Charles Thompson serves as a physician assistant in the clinical division Section of surgical trauma services at the United States Army Institute of Surgical Research (USAISR). This is a highly complex and specialized multi-system care to adult, geriatric, and pediatric burn/trauma patients, with wide latitude for the exercise of independent judgment. Mr. Thompson performs independent patient care under indirect supervision. He is a surgical assistant, performing as first assistant in operations  to determine the level of injury for critically injured burn patients at presentation in the emergency department and on the burn ward. He cares directly for soldiers who have been burned in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mr. Thompson is part of a 20-person aero-medical transportation team which functions to provide safe long-range critical care transportation of severely injured warfighters between Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, and San Antonio, Texas— a distance of 5,400 miles.  He is responsible for ICU and critical care management, stabilization, triage, and in-flight care.