
Over the past two and a half decades, musculoskeletal health care in the military has evolved, bringing physical therapists closer to military service members to improve access to care, minimize lost duty time, and improve outcomes. Initially, PTs were only assigned to special operations units, but this eventually expanded to assigning physical therapists and technicians to conventional military units. What began as having physical therapists as first-line musculoskeletal care providers developed into having entire human performance teams assigned at the unit level, working for the commander and serving the unit's soldiers.