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EDITORIAL: VETERAN BETRAYAL -- A bureaucratic shuffle

alone won't cure neglect of outpatient soldiers at

Walter Reed Army Hospital.

 

 

Story here... http://www.chron.com/
disp/story.mpl/editorial/4599046.html

Story below:

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Veteran betrayal

A bureaucratic shuffle alone won't cure neglect of outpatient soldiers at Walter Reed Army Hospital.

Houston Chronicle

Secretary of the Army Francis J. Harvey is the latest casualty of revelations of shoddy treatment of all the wounded veterans of the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan warehoused in outpatient residences of Walter Reed Army Hospital in the nation's capital.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates pressured Harvey into resigning a day after Gates dismissed Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, who had taken command of the hospital only last August. Harvey apparently incurred Gates' wrath for replacing Weightman with Water Reed's former commander, Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, the Army's surgeon general, who certainly bears as much responsibility for the squalid conditions in the hospital's outpatient units as Weightman and Harvey.

As Gates told reporters after Harvey's resignation, "I am disappointed that some in the Army have not adequately appreciated the seriousness of the situation pertaining to outpatient care at Walter Reed."

A Washington Post investigative series last month documented how soldiers were admitted to lodgings infested with vermin, with walls rent by holes and coated with mold. Many veterans then found their cases literally lost in a bureaucratic maze that either denied their existence or worked to keep many physically and or mentally ill veterans from receiving disability coverage.

Weightman told the Washington Post that many severely disabled soldiers were kept on duty in limbo for more than a year because the Army was desperate to keep enlistees in uniform, "because this is the first time this country has fought a war for so long with an all-volunteer force since the Revolution."

While the reporting is at times shocking and heartbreaking, it is sadly not surprising, given the history of the United States' conduct of the Iraqi conflict. These are veterans of a war in which too few soldiers were sent to do the job, often without the necessary armor and other equipment to provide them optimal protection.

As President Bush implements his strategy to surge U.S. forces in Iraq by 21,500, military and congressional leaders have warned of a lack of training, support and rest time for the overtaxed troops committed to the war.

While politicians have repeatedly visited Water Reed to show their appreciation for Americans who have sacrificed the most for the war effort, few ventured into the outpatient units to see the mice and the cockroaches.

The failure of the government to provide the highest standard of care for the wounded outpatients speaks louder than photo-ops about how the men and women who put their lives on the line are truly valued.

Gates, the former president of Texas A&M University, became secretary of defense last year after the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld. He bears no responsibility for the scandalous conditions at Walter Reed before his confirmation. The same cannot be said of his predecessor.

Gates' decision to force Harvey's resignation is encouraging, but must be followed by quick and effective action to clean up the mess at Walter Reed and give our wounded veterans the respect and care they should have received throughout their ordeals.

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Larry Scott  --