Juan C. Dapena, CAPT, MC, USN

CAPT Dapena joined the US Navy through a direct commission via the Health Professions Scholarship Program on May 27, 2000, upon obtaining his Degree in Medicine from Ponce School of Medicine, PR. He graduated in 2001 from the Internal Medicine Internship Program at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, VA.

As a Naval Medical Officer, he was assigned to the 2D Battalion, 6th Marines, based out of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, NC. In 2002, he deployed as part of the 22D Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) aboard the USS Trenton (LPD-14), earning his qualification as a Surface Warfare Medical Officer. In 2003 he deployed to Iraq as part of Task Force Tarawa during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Upon return from combat operations, he was assigned to the Family Medicine Residency Program at US Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune, graduating in December 2005. His follow-on tour led to the Naval Health Clinic Makalapa, in Hawaii, from where he immediately deployed for the next 12 months to Afghanistan as part of the US Embedded Training Team Lima, supporting US Army and British missions during Operation Enduring Freedom. He later returned to Hawaii to become officer-in-charge of the Branch Health Clinic Camp Smith, Family Medicine Department, liaison officer to Joint Task Force Homeland Defense, and multiple other collateral duties and deployments in support of US Navy Pacific Command.

In 2002, CAPT Dapena was selected to attend the US Naval War College, where he obtained a master's Degree in Strategy and Policy, with a concentration in the Western Hemisphere. Subsequently, he served as Senior Medical Officer of the USAS WASP (LHD-1) from 2010 to 2012. He then followed on to become the Force Surgeon for Coastal Riverine Group 2, with multiple deployments to the Middle East between 2012 and 2014.

He was screened and selected to attend the Navy's Undersea Medical Officers Candidate Program, earning his qualifications as a US Navy Diver from the Naval Diving and Salvage Center, Panama City, FL, Radiation Health Officer through the Naval Undersea Medical Institute, Groton, CT, and earning the title of Undersea Medical Officer (UMO) in December 2014. His next assignment was Senior UMO for Commander Submarine Group NINE, located in Bangor, WA. In 2017 he attended the Undersea & Hyperbaric Medicine Fellowship at Louisiana State University in New Orleans, graduating in December 2018. From 2019 to 2021 he was assigned as Department Head of Undersea Medicine for the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute, Pensacola, FL, in charge of chamber and recompression operations in support of Diving and Flight Operations for all DOD branches, NASA, and SPACE-X missions. He also obtained additional qualifications as UMO-Submarine Qualified.

Since 2021 CAPT Dapena has been the Senior Undersea Medical Officer for Commander Submarine Development Squadron FIVE in Silverdale, WA, providing medical care to multiple specialized units and submarines.