In this portrait <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Everett_Koop" class="extiw" title="w:C. Everett Koop">Dr. Koop</a> wears his formal uniform and sits in front of the American flag and the flag of the U.S. Public Health Service. Koop was the first U.S. Surgeon General in a generation to wear the Surgeon General's uniform, a uniform akin to that of a rear admiral of the Navy, though he is shown here as wearing the rank of vice admiral. He thought that wearing the uniform would help to restore morale and a sense of dignity to the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service, which the Surgeon General commands and which had been buffered by personnel cuts and uncertainty about its mission in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
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<table class="layouttemplate" style="margin: 0.5em auto; width: 100%; background-color: #f8f8f8; border: 2px solid #e0e0e0; padding: 5px;" lang="en" dir="ltr"><tbody><tr><td style="padding:5px;"><div class="wpImageAnnotatorControl wpImageAnnotatorOff"><a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Applications-graphics.svg" class="image"><img alt="Applications-graphics.svg" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/Applications-graphics.svg/45px-Applications-graphics.svg.png" decoding="async" width="45" height="45" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/Applications-graphics.svg/68px-Applications-graphics.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/Applications-graphics.svg/90px-Applications-graphics.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="48" data-file-height="48"></a></div>
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<td style="width:100%;">This  is a <i><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_editing" class="extiw" title="w:Image editing">retouched picture</a></b></i>, which means that it has been digitally altered from its original version. Modifications: <i>Dust removed, levels adjusted, border cropped, etc.</i>.
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New restoration by <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Adam_Cuerden" title="User:Adam Cuerden">Adam Cuerden</a>, from a United States Public Health Service image.
between circa 1982 and circa 1989 <div style="display: none;">date QS:P,+1982-00-00T00:00:00Z/8,P1319,+1982-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1326,+1989-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902</div>
<a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/QQ/B/C/T/C/">http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/QQ/B/C/T/C/</a> (<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/QQ/B/C/T/C/_/qqbctc_.jpg">direct link, 11.7 MB JPG</a>)