Pilot Physician of the Quarter

Joe Zhang is the Pilot Physician at ACC/A3T responsible for human systems integration and liaison to the MAJCOM surgeon general. He previously served as ADO at the 556th Test and Evaluations squadron at Nellis AFB and as chief of plans and programs at the 42nd Attack Squadron, Creech AFB. He is also the first USAF RPA Pilot Physician holding qualifications as a MQ-9 pilot, flight surgeon and internal medicine board certified physician. In the physician capacity.  

LtCol Zhang emigrated from Beijing China in 1987 and grew up in San Francisco. He enlisted in the military as a E-1 in Dec 1998 with the US Army National Guard where he was trained as an interrogator and Chinese linguist. Following acceptance to medical school, he direct commissioned into the USAF under the Health Professions Scholarship Program. He completed residency in Internal Medicine with board certification in 2011. He subsequently cross trained into Flight Medicine and was the U-2 flight surgeon with the 5th Reconnaissance Squadron. He simultaneously served as the flight medicine flight commander and performed additional work as a medical planner for 7AF. He later cross trained into the Pilot Physician Program and completed training as an RPA pilot in 2017. He is married to his wife Joanne Yoon and has a sons John (age 5) and Mark Zhang (age 5months).  

EDUCATION
1998 Army Basic Training, Ft. Sill, OK
1999 Advanced Individual Training, Ft Huachuca, AZ
2003 Bachelor of Sciences Degree in Biological Sciences, University of California Davis, Davis, CA
2008 Doctorate of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
2008 Distinguished Graduate, Commissioned Officer Training, Maxwell AFB, AL
2011 Internal Medicine Residency, WPAFB, Dayton, OH
2013 Aerospace Medicine Primary Course, WPAFB, Dayton, OH
2014 Battlefield Acupuncture Course, Osan AB, South Korea
2015 Contingency Wartime Planning Course, Osan AB, South Korea
2016 Aviation Medical Examiner Training, Federal Aviation Administration, OK
2016 Initial Flight Training, Pueblo, CO
2017 Distinguished Graduate, RPA Instrument Qualification Training/Fundamentals Course, Randolph AFB, TX
2017 Undergraduate Remotely Piloted Aircraft Training, Holloman AFB, NM
2018 Mission Qualification Training, Creech AFB, NV