PHS Proud Blog

Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) are one the 11 professional categories of U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps officers and are estimated to make up about 6.4% of active duty officers. Despite their relatively small numbers, EHOs play a critical role in: Environmental compliance and sustainability Industrial hygiene and occupational safety Emergency response and hazardous waste operations Food safety, infection control, and health physics Counterterrorism and biomedical research support They serve in agencies like the CDC, EPA, FDA, and IHS, often leading field investigations and deploying during public health emergencies In the earliest decades of the USPHS, long before the...

A brief history of U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps ranks

The USPHS Commissioned Corps is not a military service but service in the Corps is deemed military service.

This USPHS lapel pin is more than just a pin. USPHS Commissioned Corps officers --active, retired, or separated-- can wear this at formal events, and people WILL ask what it represents. This PHS lapel pin comes with the anchor and caduceus in the middle as the main symbol of the Corps. "USPHS Commissioned Corps" lettering is on the top hemisphere and "In Officio Salutis" on the bottom (the PHS service motto).Represent your service and be a proud USPHS veteran at formal events with this USPHS lapel pin!

On July 1st, 1946, what is now known as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officially opened in Atlanta, GA. What many may not know is that the CDC was started by medical officers of one of our country's uniformed services: the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (USPHS). It was birthed from WWII and is considered by some to be the largest institutional legacy from the war.The CDC's original name in 1946 was the "Communicable Disease Center;" however, much before that the CDC was spawned from something called the Malaria Control in War Areas (MCWA) program administered...