The Air Force personnel and manpower chief, Lt. Gen. Roger Brady, assured lawmakers last week that USAF has a program in place to assist seriously wounded airmen returning from the war on terror. The Palace HART—helping airmen recover together—program begins as soon as the service learns an airman has been injured, explained Brady at a Senate Armed Services personnel panel hearing. He said the service appoints a family liaison officer from the airman’s home unit to work with the family—a process that continues “from initial notification to recovery.” And, it goes beyond active duty time for five years after the airman separates, providing assistance with transition programs, employment searches, financial planning—in general integration back into the civilian community, said Brady. According to a service release, Air Force Personnel Center at Randolph AFB, Tex., manages the program and ensures “each airman’s case is handled on a one-on-one basis.” Recent revelations of shoddy treatment of some wounded warriors has prompted lawmakers to zero in on all such programs.
The emphasis on speed in the Pentagon’s newly unveiled slate of acquisition reforms may come with increased near-term cost increases, analysts say. But according to U.S. defense officials, the new weapons-buying construct provides the military with enough flexibility to prevent runaway budget overruns in major programs.
