Long-time 111th Med Group member assumes command

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Tyrone Mitchell
  • 111th Attack Wing

111th Med Group Commander Col. Adam Colombo received his unit’s colors from 111th Attack Wing Commander, Col. Deane E. Thomey, during an assumption of command ceremony at Biddle Air National Guard Base, August 8, 2021.

Thomey presided over the ceremony recognizing Colombo's official assumption of command for the 111th Med Group, which he originally joined as an emergency physician in 2005.

As their new commander, Colombo is responsible for the personnel and financial resources attached to the unit. Additionally, he is responsible for the oversight of all assigned medical units, ensuring each unit remains fully mission capable and ready for response to both state and federal military operations. As the senior medical officer, he also provides medical expertise to the Wing leadership.

Prior to assuming command, he served the 111th for the last 12 years as the Chief of Aerospace Medicine. Col. Colombo also served as the Pennsylvania Deputy State Air Surgeon in 2020.

Colombo brings a wealth of military and medical experience to the 111th Med Group.

He deployed in 2008 to Operation NEW HORIZONS in Panama, where he used his skills in emergency medicine to cross-train as a dentist and perform more than 60 dental procedures.

In 2010, Colombo deployed to McMurdo, Antarctica for Operation ICE CUBE, where he was the validating flight surgeon of the continent and coordinated the treatment and safe transport of all ill and injured scientists and military personnel at three major bases and 28 remote encampments.

Most recently, Colombo was activated as the Pennsylvania Task Force-South Surgeon for Operation COVID-19 in 2020 and again in 2021 for a total of nine months. During that time, he oversaw joint Army-Air Force medical operations for COVID-19 testing, staffing of long-term care facilities and COVID-19 vaccination programs. Concurrently, he served as the Brigade Surgeon for Operation PROTECT PA, overseeing the pre- and post-deployment medical screening process for 3100 Army soldiers during the civil unrest in Philadelphia.

Colombo was commissioned as a Captain in 2005 through voluntary enlistment. He completed Aerospace Medicine Primary School at Brooks City-Base, Texas, in 2009. He has been assigned to the 111th Medical Group, where he has served as a flight surgeon, since his commissioning after graduating from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2003 and completing the Emergency Medicine Residency at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in 2007.

Colombo is nationally board certified as a diplomate in the specialty of Emergency Medicine from the American Osteopathic Board of Emergency Medicine. In his civilian occupation, Col. Colombo practices emergency medicine and serves as the Network Vice Chairman of Emergency Medicine for St Luke’s University Health Network in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.