Deployed Doctor Quarterbacks Medical Team

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan — It's the year 1999 and senior Cale Bonds is the starting quarterback for the U.S. Air Force Academy's Falcons football team.

Fast-forward 16 years.
It's 2015, and now-Air Force Dr. (Maj.) Cale Bonds quarterbacks the surgery bay here. He serves as the post's orthopedic surgeon, and his medical teammates depend on him when they're striving to save a limb or a life.

The commander of the 455th Expeditionary Medical Group here, Air Force Col. Gianna Zeh, said Bonds serves as a leader in the operating room, just as he called plays as a football quarterback at the academy.

As a quarterback, "Dr. Bonds was required to make quick decisions to execute first downs and touchdowns to win the game," Zeh said. "As an orthopedic surgeon, he is called upon to make medical decisions to save extremities. Sometimes he is even faced with making the call to amputate a limb to save the [patient's] life.

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