Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration At Army's Top Medical Facility

By Dana Priest and Anne Hull
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, February 18, 2007; A01



Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan's room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.

This is the world of Building 18, not the kind of place where Duncan expected to recover when he was evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center from Iraq last February with a broken neck and a shredded left ear, nearly dead from blood loss. But the old lodge, just outside the gates of the hospital and five miles up the road from the White House, has housed hundreds of maimed soldiers recuperating from injuries suffered in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The common perception of Walter Reed is of a surgical hospital that shines as the crown jewel of military medicine. But 5 1/2 years of sustained combat have transformed the venerable 113-acre institution into something else entirely -- a holding ground for physically and psychologically damaged outpatients. Almost 700 of them -- the majority soldiers, with some Marines -- have been released from hospital beds but still need treatment or are awaiting bureaucratic decisions before being discharged or returned to active duty.

They suffer from brain injuries, severed arms and legs, organ and back damage, and various degrees of post-traumatic stress. Their legions have grown so exponentially -- they outnumber hospital patients at Walter Reed 17 to 1 -- that they take up every available bed on post and spill into dozens of nearby hotels and apartments leased by the Army. The average stay is 10 months, but some have been stuck there for as long as two years.

Not all of the quarters are as bleak as Duncan's, but the despair of Building 18 symbolizes a larger problem in Walter Reed's treatment of the wounded, according to dozens of soldiers, family members, veterans aid groups, and current and former Walter Reed staff members interviewed by two Washington Post reporters, who spent more than four months visiting the outpatient world without the knowledge or permission of Walter Reed officials. Many agreed to be quoted by name; others said they feared Army retribution if they complained publicly.

While the hospital is a place of scrubbed-down order and daily miracles, with medical advances saving more soldiers than ever, the outpatients in the Other Walter Reed encounter a messy bureaucratic battlefield nearly as chaotic as the real battlefields they faced overseas.

On the worst days, soldiers say they feel like they are living a chapter of "Catch-22." The wounded manage other wounded. Soldiers dealing with psychological disorders of their own have been put in charge of others at risk of suicide.

Disengaged clerks, unqualified platoon sergeants and overworked case managers fumble with simple needs: feeding soldiers' families who are close to poverty, replacing a uniform ripped off by medics in the desert sand or helping a brain-damaged soldier remember his next appointment.

"We've done our duty. We fought the war. We came home wounded. Fine. But whoever the people are back here who are supposed to give us the easy transition should be doing it," said Marine Sgt. Ryan Groves, 26, an amputee who lived at Walter Reed for 16 months. "We don't know what to do. The people who are supposed to know don't have the answers. It's a nonstop process of stalling."

Soldiers, family members, volunteers and caregivers who have tried to fix the system say each mishap seems trivial by itself, but the cumulative effect wears down the spirits of the wounded and can stall their recovery.

"It creates resentment and disenfranchisement," said Joe Wilson, a clinical social worker at Walter Reed. "These soldiers will withdraw and stay in their rooms. They will actively avoid the very treatment and services that are meant to be helpful."

Danny Soto, a national service officer for Disabled American Veterans who helps dozens of wounded service members each week at Walter Reed, said soldiers "get awesome medical care and their lives are being saved," but, "Then they get into the administrative part of it and they are like, 'You saved me for what?' The soldiers feel like they are not getting proper respect. This leads to anger."

This world is invisible to outsiders. Walter Reed occasionally showcases the heroism of these wounded soldiers and emphasizes that all is well under the circumstances. President Bush, former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and members of Congress have promised the best care during their regular visits to the hospital's spit-polished amputee unit, Ward 57.

"We owe them all we can give them," Bush said during his last visit, a few days before Christmas. "Not only for when they're in harm's way, but when they come home to help them adjust if they have wounds, or help them adjust after their time in service."

Along with the government promises, the American public, determined not to repeat the divisive Vietnam experience, has embraced the soldiers even as the war grows more controversial at home. Walter Reed is awash in the generosity of volunteers, businesses and celebrities who donate money, plane tickets, telephone cards and steak dinners.

Yet at a deeper level, the soldiers say they feel alone and frustrated. Seventy-five percent of the troops polled by Walter Reed last March said their experience was "stressful." Suicide attempts and unintentional overdoses from prescription drugs and alcohol, which is sold on post, are part of the narrative here.

Vera Heron spent 15 frustrating months living on post to help care for her son. "It just absolutely took forever to get anything done," Heron said. "They do the paperwork, they lose the paperwork. Then they have to redo the paperwork. You are talking about guys and girls whose lives are disrupted for the rest of their lives, and they don't put any priority on it."

Family members who speak only Spanish have had to rely on Salvadoran housekeepers, a Cuban bus driver, the Panamanian bartender and a Mexican floor cleaner for help. Walter Reed maintains a list of bilingual staffers, but they are rarely called on, according to soldiers and families and Walter Reed staff members.

Evis Morales's severely wounded son was transferred to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda for surgery shortly after she arrived at Walter Reed. She had checked into her government-paid room on post, but she slept in the lobby of the Bethesda hospital for two weeks because no one told her there is a free shuttle between the two facilities. "They just let me off the bus and said 'Bye-bye,' " recalled Morales, a Puerto Rico resident.

Morales found help after she ran out of money, when she called a hotline number and a Spanish-speaking operator happened to answer.

"If they can have Spanish-speaking recruits to convince my son to go into the Army, why can't they have Spanish-speaking translators when he's injured?" Morales asked. "It's so confusing, so disorienting."

Soldiers, wives, mothers, social workers and the heads of volunteer organizations have complained repeatedly to the military command about what one called "The Handbook No One Gets" that would explain life as an outpatient. Most soldiers polled in the March survey said they got their information from friends. Only 12 percent said any Army literature had been helpful.

