Naval Medical Center Portsmouth  –   Portsmouth, Va. (Sept. 23, 2024) Naval Medical Center Portsmouth (NMCP) staff hosted medical personnel from ships that are part of the Japanese Training Squadron’s Overseas Training Cruise, Sept. 23.
An orientation tour and briefs at various locations in the medical center were given to the Japanese medical sailors and officers from the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) JS Kashima and JS Shimakaze.

The two JMSDF training ships are participating in a global training cruise that began in April 2024. The ships have been making defense diplomacy stops during the global tour, including port visits in Timor, Colombo, Djibouti, Toulon, and the United Kingdom, prior to arriving at Naval Station Norfolk. Following their visit in the Tidewater area, the ships will be heading to and through the Panama Canal to the Pacific to make it back home to Japan by August 2024.

The medical crew members were welcomed to NMCP by Capt. Heather Shattuck, acting NMCP director/acting Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command (NMRTC) Portsmouth commander, in front of historic Bldg. 1, and group visited the medical center’s Healthcare Simulation and Bioskills Training Center (SIM Center), the Emergency Department, Surgical suites, and received briefs on telemedicine.

NMCP is a nationally acclaimed, state-of-the-art military treatment facility, and its Branch and TRICARE Prime Health Clinics in the Tidewater area provide medical care for warfighters, veterans, and their families. Additionally, the medical center is a premier readiness and training platform that provides superior medical training for military medical service members at the United States’ oldest, continuously operating military hospital. NMCP supports pioneering research and teaching programs to prepare new doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, and hospital corpsmen for combat operations and public health crises.