Page 26 - Desert Lightning News 1-8-16

26 January 8, 2016 Desert Lightning News

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Deployed doctor quarterbacks medical team

Tech Sgt. Nicholas Rau

455th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (AFNS) -- It’s 1999

and he steps onto the gridiron as a leader. It’s his team now.

With big shoes to fill left by a record-setting signal caller,

senior Cale Bonds is about to begin the final season of his

college career as the starting quarterback of the U.S. Air

Force Academy Falcons football team.

Fast forward 16 years.

It’s 2015 and he steps in the surgery bay as a leader. His

team surrounds him. He’s the deployed orthopedic surgeon

at Bagram Airfield, and others turn to him when they need

to save a limb or a life. With big scrubs to fill from the doc-

tors that preceded him, Maj. Cale Bonds continues his ca-

reer as an Air Force surgeon.

Bonds’ unique opportunities as a USAFA football player

helped shape him in to the doctor he is today. His college

coaches chose him as the starter for a reason, and the com-

mander of the 455th Expeditionary Medical Group, Col. Gi-

anna Zeh, sees those same leadership traits.

“As the quarterback of USAFA, Dr. Bonds was required

to make quick decisions to execute first downs and touch-

downs to win the game,” she said. “As an orthopedic sur-

geon, 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 life.

“These are heavy decisions and put a lot of weight on his

shoulders, but just as with his football team, he has an awe-

some team on his side,” the commander added. “By captur-

ing the talents of all his teammates, which a great leader

does, you have better outcomes on the football field as well

as with your patients. It takes a team to save a patient’s life

and a leader to guide them. Dr. Bonds is such a doctor.”

However, the leadership Bonds displays didn’t only come

from the classroom and military training. He attributes the

gridiron to building his character.

“I learned things outside the classroom, on the field, that

are more value to me than what I learned in the classroom,”

Bonds said. “I learned a mental toughness on the practice

field. When I didn’t want to work out because I was tired

and sore, I had to develop a mental discipline to keep go-

ing. Some of the most valuable experiences came from be-

ing placed in situations on the football field that I had to

overcome. I knew what I had to do and what I had to accom- U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Nicholas Rau

plish. These are things you can’t learn in a textbook. Some Maj. Cale Bonds, of the 455th Expeditionary Medical Group, poses for a picture in his office at the Craig Joint The-

values can only be learned on the field.” ater Hospital on Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, Dec. 27, 2015. Bonds, a former starting quarterback for the U.S. Air

After graduating from the Academy, Bonds continued on Force Academy Falcons football team, is now a deployed orthopedic surgeon.

to medical school and took the lessons he learned as a Fal- are working in the hospital.

con with him. From his own experiences he has seen that Academy athletes go on

“Cadet life isn’t exactly easy,” he joked, “and when you add student- to have successful careers.

athlete to that, it gets really tough. You get really good at managing your “There is a reason why our service academies seek out athletes to fill

time and have a leg up on those who haven’t learned that yet. I never fell their ranks, and I think the values cadets learn on the fields, leads to

behind at med school because the discipline I learned at the Academy.” success,” he said. “Sports teach people to develop an ‘always strive to be

Now a deployed doctor, Bonds sometimes looks back and remembers better’ attitude that builds natural leaders.”

his time as a football player and the bonds he built with his teammates. With his football days behind him, Bonds, now a father of three little

He still keeps in touch with, and tracks, the success of his former team- girls, still watches every Academy football game he can. While he may

mates. Many have gone on to be doctors as well, and here at Bagram, he not be able to get back on the field with his gridiron brothers, he still

gets to interact with seven other Falcon student-athlete graduates who can lead a team every day in an Air Force operating room.