Cmdr. Karen Corson relieved Capt. Juliann Althoff as officer-in-charge of Navy and Environmental Preventive Medicine Unit (NEPMU) 7 at Naval Station Rota July 8.

The ceremony marked the first change of charge for NEPMU-7 since being recommissioned in 2014. NEPMU-7's last change of charge occurred in 2003, just three years before the unit was decommissioned in 2006.

Althoff led a team of three public health professionals to re-establish the unit at Naval Station Rota in the fall of 2013. Not having their own building, a unit identification code or even a pen to their name, the team began to build the unit from the ground up from a small office inside Naval Hospital Rota.

Althoff has been the driving force for re-establishing U.S. Navy public health in Europe, Africa, and the Mediterranean. With Althoff's firm grip on the helm, the NEPMU-7 team not only christened their own building in 2014 but grew to 15 active-duty and one civilian personnel.

The unit now supports over 67,000 Navy and joint expeditionary personnel across U.S. European Command (EUCOM) and U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), with a comprehensive and highly specialized product and service line.

Under Althoff's leadership over the last three years NEPMU-7 has made a large impact in their area of operations. The unit has supported nearly 1,300 requests for information and sent staff forward on 41 missions to 19 locations throughout 15 countries. NEPMU-7 has truly lived up to their unofficial motto "small but mighty."

"We really do our best to put ourselves in the customer's shoes, and as senior preventive medicine technicians we know how it feels having more questions than answers," said Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Jorge Castilleja, NEPMU-7 Operations leading petty officer. "We do everything in our power to get them answers, even if it means having to travel to the United Kingdom and back within 48 hours to inspect a ship."

Capt. Todd Wagner, Naval Hospital Rota executive officer and prospective commanding officer for the Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center (NMCPHC), NEPMU-7's parent command, presided over the ceremony.

"Navy Public Health, with the NEPMUs at the forefront, has established itself as a critical component to allow our direct fighting forces and the thousands of personnel that support those forces to safely and effectively meet their mission, and that's the mission of defending America's safety and freedom throughout the world whether at sea, ashore, in the air or under the sea," said Wagner. "The personnel of this unit have demonstrated their commitment to excellence and their eagerness to excel. This unit is certainly a strategic national asset that cannot be easily replicated or duplicated."

Wagner congratulated Althoff on leading her small staff in the re-establishment of this vital public health asset from pre-commissioning to final operational capability in less than 10 months. By the time the unit was recommissioned in June 2014 the unit had a staff of six personnel, but had doubled in size just in time to respond to the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the largest in recorded history.

"Together we are stronger than we are individually," said Althoff. "There was a synergy of efforts that has allowed so few to build and accomplish something so great. It is amazing what an impact this small unit has on three theaters and on the Navy Medicine Enterprise."

She expressed her gratitude for the team's hard work during her tenure.

"I am so proud of each and every one of you, and I am really proud to be your OIC; thank you for all your hard work and dedication," said Althoff. "I've asked a lot of you, and you have always delivered and then some. This unit and this team is an exceptional example of Navy at its finest -- an example of what a command can and should look like."

Althoff will report as the executive secretary for the Department of Health Affairs' Defense Health Board in Washington, D.C., where she will lead a working group providing independent recommendations on health matters relating to operational programs, health policy development, health research programs and requirements for the treatment and prevention of disease and injury, promotion of health and the delivery of health care to Department of Defense beneficiaries.

During the ceremony Althoff and Corson read the official orders and turned over command of NEPMU-7. In keeping with NEPMU-7 tradition that started with the recommissioning in 2014, Capt. Althoff was piped ashore and saluted by the side boys and Pako, the first military working dog to serve as an official side boy at Naval Station Rota.

For more information, visit www.navy.mil, www.facebook.com/usnavy, or www.twitter.com/usnavy.

For more news from Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center, visit http://www.navy.mil/.