BlogHer - Iraq vet's wife: "If Iraq don't kill you, Walter Reed will" - Comments

I See your point

christy_freddie — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 08:21:38 -0500

My name is Christy I have a husband that is currently serving in Iraq with 1st Calvary Division. He is a NCO in the United States Army. This is his 2nd tour. This is my story:

In January of 2007 I received a phone call that my mother in-law was in the hospital. She was just going in to have Gall Bladder surgery. I notified my husband it was a simple easy surgery. My mother in-law came out of the surgery ok sick but ok. Two days later I receive another phone call saying she is bleeding out and needs emergency surgery. So I then sent another message to my husband letting him know. Naturally he was worried. So she came out ok and ended up having her spleen removed. I notified my husband once again that she was ok. One day later I received another call from the hospital that his mom was dyeing and had to have another surgery to release pressure in her stomach. There was so much swelling that her heart, lungs was failing. So she ended up on life support. I sent my first Red Cross message for my husband to return home. Well he came home and mom got a little better, but then crashed again. We had so much to take care of for her. Her finances, medical bills, insurance, disability, social security and legal affairs were all needing to be taken care of. With only a short leave granted, and no will, or power of attorney there was little he could get accomplished. The hospital did give him all medical say so, because he was the only one his mom had and she had told her case worker that she wanted him to, in case something happened to her. When his leave was up he left to go back to Iraq without having time to take care of everything and with dealing with his mother telling him, â€œplease donâ€™t leave me sonâ€. Once I was back home, and he was on his way back to Iraq the phone calls started coming in with her health going up and down, as well as the hospital needing him there to make decisions for her.. So I had to email him and do what I could to get him on the phone with the hospital. Then with the hospitals guidance, we sent another Red Cross message to get him home for his mom. The message was sent with all the proper info from Doctors and Administration. I could not make these decisions, or handle any of her affairs. No one would even talk to me about them. The Army then refused to send him home, just because he had been home prior to this for the same reason. As we all know it takes time to get things in order and done. So I went to his chain of command here in the states. They have been so helpful. They verified that all the information was true, and he really needed to be sent back to take care of his motherâ€™s affairs, and to be with her. All I hear from the rear command is he will be leaving the next day, or soon they will have him on a flight. After three weeks and matters getting worse, he is still not home. From over in Iraq he is not being told nothing, and later finding out that it has been denied three times. I can not understand why his battalion will not release him to come back to take care of his mother. My husband is not the only solider this is happening to. I am hearing more and more of this kind of thing happening in this unit, I just wonder if it is an Army wide dilemma. The Army's Saying is, "Soldiers and Family Always," Where's that coming into play here. There's nobody that can make decisions on his mothers behalf but him. The Army is playing politics with me, and giving us the run around. They tell you what you want to hear. The command here at Division level has been more than helpful but why does the middle guy seem to have a problem with taking care of one of his soldiers and family, like he told us before my husband was sent over there. Well the battalion commander is mad at me because I over stepped him, and now my husband and his mom has to pay for it. Why does the Army let him get away with it? They still today are refusing to send him home and delaying everything that is being sent from Division. I have the 1st Cav Division here fighting to have him home and over in Iraq a Battalion Commander that is refusing to let him come home because I over stepped him, to take care of my family. If the shoe was on the other foot, I bet things would be different. Can somebody put a stop to the way our soldiers and when I say that I am meaning husbands, wives, sons, and daughters are being treated over seas by commands that say one thing but do another? This needs to end here and now! We need to wake up and realize that they are human and if they are worried about home and not the job at hand over there in Iraq then somebody is going to get hurt or killed because someone was not in the right state of mind. Then they will see that our soldiers are not robots. It should not take that for them to see they are human too. We all want them home, we know there is a war at hand and they are needed there, but we need them home too for family issues as well. PLEASE STOP AND LET THE PUBLIC KNOW HOW THEY ARE REALLY BEING TREATED SO OUR FUTURE SOLIDERS DO NOT GET THE SAME TREATMEANT.

Iraq vet's wife: "If Iraq don't kill you, Walter Reed will"

Morra Aarons Mele — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 16:13:48 -0600

So said a soldier's wife on her husband's convalescence at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. This week the Washington Post has featured powerful front page stories on poor conditions at Walter Reed. Recovering troops, often suffering from PTSD, live amid rodents, black mold, failed electricity, and chaotic, anarchic conditions while trying to heal from war. The articles have started a nationwide discussion and have actually forced policy change. I think they are a major turning point for our nation, much in the way Hurricane Katrina's damage ripped open the structural flaws of life in New Orleans. "Building 18" might take on the meaning of the 9th Ward.

Today, the Washington Post reported that the Army has announced changes

to the decrepit buildings. Mil bloggers to liberal bloggers agree Walter Reed needs repair. Unlike Katrina, though, because Walter Reed services Iraq war veterans, this issue is overtly political.

Conservative mil blogger Andi brings up an interesting case. She has spent time at the hospital, and questions the timing of the story and its ultimate aim:

Are the problems revealed by the Post reporters real? Yes, indeed they are. See this first-hand account. But, as with most things that the media expose, there is much more to the story than meets the eye.

When the story broke, my inbox began chirping. Many people know that over the past two years, I've spent a lot of time at Walter Reed. What did I think? How could this be? Look at what the MSM is doing. Have you seen this? Is it true?

Any reasonable person reading the WaPo story would be outraged, as they should be, but after I read the story, I accurately predicted what would soon follow. While there is merit to this story, I knew that this issue would become a hot, political baton used by some to beat the Bush administration, and our military, over the head. I'll bet the Washington Post did too. Read these comments, search the web. How long before grandiose speeches on the House floor reference this story as one reason for us to "pull out?"

When will we be able to treat issues such as this in a non-political fashion? Not doing so diminishes their importance and shows our bias is more important than fostering change.

On the left, former John Edwards blogger Shakespeare's Sister writes

Looks like all it took to start improving conditions for convalescing veterans at Walter Reed's Building 18 was a massive cover story by the Washington Post: "Walter Reed Army Medical Center began repairs yesterday on Building 18, a former hotel that is used to house outpatients recuperating from injuries suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan and that has been plagued with mold, leaky plumbing and a broken elevator. â€¦ Yesterday, [the facility's commander, Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman] said a broken elevator in the building had been repaired and soldiers were working to improve the outside of the building, including removing ice and snow. The slippery conditions have kept some soldiers in their rooms. A garage door that has been broken for months will soon be repaired as well. â€¦ Walter Reed and Army officials have been 'meeting continuously for three days' since the articles began appearing, Weightman said. A large roundtable meeting with Army and Defense Department officials will take place at the Pentagon early this morning to continue talks about improvements in the outpatient system, he added. Weightman said the medical center has received an outpouring of concern about conditions and procedures since the articles appeared and has taken steps to improve what soldiers and their families describe as a messy battlefield of bureaucratic problems and mistreatment. 'We're starting to attack how we'll fix and mitigate' some of the problems, he said."

Imagine that.

So, here's the thing: They've shown they're motivated not by a genuine concern for the well-being of wounded veterans, but instead by public embarrassment. That means they'll only keep at making improvements as long as a spotlight is on them. And that means the press has to keep the spotlight on them. And that means we have to remember to put pressure on the press to regularly check up on the situation, once this falls out of the headlines.

Iraq has caused our nation to be so deeply cynical that a positive policy reaction to a press expose is viewed as a political football. I guess this isn't a new concept, but surely it must sting for those soldiers and their families who were featured in the article, many of whom were scared to be identified, for fear of retribution from the Army.