The military’s elite warriors who are injured in combat will have access to medical care and rehabilitation services akin to the treatments given to the nation’s superstar athletes.
At the U.S. Special Operations Command, “We’re instituting a professional sports model of the way we rehab and train our varsity athletes, because that’s what they are,” said Army Col. Rocky Farr, the command’s chief surgeon. The new facilities will be built during the next five years.
Traditional military care providers have inadequately rehabilitated troops for duty, SOCOM officials believe, so the command dispatched some of its wounded to professional athletic rehab centers. So far, the results have been positive.
The cost will be worthwhile, said Farr. “It’s an acknowledgement that humans are more important than hardware … And that in this day and age, we have got to be able to get our people back, and the only way to do it is to do it ourselves.”