Doctors, dollars rushed to Fort Stewart

[stevedeshazer]

WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- The Army said Monday it is sending doctors to Fort Stewart, Ga., to help hundreds of sick and injured soldiers, including Iraq veterans, who say they are waiting weeks and months for proper medical help.

Many of the Army Reserve and National Guard personnel in "medical hold" at the base are living in steamy cement training barracks that they say are unacceptable for sick and injured soldiers.

<snip>

Several of the National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers said the way they are being treated makes them believe the Army is trying push them out with reduced benefits for their ailments. They also said that regular active duty personnel are getting far better treatment.

While soldiers are on hold, the Army decides how sick or disabled they are and what benefits -- if any -- they should get as a result. One document shown to UPI stated that no more doctor appointments were available from Oct. 14 through Nov. 11 -- Veterans Day.

The soldiers estimate that around 40 percent of the nearly 600 personnel in medical hold were deployed to Iraq. Of those who went, many described clusters of strange ailments, like heart and lung problems, among previously healthy troops. They said the Army has tried to refuse them benefits, claiming the injuries and illnesses were due to a "pre-existing condition," prior to military service, a charge the Army denied.

source: http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20031020-025820-5101r

[FlemingsGhost]

1. Must be the recent press coverage. Damned "liberal media"!

That money could be going to Halliburton...

[stevedeshazer]

2. I think they figured out that

this was a public relations disaster in the making. Too bad it takes so much effort to get the damned press to pay attention, but I am glad they did.

Oh well, what's a few less bucks to Halliburton?

[FlemingsGhost]

4. Of course they did...

I'm willing to bet my very life that they wouldn't have blinked if it weren't for the fact that it was being reported, thus reflecting poorly on the "Good Christian Crusader"?

[The_Casual_Observer]

9. Don't worry, they will print up an extra batch of those $20's

to take care of all the Halliburton contracts - to the penny!

[malachi]

19. You mean the new $20's

that our wonderful gov't spent $32,000,000 on PR letting people know about the new colored money? How many of these poor folks do you think they could take care of for $32 million?

[NYC]

29. They spent $32 million on publicity?

Like we wouldn't have found out about them anyway?

[Don_G]

3. Gee, I Wonder "Why?"

<scarasm off>

[JohnOneillsMemory]

5. Polishing up the Veteran's Day propaganda image ASAP!!

Yup. This cabal has figured out that PR is cheaper than sane policies. They only do what they absolutely must to look better than Saddam Hussein.

[Fridays Child]

6. Will this be a typical bushista say-one-thing-and-do-another canard?

This administration's efforts at doing the right thing are always a mile wide and an inch deep. Sorry for the cynicism but this story of rushing aid to Ft. Stewart doesn't impress me. What will it really amount to, how long will it last, and what about the other bases where our soldiers are being neglected?

[Don_G]

8. Why Is Ft Stewart The Only Wounded Depot?

Why didn't the Army send the wounded to other bases in the US with hospital facilities like Ft Knox or Ft Campbell (naming only two in one state)?

Short on gas? Think the Air National Guard of the different states wouldn't help out or don't need the practice? Believe the news coverage wouldn't be a big boost for the Pentagon?

No...Dimbo needs to control the truth of what's really happening there before the 2004 election. He and his cronies have stolen enough from the people that they're afraid we'll try to collect after we catch on to their game. He can't afford that.

[Dhalgren]

16. They must have.

According to the latest figures there are almost 2000 wounded American soldiers from Iraq, alone. If there were only 600 hundred at Stewart and most of them were non-Iraq war wounded, then there are a bunch of guys and gals somewhere waiting to be treated. Where are they and what is happening to them?

[LonelyLRLiberal]

34. Here's a source estimating many more hurt as of 8/03 . . . (long quote)

"Wounded and Weary" Bill Berkowitz, August 31, 2003

"In a summer dominated by the Bryant sex case, Arnold's debut in California's recall election and the killing of Saddam Hussein's sons, no hordes of television cameras await the planeloads of wounded soldiers being airlifted back to the states, unloaded at Andrews Air Force Base, and stuffed into wards at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and other facilities. We see few photos of them undergoing painful and protracted physical rehabilitation, few visuals of worried families waiting for news of their sons or daughters . The men and women injured in Iraq and Afghanistan have become the new disappeared.

"Liz Swasey of the conservative media watchdog Media Research Center (MRC) confirms this perception. "There have been no feature news stories on television focusing on the wounded," she says. "While there have been numerous reports of soldiers getting wounded, there have been no interviews from hospital bedsides."

"The numbers of soldiers wounded in action are hard to come by. Since the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Pentagon has put the figure at 827. But Lieutenant-Colonel Allen DeLane, the man in charge of airlifting the wounded into Andrews Air Force Base, recently mentioned much higher numbers in an interview with National Public Radio.

"Since the war has started, I can't give you an exact number because that's classified information, but I can say to you over 4,000 have stayed here at Andrews," he said. "And that number doubles when you count the people that come here to Andrews, and then we send them to other places like Walter Reed and Bethesda..."

