Wounded warriors to get specialized barracks

Wounded warriors to get specialized barracks
By Teri Weaver, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Wednesday, January 13, 2010

TOKYO — The Army is spending $1.2 billion to build specialized barracks and transition centers for wounded troops who remain on active duty but face weeks or months of recovery and rehabilitation.

The centers will put all the aspects of soldiers’ recovery — from medical treatment to family support to career counseling — in one setting adjacent to a military hospital.

The consolidated sites are meant to help soldiers transition more quickly to better health and to the next stage in their lives, either inside or outside the military, says Col. Rolan W. Small, a chief adviser for the Army Warrior Transition Command.

The centers are another response from the Pentagon to the reality of fighting two lengthy wars where more dangerous weapons have mixed with improved battlefield medicine. The injured troops need a lengthy convalescence, and the military has recognized they need a better space in which to recover.

"The Army has had to change their method of approaching care for wounded warriors," said Small, who has more than two decades in the Army and a background in hospital administration.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=67170