Mail Undelivered at Walter Reed

[bobthedrummer]

Source: Robert Burns AP Military Writer via Guardian

Turns out the trouble at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the focus of a firestorm of criticism over poor treatment of wounded war veterans, reached into the mailroom.

The Army said Friday that it has opened an investigation into the recent discovery of 4,500 letters and parcels-some dating to May 2006-at Walter Reed that were never delivered to soldiers.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-6713608,00.html

[MADem]

1. Why am I NOT surprised? nt

[tired_old_fireman]

5. Do we really need an investigation?

Seriously, I can save the time and money of an investigation and tell you what went wrong. It was a failure of leadership. It was a failure to provide adequate funds from uncaring leaders who love the troops that carry out their bogus wars, but don't give a crap about the individual soldiers. It was a failure of every stupid fool who voted for George Bush twice. It was a failure of every member of our media that spends 100 percent more of their coverage on Paris Hilton and Anna Nicole Smith instead of the men and women dying and sustaining injuries for this country. That's why the mail wasn't delivered.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

6. welcome to DU !

and you are absolutely correct.

[bobthedrummer]

8. Again, welcome to DU tired_old_fireman. Take some time and check out the links in post 4.

Share what you find helpful with others.

This story is another OUTRAGE, a story that must be shared.

[Canuckistanian]

9. Got that right

Good rant and welcome to DU!

:toast:
:hi:

[blondie58]

10. all very good points, tired_old_fireman

and another point is the use of contracting out the mailroom.

Of course, people who don't have much of a stake in the business and who possibly don't even make too much $$$ are not going to care. But then, I am a letter carrier and my union is trying to fight the USPS's wish to contract out all new addresses.

But, welcome to DU!

[tired_old_fireman]

15. Thanks for the welcome.

I was clueless that the USPS was trying to contract out new addresses. By new, do you mean for new developments or do you mean when someone moves into an existing address?

Either way it's sad. At the risk of sounding dated, the mail carrier used to be one of the pillar's of the neighborhood.

[blondie58]

24. yes, it would be for any new address

I am going to post something about it; I just haven't made the time for it.

I went to our state union convention last month and we're all worried. Seems Bush has appointed one of his head henchmen to the postal Board of Governors.

It seems like they almost have a death wish for us, with some of their business practices. They would love to break the union. As it is right now, we are working without a contract, over this issue, and it has gone to arbitration. We already hire many 'casual workers'- that is temporary employees to help move the mail. They get paid I think $13 per hour- but with no benefits- and no protection if they get hurt on the job.

They are pushing to have people open up 'contract stations', place where most of the postal products and services are available, but it is run by a private entity. If they didn't have to have so many clerks, they wouldn't have to pay the costly benefits that us postal workers get.

Even it I wasn't a postal employee, this would concern me. I don't want someone who gets paid $10 an hour to deliver my mail. How can they possibly care about any long term prospects? And that all important arrow key- the key that can open up any mailbox in the United States- I want someone who has to be accountable to have it. Mail theft has been bad enough, without adding some lackeys to the equation.

To me, it is comparable to renting out a house. I say this after seeing rental houses totally trashed. If something is not yours, how can you really care about it? I take pride in my job, I like being a postal employee- and I want to do the right thing.

[Occulus]

46. I'm a plant worker

Full-time regular, one of the last groups to be hired in. I have a couple expansions on what you said:

"They would love to break the union."

The way I look at it, they already did, into three parts. APWU, NALC, and NPMHU. We would be much more powerful as a single, monolithic entity than we are now as three occasionally-competing factions.

"We already hire many 'casual workers'- that is temporary employees to help move the mail."

So-called 'casuals' were provided for in the last APWU contract (the one in place prior to the most recent contract negotiations, I mean). Interestingly, they were meant to be used only for the December "exception" period (for non-postal people, that's the period when no vacation time is allwed; offices are expected to be very busy).

What happened was, management decided that it could have its cake and eat it, too; to that end they began 'reverting' jobs (that is, pulling the bid- and a job- from existence), then filling the actual need with casuals during the whole year. This accomplishes a few things; as you mentioned, there's the pay issue- casuals make less than I do, and are forced to work for more hours (one would think their hours demonstrate a legitimate need for full-time positions, but what do I know). However, there are additional benefits to using casuals from a management perspective; they are not awarded vacation time or sick leave, receive no health benefits, and can be fired for any reason.

