Colonel David Graham Burris, MD, FACS, DMCC, was raised in Arizona, and worked his way through college as an Operating Room Technician. He graduated with a Doctor of Medicine degree from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in 1982. After a surgical internship at William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso Texas, he commanded the 19th Medical Detachment in Germersheim Germany, which had both a TDA and TO&E mission from 1983-1985. Surgical residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center followed. In 1989 he returned to Germany as a staff surgeon at the 98th General Hospital in Nürnburg, where during the Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm as Chief of General Surgery he oversaw the surgical expansion of the hospital to care for patients transferred from the Gulf. A Trauma/Critical Care Fellowship followed in 1992-1994. He was deployed to Honduras in 1996. He served with the 912th Forward Surgical Team in Baghdad in Operation Iraqi Freedom. His primary research interests were in support of the resuscitation of combat casualties, including hemoglobin based blood substitutes, the immunology of resuscitation fluids, controlled resuscitation during uncontrolled hemorrhagic shock and hemostatic dressings. He served with distinction as Chairman of the Norman M. Rich Department of Surgery at the Uniformed Services University. He maintained a robust clinical practice, while training medical students, residents, and fellows in General Surgery and Surgical Critical care. He also taught courses on war surgery for deploying medical units. He served as Chief, Military Region XIII, of the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma – where he supervised over 100 ATLS® courses for all three branches of the military throughout the world. Dr. Burris was a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, American Surgical Association, American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, Society of University Surgeons, Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma, Society of Critical Care Medicine, Shock Society, Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, and the Christian Medical and Dental Associations. COL Burris’ military awards include: Joint Meritorious Service, Army Meritorious Service with oak leaf cluster, Joint Achievement Medal, Army Achievement with oak leaf cluster, Army Commendation Medal, and Parachutists Badge. Dr. Burris lived in Maryland with his wife Wilma Lee (Evans) Burris and their three children until his death in 2010 after a hard-fought battle with cancer.