FORT STEWART, Ga., Oct. 21 — Spc. Joseph Eason came to Fort Stewart for medical treatment in August after leaving Iraq with five metal shards lodged in his lower body from a mortar round. Eason, a citizen-soldier in the Florida National Guard, says he’d prefer to go home and let a civilian physician treat his wounds. But that’s not an option as long as he is on active duty.
INSTEAD, HE’S SPENT the past two months living in spartan concrete barracks at Fort Stewart, where he says his treatment has amounted to one doctor appointment, a visit to a physician’s assistant and one physical therapy session.
“The medical care here, in my personal opinion, I feel is substandard if any,” said Eason, 35, from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
Reports that sick or injured reservists complained of long waits for health care and uncomfortable housing put the Army on the defensive Monday, with post officials saying they’re doing the best they can with what they have.
“We’re constantly working on improvements,” said Col. Joe Barthel, commander of Winn Army Hospital at Fort Stewart.
He acknowledged that the wait for orthopedic procedures is six weeks and “we like to keep that below four weeks. ... Our other surgical services are two to three weeks.”
RESERVISTS ON ‘MEDICAL HOLD’
There are 633 National Guard and Army Reserve troops on what the Army calls “medical hold” for treatment of injuries or illnesses at Fort Stewart, with problems ranging from sprained ankles to war wounds.
The citizen-soldiers aren’t considered sick enough for hospitalization, so they stay in the same minimal barracks, some without air conditioning or private bathrooms, used by healthy reservists.
If the soldiers get well, they go home when their unit is released from active duty. If they’re still waiting for treatment when their units are deactivated, the Army may hold them until they’re healed or discharged.
“We want to take care of soldiers, and we’re not going to send soldiers home broken,” Barthel said.
Eason said he’s been told it could take another nine months for his discharge to go through.
THE WAITING GAME
Spc. Chris Rinchich, an Army Reservist from Myrtle Beach, S.C., says he’s waiting for knee surgery after tearing a ligament in his left knee in Kuwait in May. He said he doesn’t expect to leave Fort Stewart until next summer.
“It’s pending. I’m on a waiting list, I heard,” said the 21-year-old Rinchich, who spent last summer in a cement-block barracks without air conditioning.
Col. John Kidd, garrison commander at Fort Stewart, said improvements are being made to the barracks. Window air conditioning units have been added to some and others have gotten new mattresses in the past month.
“They’re designed for annual training for the National Guard, so they’re fairly bare bones. They’re habitable, but there’s certainly no frills,” he said. “They’re not the best that we would like them to have. We would like to do better.”
posted on October 21, 2003 10:35:17 AM new
edited to add - NOT as negative as some would like you to believe...
Doctors, dollars rushed to Fort Stewart
By Mark Benjamin
UPI Investigations Editor
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.
The Army said in its statement that it would spend money to improve those living conditions and is dispatching a team to look into the soldiers' complaints.
"The Army does acknowledge that medical hold challenges exist -- across the Army as well as Fort Stewart," according to the statement. The Army "is absolutely committed to taking care of our people."
At the Pentagon, Army Public Affairs Specialist Steven Stover said officials would try to use findings about the problems at Fort Stewart to improve conditions in the future.
"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.
Stover said Director of the Army Staff Lt. Gen. James L. Lovelace Jr. dispatched the "assessment team" after a series of meetings among high-level Army officials on Friday, Saturday and Monday.
On Friday, United Press International reported that the soldiers were languishing in hot cement barracks here while they wait -- sometimes for months -- to see doctors. They have to walk to a nearby latrine.
Steve Robinson, a veterans advocate with the National Gulf War Resource Center who visited the barracks last week, said Monday he was glad the Army acted.
"The NGWRC is pleased that the Army will address the soldiers' concerns," Robinson said. "As a former non-commissioned officer who retired after 20 years of faithful service, I was disturbed by the reports from the soldiers in medical hold."
Missouri Republican Sen. Kit Bond, who heads a key veterans' committee, is set to dispatch staff to Fort Stewart on Tuesday, said his spokeswoman, Shana Stribling.
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.
The Army said Monday it has "shifted professional staff from regional medical facilities to Fort Stewart to help reduce the backlog where appropriate."
"I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it." - A Few Good Men
[ edited by wgm on Oct 21, 2003 10:36 AM ]
posted on October 21, 2003 10:53:11 AM new "wow who would if thunk it Helen posting a negative thread about our soldiers...."
How can you possibly interpret a plea to help the troops as a negative? Publicity has sent the military scurrying to handle the problem...as your friend's post indicates.
posted on October 21, 2003 12:15:33 PM new
Contrary to *popular* belief, it is not being ignored...
Army Investigates Treatment of Ill Iraq Veterans
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: October 21, 2003
ATLANTA, Oct. 20 — The Army is investigating complaints that hundreds of sick and wounded soldiers who just returned from Iraq are languishing in crudely furnished barracks without proper medical care at the Fort Stewart military base, army officials disclosed on Monday.
Many of the soldiers have been housed in short-term training barracks with concrete floors and outdoor latrines. Many have had to wait weeks to see a doctor.
"Some of these soldiers are certainly not happy," said Col. John Kidd, garrison commander at Fort Stewart. "But we're asking for more resources. And we're open to any suggestions on how to fix this."
Lt. Col. Kevin Curry, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon, said an assessment team had been sent to the base, near Savannah, to look into the complaints. "The advance party of the assessment team is already on the ground," Colonel Curry said.