Do I really need to go into how they are treated in some places? I won't even mention their (lack of) training... training I end up giving them, but don't for some reason get the additional few pennies for being their OJI (on the job instructor)...

"I don't want someone who gets paid $10 an hour to deliver my mail."

Indeed.

"And that all important arrow key- the key that can open up any mailbox in the United States- I want someone who has to be accountable to have it."

What exactly is that? I'm curious; I've never once heard it mentioned (but then, in the plant, I don't see many carriers).

Kudos to you for taking some pride in our largely thankless job. Oh, I know customers appreciate you, but the managers are another ball of wax some (why be nice? most) of the time.

[blondie58]

51. nice to meet you, kgfnally

Okay- the unions! Yeah, you're right- to have three separate unions is a bit divisive.

When I was hired in 1994, they were already separate. In fact, I didn't realize that they were ever a single one. And yes, we have some sparring. The APWU doesn't side with us on the contracting out issue.

Then, on to the matter of casual workers. Yes, we have always done casual during the Christmas holidays, but it has been extended to year round. Our casual workers do a three month stint, and then can change crafts, from clerk to carrier- or vice versa. We actually have a couple of former Albertsons grocery store former employees right now, as Albertsons has been downsizing several of their stores here in Colorado.

And management doesn't repost a vacation floater job, if someone bids a route or a string. These are the people who cover the various routes that don't have a regular carrier or whose carrier is on vacation. Basically, they use the contact carrier to cover that position, as it is much cheaper for them to not have to pay benefits.
hey may be helpful, but their inexperience and lack of commitment to the job are evident, at least to me.

Okay, now the issue of the arrow key!

That is the key that every carrier uses to open up any mailbox lock in the United States. It can be used on a blue collection box, apartment mail box, green relay box, etc. When I was new, I was always told that if I brought them home, to come back to work with the keys, or drop them off at any other post office. It is really not as strict as that, but they are very important. There is enough theft of mail from apartment box, NDCBU boxes, etc. And those thieves are really creative at using whatever personal information they can obtain towards illicit things, and are good at washing checks, etc.

This is all so frustrating to me. It seems like the upper echelon of postal management have a death wish for us- I am sure that someone has something to gain if they break the P.O. But you can bet that universal mail service won't be anymore, or will be really costly to smaller bergs.

[mopinko]

12. welcome to du

hammer meet nail
:toast:

[TacticalPeek]

14. Got that right.

Welcome to DU!
:toast:

[maggiegault]

20. AMEN. I agree with every word you said. And welcome to DU.

[theHandpuppet]

21. Bingo!!!

You nailed it. We don't need any stinkin' investigation to figure out what went wrong here.

(And welcome to DU!)

[Solly Mack]

22. good answer!!

Welcome to DU, tired_old_fireman!

[tblue37]

28. Welcome to DU. Your righteous indignation is wonderfully articulated.

I look forward to reading more posts from you in the future.

[brentspeak]

29. Meanwhile, you can bet that the checks made out to Halliburton execs

(checks paid with taxpayer money, I should add) never failed to reach their destination.

[whistle]

30. Bravo tired_YOUNG_fireman, well said and welcome to DU!

:kick:

Unfortunately, the investigation will take place to CYA (cover the asses) of those leaders responsible and lay the blame onto some poor underling in the mailroom.

[City Lights]

31. Hiya, tired_old_fireman!

:hi: Welcome to DU! :hi:

We're glad to have you. And, great post, BTW! :D

[tired_old_fireman]

40. Thanks for the welcome mat!

If I had known one of my rants would be so well received , I would have signed up and let it fly a long time ago. It's better than ranting to my cats about the government. They are tired of hearing about it.

