Colonel JOE ZHANG

Col Joe X. Zhang is the Commander for the 36th Medical Group responsible for supporting the health and wellness of 8.2K members at Andersen AFB, Guam. He previously served as the Deputy Group Commander, 51st Medical Group, Osan AB, South Korea and Squadron Commander at the 412 Operational Medical Readiness Squadron, Edwards AFB. He has also served as the Pilot Physician at ACC/A3T responsible for human systems integration and as ADO at the 556th Test and Evaluations squadron at Nellis AFB. He has also been the chief of plans and programs at the 42nd Attack Squadron, Creech AFB as well as flight commander, primary investigator researcher, and chief clinician at multiple bases. He is the first RPA Pilot Physician in the USAF holding qualifications as a MQ-9 pilot, flight surgeon, and internal medicine board certified physician.

Col Zhang emigrated from Beijing China in 1987 and grew up in San Francisco. He enlisted in the military as an 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 worked 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 with son John Zhang, age 10 and Mark Zhang age 4.