WP: 'It Is Just Not Walter Reed'

[RedEarth]

By Anne Hull and Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, March 5, 2007; A01



Ray Oliva went into the spare bedroom in his home in Kelseyville, Calif., to wrestle with his feelings. He didn't know a single soldier at Walter Reed, but he felt he knew them all. He worried about the wounded who were entering the world of military health care, which he knew all too well. His own VA hospital in Livermore was a mess. The gown he wore was torn. The wheelchairs were old and broken.

"It is just not Walter Reed," Oliva slowly tapped out on his keyboard at 4:23 in the afternoon on Friday. "The VA hospitals are not good either except for the staff who work so hard. It brings tears to my eyes when I see my brothers and sisters having to deal with these conditions. I am 70 years old, some say older than dirt but when I am with my brothers and sisters we become one and are made whole again."

Oliva is but one quaking voice in a vast outpouring of accounts filled with emotion and anger about the mistreatment of wounded outpatients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Stories of neglect and substandard care have flooded in from soldiers, their family members, veterans, doctors and nurses working inside the system. They describe depressing living conditions for outpatients at other military bases around the country, from Fort Lewis in Washington state to Fort Dix in New Jersey. They tell stories -- their own versions, not verified -- of callous responses to combat stress and a system ill equipped to handle another generation of psychologically scarred vets.

The official reaction to the revelations at Walter Reed has been swift, and it has exposed the potential political costs of ignoring Oliva's 24.3 million comrades -- America's veterans -- many of whom are among the last standing supporters of the Iraq war. In just two weeks, the Army secretary has been fired, a two-star general relieved of command and two special commissions appointed; congressional subcommittees are lining up for hearings, the first today at Walter Reed; and the president, in his weekly radio address, redoubled promises to do right by the all-volunteer force, 1.5 million of whom have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But much deeper has been the reaction outside Washington, including from many of the 600,000 new veterans who left the service after Iraq and Afghanistan. Wrenching questions have dominated blogs, talk shows, editorial cartoons, VFW spaghetti suppers and the solitary late nights of soldiers and former soldiers who fire off e-mails to reporters, members of Congress and the White House -- looking, finally, for attention and solutions.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/04/AR2007030401394_pf.html

[nam78_two]

1. K&R.nt

[Burma Jones]

2. But Wait, I've heard that some long haired, obvoius Democrats

spit on soldiers 35 years ago, I mean, it's gotta be true, right? So, the people in charge now certainly MUST respect and honor our warfighters than those dirty Democrats.

The myth of these stinking, putrid, money grubbing Republican Chicken Hawks that "support our troops" has got to be busted NOW!!!!! My stomach turns at the thought of these vile hypocrites - and the simple minded people that stopped thinking and bought into the propaganda.

[Solo_in_MD]

17. The spiiting did happen...I saw it personally at SFO

[w4rma]

20. An exception that is not typical of the rule. (nt)

[Solo_in_MD]

24. True, but the blanket declaration that it never happened that has been making the rounds is nonsense

[w4rma]

43. Agreed. (nt)

[Name removed]

26. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Pacifist Patriot]

37. He needs to talk to my father.

The idea that all military returned home on military transports to military bases is misleading because it is only part of the trip. The last leg of my father's journey was from a domestic military base to Atlanta's airport via Pan Am. He did not encounter an organized protest, but a private individual saw him at the gate, called him a baby killer and spit on him. My mom was there to witness it as was my grandmother. Being 13 months old and in my grandmother's arms I can't swear to it, but I'm willing to take their word for it.

I'm guessing there is a big difference between what protestors did at organized marches and rallies and what individuals chose to do on their own. As someone who was spit on by an idiot when I worked for a bookstore because our local news channel ran an erroneous story claiming we were refusing to sell The Satantic Verses (we were simply sold out!), I can most definitely imagine this happening on a wide-spread but invisible scale.

May not have happened at the marches, but it sure as hell happened. I seem to recall a recent testimony by TahitiNut regarding this as well.

[Solo_in_MD]

39. There are other sources that seem to have shown the Slate store to be the lie

[Burma Jones]

28. So, if some dumb-asses 35 years ago spit on some soldiers

then the Republicans get a free ride?

