In an unusually strongly worded statement, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who oversees the spiritual care of Catholic members of the U.S. armed forces, raised a series of objections to the unprecedented plan to broadcast the execution of Hasan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in a 2009 shooting spree.

Broglio said he presided at the funeral of one of Hasan’s victims, and lamented the shooting. But the Ohio-born archbishop asked whether the U.S. wanted to “imitate the terrorists of this world and make a public spectacle of barbarically killing our adversaries.”

“I oblige any Catholics assigned to the firing squad to request to be excused from this action contrary to the teaching of the Church,” Broglio said.

U.S. Army regulations do allow for soldiers to request religious exemptions or accommodations, and the Army has yet to say how it intends to select members of the firing squad.

Questions about the effect on young viewers

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced plans to livestream the shooting last week, triggering a backlash among Republicans in Congress, religious leaders and international observers. U.S. President Donald Trump approved Hasan’s execution by firing squad but has said he is still deciding whether to allow the livestreaming to proceed.

The event would be extraordinary, even for a country that has long employed capital punishment. A government execution has never been broadcast or livestreamed, according to death penalty experts, and the U.S. military has not executed anyone by firing squad since 1945. Hasan, now 56, requires a wheelchair, having been shot by police during his arrest.

Hegseth said last week he wants U.S. soldiers to execute Hasan at the time, day of the week and location of Hasan’s shooting spree. Hegseth has argued that making the event public will help serve as a deterrent.

Broglio questioned whether the effect of a livestreamed execution on young viewers had been considered. He said the U.S. military had a good reputation and asked if there was “really a value to throwing them in the same boat with terrorists by broadcasting the image of the execution of a man in a wheelchair to the whole world.”

Broglio’s statement was issued shortly after he met on Monday in Rome with Pope Leo, who has clashed with Trump and his Pentagon over issues including the Iran war. Leo on Saturday condemned the death penalty, without mentioning the Hasan case specifically.

Vice President JD Vance, a convert to Catholicism, has said that if it does ultimately get livestreamed, he would not watch it.

The $6.3 billion contract, which provides two additional option years, will see Raytheon provide the Defense Department with a continuous supply of Standard Missile-3 Block IB interceptors manufactured primarily in Tucson, Arizona and Huntsville, Alabama.

“SM-3 Block IB has proven its relevance in combat and this contract helps ensure we can replenish inventories and keep pace with the evolving threats the U.S. Navy, MDA and their partners face around the world,” Raytheon President Phil Jasper said in a statement.

The SM-3 Block IB interceptor belongs to a larger family of “hit-to-kill” SM-3 missile interceptors, which seek and destroy incoming ballistic missiles using sheer speed and momentum.

The Block IB type can be used by land forces and ships and is frequently deployed on vessels due to its range and highly flexible steering. The interceptor tracks flying targets with a two-color infrared seeker and propels itself towards them in short bursts, giving it accuracy at high speed as it homes in on targets.

It is designed to knock short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles out of the sky when they are halfway to hitting their targets, and has long striking reach. It was used in combat for the first time in 2024 when the U.S. Navy destroyers USS Arleigh Burke and USS Carney fired them to intercept Iranian missiles aimed at targets in Israel.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies named the SM-3 Block IB among “seven critical munitions” in an April report detailing ammunition shortages, alongside Patriot missiles, Precision Strike Missiles, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missiles, Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles and others.

The contract for more SM-3 Block IBs, announced by Raytheon on Thursday, was among five framework agreements the defense giant signed with the Pentagon this February.

The deal comes at a time when the DoD is seeking to avert diminishing munitions stockpiles. National security specialists, defense analysts and foreign policy pundits cautioned in March that the U.S. military’s increased use of missile interceptors during the war with Iran poses strategic risks to integral defense capabilities if fighting spills into a long-term conflict.

Raytheon stated in its release that the contract for SM-3 Block IB supply “supports urgent replenishment of missile defense inventory that has been successfully used in combat and remains central to protecting U.S. forces, allies and critical infrastructure.”

The battleship suffered more loss of life than any American ship during the attack, its 1,177 dead comprising nearly half the 2,403 killed at Pearl Harbor.

Of the ship’s dead, 277 of its sailors and Marines are buried in Honolulu’s National Memorial of the Pacific. The identity of 86 of those men remains unknown to this day.

