Force to the Al Anbar Province in Iraq. Her first assigned in the Navy was in Pensacola at the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute; and she also served at the naval hospital and branch clinic at Millington, Tenn., which is one of Pensacola’s 11 branch health clinics.

In opening remarks, Capt. Kevin Berry, commander of Naval Hospital Pensacola said: “It’s unusual to have a command within a command, but this is an unusual, and exceptional, command that we have here.”

Berry, in speaking to McClure, said that in taking charge of Fleet Hospital Pensacola, she was inheriting “a well-prepared team.”

Moulton, who was presented with a fifth Meritorious Service Medal during an earlier ceremony, opened his remarks by saying: “I leave today, where I started … with Fleet Hospital Pensacola.”

On Moulton’s first day, more than two years ago and a cross-country trip from Washington state, he found himself, not in Pensacola, but at an Army base in Georgia where he literally “hit the ground running” as Fleet Hospital Pensacola had just embarked on a 10-day field training exercise.

“It’s been an outstanding job,” Moulton told the warrior-clad unit, “and your reputation preceded you, before I got here, and continues to this today. I’m proud of each and every one of you.

Under the out-going commander’s watch, Fleet Hospital Pensacola personnel have deployed, as a partial unit or as Individual Augmentees, on four, 179-day evolutions with Joint Task Force Guantanamo Bay Cuba; and continue to serve with: Expeditionary Medical Facility Kuwait, JTF Horn of Africa, Afghanistan, Republic of Georgia and Iraq.

“You have gone to where you were asked to go … anywhere in the world,” he said. “And when you were called … you were always ready.”

When it was McClure’s turn at the podium, she said that having known Moulton for years she’d have big shoes to fill. “I wear a size 5, and I think Terry wears about a 15 … so, it’ll really be difficult to fill those shoes.”

The new commander addressed the formation of personnel and implored them to “work together as one … as a team (because) that’s what it’s all about.”

Moulton presented the command colors-flag to the McClure at the conclusion of the ceremony. He saluted and began preparations to join the Navy Personnel Command at Millington in June.