Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz and Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey signed an agreement establishing the San Antonio Military Health System, an office for overseeing clinical, educational, and business operations for all military medical treatment facilities in the San Antonio region. Maj. Gen. Byron Hepburn, 59th Medical Wing commander at Lackland AFB, Tex., has been named the first director of SAMHS, which is slated to open Sept. 15, according to Lackland officials. Army Brig. Gen. Joseph Caravalho, the Brooke Army Medical Center commander, will be SAMHS’ deputy director. The services will rotate the two positions biennially. Under changes mandated by BRAC 2005, the Air Force and Army are consolidating medical services in the San Antonio area, with the San Antonio Military Medical Center, formerly BAMC, for inpatient services and Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center for outpatient services. (Lackland report by Linda Frost)
The Air Force on March 12 awarded contract modifications worth a combined $2.4 billion to Boeing to procure an undisclosed number of E-7 Wedgetail as part of the program's engineering and manufacturing development phase and continue work on the airborne battle management aircraft’s radar.