Captain Joel M. Schofer
Medical Corps, United States Navy
Director, U.S. Naval Hospital Guam
Capt. Joel Schofer, a native of Boyertown, Pa., received his bachelor's degree from Ursinus College. He was commissioned in 1997 and earned his medical degree from MCP Hahnemann School of Medicine in 2001. Schofer completed his emergency medicine residency as academic chief resident at Naval Medical Center San Diego in 2006 and a fellowship in emergency ultrasound at Christiana Care Health System in 2009. He received his executive master’s degree in business administration from the Naval Postgraduate School in 2014. Schofer is also a graduate of the Naval War College Fleet Seminar Program and the Joint and Combined Warfighting School at the Joint Forces Staff College, National Defense University.
Schofer has served in several operational roles. In 2002, he served as a general medical officer with the U.S. Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton, Calif., where he deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. In 2010, he deployed as an individual augmentee with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard the USS Pearl Harbor. From 2015 to 2016, Schofer served as commander of the Joint Medical Group and Joint Task Force surgeon at Guantanamo Bay. From 2018 to 2019, he served as executive officer of Expeditionary Medical Facility Juliet.
Schofer has also held several leadership positions at military treatment facilities. From 2006 to 2008, he served on the executive committee of the medical staff at U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa, Japan. From 2009 to 2014, he held several roles at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, including emergency ultrasound director, fast track director, emergency department senior medical officer, associate director of medical services, physician advisor for quality management, and chairman of the performance improvement committee. From 2016 to 2019, he served another tour at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, where he was acting chair of the emergency department and associate director and director of healthcare business.
Schofer has also served in several headquarters roles. In 2014-15, he served as a detailer at Navy Personnel Command, Millington, Tenn. In 2018, he completed a three-year tour as the emergency medicine specialty leader, overseeing one of the largest communities in the U.S. Navy’s Medical Corps, with more than 270 physicians working in 15 emergency departments across the Department of Defense. From 2015 to 2019, he served as the U.S. representative to the Committee of Chiefs of Military Medical Services NATO Expert Panel on Emergency Medicine. From 2019 to 2022, he served as deputy chief of the Navy’s Medical Corps at the U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, overseeing 4,300 active and reserve physicians. From 2022 until 2024, he served as deputy commander of Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command Portsmouth and deputy director of Naval Medical Center Portsmouth.
Schofer has served as the director of U.S. Naval Hospital Guam since June 2024.
He is board-certified in emergency medicine and is a certified physician executive. Schofer holds an academic appointment as an associate professor of military and emergency medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. He is a fellow in the American Academy of Emergency Medicine and the American Association for Physician Leadership.
His military decorations include a Legion of Merit, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, two Meritorious Service Medals, four Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals, a Fleet Marine Force Ribbon, and a Combat Action Ribbon.
Captain Jamie L. Fitch
Medical Corps, United States Navy
Deputy Director, U.S. Naval Hospital Guam
A native of Dyersburg, Tenn., Capt. Jamie Fitch earned a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and commissioned through the Health Professions Scholarship Program. After earning a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Tennessee in 2007, she completed general surgery internship at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth (NMCP), followed by Navy flight surgeon training at the Naval Aerospace Medicine Institute in Pensacola, Fla.
From 2009 to 2011, she served as the squadron flight surgeon for Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 162 (VMM-162) where she deployed in 2010 with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard USS Nassau (LHA 4) in support of contingency operations in the Horn of Africa and earthquake relief in Haiti.
After completing general surgery residency at NMCP (2011-2015), Fitch served aboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) as ship’s surgeon and deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. She then completed a fellowship in surgical critical care and was appointed as clinical instructor of surgery and surgical critical care at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas (2016-2018). In 2018, she returned to NMCP as a staff general and trauma/critical care surgeon, assumed the roles of assistant general surgery residency program director and assistant general surgery department head, and deployed aboard USNS Comfort (TAH 20) providing humanitarian assistance partnership development in Central and South America in support of Continuing Promise 2019.
