Text 3693, 236 rader
Skriven 2007-03-14 18:16:10 av Janis Kracht (1:261/38)
   Kommentar till text 3645 av Roy Witt (1:123/789.0)
Ärende: The Army is ordering injured troops to go to Iraq
=========================================================
Hi Roy,

> Jesus! More whacko fiction from the left wing crazies...

I expect you saw MSNBC's HardBall report just a few minutes ago regarding this
issue? Ft. Benning's Master Sgt. Jenkins  was there... confirming everything
stated in this post.

Take care,
Janis

 > "Janis Kracht -> All" <1:261/38> wrote in message
> news:20249$POL_INC@JamNNTPd...
>> http://www.salon.com/news/2007/03/11/fort_benning/

>> The Army is ordering injured troops to go to Iraq At Fort Benning,
>> soldiers who were classified as medically unfit to fight are now being
>> sent to war. Is this an isolated incident or a trend?

>> By Mark Benjamin

>> Mar. 11, 2007 | "This is not right," said Master Sgt. Ronald Jenkins,
>> who has been ordered to Iraq even though he has a spine problem that
>> doctors say would be damaged further by heavy Army protective gear.
>> "This whole thing is about taking care of soldiers," he said angrily.
>> "If you are fit to fight you are fit to fight. If you are not fit to
>> fight, then you are not fit to fight."

>> As the military scrambles to pour more soldiers into Iraq, a unit of the
>> Army's 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Ga., is deploying troops
>> with serious injuries and other medical problems, including GIs who
>> doctors have said are medically unfit for battle. Some are too injured
>> to wear their body armor, according to medical records.

>> On Feb. 15, Master Sgt. Jenkins and 74 other soldiers with medical
>> conditions from the 3rd Division's 3rd Brigade were summoned to a
>> meeting with the division surgeon and brigade surgeon. These are the men
>> responsible for handling each soldier's "physical profile," an Army
>> document that lists for commanders an injured soldier's physical
>> limitations because of medical problems -- from being unable to fire a
>> weapon to the inability to move and dive in three-to-five-second
>> increments to avoid enemy fire. Jenkins and other soldiers claim that
>> the division and brigade surgeons summarily downgraded soldiers'
>> profiles, without even a medical exam, in order to deploy them to Iraq.
>> It is a claim division officials deny.

>> The 3,900-strong 3rd Brigade is now leaving for Iraq for a third time in
>> a steady stream. In fact, some of the troops with medical conditions
>> interviewed by Salon last week are already gone. Others are slated to
>> fly out within a week, but are fighting against their chain of command,
>> holding out hope that because of their ills they will ultimately not be
>> forced to go. Jenkins, who is still in Georgia, thinks doctors are
>> helping to send hurt soldiers like him to Iraq to make units going there
>> appear to be at full strength. "This is about the numbers," he said
> flatly.

>> That is what worries Steve Robinson, director of veterans affairs at
>> Veterans for America, who has long been concerned that the military was
>> pressing injured troops into Iraq. "Did they send anybody down range
>> that cannot wear a helmet, that cannot wear body armor?" Robinson asked
>> rhetorically. "Well that is wrong. It is a war zone." Robinson thinks
>> that the possibility that physical profiles may have been altered
>> improperly has the makings of a scandal. "My concerns are that this
>> needs serious investigation. You cannot just look at somebody and tell
>> that they were fit," he said. "It smacks of an overstretched military
>> that is in crisis mode to get people onto the battlefield."

>> Eight soldiers who were at the Feb. 15 meeting say they were summoned to
>> the troop medical clinic at 6:30 in the morning and lined up to meet
>> with division surgeon Lt. Col. George Appenzeller, who had arrived from
>> Fort Stewart, Ga., and Capt. Aaron K. Starbuck, brigade surgeon at Fort
>> Benning. The soldiers described having a cursory discussion of their
>> profiles, with no physical exam or extensive review of medical files.
>> They say Appenzeller and Starbuck seemed focused on downplaying their
>> physical problems. "This guy was changing people's profiles left and
>> right," said a captain who injured his back during his last tour in Iraq
>> and was ordered to Iraq after the Feb. 15 review.

>> Appenzeller said the review of 75 soldiers with profiles was an effort
>> to make sure they were as accurate as possible prior to deployment. "As
>> the division surgeon and the senior medical officer in the division, I
>> wanted to ensure that all the patients with profiles were fully
>> evaluated with clear limitations that commanders could use to make the
>> decision whether they could deploy, and if they did deploy, what their
>> limitations would be while there," he said in a telephone interview from
>> Fort Stewart. He said he changed less than one-third of those profiles
>> -- even making some more restrictive -- in order to "bring them into
>> accordance with regulations."

