Nicknamed the “Desert Medics” for their pioneering work in developing techniques to provide medical care under primitive conditions during the invasion of North Africa in World War II, the 3rd Medical Command (Deployment Support) was originally designated the 3rd Auxiliary Surgical Group. Before the Second World War ended, the group participated in a total of seven official campaigns. For a two-month span (August 1 – October 6, 1945) the unit was designated the 896th Medical Professional Service before being inactivated; it would not again be active until 1990.
Today, the 3rd MCDS comprises nearly 6500 Soldiers serving in eighty-eight units in twenty-one states, with two direct reporting units in the Southeast (Tennessee, Mississippi) and three in the Northeast (New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania). It is headquartered at Forest Park, Georgia.
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3rd Medical Command Unit Crest (DUI)
3rd Medical Command Combat Service ID Badge (CSIB)