"They've been behind from Day One," said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), who headed the House Government Reform Committee, which investigated problems at Walter Reed and other Army facilities. "Even the stuff they've fixed has only been patched."

Among the public, Davis said, "there's vast appreciation for soldiers, but there's a lack of focus on what happens to them" when they return. "It's awful."

Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, commander at Walter Reed, said in an interview last week that a major reason outpatients stay so long, a change from the days when injured soldiers were discharged as quickly as possible, is that the Army wants to be able to hang on to as many soldiers as it can, "because this is the first time this country has fought a war for so long with an all-volunteer force since the Revolution."

Acknowledging the problems with outpatient care, Weightman said Walter Reed has taken steps over the past year to improve conditions for the outpatient army, which at its peak in summer 2005 numbered nearly 900, not to mention the hundreds of family members who come to care for them. One platoon sergeant used to be in charge of 125 patients; now each one manages 30. Platoon sergeants with psychological problems are more carefully screened. And officials have increased the numbers of case managers and patient advocates to help with the complex disability benefit process, which Weightman called "one of the biggest sources of delay."

And to help steer the wounded and their families through the complicated bureaucracy, Weightman said, Walter Reed has recently begun holding twice-weekly informational meetings. "We felt we were pushing information out before, but the reality is, it was overwhelming," he said. "Is it fail-proof? No. But we've put more resources on it."

He said a 21,500-troop increase in Iraq has Walter Reed bracing for "potentially a lot more" casualties.

Bureaucratic Battles

The best known of the Army's medical centers, Walter Reed opened in 1909 with 10 patients. It has treated the wounded from every war since, and nearly one of every four service members injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The outpatients are assigned to one of five buildings attached to the post, including Building 18, just across from the front gates on Georgia Avenue. To accommodate the overflow, some are sent to nearby hotels and apartments. Living conditions range from the disrepair of Building 18 to the relative elegance of Mologne House, a hotel that opened on the post in 1998, when the typical guest was a visiting family member or a retiree on vacation.

The Pentagon has announced plans to close Walter Reed by 2011, but that hasn't stopped the flow of casualties. Three times a week, school buses painted white and fitted with stretchers and blackened windows stream down Georgia Avenue. Sirens blaring, they deliver soldiers groggy from a pain-relief cocktail at the end of their long trip from Iraq via Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and Andrews Air Force Base.

Staff Sgt. John Daniel Shannon, 43, came in on one of those buses in November 2004 and spent several weeks on the fifth floor of Walter Reed's hospital. His eye and skull were shattered by an AK-47 round. His odyssey in the Other Walter Reed has lasted more than two years, but it began when someone handed him a map of the grounds and told him to find his room across post.

A reconnaissance and land-navigation expert, Shannon was so disoriented that he couldn't even find north. Holding the map, he stumbled around outside the hospital, sliding against walls and trying to keep himself upright, he said. He asked anyone he found for directions.

Shannon had led the 2nd Infantry Division's Ghost Recon Platoon until he was felled in a gun battle in Ramadi. He liked the solitary work of a sniper; "Lone Wolf" was his call name. But he did not expect to be left alone by the Army after such serious surgery and a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. He had appointments during his first two weeks as an outpatient, then nothing.

"I thought, 'Shouldn't they contact me?' " he said. "I didn't understand the paperwork. I'd start calling phone numbers, asking if I had appointments. I finally ran across someone who said: 'I'm your case manager. Where have you been?'

"Well, I've been here! Jeez Louise, people, I'm your hospital patient!"

Like Shannon, many soldiers with impaired memory from brain injuries sat for weeks with no appointments and no help from the staff to arrange them. Many disappeared even longer. Some simply left for home.

One outpatient, a 57-year-old staff sergeant who had a heart attack in Afghanistan, was given 200 rooms to supervise at the end of 2005. He quickly discovered that some outpatients had left the post months earlier and would check in by phone. "We called them 'call-in patients,' " said Staff Sgt. Mike McCauley, whose dormant PTSD from Vietnam was triggered by what he saw on the job: so many young and wounded, and three bodies being carried from the hospital.

Life beyond the hospital bed is a frustrating mountain of paperwork. The typical soldier is required to file 22 documents with eight different commands -- most of them off-post -- to enter and exit the medical processing world, according to government investigators. Sixteen different information systems are used to process the forms, but few of them can communicate with one another. The Army's three personnel databases cannot read each other's files and can't interact with the separate pay system or the medical recordkeeping databases.

The disappearance of necessary forms and records is the most common reason soldiers languish at Walter Reed longer than they should, according to soldiers, family members and staffers. Sometimes the Army has no record that a soldier even served in Iraq. A combat medic who did three tours had to bring in letters and photos of herself in Iraq to show she that had been there, after a clerk couldn't find a record of her service.

Shannon, who wears an eye patch and a visible skull implant, said he had to prove he had served in Iraq when he tried to get a free uniform to replace the bloody one left behind on a medic's stretcher. When he finally tracked down the supply clerk, he discovered the problem: His name was mistakenly left off the "GWOT list" -- the list of "Global War on Terrorism" patients with priority funding from the Defense Department.

He brought his Purple Heart to the clerk to prove he was in Iraq.

Lost paperwork for new uniforms has forced some soldiers to attend their own Purple Heart ceremonies and the official birthday party for the Army in gym clothes, only to be chewed out by superiors.

The Army has tried to re-create the organization of a typical military unit at Walter Reed. Soldiers are assigned to one of two companies while they are outpatients -- the Medical Holding Company (Medhold) for active-duty soldiers and the Medical Holdover Company for Reserve and National Guard soldiers. The companies are broken into platoons that are led by platoon sergeants, the Army equivalent of a parent.

