Naval Medical Center San Diego held a ceremony Friday to celebrate its 100th anniversary.
The facility opened on May 20, 1917 at Balboa Park to support the, then, newly commissioned Navy training camp.
In 1922, the Naval Hospital was established and then later expanded in 1988.
A state-of-the-art facility now sits at 1.2 million square feet in Balboa Park. It employs more than 6,500 military and civilan personnel, and has operating rooms, primary care and dental clinics, and recreational facilities.
“They have changed so much for the better. The technology that’s been introduced, the quality of the people— the training that they have, their ability to take care of complex cases is so much better," said Navy Medicine West and chief of the Navy Medical Corps, and retired Vice Adm. Harold M. Koenig.
Koenig also commanded Naval Hospital San Diego from 1985 to 1987.