The spitting (and I will assume it is true), was stupid and thoughtless and the product of the times....but still pales in comparison to the wrongdoing of the people that have benefited from the perception.

[Solo_in_MD]

41. I agree with you...it is not relevant today

[John Gauger]

38. Really?

That's the first time I've ever heard anyone who had actually witnessed it. I didn't think it had actually happened.

[Solo_in_MD]

40. When the story first came out there was a flurry of counter evidence

Slate should retract it since it did happen. However its relevance today is quesitonable

[John Gauger]

45. That's true.

They're always trying to distract us with something. That can hardly be deemed more relevant than, say, the wounded vets' treatment at Walter Reed.

[Monkeyman]

3. K&R DU stay on this we can bring the Replugs talking points down

WE SUPPORT THE TROOPS BULLSHIT YOU DO

[grytpype]

4. Bush only delivers for the rich.

Bush was great for the super rich. He really delivered for them. He almost got the estate tax repealed.

But he was a disaster for everyone else. That includes his supporters excluding the super rich. Veterans supported him totally out of proportion to the rest of the population, and look at how he repays them.

If he had any goddamn political sense at all, he would be very generous to veterans in exchange for their support. But he acts like he's born entitled to their support and he can treat them like dirt.

[Solly Mack]

5. Gotta keep exposing their lies

Lives depend on it

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

6. K&R

[Monkeyman]

7. Come on Du kick this get it on the greatest page Replugs watch our site

Let see how they react

[caligirl]

8. please post a comment at the end of the article at the WA Po.

Hang the Repugs for doing this to the troops. They broke it, MAKE REPUBLICONS OWN IT.

[Monkeyman]

9. Done

[caligirl]

10. thanks monkeyman, hoping to get lots of comments there. Mine

is in there as well.

[Monkeyman]

11. Most comments are from vets but some replugs are now commenting

[truthisfreedom]

12. And who is going to care for the mercenaries when they return?

Tens of thousands of PTSD patients with no coverage?

[IndianaGreen]

13. They are dumped by the corporations they once worked for

There was a recent story about a widow whose husband was killed in Iraq while working as a private security guard for Black Water. It turns out that we don't have enough troops to provide protection to convoys or to important installations, so DOD outsources security to corporations such as Black Water. They enrich themselves while their employees are pretty much on their own in a hostile country.

[Kolesar]

27. So the widow has no pension?

I suppose she could go wait in line at the welfare office to get approved for Medicaid.

[Straight Shooter]

14. Walter Reed is the military version of Katrina, and people are talking.

I live in a small town. Everyone I've spoken with is very aware of this issue. Just mention Walter Reed and you will get an instant flare of temper at the injustice that has been done to our soldiers. People are angry and appalled.

I think most Americans just assumed that our returning wounded would be cared for properly. :(

[Monkeyman]

15. Your right people are angry I have heard Replugs go off

Saying how can they do this. But then you hear the ones who blame Clinton I think the have real mental problems but that,s just my opinion

[Penndems]

16. Everyone in D.C. is talking about this

I spoke with my brother-in-law (a Viet Nam vet) in North Carolina this evening, and brought up the previous series of articles by Dana Priest and Ann Hull. His response was, "Jesus Christ, I was so pissed off I couldn't see straight!"

[Clarkie1]

18. K & R. This is a national disgrace! nt

[radfringe]

19. and how will Bush deal with it?

Rate my toon on The Radical Fringe
Sign up for a FREE SUBSCRIPTION and get the toons e-mailed to you every day.Comics Sherpa

[vickitulsa]

42. Great work on this one, RadFringe!

Good idea to keep sharing it on these threads -- people may not comment but I'll bet they appreciate it!

I surely do! :toast:


(I don't think Chimpy can find a rug big enough to cover THIS one up, though ... )

[OneBlueSky]

21. "64,000 of the more than 184,000" . . . or about 35% . . .

