It's an honor, it's a privilege.

Physical Therapy in Sport provides healthcare professionals with significant, relevant, and timely sports medicine and sports science research. Themajority of participants of these studies are athletes or active individuals. But, there is another very important population who would benefit from our research efforts and the application of sports medicine research, military servicemen and women. Military servicemembersmust train daily tomaintain their physical capabilities and mission readiness, which, unfortunately can result in musculoskeletal injury. In the United States this has resulted in thousands of musculoskeletal injuries that result in evacuation from theater, hospitalization, and lost duty time. Musculoskeletal injuries frequently result in short-term loss of function and can be the catalyst for long-term disability such as the development of osteoarthrosis that negatively affect the quality of life of the serviceman or woman. Research clinicians, such as physical therapists, are uniquely trained and qualified to conduct the type of research studies that determine themost effective physical training and rehabilitation protocols to prevent and mitigate the effects of injury. At the University of Pittsburgh's Warrior Human Performance Research Center housed within the Department of Sports Medicine and Nutrition, we’ve had the opportunity to conduct injury prevention and performance optimization researchwith themilitary since 2005. We’ve established on-base human performance research centers and shifted a significant amount of our time at our department's research laboratory to these efforts. The objectives of our research are to minimize the number and severity of musculoskeletal injuries; maximize performance and tactical readiness; and enhance the career longevity and quality of life of the service member during and following service. The investigations include observation and testing during mission simulation and training; prospective analysis of risk factors for musculoskeletal injury; and the design and validation of physical training programs to induce favorable changes in risk factors for injury and measurable reductions in musculoskeletal injuries. The outcome of our research has had a significant and measurable impact on the personnel we’ve worked with. It has been rewarding, fulfilling, and likely will be the most memorable research experience I'll have in my career. Our on-site faculty have had a significant impact on thousands of service members through individualized testing which provides each participant their injury prevention and performance training needs in comparison to injury risk and performance optimization benchmarks. These data inform them on how to fine tune their training so they can perform better and reduce their risk of injury. We brief military commanders on the results, discuss