MILLINGTON, Tenn. – Capt. Rob Kimberling, from Rome, New York, serves with U.S. Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command (NMRTC) Rota, Spain.
Kimberling is a 1992 graduate of Brewer High School in Texas. Additionally, Kimberling earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Western Michigan University in 2003 and a Doctor of Nursing Practice from the University of San Diego in 2014.
Kimberling lived in many different places while growing up in a military family, but considers Rome to be home.
“Coming from an Air Force family, my hometown was all over the country and the world,” Kimberling said. “My dad, retired Master Sgt. Kimberling, taught me that if you take care of your people, they will take care of you and the mission. That ‘people first,’ ‘One Team-One Fight’ mentality has been with me for as long as I can remember because of my upbringing. Thanks, Mom and Dad!”
Kimberling has served in the Navy for 32 years.
“My dad, grandfather and great-grandfather served in the Air Force, Army and Navy, and I knew I had an interest in the medical field but had no idea what I wanted to do or how to pay for it,” Kimberling said. “I joined the Navy because they had the best college programs, and I felt the versatility of missions that Navy Medicine provides would give me the best all-around experience and knowledge. Turns out I was absolutely correct!”
Today, Kimberling serves in the Navy Nurse Corps and is a family nurse practitioner.
“There are so many ‘favorite’ parts about this job,” Kimberling said. “I love the mentorship, leadership and teamwork that no other job in the world can give you. It’s what keeps me in uniform. To watch your team succeed under the most arduous conditions and become a Navy family is an amazing experience.”
According to Navy officials, NMRTC’s mission is to prepare service members to deploy in support of operational forces, deliver high-quality healthcare services and shape the future of military medicine through education, training and research.
NMRTC Rota serves as a force multiplier in Navy Medicine’s strategic global medical support mission throughout Europe, Africa and the Middle East while also supporting operational readiness and maintaining a strategic repository of expertise at the Naval Hospital Rota Military Treatment Facility within the Iberian Peninsula.
Navy Medicine – represented by more than 44,000 highly-trained military and civilian health care professionals – provides enduring expeditionary medical support to the warfighter on, below, and above the sea, and ashore.
The U.S. Navy is celebrating its 250th birthday this year.
According to Navy officials, “America is a maritime nation and for 250 years, America’s Warfighting Navy has sailed the globe in defense of freedom.”
With 90% of global commerce traveling by sea and access to the internet relying on the security of undersea fiber optic cables, Navy officials continue to emphasize that the prosperity of the United States is directly linked to recruiting and retaining talented people from across the rich fabric of America.
Kimberling has many opportunities to achieve accomplishments during military service.
“Professionally, I’m most proud of starting as a seaman recruit, working my way through the ranks to hospital corpsman second class before getting my commission and working my way all the way up to the rank of captain,” Kimberling said. “Personally, it’s been rewarding to watch those around me succeed and reach their next big milestone and to be a part of our patients’ lives, keeping them healthy and well. To be a part of that is amazing!”
Kimberling serves a Navy that operates far forward, around the world and around the clock, promoting the nation’s prosperity and security.
“Continuing to serve in the Navy means giving back to our country and the Navy for all it has done for me throughout my career,” Kimberling said. “It means ‘paying it forward’ to my sailors and helping them achieve their career ambitions, goals and to contribute to our winning team.”
Kimberling’s children are now carrying on the family legacy of military service.
“My proudest dad moment was having my father be my first salute at my commissioning while he was still on active duty, and later I had the honor of enlisting my son Ethan, now an Army combat medic, and commissioning my other son, Joey, into the Marine Corps, where my dad was also his first salute,” Kimberling said. “Three generations of uninterrupted service to our country, standing the watch, still gives me goose bumps.”