NationStates Jolt Archive


Supporting our Troops in Squalor at Walter Reed.

Cyrian space
01-03-2007, 19:50
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/28/AR2007022801954.html
apparently the army believes that our troops deserve to live in a building infested with "mice, mold, rot and cockroaches" while trying to recover from wounds taken in Iraq. I'm just lucky my brother isn't in a place like this. If I found out President Bush knew about this, I'd slug him in the gut.

A few quotes from the article:
Steve Robinson, director of veterans affairs at Veterans for America, said he ran into Kiley in the foyer of the command headquarters at Walter Reed shortly after the Iraq war began and told him that "there are people in the barracks who are drinking themselves to death and people who are sharing drugs and people not getting the care they need."
"I met guys who weren't going to appointments because the hospital didn't even know they were there," Robinson said. Kiley told him to speak to a sergeant major, a top enlisted officer.
Kiley, his successive commanders at Walter Reed and various top noncommissioned officers in charge of soldiers' lives have heard a stream of complaints about outpatient treatment over the past several years. The complaints have surfaced at town hall meetings for staff and soldiers, at commanders' "sensing sessions" in which soldiers or officers are encouraged to speak freely, and in several inspector general's reports detailing building conditions, safety issues and other matters.
Beverly Young said she complained to Kiley several times. She once visited a soldier who was lying in urine on his mattress pad in the hospital. When a nurse ignored her, Young said, "I went flying down to Kevin Kiley's office again, and got nowhere. He has skirted this stuff for five years and blamed everyone else."
Last week, the Army relieved of duty several low-ranking soldiers who managed outpatients. This week, in a move that some soldiers viewed as reprisal for speaking to the media, the wounded troops were told that early-morning room inspections would be held and that further contact with reporters is prohibited.
Farnhamia
01-03-2007, 19:57
Oh, the president may not have know the details of mold, rot and rats at Walter Reed, but trust me, he knew the place was a wreck. It's been a wreck for quite some time, I gather. You might want to do a little digging in Bush's budget for the way veterans are going to be taken care of in the remaining few years of his administration. Here's from an MSNBC article (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17117430/) from Feb 12:

After an increase sought for next year, the Bush budget would turn current trends on their head. Even though the cost of providing medical care to veterans has been growing rapidly — by more than 10 percent in many years — White House budget documents assume consecutive cutbacks in 2009 and 2010 and a freeze thereafter.

Now, the article does go on to say that it's entirely possible that the Bush administration just put this in the budget to make people think they were trying to balance the budget, knowing that Congress wouldn't let the cuts go through. I'm not sure which is worse, frankly.
Relyc
01-03-2007, 20:14
Good that someone posted this story, I read it yesterday and it made me furious. Surely this issue reaches across the lines.
Farnhamia
01-03-2007, 20:19
As I said, Walter Reed Hospital has been in decline for quite a while. I guess no one likes to talk about it, probably because it kind of makes us look bad when our premier veterans facility is a dump. I saw something about plans to replace it with a new facility last year, but how far along those plans are, I don't know.

What's more outrageous is the administration's screwing with the budget for taking care of the troops we're all supposed to be supporting.
Utracia
01-03-2007, 20:36
Disgusting. You'd think our wounded soldiers would be better treated. Since we are supposed to be supporting their efforts and all.
Farnhamia
01-03-2007, 20:37
Disgusting. You'd think our wounded soldiers would be better treated. Since we are supposed to be supporting their efforts and all.

I guess the wounded ones don't count, since they were incompetent enough to get wounded in the first place. :rolleyes:
Utracia
01-03-2007, 20:55
I guess the wounded ones don't count, since they were incompetent enough to get wounded in the first place. :rolleyes:

That or the fact that these wounded probably won't be doing anymore fighting for the causes of freedom and counter-terrorism so they aren't doing anything to be "supported" for anymore. So why treat them well?

I really hope media attention brings change to that hospital. Though I suppose I shouldn't count on it.
Farnhamia
01-03-2007, 20:57
That or the fact that these wounded probably won't be doing anymore fighting for the causes of freedom and counter-terrorism so they aren't doing anything to be "supported" for anymore. So why treat them well?

I really hope media attention brings change to that hospital. Though I suppose I shouldn't count on it.

I wouldn't be holding my breath. And anyway, Walter Reed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Reed) is so ... 19th century, I mean, yellow fever? Come on, what's cool about figuring out yellow fever?

Major Walter Reed, M.D., (September 13, 1851 - November 23, 1902) was a U.S. Army physician who in 1900 led the team which confirmed the theory (first set forth in 1881 by Cuban doctor/scientist Carlos Finlay) that yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes, rather than by direct contact. This insight opened entire new fields of epidemiology and biomedicine and most immediately allowed the resumption and completion of work on the Panama Canal (1904-14) by the United States.
Cyrian space
01-03-2007, 22:13
Oh, the president may not have know the details of mold, rot and rats at Walter Reed, but trust me, he knew the place was a wreck. It's been a wreck for quite some time, I gather. You might want to do a little digging in Bush's budget for the way veterans are going to be taken care of in the remaining few years of his administration. Here's from an MSNBC article (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17117430/) from Feb 12:



Now, the article does go on to say that it's entirely possible that the Bush administration just put this in the budget to make people think they were trying to balance the budget, knowing that Congress wouldn't let the cuts go through. I'm not sure which is worse, frankly.

This should honestly be grounds for the firing of every officer and official involved and the impeachment of the president.
Farnhamia
01-03-2007, 22:21
This should honestly be grounds for the firing of every officer and official involved and the impeachment of the president.

Write to your Representative.

How's your brother doing?
Andaluciae
01-03-2007, 22:25
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/01/walter.reed/index.html

While I'm here...

It would seem that General Weightman the (now) former commander of Walter Reed has been fired.
Cyrian space
01-03-2007, 22:28
Write to your Representative.

How's your brother doing?

He lost a toe, and one of his feet will never look the same again, but he's expected to be able to live a more or less normal life. He's coping.
Of course, his wife picked this moment to divorce him and abandon his kids, so it's a good thing he's on a lot of painkillers right now.
Farnhamia
01-03-2007, 22:34
He lost a toe, and one of his feet will never look the same again, but he's expected to be able to live a more or less normal life. He's coping.
Of course, his wife picked this moment to divorce him and abandon his kids, so it's a good thing he's on a lot of painkillers right now.

:rolleyes: I hate fair-weather wives.

Tell him from me that toes are vastly over-rated (this comes from years of trying to paint the suckers different colors) and that men don't really need pretty feet. Oh, and remind him that living well is the best revenge.
Relyc
01-03-2007, 22:36
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/01/walter.reed/index.html

While I'm here...

It would seem that General Weightman the (now) former commander of Walter Reed has been fired.

Ah, someone got here before me. The man should face criminal charges.