| Post: | Surgeon General |
| Body: | the United States |
| Insignia: | United States Public Health Service (seal).svg |
| Insigniacaption: | Seal of the United States Public Health Service |
| Flag: | Flag of the United States Surgeon General v1.svg |
| Flagcaption: | Flag of the United States surgeon general |
| Incumbent: | Vice Admiral Vivek Murthy |
| Acting: | n |
| Incumbentsince: | March 25, 2021 |
| Department: | U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps |
| Style: | Surgeon General Vice Admiral |
| Abbreviation: | SG VADM |
| Reports To: | United States Assistant Secretary for Health |
| Seat: | Hubert H. Humphrey Building, United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Washington, D.C. |
| Appointer: | President of the United States |
| Appointer Qualified: | with United States Senate advice and consent |
| Termlength: | 4 years |
| Constituting Instrument: | and |
| Formation: | March 29, 1871 |
| First: | John M. Woodworth (as supervising surgeon) |
| Deputy: | Deputy Surgeon General |
The surgeon general of the United States is the operational head of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (PHSCC) and thus the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government of the United States. The surgeon general's office and staff are known as the Office of the Surgeon General (OSG), which is housed within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health.[1]
The U.S. surgeon general is nominated by the president of the United States and confirmed by the Senate. The surgeon general must be appointed from individuals who are members of the regular corps of the U.S. Public Health Service and have specialized training or significant experience in public health programs.[2] However, there is no time requirement for membership in the Public Health Service before holding the office of the Surgeon General, and nominees traditionally were appointed as members of the Public Health Service and as surgeon general at the same time. The surgeon general serves a four-year term of office and, depending on whether the current assistant secretary for health is a commissioned corps officer, is either the senior or next-most senior uniformed officer of the commissioned corps, holding the rank of vice admiral.[3] [4] The current surgeon general is Vice Admiral Vivek Murthy.
The surgeon general reports to the assistant secretary for health (ASH). The ASH may be a four-star admiral in the commissioned corps, and serves as the principal advisor to the secretary of health and human services on public health and scientific issues. The surgeon general is the overall head of the commissioned corps, a 6,500-member cadre of uniformed health professionals who are on call 24 hours a day and can be dispatched by the secretary of HHS or by the assistant secretary for health in the event of a public health emergency.
The surgeon general is also the ultimate award authority for several public health awards and decorations, the highest of which that can be directly awarded is the Surgeon General's Medallion (the highest award bestowed by board action is the Public Health Service Distinguished Service Medal). The surgeon general also has many informal duties, such as educating the American public about health issues and advocating healthy lifestyle choices.
The office also periodically issues health warnings. Perhaps the best known example of this is the surgeon general's warning label that has been present on all packages of American tobacco cigarettes since 1966.[5] A similar health warning has appeared on alcoholic beverages labels since 1988.[6]
In 1798, Congress established the Marine Hospital Fund, a network of hospitals that cared for sick and disabled seamen. The Marine Hospital Fund was reorganized along military lines in 1870 and became the Marine Hospital Service—the predecessor to today's United States Public Health Service. The service became a separate bureau of the Treasury Department with its own staff, administration, headquarters in Washington, D.C., and the position of supervising surgeon, later surgeon general.
After 141 years under the Treasury Department, the Service came under the Federal Security Agency in 1939, then the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) in 1953, and finally the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Prior to 1970, the surgeon general was traditionally selected from career uniformed officers.[7] Today, the surgeon general is usually selected from the civilian community, who aligns more closely with the president's political party. The office is not a particularly powerful one, and has little direct statutory impact on policy-making, but surgeons general are often vocal advocates of precedent-setting, far-sighted, unconventional, or even unpopular health policies.
The U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force also have officers overseeing medical matters in their respective services who hold the title Surgeon General, of their respective services, while the surgeon general of the United States is surgeon general of the entire country as a whole.
The insignia of the surgeon general, and the USPHS, use the caduceus as opposed to the Rod of Asclepius.
The surgeon general is a commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, one of the eight uniformed services of the United States, and by law holds the rank of vice admiral.[3] Officers of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps are classified as non-combatants, but can be subjected to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and the Geneva Conventions when designated by the commander-in-chief as a military force or if they are detailed or assigned to work with the armed forces. Officers of the commissioned corps, including the surgeon general, wear uniforms that are modeled after uniforms of the United States Navy and the United States Coast Guard, except that the commissioning devices, buttons, and insignia are unique. Officers in the U.S. Public Health Service wear unique devices that are similar to U.S. Navy staff corps officers (e.g., Navy Medical Service Corps, Supply Corps, etc.).
