02/12/2026
Persistence Pays Off! Melanie Muscar was a Stay-in-School employee when she began working at Naval Medical Logistics Command (NMLC) at Fort Detrick, MD. In September of 2012, she took the Oath of Office as a Lt. j.g. in the United States Navy Reserve and was promoted to the rank of Lt. in May 2013.
On January 26, 2026 Cmdr. Muscar returned to NMRLC, the former headquarters at Fort Detrick, as the Officer in Charge of the NMRLC Williamsburg Reserve Unit.
"In 2002, I was hired as a clerk in the Stay-in-School Program, designed to provide employment to full-time students. It allowed for flexible hours and as a business major undergraduate, most classes were in the evenings, so I was able to work practically full-time at NMLC," Muscar said in 2012.
The NMRLC Reserve unit specializes in managing and deploying Expeditionary Medical Systems (EXMEDs), which provide specialized, modular medical and surgical capabilities to combatant commanders in operational theaters. Reservists train to maintain, assemble, and deploy these mobile, combat-ready medical facilities, including soft/hard-sided shelters used as operating rooms in theater.
The NMRLC Reserve unit was in Williamsburg Jan. 26-30, 2026, fulfilling their service obligations and gaining practical knowledge about how the command develops, acquires, produces, fields, and sustains medical materiel solutions for the Fleet, Fleet Marine Force, and Joint Forces. Its mission focuses on providing operational logistics, including deployable medical systems, and engineering support, for high-end competition, crisis, and combat.
Pictured from left to right are UT1 Ilona Obrzut, HMC Carmen Roman, HM2 Andrew Hernandez, LSCS Deanna Hollenback, Cmdr. Melanie Muscar, Lt. Kenneth Barnes, CE2 Adrienne Manley, EOC Michael Howard, EA3 Michael Newman, and Lt.j.g. Eduardo Lopez. In the back row are CM1 Douglas O’Sullivan, CM2 Eliott Abac, CM1 Anthony Delisi, UT1 Oskar Correa Sanchez, CM1 Steven Carl, CE2 Jeanjosephie Romain, CE1 Brandon Bates, CM2 Braulio Castaneda Cornejo, EO1 Justin Jordan, & HMC Zachary Scovish. Photograph by Julius Evans, NMLC/NMRLC Public Affairs.
