Another Betrayal of Troops

While Democrats and Republicans spend billions on running for political office there are these stories of betrayal that seldom go beyond the local level. While neocons wave flags and tell us we must support the troops fighting for us, those troops die of neglect in hidden hospital units across the nation. While peace activists condemn the war while attempting to say they support the troops, they continue to ignore the wide spread emotional and physical problems of the very same troops.
NGO's on both sides spend countless dollars on the corrupted electoral system and ask us to write our congress people but fail to advocate for the failed healthcare of the troops.
For the neocons the troops are the GI Joe heroes of American pride to be paraded around and pointed to as what the U.S. is all about. For the peace movement the troops are either show pieces to adorn rallies and marches or fools who fall for the lies of the government and part of the problem.
What both sides of the political bullshit fail to understand is the troops are the sons and daughters of their nation who had options of poverty and underpaying employment or the lure of bonuses that could give them college and hopes of a better life. They trusted too much in the bullshit and failed to understand they were merely being used as tools.
What I wonder today is whether Hillary, Barack, Mit, John Mc and John E. will manage time in their tours to shed tears for guys like Gerald Cassidy mentioned in this article below. I wonder if any of them will mention the suicides of returned troops who haven't been able to get treatment. I wonder if any of them care about the nightmares, the addiction and depression of the troops and their families.
Every time I read a story like this it makes me more disgusted with Democrats and Republicans and those who think either party is the answer to what is wrong with this nation.
I tire of being told it's the only system we have and we need to make a choice between the best of bad choices. The lies of the campaign trail are an insult to people who believe in freedom, peace and justice.
I hear the lies about change and new directions while being sure the only change that’s really going to occur is a new face of the liar-in-chief. I’m supposed to believe the lies if Hillary tears up like Bill used to or Barack emulates the hopeful rhetoric of JFK that appeals to the young. I’m supposed to believe the question asked Hillary that led to her teary-eyed answer wasn’t as contrived as Bill’s tears in his terms of office. I’m supposed to believe Barack is different because he inspires the young with empty rhetoric.
I don’t believe it! I don’t believe any of them. I won’t write a congress person or sign another petition. I have had a lifetime of lies and betrayal and I refuse to go along any longer.
I refuse to accept the death culture of neocons and the denial culture of progressives and liberals. If there’s to be change people are going to have to be upset and bothered. The timidity of appeasement and getting along won’t get the job done.
Struggle means resistance and fighting back. It means confrontation. It means outrage and indignation. It means fury and righteous anger. It means passion and ferocity. It means an end to trying to cooperate with the oppressor. The Democrats and Republicans as represented by the current group of liars seeking the throne are the oppressors. Why would I want to validate their oppression by giving it my vote in an election that is a sham and an obstacle to real change that will bring peace and justice?
Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
Vietnam combat veteran (67-69)
Denver, CO

Wounds of War: Shortages, turnover afflict military health care
Fort Knox among army posts affected
December 23, 2007 - Injured in a roadside blast in Iraq, Sgt. Gerald Cassidy was assigned to a new medical unit at Fort Knox devoted to healing the wounds of war.
But instead of getting better, the brain-injured soldier from Westfield, Ind., was found dead in his barracks Sept. 21. Preliminary reports show he may have been unconscious for days and dead for hours before someone checked on him.
U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat, linked his death in part to inadequate staffing at the unit. Only about half of the positions there were filled at the time. The Army is still investigating the death and its cause, and three people in Cassidy's chain of command have lost their jobs.
"By all indications, the enemy could not kill him, but our own government did," Bayh told the Senate Armed Services Committee last month. "Not intentionally, to be sure, but the end result apparently was the same."
As more wounded soldiers return home from war, critics say staff shortages and turnover have affected the quality of health care at Army posts across the nation.
Overall, the Army's Medical Corps has downsized significantly since Desert Storm, dropping from 5,400 to 4,300 physicians and from 4,600 to 3,400 nurses. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, more than 29,000 service members have been wounded in action in Iraq or Afghanistan over the past six years, compared with fewer than 500 in Operation Desert Storm.
Warrior Transition Units, created after The Washington Post revealed substandard outpatient care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, have struggled to find enough doctors, nurses and squad leaders to serve a growing number of patients. The Defense Department allocated about $1.4 billion in operations, maintenance and construction funds for unit facilities and projects.
Military doctors and nurses at Fort Knox move every three to five years, and some are deployed overseas. For patients, that turnover often results in them being treated by doctors and nurses unfamiliar with their cases.
Earlier this month, Congress passed legislation pushed by Bayh requiring the Defense Department and Veterans Affairs to develop a policy on improving care for the wounded. And Army officials say they are already doing better, noting that Warrior Transition Units are approaching or meeting staffing goals across the nation.
"We've progressed quite well" on those units, said Brig. Gen. Michael S. Tucker, assistant surgeon general for Warrior Care and Transition. "We've done it while we're at war and really strapped."
But some positions have been filled with workers temporarily borrowed from other areas of the military, and critics say that as the number of returning soldiers grows, the need for more doctors and nurses will grow, too.
