BRAC@U

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) recently held their Customer and Industry Forum.  The Forum attracted over 5,000 participants and exhibitors to the Baltimore Convention Center.  The annual DISA conference brought together decision-makers and subject-matter experts from the military services, combatant commands, industry, and academia to share information and ideas that are critical to helping DoD achieve mission success and are of mutual interest.

Lieutenant General Pollett, the DISA Commander, welcomed participants, framed the discussions to be had through the Forum, and expressed his gratitude towards the State for its partnership and leadership in providing a smooth transition to Ft. Meade because of the 2005 BRAC.  He also challenged DISA’s partners, to include the State, to be innovative in finding solutions to current and future challenges that may arise.

For participants, the Forum was broken into a series of tracks (Enterprise Infrastructure, C2/Information Sharing, Operate and Assure, Contracting, Engineering, Information/Knowledge Management & Process Improvement, Spectrum, and Testing) that addressed DISA’s three lines of operation – Enterprise Infrastructure, Command and Control and Information Sharing, and Operate and Assure.  The tracks were arranged in specific sessions to discuss current state of operations, what the future may hold, and challenges that DISA continues to face. 

On Wednesday, the Forum centered on forecasting needs to industry.  The Forecast to Industry was hosted by Kathleen Miller, director of DISA’s Procurement Directorate and chief of the Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization (DITCO).   A panel of DISA senior leaders discussed issues pertaining to requirements and acquisitions. The rest of the program consisted of high-level briefings by DISA senior officials, including program executive officers, about DISA’s requirements, contracts, and business opportunities.

For additional information and electronic copies of the presentations: http://www.disa.mil/conferences/2011/index.html.

About 200 outpatient wounded warriors are expected to move from Walter Reed Army Medical Center to the nearby National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., as the two hospitals move closer to becoming one.  More than 100 inpatients will move from Walter Reed’s wards to Bethesda by ambulance Aug. 28, and the flag will be lowered for good at the 102-year-old Army hospital.

Also as part of the changes in military health care facilities in the national capital region mandated by the Base Realignment and Closure Act of 2005, some of Walter Reed’s functions, patients and staff are moving to the newly expanded DeWitt Army Community Hospital on Fort Belvoir, Va.

After the Army and Navy hospitals merge, the Bethesda campus will be renamed as Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

“It is bittersweet that we are marking an ending to mark a new beginning at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center,” said Army Col. Norvell V. “Van” Coots, commander of Walter Reed’s health care system. “You can go anywhere in the world, and … people who don’t speak English know the words ‘Walter Reed.’ To me, that’s how you define ‘iconic.’”

Built for 80 inpatients in 1909 under a single roof in a Georgian-brick building, the former Walter Reed General Hospital eventually became the bustling medical campus it is today, with 72 buildings on a 113-acre plot of land, closely surrounded by a neighborhood in the upper-northwest quadrant of the nation’s capital.

“[There was] no room to expand and meet the changing demands of the complexity of the wounded warriors,” Coots said. “The room was found on the grounds of the naval hospital in Bethesda,” he said.

Standing ready for Walter Reed’s patients are the newly dedicated Wounded Warriors Barracks and Wounded Warriors Complex, dedicated two weeks ago at Bethesda.

For further details see: Walter Reed Enters Final Phase with Patient Moves