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

Colleges and Universities A-Z Naval Academy - Annapolis
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<p>From Watergate to the current discussion, with many expose' in-between and many before, if it were not for a free press, our government would be in greater shambles than it sometimes seems to be. If it were not for the fear of being exposed or sued, many, many employees, industries, and branches pf government would go about their business in the shadows, quietly pushing their responsibilties off on others.</p>

<p>What is the ratio of mistakes made by the press compared to the ratio of mistakes made by neo-conservatives in recent years? Perhaps if the press--as well as Congress--had not permitted itself to be bullied in recent years, this shameful situation would not have developed.</p>

<p>The point is that everybody is quick to criticize the press when it prints something the reader disagrees with; those same critics don't seem to be very forthcoming in praise when the press does it job well. It's easy to spout off a flippant remark about being correct only 1 in a 1,000. That's the developing problem in the US these days, everybody just wants to say something--anything--even though there is no basis in fact for what they say.</p>

42

<p>
[quote]
everybody just wants to say something--anything--even though there is no basis in fact for what they say.

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</p>

<p>Yep, and oh so many of them work in the media. Seems to be a job requirement, almost. Hell, Dan Rather made a CAREER out of it.</p>

<p>Just because they happen to stumble across the truth every now and again doesn't exonerate them from all the other times they lie, selectively omit, exagerate, understate, and generally spin the news in support of their own agenda.</p>

<p>Besides, both in the military and the civilian world, I have been taught to praise people when they do their job WELL, not when they JUST DO IT. Big woop. So they spotted this issue. The media is SUPPOSED to be the watchdog, but it has turned into a mouthpiece for one side of the argument. Just because they toss the occaisional bone to the other side doesn't make them the horrendously biased machine they are.</p>

<p>What now? You want us to genuflect before CNN and the rest? Isn't it bad enough that our politicians expect us to genuflect to THEM?</p>

43

<p>Published in the New York Crimes:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/washington/06medical.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/washington/06medical.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>
[quote]
Members of Congress heard wrenching testimony on Monday from wounded soldiers treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and contrite promises from top Army officials to correct the conditions there.</p>

<p>The general who most recently commanded Walter Reed, a premier military hospital in Washington, and the Army?s surgeon general accepted responsibility for the situation faced by some wounded troops, including poor housing, neglect and a hopelessly complicated bureaucratic maze....

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</p>

44

<p>
[quote]
Just because they toss the occaisional bone to the other side doesn't make them the horrendously biased machine they are.

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</p>

<p>Just because they toss the occaisional bone to the other side doesn't change the fact that they are the horrendously biased machine they are.</p>

<p>Had to correct that. It was late. :o</p>

45

<p>
[quote]
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."</p>

<p>"Criticism is necessary and useful; it is often indispensable; but it can never take the place of action, or be even a poor substitute for it. The function of the mere critic is of very subordinate usefulness. It is the doer of deeds who actually counts in the battle for life, and not the man who looks on and says how the fight ought to be fought, without himself sharing the stress and the danger."

[/quote]
-Theodore Roosevelt</p>

<p>I treasure America's freedom of the press. Journalism is not an easy job. I respect those who defend the common person (such as the soldiers who did their duty and came home wounded, hoping for a decent disability discharge, fearing retribution) against tyranny, bureaucracy, etc. On a joking note, I hope our administration (perhaps Rove and Cheney) will never become envious of Putin: </p>

<p>
[quote]
It has become a very dangerous business to question, criticize or investigate Putin’s regime. In the past decade, 88 journalists were killed in Russia. Over the same 10-year-period (including the American invasion and occupation), 136 journalists have been killed in Iraq."

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</p>

<p>Another Putin Critic Shot ... In Suburban Maryland
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/02/AR2007030201679.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/02/AR2007030201679.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

46

<p>*Surgeon General Kiley is taken to task over care of injured soldiers *</p>

<p>Published in today's BS:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.veterans08mar08,0,3040296.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlines%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.veterans08mar08,0,3040296.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlines&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>
[quote]
On frequent trips to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Rep. C.W. Bill Young said he and his wife found wounded soldiers who didn't have adequate clothes, even one doing his rehabilitation in the bloody boots he had on when he was injured. </p>

<p>One soldier, ashamed that his mattress was soaked with urine, tried to turn Young's wife away, the Florida Republican recalled yesterday....