"Some journalists also dispute the Pentagon's official count. Julian Borger of The Guardian claims "unofficial figures are in the thousands." Central Command in Qatar talked of 926 wounded, but "that too is understated," Borger maintains. And in fact, a mid-August report in The Salt Lake City Tribune claims that Central Command has acknowledged 1,007 U.S. wounded. (The Pentagon did not respond to inquiries.)

"Whatever the actual numbers of wounded, military hospitals are being overwhelmed. "Staff are working 70- or 80-hour weeks," Borger reports. "he Walter Reed army hospital in Washington is so full that it has taken over beds normally reserved for cancer patients to handle the influx, according to a report on CBS television." Some of the outpatient wounded are even being placed at nearby hotels because of the overflow, according to The Washington Times.

"Inside these hospitals, there's no shortage of compelling narratives for the interested TV reporter.

"For example, an accident in western Iraq threw Sgt. Robert Garrison of Ithaca, N.Y., from his Humvee, according to a June story by the Associated Press. He landed on his head, fractured his skull and slipped into unconsciousness. Garrison "can't speak at more than a faint whisper and breathes with the help of a tube jutting from his neck. A scar runs across the back of the head, and the left side of his face droops where he has lost some control over his muscles."
Sgt. Kenneth Dixon, of Cheraw, S.C., was in a Bradley fighting vehicle when it plunged into a ravine. He "broke his back, leaving him unable to use his legs." These days he's at a veteran's hospital in Richmond, Va., "focusing on his four hours of daily physical therapy."

"What is it about the wounded that makes us uncomfortable? Why have they been left out of the coverage of the war by the broadcast media?
Marine Sgt. Phillip Rugg, 26, recently had his left leg amputated below the knee, caused by a grenade "that penetrated his tank-recovery vehicle March 22 outside Umm Qasr, nearly shearing his foot off."

"The stories of these injured soldiers obviously straddle party lines and should sadden Americans from all walks. So what is it about the wounded that makes us uncomfortable? Why have they been left out of the coverage of the war by the broadcast media?

"The consensus seems to be that the wounded are too depressing a topic -- and also that they might threaten Bush's popularity.

"The wounded are much too real; telling their stories would be too much of a bummer for television's news programmers," says Norman Solomon, media critic and co-author of "Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You." "Dead people don't linger like wounded people do. Dead people's names can be posted on a television honor role, but the networks and cable news channels won't clog up their air time with the names and pictures of hundreds and hundreds of wounded soldiers."

"Former L.A. Times television critic Howard Rosenberg reflects this sentiment, and adds that giving the wounded air time could be perceived as too controversial. "Since 9/11, there is a general feeling among many media outlets that they need to stay away from anything that could be interpreted as disloyal to the country," he says.

"John Stauber, author of the recently released book "The Weapons of Mass Deception," says the war was sold on television as a sanitized war with minimal U.S. casualties -- which was exactly what the Bush administration tried to engineer. "Showing wounded soldiers and interviewing their families could be disastrous PR for Bush's war," he says. "I suspect the administration is doing all it can to prevent such stories unless they are stage managed feel-good events like Saving Private Lynch."

"Tod Ensign directs Citizen Soldier, a GI rights advocacy organization. He thinks the failure to cover the wounded indicates an implicit loyalty to the White House, and a reluctance to address a failed Iraq policy. "The American media is by and large controlled and dominated by corporations that line up politically with the Bush administration," Ensign says. "They appear to be increasingly incapable of grappling with such a highly charged issue as the wounded."

"The consensus seems to be that the wounded are too depressing a topic -- and also that they might threaten Bush's popularity.

"President Bush landed on the U.S.S. Lincoln on May 1 and declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq. Since that overhyped media event, the president has repeatedly visited with troops that have returned intact, and he has issued statements honoring the dead.
But the president has not shown up at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to shake hands with the recovering Robert Garrisons or Kenneth Dixons. Journalists should pay these visits for him, to tell us the stories of these men and women, whose problems will stretch into the coming years. And they should ask the president why he is so reluctant to see these troops he sent so confidently into battle."

Origially published at Tompaine.com.

http://www.guerrillanews.com/media/doc2804.html

[leetrisck]

17. I'm betting Ft. Stewart isn't the only

wounded depot. We need to know where the others are and get something done about them. As far as "rushing" support for them - that probably means a couple of years.

[otohara]

7. Who Exposed This - I Heard A Report

on PBS, Democracy Now, NPR somewhere - Figures they wait until the real liberal press exposes something like this bullshit before action is taken

[Wwagsthedog]

10. Other threads on this subject

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=175726

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=172645

Drudge last Friday:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=171832

[slaveplanet]

11. Drudge went off about

this Sunday night.Basically challenged them to do anything about it.
He had the Guy who wrote the article on for an interview. PR nightmare is right.

