Colonel Bruce Andrew Lynch

Col Bruce Lynch is the Director of the Air Force Center for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills-Baltimore, US Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, 711 Human Performance Wing, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. He directs the largest Military-Civilian medical partnership in the Air Force. He and his staff of 35 active-duty members and civilians are responsible for the pre-deployment medical training of over 500 airmen annually.

Col Lynch entered the Air Force in April 1999 through the Health Professions Scholarship Program. After completing medical school and residency training in General Surgery, he served assignments in Alaska and Florida prior to joining the staff at CSTARS Baltimore in 2017 to serve as CMRP course director and Ground Surgical Team Phase One Course Surgical Lead. While in Baltimore, he deployed to serve as the final DCCS for Craig Joint Theater Hospital at Bagram, Afghanistan. After the closure of Bagram, he served as the Senior Medical Officer of the Multinational Role Two at Hamid Karzai International Airport. During the final weeks of August, he directed the facility that would treat over 400 patients and perform 40 operations on traumatically injured patients. On August 26, 2021, he led the ground response to the airport suicide bombing, treating 63 patients and performing 14 damage control surgeries. This was the largest US military mass casualty event in over a decade and the largest single-day medical air evacuation in the history of the US Air Force. Prior to his current assignment, Col Lynch was CMRP Course Director at CSTARS Baltimore.

EDUCATION

1999 - Bachelor of Science, Biology (cum laude), Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas
1999 - Bachelor of Arts, Chemistry (cum laude), Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas
2003 - Doctor of Medicine, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2009 - Residency in General Surgery, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, Tennessee

ASSIGNMENTS

July 2009 - July 2012, Chief of General Surgery, 673^rd SGOS, JBER, AK
(Deployment September-November 2009 Mobile Forward Surgical Team, Padang, Indonesia)
(Deployment September 2010-May 2011, Chief of Surgery, 379^th MDG, AUAB, Qatar)
July 2012-August 2017, Chief of Surgery, 96^th SGOS, Eglin AFB, FL (Deployment March 2015-October 2015, Mobile Forward Surgical Team Lead, SOCFWD-NWA, Niamey, Niger) (Deployment Sept 2016-May 2017, Mobile Forward Surgical Team Lead, SOCFWD-NWA, Niamey, Niger)
August 2017-June 2021, CMRP Course Director, CSTARS Baltimore, MD (Deployment April 2021-September 2021, DCCS Craig Joint Theater Hospital, Senior Medical Advisor to the US Embassy Kabul and Senior Medical Officer Multinational Role 2, Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan)
June 2021-present, Site Director, CSTARS Baltimore, MD

MAJOR AWARDS AND DECORATIONS

Bronze Star
Joint Service Commendation Medal
Meritorious Service Medal
Air Force Commendation Medal

OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS

2010 - Diplomate, American Board of Surgery
2011 - Fellow, American College of Surgeons
2012-2017 - Integrated Surgical Residency Site Director, Keesler General Surgery Residency Program
2022 - Baltimore Ravens “Hometown Hero”

EFFECTIVE DATES OF PROMOTION

Second Lieutenant April 26, 199
Captain April 26, 2003
Major April 26, 2009
Lieutenant Colonel April 26, 2015
Colonel April 26, 2021
(Current as of February 2024)