Insects such as mosquitoes, ticks, lice and mites have caused more military casualties than enemy forces at times by spreading diseases that can sideline or kill service members.
During World War II, malaria took more American troops out of action in the South Pacific than combat did. The threat helped lead the U.S. military to establish mosquito and pest-control units, which eventually became the Armed Forces Pest Management Board.
For more than 70 years, Texas A&M University’s Department of Entomology has trained military medical entomologists who help protect service members from vector-borne diseases.
Pete Teel, a Navy veteran and Regents Professor in the department, has mentored generations of Army, Navy and Air Force officers pursuing advanced degrees in medical entomology. These specialists travel worldwide to study ticks, biting flies, mosquitoes and other arthropods, monitor the pathogens they carry, and develop ways to control local insect populations and reduce exposure.
The military selects high-performing officers for advanced education programs. At Texas A&M, active-duty students complete an intensive doctoral program designed around military assignments and timelines. Faculty work with them to plan coursework and research so they can graduate on schedule and report to their next posts.
Graduates have gone on to lead military hospitals, work at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and hold senior entomology roles around the world.
Col. Hee Kim, a 2002, 2004 and 2017 Texas A&M graduate, directs Occupational Health Sciences at the Defense Centers for Public Health–Aberdeen. He also serves as the medical entomology consultant to the U.S. Army Surgeon General, helping prepare Army entomology officers and develop future leaders.
Other program graduates, including retired officers Anthony Schuster and Bill Miller, now help train military medical entomology personnel at the U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence in San Antonio.
Four active-duty officers are currently pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees at Texas A&M. Their faculty advisers include Gabriel Hamer, Aaron Tarone and Patricia Pietrantonio, all entomologists with Texas A&M AgriLife Research, as well as Teel.
Military entomologists also conduct disease surveillance, work with foreign governments and respond to public health emergencies after disasters disrupt local infrastructure. The World Health Organization estimates vector-borne diseases cause more than 700,000 deaths worldwide each year and account for more than 17% of infectious disease deaths.
Teel said the program offers a military career path that students in entomology, biology and public health may not have considered. He described mentoring officers as a way to support the next generation of service members protecting others from disease.