Under normal circumstances, good sergeants know everything about the soldiers under their charge: vices and talents, moods and bad habits, even family stresses.

At Walter Reed, however, outpatients have been drafted to serve as platoon sergeants and have struggled with their responsibilities. Sgt. David Thomas, a 42-year-old amputee with the Tennessee National Guard, said his platoon sergeant couldn't remember his name. "We wondered if he had mental problems," Thomas said. "Sometimes I'd wear my leg, other times I'd take my wheelchair. He would think I was a different person. We thought, 'My God, has this man lost it?' "

Civilian care coordinators and case managers are supposed to track injured soldiers and help them with appointments, but government investigators and soldiers complain that they are poorly trained and often do not understand the system.

One amputee, a senior enlisted man who asked not to be identified because he is back on active duty, said he received orders to report to a base in Germany as he sat drooling in his wheelchair in a haze of medication. "I went to Medhold many times in my wheelchair to fix it, but no one there could help me," he said.

Finally, his wife met an aide to then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, who got the erroneous paperwork corrected with one phone call. When the aide called with the news, he told the soldier, "They don't even know you exist."

"They didn't know who I was or where I was," the soldier said. "And I was in contact with my platoon sergeant every day."

The lack of accountability weighed on Shannon. He hated the isolation of the younger troops. The Army's failure to account for them each day wore on him. When a 19-year-old soldier down the hall died, Shannon knew he had to take action.

The soldier, Cpl. Jeremy Harper, returned from Iraq with PTSD after seeing three buddies die. He kept his room dark, refused his combat medals and always seemed heavily medicated, said people who knew him. According to his mother, Harper was drunkenly wandering the lobby of the Mologne House on New Year's Eve 2004, looking for a ride home to West Virginia. The next morning he was found dead in his room. An autopsy showed alcohol poisoning, she said.

"I can't understand how they could have let kids under the age of 21 have liquor," said Victoria Harper, crying. "He was supposed to be right there at Walter Reed hospital. . . . I feel that they didn't take care of him or watch him as close as they should have."

The Army posthumously awarded Harper a Bronze Star for his actions in Iraq.

Shannon viewed Harper's death as symptomatic of a larger tragedy -- the Army had broken its covenant with its troops. "Somebody didn't take care of him," he would later say. "It makes me want to cry. "

Shannon and another soldier decided to keep tabs on the brain injury ward. "I'm a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army, and I take care of people," he said. The two soldiers walked the ward every day with a list of names. If a name dropped off the large white board at the nurses' station, Shannon would hound the nurses to check their files and figure out where the soldier had gone.

Sometimes the patients had been transferred to another hospital. If they had been released to one of the residences on post, Shannon and his buddy would pester the front desk managers to make sure the new charges were indeed there. "But two out of 10, when I asked where they were, they'd just say, 'They're gone,' " Shannon said.

Even after Weightman and his commanders instituted new measures to keep better track of soldiers, two young men left post one night in November and died in a high-speed car crash in Virginia. The driver was supposed to be restricted to Walter Reed because he had tested positive for illegal drugs, Weightman said.

Part of the tension at Walter Reed comes from a setting that is both military and medical. Marine Sgt. Ryan Groves, the squad leader who lost one leg and the use of his other in a grenade attack, said his recovery was made more difficult by a Marine liaison officer who had never seen combat but dogged him about having his mother in his room on post. The rules allowed her to be there, but the officer said she was taking up valuable bed space.

"When you join the Marine Corps, they tell you, you can forget about your mama. 'You have no mama. We are your mama,' " Groves said. "That training works in combat. It doesn't work when you are wounded."

Frustration at Every Turn

The frustrations of an outpatient's day begin before dawn. On a dark, rain-soaked morning this winter, Sgt. Archie Benware, 53, hobbled over to his National Guard platoon office at Walter Reed. Benware had done two tours in Iraq. His head had been crushed between two 2,100-pound concrete barriers in Ramadi, and now it was dented like a tin can. His legs were stiff from knee surgery. But here he was, trying to take care of business.

At the platoon office, he scanned the white board on the wall. Six soldiers were listed as AWOL. The platoon sergeant was nowhere to be found, leaving several soldiers stranded with their requests.

Benware walked around the corner to arrange a dental appointment -- his teeth were knocked out in the accident. He was told by a case manager that another case worker, not his doctor, would have to approve the procedure.

"Goddamn it, that's unbelievable!" snapped his wife, Barb, who accompanied him because he can no longer remember all of his appointments.

Not as unbelievable as the time he received a manila envelope containing the gynecological report of a young female soldier.

Next came 7 a.m. formation, one way Walter Reed tries to keep track of hundreds of wounded. Formation is also held to maintain some discipline. Soldiers limp to the old Red Cross building in rain, ice and snow. Army regulations say they can't use umbrellas, even here. A triple amputee has mastered the art of putting on his uniform by himself and rolling in just in time. Others are so gorked out on pills that they seem on the verge of nodding off.

"Fall in!" a platoon sergeant shouted at Friday formation. The noisy room of soldiers turned silent.

An Army chaplain opened with a verse from the Bible. "Why are we here?" she asked. She talked about heroes and service to country. "We were injured in many ways."

Someone announced free tickets to hockey games, a Ravens game, a movie screening, a dinner at McCormick and Schmick's, all compliments of local businesses.

Every formation includes a safety briefing. Usually it is a warning about mixing alcohol with meds, or driving too fast, or domestic abuse. "Do not beat your spouse or children. Do not let your spouse or children beat you," a sergeant said, to laughter. This morning's briefing included a warning about black ice, a particular menace to the amputees.

Dress warm, the sergeant said. "I see some guys rolling around in their wheelchairs in 30 degrees in T-shirts."

