Surgeon General of the United States
Seal of the United States Public Health Service
Flag of the United States surgeon general
Incumbent Vacant
U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps
Style	Surgeon General Vice Admiral
Abbreviation	SG VADM
Reports to	Assistant Secretary for Health
Seat	Hubert H. Humphrey Building,United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS),Washington, D.C.
Appointer	President of the United States withUnited States Senateadvice and consent
Term length	4 years
Constituting instrument	42 U.S.C. § 205 and 42 U.S.C. § 207
Formation	March 29, 1871
First holder	John M. Woodworth (as supervising surgeon)
Deputy	Deputy Surgeon General
Website	www.SurgeonGeneral.gov

Thesurgeon general of the United States is the operational head of theUnited States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (PHSCC) and thus the leading spokesperson on matters ofpublic health in thefederal government of the United States. The surgeon general's office and staff are known as theOffice of the Surgeon General (OSG), which is housed within theOffice of the Assistant Secretary for Health.^[1]

The U.S. surgeon general is nominated by thepresident of the United States andconfirmed by theSenate. The surgeon general must be appointed from individuals who are members of theregular corps of theU.S. Public Health Service and have specialized training or significant experience in public health programs.^[2] However, there is no time requirement for membership in the Public Health Service before holding the office of the Surgeon General, and nominees traditionally were appointed as members of the Public Health Service and as surgeon general at the same time. The surgeon general serves a four-year term of office and, depending on whether the currentassistant secretary for health is acommissioned corps officer, is either the senior or next-most senior uniformed officer of the commissioned corps,holding the rank ofvice admiral.^[3][4]

The surgeon general reports to theassistant secretary for health (ASH). The ASH may be afour-staradmiral in the commissioned corps, and serves as the principal advisor to thesecretary of health and human services on public health andscientific issues. Thesurgeon general is the overall head of the commissioned corps, a 6,500-member cadre of uniformedhealth professionals who are on call 24 hours a day and can be dispatched by the secretary of HHS or by the assistant secretary for health in the event of a public health emergency.^{[citation needed]}

The surgeon general is also the ultimate award authority for several public health awards and decorations, the highest of which that can be directly awarded is theSurgeon General's Medallion (the highest award bestowed by board action is thePublic Health Service Distinguished Service Medal). The surgeon general also has many informal duties, such as educating the American public about health issues and advocating healthy lifestyle choices.^{[citation needed]}

The office also periodically issues health warnings. Perhaps the best known example of this is thesurgeon general's warning label that has been present on all packages of American tobacco cigarettes since 1966.^[5] A similar health warning has appeared onalcoholic beverages labels since 1988.^[6]

In 1798, Congress established the Marine Hospital Fund, a network of hospitals that cared for sick and disabled seamen. The Marine Hospital Fund was reorganized along military lines in 1870 and became theMarine Hospital Service—the predecessor to today'sUnited States Public Health Service. The service became a separate bureau of the Treasury Department with its own staff, administration, headquarters in Washington, D.C., and the position of supervising surgeon, later surgeon general.^{[citation needed]}

After 141 years under the Treasury Department, the Service came under the Federal Security Agency in 1939, then the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) in 1953, and finally theUnited States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).^{[citation needed]}

Prior to 1970, the surgeon general was traditionally selected from career uniformed officers.^[7] Today, the surgeon general is usually selected from the civilian community, who aligns more closely with the president's political party.^[7] The office is not a particularly powerful one, and has little direct statutory impact on policy-making, but surgeons general are often vocal advocates of precedent-setting, far-sighted, unconventional, or even unpopular health policies.

• On January 11, 1964,Luther Terry published a landmarkreport saying that smoking may be hazardous to health,^[8] sparking nationwide anti-smoking efforts. Terry and his committee defined cigarette smoking of nicotine asnot anaddiction. The committee itself consisted largely of physicians who themselves smoked. This report went uncorrected for 24 years.^[9]
• In 1986,C. Everett Koop's report on AIDS called for some form of AIDS education in the early grades of elementary school, and gave full support for using condoms for disease prevention.^[10] He also resisted pressure from theReagan administration to report thatabortion was psychologically harmful to women, stating he believed it was a moral issue rather than one concerning the public health.
• In 1994,Joycelyn Elders spoke at a United Nations conference on AIDS. She was asked whether it would be appropriate to promote masturbation as a means of preventing young people from engaging in riskier forms of sexual activity. She replied, "I think that it is part of human sexuality, and perhaps it should be taught."^[11] Elders also spoke in favor of studying drug legalization. In a reference to the nationalabortion issue, she said, "We really need to get over this love affair with the fetus and start worrying about children."^[12] She was fired by PresidentBill Clinton in December 1994.

