Bruce Lindsley Gillingham (born April 16, 1959) is a

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

rear admiral Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star "admiral" rank. It is often regarde ...

and

orthopedic surgeon Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics ( alternatively spelt orthopaedics), is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons use both surgical and nonsurgical means to treat musculoskeletal ...

who serves as the 39th

surgeon general of the United States Navy The surgeon general of the Navy (SGN) is the most senior commissioned officer of the Medical Corps of the United States Navy and is the principal advisor to the United States Secretary of the Navy, Chief of Naval Operations and director of the ...

. As surgeon general, Gillingham is dual-hatted as the 43rd chief of the

Bureau of Medicine and Surgery The Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) is an agency of the United States Department of the Navy that manages health care activities for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. BUMED operates hospitals and other health care ...

and is responsible to the

United States Secretary of the Navy The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the United States Department of the Navy, Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States D ...

Chief of Naval Operations The chief of naval operations (CNO) is the professional head of the United States Navy. The position is a statutory office () held by an admiral who is a military adviser and deputy to the secretary of the Navy. In a separate capacity as a memb ...

and director of the

Defense Health Agency The Defense Health Agency (DHA) is a joint, integrated combat support agency that enables the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, and United States Space Force, U.S. Space Force medical services to provide a medically ready force and ready med ...

for all health and medical matters pertaining to the Navy and Marine Corps. He assumed his present assignment on November 1, 2019.

Early life and education

Gillingham was born in

Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

and raised in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

, graduating from

Helix High School Helix High School, in La Mesa, California, is a charter high school built in 1952. It received its charter in 1998. Part of the Grossmont Union High School District, it serves a mid-level socioeconomic community and has a student body of approx ...

in La Mesa in 1977. He earned a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in Cultural Anthropology (with high honors) from the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

which he attended from 1977 to 1981 and his medical doctorate from the

Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) is a health science university of the U.S. federal government. The primary mission of the school is to prepare graduates for service to the U.S. at home and abroad in the medical corps as ...

which he attended from 1982 to 1986. He is an inductee in the medical honor society of

Alpha Omega Alpha Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society () is an honor society in the field of medicine. Alpha Omega Alpha currently has active Chapters in 132 LCME- accredited medical schools in the United States and Lebanon. It annually elects over 4,000 new ...

Naval career

Gillingham was commissioned into the

as an ensign in 1982. Early in his career, Gillingham completed a surgical internship and an orthopedic residency at Naval Medical Center San Diego. He was promoted to

lieutenant commander Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding rank i ...

in 1990. He also completed subspecialty training as a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada in 1995, qualifying as an undersea and diving medical officer. Gillingham's operational tours include a period aboard the hospital ship as staff orthopedic surgeon and as director of surgical services. He deployed in support of

Operation Iraqi Freedom II {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...

as battalion chief of forward professional service for the 1st Force Service Support Group and officer in charge of the Surgical Shock Trauma Platoon, achieving a 98% combat casualty survival rate while providing Echelon II surgical care during

Operation Phantom Fury The Second Battle of Fallujah, codenamed Operation al-Fajr ( ar, الفجر, ) and Operation Phantom Fury, was an American-led offensive of the Iraq War that lasted roughly 6 weeks, starting 7th November, 2004. Marking the highest point of the ...

His shore assignments include director of Pediatric Orthopedic and Scoliosis Surgery; Associate Orthopedic Residency Program director; and director of Surgical Services. While assigned to

Naval Medical Center San Diego Naval Medical Center San Diego (NMCSD), also known as Bob Wilson Naval Hospital and informally referred to as "Balboa Hospital", or "The Pink Palace" (because the stucco of the first buildings that were constructed was pinkish in color), is a tech ...

, Gillingham played a principal role in establishing the Comprehensive Combat and Complex Casualty Care Center (C5). Gillingham was commander of Naval Hospital Jacksonville from 2008 to July 2010,

United States Pacific Fleet The United States Pacific Fleet (USPACFLT) is a theater-level component command of the United States Navy, located in the Pacific Ocean. It provides naval forces to the Indo-Pacific Command. Fleet headquarters is at Joint Base Pearl Harbor� ...

surgeon from 2010 to 2012, and

United States Fleet Forces Command The United States Fleet Forces Command (USFF) is a service component command of the United States Navy that provides naval forces to a wide variety of U.S. forces. The naval resources may be allocated to Combatant Commanders such as United Stat ...

fleet surgeon from 2012 to 2013. Promoted to

rear admiral (lower half) A rear admiral in the uniformed services of the United States is either of two different ranks of commissioned officers: one-star flag officers and two-star flag officers. By contrast, in most other countries, the term "rear admiral" refers only t ...

in July 2013, his first flag assignment was as commander of Navy Medicine West (now Navy Medical Forces Pacific) from 2013 to 2016 and simultaneously dual-hatted as commander of Navy Medical Center San Diego from December 4, 2013 to October 10, 2014. He was promoted to rear admiral in 2016 and assigned as the first chief quality officer and deputy chief of medical operations of the

until 2018. Prior to his present assignment, Gillingham succeeded Tina A. Davidson as director of medical resources, plans, and policy, N0931, of the United States Navy from 2018 to 2019. Gillingham was confirmed as surgeon general of the Navy on October 31, 2019 and succeeded

C. Forrest Faison III Clinton Forrest Faison III (born May 24, 1958) is a retired vice admiral (VADM) in the United States Navy. He served as an officer in the Medical Corps and as the 38th Surgeon General of the United States Navy, and is currently the interim Prov ...

on November 1. He is scheduled to retire in March 2023, with a retirement ceremony set for March 27.

Awards and decorations

References

External links

Official U.S. Navy biography
1959 births Living people People from Los Angeles County, California People from San Diego University of California, San Diego alumni Military personnel from California Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences alumni United States Navy personnel of the Iraq War Recipients of the Meritorious Service Medal (United States) Recipients of the Legion of Merit United States Navy admirals Recipients of the Humanitarian Service Medal Surgeons General of the United States Navy {{US-navy-bio-stub