"Nearly 64,000 of the more than 184,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who have sought VA health care have been diagnosed with potential symptoms of post-traumatic stress, drug abuse or other mental disorders as of the end of June, according to the latest report by the Veterans Health Administration. Of those, nearly 30,000 have possible post-traumatic stress disorder, the report said." . . .

and we have no way to care for them . . .

"disgraceful" is inadequate . . . "unconscionable" and "criminal" would be more accurate . . .

[dipsydoodle]

22. YouTube links are stacking up

Obviously disturbing but should be watched. A couple are posted here in Political Videos too.

[salin]

23. was it in 2005 or 2006 that the then head of the VA, before congress,

said that he (they/VA) didn't need more money that the (frozen or near frozen amount from the previous year) than the bush administration had asked for in its budget? At the time there were stories of political pressure put upon him by the WH after he had stated growing needs, but by the time he went before congress he had backed off that and said that no more $ was needed (had to help bushco protect their taxcuts and save face.) That story really should be replayed in the current stories.

[IndyOp]

29. Giving credence to Woodward's story last week of 200,000 wounded...

1.5 million troops have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan (from OP)

and

184,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have sought VA health care - nearly 64,000 of whom have been diagnosed with potential symptoms of post-traumatic stress, drug abuse or other mental disorders.

If the only people eligible for VA health care are people were wounded in service, then it seems plausible that there have been 200,000 non-fatal casualties of Iraq/Afghanistan.

I am just thinking aloud, in response to your post, because I saw a comment you made last week on the Woodward "bombshell" and I agreed that we needed to be cautious about accepting/interpreting the 200,000 number.

What do you think?

Take care - Indy

:hi:

[salin]

30. please read the following

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x340133

I hate that the 'old news' often just fades away and isn't tied to the current news. I went digging a little to try to find the old story.

The tragic thing per those numbers - is we just don't know. I missed all the details on that story (I think you are remembering someone else's caution per that) - Though I will say there have been many discussions since at least 2003 about how the number of fatalities were deflated by only including 'in combat' and a few reported instances where clearly the incident was related to the fighting but were considered 'noncombat'.

Great to see you! :hi:

[Decruiter]

25. Just a simple K & R, we can never make it up. We owe our Vets so muchl

Yet we need our Vets to all stand up together and join in a movement to change the system we find ourselves in. We need our Vets and their families most of all.

What would happen if we had a war and nobody came/showed up/put down their arms?

I believe in defending our shores.

Read Smedley Butler, "War is a Racket".

Our soldiers should be the deciding vote on war.

Peace.....

[Barrett808]

32. k & r 2

[SammyWinstonJack]

31. K&R

[Spiffarino]

33. Both of my brothers use VA exclusively

Both are Navy vets. Neither can afford healthcare outside the VA and one is on total disability (service-related).

I can tell you that their healthcare, in a word, sucks.

It doesn't suck because of VA personnel. Far from it. The greater portion of VA workers are compassionate, hard-working, caring individuals. No, the problem is the constant nicking away at the foundations of the VA health system itself. For years I've watched the system slowly deteriorate and my brothers' health along with it.

I'm sick of our veterans being crapped on. They did their duty for us, so we'd damned well better do our duty for them.

[Joe Chi Minh]

34. Further enrichment of the very rich is not synonymous with public

service - least of all, when, privatising the latter, it takes absolute priority over the welfare of the public and the nation, funneling the public it should be serving onto a one-way street to serfdom. Welcome to the glories of rampantly anarchic Capitalism.

[Up2Late]

35. This is a perfect Racket. Push them into an unnecessary War so that you can...

1) Sell More weapons...

2) Privatize, then vastly over charge for the "unglamorous" parts of the military through Private Contracts...

3) Privatize the Medical care in order to "maximize profits"...

I could keep going, but you get the picture.:mad:

[MasonJar]

36. What I do not understand is the attitude of the VFW, who did not support

a true war hero, John Kerry, but just love the idiot-in-chief and Cheney who had better things to do than serve his country. My husband left Princeton University as a junior to fight for his country during the Viet Nam War. Cheney, the hero of the VFW, and Stump, who is still AWOL, receive the VFW's continuous praise and invites to speak. I have no respect for that group, and I have a right to speak as a person whose dad was a doctor at the Battle of the Bulge and whose father-in-law was at Iwo Jimo and whose son also served 4 years in the Navy (thank God at one of the few times when there was no war.)

