Fort Bliss Monitor online
get Adobe reader to view PDF files


Weather Forecast

October 4, 2007

Front standalone

Japanese GSDF soldiers hold HAWK live fire

Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force soldiers from the 2nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery and 1st Air Defense Artillery Brigades conducted a Hawk missile live fire exercise at McGregor Range Thursday to meet their training and qualification requirements.

Gen. Michael S. Tucker, deputy commanding general of the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command and Walter Reed Army Medical Center, spoke to several future sergeants major at the U. S. Army Sergeants Major Academy on Biggs Army Airfield Sept. 26. Tucker has been in the Army for the last 35 years and is tasked with formulating and implementing the Army Medical Action Plan. Photo credit: Daniela Vestal.

Walter Reed CG speaks

Tucker discusses hospital problems, solutions with USASMA students

Photo and story by Daniela Vestal, Monitor Staff

Gen. Michael S. Tucker, deputy commanding general of the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command and Walter Reed Army Medical Center, is tasked with cleaning up the mess at Walter Reed.

He spoke to several future sergeants major at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy on Biggs Army Airfield Sept. 26 to let them know what has been done, what will be done, and what they can do to help.

Tucker found 156 problems that he has set about fixing. He is about halfway through, with 19 pieces of legislation going through to Congress.

The problems at Walter Reed really began with the Army becoming a victim of its own success, he said. There are many more survivors today than there were in wars past. A Soldier with metal in his or her body has a 92 percent chance of survival compared with a 20 percent chance in World War II. The Army now has a more efficient evacuation system, better first aid kits, and every medic is also an emergency medical technician. All these factors helped contribute to an overflow of patients, he said. Before 9/11, Walter Reed had 120 patients; after the war in Iraq, that number rose to 739.

The buildings were allowed to run down and maintenance contracts expire because Walter Reed was planning a move to Bethesda, Md. Bldg. 18, where the Soldier-patients were once housed, was one big mold incubator, he said. That building has since been closed and the Soldiers now stay in the barracks that originally housed the hospital staff. They have flat-screen televisions, computers with Internet access, and are only 50 feet from the hospital.

 

Continue

Go Youth
Youth happenings
Off Duty
Bliss happenings
Last updated on October 5, 2007. Copyright 2007 The Laven Group, LLC. All rights reserved.