Although no Harvard faculty members made it into Carter's cabinet, the slow boat to Washington is picking up speed in the subcabinet level appointments. This week, the Carter team looked to Harvard for expertise both in warfare and in medicine.

Samuel P. Huntington, professor of Government, left for Washington this week to become consultant to the National Security Council.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security affairs adviser to President Carter, named his old colleague and coauthor to the post after Huntington--a controversial figure in foreign policy affairs because of his support for bombing in Vietnam--failed to be appointed Foreign Security Adviser in the Defense Department.

Dr. Charles N. Sanders, director of Massachusetts General Hospital, a Harvard teaching affiliate, voiced concern last month that federal regulations may hurt medical schools and small hospitals. Next month he may be in Washington taking part in writing those regulations.

Sanders and Dr. Howard H. Hiatt, dean of the School of Public Health, are apparently among the top three or four candidates for the post of assistant secretary for health in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW).

Sanders is playing his cards carefully. He has not said definitely whether he will take the HEW post if offered it--he seems to want assurances from the Carter administration that the issue of health, which he feels has been relatively neglected so far, will get higher priority.

Huntington has worked in Washington before, but an appointment would mean a first experience in the federal government for Hiatt or Sanders.

Sanders, 45 years old, has been a cardiologist for 18 years and director for four and a half. Hiatt, who is out of town, was on the Medical School Faculty for 16 years before he became dean of the School of Public Health in 1971.

Should either of them take the job, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Center for Disease Control, the Health Services Administration, the National Institute of Health and two other health agencies would all fall under their jurisdiction.