Soldiers hate formation for its petty condescension. They gutted out a year in the desert, and now they are being treated like children.

"I'm trying to think outside the box here, maybe moving formation to Wagner Gym," the commander said, addressing concerns that formation was too far from soldiers' quarters in the cold weather. "But guess what? Those are nice wood floors. They have to be covered by a tarp. There's a tarp that's got to be rolled out over the wooden floors. Then it has to be cleaned, with 400 soldiers stepping all over it. Then it's got to be rolled up."

"Now, who thinks Wagner Gym is a good idea?"

Explaining this strange world to family members is not easy. At an orientation for new arrivals, a staff sergeant walked them through the idiosyncrasies of Army financing. He said one relative could receive a 15-day advance on the $64 per diem either in cash or as an electronic transfer: "I highly recommend that you take the cash," he said. "There's no guarantee the transfer will get to your bank." The audience yawned.

Actually, he went on, relatives can collect only 80 percent of this advance, which comes to $51.20 a day. "The cashier has no change, so we drop to $50. We give you the rest" -- the $1.20 a day -- "when you leave."

The crowd was anxious, exhausted. A child crawled on the floor. The sergeant plowed on. "You need to figure out how long your loved one is going to be an inpatient," he said, something even the doctors can't accurately predict from day to day. "Because if you sign up for the lodging advance," which is $150 a day, "and they get out the next day, you owe the government the advance back of $150 a day."

A case manager took the floor to remind everyone that soldiers are required to be in uniform most of the time, though some of the wounded are amputees or their legs are pinned together by bulky braces. "We have break-away clothing with Velcro!" she announced with a smile. "Welcome to Walter Reed!"

A Bleak Life in Building 18

"Building 18! There is a rodent infestation issue!" bellowed the commander to his troops one morning at formation. "It doesn't help when you live like a rodent! I can't believe people live like that! I was appalled by some of your rooms!"

Life in Building 18 is the bleakest homecoming for men and women whose government promised them good care in return for their sacrifices.

One case manager was so disgusted, she bought roach bombs for the rooms. Mouse traps are handed out. It doesn't help that soldiers there subsist on carry-out food because the hospital cafeteria is such a hike on cold nights. They make do with microwaves and hot plates.

Army officials say they "started an aggressive campaign to deal with the mice infestation" last October and that the problem is now at a "manageable level." They also say they will "review all outstanding work orders" in the next 30 days.

Soldiers discharged from the psychiatric ward are often assigned to Building 18. Buses and ambulances blare all night. While injured soldiers pull guard duty in the foyer, a broken garage door allows unmonitored entry from the rear. Struggling with schizophrenia, PTSD, paranoid delusional disorder and traumatic brain injury, soldiers feel especially vulnerable in that setting, just outside the post gates, on a street where drug dealers work the corner at night.

"I've been close to mortars. I've held my own pretty good," said Spec. George Romero, 25, who came back from Iraq with a psychological disorder. "But here . . . I think it has affected my ability to get over it . . . dealing with potential threats every day."

After Spec. Jeremy Duncan, 30, got out of the hospital and was assigned to Building 18, he had to navigate across the traffic of Georgia Avenue for appointments. Even after knee surgery, he had to limp back and forth on crutches and in pain. Over time, black mold invaded his room.

But Duncan would rather suffer with the mold than move to another room and share his convalescence in tight quarters with a wounded stranger. "I have mold on the walls, a hole in the shower ceiling, but . . . I don't want someone waking me up coming in."

Wilson, the clinical social worker at Walter Reed, was part of a staff team that recognized Building 18's toll on the wounded. He mapped out a plan and, in September, was given a $30,000 grant from the Commander's Initiative Account for improvements. He ordered some equipment, including a pool table and air hockey table, which have not yet arrived. A Psychiatry Department functionary held up the rest of the money because she feared that buying a lot of recreational equipment close to Christmas would trigger an audit, Wilson said.

In January, Wilson was told that the funds were no longer available and that he would have to submit a new request. "It's absurd," he said. "Seven months of work down the drain. I have nothing to show for this project. It's a great example of what we're up against."

A pool table and two flat-screen TVs were eventually donated from elsewhere.

But Wilson had had enough. Three weeks ago he turned in his resignation. "It's too difficult to get anything done with this broken-down bureaucracy," he said.

At town hall meetings, the soldiers of Building 18 keep pushing commanders to improve conditions. But some things have gotten worse. In December, a contracting dispute held up building repairs.

"I hate it," said Romero, who stays in his room all day. "There are cockroaches. The elevator doesn't work. The garage door doesn't work. Sometimes there's no heat, no water. . . . I told my platoon sergeant I want to leave. I told the town hall meeting. I talked to the doctors and medical staff. They just said you kind of got to get used to the outside world. . . . My platoon sergeant said, 'Suck it up!' "

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7021701172.html

dw noonan started this one sorry
http://www.commongroundcommonsense.org/for...mp;#entry688335

Wounded GIs (government issued) get treated like BIC pens that have run dry. Some bureaucrats need to do some serious time.

No problem Vet.....It's an important story and I'm glad it was posted. Thnx.

BRAC recomended WRAMC be closed because it's beyond it's service life, damn, the place was first opened in 1909. 60 years is suppose to be where buildings are getting to the point were it's cheaper to tear the old one down and build a new one. Let's figure out which administrations been sitting on their thumbs since say, 1969.

Yes, but I believe that that is to be in 2011? Won't that be a bit late for the soldiers who are currently or soon to be patients? I think, Marine, that beyond this facility specifically that there has been gross negligence in terms of providing proper healthcare for our returning Vets... not to mention the bureaucratic stumbling blocks that they have to overcome. It is, rather, symptomatic of a larger problem... and I find it disgraceful..

