The Casualty Assistance Readiness Enhancement System: A Case Study in Rapid Prototyping and Design for Flexibility

Abstract

Numerous government benefits are available to the surviving family of fallen U.S. military service members. Unfortunately, most of these entitlements require a considerable amount of paperwork to process correctly, necessitating a great deal of patience, attention to detail, and composure from families at a time when their grief is raw. Even though the U.S. Army appoints a Casualty Assistance Officer (CAO) to help surviving family members through this process, the soldiers serving as CAOs tend to be inexperienced and oftentimes find themselves challenged to provide accurate and thorough assistance. Consequently, some families do not receive all benefits in a timely manner, and some entitlements may be overlooked entirely. To help with the military’s Casualty Program, we have developed the Casualty Assistance Readiness Enhancement System (CARES), an information system that improves how the Department of the Army cares for military families in arguably their greatest time of need. The tool and associated process reduced the time required to complete forms, reduced the potential for errors on repetitive information, assisted CAOs through the process, and provided electronic copies of completed forms.