The U.S.Army,Navy, andAir Force also have officers overseeing medical matters in their respective services who hold the titleSurgeon General, of their respective services, while the surgeon general of the United States is surgeon general of the entire nation.^{[citation needed]}

The insignia of the surgeon general, and the USPHS, use thecaduceus as opposed to theRod of Asclepius.^{[citation needed]}

The surgeon general is acommissioned officer in theU.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, one of the eightuniformed services of the United States, and by law holds the rank ofvice admiral.^[3] Officers of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps are classified as non-combatants, but can be subjected to theUniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and theGeneva Conventions when designated by thecommander-in-chief as a military force or if they are detailed or assigned to work with thearmed forces. Officers of the commissioned corps, including the surgeon general, wear uniforms that are modeled after uniforms of theUnited States Navy and theUnited States Coast Guard, except that the commissioning devices, buttons, and insignia are unique. Officers in the U.S. Public Health Service wear unique devices that are similar to U.S. Navy staff corps officers (e.g.,Navy Medical Service Corps,Supply Corps, etc.).

The only surgeon general to actually hold the rank of a four-staradmiral wasDavid Satcher (born 1941, served 1998–2002). This was because he served simultaneously in the positions of surgeon general (three-star) andassistant secretary for health (which is a four-star office).^[13]John Maynard Woodworth (1837–1879, served 1871–1879), was the first holder of the office as "supervising surgeon."

• Insignia
• 
  US Public Health Service Collar Device
• 
  US Public Health Service Cap Device
• 
  The stars, shoulder boards, and sleeve stripes of the surgeon general

