MCAS Cherry Point  –   “If the Doctor is bored, then we are doing our job because no one is getting sick,” is the motto Chief Petty Officer Casey Clark lives by.

Clark, the Leading Chief Petty Officer of Naval Health Clinic Cherry Point’s Directorate of Public Health Services and a native of Odessa, Texas, is a member of a team whose mission is the health and wellness of those who live and work aboard Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point.

The clinic’s Preventive Medicine Department safeguards MCAS Cherry Point’s community through environmental health inspections, disease intervention, entomology, food safety inspections and heat stress monitoring. 

“Service in the Preventive Medicine Department contributes to MCAS Cherry Point’s larger mission by identifying and mitigating potential risks to prevent health hazards such as food and water borne illnesses,” said Hospital Corpsman Nikki Brown Wolff, a native of Las Vegas, Nevada.

The clinic’s Preventive Medicine team ensures facilities and vendors on base adhere to public health standards while identifying potential problems.  Each week in the summer sees them monitoring mosquito populations in housing and camping areas, conducting food inspections on base restaurants and conducting sanitary checks on child development centers.

Preventive Medicine identifies and addresses issues affecting the health of Marines, Sailors, their families and civilians on base, said Navy Lieutenant Lauren Brown, the Department’s officer-in-charge and a native of Pleasonton, California.   We monitor for disease outbreaks and environmental hazards before they happen and communicate our findings to base and local officials to assist in their efforts, she continued.

In the first week of June, the team conducted inspections at the base pools, food inspections at four restaurants, and checks at two child development centers.  They will remain busy throughout the summer to ensure the MCAS Cherry Point community remains health and mission-ready.

“We proactively keep the warfighter in the fight,” said Brown.