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.
Members of the Air Force Reserve’s 920th Rescue Wing helped save 11 airplane crash survivors off the coast of Florida on May 12. The Reserve Airmen were flying an HC-130J Combat King II and an HH-60W Jolly Green II on a routine training flight when a Coast Guard call diverted…