Maybe WR is doing the best they can with what they have. It would be nice to keep the historical part while tearing down some of the old and building anew. Unfortunately, you've only got so much money to deal with. You have to decide between decor and medications/food/supplies/placement.

That could be true to an extent Gabe, but this government wastes billions of dollars (say, for an illegal war for example), shortchanges these men an women in terms of proper equipment and training, expects them to perform without adequate rest, decries anyone's criticism as not supporting the troops, and then leaves these soldiers to the mercy of inadquate healthcare......and this is not just at Walter Reed.

BTW I do agree with the historical preservation of the hospital.

Walter Reed had a major renovation in 1972 for the returning Vietnam Vets. But that was 35 years ago.

In case any of y'all ever wondered, these kinds of problems are more the norm than an exception.

Nixon should a pushed for the democratic house and senate to build a new facility instead of renovating an old decrepted building. Carter should a pushed the democratic house and senate to replace the facility. Reagan should a pushed the democratic controlled house and senate to build a new facility. Bush the first should a pushed the democratic controlled house and senate to build a new hospital. Clinton should a pushed the republican controlled house and senate for a new hospital.

Don't y'all just love how bipartian everyone gets when it comes to taking care of our military?

The quality of service at WR is not tied to bipartisan political issues. It is tied to the amount of money it gets in the Bush budgets (or the lack thereof).

You can criticize past admins all you want, but they did not create a sitution like BushJr did where 10,000s US GI's have been maimed and dozens more are being severely injured on a daily basis.

Bush is cutting taxes at a time when he is starting and/or escalating wars and is at the same time cutting budgets for Veterans services. It is hypocritical.

Oh, the Bush budget is to blame. I guess we got it to thanks for the new facility under construction then?

It's the lower taxes causing veterans budget cuts. It is also causing us to send GIs to Iraq without all the proper equipment, and it is causing NG units to have strained budgets, and it is causing the US military in general to have difficulties getting new parts, etc..

Oh, ok, I see now.

Maybe you can tell me why back when Jimmy Carter was president and the top individual tax rate was 75% why it was harder to get any new stuff then.

Ever fly on a C-117 sunshine? I flew many a mile on a C-117 when Jimmy Carter was president; it was kind of fun flying on an airplane which had been out of production since three years before I was born and originally designed in 1933. It was real nostalgic.

Who proposes budgets today? BushJr or Carter?

Whose Iraq Folly in 2003 has cost us over $1 trillion and counting? BushJr's or Carter's?

Whose tax cuts since 2000 have created almost $3 trillion in new debt and created record level budget deficits? BushJr's or Carter's?

The answer to all 3 questions is: BushJr

Do you understand why almost $3 trillion in new debt at a time of war might FORCE budget cuts in such programs as veteran's health care as well as many other programs?

Well, it seems to me if we got a deficit the reason is we're spending money.

I think we ran a deficit during the Vietnam War, Korean War, WW2, WW1, the Spanish American War, the Civil War, the War with Mexico, the War of 1812, and the Revolutionary War. Do you see a trend when the country is in a war?

But why are we in this war, which is causing us to spend so much money? Why?

Spending is a problem, that's why we got rid of the GOP-controlled Congress. And together with funding tax cuts for the wealthy, over-spending by the GOP and Bush is why Bush is cutting veteran benefits spending and many other programs.

To try to blame reent cuts in veterans benefits on Carter shows you really don't give a hoot about either the truth or about vets health benefits.

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RobertD...nce_on_the_hill

WASHINGTON -- "We are looking more and more like the Democrats we replaced," a House committee chairman told me Wednesday. That comment came before he learned, to his surprise and sorrow, that the House Republican leadership had removed Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey as chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. The extraordinary purge buttressed the growing impression of arrogance as Republicans enter their second decade of power in the House.

The party's House leaders purportedly removed Smith, a tireless promoter of spending for veterans, to save money. But two days earlier, the same leaders pulled every string during a closed-door caucus to defeat reforms against pork barrel spending. Those disparate moves are united by a common purpose of making decisions from the top down. Smith was a committee chairman who did not take orders. The defeated spending reforms came from conservatives outside the leadership.

Obsession with centralizing authority by the leadership does not precisely fit the pattern set by Democrats during 40 years of ruling the House. But the new majority party resembles the old one in this sense: having long been in power, they act as though they are sure they will keep it forever. That attitude manifested itself in determination to get rid of Chris Smith.

Smith is derided by the leadership as a "liberal" who is in organized labor's pocket, but his voting record is moderately conservative. For 2003 (the most recent year for which evaluation is available), the American Conservative Union rated him 71 percent and his liberal rating from Americans for Democratic Action was 30 percent. Beginning his 13th term in the House, the 51-year-old Smith has been a hero in the pro-life movement and a dogged inquisitor into forced abortion in China.

The leadership's problem with Smith has been his insatiable desire to make life better for veterans during 24 years on the Veterans Affairs committee (six years as vice chairman, four years as chairman). That fits the job description set by conservative Democrat Sonny Montgomery of Mississippi during his 12-year chairmanship.

Although Smith breached the leadership's spending limits, all his proposals went through the regular congressional procedure. That contrasts to earmarking of funds for pork barrel spending, without hearings and without authorization. The Republican leaders have made little effort to curb the worst earmarking in history, because it benefits individual lawmakers. In contrast, Smith's attempts at higher veterans spending put pressure on the very few Republican incumbents who represent competitive districts that have not been gerrymandered -- for instance, Veterans Affairs committee member Rob Simmons of Connecticut.