[I Have A Dream]

35. Welcome to DU, tired_old_fireman!

:hi:

[ninkasi]

39. You're right

Good post...welcome to DU:hi:

[Skittles]

41. Welcome to the DU, fireman!!!

:hi:

[Joe Chi Minh]

49. So many lions led by so many donkeys.

[babylonsister]

2. GODDAMIT! UNACCEPTABLE! Rec'd for fucking outrage!

:nuke: :nuke: :grr:

[bonito]

3. Thanks,

I miss monkeyman ;( :hi:

[bobthedrummer]

4. Some of us investigated Walter Reed and it opened up total corruption elsewhere.

"International American Products Inc./IAP: A DU investigation thread" I started this 3-7-2007
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x360539

"Larger CIA and DoD Privatization Scandal Emerging from Walter Reed Story and US Attorney Firing" leveymg started this 3-9-2007
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x377023

[Judi Lynn]

18. Didn't see this material the first time it was posted. Appreciate the chance to read it. Thanks. n/t

[Joey Liberal]

7. It's a disgrace - just like Bush n/t

[Name removed]

11. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Kool Kitty]

13. There needs to be a smiley for outrage overload.

:grr: :banghead: :grr: :banghead: :grr: :banghead:

Impeach. Indict. Imprison. All of them.

[Cobalt-60]

16. Beyond Belief. They've violated the last line of trust.

Soldiers, sailors, and airmen are accustomed to every form of deprivation and abuse.
But there's just no damned excuse for holding back their mail.

[Laughing Mirror]

26. Can you imagine not getting your mail for a year, if at all?

The hits just keep on coming, more unbelievable than the last. What could be next?

[tblue37]

34. For someone away from home, for whatever reason, mail call is one of the most important

parts of the day.

When I was married to a Spanish professor, we used to travel to Spain with the university's study abroad group each summer. The trip was a treat and we loved spending our summers in Spain, as did the students. Nevertheless, mailcall was something we all looked forward to, and if you happened tp get mail, it was the highlight of the day.

Because of the way we felt whenever we got mail while doing something we absolutely enjoyed, I have always been super sensitive to the importance of mail. One summer I was pregnant and not feeling well, so I skipped our study abroad trip. I got hold of the group’s addresses for the 2-week bus tour of Spain that preceded the 6-weeks of classes in Barcelona. I made sure that when my husband arrived in each city, there was a letter waiting for him. I also made sure he got a letter almost every day while in Barcelona.

When my two kids grew up and went to college, they each did two study-abroads. My son did both of his in Spain. My daughter did one in England and one in Costa Rica. She also did a Fulbright Fellowship in Ireland from Sept. of 2005 to June of 2006. While they were abroad, they got at least 2 letters every week and an email every day from me—as well as fairly frequent packages. Sometimes the packages were small and inconsequential, containing little things they couldn’t get where they were, like my daughter’s favorite flavor of sugar-free Jello and fine-point gel pens for her drawings, but she was thrilled. In fact, when she went to college (my son did college here where I am, so he didn’t get mail from me while in school), I also sent frequent packages, often just containing magazines or books to read for fun, or fun ink pens and notebooks with colored paper, but her dorm mates, especially the other freshmen away from home for the first time, were all incredibly jealous that she was getting packages all the time. They all gathered around to see what she got. Even watching someone else get a package was exciting for them—even though the packages usually contained nothing of great import.

Again, my kids were in situations they LOVED, yet mail was the highlight of their day.

When a friend of mine went to Iraq during our first Iraq war (Desert Storm), he told me my weekly letters kept him sane. He would come in from guard duty each night and look anxiously to see if any new mail had been left on his bed. Many weeks, my letters were the only ones he got. When my nephew did his first tour in Iraq (2003-2004; and he’s there again!), he got regular emails from me, and a letter at least once or twice a week. The truth is, my nephew and I are not that close, and under other circumstances we don’t correspond at all. But my letters meant the world to him. His high school English teacher had her writing class write letters to him, too. He told me that he saved all those letters from strangers and read them over and over and over again.

A young man in Tikrit in 2004 stumbled across my websites while deskbound, and after reading all my articles (several hundred of them!) wrote me a very long fan email. I began corresponding with him regularly and sending books to help him pass the time. It was just something I could do for a kid my own son’s age stuck in W’s quagmire as my nephew had been. We IM-ed, too. I would often stay up past midnight to keep him company during his morning hours stuck at a desk, no matter how tired I was. (We still correspond, though he is in California going to college now.)

My point, of course, is that getting mail is a huge thing, even for people who are doing something they love. For someone stuck in a war zone, or for someone injured and bedridden, stuck in the waiting game our troops must undergo to get treatment at all, mail is as important as medicine! Think of all the packages that could have brightened a wounded soldier’s day, all the letters from home, or from strangers who just CARED about what they were going through. Not delivering that mail was far, far worse a deprivation than just not delivering mail. It wasn’t just “one more thing”; it was a major, major blow to those soldiers, at a time when they needed that mail more desperately than at any other time in their lives

Sorry to go on so long, but this just makes me want to chew nails and spit carpet tacks.

