David Bruce - Vocational

The Rambling Thoughts of an Elderly Scot!
By Dr David Bruce
OBE MSc FIMC RCS(Ed) FFOM MRCGP DAvMed DMCC FRAeS

David Bruce gave his vocational to club, as is the duty of any new member.  He did not disappoint!

What a life this guy has led - living on the edge doesn't do it justice!

David is a Scot whose family has a 100-year military background, as evidenced by some lovely pics of his grandfather on horseback in World War 1, his father on parade in Singapore in the 60s and his son’s Passing Out parade at Sandhurst.

We saw David's wife, Sue, a retired GP, who had a penchant for long distance running, with some pics of her running for GB in the 100km European Championships.  She also worked with our own Bob Paterson!

He did his first degrees in Physiology at Aberdeen University and Kings College before going on to study medicine.  He then followed his father into the Royal Air Force, but as a doctor rather than aircrew.  

He initially worked as a GP and developed an interest in pre-hospital emergency medicine which led to several tours in some very inhospitable places including Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan.  The pre-hospital experience also resulted in him being invited to go to Ecuador and Jordan to teach; he continues to teach in the NHS.

David described some of the aeromedical challenges of pilots including having to withstand huge G forces to fly the highly manoeuvrable fighters of the modern age and dealing with limitations of the human eye.  He also outlined some of the medical developments for treating military personnel who had received life threatening battle injuries in recent conflicts.  He was taught to fly an aircraft up to solo standard (badly) but not a fighter!  However, he had flown as a passenger in virtually all the other aircraft that we saw including the Eurofighter Typhoon.

We were all in awe, it was a tremendous insight into the modern day RAF and the role they undertake, especially the medics - not for the faint of heart!

For the aircraft buffs, I have included some of the pics of planes that David talked about, as words do not seem to do justice to this vocational!  I felt that I had led a very mundane life after that!

Richard Colley (in the absence of a report from the VOT!)