Meanwhile, officials said, Army hospitals need more staff now. Fort Knox's Ireland Army Medical Center is struggling to fill more than 100 vacancies. It also lacks certain specialists, including neurologists who treat traumatic brain injury, considered the signature injury of the Iraq War.
"It would be very generous to say we're at the proper staff," said Constance Shaffery, public affairs officer at Fort Knox. "We are not at the staffing levels we want."
Positions unfilled
Cassidy, 32, came to Fort Knox in April, and was eventually assigned to the Warrior Transition Unit, which opened in June to handle outpatients who need at least six months of care.
The injured or ill soldiers live in barracks one or two to a room, have medical appointments in a special clinic at the hospital, and are supposed to get three visits a day from squad leaders, Army personnel usually at the rank of staff sergeant. They are told, in posters and by staff, that their mission is to heal.
In Cassidy's case, something went awry.
Bayh said the soldier tried unsuccessfully for five months to get transferred to a specialized private facility in Indianapolis "after receiving substandard care at Fort Knox."
Bayh pointed to a September report from the Government Accountability Office showing that more than half of the Warrior Transition Units nationwide, including those at Fort Knox and Fort Campbell, had shortages in key positions at the time. Of 2,410 positions, 1,127 -- or 47 percent -- had not been filled.
Jonathan Swain, Bayh's press secretary, said Cassidy's family is not talking to the press as the military continues to investigate his death. Calls to his wife and mother were not returned.
In response to a reporter's questions about the case, Shaffery said: "There's been nothing to indicate staffing had anything to do with it."
But Bayh disagreed, and Swain said the senator wants to know if problems because of low staffing are occurring in units elsewhere.
At the Senate committee hearing where the case was discussed, Army Secretary Pete Geren pledged that officials would "rectify the situation." Other high-ranking Army officials say they have been filling vacancies among physicians, nurse case managers and squad leaders.
Nationally, Tucker said, the 35 transition units have reached 80 percent to 85 percent staffing and are on target to reach at least 90 percent by Jan. 1.
Lt. Col. Chip Pierce, deputy director of the Warrior Transition Office, said all key positions at the Fort Knox Warrior Transition Unit had been filled as of mid-December and Fort Campbell has met its goals for doctors and squad leaders but still lacks two of 11 nurse managers.
Although the numbers are encouraging, officials acknowledge that needs are always changing. For instance, Fort Campbell's staffing goals were developed based on an estimate of 403 patients, and there are 459. Nationwide, 8,700 soldiers are assigned to the units.
Sgt. Dwight Blackman, a 38-year-old Iraq veteran who suffered a heart attack, is one of 277 in the Fort Knox unit. In the past few months, he said, staffing "has improved a lot" and he has no problem getting the care he needs.
"We've still got a little ways to go," said Unit Commander Lt. Col. Lanier Ward. "It's a work in progress."
Residents asked to apply
Staff shortages at Army hospitals have existed for years.
Nationally, the number of doctors has remained the same since 1999, Army officials said, while the number of nurses has fluctuated from a high of 4,615 in 1992 to a low of 3,381 in 2000.
Some patients at Ireland Medical Center say staff shortages have led to long waits, overworked doctors and visits to private physicians.
Army Staff Sgt. Linda Brashears, who suffered a brain injury in Iraq, sees a private practice neurologist off post, paid for by the military health system, and said that until a couple of months ago she faced three-hour waits as a walk-in patient at Ireland.
Although a new appointment policy has meant shorter waits, "We still need more people," she said. "…There's more patients."
Overall, about 210,000 people are eligible for care at Ireland, officials said, and total hospital staff stands at about 1,100.
Lt. Col. Dawn Erckenbrack, hospital administrator, appealed to Louisville-area residents to apply for their vacancies for doctors, nurses, social workers and others. She said Kentucky's doctor shortage and competition from the civilian world make these vacancies especially difficult to fill.
Despite shortages, Erckenbrack and Col. Rhonda Earls, the hospital commander, said they do all they can to ensure patients see doctors in a timely fashion -- using contracted physicians and referring patients to private-sector providers.
Pvt. Ike Staple, a 39-year-old with high blood pressure assigned to the Warrior Transition Unit, said he goes off the post for procedures such as EKGs.
Keeping records
Army officials said they also must compensate for the higher-than-usual level of turnover that has resulted from deployments.
Jessica Torres, who just moved from Louisville to Colorado and whose husband serves in Iraq, said turnover affects the care she and her two children have gotten at military hospitals because new doctors aren't as familiar with their medical histories.
Ireland officials -- who wouldn't say how many staff members have been deployed, citing security concerns -- acknowledged that turnover can hurt patient care. But they said they try to minimize problems with detailed electronic records, good communication between incoming and outgoing doctors and the use of civilian workers.
"We have a core group of civilian physicians who never deploy. Some have been here for 20 years," said Lt. Col. Carolyn Tiffany, deputy commander for clinical services at Fort Knox. "They keep our clinics and services running the same way, providing the continuity of care that our patients deserve and expect."
Still, officials said they'd like to have a more ideal staffing level in line with the demand for care.
"It's sort of like winning the lottery," Shaffery said. "It's something we dream about."
Reporter Laura Ungar can be reached at (502) 582-7190
Veterans for Common Sense
Post Office Box 15514
Washington, DC 20003