[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 119 (Tuesday, July 23, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5179-S5180]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO PATRICK FITZPATRICK

 Mr. TESTER. Madam President, today I would like to honor the 
career and service of a distinguished Montanan and U.S. Navy veteran, 
Captain Patrick J. Fitzpatrick.
  Captain Fitzpatrick has faithfully served our country in the Navy for 
33 years, including serving 25 of those years on Active Duty. And after 
three deployments, two tours overseas, and being stationed across 
multiple States, Captain Fitzpatrick is retiring from military service 
and finally returning home to Montana.
  A native son of the Treasure State, Captain Fitzpatrick was raised in 
Missoula. He is the second generation of a three-generation Navy family 
and worked as a cabinet installer in western Montana before answering 
the call to duty and enlisting as a SEABEE in the Naval Reserve in 
1992. Not long after, he was commissioned as a Reserve nurse corps 
officer in 1998 and soon transferred to Active Duty in 2000.
  Captain Fitzpatrick began his Active-Duty career serving as an 
emergency/trauma registered nurse at Naval Hospital Bremerton in 
Washington State. From there, he went on to serve at the U.S. Naval 
Hospital in Naples, Italy, before attending the University of Texas 
Health Science Center in Houston. He then served as an emergency 
clinical nurse specialist and emergency nurse practitioner at the Naval 
Hospital in Jacksonville, FL, where he was instrumental in helping 
implement their flu clinic during the 2009 flu pandemic.
  After Jacksonville, Captain Fitzpatrick was deployed to the Joint 
Forces Role-III hospital at Bastion in Helmand, Afghanistan, where he 
served as a trauma coordinator for the Joint Theater Trauma System and 
participated in wartime trauma research. He was then transferred to 
U.S. Naval Hospital in Guam to serve as the command's transition 
coordinator. There, he oversaw the final design and outfitting of a 
multimillion-dollar state-of-the-art replacement hospital, all while 
ensuring hospital services did not lapse.
  Captain Fitzpatrick deployed once again as a surgical care 
coordinator to the USNS Comfort as part of Continuing Promises 2015, a 
humanitarian mission to 11 countries in South and Central America. When 
he returned home, he then served as the associate director of medical 
services at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth Virginia before becoming 
the executive officer of Naval Health Clinic Cherry Point, NC. In 
August 2021, he returned to the place his Active-Duty career began, 
Navy Hospital Bremerton, to serve as the commanding officer and 
director of the Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command and 
hospital.
  In recognition of his incredible service and career, Captain 
Fitzpatrick has received the Meritorious Service Medal, the Navy 
Commendation Medal,

[[Page S5180]]

the Joint Service Achievement Medal, and the Navy Achievement Medal.
  It is my honor to commemorate Captain Fitzpatrick's incredible 
service to our country. Patrick, on behalf of myself and a grateful 
nation, I thank you and extend our deepest appreciation to you and your 
family for your enduring service and sacrifices. Your exemplary service 
in the Navy is what makes our country the greatest in the world and 
Montana the Last Best Place. You are a true patriot, and after 33 years 
of service, Montana is proud to welcome you and your family back home 
to the Treasure State.

                          ____________________