USU Alumnus Rear Admiral Darin Via Named Navy Deputy Surgeon General

By Sharon Holland

Rear Adm. Darin K. Via has become the Navy’s second highest medical leader following his selection as its new Deputy Surgeon General.  The Secretary of the Navy and Chief of Naval Operations made the announcement on June 1, 2022.

Rear Adm. (Dr.) Darin K. Via passes through sideboys
during a change of command ceremony for Naval
Medical Forces Atlantic, held at Naval Medical Center
Portsmouth on Jun. 22. Via served two years as the
director of both the Tidewater Market (Defense 
Health Agency) and Naval Medical Forces Atlantic
before his selection as the Navy Deputy Surgeon
General. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication
Specialist 2nd Class Donald R. White Jr.)

Via, who was most recently the commander of the Naval Medical Forces Atlantic and director of the Navy’s Tidewater-area medical market, is also dual-hatted as deputy chief of the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) and director of the Medical Resources, Plans and Policy Division, in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations in Washington, D.C.

Via is a former Navy Reserve enlisted hospital corpsman. He entered active duty in 1987 upon acceptance to medical school at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), where he was commissioned as an ensign. After graduating in 1991 with his Doctor of Medicine degree, he completed his anesthesiology residency training at the former National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, followed by a trauma anesthesia fellowship at the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, University of Maryland, in Baltimore. He later earned a Master of Health Care Delivery Science degree from Dartmouth College, N.H.,  in 2014. In addition, Via is qualified as a Naval Undersea And Diving Medical Officer, and holds a faculty appointment as a clinical professor of Anesthesiology at USU. 

Rear Adm. Via has been deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan.  He also served as the command surgeon for the U.S. Pacific Fleet and was the first Navy medical officer to serve as U.S. Central Command Surgeon. In 2020, he was promoted to Rear Admiral, and served as deputy chief of BUMED for Operations, Plans and Readiness. He was the first medical flag officer appointed to establish the Chief of Naval Operations’ Office of Medical Systems Integration and Combat Survivability (N44), the single resource sponsor for expeditionary medical capabilities. 

Via’s selection solidifies USU’s presence in all but two of the top nine military medical leadership positions. Rear Adm. (Dr.) Bruce Gillingham (‘86) is the Navy Surgeon General, Maj. Gen. (Dr.) Telita Crosland (‘93) is the Deputy Army Surgeon General, and Maj. Gen. (Dr.) John J. DeGoes (‘89), and Lt. Gen. (Dr.) Robert Miller (‘89) are the Air Force Deputy Surgeon General and Surgeon General, respectively.  In addition, the current Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Surgeon, Air Force Maj. Gen. (Dr.) Paul Friedrichs (‘90), is a USU alumnus, leaving only the Army Surgeon General and Director, Defense Health Agency, as the top Military Health System leadership not filled by graduates of USU.  

“I am humbled and honored to support the Surgeon General in executing our One Navy Medicine mission of projecting medical power in support of naval superiority,” said Via. “We also maintain the responsibility of working with the Defense Health Agency to enable optimal force generation of medically ready and ready medical forces.”

Via began his new role as Deputy Surgeon General on June 30, 2022.  He succeeds Rear Adm. Gayle Shaffer, who retired on July 8, 2022.  

USU School of Medicine graduates now comprise 5 of the 6 Service Surgeons General and Deputy Surgeons General positions with the selection of Class of 1991
alumnus, Rear Adm. (Dr.) Darin K. Via, as the new Navy Deputy Surgeon General. (Photo by Max Lonzanida)