[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 7 (Tuesday, January 12, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Page S64]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    REMEMBERING DIANA TABLER FORBES

  Mr. McCAIN. Madam President, today I wish to pay tribute to a 
dedicated, long-time public servant, wife, and mother, Diana Tabler 
Forbes. Diana died peacefully at her home in Alexandria, VA, on 
December 28, 2015, after a courageous 3-year battle with esophageal 
cancer.
  Diana was a truly remarkable public servant. For over three decades, 
she served senior government leaders from both the executive and 
legislative branches of government in the areas of military health and 
personnel policy.
  Throughout her career, Diana often played a central role in 
responding to both international crises and domestic challenges. From 
2004 until her retirement in 2013, she served as the senior 
professional staff member primarily responsible for oversight of the 
military health system on the Senate Armed Services Committee, serving 
me as ranking member and previously Chairman John Warner. In that role, 
she helped shape the legislative response to improving care and 
services to wounded, ill, and injured military servicemembers following 
a series of Pulitzer prize-winning Washington Post stories on health 
care support provided at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Additionally, 
Diana played an instrumental role in developing legislation that 
established TRICARE benefits for military reservists and their 
families; provided community support for military families with 
disabilities; expanded combat casualty care research; and ensured 
access to healthcare services for servicemembers suffering from 
behavioral health conditions, like post-traumatic stress, and from 
traumatic brain injury.
  In 2001, Diana was the senior health leader in the Pentagon on 
September 11. After relocating to other government buildings following 
the attack on the Pentagon, she oversaw the coordination of military 
medical support in both Washington, DC, and New York City.
  Shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the toppling of Saddam 
Hussein's regime, Diana volunteered to serve in Iraq as a civilian in 
2003, where she played a key role in the reconstruction of health 
systems in Iraq while serving as an adviser to the coalition 
provisional authority with U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq.
  During the 1990s, Diana served in executive positions within the 
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, Health Affairs, and 
helped oversee and implement many of the major components of the 
military health system now in place today, to include the establishment 
of TRICARE--the military's global health benefit that serves 9.5 
million Americans today.
  Following her retirement from Federal service, Diana continued to 
serve others. She remained closely connected with the Department of 
Defense, and she supported military servicemembers and families on the 
board of the National Military Family Association.
  Diana's limitless energy and passion for the well-being of 
servicemembers and their families was legendary. She ensured everyone 
in Congress remembered who we served and why we served them. She knew 
how to cut through the bureaucracy and provide real solutions for those 
in need.
  I express my sympathy to her husband, Ripley Forbes; her daughter, 
Meredith, a schoolteacher in Alexandria; and son, Jonathan, a junior at 
Virginia Commonwealth University. As they mourn, they should know that 
Diana's legacy lives on in them and in the many thousands of 
servicemembers and their families that she selflessly served.

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