Dr. Bill A. Soliz ʼ22 DMSc was promoted to the rank of brigadier general in the U.S. Army on May 11 at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu. This achievement marked a significant milestone in Soliz’s military career and made him the first active-duty physician assistant to achieve this rank.
Soliz enlisted as a combat medic in 1987 and quickly rose through the ranks, serving in various medical roles and deployments, including Operation Desert Storm. He became a practical nurse, intensive care unit nurse, and hospital education nurse instructor, eventually reaching the rank of sergeant first class.
He attended the Army’s PA training program in 1996 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1998.
During his career, Soliz has held numerous leadership roles in clinical and operational settings, including among others battalion surgeon and physician assistant to the U.S. president.
Soliz received his Doctor of Medical Science with a concentration in advanced professional practice from the University of Lynchburg in 2022.
In a press release from the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, Col. Edgar Arroyo praised Soliz for his recent accomplishment, describing him as a trailblazer and the first “Hispanic American nonphysician general officer and commanding general in the Army Medical Department.”