Majority Leader Tom DeLay and the other members of the Steering Committee wanted to purge Smith two years ago for defying the leadership on veterans spending, but Speaker Dennis Hastert saved him. This year, the pressure was so great that he was kicked off the committee entirely. That action probably did not represent the Republicans in the House, many of whom were stunned by the purge. Several paid condolence calls to Smith -- including International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde and Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, two influential conservatives.

The leadership's avowed new interest in spending control did not extend to favorable consideration of reforms offered by the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC) under the aggressive new chairmanship of Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana. The Monday conference of House Republicans spent most of its four hours debating -- and rejecting -- the RSC proposals.

Hastert and DeLay were passionate in the closed-door session, opposing any changes intended to make it more difficult to approve pork barrel projects and establish some accountability for them. The response by the leadership that it eventually will adopt its own procedures was hardly satisfying.

The rank-and-file rebellion restoring a rule that will require DeLay to resign as majority leader if indicted by a Texas grand jury was the only setback for the leadership. The new Appropriations Committee chairman, Rep. Jerry Lewis of California, is expected to be more attentive to the leaders than were his predecessors, whether or not he is a less open-handed spender. The fate of Chris Smith suggests Lewis will be well advised not to stray too far from what his leaders want.

Why don't you go back and look at anyone of the previous 37 times I've explained that to you Noonan? Do you ever get frustrated with any of your students when they like to play games?

Memories are made of this, sarge:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...21801335_5.html

Perks and stardom do not come to every amputee. Sgt. David Thomas, a gunner with the Tennessee National Guard, spent his first three months at Walter Reed with no decent clothes; medics in Samarra had cut off his uniform. Heavily drugged, missing one leg and suffering from traumatic brain injury, David, 42, was finally told by a physical therapist to go to the Red Cross office, where he was given a T-shirt and sweat pants. He was awarded a Purple Heart but had no underwear.

David tangled with Walter Reed's image machine when he wanted to attend a ceremony for a fellow amputee, a Mexican national who was being granted U.S. citizenship by President Bush. A case worker quizzed him about what he would wear. It was summer, so David said shorts. The case manager said the media would be there and shorts were not advisable because the amputees would be seated in the front row.

" 'Are you telling me that I can't go to the ceremony 'cause I'm an amputee?' " David recalled asking. "She said, 'No, I'm saying you need to wear pants.' "

David told the case worker, "I'm not ashamed of what I did, and y'all shouldn't be neither." When the guest list came out for the ceremony, his name was not on it.

Still, for all its careful choreography of the amputees, Walter Reed offers protection from a staring world. On warm nights at the picnic tables behind Mologne House, someone fires up the barbecue grill and someone else makes a beer run to Georgia Avenue.

I doubt very seriously that Noonan is playing games any more than when you accused me of the same....or is this the standard answer?

How do you ask a brain damaged vet to suck it up? The treatment of our soldiers and vets is a national disgrace...and furthermore not only symptomatic of their neglect and loss of health benefits on a larger scale, but it is symptomatic of how all Americans lack adequate healthcare.

Cost of ONE B2 bomber: $2 Billion
Cost of ONE F22 Raptor: $400 million
Cost of ONE Virginia class submarine: $2.3 Billion


Anybody have any ideas where we can scrape up a few million to help these veterans? Bake sales? Garage sales?

Or are they just "equipment" that once damaged, is just discarded?

The money for funding Walter Reed and it's infamous Building 18 comes from the DOD via the prez's budget.

BTW- has anyone seen the video footage of Building 18 ? And how far the injured have to go from that building to receive care, etc ?
It is hard to watch- such a disgrace.

Well well well.........my favorite gooney bird.

We used to train reservist in communication center procedures all over the eastern half of the USA and the C-117 was our favorite mode of getting there and getting back. I can tell you some storys about this bird that would make your hair stand on end.

Well, since he keeps asking the same question and expecting different results maybe it isn't a game, eh?

... and I'd believe each and every one of them! Had several of my loadmaster friends fly on them, so probably heard them anyhow...

By far my most interesting ride on a Marine Corps aircraft was on one of these.

We were making a hop into Gitmo and the only plane available was this antique flying with a reserve unit out of upstate New York. They picked us up at Cherry Point and we flew south for about 5 hours stopping to refuel at NAS Jacksonville before heading out over the water for Gitmo. This ancient old buzzard couldn't get more than about 5000 high and when you looked out the windows you could see the sharks swimming in the carribean below. The whole time we was in the air they made us wear parachutes and mae west because they were not all that sure the plane was going to make it or not.

Nine hours latter the reservist pilots decided they better land in San Juan Puerto Rico because they weren't so sure of their navigational skills making a night time approach into Cuba. I don't think Fidel would a been real understanding had we violated his airspace, eh? Well we spent the night in San Juan, got up early the next morning and flew into Gitmo.

Pretty uneventful huh? Wait til I tell you about the flight home.

We left Cuba late in the afternoon heading back to Florida. When you travel a lot by military air you learn soon as you get on a plane you go to sleep. Well, about 0200 somewhere out over the middle of the ocean the exhaust manifold fell off the port engine. Any of y'all familar with radial engines can verify what it sounds and looks like when an exhaust manifold falls off. The engine makes the most God awful racket you've ever heard and fire is shooting out the open exhaust ports all around the engine.

Well everyone is brought out of there slumber just in time to see one of the reservist crew members run over to one of the windows, turns and shouts to the pilot, "Oh my God, the engine's on fire". What a comfort that was hearing that and we are sitting there thinking about all those sharks we saw swimming below us the previous day. Fortunatley in less than a minute the Crew Chief intervened knowing what had happened with the exhaust manifold, he looks out the window and says, "Nah, it does that all the time".

No one went back to sleep that night though.

No, I keep pressing them until they open their eyes and give me a real answer. Not always the one I want to hear, but one that shows me they have learned something.