He added that Pentagon officials were aware of a backlog of medical cases at Fort Stewart and were trying to find more doctors, possibly from other bases or even civilian hospitals.
Fort Stewart is home to 24,000 soldiers and the Army's Third Infantry Division, the troops who seized Baghdad in the early days of the war in Iraq. Most of those troops have been brought home, causing a space squeeze at the base, which also houses many National Guard and Reserve units.
The reports of poor care first surfaced this weekend in a United Press International article detailing complaints from wounded and sick National Guard and Reserve soldiers being housed in no-frills cinder block quarters normally used for training. There are 633 such "medical hold" soldiers at Fort Stewart, army officials said. Most served in Iraq, though about a third were never deployed because of previous ailments.
Some soldiers said they had to hobble on crutches to outdoor latrines and shower in communal bathrooms. Others said they were getting worse treatment than their active duty comrades, an accusation that Army officials denied.
"We're one army here," Colonel Kidd said. "There's no difference in our medical treatment."
He did acknowledge, however, that Reserve and Guard troops were living "in some pretty spartan, austere conditions." He characterized their housing as "basic shelter."
Army officials said they were spending $3 million to upgrade the training barracks with carpet and air conditioning and better lights.
"We're going as fast as we can," Colonel Kidd said. "But we're also fighting a war here."
"I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it." - A Few Good Men
I wonder why the need for medical attention and accommodation of wounded and sick soldiers wasn't anticipated? Until this story broke, there was only one doctor for 500 sick soldiers.
posted on October 21, 2003 12:38:18 PM new
Good question, Helen. I was blown away when I heard that. They're sending in people to "evaluate the situation". I hope they all live long enough!
Since the end of the Vietnam War, presidents have worried that their military actions would lose support once the public glimpsed the remains of U.S. soldiers arriving at air bases in flag-draped caskets.
To this problem, the Bush administration has found a simple solution: It has ended the public dissemination of such images by banning news coverage and photography of dead soldiers' homecomings on all military bases.
In March, on the eve of the Iraq war, a directive arrived from the Pentagon at U.S. military bases. "There will be no arrival ceremonies for, or media coverage of, deceased military personnel returning to or departing from Ramstein [Germany] airbase or Dover [Del.] base, to include interim stops," the Defense Department said, referring to the major ports for the returning remains
In Baghdad, official control over the news is getting tighter. Journalists used to walk freely into the city's hospitals and the morgue to keep count of the day's dead and wounded. Now the hospitals have been declared off-limits and morgue officials turn away reporters who aren't accompanied by a Coalition escort. Iraqi police refer reporters' questions to American forces; the Americans refer them back to the Iraqis.
After a summer of sliding polls and an autumn of tough questions in Congress, the White House is hoping to boost public support by convincing Americans that the cynical national press is getting the story wrong.
Dictatorial control of the news will not convince Americans that democracy is going well.
posted on October 21, 2003 01:25:20 PM new
Twelve, being a war vet, I would think you, especially, would be outraged at this. These are the heros you talk about and to see them treated this way is a disgrace, don't you think?
posted on October 21, 2003 03:08:52 PM new
Did you ever think that the relatives of those being brought home to rest could do without all the cameras and hoopla of a media event ?? I have been at the "homecoming" of some of these heroes in the past and the media is a uneeded and unwanted pain in the ass. God forbid if my child had to come home this way the last thing I need to deal with on top of all that is the freaking news hounds seeing who can get the best footage of the casket. If you think it's a nice tidy uniform news event at these things you are sadly mistaken. That is an excellent move removing the newshawks from those events. Open your eyes and take a look at both sides before you rant on something you know nothing about.
posted on October 22, 2003 09:04:38 AM new
and slipping on a press badge should give one the right to move freely around a hospital ? Try that in the states and see what you get ! Yep think I'll stroll around some rooms and go visit the mourge. ever think about theft (drug or identity), invasion of privacy, sabatoge. Just because you have a press badge doesn't make you press and doesn't give you the right to move around as you please. perhaps this could be a security measure for saftey. NAAAAAAAAAAAA that makes to much damn sense, your right it's got to be a conspiracy.
posted on October 22, 2003 09:18:05 AM new
Outraged about what?
They are getting the help they need... as far as teh accomendations... it is better than a tent...
These soldiers are reservists for the most part and are not used to all facets of active duty life...
or am I supposed to be outraged that the liberal press cannot use death, of people they are not fit to even talk about, for their subversive messages?
not hardly
Iraqi insurgents have stepped up attacks on U.S. troops in recent weeks, the commander of American forces said Wednesday, as bombers struck again in this Sunni Muslim area west of Baghdad, in the northern city of Mosul and in the heart of the capital.
Elsewhere, U.S. troops of the 4th Infantry Division arrested more than a dozen suspects, including a former major general, in pre-dawn raids Wednesday north of Baghdad.
The Baghdad bombing, which occurred as a convoy passed through a tunnel, slightly wounded two U.S. soldiers, who were returned to duty after treatment, a U.S. officer at the scene reported.
In Fallujah, however, witnesses said four Americans were carried away on stretchers after a roadside bomb exploded beside a three-vehicle convoy.The U.S. military in Baghdad had no report on the incident.
After the attack, residents cheered and swarmed over one disabled vehicle, looting its contents and setting it afire. It was the third attack on American troops in the Fallujah area in as many days.
