Here's a litle quiz. The Army, Navy, Aif Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard are five of the seven uniformed services of the United States. What are the other two?
(If you want to give yourself a time limit, click here.)
Give up? The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Corps and the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. And the surgeon general has the equivalent rank of vice admiral -- the admiral rank is reserved for an assistant secretary of health.
The selection of Sanjay Gupta for the surgeon general post is one of Obama's more interesting picks, and his identification as "CNN reporter" in a lot of headlines seems a little condescending. He is both a qualified physician and articulate and media-savvy. Since the job is basically to be our national scold on matters of health, he seems eminently qualified. If anybody can revive the "bully pulpit" aspect of the office, he probably can. Here are some of his Fit Nation columns from Time magazine.
