Joseph Paul Commette

Captain Joseph Paul Commette spent 28 years on active duty in the United States Navy Dental Corps as an Oral and Maxillofacial Trauma Surgeon. At the height of the Vietnam War, Lieutenant Commette was assigned to the· United States Naval Hospital at Port Hueneme, California before being sent overseas to the Cubi Point Naval Hospital at Subic Bay Naval Base in the Philippines. Here, he provided in theater care to war casualties medevaced from the battlefields of Vietnam.

As his career advanced and he rose through the ranks with increased responsibilities, he served tours of duty at major Naval Hospitals and Dental Clinics in Europe, Asia and the east and west coasts of the United States. He spent 5 years of duty aboard two aircraft carriers USS INDEPENDENCE CV-62 and USS CORAL SEA CV-43 as the Oral and Facial Trauma Surgeon, Anesthesiologist and Dental Department Head for several 10 ship deployed flotillas.

He saw duty with the 3rd Fleet in the Northern Pacific and Arctic Regions, the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas and the 7th Fleet in the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans. The highlight of his sea service was a 7 month ''around the world'' circumnavigation of the globe from West to East Coasts of the United States, across Asia, the Middle East the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean and Atlantic oceans onboard the USS CORAL SEACV-43.

Before and after his sea tour assignments, Captain Commette spent many years as a mentor and educator for Navy Medicine and Dentistry with the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. He organized Oral Surgery Fellowship Training Programs and Combat Casualty (C-4) Training Programs for Navy, Army and Air Force doctors prior to their overseas deployments. Based on the success of these venues, he was chosen by the Department of Defense to devise a tri-service curriculum, later adopted. throughout the Armed Forces to expand the role of military dentists in their delivery of emergency trauma care in combat situations.  His work was successfully utilized in the Iran and Iraq Wars and Operations ''Desert Storm'' and ''Desert Shield'' and other conflicts in the years to follow.

During the Iran and Iraq War in the late 1980’s, he was assigned to the Rapidly Deployable Medical Task Force based at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Naples, Italy. He was stationed on the front line ready to respond immediately to emergency situations that might erupt in Iraq, the Emirate of Kuwait, as well as other potential hot spots in the Middle East.

While serving as the Commanding Officer of the Naval Dental Center in Guam, Captain Commette was chosen by the Commander of the Pacific Fleet as his regional representative, and he joined the staff of the Pentagon to run the 50th Anniversary World War II Commemorations for America in its Western Pacific Theater of Operations. In this capacity, he organized and then coordinated all memorial events for thousands of aging World War II veterans who returned to their former combat sites in the Gilbert, Solomon, and Marshall Islands, Iwo Jima, Guam, Saipan, the Republic of Palau, the Island of Peleliu and Okinawa. He established permanent military World War II museums in Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, and the Islands of Palau and Peleliu to welcome back and honor those long ago, forgotten heroes.

At the conclusion of this highly successful 2-year undertaking, Captain Joseph Commette received numerous written commendations, medals and award citations from the Department of Defense, the Army, Navy, and Air Force Chiefs of Staff and from all the nationally known Veterans Organizations. He also received official congratulatory letters from the President of the United States as well as from Presidents, Governors, Senators and Heads of State of the Republic of Palau, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas and the Territory of Guam.

For his many accomplishments over 30 years of service to his country, Captain Joseph Paul Commette was honored with the installation of a memorial plaque at the American Veterans Memorial atop Mount Soledad in La Jolla, California.