A change of command Wednesday at Leighton Barracks in Würzburg, Germany, reflects a fundamental restructuring of the Würzburg Army Hospital. From left are Dr. (Brig. Gen.) Carla G. Hawley-Boland, commander, Europe Regional Medical Command and U.S. Army Europe surgeon general; Dr. (Col.) Steven W. Swann, commander of the 30th Medical Brigade; Dr. (Col.) Patricia K. Lillis-Hearne, outgoing commander of the 67th Combat Support Hospital; Col. Mark H. Bither, incoming commander of the 67th CSH; and Dr. Col. Dallas W. Homas, incoming commander of the U.S. Army Medical Department Activity (MEDAC) Würzburg. (Amy Stover / Courtesy of U.S. Army)
A change of command Wednesday at Leighton Barracks in Würzburg, Germany, reflects a fundamental restructuring of the Würzburg Army Hospital. From left are Dr. (Brig. Gen.) Carla G. Hawley-Boland, commander, Europe Regional Medical Command and U.S. Army Europe surgeon general; Dr. (Col.) Steven W. Swann, commander of the 30th Medical Brigade; Dr. (Col.) Patricia K. Lillis-Hearne, outgoing commander of the 67th Combat Support Hospital; Col. Mark H. Bither, incoming commander of the 67th CSH; and Dr. Col. Dallas W. Homas, incoming commander of the U.S. Army Medical Department Activity (MEDAC) Würzburg. (Amy Stover / Courtesy of U.S. Army)
Dr. (Col.) Dallas W. Homas assumes command of the U.S. Army Medical Department Activity (MEDAC) Würzburg, Germany, accepting the guidon from Dr. (Brig. Gen.) Carla G. Hawley-Boland, commander, Europe Regional Medical Command and U.S. Army Europe surgeon general. (Amy Stover / Courtesy of U.S. Army)
WüRZBURG, Germany — Dr. (Col.) Patricia Lillis-Hearne turned over her twin Würzburg-based Army medical commands to two new commanders at Leighton Barracks on Wednesday in a fundamental restructuring of the Würzburg Army Hospital.
Col. Mark Bither took charge of the 67th Combat Support Hospital, a mobile hospital command that spent 2004 deployed to Iraq. Dr. (Col.) Dallas Homas assumed command of the U.S. Army Medical Department Activity (MEDAC) Würzburg, the garrison hospital that cares for soldiers and their families at home in Germany.
Amy Stover, a hospital spokeswoman, said the 67th CSH — uniquely in the Army — is an embedded part of the MEDAC, one group of soldiers carrying out separate combat and garrison missions.
“At times, those [missions] seemed to be in conflict,” Stover said. “This allows each of the commanders to focus on one mission.”
Bither is a registered nurse. He has served around the world, most recently as chief nurse at the Keller Army Community Hospital at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
Homas, of Lorain, Ohio, graduated from West Point in 1983, and was commissioned into the field artillery. He attended medical school in Bethesda, Md., and completed postgraduate training in general surgery, plastic and reconstructive surgery and surgery of the hand. His last command was as division surgeon with the Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division, which deployed to Afghanistan.
Lillis-Hearne received her undergraduate and medical training in South Carolina through the Army Health Professions Scholarship Program. An oncologist and internal medicine specialist, she was deputy commander of ERMC in Heidelberg, Germany, before taking over the dual command two years ago. Her next assignment is to the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.
