Joining the brotherhood

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HURON – As he embarks on the most challenging assignment of his military career so far, Michael Place will have the new rank of brigadier general in Honolulu, where he will help command the largest Army health care provider in the Pacific Northwest.
Throughout his years in the Army – a path he hadn’t initially planned to follow – Place has never forgotten the firm foundation he was provided while growing up in Huron.
It was where he said he and his brothers learned the value of hard work and the importance of community, a place where they developed respect for the institutions of government.
“We were also the beneficiaries of a top quality public education that set us up well for our future academic endeavors,” Place said.
“Perhaps as important as all of that, we were given the opportunity to safely explore the world,” he said. “Huron was certainly a wonderful place to grow up.”
Exploring the world is something he has done since his Army career took off after he finished his university years.
Place graduated from Huron High School in 1983. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from The Johns Hopkins University in 1987. He graduated from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences four years later.
“I joined ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) to help pay for college,” he said. “That incurred a four-year service obligation.

“While at Hopkins, one of my friends applied to and was accepted at USUHS. I visited and fell in love with it. I was thrilled to be accepted and began my active duty time then,” he said.
He was paid as a lieutenant to attend medical school. “A  great deal!” he said. “I initially intended to pay back my four years of college and then get out of the service, but have always found staying in to be a better option for me and my family.”
Earlier this month, his latest advancement in the Army came when he was promoted from colonel to brigadier general in a ceremony at Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash. Place had led Madigan – a Level II trauma center that provides care to civilian trauma victims in concert with other Tacoma-area hospitals – since July 2015.
A unique part of the ceremony included a civilian formation of hospital employees. About 60 percent of the more than 5,200 Madigan staff are civilians. Their presence represented the powerful civilian-military team at Madigan.
The ceremony was hosted by Place’s brother, Maj. Gen. Ronald Place, the director of the National Capital Medical Directive in Washington, D.C.
Michael Place and his family are now departing for Honolulu, where he will assume the duties as the deputy commanding general for Regional Health Command – Pacific.
In his new role in Hawaii, Place will help the commanding general oversee all Army medical care provided in the Indo-Pacific Theater, roughly half of the world’s surface.
“From Korea and Japan to Alaska, Hawaii to the west coast of the U.S., we supervise hospitals and deployable medical units,” he said.
“I will be directly responsible for what is referred to as the multi-service market  in Hawaii, including all of the clinics and hospitals of all services – Army, Navy and Air Force – on the Hawaiian islands,” Place said.
Asked what have been career highlights while serving his country, he said it was when he was with the 75th Ranger Regiment and the 101st Airborne Division as the regimental and division surgeon.
“I deployed to Haiti with the Rangers and to Iraq with the 101st at the very beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom,” Place said.
“Although I was working as a physician, I served with some of the Army’s best infantry soldiers in each unit,” he said. “I am most proud of deploying to Afghanistan as the commander of the 10th Combat Support Hospital in 2011-2012, where we provided medical support to over half of the country and achieved a survival rate of over 98 percent, the highest in the history of war even though we saw the most severe wounds yet measured.”

Photos by John W. Liston/Madigan Army Medical Center
Brig. Gen. Michael L. Place receives his first general officer stars, which are being pinned on by his parents Robert and Carol, during ceremonies earlier this month. Brig. Gen. Michael L. Place is congratulated by his family at the conclusion of his one-star pinning ceremony. From the left are Place’s spouse Jackie, sons Sean and Jake, his parents Robert and Carol and his brother, Ron.