The Army's acting surgeon general says the situation here illustrates the challenge the service faces nationwide in keeping health care promises that were made to soldiers when they enlisted. Months after the problems revealed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center caused a massive shake-up throughout the military's system of care, the service is struggling to find enough doctors and nurses to care for troops and their families.

"If you're sending someone off into harm's way, if you're asking them to do the nation's business, you need to take care of them," says Col. Scott Goodrich, Winn's commander. "Whenever we can't provide the care we need to a soldier, that's very, very painful to me.