In 2019, Fitch was hand-selected as deputy trauma director for the first US+UAE Trauma, Burn, and Rehabilitation Medicine team (TBRM), a strategic partnership between the U.S. government, the UAE Armed Forces, and the Mayo Clinic to develop an internationally verified level one trauma center to provide combat casualty care capability in the U.S. Central Command area of operations as well as an in-theater clinical currency platform for deployed surgical teams.
Fitch arrived at Naval Medical Center Camp Lejeune (NMCCL) in July 2021 to serve as the director for surgical services for both NMCCL and Expeditionary Medical Facility Kilo (EMF-K) and surgical market lead for the Defense Health Agency Coastal North Carolina Market. Promoted to captain in October 2023, she served as officer in charge for Navy Expeditionary Medical Unit 10G Rotation 16, deployed to Erbil Air Base, Iraq, from March to November 2024.
In June 2025, Fitch assumed her current role as executive officer of U.S. Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command Guam and deputy director of U.S. Naval Hospital Guam.
Board certified in both general surgery and surgical critical care, Fitch is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, an assistant professor of surgery at the Uniformed Services University, and a distinguished graduate of the Naval War College Joint Professional Military Education-1.
Her personal decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal (3), the Navy Commendation Medal (2), the Army Commendation Medal, the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, and the Army Achievement Medal as well as various unit and deployment awards. She is a designated Naval Flight Surgeon, Surface Warfare Medical Department Officer, and Fleet Marine Force Qualified Officer.
Command Master Chief Petty Officer (FMF/EXW) Anthony A. Royal
Command Master Chief
Command Master Chief Petty Officer Anthony Royal, a native of Birmingham, Ala., enlisted in the Navy on Nov. 22, 1988. He completed recruit training and Hospital Corps "A" School at Great Lakes, Ill.; Field Medical Service School at Camp Johnson, N.C.; Expeditionary Combat Skills training at Gulfport, Miss.; and Riverine Combat Skills training at Camp Lejeune, N.C. Royal also earned a Bachelor of Arts in business administration with a focus on health care management from Saint Leo University. He is a graduate of the Senior Enlisted Academy, Class 195, and the Command Master Chief and Chief of the Boat Course.
Royal served six years, 10 months, and 28 days on active duty during his first enlistment before transferring to the Navy Reserve, where he spent the next six years. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Royal accepted a reduction in rank of three pay grades to E-3, in order to return to active duty on Nov. 28, 2001.
Royal's duty assignments have included Naval Hospital Groton, Conn.; Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Officer Candidate School, Quantico, Va.; and 2nd Marine Division, Camp Lejeune, N.C., where he was assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, and deployed in support of Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1991. He also deployed with 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit during Operation Provide Comfort from 1991 to 1992.
Other assignments have included Naval Hospital Millington, Tenn.; 4th Marine Division, Memphis, Tenn., where he was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 23rd Marines; the U.S. Army Reserve’s 8th Brigade, 100th Division, Memphis, Tenn., where he served as a combat medic instructor; and 2nd Force Service Support Group, Camp Lejeune, N.C., where he deployed with Alpha Surgical Company in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and with an Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit to Al Anbar province, Ramadi, Iraq, in 2004.
Royal has also served at Headquarters Marine Corps Forces Command, Norfolk, Va.; Riverine Squadron One, Virginia Beach, Va., where he deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Red Dawn in 2010; 3rd Marine Division, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, where he was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, and deployed as part of the Unit Deployment Program in 2013 and 2014-2015; Naval Health Clinic Hawaii, where he served as director of public health and director for administration; and Expeditionary Medical Facility, Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, Africa, where he served as senior enlisted advisor during an overseas assignment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom-Djibouti from 2018 to 2019. Royal served as senior enlisted leader for the Directorate for Clinical Support at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Md. He reported to U.S. Naval Support Facility, Diego Garcia, on July 7, 2022, as the installation command master chief.
On Sept. 6, 2023, Royal reported to U.S. Naval Hospital Guam to serve as the Command Master Chief.
Royal's personal awards and decorations include the Joint Service Commendation Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, Joint Service Achievement Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with Combat "V," and the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, as well as various unit and campaign awards. He is authorized to wear the Enlisted Fleet Marine Force Warfare Specialist and Enlisted Expeditionary Warfare Specialist insignia.