The exhumations will begin with the disinterment of eight caskets from the National Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the “Punchbowl,” on Dec. 7 and will continue with about eight caskets removed each week until the total of 86 is reached, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

Forensic specialists from DPAA will then seek to match DNA from the remains with DNA provided by the family members.

“DPAA is honored to be able to provide long-sought answers to families of these Unknowns,” Kelly McKeague, a retired Air Force major general and director of DPAA, said in a statement.

“Being able to disinter the 86 Unknowns associated with USS Arizona is singularly due to the determined initiative and extraordinary efforts of Operation 85,” McKeague said, referring to the group led by Kevin Kline, a Virginia real estate agent and grandnephew of Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class Robert Edwin Kline who perished when the Arizona was hit by at least eight bombs dropped by Japanese warplanes.

Kline’s group began gathering DNA Family Reference Samples from the families of those listed as unknowns as part of the USS Arizona (BB39) Unknown Identification Project after the Navy and the Defense Department said the project could not be done and would cost too much to attempt.

Then last April, DPAA announced that Operation 85 had reached the 60% threshold of DNA Family Reference Samples for the Unknowns, allowing disinterments to begin.

”Reaching this milestone does not conclude the search for additional USS Arizona and associated Pearl Harbor family members who may be able to provide viable DNA Family Reference Samples,” DPAA said in the April announcement. “DPAA, Operation 85, and the service casualty offices continue to encourage any family member who may be related to a missing USS Arizona crew member to participate in this ongoing effort.”

In a phone interview with Military Times, Kevin Kline said the beginning of exhumations on Dec. 7 “doesn’t mean we’re done. We’re still looking [to] take those words unknown off those graves” remaining in the Punchbowl. “I think this is a problem we can fix.”

A total of 1,177 sailors and Marines from the Arizona were killed in the surprise Pearl Harbor attacks, and more than 900 of those killed remain entombed within the sunken hull of the ship beneath the stunning USS Arizona Memorial.

If carried out as planned, death penalty experts said it would mark the first known broadcast or livestream of a lawful execution.

Executions are generally conducted behind prison walls, and internet platforms and governments have spent years trying to limit the circulation of violent execution footage.

Has a lawful execution ever been livestreamed or broadcast to the public before?

Death penalty experts consulted by Reuters said they were unaware of any previous lawful execution that had been livestreamed or broadcast to a public audience.

Execution footage has occasionally emerged after the event. The hanging of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in 2006, for example, was seen around the world after official and unofficial recordings circulated online and through broadcasters, though it was not shown live.

Broadcasts and livestreams today are common for court proceedings, parliamentary debates and other state functions, but not for judicial executions.

How unusual is this compared with modern execution practices around the world?

Public executions have become rare worldwide, with most countries that retain the death penalty carrying out executions away from public view.

According to Amnesty International, public executions recorded in recent years have largely been concentrated in Iran and Taliban-run Afghanistan.

The execution would also be notable in the United States. Public executions largely disappeared during the 20th century, and death penalty experts cited by Reuters said the last legally sanctioned public execution took place in 1936.

Hasan’s execution would be the first carried out by firing squad by the U.S. military since the 1945 execution of Eddie Slovik, who was convicted of desertion during World War II.

How has the internet changed the circulation of execution footage?

The internet has transformed execution imagery from a local event into content capable of reaching global audiences within minutes.

Militant groups, such as the Islamic State, became notorious for producing professionally edited execution videos that were distributed online as propaganda and recruitment tools.

Criminal organisations, including Mexican drug cartels, have also circulated violent footage to intimidate rivals and project power.

The ability of users to rapidly copy, repost and redistribute content has made it more difficult for governments and technology companies to control the spread of such material.

What has been the reaction from governments and tech companies?

Governments and technology companies have generally moved in the opposite direction, attempting to reduce rather than expand access to graphic execution footage.

Major social media platforms have spent years removing execution videos linked to extremist organisations and other violent groups.

One of the first public governmental reactions came from New Zealand, whose chief censor said authorities would have little practical ability to prevent residents from accessing a livestream while it was taking place.

Livestreams pose particular challenges for platforms because footage can be viewed, copied and redistributed before moderation systems can intervene.

Even countries that still conduct public executions have often restricted filming and broadcast rights. Saudi Arabia historically carried out public executions before spectators, but recording them was prohibited, and such public executions had largely ceased by 2019.

