[originally published in KCN, March 2001]

“The Department of Defense is on record [regarding the commissioning of Doctors of Chiropractic in the Armed Forces to provide chiropractic care] as opposing such action….  To employ chiropractors, who have a limited and narrowly focused  scope of practice, is believed to be a manpower and financial expenditure that would be of little benefit to the beneficiaries of the military health care system.”  Besides, as the statement points out, “The treatment of musculoskeletal ailments…is currently well covered by physicians and physical therapists.”

So goes a statement that’s all too common to the ears of our profession — this one was issued in 1991 by the then Secretary of Defense, Richard Cheney’s Deputy Assistant Secretary, Edward Martin, M.D.

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