Critical care director, rear admiral makes impact on Navy medicine

With his wife and mother at his side inside one of the Navy’s most hallowed buildings, Dr. Gregory Timberlake likely reached the pinnacle of his service career.

Timberlake, a professor of surgery and director of trauma and critical care at the Medical Center, was recently promoted from captain to rear admiral in the U.S. Navy Reserve component during a ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Timberlake said the ceremony was emotionally stirring because of its significance and where it took place – the Medal of Honor Hall at the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. The bureau is the site of the original Naval Observatory.

“In that hall, around the walls, there are the pictures and the stories of every member of Navy Medicine – that’s mostly corpsmen, but there are a few doctors – who have been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for their actions,” said Timberlake, a native of Arlington, Va. “It’s a great, historic, very powerful room.”

As a rear admiral in the Navy’s Medical Corps, Timberlake, a Brandon resident, will have a significant impact on the future of Navy medicine.

“I actually have the opportunity to influence not just what’s going to happen in these next few years, but 10 and 20 years from now,” Timberlake said. “The issues that the people who work are trying to solve are going to set the tone for what’s going to happen in the future. It will have an impact in other areas besides Navy medicine, but particularly in how we are going to provide medical care to the joint war fighter of the future.”

Timberlake has had a long and distinguished career in the military and in the field of medicine, earning him respect and awards in both.

“There are very few things that mean more than serving this great Medical Center,” said Dr. William Turner, James D. Hardy professor and chair of surgery. “Serving your country is one of those.”

Timberlake said he has always wanted to be a doctor and to serve in the Navy, partly because of subtle influences from his late father, Grady Timberlake, a longtime civilian employee of the Navy.

“I think he wanted to be a doctor, but he never got the chance back then,” Timberlake said.

Timberlake’s pursuit of a career in medicine and the military began in the 1970s. He earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Virginia in 1972 and a degree in medicine in 1977.

In 1973, Timberlake was commissioned as an ensign in the Armed Forces Health Professions Scholarship Program.

He has served the Navy in several capacities as a reservist and on active duty. During one of Timberlake’s active duty stints, he served as a general surgeon during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm aboard the USNS Comfort, a Naval hospital ship.

The medical staff aboard the Comfort didn’t treat many patients, but the time spent aboard the ship was quite an experience, Timberlake said.

Smoke from oil fields filled the Middle Eastern sky during the conflict, soot often covered the ship and on a few occasions, scud missiles could be seen sailing through the sky by those aboard the ship, Timberlake said.

“I think we were all concerned,” Timberlake said. “We had some coalition war ships that escorted us around. Since we were noncombatant we had really no offensive or defensive weapons. According to the rules of war, we couldn’t have any cryptology gear on board. We didn’t really know what was going on. We went into the war zone and stood by to assist.”

Timberlake returned to the U.S. in 1991, continuing to serve his country in a reserve status.

Timberlake said he has had a rewarding career in the Navy and reached milestones he never thought he would achieve.

“My job here is very fulfilling because I am working with a lot of good people,” he said. “We are taking care of people who are in need of our help.

“There is something about doing the same thing . . . for your country and for people who are willing to put themselves in harm’s way to make sure we still have all the freedoms we enjoy. For me, that increases the satisfaction.”

—Thyrie Bland (8-1-05)

2005-08-02 00:00:00 2685