Aftermath (Walter Reed)

[ProSense]

Aftermath

The Washington Post stories on Walter Reed Army Medical Center have continued. The story which appeared on Sunday stunned many people.

Yesterday's installment brought more personal stories which reveal a broken down bureaucracy with misplaced priorities and families whose resources are stretched beyond their limits trying to care for their injured family members.

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The photo slideshow brings the impact home.

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VoteVets.org chairman Jon Soltz talks about armor for the troops and Vet care on Countdown:

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SOLTZ: You know sir, I think the “Washington Post” piece speaks for itself. Walter Reid is in a specifically different position than some of the other out patient places around the United States Army and the Department of Defense. You know, last year the Republican Congress decided they were going to have BRAC a lot of military installations around the country, which means Base Realignment and Closure. Walter Reid came up on that list.

I think you‘re seeing the affects of that policy, which is Why are you going to fix the paint and clear the mice out of an institution that‘s closing. I think the second striking thing about this piece is that this is actually part of the Department of Defense. This is not the Veterans‘ Administration, which we know is woefully underfunded.

The DOD is responsible for these soldiers until they leave active duty. So, basically, the same administration that brought us no body armor and no up-armored humvees, the same administration that just brought us mice at Walter Reid, and their support for the war fighter is abysmal.

OLBERMANN: Even if this country had to pay full price at private hospitals so these guys, our neighbors and friends, could get the care that they need, at full price, no insurance, could the cost possibly amount to more than a microscopic fraction of the billions we‘ve seen vanish down the rabbit holes in Iraq?

SOLTZ: No sir, not at all. You know, VoteVets.org, we did this big commercial with body armor and we blew up the body armor. It cost me 1,000 dollars on eBay to buy the piece. When my unit went to Iraq, we were cross leveling plates. We didn‘t have up-armored humvees. It took public embarrassment for that.

So, the tactical equipment is actually not that expensive. And what makes it so shocking is the money is there for the Pentagon. They get what they request. They get the supplementals from Congress. So what this is this is an administration that‘s dedicated to the high end corporate contractors, you know, the high end weapons systems in the sky, the super duper missile defense systems that alienate our allies. These are the same people that are making 40 million dollars a year on their corporate contracts.

And that money is coming into the political system on one side. And one of the really great things we do at VoteVets.org is we try to fight for the war fighter. In this specific case there‘s no reason why we can‘t spend the small money on the regular war fighter, when we‘re spending the large money on weapons systems that aren‘t making a difference in the war on terror.

OLBERMANN: Where is the protest over this? I mean, we‘ve heard this political nonsense about Iraq veterans being spit on, or symbolically spit at, and claims withdrawn, and a huge political hub-ub made over this, where are the Republicans speaking about the treatment of these maimed Americans? And where are the Democrats in their protest on this? Where is that? Why is there no outrage about this extraordinary circumstance?

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[BlueGirlRedState]

1. I was just listening to Monday's podcast of Randi reading this

and it's astounding.

I will call my good-for-nothing Repub senators. Maybe they do have some shame after all.

[blm]

3. Calling my goodfornothing red senators, too.

.

[kestrel91316]

2. This is what's known as Supporting the Troops(TM).

Let the rats have at 'em.

I think soldiers did about this well in the Civil War.

The US of A REALLY IS the greatest nation on earth, and this is the proof!!!1!!!111

[ProSense]

4. Legislation will be aimed at helping patients with counseling, rehabilitation

February 20, 2007

Kerry Joins Obama, McCaskill To Improve Conditions At Walter Reed Hospital

Legislation will be aimed at helping patients with counseling, rehabilitation

WASHINGTON, DC – Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) announced today that he will co-sponsor legislation to improve the lives of recovering veterans at Walter Reed and other medical centers by eliminating paperwork and improving physical conditions. Kerry also said he would explore options for directing new funding to Walter Reed and to make immediate improvements to the buildings where veterans are housed. Kerry said he was “saddened” by a recent Washington Post series exposing poor sanitary conditions and other hurdles faced by injured veterans returning to the states after service in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with a story in the Army Times about 15 month delays facing vets seeking a physical evaluation. The sponsors of the legislation are Sens. Obama and McCaskill.

“We owe our returning veterans a debt of gratitude, not sub-standard treatment at an overcrowded medical facility,” said Kerry. “The Administration has consistently talked a big game but shortchanged the needs of veterans. How can the president talk about a troop escalation in Iraq while failing to keep faith with the Iraq War veterans we’ve already brought home? Brave men who have been blinded or lost a limb in Iraq should not be sitting in moldy, mouse-infested buildings. Period. It’s unacceptable and this Congress needs to do something about it.”

The legislation that Kerry is co-sponsoring would do the following:

* Simplify the paperwork process for recovering soldiers;
* Improve the ratio of caseworkers to recovering soldiers;
* Increase the training of caseworkers;
* Require more frequent IG inspections of hospital facilities and standards of care;
* Establish timelines and benchmarks for repairs to substandard facilities;
* Provide recovering soldiers with psychological counseling; and
* Require regular reporting to Congress on: the total number of recovering soldiers at military hospitals; the number of caseworkers; the average waiting time for treatment; and the number of suicide attempts, accidental deaths or drug overdoses.

[ProSense]

5. Wounded and waiting

Wounded and waiting

A slow medical evaluation process leaves many injured troops in limbo

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Feb 20, 2007 14:41:57 EST

Leaning over the sink in an almost-clean barracks bathroom across the street from Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Pvt. Robert Van Antwerp, 20, quickly sheared the hair of his new roommate into a fresh crew cut.

“This is what my dad does when he really wants to get to know someone,” Van Antwerp said, referring to Lt. Gen. Robert Van Antwerp, head of the Army’s Accessions Command. “He cuts hair. Now it’s a family tradition.”

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But as he cut, Van Antwerp revealed much more about himself than did his customer — who fell asleep in Van Antwerp’s gentle hands.

A pale scar creates a deep furrow connecting Van Antwerp’s eyebrows. Doctors replaced bone with titanium after he fractured his skull. Bare-chested as he trimmed, Van Antwerp has a deep, laddered line from beneath his sternum to at least the top of his sweatpants. A blast ruptured his spleen and ripped out his colon. Pushing up his left pant leg as he told his battle story, Van Antwerp showed where three ligaments tore away from his knee, and then pointed out the scar from his broken tibia.

Above his heart, the ranks and last names of two dead friends are etched in ink. But he calls a friend to ask their first names. Short-term memory loss arrived for Van Antwerp in the same attack that killed his buddies.

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[nam78_two]

6. K&R.nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. I want hearings and I want heads to roll for this

in fact I DEMAND hearings