[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 710-711]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             TRIBUTE TO BRIGADIER GENERAL WILLIAM T. BESTER

 Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I would like to recognize a great 
American and a true military hero who has honorably served our country 
for 35 years in the Army and Army Nurse Corps: BG William T. Bester. 
Brigadier General Bester has had a long and distinguished military 
career, which he began as a staff nurse before obtaining advanced 
education as a nurse anesthetist. He served at various medical 
facilities including Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, WA, 
Okinawa, Japan and Fort Sill, OK. His tremendous leadership skills led 
to his selection as a nurse instructor at the Army Medical Department 
Academy of Health Sciences in San Antonio, TX, and as a nurse recruiter 
in Indiana. He also served as a personnel management officer at the 
Army personnel command in

[[Page 711]]

Alexandria, VA, and as deputy commander for nursing at the medical 
facility at Fort Ben Harrison, IN. Brigadier General Bester served with 
distinction in a series of assignments as deputy commander for nursing 
at the Medical Department Activity, MEDDAC, at Fort Leavenworth, KS, 
deputy commander for nursing for the Sixty-seventh Combat Support 
Hospital, Wuerzburg, Germany, commander for Medical Task Force 67 
assigned to provide comprehensive medical support to the National 
Support Element in Tazar, Hungary, during Operation Joint Endeavor, and 
finally commander, MEDDAC and director of health services, Fort 
Jackson, SC. In every assignment, Brigadier General Bester was 
recognized for his loyal, dedicated, and proactive leadership 
throughout the military community.
   In 2000, Brigadier General Bester was appointed the twenty-first 
chief of the Army Nurse Corps. As chief, Brigadier General Bester 
planned, implemented and monitored all policy and programs for 3,415 
Army nurses and over 13,000 reserve component nurses. He successfully 
implemented numerous recruiting and retention initiatives in his 
tireless pursuit to combat the impact of the nationwide nursing 
shortage on the nurse corps and the Army civilian nurse workforce. 
Brigadier General Bester was instrumental in obtaining congressional 
sanctioned direct hire authority for civilian registered nurses. This 
dramatically improved the fill rate of professional nurses in Army 
medical treatment facilities. With regard to recruiting Army nurses, 
Brigadier General Bester championed expansion of Reserve officer 
training corps nursing scholarships to almost 200 schools across the 
country and expanded the number of available slots for the Army 
Enlisted Commissioning Program for Nursing from 55 to 75. To meet the 
growing need for nurse educators and researchers, Brigadier General 
Bester and his Federal Nursing Service colleagues worked with the 
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and Congress to 
successfully establish a Ph.D. program in nursing science and a 
perioperative clinical nurse specialist program at the Graduate School 
of Nursing.
  As the Assistant Surgeon General for Force Projection and the Deputy 
Chief of Staff for Operations, Health Policy and Services, Brigadier 
General Bester shouldered the most complex policy and readiness issues. 
He consistently achieved positive results by fostering harmonious 
working relationships within the Pentagon and the Office of the Army 
Srugeon General. Brigadier General Bester was at the forefront of 
efforts to articulate the ``medical position'' to Army colleagues, 
Congress, TRICARE beneficiaries, and the sister services. He 
effectively oversaw and synchronized the conversion of the 91B and 91C 
Military Occupational Specialty into the 91W Future Medic--one of the 
most important and wide-ranging medical training initiatives of the 
past 20 years. Brigadier General Bester also championed the medical 
reengineering initiative changes to the medical force structure, 
quality management techniques for the Army Medical Department, improved 
civilian personnel hiring incentives, and improved Reserve component 
integration.
  As commander of the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and 
Preventive Medicine, Brigadier General Bester effectively guided the 
only worldwide, medically matrixed health promotion and preventive 
medicine organization within the Department of Defense. He accelerated 
a transformation that enhanced the center's relevance to the Army and 
its ability to deliver effective support across the operational 
spectrum in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on 
America. His emphasis on deployment occupational and environmental 
health issues, and the provision of operationally focused, health risk 
assessment guidance to combatant commanders within an operational risk 
management framework, directly contributed to saving the lives and 
health of our deployed soldiers in Turkey, Afghanistan, Iraq, and the 
Persian Gulf.
  Brigadier General Bester's accomplishments are eloquent testimony to 
his talent, dedication, loyalty, and determination to ensure that the 
best possible medical and preventive medicine support is always 
available to our soldiers, civilians, and family members. Brigadier 
General Bester has established a legacy of superior performance to be 
emulated by all, which reflects exceptionally on himself, the United 
States Army, the Department of Defense, and the United States of 
America. I extend my deepest appreciation on behalf of a grateful 
nation for his dedicated service. Congratulations to my friend, 
Brigadier General Bill Bester. I wish him Godspeed.

                          ____________________