CHICAGO: Retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Paul Kendall (P.K.) Carlton, Jr., MD, FACS, received the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Distinguished Military Contribution Award this evening during the virtual Convocation ceremony that preceded the opening of the College's virtual Clinical Congress 2021, one of the largest educational meetings of surgeons in the world. The award recognizes Dr. Carlton’s outstanding contributions to the field of surgery while serving in the military. He is the third recipient of the award in the College’s 108-year history.
Dr. Carlton has had a long and distinguished medical and military career. He completed his term as Surgeon General of the U.S. Air Force in October 2002 prior to his retirement from active-duty military service (December 2002). Before this time, Dr. Carlton was promoted to a three-star Lieutenant General (December of 1999). He commanded more than 40,000 airmen across 75 facilities throughout his military career. He was responsible for developing Critical Care in Air Transport Teams (CCATT) that have transformed the battlefield care of those injured, getting them home in days instead of 6-7 weeks in the Vietnam conflict. He contributed to the Expeditionary MEDical System, known as EMEDS. He also oversaw the outfitting of the C-17 Globemaster airlift plane as a flying critical care air transport (CCAT) that shuttled more than 12,000 wounded warriors to Landstuhl Air Force Base in Germany and then on the stateside locations.
Dr. Carlton has been described by those who served with him as having an “uncommon savvy for military operational needs,” and that his creative thinking and innovative approach to the military expeditionary medical footprint is what set him apart. He also has helped support military-civilian partnerships for maintenance of trauma training of Air Force physicians. His current passion is to bring the methods that have provided the excellent survival of the war wounded home to the USA to improve rural trauma care.
Notably, Dr. Carlton was present at the Pentagon during the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He led a team within minutes after the airplane impacted the Pentagon into the impact area, while the building was unstable, still burning, to pull three injured colleagues from the rubble. Dr. Carlton also helped with disaster medical reconstruction following the 2011 tornado in Joplin, Missouri, and played a vital role in the delivery of surgical care during the COVID-19 pandemic. He has championed the defeat of COVID infections by using a multi-layered air defense system, since COVID is an airborne respiratory disease. This “Clean Air” strategy has finally been recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as one of the key methods to defeat the transmission of this virus.
During his medical and military career, Dr. Carlton has performed more than 4,000 operations as principal surgeon and more than 6,000 surgical procedures as first assistant. He continued to take surgical call at the Wilford Hall Air Force Medical Center Level I Trauma Center as the commander. He remains an active contributor to surgical peer-reviewed publications. He has been an ACS Fellow since 1981 and served as the College’s Air Force Governor from 1992 through 1996. He is the recipient of the Airman’s Medal, an Air Medal, Air Force Distinguished Service Medal, Air Force Meritorious Service medal, an Air Force Commendation Medal, a Legion of Merit Award with oak leaf cluster, and the National Defense Service Medal with service star.
The Distinguished Military Contribution Award was established by the ACS Board of Regents Honors Committee in 2018 to recognize a physician’s distinguished contributions to the advancement of military surgery. Recipients for this Award must be a physician with a demonstrated commitment to the advancement of military surgical care but are not required to be in an active medical practice. In considering recipients, the Honors Committee receives input for the award from the Military Health System Strategic Partnership American College of Surgeons (MHSSPACS), the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the Department of Defense, the ACS Committee on Trauma, and the entire ACS membership.