[Breeze54]

17. U.S. Post Office Walter Reed Branch -- Phone [phone]

Post Office

http://sfac.wramc.amedd.army.mil/SOLDIERS/Services/default.aspx

The U.S. Post Office Walter Reed Branch provides all postal services, including
stamps, money orders, parcel post, express mail, and postal insurance.
Building 1, 1st floor, west wing. Phone [phone]

[treestar]

19. Typical bureaucracy

The authoritarian stance of this government also assures that they will not apologize and will take zero responsibility. "Suck it up" will be their response here, as usual. "We are at war," blah, blah, blah.

[glowing]

23. This is really stupid, most of the time parents and loved one's

know exactly which room and building that their loved one's are in and put it on the package. How hard is it to sort the mail. It seems my stuff gets to my parents in the outside system. And I know more letters are sorted in America than at one army hospital.

[Botany]

25. Say no more

"... fired the contract employee who ran the mailroom."

One more fall out of Dick Cheney's outsourcing of jobs that
the military used to do in house.

Any bets that the company that got the job is a friend of
the right wing?

[w8liftinglady]

27. was this reported in the American press?

[I Have A Dream]

36. That's the very first thought that I had as well. Why are we hearing this from..

the UK press?!!

:(

[nealmhughes]

42. Because the UK has real reporters, not people who just "translate" press releases.

I no longer find a use for any of the national US papers, much prefering to read the holy trinity: Guardian, Observer and Independent. I do not keep birds or run a fish and chips shop and the movie listings are on the internet, so why bother to read the Tmes, or my local NYT owned paper?

[KansDem]

32. Yet, members of the three branches of government and the media

...continue to collect their paychecks.

[SpiralHawk]

33. republicon ineptitude - they screw up everything

Why do republicons HATE our US soldiers and veterans?

[frogcycle]

37. un-fucking-be-lievable

in so many aspects

that it happened at all
that it went on so long
that even during all the hoo-rah over mold it did not surface
that it is reported in UK press?!?
that all they do is fire the contractor (to be replaced no doubt by yet another rw bible-thumping self-serving crony)

I am fast approaching a breaking point.

[tabasco]

38. More "supportin' the troops," Bush-style.

Cutting funds to the VA is the republican way to support the troops!

I will say from experience that mail is one of the most important factors in a soldier's morale. This is an outrage.

[Vinca]

43. What a collection of freaking incompetents. I suppose mail delivery

was outsourced along with everything else. Is there anything more rotten than denying an injured soldier a letter from home??

[AngryOldDem]

44. If they can't provide competent medical care...

...what makes us think they can get mail to their patients?

[KoKo]

45. Is this another function that

Cerebus was in charge of handling?

[KansDem]

47. Couldn't they just strap the letters to the backs of cockroaches?

They'll get to the right rooms in time.

:sarcasm:

[bobthedrummer]

48. Who was contracted, then fired by the Army to run the Walter Reed mail room?

A contractor can sub-contract, and, as we know all too well, the sub-contractors sub-contract to family, friends and even non-existent "employees".

Anyone find anything on this yet? I spent about an hour researching and didn't find anything conclusive, however it should be recalled that International American Products Inc./IAP did have a contract for services that resulted in some of the worst violations at the Walter Reed outpatient facility, and IAP's connection fueled the investigations and firings of some.

[happygoluckytoyou]

50. NO MAIL AND NO CAMERAS

we have resolved the problems at walter reed... it turns out that bad reviews and photos were the issue... did i mention removing GIs from the internet.....we have also taken care to remove cameras from gitmo and reporters from iraq.......

if we could beg just one more favor------ COULD YOU PLEASE HAND OVER THE KEYS TO THE INTERNET AND THE MIKE FROM AIR AMERICA RADIO
that would just warm the cockles of where my heart should have been

thank you
---- dick 'the dick' cheney

(by the way did you get a chance to visit the "i may be gay but im no lesbian" room at the creation museum?
it is a wonderful chance to see statues of Mary and Poe and the im-masculine conception)