Leadership
CAPT Thomas Armel
DVBIC Site Director
Captain Armel reported aboard Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune, North Carolina in July 2010 as the Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Program Director and Defense Veterans' Brain Injury Center, Program Director.
Third generation Navy and the son of a Navy Captain, he moved where the Navy sent his father until he began college. He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from Virginia Tech in 1977 and a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing from Radford University 1982. From 1982 – 1985, he worked as a civilian Registered Nurse.
Ensign Armel received his commission in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps, September 1985. After completion of Officer Indoctrination School at Newport RI, his first tour was as a staff nurse at Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune in the inpatient psychiatric unit and obtained his certification from ANCC in Psychiatric Nursing in 1986.
Lieutenant Armel’s follow-on tour was to Naval Hospital Rota, Spain in 1989 as the Department Head of the Alcohol Rehabilitation Service. He remained in the mental health arena where he used his clinical expertise as Division Officer at Naval Hospital Charleston, SC in 1992. During this tour he was deployed with the Medical Detachment of the Joint Task Force Guantanamo Bay, Cuba Nov 92-Jan 93.
Following Charleston, Lieutenant Commander Armel reported to Naval Medical Center Portsmouth in 1995 where he was the division officer of the acute inpatient unit and then took over the outpatient Continuity of Psychiatric Care (CPC) Program. He ended his tour as the Education and Training Officer for Mental Health Nursing Department with over 60 nurses and corpsmen. Selected for DUINS in 1999, he obtained his Masters of Nursing as an Adult Nurse Practitioner in Mental Health and Psychiatric Nursing from the University of South Carolina in 2000.
In 2001, Commander Armel was assigned to Naval Hospital Great Lakes serving as the Psychiatric Nursing Department Head and subsequently the Deputy Director of Medical Services, responsible for Mental Health, Social Work, Substance Abuse Rehabilitation, Primary Care, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine. He also established and coordinated deck plate mental health services at the nurse operated Ambulatory Mental Health Units (AMHU) at Service School, Hospital Corps School, and Recruit Evaluation Unit Great Lakes. In 2004, he was transferred to Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune and assigned as the Assistant Director for Mental Health Services and later was selected to be the first Director of Mental Health Services at NHCL. In this position he was responsible for coordinating and improving access to mental health and substance abuse services during a time of increased demand from deployments both of II MEF marines and sailors as well as his own staff. He also served for 3 years as a the first military member on the Onslow Carteret Behavioral Healthcare Board, another first for North Carolina.
In July 2007 Captain Armel reported aboard Naval Hospital Rota, Spain as Director of Nursing Services where he was responsible for the delivery of all nursing care and the mentoring of all Nurse Corps Officers at the command. He also served as liaison with his Spanish Military Nursing counterparts to coordinated two Navy Nursing presentations at two of the annual Military Nursing Conferences. In his present assignment he has constructed a comprehensive TBI Program involving a inter-disciplinary treatment team to provide state of the art medical and mental health care for returning marines and sailors impacted in combat operations.
His military awards include Meritorious Service Medal (2 awards), Navy Commendation Medal (4 awards), Joint Service Achievement Medal, The Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal and various other service and unit awards. He has also been awarded three Additional Qualification Designations (AQD) which include Executive Medicine, Ambulatory Care Nursing and Managed Care Coordinator.
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