 On March 9, 2007, "The Washington Post" reported Army Vice Chief of Staff General Richard A. Cody's announcement that Tucker, a former enlisted soldier and a non-member of the United States Army Medical Corps, had been selected to take over the Deputy Commander position at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as part of a major "leadership restructuring at Walter Reed ... designed to attack problems and lapses exposed" in the growing scandal over poor healthcare and treatment conditions of wounded combat outpatients at the historic medical facility, uncovered in an undercover exposé by "Washington Post" reporters.A native of Charlotte, North Carolina, Michael S. "Mike" Tucker enlisted in the United States Army as a private in 1972.He served as a cavalry scout with the 1st Battalion, 35th Armor in Erlangen, Germany, reaching the rank of staff sergeant in 1977.