“Ten and a half months is a significant amount of time away from home. The mission required that sacrifice, but it does not make up for missed birthdays, anniversaries and other important family milestones,” Lt. Cmdr. Tyler Barker, USS Abraham Lincoln’s public affairs officer, said during a news conference Thursday. “There are 122 new dads that are going to walk off the ship today. From the air wing and from my ship, they’re waiting to meet their children for the very first time.”

As thousands of sailors poured off the aircraft carrier to thunderous cheers and distant cowbell clangs, some of the first to touch solid ground were those 122 sailors, making a beeline to embrace the babies they had “met” via screens but never physically touched.

Among those sailors was Brent Ledbetter, an air traffic control center officer, whose son was born shortly after the Lincoln’s Nov. 21, 2025, departure.

“I just want to hold him, play with him,” Ledbetter told NBC News. “He’s crawling around now, so I’m excited to chase him around the house and give him all the love that, that, you know — has been kind of withheld for the last 10 months. I’m so excited.”

According to the outlet, Ledbetter’s wife was also assigned to what would become a storied deployment, but the sailor had relieved his wife shortly before her birth due to Navy regulations that they can’t be on the ship at the same time. Ledbetter’s wife, also an air traffic controller, will now swap positions with the sailor and deploy, while he will stay home with their son.

Ledbetter has served in the U.S. Navy for 13 years and deployed two other times on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower; once to the Red Sea and another time, in 2020, was 206 days at sea, NBC News reported.

In November 2025, the Lincoln departed San Diego for a routine six-month deployment, which was extended twice after the U.S. jointly launched Operation Epic Fury with Israel on Feb. 28.

For Mackenzie Adkins, she and her husband Alex had planned to start their growing family around his deployment schedule, but the path to conceiving is often not linear. Adkins found herself giving birth 10 weeks ago — with Alex video-calling in.

“I’m feeling a little bit of everything,” Adkins told KFMB. “I’m excited above all else, just so ready to have my husband back, to have him finally meet his son. I’m nervous, just the excited nerves of, ‘Oh my goodness, it’s finally happening’ after we thought it was going to happen so many other times, but this is finally it, and so [I’m] extremely happy.

“We were ready to start our family, and so we took the original return home date and used that to plan the pregnancy, and with military life, things just happen,” she said. “And well, here we are 10 weeks later, and he’s finally going to get to meet his son.”

On Wednesday, as the Abraham Lincoln and elements of its carrier strike group neared the California coast, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the carrier strike group had been awarded the Presidential Unit Citation, the military’s highest unit-level valor award.

Hegseth announced the award to the 5,000 sailors aboard the Lincoln, citing the “historic mission” that included completing “3,693 combat flights, sinking 64 Iranian warships, launching 450 Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles and shooting down 77 one-way aerial attack drones.”

“Congratulations to @CNV_72 and all of CSG-3 on this well-earned Presidential Unit Citation for their extreme heroism over the last 10 months in defense of our homeland,” Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao wrote on social media.

That defense included 40 days in combat and an “ironclad maritime blockade against Iran in support of Operation Epic Fury,” according to the citation.

The Defense Health Agency announced in mid-September that it was switching from the older login process, DS Logon, to a new program called myAuth for the MHS Genesis system.

DS Logon required lengthy passwords that had to be changed frequently, while myAuth promised a more “user-friendly experience” and improved security, according to DHA.

Following the transition, however, some patients have been unable to access their own medical records. Sponsors must grant access permission to their spouses and dependents, and in some cases, dependent children aren’t showing up on either parent’s accounts.

“Just stop changing things. Every time one system finally starts working and everyone gets used to it, you switch it up. Tricare online was fine. Genesis was fine,” an Army spouse wrote on Tricare’s Facebook page.

In response, DHA announced Sept. 25 that the patient portal would remain “fully accessible via DS Logon.”

But beneficiaries say when they use the old DS Logon system, they are redirected to the myAuth login page and still cannot access family records.

“I can log in and see all my stuff. I can send out messages and receive them … but nothing for my kids,” a military spouse said in a direct message to Military Times. “To message their doctor, I have to send a message through my name and put in the subject my child’s name.”

DHA spokeswoman Brenda Campbell said Thursday that DHA is working with the Defense Manpower Data Center to resolve the issues. DMDC manages the myAuth system and is responsible for the transition from DS Logon, she said.

