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Dr. Donald J. Palmisano of New Orleans, LA, has accepted an invitation
from Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen to participate in the
Defense Department's Joint Civilian Orientation Conference (JCOC
63). The program, which will be held April 29 - May 7, 2000, will
give participants an opportunity to learn first-hand about U.S.
military personnel, their equipment and capabilities, and national
defense strategies.
As a JCOC participant, Dr. Palmisano will visit military bases
of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. Very
few people, even those employed by the Department of Defense, get
the opportunity to interact with such an encompassing cross-section
of military leaders and personnel of all ranks. Participants will
fly on military aircraft; fire weapons; experience aircraft carrier
landings and launches; observe amphibious landings, urban area combat
techniques, special operations assaults, and other warfare demonstrations.
The program begins in Washington, D.C., where Dr. Palmisano will
meet and be briefed by Defense Department leaders including Defense
Secretary William Cohen, Deputy Defense Secretary Rudy De Leon,
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Hugh Shelton, and other senior
military and civilian officials. The attendees then spend the next
week in the field, visiting military installations representing
all branches of the Armed Forces.
After the Washington, D.C., orientation, the group will travel
by military aircraft to the 50th Space Wing in Colorado to observe
satellite operations. Then they will take off for Mountain Home
AFB, ID, where they will observe an air expeditionary force in the
field. Next they will interact with the soldiers of the Army's XVIII
Airborne Corps and special operations forces at Fort Bragg, NC.
From there they travel to Camp Lejeune, NC, for a Marine Corps
capabilities exercise to experience the combat power of a Marine
Air-Ground Task Force. The group will then travel to the U.S. Coast
Guard Training Center in Yorktown, VA, to observe Coast Guard operations
involving cutters, patrol boats and helicopters. The group will
make a final stop at the naval facilities in Norfolk, VA, where
they will fly out to an aircraft carrier, visit other Navy ships
and submarines, and view Navy special forces capabilities. The JCOC
63 program concludes in Norfolk, Virginia on Sunday, May 7.
This conference was initiated in 1948 and is the Secretary of Defense's
premier civic leader program. Sixty U.S. citizens are selected from
hundreds of candidates nominated by military commands worldwide.
The selection process is highly competitive.
Dr. Palmisano is a member of the Louisiana State Medical Society
(LSMS), the Orleans Parish Medical Society and the American Medical
Association (AMA). He currently serves as a member of the Board
of Trustees of the AMA, and is a past president of the LSMS.
For more information on the JCOC program, contact Mary Elizabeth
Humphrey, Program Manager, JCOC, at phone: (703) 614-654 or fax
(703) 697-2577.
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