[vickitulsa]

44. Just as I finished reading this thread, another of those recruiting commercials

came on the teevee ... and I thought: I wonder if many of those youngsters who see these ads and are tempted by the "exciting career" they see portrayed in them are also hearing the news coming out about Walter Reed and the rest of the system for military "healthcare"?

I hope so! And if they go so far as to visit a recruiter, I hope they keep in mind what they've learned about how "wounded warriors" are actually treated -- MIStreated and neglected is more like it.

<Inserting "Rant Alert!" here>

Of the many stories I've heard lately along these lines, one was from a 17-year-old whose parents signed for him to join the Marines. He was quick-trained and immediately sent to Iraq. Back home now (but for how long?), he replied to a question that both he and his parents were "surprised" that he was sent to war so fast.

The truth that must be conveyed to the young people who are thinking of signing up, for whatever reasons, is that recruiters lie on a regular basis. All those promises of "world class healthcare free for life" after they serve are just so much smelly crap!

I'm glad to hear that apparently clips from today's Walter Reed hearings are showing up on youtube and hopefully elsewhere (including DU's video section)! We need to do all we can to keep this story front and center, until there's no excuse for anyone not understanding just how abusive and neglectful this administration is of our military servicemembers and their families.

I've been a staunch friend and supporter of Vietnam vets ever since "their" war, and I've helped as many of them as I can to fight the paperwork-heavy bureaucracy of the VA to get the disability ratings (service-related!) and compensation and patient care they need. It's a nightmare for them, because of course the VA requires them, if they are having symptoms of PTSD, to endure a horrendously painful period of remembering and reliving the horrors which damaged them.

One of my best vet friends, named Rick, was dyslexic as a child and stuck in the "slow" classes at school, so he didn't do well and barely graduated high school. That was in 1967, however (same year I graduated), and the Army had no problem at all finding him totally suitable for duty -- as cannon fodder, another 11B or infantry "grunt" -- in the meatgrinder that was Vietnam.

The "stressor" experience most responsible for his PTSD was truly horrific, as I learned when he told me after his three-week inpatient stint in the Seattle VA for PTSD assessment where they pushed him to remember and relive the event.

Rick was dropped along with the rest of his company into a raging firefight, and the confusion in the darkness was such that the group was separated and scattered quickly while under heavy fire. Rick had only been incountry for a few weeks at that point -- yet he had already before then seen one of his fellows killed by a sniper wound to the chest when the guy was simply walking back from the latrine.

In the firefight, Rick realized the men in his company were getting separated and was looking back behind him as he tried to move to a hill where he believed they were supposed to regroup. What he saw -- the "stressor" event he finally related to the VA staff -- was so horrific the mind recoils to even imagine it.

This was an occasion of "friendly fire" where some members in the rear of Rick's company were napalmed by air strikes -- and what Rick saw when he turned around as he ran were guys who were on fire ... hair and uniforms literally ablaze with that gellied gasoline mix that couldn't be cleaned off to stop the burning of flesh. They were guys he knew, from his own company, new "brothers" he could identify in the light of the damn fires ... running directly at him!

It was sheer madness, like he was looking right into the yawning mouth of hell.

Rick had not exactly "forgotten" that incident, or any of the others that traumatized him. But he had pretty successfully suppressed the memories, and the last thing he wanted to do was to try real hard to think back and recall every detail.

But that's precisely what they need a soldier or veteran to do in order to assess him as suffering from PTSD, though there is much more to the process than that. He didn't even get any individual counseling, either -- it was all "group" because there wasn't enough funding for individual therapy!

Even though he did eventually receive his psych disability rating for PTSD, 100% and permanent, Rick was actually quite a lot worse after his assessment period in Seattle than he'd been before it. They had to increase his dosage of meds twice before he could sleep at all, and then he'd have flashbacks and nightmares like he hadn't had in several years before then.

Rick was an artist, but he had never once painted anything from his war experience. He just couldn't, he didn't want to, he avoided thinking about that time in his life.

