Rear Adm. Gregory A. Timberlake
Assistant Deputy Surgeon General for Total Force Integration
Director, DOD/VA Interagency Program Office
Rear Adm. Gregory A. Timberlake is the assistant deputy surgeon general for Total Force Integration and director of the Department of Defense/Department of Veterans Affairs Interagency Program Office (DoD/VA IPO).
Raised in Arlington, Va., Timberlake earned his Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Virginia in 1972. Commissioned an ensign in the Armed Forces Health Professions Scholarship Program, he received his M.D. from the University of Virginia in 1977. While on active duty, he completed residency in surgery at the U.S. Naval Hospital, San Diego, in 1983, and fellowship in Trauma and Critical Care Surgery at Tulane University School of Medicine and the Charity Hospital of New Orleans in 1986.
His assignments included tours as battalion surgeon, 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division in Okinawa, Japan, and chief, General Surgery and director of Surgical Services at the U.S. Naval Hospital, Rota, Spain. He also served as officer in charge of MMART Surgical Team 3 from U.S. Naval Hospital, San Diego, and the Surgical Contingency Response Team from U.S. Naval Hospital, Rota, Spain. Additional shore assignments included duty as staff surgeon, U.S. Naval Hospital, San Diego.
After leaving active duty in 1989, Timberlake was recalled in August 1990 during Operation Desert Shield/Storm. Assigned to National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., as a general surgeon, he was subsequently reassigned as a general surgeon in the USNS Comfort (TAH-20). He returned to reserve status in April 1991.
His reserve assignments included duty as officer in charge of Primus Unit P0605A and officer in charge of Naval Hospital Charleston 106. From 1997 to 2000, he served as director of surgical services for Naval Reserve Fleet Hospital CBTZ500 23. He then assumed command of Naval Reserve Fleet Hospital Minneapolis Platform. In October 2002, he was assigned as director of Health Services (N9) for Commander, Naval Reserve Readiness Command Mid-Atlantic. In October 2004, he was assigned as deputy fleet surgeon (N02HR), U.S. Fleet Forces Command. He has been on extended active duty since August 2005 serving first as command surgeon, U.S. Joint Forces Command (J02M), and medical advisor to the Supreme Allied Command for Transformation. He is currently assigned as assistant deputy surgeon general for Total Force Integration at the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery in Washington. Since November 2008, Timberlake has served as the director of the DOD/VA Interagency Program Office.
Timberlake’s awards include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal (two awards), the Combat Action Ribbon and various other service and campaign awards. He also received the Naval Cross of Merit from King Juan Carlos of Spain.
Timberlake is on a leave of absence from the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Miss., where he is a professor of surgery, physiology and biophysics and was the director of Trauma Services and head of the Section of Trauma and Surgical Critical Care. Very active in developing and providing trauma care both in this country and internationally, Timberlake served 10 years on the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma and its Subcommittee on Advanced Trauma Life Support. He is author and co-author of over 40 peer-reviewed manuscripts and several books and monographs on the care of the sick and injured.