Tony Snow on The White House and the conditions at Walter Reed

Tony Snow admitted that they knew about the conditions at Walter Reed before the article hit the stands, but he hedged his bets as he went on.

Q Do you think the President is going to say something about this later?

MR. SNOW: No.

Q You responded to me a moment ago that the administration was aware of this before the articles appeared in the paper.

MR. SNOW: That is my understanding. But, again, this is something that's an action item over at the Department of Defense and, in particular, the Department of the Army. I am not fully briefed on the activities or who knew what, when. And I suggest –

Q Was the President aware of it? Was the White House aware of it?

MR. SNOW: I am not certain –

Q May I follow on –

Q What is the President's –

MR. SNOW: — when we first became aware of it.* Now the President certainly has been aware of the conditions in the wards where he has visited, and visited regularly, and we also have people from Walter Reed regularly over to the White House as guests, sometimes in fairly large numbers. So as I said, the President is committed — committed to these people, committed to men and women who have served. We need to make sure that whatever problems there are get fixed. I couldn't be any stronger or plainer about it.
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Countdown: Shameful treatment of the Troops at Walter Reed


It's an abomination that the horrendous treatment of our wounded veterans has gone on without notice for so long. Of course, the injured troops have been dealing with it for some time now….

Dana Priest does a three minute summation of her column which broke the sad news that our wounded live in a rat and roach infested facility. The word is that once again the people in charge didn't plan for the amount of injured troops and can't handle it. Jon Soltz of VoteVets.org—follows up with Keith and discusses the issue. It's time for some real leadership to get help to the troops. And some real leadership means the readers of C&L. I'm finding out how we can help…I'll keep you posted…
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Senior Walter Reed official under investigation because of Wash Post investigation

The guy was in charge of directing private donations to help injured and maimed soldiers. But the allegation is that while he was heading up that job he was also running his own foundation where he, allegedly, was steering potential donors who walked in the door planning to give money to help the injured troops. The allegations go on to say that the guy spent so much time running his foundation that he simply let a lot of the vets and their families languish.

Yeah, I'm sure nobody had heard this guy was trouble until the Washington Post came calling last week. And actually, the guy says he told his superiors what he was doing "from the beginning." Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, who is in charge of Walter Reed, says it's just not true.

All of this can be settled with a few congressional subpoenas and some testimony under oath.

American Legion silent on new reports of abuse of America's veterans

The American Legion's Web site home page is very telling for what it doesn't say.

The most prominent thing on the Web site is a statement castigating Democratic House leaders for expressing disapproval of Bush's new "surge" plan for Iraq. And I quote:

Tough talk about supporting the troops. So you'd expect the American Legion to have something to say about the fact that 600,000 veteran disability claims are backlogged and going nowhere at Walter Reed. And about the fact that our troops are routinely treated like dogs while living at Walter Reed and after they're discharged. Or about the fact that the top guy at Walter Reed in charge of helping funnel private donations to help our troops is now being investigated for wrongdoing. You'd really expect that the American Legion home page might have something to say about this gross injustice to America's war veterans.

But you'd be wrong.

Here's the American Legion home page:


And here's the American Legion's bitter statement about the surge vote in the Congress. It even throws some anti-Bill Clinton jabs in there. But not a word about the mistreatment of our troops. Well, that's not totally true. In addition to claiming that Democrats are the ones abusing our troops, the American Legion closes with this rather self-referential statement:



Nor should they be used by an American Legion that somehow appears to lose its tongue when Republicans are the ones harming our vets.

Ok, I know the person that wrote the above post had to be politically clueless if they didn't know the leanings of the Legion before digging around on the website, but since we haven't talked about the Legion in some time, I couldn't resist putting that article here.

Army now claims it's fixing Walter Reed mess. Yeah, right. Abuse me once, shame you...

Yeah, right. We're to believe that "now" the Army is getting serious about helping the Iraq and Afghanistan war vets, only because the Army has been terribly embarrassed by a series of articles in the Washington Post and the Army Times over the past couple days. I don't buy it for a minute. These bastards didn't give a damn about our troops. George Bush, the Republican congress, and the highest levels of the military abused our injured and maimed troops for over five years now, and suddenly after the media embarrasses the hell out of them, now we're to believe that they suddenly care about the same men and women they've been outright and serially abusing? Bull. These people have proven time and again how little care they have for our war veterans. The hell we're going to trust them now. And in any case, just how are they going to catch up on their inept backlog of 600,000 disability claims? With spitballs?

Congress needs to intervene now. We need hearings, we need legislation. We need to know who did this, and how it's going to be fixed. We need to hear from our leaders in Congress about this now.

Bush to injured Iraq vets at Walter Reed: Don't talk to us about it

Outrageous. Just when you thought the Walter Reed veterans abuse scandal can't get any worse, it does. Today the Bush Administration disavowed any responsibility for what's happening to wounded soldiers at the army hospital, which is basically a straight shot up 16th Street from the White House.

White House spokesman Tony Snow got pummeled today at the White House briefing over the shabby treatment the soldiers are receiving at Walter Reed. But, he was unfazed. You see, it's not the White House's problem, and they don't intend to take responsibility for fixing it.

We've all seen the Bush Administration talk about supporting the troops endlessly. They use our soldiers as political props all the time. But, despite the shabby treatment wounded troops are getting right here in DC, at the supposed flagship hospital, the Bush team didn't say, "this is an outrage and we're going to fix it." No, Tony Snow punted.

Snow told the press corps that if they wanted to know what was going on at Walter Reed, those responsible for working on the problem "work on the other side of the river." In other words, it's the Pentagon's fault, and the Pentagon's responsibility for fixing it -- as if George Bush has no say over what the Pentagon does (or no desire). C'mon. They work for Bush over at the Pentagon, they are PART OF the Bush Administration.

