Donald Arthur

Donald C. Arthur
Arthur's Official Picture (Navy Bio)
Surgeon General of the Navy
In office 2004–2007

Donald Caldwell Arthur, Jr. is a retired U.S. Navy medical corps vice admiral (VADM). He entered the Navy in 1974, qualified as both a Naval Flight Surgeon and a Submarine Medical Officer, and eventually served as the 35th Surgeon General of the United States Navy (2004–2007).

Arthur's work on the Defense Health Board Task Force on Mental Health reflected his advocacy for PTSD in service members and combat veterans. He addressed the stigma of mental health in the military and made efforts to alleviate it. Arthur was an advocate for service members who incurred and suffered with Traumatic Brain Injury. Arthur was also an advocate for gay service members in the military.

In 2005, author and activist B.G. Burkett urged then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen to investigate Arthur, claiming that some of his education credentials were inappropriate, because they had been obtained from unaccredited institutions, and that they had influenced his promotions within the Navy. In turn, Arthur claimed that he had been misinformed about the institution's accreditation, and that an internal investigation by the Navy had cleared him of any wrongdoing. Despite this, Arthur was quoted to have said the following about the inicident at the time, "I could say I was naive, but I was 40 years old. And I didn't understand completely what was going on."

Arthur joined the TriWest Health care Alliances Executive Advisory Board in 2008.