[ninkasi]

12. This, fellow DUers

is exactly why a free and unbiased press is essential. If it had not been for the publicity, absolutely nothing would be done for our soldiers...the neocons and fundies use the flag to wrap themselves in, and send others to do the work. They expect the ones who make the sacrifices to just die, or go away, or fade into the background, while they, the self-righteous hypocrites, claim the glory. They make me sick;cowards, one and all, to treat our soldiers so shabbily.

[hippywife]

13. What a load of crap!!

"Is this happening? Yes, it is," said Stover. "What we learn from this incident is going to help the Army when we have other major units returning" from Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Common sense and decency would dictate that it never happen in the first place. So glad they see a "lesson" in it. :eyes:

[IndianaGreen]

14. Another batch of Gulf War syndrome in the making

and they will get shit on as the ones that fought to liberate Kuwait.

None of the pharmaceuticals that produced the vaccines that many suspect were responsible for most of the ailments were ever held to account, or sued. I expect the same thing to happen again.

How about another "Support the Troops" rally boys? Who wants to offer their body in sacrifice to the neocon imperialist Gawd?

[revcarol]

15. It's illegal to sue Eli Lilly.

Can't even get info from FOIA. It's section 213 the Patriot Act.

Our soldiers' families can't even sue.

[tlcandie]

18. Operation DEEP Artichoke ...

The military is nothing more than lab experiments IMO.

[Ivote]

20. PRE EXISTING CONDITIONS?

Why are we sending people with pre existing conditions to fight a war in the first place?

[stevedeshazer]

21. *ding*

[happyslug]

23. Two problems

First, under the Act covering Veterans benefits, they are NO PRE-EXISTING conditions, once you were in the military you are presumed to have been 100% upon intake (unless you are kicked out during the processing for your enlistment, that is why you have a pre-enlistment physicals done by the US Military itself). The VA hates this rule, but it is the law and the VA will follow it once any veteran decides to go to court over it.

Second, the Veteran has to show the problem occurred while in the service, and have documentation that the problem is service related (i.e. was not incurred after he left the service). Thus if you are shown to have the problem while in the service the VA has to treat you for the problem. Thus the reason for the delay may be to encourage these soldiers to leave EARLY without an exit physical so that the military could than claim the problem occurred AFTER the soldier left the Military.

This is the old delay and harass. What will happen when the Doctor does show up for the exit physical (The Soldiers have to have an exit physical because the soldiers have claim medical problems do to their time on active duty) is to force the soldiers into a dilemma. First if the soldiers continue to say they have the problem, further “tests" have to be done. This will delay their release from the military for months. On the other hand if the soldier would say "There is nothing wrong with me" he goes home today. Which would you chose, stay in a tent for another 2-3 months (and preserve your right to further medical treatment) or go home today? What if the problem is NOT treatable (i.e. aches and pains etc) why not just accept it like the good doctor tells you and go home?

This is what the Military want these soldiers to do, go home WITHOUT documentation that the problem occurred while in the Military (Or occurred prior to the Military service but was NOT reported to the Military while the Soldier was in the Service, see the first paragraph for why).

[saigon68]

22. No "Support the Troops" rallys-- Clear channel gearing up

For phase 2 of the takeover---the 2004 elections.

[SayitAintSo]

24. See what a Free Press is all about ?

This my friends is our only hope ... get these stories out. Drip Drip Drip .... Keep 'em coming. We Dems don't have Big Green that the repigs have, but we do have the heart and the will - money can't buy that.

[cdeca]

25. Free Press My Ass!

The only reason it was covered was because too many people were finding out. I can just see Faux News and KKKoulter explaining these poor guys away as a bunch of whiners.

IMPEACH BUSH NOW!

[SayitAintSo]

26. I get your point ..... Mine was that we get GLIMPSES of a free press

every now and then .... this is one of those times ... and look at what good it can do.

[newyawker99]

27. Hi cdeca!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[David Zephyr]

28. Only Because The Soldiers Began Speaking Out to the Press.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

[David Zephyr]

30. Have Any of the Televised Media Picked Up On This?

Please advise.

[stevedeshazer]

32. I've seen nor heard a thing

Not that I am surprised, mind you.

[Wickerman]

31. This alone should be enough to remove Bush* from office

What a miserable fuck failure. Truly King Midas in Reverse. So, this Iraq war was a huge success. What the hell would've we done if it wasn't? What contingency was in place for stateside medical care for our wounded? None, obviously. This boy couldn't plan a frat kegger let alone run a country. To have a war soley to enrich your friends and family is horrendous enough - to then not even tend to the needs of the wounded and exiting service members slouches to a low that even should make the Bush family squirm. This is a friggin' disgrace.

[rocktivity]

33. And Bush wants us to hand him ANOTHER $87 billion with no questions asked?

Rebuilding Iraq should not take priority over over the health and welfare of the soldiers, especially if they're wounded. This says that the money isn't being managed properly--espeically if it magically appears the minute a spotlight is cast on the situation.


rocknation