April 24, 2025 | By Douglas Stutz, Naval Hospital Bremerton/Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command Bremerton
As U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sergeant Tanya Y. Johnson, Defense Health Agency’s senior enlisted leader, wrapped up her tour of Naval Hospital Bremerton, she had one final – and fitting – spontaneous request.
Johnson beckoned Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Cade Crenshaw and presented him with a personal challenge coin. “You represent the epitome of our Military Health System as a servant leader in providing direct medical care, which enhances mission readiness,” Johnson told Crenshaw, one of 11 hospital corpsmen assigned to NHB with behavioral health technician specialty capabilities.
Johnson met Crenshaw earlier on a tour of NHB’s Mental Health Directorate on April 24, 2025. Crenshaw explained the facility’s wide array of outpatient mental health services, including individual psychotherapy, readiness-related psychological evaluations, and Personnel Reliability Program evaluations for Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen across nearly 300 tenant commands in the Pacific Northwest.
Crenshaw, with other behavioral health technicians, pioneered a high level of clinical involvement, characterized by their engagement in nearly 115 safety checks, roughly 585 access-to-care appointments, and over 430 group therapy sessions and individual patient follow-up care. “Doing eyes and hands-on patient care is something we need to codify. Very impressive,” remarked Johnson.
Johnson also met with NHB’s leaders and held an all-hands call for senior enlisted and junior officers to candidly discuss the current state of the Defense Health Agency in military medicine. “As a Navy military treatment facility, your main support is to ships, submarines, and shore commands. The Army has its brigades to look after. Air Force has wings. Each service component exists for lethality, and our job is to ensure we’re medically ready to go to war, if needed,” Johnson said.
Staffing concerns and fiscal constraints were top topics of discussion during Johnson’s visit, readily recognized as a common theme throughout the MHS. “There’s a lot of business in health care delivery, but in the end, it’s really all about connecting to people,” she said.
“We’re a unique health system,” continued Johnson. “We train and prepare to go to war. There’s no civilian at the front dealing with casualties. That’s all you. Dr. [David J.] Smith [Acting Director, DHA] and I appreciate all you do. Stay in the fight. We’re supporting you. It’s fantastic, all that you do, thinking outside the box to provide care with limited staff.”
As the DHA senior enlisted leader, Johnson provides oversight and guidance to enlisted service members in support of readiness and peacetime healthcare delivery missions. She advises on the execution of DHA’s combat support activities, and she’s responsible for directing the training, utilization, and morale of active duty, civilian, and contracted health care professionals in medical and dental treatment facilities such as NHB.
