When Christopher Bombeck joined the U.S. Army Reserve in 1988, he did it to pay his way through medical school. Nineteen years later, his education debts have long since been paid, but Lt. Col. Bombeck has continued to extend his military commitment.

The Corvallis surgeon and father of three young girls just returned from a four-month mobilization in support of operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan). He served at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, the largest military hospital outside the continental United States, where he treated soldiers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Most of his patients had suffered traumatic combat amputations, head injuries and penetrating blast wounds.

"I am always stunned with the magnitude of the injuries sustained in war," Bombeck said. "It seemed every day we had another 22-year-old come in who had his legs blown off with a severe head injury."

Bombeck also treated foreign and American contractors injured in Iraq and Afghanistan, foreign troops, and he performed laparoscopic colectomies on two older U.S. servicemen - a procedure he commonly uses to treat cancer patients in his surgical practice at The Corvallis Clinic.

In 2004, Bombeck was mobilized to Kandahar, Afghanistan, for four months as a trauma surgeon. During his first night there, the surgical team came under rocket fire. In Germany, he was safe from the threat of insurgents and the Taliban. However, he could see the results of the enemy's sophisticated targeting of U.S. soldiers.

Four years ago, soldiers had only front and back body armor and were easy targets for side-shooting snipers. Since then, side body armor is available, but snipers have found new, deadly techniques: Snipers shoot the radiators on military vehicles. When soldiers step out and raise their arms to lift the hood, that is when the snipers shoot them through the armpits.

But as new types of injuries occur, military surgeons are developing medical advances to save more lives. It's a wartime reality with a long history. Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom are no exception.

New medical techniques include a bandage to stop bleeding that's made from an extract of shrimp cells, portable heart-lung machines and clotting drugs. It is used to slow hemorrhaging caused by roadside bomb blasts.

Bombeck said that although surgeons once repaired all major injuries in one long initial surgery, they have seen improvements in their soldier patients by instead treating them with more frequent, shorter operations. Bombeck said civilian trauma care will improve with the techniques being developed to treat combat injuries.

Although most of his military patients were transferred stateside as soon as they were stable, he saw their spirits lifted by care packages and letters from home. With so many soldiers suffering traumatic injuries, there will be many disabled veterans living among us.

"When you see them on the street, remember they did it for you," Bombeck said.

When Bombeck and his wife, Melissa, moved to Corvallis in 2001, they were looking for a safe and stable place to raise a family and build a successful practice. When Bombeck is mobilized, he forgoes his surgeon's pay for an Army salary.

"Surgery is a difficult but rewarding career, whether it's treating cancer patients in Corvallis, or soldiers in Kandahar," Bombeck said.

In the reserves, soldiers are given a minimum 18 months "dwell time" between mobilizations. So it's possible that Bombeck could again be mobilized overseas before his military commitment ends in 2011. Meanwhile, he spends two weeks a year teaching surgical residents at Madigan Army Hospital at Fort Lewis, Wash.

Bombeck is undecided if he'll extend his service again.

"That would be 23 years," he said. "We'll see."

Christopher Bombeck: At a glance

Rank: Lt. Col., U.S. Army Reserve

Civilian career: Surgeon, The Corvallis Clinic since 2001

Family: Wife, Melissa; daughters, Emma, 8, Sarah, 6, and Maryn, 3

Hometown: Corvallis

Quote: "I am always stunned with the magnitude of the injuries sustained in war. It seemed every day we had another 22-year-old come in who had his legs blown off with a severe head injury."

Rebecca Barrett, a former Gazette-Times reporter, works in the marketing department at The Corvallis Clinic.