Major General Enrique Méndez Jr. Grau (born 15 July 1931), was a United States Army officer who was also the first Puerto Rican to hold the positions of Army Deputy Surgeon General, Commander of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs. He was also the Dean and President of the Ponce School of Medicine in Puerto Rico. Also served as Secretary of Health of Puerto Rico. Early years Méndez was born and raised in Santurce, Puerto Rico. His father was a civil engineer and his mother a housewife, he was one of two children born to the couple. He received his primary and secondary education in his native Puerto Rico. During his high school years, Méndez befriended a few physicians who would occasionally invite him to go visit hospitals. He became interested in medicine after witnessing a couple of surgical procedures. In high school he was one of the founders of Zeta Mu Gamma fraternity in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. He enrolled and went to the Mayagüez campus (located on the western coast of the Island) of the University of Puerto Rico, which had a science faculty. He earned his BS in biology in 1951. He enrolled in the medical school of Loyola University in Chicago and earned his MD degree in 1954. Military career Méndez joined the Army after completing his internship at Mercy Hospital in Chicago. He entered the Army as a GMO which stands for "general-duty medical officer" and received his basic training at Fort Sam Houston in Texas. His first assignment was to Camp Gordon, near Augusta, Georgia. His first duty at Camp Gordon was in a dispensary which was an ambulatory care facility. After that assignment and attending the Company Officers' Course and he was reassigned to Brooke General Hospital where he underwent his specialty training (residency) in internal medicine. In 1960, he was sent to Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii. During his service there he had the opportunity to teach interns and residents and set up a dialysis program. In 1963, Méndez was assigned to Medical Research and Development at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland, where he served for less than a year and was once more sent to Fort Sam Houston. He was assigned to the Medical Field Service School as an instructor. He helped to establish a biological and chemical sciences branch. In 1967, Méndez, who