The Bush White House takes NO responsibility for what's going on at Walter Reed. They take no responsibility for fixing things. The White House didn't need to say it was their fault, they simply needed to say "this is outrageous, we're taking over." But they didn't.

George Bush and the Republicans simply do not support our troops. It's beyond outrageous.

Walter Reed statement: Washington Post article is a lie

We've just received a copy of a letter sent by the general running Walter Reed to the entire staf. He needs to be fired, now.



Heckuva job, Brownie.

Here's the most important article of all. I know my wife and I plan on sending along something as we are moving...

More on Walter Reed

I talked to many people (they were as helpful as they could be) over at Walter Reed today to find out what their response was to the WaPa article and how C&Lers can help the troops in a positive way. I was told to wait until Gen. Weightman addressed the issue to the media and then go from there because he will outline what is needed. (I couldn't coax anything new). They said he will be going on the record very soon which isn't a shock. He's got to speak out ASAP. I had the feeling that he will come out swinging because the word "allegations" was spoken to me many times about the WaPo's article. I assume he will condemn the Washington Post reporters—-then try to spin it positively in his favor…

I was then transferred to the Medical Family Assistance Center and asked them what the soldiers needed right now. Any type of calling card (international is a high priority) and black backpacks would be greatly appreciated. If you can help, send them to:

Walter Reed Army Medical Center

Medical Family Assistance Center BLDG. 2, Third Floor, Room 3E01.

6900 Georgia Ave NW

Washington, DC 20307
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Congress responds to Walter Reed report.

“Seizing on an investigative report by The Washington Post’s Dana Priest and Anne Hull, Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) will introduce legislation next week to require more frequent inspections of hospitals providing treatment to active-duty military personnel.” Meanwhile, Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Patty Murray (D-WA) “wrote to Defense Secretary Robert Gates today demanding an inspector general’s investigation into living conditions for the returning soldiers at Walter Reed.”

UPDATE: Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) has sent a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, demanding answers on Walter Reed.
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And as long as you think you can convince me by barraging the thread with articles by wingnuts I doubt if you will accomplish what you seek.

When I open one of your links and the first thing you see is a banner saying "worst president ever"; guess what, I don't bother reading any further.

Ya know!...For a Congresswoman I didn't vote for, Claire's been exceeding my expectations so far.

I see this as one more of many, many examples of what the people have already decided was the
problems of the country(Iraq War, Corruption & Incompetence in Goverment and goverment programs and lack of citizen participation) and chose to turn the rascals out that were for election
and we'll get more of them in 2008.

It is symtomatic of the negative effects of corruption and incompetence found throughout much of
Education and Human Services at every level. This is what Democrats are getting elected to fix.
I hope every politician gets good Program Evaluation Experts on their staffs.

Hey, I never get that ad - I'm assuming you're referring to AmericaBlog. They're more radical than most of us here, and I include myself in that group, and they do tend to follow along with some here than can talk without proof on some things, but this is one item that has real sources and (unfortunately) they are one of the few places talking about this right now.

Of course, I didn't think you'd judge a book by its cover either.

Walter Reed Neglect

During yesterday’s White House press briefing, Tony Snow tried to play down the neglect uncovered at Walter Reed by portraying it as old news. President Bush “certainly has been aware of the conditions in the wards where he has visited, Snow said, affirming that the administration was aware of Walter Reed’s conditions “before the articles appeared in the paper.”

The White House has since backtracked from Snow’s comments. In a small addendum added to the bottom of yesterday’s briefing transcript on the White House website, a note now reads that Bush “first learned of the troubling allegations regarding Walter Reed from the stories this weekend in the Washington Post,” and that he is “deeply concerned” by the conditions:


Following the reversal, Snow told the Washington Post that “he did not know why the president, who has visited the facility many times in the past five years, had not heard about these problems before.”

Asked yesterday if Bush may talk about this scandal at some point in the future, Snow answered, “No.“
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Readin' through this thread makes me wonder how many of the congress critters referred to as bein' outraged, as well as them postin' in this thread really give a rat's ass 'bout the military folks bein' treated at Walter Reed, or are they actually more interested only 'cause it's embarrasin' to the Bush administration, eh? My suspicion is mainly the latter.

Methinks few've actually bothered to find out how and why the "Buildin' 18" facility was established, what the BRAC proposal for combinin' Walter Reed AMC and the NNMC at Bethesda into a real full service joint military medical command actually entails, why congresses controlled by both parties have stonewalled it since 'twas first proposed over 25 years ago, how the closure of so many good military hospitals 'round the country over the past 25 years have made the antiquated facilities at Walter Reed so important now, and a host of other considerations. Buildin' 18 is only a symptom IMHO of what's been happenin', and I think the political gamesmanship played by elected members of both parties durin' the past couple decades means there's enough blame for folks on both sides of the aisle to go 'round.

Y'all can keep on voicin' your selective outrage and doin' selective postin' of articles if it makes you feel good or superior somehow. On the other hand you might wanna check what's really gone on and act on that, dependin' on where your actual interests really lie, eh?

I'm not in on all the details you've introduced, Doc, but I've got an open mind. The truth about this is somewhere in between the worms on the right and the compost on the left. Give us some links and arguments that will allow us to come to a reasonable conclusion-whatever that might be.

I mean it Doc, I'm interested. Give me a way that I can form a reasonable conclusion- and I hope you know I am sincere since it seems we've had conversations like this in the distant past and yet still like each other... (I hope...)

They showed pictures of some of the rooms in Bldg. 18 on FOX tonight, and some were in pretty sorry shape. It does look though that they are getting their act together, and fixin' things up.
Ya gotta shine the light on problems, if'n ya wanna get them fixed.