But he had never been able to hold down a job after returning home. He tried, over and over again, but he couldn't deal with a lot of people and couldn't handle any sort of confrontation.

He was homeless as a result, off and on over the years, though his wife was willing to stand by him and she managed to work enough to keep a roof over their heads and raise their daughter. Rick felt he was bad for them both and a burden, so sometimes he would just leave and live on the road like a vagabond.

Finally he had managed to stay home, was given a small percentage disability rating from Social Security and a tiny check each month, and he did volunteer work at local nursing homes, teaching old folks to paint! He loved that.

But his fellow vets we knew online kept telling him he deserved 100% rating and urged him to seek re-assessment to get that -- which is how he ended up as an inpatient for a three-week evaluation. Took him a long time just to get back close to where he'd been before then.

Sorry for the long story; but trust me, this is only ONE of the hundreds -- literally hundreds! -- of horror stories I heard from my Nam vet friends over a period of about ten years when I worked intensively for them to get help from the VA.

And Rick's story is not at all unlike what so many of our current soldiers are experiencing.

The first time I heard on the news about I.E.D.'s, the "roadside bombs," I remember saying that we were going to have a very high rate of PTSD among the troops sent to Iraq, due to the very nature of those weapons deployed against them. Soldiers are driving or walking along, patroling, and without any warning, BOOM! Chaos and blood and ripped flesh and screams, dead and wounded all around....

One needn't suffer physical wounds but merely witness such events -- or what happens afterwards -- in order to have sufficient trauma for PTSD. Those who are not wounded often feel they should not complain about nightmares or flashbacks or crippling anxiety attacks ... after all, they didn't get hurt, right?


I was astonished to read that 1.5 million U.S. troops have by now served in Iraq and Afghanistan. I remember learning years ago that approximately 2.3 million total were veterans of Vietnam. The horrors just keep multiplying as the years of war continue on unabated, so much like then!

And the war experience is only the beginning of the problems for those who serve in Bu$h's profiteering adventures in the Middle East. So much of the psychological damage they eventually suffer occurs after they return home. The public may treat them far better than vets from Vietnam were treated, but that was only a part of the picture.

When the very system which is supposed to be meeting the needs, medical and psychological, of our returning soldiers lets them down, the damage continues. When they have to wade through reams of paperwork and fight tooth and nail against a bureaucratic monster that swallows them whole, the damage continues.

When they are told by medical staff or someone with rank that their wounds or their symptoms of PTSD are not as severe as they know them to be -- that they should be well healed or are not severely impaired -- they are hugely wronged and the damage continues.

When they find they can only really talk about their problems to their "brothers" (and sisters!) whom they know have lived through the same thing, the damage continues and their world shrinks. Their lives are diminished, at the very least, and for a great many their lives are impaired to a significant degree -- and forever.

They may be "volunteering," yes. But they are tempted and then pressured by recruiters and their own slim opportunities in life, and they really do NOT know what they are volunteering FOR. They think they do, but they don't. They are lied to, promised things they'll never get, and the most important of those things they're denied is proper healthcare!

It's a crime of immense proportions, that's for certain. And as one of the Congresspersons said today at the Walter Reed hearings, "They are 'wounded warriors' NOW; but soon they'll just be 'vets' ...."

What will happen to them then? Ask a Vietnam vet....

[outofbounds]

46. My experience 23years ago

at the hospital at Ft Knox sucked. I was in with pneumonia 102 temperature sick as hell. At 6am they woke the group up made you change bed sheets and shower. 2hrs later they came with meds and breakfast. I was there a total of 3days and still sick when I got out but it was great to get out of there. There was a good deal of confusion with the paperwork and where you had to go during the process. I had to go to the hospital at Ft Bragg and had a far better experience there. Outpatient broken arm, but the staff was at least helpful and showed me where I needed to be. When you are hurting or really sick you don't care about all the red tape, you just want to feel better. I can only imagine how these heroes must feel when they enter a place that is supposed to be the best the military has and are treated to such substandard conditions. All the while they are worried sick about bills and how they will take care of their families.