Commissioned through the Health Professions Scholarship Program, CAPT Tadlock earned his undergraduate degree from Oregon State University and MD from Oregon Health Sciences University. He completed general surgery training at Naval Medical Center San Diego (NMCSD) and a Trauma/Critical Care fellowship at the University of Southern California. He currently serves as the Officer in Charge, Surface Medical Group Pacific/Fleet Surgical Team NINE and the Expeditionary Strike Group THREE surgeon. He is also the General Surgery Specialty Leader for the Surgeon General and the current Chair of the Committee on Surgical Combat Casualty Care, one of Joint Trauma System Defense Committees on Trauma.

Operationally, CAPT Tadlock served as Carrier Air Wing THREE (CVW-3) flight surgeon, deploying on the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and later supporting Hurricane Katrina disaster relief efforts (2004-2006). As a surgical resident, he participated in Pacific Partnership 2008 (USNS Mercy) in Papua New Guinea and Micronesia. As Ship’s Surgeon, USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) he deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (2011- 2012). As Director of Health Services, 1st Medical Battalion, he was responsible for the pre-deployment Role 2 trauma team training and simulation-based curriculum (2014-2016) and served as the Charlie surgical company Officer in Charge during Native Fury 2016, providing Role 2 health service support in U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). From 2017 to 2018 he served as the Southern Afghanistan Trauma Medical Director and Chief of Trauma at the Kandahar Airfield NATO Role 3 hospital. In 2020, he served as team surgeon, Emergency Resuscitative Surgery System (ERSS)-Pacific, augmenting a deployed DDG in the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) area of responsibility. Recently, he was assigned to 1st Medical Battalion (2021-2024) where he focused on developing regional Military-Civilian Partnerships (MCP) for doctors, nurses, and corpsmen assigned to operational units (Medical Battalion, CVN surgical teams, and Fleet Surgical Teams (FST)) at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and UC Irvine.

Hospital leadership experiences include Department Head, Intensive Care Unit Medical Director, Medical Executive Committee Chair, and Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Designated Institutional Officer at Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton. At NMCSD her served as Acute Care Surgery Division Head (2018-2021) and recently served as the Director of the Surgical Simulation Fellowship (2022 to 2024) and the regional Emergency War Surgery Course/ASSET+ Course Director (2020-2024). As inaugural Trauma/Critical Care Specialty Leader (2018-2021) he was instrumental in developing Navy Medicine’s strategic surgical team-based trauma MCPs at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (2021) and the Cook County Trauma and Burn Unit in Chicago (2022). As Chair of BUMEDs Fleet Surgical Clinical Community (2020-present) and working with the Fleet Health Integration Panel, he developed and implemented the Maritime Surgery Quality Improvement program, tracking and improving surgical care for all deployed CVN, and FSTs. He also advised in developing the Medical Group concept at Naval Surface Forces Pacific to optimize FST training, operational readiness, and skills sustainment.

Board certified in General Surgery and Surgical Critical Care, CAPT Tadlock is an Associate Professor of Surgery at the Uniformed Services University and UCSD (Voluntary). Academically, he completed NMCSDs Accredited Surgical Simulation Fellowship and has authorship in over 75 peer reviewed publications and book chapters with a primary focus of combat casualty care and health service support. He is also the senior editor of the comprehensive maritime surgical team textbook, “Expeditionary Surgery at Sea,” published in 2023.

CAPT Tadlock has qualified as a naval flight surgeon, fleet marine force medical officer, and surface warfare medical department officer. In addition to unit and campaign awards, his personal awards include the Meritorious Service Medal (4), Navy Commendation Medal (2), Joint Service Achievement Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal (2), the Humanitarian Service Medal, and NMCSDs Master Clinician Award (2020). In 2024 he was awarded the AMSUS – Society of Federal Health Professionals Operational Medicine Award. CAPT Tadlock and his wife Jackie are blessed with three daughters, Kathleen (16), Megan (14), and Laura (13).