“MyAuth is a new digital login that replaces DS Logon for accessing [Defense Department] websites and applications, like the MHS GENESIS Patient Portal. We are aware of the issues associated with the transition and are providing that feedback to DMDC to ensure appropriate fixes are applied,” Campbell said.

According to DHA, MyAuth will provide more ways to log in to the MHS Patient Portal, allow for use of a Common Access Card, verification through the Okta mobile app and other authentication choices.

It also has a simpler interface that is more user-friendly, DHA officials added.

“The switch to myAuth means a simpler, more secure experience in MHS Genesis Patient Portal,” they said.

Another change to the Defense Department’s information technology systems will affect Military Health System patients and Tricare beneficiaries this weekend: a planned outage of the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System, or DEERS, as it transitions to a cloud-based system.

DEERS will be offline from 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Friday, Oct. 9, to Sunday, Oct. 11, although the Pentagon has not specified a time.

During the outage, beneficiaries won’t be able to update their DEERS records and pharmacies and healthcare providers may not be able to check a patient’s Tricare eligibility.

The DEERS database contains information about military personnel, retirees, family members and civilian employees.

Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, is set to become the first person to be executed by firing squad by the U.S. military since 1945, shortly after the end of World War II.

The Pentagon official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, did not offer more information and said details would follow.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier told the Human Events Daily podcast he planned to make Hasan’s execution public, according to video of his comments posted on social media on Thursday.

Hegseth said deciding to execute Hasan by firing squad at Fort Hood on a Thursday at 1 p.m. — the approximate time, day of the week and location of Hasan’s shooting — was a “no-brainer.”

“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public. Because people need to understand that … there’s serious consequences for these types of things,” Hegseth said.

Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell announced Monday that Hegseth had recommended death by Army firing squad for Hasan, and President Donald Trump approved the decision.

“He killed 13 people and wounded 32 others while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ during the attack,” Parnell wrote.

The date and location were announced Wednesday.

“The execution of Nidal Hasan by firing squad will take place at Fort Hood, Texas, on Thursday, December 3rd, 2026, at 1 p.m. CT.,” acting Army Secretary Adam Telle announced, confirming that the location would return Hasan to the site of the murders.

If the date and method of execution are carried out, it would mark the first such case for the service since Jan. 31, 1945, when Pvt. Eddie D. Slovik was executed by a U.S. Army firing squad in France for desertion during World War II.

The last death sentence carried out by the U.S. military was in 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was executed by hanging at the gallows in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, after he was convicted of raping and attempting to kill a young girl.

Hasan, who was born in northern Virginia, walked into a Fort Hood readiness processing center on Nov. 5, 2009, and opened fire using a semi-automatic handgun. Thirteen people were killed, including a pregnant soldier.

At his court-martial, Hasan, now 56, admitted to the shooting, and in 2013, said he carried out the attack in support of the Taliban.

Hasan was convicted by a military jury in August 2013, which recommended he be sentenced to death. He was subsequently transferred to Fort Leavenworth, where he has been incarcerated on death row.

Speaking at a hearing before the congressionally created National Commission on the Future of the Navy on Thursday, Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. James Kilby said the Navy faced difficulties that weren’t all immediately visible when it came to sustaining and resetting after such combat demands.

“That’s the piece I think that we need to be better at articulating and demonstrating — what the cost of this extension will be two years from now,” Kilby said. “So people see that, and they sign that bill.”

Referencing Hegseth’s commendation of sailors on the Lincoln for their successful 321-day deployment, of which they spent 265 consecutive days without a port call, Kilby acknowledged that the crew had “delivered the goods.”

“So, it’s a little bit of a challenge for me to say you can’t do this when we keep delivering,” he said.

But, he said, readiness rates remain “artificially high” amid the combat surge because ships remain deployed or have yet to return to maintenance. When that happens, Kilby indicated, the “little bit of a false positive” readiness picture will change rapidly.

“The problem will come when eventually they do come home. The industrial base will not be able to swallow that pill, and so we’ll have to sequence that,” he said.

A standard solution to account for the additional cost: deferring maintenance.

“I’ll either squish the package into the bare minimum and not do modernization things I need to do, so that’s the bill that’s being paid there,” Kilby said.

Unmanned vessels, he added, present a promising future solution, but still one that’s a way off.

