Clark takes new assignment at Defense Health Agency

Brigadier General Jeffrey B. Clark salutes the flag for the last time as a one-star general, today he becomes the Army’s newest Major General. He was joined by Rear Admiral Raquel C. Bono (Left) and General Daniel B. Allyn (Center). (Photo by Bernard S. Little/WRNMMC PAO)

Maj. Gen. Jeffrey B. Clark, a 1984 graduate of the Brody School of Medicine, was given a new assignment as director of healthcare operations for the Defense Health Agency in Falls Church, Virginia.

For the past two years Clark served as director of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Top leaders in the U.S. military health system attended his reassignment ceremony at Walter Reed on Sept. 12.

The Defense Health Agency was formed in 2013 to assume overall medical care for active duty Army, Navy and Air Force members. It provides health services to active duty soldiers and their dependents much like the VA cares for veterans. The agency has a budget of about $54 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.

“This promotion means many things, but, for me personally, it means I am blessed to be able to continue to do that which I love, to continue to wear this uniform and to serve America’s heroes,” Clark said.

Clark became a two-star general in June when he was promoted from brigadier general to major general.

Gen. Daniel B. Allyn, vice chief of staff of the Army, said Clark is the kind of doctor that soldiers prefer. “There’s a close bond that develops between combat soldiers and ‘their doc,’ and Doc Clark has always been the kind of doc soldiers want to be round, that soldiers know that they can trust and that when soldiers deploy, they know that their families and loved ones will be cared for in their absence,” Allyn said.

Before his assignment at Walter Reed, Clark held the Army’s top medical post in Europe as commander of U.S. Army Europe Regional Medical Command and command surgeon of U.S. Army Europe. Clark was the 82nd Airborne Division’s top surgeon after the first Gulf War and headed Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany from 2011 to 2012. He started his military career as a family physician at what was then the 1st Corps Support Command Clinic at Fort Bragg and served as a faculty and clinic director for Womack Army Medical Center.

After graduating from medical school at ECU, Clark entered the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, as well as the Army War College. He also earned a master of public health degree from the University of Washington and a master of strategic studies from the Army War College.

A native of LaGrange, Clark is married to Sue Barnes Clark, who received a nursing degree from ECU in 1980. They have three children – Anna, Warren and John.

— Steve Tuttle