Naval Health Clinic Cherry Point Celebrates Navy’s 249th Birthday with Ball

Story by Thomas Cieslak

Naval Health Clinic Cherry Point

The Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point community gathered Friday, October 4, 2024, to celebrate the 249th Birthday of the U.S. Navy.

Sailors and civilians serving aboard Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point celebrated the occasion with a Navy Ball hosted by the staff of Naval Health Clinic Cherry Point at the Havelock Convention Center in Havelock, North Carolina.

“Our mission – to Keep the Warfighter in the Fight – is critical in ensuring service members assigned to “America’s Air Station,” Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, remain at the highest state of medical readiness possible,” said Navy Captain Sean Barbabella, Commander of Naval Health Clinic Cherry Point.

“When the red phone rings on the 2nd Marine Air Wing Commander’s desk with orders to deploy forces, he will find his Marines and Sailors as medically ready as possible because of your commitment to excellence in patient care,” said Barbabella to the clinic staff attending the ball.

The event’s keynote speaker, Mr. Wilbur D. Jones Jr., a nationally known historian, spoke to the crowd about his father who served with the Marines in World War I and the clinic’s namesake and Medal of Honor recipient, Pharmacist’s Mate Second Class William D. Halyburton, Jr. Halyburton was a native of Wilmington, North Carolina and Jones grew up and lives there today.

“Progress and time have obliterated and denuded the battlefield. Still, by reading Marine Corps records, we can partially reconstruct what transpired, exposing the character of Hospital Corpsman Halyburton,” said Jones.

Jones continued his remarks, giving the audience a picture of the fierce combat occurring May 10, 1945 on Okinawa Shima between Japanese forces and the Marines of 2nd, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division. Halyburton would sacrifice his life that day to save a wounded Marine who lay farthest away from his position.

The evening’s formal program of events concluded after an official cake-cutting celebrating the birthday and singing of the Marine Corps Hymn and Anchors Aweigh.