General With Combat Experience to Become Walter Reed Deputy

By Josh White and Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, March 9, 2007; A13

A combat-arms brigadier general from Fort Knox will take over as deputy commanding general of Walter Reed Army Medical Center, a move that Army officials said yesterday will allow medical commanders to focus on health care while battle-hardened field officers work to regain the trust of wounded soldiers.

Gen. Richard A. Cody, the Army's vice chief of staff, announced that Brig. Gen. Michael S. Tucker will come to Washington as part of a leadership restructuring at Walter Reed that will include the creation of a brigade focused on helping wounded outpatients navigate a treacherous bureaucracy. Cody, speaking to reporters at Walter Reed, said the changes are designed to attack problems and lapses exposed in a series of Washington Post articles and to ensure that veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan receive the care and respect they deserve.

Cody said he believes that new leadership is key to fixing problems that let outpatient soldiers fall through the cracks.

"He understands soldiers. He understands leading in combat. He understands how to run large organizations," Cody said of Tucker. "He's going to be the guy that we look to to be the soldiers' and families' advocate as they go through inpatient and outpatient, but also he's going to be the bureaucratic buster . . . and take on this bureaucracy that at times frustrates our soldiers."

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