An Analysis and Summary of the Recommendations Made by the U.S. DoD 2010-2014 Recovering Warrior Task Force

In 2010, the U.S. Congress directed the Department of Defense to establish the Recovering Warrior Task Force (RWTF) to examine the effectiveness of, and recommend improvements to, military programs and policies for the care, management, and transition of wounded, ill, and injured personnel. To meet its comprehensive mandate, RWTF gathered extensive primary and secondary data that, in combination with RWTF members' relevant experience and expertise, informed and substantiated the recommendations that RWTF published each year. With the 2014 sunset of the Task Force, the authors, who provided research support to RWTF throughout its tenure, sought to systematically summarize RWTF's overall impressions regarding the shortfalls in the RW program and policy arena by analyzing the 87 recommendations that these shortfalls motivated. Our 3-part qualitative analysis included sorting by congressionally determined topics, thematic analysis, and examining topic/theme convergence. We use the results of these analyses as a framework for discussing program and policy areas that RWTF found most in need of attention over its 4 years of operation. Among these were continuing gaps in Department of Defense-wide policy governing the delivery of needed resources to RWs and family caregivers, which result in disparities across Services, Components, and locations.