“When we get a combatant commander that’s willing to ask for a tailored force package, think a [littoral combat ship], an unmanned air vessel, and some unmanned surface vessels to do monitoring and maritime domain awareness and potentially action, it alleviates the request for him to ask for a strike group or an amphibious ready group. That will help,” Kilby said. “But that’s a long time coming because they don’t see that offer on the menu right now. We’ve got to act on that and produce that thing for them to ask for it.”

He suggested that a cultural change to give service leaders and key commanders more flexibility in how they meet requirements would help to sustain long-term readiness.

“They have very, very little flexibility in their basic phase to get through those gates, and we’re pressurizing that by saying, ‘Do it faster, so I can count you as combat-surge ready,’” Kilby said, “which prevents them from maybe doing some things that existed in what I maybe fondly remember from my youth, where we had a little bit more control of that culture.”

For now, Kilby said, the Navy is “in a system” where the geographic combatant commander is given a problem to address and will ask for whatever they need from the services to meet the requirement. The services, in turn, will do whatever it takes to meet the requirement, despite future costs.

“I think it’s a tough pill for us to swallow, because the Navy’s strength, the Navy and Marine Corps’ strength, is our weakness in that regard,” he said.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., visited the Middle East this week on a Congressional Delegation trip, speaking with Gulf region leaders and visiting American facilities to assess damage done by the Iran war. Murphy was denied access to Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, which had suffered damage from drone strikes during the conflict.

“They are using every tool they can, including withholding information about damages, slow walking the pace of reports about casualties and denying us access to see the damage as part of a campaign of cover-up, so as to mask the true cost of the war,” Murphy told reporters on Thursday.

The “unprecedented” base denial prepared Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Defense Appropriations Committee, in the coming days to draft language that would explicitly require the Department of Defense to grant members of Congress access to military bases overseas under all circumstances if needed.

“I don’t have any illusions that that’s going to pass between now and the end of the year, but I think that’ll be a really important part of the discussion around an appropriations bill next year and the defense authorization bill,” he said during the press call.

Prior to his trip, Murphy requested access to the base through a letter and direct appeal to U.S. Central Command leadership. But he was denied access even as the Department of State supported his trip to the region, with the Defense Department saying it was due to previously imposed travel restrictions.

“Senator Murphy’s office was informed before his trip to the Middle East that he would not receive Department of War support to access Al Udeid Air Base, consistent with the Secretary of War’s directive on travel restrictions in the region ordered on March 3, 2026,” a senior Defense Department official told Military Times on Thursday.

“That decision was communicated in advance by the Office of the Secretary of War for Legislative Affairs,” the official continued. “The Department applies the Secretary’s guidance evenly.”

In early March, the State and Defense departments issued travel guidance, calling on Americans to depart areas in the region and updating its travel advisory to recommend against visiting certain countries, including Qatar.

“It is absolutely ordinary for members of Congress to travel to areas of conflict and get to talk directly to the military leaders and the soldiers that are involved in the conflict and see for ourselves the damage that has been done to our bases and equipment,” Murphy said, highlighting how during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars he was able to visit operating bases.

He argued that since Congress decides funding and authorization for war, it is necessary to see the consequences, but he was unable to visit Al Udeid or have a briefing on the war with American military officials while in the region.

On the same day the travel advisory was issued in March, the U.S. embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was hit ​by two Iranians drones, resulting in building damage and a fire. Murphy said that the drones impacted multiple floors of the embassy and part of the space is now “uninhabitable” with permanent damage.

The U.S. previously announced in 2023 plans to build a new embassy compound in Riyadh, which Murphy attributes the lack of repairs to.

Even though no injuries or casualties were reported from the strike, Murphy said that if the attack happened during the day it would have killed many Americans.

“[Secretary of Defense Pete] Hegseth is determined to hide the cost and the consequences of this war from the American public, and it is absolutely outrageous that I and Republican senators are being denied the ability to see the damage for ourselves,” he said.

The corps, which provides medical care for the U.S. Coast Guard and the Indian Health Services and supports health services and research across the federal government and around the world, is one of the nation’s uniformed services.

But most Americans “don’t know who we are,” said Adm. Brian Christine, head of the USPHS Commissioned Corps and assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, in an interview with Military Times.

Given the agency’s role supporting national dietary guidelines, promoting fitness, protecting public health and preserving the nation’s wellness, Christine wants them to know.