The only surgeon general to actually hold the rank of a four-star admiral was David Satcher (born 1941, served 1998–2002). This was because he served simultaneously in the positions of surgeon general (three-star) and assistant secretary for health (which is a four-star office).[13] John Maynard Woodworth (1837–1879, served 1871–1879), was the first holder of the office as "supervising surgeon."
| Portrait | Name | Term of office | Appointed by | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Took office | Left office | Time in office | |||||
| 1 | John M. Woodworth | March 29, 1871 | March 14, 1879 | Ulysses S. Grant | |||
| 2 | Commodore John B. Hamilton | April 3, 1879 | June 1, 1891 | Rutherford B. Hayes | |||
| 3 | Commodore Walter Wyman | June 1, 1891 | November 21, 1911 | Benjamin Harrison | |||
| 4 | Commodore Rupert Blue | January 13, 1912 | March 3, 1920 | William Howard Taft | |||
| 5 | Rear Admiral Hugh S. Cumming | March 3, 1920 | January 31, 1936 | Woodrow Wilson | |||
| 6 | Rear Admiral Thomas Parran Jr. | April 6, 1936 | April 6, 1948 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | |||
| 7 | Rear Admiral Leonard A. Scheele | April 6, 1948 | August 8, 1956 | Harry S. Truman | |||
| 8 | Rear Admiral Leroy E. Burney (1906–1998) | August 8, 1956 | January 29, 1961 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | |||
| 9 | Luther Terry | March 2, 1961 | October 1, 1965 | John F. Kennedy | |||
| 10 | William H. Stewart | October 1, 1965 | August 1, 1969 | Lyndon B. Johnson | |||
| – | Rear Admiral Richard A. Prindle | August 1, 1969 | December 18, 1969 | Richard Nixon | [14] [15] | ||
| 11 | Jesse L. Steinfeld | December 18, 1969 | January 30, 1973 | [16] [17] | |||
| – | Rear Admiral S. Paul Ehrlich Jr. | January 31, 1973 | July 13, 1977 | [18] | |||
| 12 | Vice Admiral Julius B. Richmond | July 13, 1977 | January 20, 1981 | Jimmy Carter | [19] | ||
| – | Rear Admiral John C. Greene | January 21, 1981 | May 14, 1981 | Ronald Reagan | |||
| – | Edward Brandt Jr. | May 14, 1981 | January 21, 1982 | ||||
| 13 | Vice Admiral C. Everett Koop | January 21, 1982 | October 1, 1989 | ||||
| – | Admiral James O. Mason | October 1, 1989 | March 9, 1990 | George H. W. Bush | |||
| 14 | Vice Admiral Antonia Novello | March 9, 1990 | June 30, 1993 | ||||
| – | Rear Admiral Robert A. Whitney | July 1, 1993 | September 8, 1993 | Bill Clinton | |||
| 15 | Vice Admiral Joycelyn Elders | September 8, 1993 | December 31, 1994 | ||||
| – | Rear Admiral Audrey F. Manley | January 1, 1995 | July 1, 1997 | ||||
| – | Rear Admiral J. Jarrett Clinton | July 2, 1997 | February 12, 1998 | ||||
| 16 | Admiral David Satcher | February 13, 1998 | February 12, 2002 | ||||
| – | Rear Admiral Kenneth P. Moritsugu | February 13, 2002 | August 4, 2002 | George W. Bush | |||
| 17 | Vice Admiral Richard Carmona | August 5, 2002 | July 31, 2006 | ||||
| – | Rear Admiral Kenneth P. Moritsugu | August 1, 2006 | September 30, 2007 | ||||
| – | Rear Admiral Steven K. Galson | October 1, 2007 | October 1, 2009 | ||||
| – | Rear Admiral Donald L. Weaver | October 1, 2009 | November 3, 2009 | Barack Obama | |||
| 18 | Vice Admiral Regina Benjamin | November 3, 2009 | July 16, 2013 | [20] [21] | |||
| – | Rear Admiral Boris Lushniak | July 17, 2013 | December 18, 2014 | ||||
| 19 | Vice Admiral Vivek Murthy | December 18, 2014 | April 21, 2017 | ||||
| – | Rear Admiral Sylvia Trent-Adams | April 21, 2017 | September 5, 2017 | Donald Trump | [22] | ||
| 20 | Vice Admiral Jerome Adams | September 5, 2017 | January 20, 2021 | ||||
| – | Rear Admiral Susan Orsega | January 20, 2021 | March 24, 2021 | 62 days | Joe Biden | [23] | |
| 21 | Vice Admiral Vivek Murthy | March 25, 2021 | Present | ||||