General: Army still facing Warrior Transition Unit challenges

BAUMHOLDER, Germany — Nearly a year ago, Col. Robert P. White was catching up on old times with his old boss, Brig. Gen. Mike Tucker, when the phone rang.

White was in a pre-command course at Fort Knox, Ky., where Tucker was serving as deputy commanding general.

“I’m sitting there having a beer with him and he gets a call. He walks out of the room and comes back in and his face, his jaw just dropped,” White told a group of 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division commanders.

On the phone was the chief staff of the Army, who had a special assignment, one that would place Tucker in the eye of the storm. Revelations about shoddy outpatient care at Walter Reed Medical Center had just burst into the national consciousness. Tucker’s task was to make things right.

Tucker, now the Army’s assistant surgeon general for warrior care and transition, was in Baumholder last week to talk with commanders about the progress made so far and the challenges ahead.

“We have transformed the way we care for warriors in our Army and we will never go back to the way it was,” Tucker said during the presentation Thursday.

Baumholder, with 74 soldiers assigned to its Warrior Transition Unit, has been among the busiest of the new outfits in Europe.

And with the soldiers of the 2nd Brigade set to deploy to Iraq this spring, the numbers are sure to grow, Tucker said. Renovations are now under way to customize barracks to meet the demand in Baumholder.

WTUs are designed to ensure that healing is the first priority for injured soldiers. The units are comprised of squad leaders, who are responsible for ensuring the needs of the 12-soldier squads are met. About 300 soldiers are assigned to Warrior Transition Units throughout U.S. Army Europe. Throughout the Army, the number is approaching 10,000.

Tucker, who joined the Army in 1972 as a private with the 1st Battalion, 35th Armored Regiment, described the origins of the outpatient crisis. Unprecedented survival rates of soldiers, limited resources and a cumbersome bureaucracy converged to forge a “perfect storm” and a nightmare scenario for the wounded, he said.

“We weren’t ready for it,” he said.

Indeed, the problems inside the notorious Building 18 at Walter Reed could be found at facilities all around, he said.

“Walter Reed was a microcosm for the rest of the Army,” Tucker said.

The numbers tell part of the story. Before the war, there were between 90 and 100 outpatients at Walter Reed. Now, there are 700. “And oh, by the way, they are missing legs, missing arms,” Tucker said.

As the injured continued to arrive by the busload, the Army cadre at Walter Reed and elsewhere couldn’t keep up.

Before Sept. 11, there were just 367 cadre to handle all of the Army’s wounded. Now there are 2,463, Tucker said.

“We didn’t have enough people,” he said.

Meanwhile, soldiers and their families were left to navigate a vast and complicated bureaucracy.

“The bureaucracy, it made my head hurt,” said Tucker, who has since streamlined the system.

The new credo: “If it’s the business of healing and it’s not illegal, immoral or unethical, why aren’t we doing it? If it’s a regulation (in the way) let’s change it.”

An inch-thick book of 70 procedures “to bust the bureaucracy” has since been created. Soldier Family Assistance Centers, which function as one-stop shops for navigating the system, also have been set up.

There are still many challenges, though. The Army’s organizational chart maps out a WTU structure serving 8,000 soldiers, roughly 1,700 fewer than what the current system serves.

More NCOs are still needed to staff units and mental health professionals are needed in droves, Tucker said.

“We have some hard thinking to do,” said Tucker, who added he’s got some solutions in mind.

But regarding that jaw-dropping phone call a year ago, Tucker said: “I’m glad I got that call.”