Inspiration

The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine (HJF) finds its origins in the vision of a dedicated congressional champion, the stroke of a presidential pen and the hard work of its pioneers. This powerful combination has resulted in an organization dedicated to military medical research and education.

Shortly after President Richard Nixon called for an end to the draft in 1970, military leaders and politicians realized they could no longer rely on conscripts to provide medical care for members of the armed services. To remedy that situation, Nixon signed a law on Sept. 21, 1972, establishing the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), a facility its strongest advocate, Louisiana Rep. F. Edward Hébert, called “the West Point of military medicine.”

Although Congress did not authorize the Foundation until 11 years later, the 1972 establishment of USU laid the groundwork for HJF’s creation.

The University was established to train medical corps officers for the uniformed services. USU also offers graduate and doctoral training and conducts basic and clinical research. These efforts are broadly considered necessary to academic medicine, research and clinical practice, but it soon became clear that USU would be able to accomplish more and function with greater ease if it partnered with a private foundation.

That idea turned into action when Sen. Henry M. Jackson of Washington championed a bill that would create such a foundation. On May 27, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill establishing the Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, a private, not-for-profit organization. Congress added Jackson’s name to the Foundation’s title five months later, shortly after the senator’s death.

HJF’s core missions as outlined in the bill remain as relevant as ever: to support medical research and education at USU and throughout military medicine and to serve as a link with the private medical sector. Ultimately, the Foundation strives to improve both military and civilian health.

“I am in full sympathy with this worthy purpose behind the bill,” Reagan said in his signing statement.

Compared to its vast operation today, HJF was small in its early years—at the end of its first year of existence, it supported just two federally sponsored research projects and one privately sponsored project. The total amount of money for those research efforts was $98,750, most coming from the National Science Foundation and the rest from the National Kidney Foundation. In 2008, HJF’s revenue totaled more than $270 million.

In its first year, HJF was housed in a small two-room office on the USU campus. The Foundation hired its first two employees in 1984 and added a bookkeeper in 1985. Early on, HJF focused on establishing endowments for USU, but that would soon change.

The Foundation grew in 1986, when it began administering many of USU’s extramural grants, a move that would fuel HJF’s growth for the next two decades.

In November 1987, HJF left USU’s Bethesda, Md., campus for its own office space in nearby Rockville, and the following year, the Army awarded a five-year grant to HJF to provide collaborative scientific, technical and management expertise for its HIV research program.

In 1987 and 1988, the Foundation laid the groundwork for the U.S. Military HIV Research Program, a massive undertaking dedicated to HIV vaccine development, prevention, disease surveillance and care and treatment of HIV-infected individuals. Today, nearly 10 percent of HJF’s 1,800-member work force remain dedicated to the program.