US Joint Forces Command plans to hold a five-day seminar in early December for senior military medical professionals to indoctrinate them into the world of joint medical operations. Officials say that the present-day and future concepts for joint task forces necessitate a change in medical thinking. In today’s operations, medical personnel are no longer “going in, doing a job, and coming back out,” says Rear Adm. Gregory Timberlake, JFCOM command surgeon. As members of a JTF, he adds, medics are being “involved from phase zero” and on.
Lt. Gen. Stephen L. Davis, the Department of the Air Force’s top internal watchdog, has been nominated to lead Air Force Global Strike Command, which oversees the service’s bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles.