Doctrine Overseer
Q& A
Overseeing The Organization Of All USASOC Medical Elements
Colonel Peter J. Benson Command Surgeon United States Army Special Operations Command
Colonel Peter Benson was born and raised in Winchester, Mass. He graduated from the College of Engineering, Northeastern University in Boston in 1985. He received his commission upon graduation as a second lieutenant in the infantry in the Army Reserve. After completion of the Infantry Officer’s Basic Course, Fort Benning, Ga., and the Special Forces Qualification Course, Fort Bragg, N.C., Benson was assigned to A Company, 1st Battalion, 11th Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Fort Devens, Mass. During four years of Reserve Service, Benson worked as a quality control engineer and engineering manager for Raytheon Corporation, Waltham, Mass. In 1989 he matriculated into the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine. Benson graduated and received a Regular Army Commission in the Army Medical Corps in 1993. He completed a transitional (rotational) internship at Madigan Army Medical Center in Fort Lewis in 1994. After completion of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Tropical Medicine Course and the U.S. Navy Diving Medical Officer Course, he was assigned as battalion surgeon, 2nd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Fort Lewis, Wash., in 1994. After three years in the 1st Special Forces Group, Benson was accepted into the Emergency Medicine Residency program at Madigan Army Medical Center, graduating in 2000. He was assigned as staff emergency physician and later chief of the Emergency Medicine Service at William Beaumont Army Medical Center, at Fort Bliss, Texas. While at Fort Bliss, Benson was also an augmentee to the Joint Special Operation Command Surgeon’s Office from 2000 to 2004. Benson served in multiple deployments to Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, serving as the task force surgeon for Task Force 121 in Operation Winter Strike in 2004. In 2004, Benson was assigned to Special Operations Command Europe in Stuttgart, Germany, as the first permanently assigned theater special operations (TSOC) command surgeon. He returned to Fort Bragg in 2007 as the first U.S. Army Special Forces Command (Airborne) command and regimental surgeon. He was assumed his current assignment as deputy chief of staff, surgeon of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command in 2009. www.MMT-kmi.com
Benson’s awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal with oak leaf cluster, the Air Medal, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, the Joint Service Achievement Medal, the Joint Meritorious Unit Award, the Army Superior Unit Award, and other individual and service awards. He has earned the Special Forces Tab, the Combat Medical Badge, the Senior Flight Surgeon Badge, the Master Parachutist Badge, and the U.S. Navy Diving Medical Officer Badge, the French Military Parachutist Badge and the French Army Commando Course Badge. He completed the U.S. Army Command & General Staff College (Correspondence) in 2005. Benson is also a Diplomat of the American Board of Emergency Medicine and a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine, Q: What is your current mission and the responsibilities as the USASOC surgeon? A: The mission and the enduring focus of the USASOC surgeon’s office is to provide the very best personnel, training and equipment possible in order to field the most capable and ready special operations medical providers in the world. The surgeon’s MMT 15.8 | 17