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</p>

47

<p>Published in the Washington Compost:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/12/AR2007031200544.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/12/AR2007031200544.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>
[quote]
Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, the Army's surgeon general, has submitted a request to retire after weeks of criticism over his handling of the Walter Reed scandal and other health care problems facing veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.</p>

<p>Kiley had faced intense scrutiny during hearings on Capitol Hill during the past two weeks, when numerous members of Congress asked him directly if he should resign either because he failed to notice horrid living conditions and a tangled bureaucracy at Walter Reed or because he failed to fix them. Kiley had said he wanted to stay on the job and lead the Army's medical community through systemic change, but he also acknowledged that he was in a tenuous position....

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</p>

<p>Another Flag Officer bites the dust. Lesson learned: Inspect the barracks.</p>

48

<p>Workload, Poor Maintenance Driving Workers Away, Some Testify at Hearing</p>

<p>Published in the Washington Compost:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402353.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031402353.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>
[quote]
A doctor at the National Naval Medical Center yesterday warned a Pentagon review panel that medical staff at the Bethesda hospital are overworked and suffering from "compassion fatigue."</p>

<p>Even as relatives of injured Marines universally praised the medical care and treatment of families in Bethesda, the doctor and several other current and former employees spoke of problems with the workload, maintenance and facilities at the sprawling complex....

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</p>

49

<p>Posted on NavyTimes.com:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/03/TNSreedopen070314/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/03/TNSreedopen070314/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>
[quote]
The House Appropriations Committee is expected to vote Thursday to keep open Walter Reed Army Medical Center for the duration of the global war on terrorism, a move that would reverse a 2005 base-closing commission recommendation and add one more reason for the Bush administration to oppose a wartime supplemental spending bill.</p>

<p>Walter Reed, the Army?s flagship hospital, is slated to shut down by 2011 under the recommendations of the 2005 Base Closure and Realignment Commission. It would be replaced by an expanded national military hospital in Bethesda, Md., on the current campus of the National Naval Medical Center, and by a new regional medical center to be built at Fort Belvoir, Va....

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</p>

50

<p>Published in the New York Crimes:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/washington/12medical.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/washington/12medical.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>
[quote]
An independent panel assessing dilapidated facilities and red tape for wounded Iraq war veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center on Wednesday issued a sweeping indictment of leadership failures, inadequate training and staffing shortages.</p>

<p>The panel, headed by two former secretaries of the Army, Togo D. West Jr. and John O. Marsh Jr., found that a high standard of care for troops when they were first evacuated from war zones and hospitalized fell apart when they became outpatients, with a ?breakdown in health services? and ?compassion fatigue? on the part of overworked staff members....

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</p>

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<p><a href="http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,131980,00.html?wh=news%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,131980,00.html?wh=news&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>
[quote]
Money woes and Pentagon neglect are to blame for shoddy outpatient conditions and bureaucratic delays at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, an independent review has concluded. </p>

<p>Calling for major changes in troop care, the Independent Review Group said the aging hospital in Washington, D.C., was beyond the point of repair. It urged a quick infusion of funds to relieve short-term problems and said the Pentagon should accelerate plans to build a new, expanded facility in Bethesda, Md....

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</p>

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<p><a href="http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/05/army_medicalboard_070510w/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/05/army_medicalboard_070510w/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>
[quote]
The Army continues to schedule out-of-cycle general officer promotion boards to fill vacancies in the medical community created by the firings at Walter Reed Army Medical Center earlier this year.</p>

<p>Under a plan announced May 8, major general and brigadier general boards will convene June 26 to select a new generation of senior leaders for the Army Medical Department....

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</p>

53

<p>The first open indictment of military leadership by an active-duty officer.</p>

<p>"A failure in generalship" by Lt. Col Paul Yingling
<a href="http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2007/05/2635198%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2007/05/2635198&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Washington Post reports on Lt. Col Paul Yingling's criticism.
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/26/AR2007042602230.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/26/AR2007042602230.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>
[quote]
"As matters stand now, a private who loses a rifle suffers far greater consequences than a general who loses a war"

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</p>

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<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2007/09/26/ST2007092602560.html?hpid=topnews%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2007/09/26/ST2007092602560.html?hpid=topnews&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>
[quote]
More than half a year after disclosures of systemic problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and other military hospitals, the Pentagon's promised fixes are threatened by staff shortages and uncertainty about how best to improve long-term care for wounded troops, according to a congressional report issued yesterday. </p>

<p>Army units developed to shepherd recovering soldiers lack enough nurses and social workers, and proposals to streamline the military's disability evaluation system and to provide "recovery coordinators" are behind schedule, according to the Government Accountability Office report....

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