No.	Portrait	Name (Birth–Death)	Term of office			Appointed by (term)	Ref.
			Took office	Left office	Time in office
1		John M. Woodworth (1837–1879)	March 29, 1871	March 14, 1879	7 years, 350 days	Ulysses S. Grant (1869–1877)	[14]
2		Commodore John B. Hamilton (1847–1898)	April 3, 1879	June 1, 1891	12 years, 59 days	Rutherford B. Hayes (1877–1881)	[15][16]
3		Commodore Walter Wyman (1848–1911)	June 1, 1891	November 21, 1911	20 years, 173 days	Benjamin Harrison (1889–1893)	[16][17]
4		Commodore Rupert Blue (1868–1948)	January 13, 1912	March 3, 1920	8 years, 50 days	William Howard Taft (1909–1913)	[18]
5		Rear Admiral Hugh S. Cumming (1869–1948)	March 3, 1920	January 31, 1936	15 years, 334 days	Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921)	[19]
6		Rear Admiral Thomas Parran Jr. (1892–1968)	April 6, 1936	April 6, 1948	12 years, 0 days	Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945)	[20]
7		Rear Admiral Leonard A. Scheele (1907–1993)	April 6, 1948	August 8, 1956	8 years, 124 days	Harry S. Truman (1945–1953)	[21]
8		Rear Admiral Leroy E. Burney (1906–1998)	August 8, 1956	January 29, 1961	4 years, 174 days	Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961)	[22]
9		Luther Terry (1911–1985)	March 2, 1961	October 1, 1965	4 years, 213 days	John F. Kennedy (1961–1963)
10		William H. Stewart (1921–2008)	October 1, 1965	August 1, 1969	3 years, 304 days	Lyndon B. Johnson (1963–1969)	[23][24]
–		Rear Admiral Richard A. Prindle (c. 1926–2001) Acting	August 1, 1969	December 18, 1969	139 days	Richard Nixon (1969–1974)	[25][26]
11		Jesse L. Steinfeld (1927–2014)	December 18, 1969	January 30, 1973	3 years, 43 days		[27][28]
–		Rear Admiral S. Paul Ehrlich Jr. (1932–2005) Acting	January 31, 1973	July 13, 1977	4 years, 163 days		[29]
12		Vice Admiral Julius B. Richmond (1916–2008)	July 13, 1977	January 20, 1981	3 years, 191 days	Jimmy Carter (1977–1981)	[30]
–		Rear Admiral John C. Greene (1936–2016) Acting	January 21, 1981	May 14, 1981	113 days	Ronald Reagan (1981–1989)
–		Edward Brandt Jr. (1933–2007) Acting	May 14, 1981	January 21, 1982	252 days
13		Vice Admiral C. Everett Koop (1916–2013)	January 21, 1982	October 1, 1989	7 years, 253 days		[31][32]
–		Admiral James O. Mason (1930–2019) Acting	October 1, 1989	March 9, 1990	159 days	George H. W. Bush (1989–1993)
14		Vice Admiral Antonia Novello (born 1944)	March 9, 1990	June 30, 1993	3 years, 113 days		[33]
–		Rear Admiral Robert A. Whitney (born 1935) Acting	July 1, 1993	September 8, 1993	69 days	Bill Clinton (1993–2001)
15		Vice Admiral Joycelyn Elders (born 1933)	September 8, 1993	December 31, 1994	1 year, 114 days		[34][35]
–		Rear Admiral Audrey F. Manley (born 1934) Acting	January 1, 1995	July 1, 1997	2 years, 180 days
–		Rear Admiral J. Jarrett Clinton (1938–2023) Acting	July 2, 1997	February 12, 1998	226 days
16		Admiral[a] David Satcher (born 1941)	February 13, 1998	February 12, 2002	3 years, 364 days		[13][36][37]
–		Rear Admiral Kenneth P. Moritsugu (born 1945) Acting	February 13, 2002	August 4, 2002	172 days	George W. Bush (2001–2009)	[38]
17		Vice Admiral Richard Carmona (born 1949)	August 5, 2002	July 31, 2006	3 years, 360 days		[39][40]
–		Rear Admiral Kenneth P. Moritsugu (born 1945) Acting	August 1, 2006	September 30, 2007	1 year, 60 days		[38]
–		Rear Admiral Steven K. Galson (born 1956) Acting	October 1, 2007	October 1, 2009	2 years, 0 days		[41]
–		Rear Admiral Donald L. Weaver Acting	October 1, 2009	November 3, 2009	33 days	Barack Obama (2009–2017)	[42]
18		Vice Admiral Regina Benjamin (born 1956)	November 3, 2009	July 16, 2013	3 years, 255 days		[43][42][44][45]
–		Rear Admiral Boris Lushniak Acting	July 17, 2013	December 18, 2014	1 year, 154 days		[46]
19		Vice Admiral Vivek Murthy (born 1977)	April 22, 2015	April 21, 2017	1 year, 364 days		[47][48]
–		Rear Admiral Sylvia Trent-Adams (born 1965) Acting	April 21, 2017	September 5, 2017	137 days	Donald Trump (2017–2021)	[49]
20		Vice Admiral Jerome Adams (born 1974)	September 5, 2017	January 20, 2021	3 years, 137 days		[50][51]
–		Rear Admiral Susan Orsega Acting	January 20, 2021	March 24, 2021	62 days	Joe Biden (2021–2025)	[52]
21		Vice Admiral Vivek Murthy (born 1977)	March 25, 2021	January 20, 2025	3 years, 301 days		[53][54]
–		Rear Admiral Denise Hinton Acting	January 20, 2025	September 29, 2025	252 days	Donald Trump (2025)	[55]

• Chief Medical Officer (Ireland)
• Chief Medical Officer (United Kingdom)
• Chief Public Health Officer of Canada
• Medical Officer of Health
• Surgeon General
• Surgeon General of the United States Air Force
• Surgeon General of the United States Army
• Surgeon General of the United States Navy

• Official website of the U.S. Surgeon General
  • Previous Surgeons General
• Reports of the Surgeon General from theNational Library of Medicine's "Profiles in Science"

• Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health
• Surgeons general of the United States
• United States Department of Health and Human Services officials
• United States Public Health Service
• United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps
• United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps admirals

• Webarchive template wayback links
• All articles with dead external links
• Articles with dead external links from May 2025
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from May 2025
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from February 2025