Recovery unit set up plan for wounded soldier care at Fort Bragg

Recovery unit set up plan for wounded soldier care
Rocky Mount Telegram - Rocky Mount,NC,USA
The Associated Press

Monday, June 15, 2009

FORT BRAGG, North Carolina — The first thing Lt. Col. Terry McDowell did when he took command of a recovery unit for wounded troops at Fort Bragg was establish a transition plan for each wounded soldier to work toward leaving the unit as soon as he or she arrives.

"This isn't a permanent Army unit. It is a transition unit," McDowell said in his first interview since taking command. "We've got the structure in place, medical wise, to get a WT (warrior in transition) to what their end state goal is as rapidly as possible."

At the same time, he's making sure that staff member are better trained to distinguish medical problems from disciplinary ones.

McDowell, 42, from Bonaire, Ga., took command in April of Fort Bragg's Warrior Transition Battalion, where soldiers had complained to top officials about their treatment.

McDowell said soldiers coming to the unit now have a timeline and a set of goals. It keeps the wounded soldiers motivated and allows doctors to set a target date to transition them out of the unit. In the past, wounded soldiers have languished in the unit for months with little or no idea how they are progressing. Army-wide, the average soldier spends 366 days in a Warrior Transition unit. The average at Fort Bragg is 350.

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