The Armed Forces Casualty Assistance Readiness Enhancement System (CARES) A Case Study in Rapid Prototyping and Design for Flexibility

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 be correctly processed, 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 Defense cares for military families in arguably their greatest time of need.