JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas –
The METC Hospital Corpsman Basic program honored one of their own with a classroom dedication ceremony August 19. Mr. Andy Sivilaythong, a long-time instructor in the program and a Defense Health Agency employee, passed away earlier this year following a brief battle with cancer. His sister, Marry Sivilaythong, and fiancée, Sondra Walters, also attended the ceremony and unveiled the memorial wall dedicated to him.
Andy was a former combat medic who served on a highly skilled combat medical team while deployed in Afghanistan that helped save the lives of over 920 people in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Following his military service he utilized his experience and education to train future Navy hospital corpsmen and Air Force medical technicians in the now disestablished METC Basic Medical Technician Corpsman Program in August 2013, then in the Hospital Corpsman Basic program until December 2021.
In December 2020, Andy was diagnosed with Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma. He passed peacefully at his home on January 17, 2022 with his family by his side.