Top DOD health care officials got to hear first hand from severely injured troops about the problems and gaps in the military’s health care system, in a first ever “From Deployment to Employment” conference last week. Although wounded troops in a special panel praised the medical treatment they had received for their wounds, they spotlighted problems with subsequent paperwork, bureaucratic delays, and the lack of knowledgeable and empathetic staffers. According to Stars and Stripes, senior health care officials acknowledged a need for more compassion. The newspaper quoted DOD health affairs chief, William Winkenwerder, as saying, “You don’t want to take people’s hope away from them.”
The U.S. sent Air Force F-16s over central Syria in a show of force following the Dec. 13 killing of two U.S. Army Soldiers and one American civilian interpreter by a gunman linked to the Islamic State group.
