Editor’s note: These hospital corpsmen were recognized as the Senior Sailors of the Year at their prospective regional commands, Navy Medicine East, Navy Medicine West, Navy Medicine Education Training and Logistics Command, and U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. These four sailors will now compete for the title of Navy Medicine’s 2017 Sailor of the Year, who will move on to compete in the Navy Shore Sailor of the Year competition later this year. The winner of that competition will be  meritoriously promoted to chief petty officer.The Sailor of the Year program was established in 1972 by the Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Elmo Zumwalt and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy John Whittet to recognize an individual Sailor who best represented the ever-growing group of dedicated professional Sailors at each command and ultimately the Navy.