The admiral, a urologist by training, launched a public outreach campaign to call attention to the corps the day he was sworn in, starting with increased visibility among members of the armed services.

In meetings with corps officers, Christine said he learned they didn’t feel respected by other uniformed service members. So with his brother, Army Judge Advocate General Maj. Gen. Bobby Christine, he pledged to increase integration with the armed services, starting with joint exercise with soldiers at Fort Myer, Virginia.

Last month, a Commissioned Corps team worked out with Christine and the Navy’s SEAL Team One in San Diego. And they are planning workouts in the coming weeks with Coast Guard men and women and hopes to team with the Space Force and other branches.

“Since we are preaching physical readiness, it seems natural for my officers to engage with and build bridges with the other uniformed services by doing physical training,” Christine said in an interview Wednesday with Military Times.

Members of the 5,400-member USPHS Commissioned Corps officers — doctors, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, dietitians, chemists, engineers, environmental health experts, veterinarians and more — who support public health and medical readiness in 38 government agencies.

They serve overseas — a team is currently in Kenya supporting the response to the Ebola outbreak — and deliver health care in remote locations, including the far reaches of Alaska.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, officers deployed to staff crowded clinics and supported vaccine distribution.

Their duties include deploying to crises, providing medical care to underserved populations, promoting prevention initiatives to fight chronic disease and supporting health education and “health diplomacy.”

But they also have a role in national security, promoting public health initiatives that encourage fitness among the recruit-age population, supporting the health of the armed services by promoting proper nutrition and fitness and ensuring the nation can respond to public health threats.

In that vein, Christine said he wants “my officers, PHS officers, to be out there as examples for diet and fitness and activity and wellness.”

He has instituted new physical fitness mandates, a program known as PHS Mission Fit, to ensure the Commissioned Corps is able to do their jobs.

“If we’re going to be advocating for Americans, men, women, and children, to be physically fit and ready to get the most out of life, then we need to walk that walk ourselves as the Public Health Service, as the Commission Corps,” Christine said.

Until last year, the officers were required to take annual fitness tests that required them to run or walk — or a combination — 1.5 miles “as quickly as possible.”

Alternatively, they could choose to swim, use an elliptical or stationary bike, and do push-ups and planks, with the ability to choose sit-ups or side bridges instead, and toe-touching for flexibility.

The new twice-a-year program includes a 2,000-meter row, expanded stationary bike options, and removal of the flexibility requirement.

The program also includes weekly physical training and motivational challenges.

The changes represent a cultural shift for the corps, Christine said, but “it’s a change we want.”

“I will get videos from my officers, literally around the world, and they’ll video a group out doing PT together,” Christine said.

Christine was appointed a four-star admiral during his ceremonial swearing-in as assistant secretary for Health and Human Services, a direct commission that is common for the position.

He earned his medical degree from Emory University and moved to Alabama to complete his residency in urology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He ran several urology clinics in Alabama specializing in erectile dysfunction.

With this background, he contributed to the development of the clinical practice guidelines to support Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s policies on testosterone screening and is part of an effort to draft clinical guidance on testing and hormonal treatment for female service members.

He is a committed supporter of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again initiative and believes the USPHS Commissioned Corps plays a role in ensuring that dining facilities in U.S. public schools, the military and the federal prison system provide healthy choices. Christine said the corps also has a place in determining that the Defense Commissary Agency’s stock also “reflects health foods and healthy choices.”

For now, the Commissioned Corps, he said, will lead by example.

“I think evangelizing to the members of men and women in uniform, like we’re doing with this format — to take these things seriously, to get out there, to get your exercise, eat the right diet, take your health seriously, hormonal health and otherwise — that’s part of the pathway forward,” Christine said.

The U.S. has six branches of the armed forces — the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force and Coast Guard — and two additional uniformed services, the USPHS Commissioned Corps and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps.

The latter is the smallest, with roughly 330 officers.

Both the USPHS and NOAA Commissioned Corps wear work uniforms similar to the Coast Guard operational dress uniform and service dress blues and dress uniforms that resemble Navy uniforms with insignia specialized for each service.

During his ceremonial swearing-in, Christine encouraged members to wear their uniforms at all opportunities.

“When someone says ‘Thank you for your service, use that time to explain who you are, what you are, and what public health officers do to keep America healthy,” Christine said. “Be seen, evangelize. Prove to Americans that when they see our uniforms, they see compassion, they see love, they see excellent service.”