[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 50 (Tuesday, March 15, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13994-13996]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-5915]


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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Department of the Air Force

[Docket ID: USAF-2011-0010]


Proposed Collection; Comment Request

AGENCY: Department of the Air Force, DoD.

[[Page 13995]]


ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995, the United States Air Force announces a proposed 
public information collection and seeks public comment on the 
provisions thereof. Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed 
collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of 
the functions of the agency, including whether the information shall 
have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of 
the burden of the proposed information collection; (c) ways to enhance 
the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; 
and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the information collection on 
respondents, including through the use of automated collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology.

DATES: Consideration will be given to all comments received by May 16, 
2011.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by docket number and 
title, by any of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
     Mail: Federal Docket Management System Office, 1160 
Defense Pentagon, Washington, DC 20301-1160.
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency 
name, docket number and title for this Federal Register document. The 
general policy for comments and other submissions from members of the 
public is to make these submissions available for public viewing on the 
Internet at http://www.regulations.gov as they are received without 
change, including any personal identifiers or contact information.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request more information on this 
proposed information collection or to obtain a copy of the proposal and 
associated collection instruments, please write to HQ USAF/A1SZ, Air 
Force Warrior and Survivor Care, 1040 Air Force Pentagon, Washington, 
DC 20330-1040 or call (703) 697-1089, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 
5 p.m., Eastern Time.
    Title; Associated Form; and OMB Number: Warrior and Survivor Care; 
OMB Control Number 0701-TBD.
    Needs and Uses: The information collection requirement is necessary 
to obtain information on the reintegration needs of combat-injured 
Airmen from the perspectives of their primary supporters, the family 
members and friends whom the Airmen nominate as their most frequent 
provider of help to deal with problems. Anecdotal reports from Air 
Force program case managers suggest that these individuals represent an 
important source of support to combat-injured Airmen as they 
reintegrate into civilian life and offer unique information on the 
challenges encountered by these Airmen during the process of 
reintegration. This information collection will be the first large-
scale, systematic effort to assess primary supporters' perspectives on 
combat-injured Airmen's reintegration needs. It will also assess 
primary supporters' perceptions of the effectiveness of the two key Air 
Force programs that serve combat-injured Airmen, the Air Force Wounded 
Warrior Program and Air Force Recovery Care Coordinator Program, in 
addressing the needs of combat-injured Airmen. This information 
collection will provide a valuable window into the social support 
provided to the Airmen, yield insights into how existing sources of 
support can be strengthened and leveraged to facilitate the Airmen's 
reintegration into civilian life, and inform Air Force program 
improvements to address combat-injured Airmen's reintegration needs.
    Affected Public: Individuals or households.
    Total Burden Hours Over 3 Years: 728.
    Number of Respondents Over 3 Years (Unduplicated): 557.
    Maximum Responses per Respondent: 5.
    Average Burden per Response (hours): 25/60.
    Frequency: Semi-annually.

                                                       Table--Estimated Burden Over 3-Year Period
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                   Number of                               Number of respondents
                                                   responses  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                      per               Year 1                    Year 2                    Year 3              Burden
                                                   respondent ------------------------------------------------------------------------------  hours over
                                                     over 3                                                                        3-year      3 years
                                                     years        Wave 1       Wave 2       Wave 3       Wave 4       Wave 5       Total
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cohort 1........................................            5          287          253          222          196          172        1,131          471
Cohort 2........................................            4          N/A           81           71           63           55          270          112
Cohort 3........................................            3          N/A          N/A           63           55           49          167           70
Cohort 4........................................            2          N/A          N/A          N/A           63           55          118           49
Cohort 5........................................            1          N/A          N/A          N/A          N/A           63           63           26
                                                 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    3-Year total................................  ...........  ...........  ...........  ...........  ...........  ...........        1,748          728
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
N/A = Not Applicable. The decrease in the number of respondents within each cohort from one wave to the next reflects an expected retention rate of 88%.


SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Summary of Information Collection

    This project is being funded by the U.S. Air Force and conducted by 
the RAND Corporation. Respondents will be primary supporters of combat-
injured Airmen served by the Air Force Wounded Warrior Program. These 
individuals are nominated by combat-injured Airmen as the family member 
or friend to whom the Airman most often turns for help with problems. 
All primary supporters nominated by combat-injured Airmen will be 
invited to participate in the information collection (i.e., survey 
administration), which will occur no more than semi-annually in each 
year over a three-year period. Primary supporters who choose to 
participate will be presented with the option of completing the 
information collection on the telephone or on the Web. The collection 
instrument assesses primary supporters' perceptions of Airmen's well-
being, primary supporters' own well-being, provision of social support 
to the Airmen, and perceptions of the effectiveness of existing Air 
Force programs at meeting the needs of combat-injured Airmen.
    The proposed project will utilize a cohort-sequential design. Thus, 
we will recruit the first cohort of primary supporters and follow up 
with them at each subsequent survey administration

[[Page 13996]]

until the end of the three-year period. At each subsequent survey 
administration, we will also recruit a new cohort of primary supporters 
nominated by combat-injured Airmen who have become eligible for 
services from the Air Force Wounded Warrior Program since the 
nomination of the previous cohort of primary supporters. We plan on a 
total of five waves of the information collection and thus five cohorts 
of primary supporters over the three-year period. Based on previous 
research, we expect a response rate of 86% among the primary supporters 
nominated by combat-injured Airmen and a retention rate of 88% from 
each wave of the information collection to the next.
    We expect the nomination of 334 primary supporters for the first 
information collection and, assuming a response rate of 86%, we 
anticipate 287 completed primary supporter surveys for the first 
(baseline) information collection. At the time of the second 
information collection, we will administer the survey again to the 
first cohort of primary supporters and survey a second, new cohort of 
primary supporters nominated by combat-injured Airmen who have recently 
been accessed into the Air Force Wounded Warrior Program. We anticipate 
the retention of 88% of the 287 primary supporters who completed the 
first information collection, for a total of 253 primary supporters 
from Cohort 1 to be followed up at the second wave of the information 
collection. We also expect the nomination of 94 additional primary 
supporters during the interval in between the first and second 
information collections and thus, assuming a response rate of 86%, 81 
new primary supporters in the second cohort completing the second 
information collection. At each of the three subsequent waves of the 
information collection, we expect 73 primary supporters to be nominated 
by combat-injured Airmen and, again assuming a response rate of 86%, 
the recruitment of 63 new primary supporter respondents into the 
information collection in the third, fourth, and fifth cohorts.
    Assuming these recruitment levels for new cohorts at each wave of 
the information collection and a retention rate of 88% from one wave to 
the next, we estimate a total of 557 unduplicated respondents over the 
three-year period (i.e., counting each respondent only once, regardless 
of how many waves of information collection they complete). This total 
is the sum of the numbers of respondents in each cohort at the first 
wave of the information collection completed by that cohort, i.e., the 
287 respondents in Cohort 1 plus the 81 respondents in Cohort 2 plus 
the 63 respondents in Cohort 3, etc. The information collection is 
estimated to take 25 minutes or 25/60 hours per response to complete. 
Assuming this burden per response and a total of 1,748 responses over 
the three-year period (sum of the number of responses anticipated for 
each cohort, including multiple responses from respondents) results in 
a total estimated respondent burden of 728 hours over the three-year 
period. The estimated respondent burden for the three-year period is 
detailed in the above table.
    If this information is not collected from primary supporters of 
combat-injured Airmen, key needs of combat-injured Airmen may go 
ignored, and critical leverage points for facilitating Airmen's 
adjustment may be overlooked. This information collection will inform 
Air Force program improvements to bolster existing supports and expand 
the array of supports needed to promote combat-injured Airmen's 
adjustment.

    Dated: March 3, 2011.
Morgan F. Park,
Alternate OSD Federal Register Liaison Officer, Department of Defense.
[FR Doc. 2011-5915 Filed 3-14-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 5001-06-P