Two new reports from the Government Accountability Office signal a hard look at popular Defense Department programs that grew considerably over the past decade and expanded their reach into the South Sound’s military community.

Last week, the GAO urged the Defense Department to coordinate spending on programs designed to help soldiers cope with brain injuries and post-traumatic stress. The Defense Department spent $2.7 billion on these programs between 2007 and 2010, and the GAO says it’s difficult to tell if any of that spending is redundant.

GAO reports tend to read from a mile-high view, and they rarely …

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Plenty of links overnight:

5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division
Avengers, ANA Take Historic Trip [DVIDS]
Home Is Where the Music Is [DVIDS]

4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division
2-23 ‘Tomahawks’ Bond Through Organizational Day [DVIDS]
IA, U.S. Participate in Humanitarian Aid Mission for School Children [DVIDS]
Key Leader Engagement [DVIDS]

3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division
Election Meeting [DVIDS]

17th Fires Brigade
Iraqi Hero Medic Receives Medevac Training [DVIDS]
Night Operations [DVIDS]

Western Air Defense Sector
MANG F-15′s Get Advanced Communcation System [KFBB-TV]

Naval …

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Today’s local links:

520th Area Support Medical Company:
Mass Casualty Exercise Preps New Unit for Success [DVIDS]

I Corps/Multi-National Corps-Iraq:
Inducted in Baghdad [DVIDS]
Soldiers, Civilians Build Civil Capacity [DVIDS]

Western Air Defense Sector
WADS staff sergeant aids injured commissary patron [62nd AW]

Fort Lewis:
Small School Gets Big Addition [DVIDS]

Fairchild Air Force Base:
Escorts Volunteer to Keep Watch [DVIDS]

The Western Air Defense Sector collaborated with the U.S. and Canadian coast guards to rescue two men whose fishing boat sank off the coast of Cape Alava, Clallam County, on Wednesday.

The Canadian Coast Guard first received a mayday call shortly before 1 p.m. that the 34-foot, wooden-hull Moonbeam was taking on water. Radio operators transferred the call to the U.S. Coast Guard base in Port Angeles.

A crew member said he was going to abandon ship. The Western Air Defense Sector, a Washington Air National Guard unit at McChord Air Force Base tasked with monitoring the airspace of …

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