The top Pentagon health affairs official, William Winkenwerder, believes the Defense Department’s new plan to merge—where it can—elements of the military health care system will make a good system better. He told American Forces Press Service: “Our system does work well now; we have great outcomes in battlefield medicine and in the care of our wounded—the best in history. … “We have a clear set of ideas that things can work even better.” The Pentagon plans to create a transition team to work toward “major changes in governance” by 2009.
The U.S. military is maintaining a beefed-up presence in the Middle East, including fighters and air defense assets, following the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities June 22 and subsequent retaliation by the Iranians against Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
