A DOD committee formed shortly after Gulf War I to oversee combat trauma surgery programs gathered at Ft. Sam Houston, Tex., last month, to review its set a new agenda. Among accomplishments from its first decade, the group has created joint training standards and an Emergency War Surgery Handbook, as well as establishing partnerships with civilian trauma training centers. Lt. Col. Donald Jenkins, chief of trauma at Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland AFB, Tex., says that the Combat Trauma Surgical Committee comprises “high-powered, high ranking, very senior member[s]” that keep their focus on the wounded troop. He called the committee’s efforts “unparalleled.”
A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on…