>> In direct contradiction to the account given by the soldiers,
>> Appenzeller said physical examinations were conducted and that he had a
>> robust medical team there working with him, which is how they managed to
>> complete 75 reviews in one day. Appenzeller denied that the plan was to
>> find more warm bodies for the surge into Baghdad, as did Col. Wayne W.
>> Grigsby Jr., the brigade commander. Grigsby said he is under "no
>> pressure" to find soldiers, regardless of health, to make his unit look
>> fit. The health and welfare of his soldiers are a top priority, said
>> Grigsby, because [the soldiers] are "our most important resource,
>> perhaps the most important resource we have in this country."

>> Grigsby said he does not know how many injured soldiers are in his
>> ranks. But he insisted that it is not unusual to deploy troops with
>> physical limitations so long as he can place them in safe jobs when they
>> get there. "They can be productive and safe in Iraq," Grigsby said.

>> The injured soldiers interviewed by Salon, however, expressed
>> considerable worry about going to Iraq with physical deficits because it
>> could endanger them or their fellow soldiers. Some were injured on
>> previous combat tours. Some of their ills are painful conditions from
>> training accidents or, among relatively older troops, degenerative
>> problems like back injuries or blown-out knees. Some of the soldiers
>> have been in the Army for decades.

>> And while Grigsby, the brigade commander, says he is under no pressure
>> to find troops, it is hard to imagine there is not some desperation
>> behind the decision to deploy some of the sick soldiers. Master Sgt.
>> Jenkins, 42, has a degenerative spine problem and a long scar down the
>> back of his neck where three of his vertebrae were fused during surgery.
>> He takes a cornucopia of potent pain pills. His medical records say he
>> is "at significantly increased risk of re-injury during deployment where
>> he will be wearing Kevlar, body armor and traveling through rough
>> terrain." Late last year, those medical records show, a doctor
>> recommended that Jenkins be referred to an Army board that handles
>> retirements when injuries are permanent and severe.

>> A copy of Jenkins' profile written after that Feb. 15 meeting and signed
>> by Capt. Starbuck, the brigade surgeon, shows a healthier soldier than
>> the profile of Jenkins written by another doctor just late last year,
>> though Jenkins says his condition is unchanged. Other soldiers'
>> documents show the same pattern.

>> One female soldier with psychiatric issues and a spine problem has been
>> in the Army for nearly 20 years. "My [health] is deteriorating," she
>> said over dinner at a restaurant near Fort Benning. "My spine is
>> separating. I can't carry gear." Her medical records include the note
>> "unable to deploy overseas." Her status was also reviewed on Feb. 15.
>> And she has been ordered to Iraq this week.

>> The captain interviewed by Salon also requested anonymity because he
>> fears retribution. He suffered a back injury during a previous
>> deployment to Iraq as an infantry platoon leader. A Humvee accident
>> "corkscrewed my spine," he explained. Like the female soldier, he is
>> unable to wear his protective gear, and like her he too was ordered to
>> Iraq after his meeting with the division surgeon and brigade surgeon on
>> Feb. 15. He is still at Fort Benning and is fighting the decision to
>> send him to Baghdad. "It is a numbers issue with this whole troop
>> surge," he claimed. "They are just trying to get those numbers."

>> Another soldier contacted Salon by telephone last week expressed
>> considerable anxiety, in a frightened tone, about deploying to Iraq in
>> her current condition. (She also wanted to remain anonymous, fearing
>> retribution.) An incident during training several years ago injured her
>> back, forcing doctors to remove part of her fractured coccyx. She
>> suffers from degenerative disk disease and has two ruptured disks and a
>> bulging disk in her back. While she said she loves the Army and would
>> like to deploy after back surgery, her current injuries would limit her
>> ability to wear her full protective gear. She deployed to Iraq last
>> week, the day after calling Salon.

>> Her husband, who has served three combat tours in the infantry in
>> Afghanistan and Iraq, said he is worried sick because his wife's
>> protective vest alone exceeds the maximum amount she is allowed to lift.
>> "I have been over there three times. I know what it is like," he told me
>> during lunch at a restaurant here. He predicted that by deploying people
>> like his wife, the brigade leaders are "going to get somebody killed
>> over there." He said there is "no way" Grigsby is going to keep all of
>> the injured soldiers in safe jobs. "All of these people that deploy with
>> these profiles, they are scared," he said. He railed at the command:
>> "They are saying they don't care about your health. This is pathetic. It
>> is bad."

>> His wife's physical profile was among those reevaluated on Feb. 15. A
>> copy of her profile from late last year showed her health problems were
>> so severe they "prevent deployment" and recommended she be medically
>> retired from the Army. Her profile at that time showed she was unable to
>> wear a protective mask and chemical defense equipment, and had
>> limitations on doing pushups, walking, biking and swimming. It said she
>> can only carry 15 pounds.

>> Though she says that her condition has not changed since then, almost
>> all of those findings were reversed in a copy of her physical profile
>> dated Feb. 15. The new profile says nothing about a medical retirement,
>> but suggests that she limit wearing a helmet to "one hour at a time."

>> Spc. Lincoln Smith, meanwhile, developed sleep apnea after he returned
>> from his first deployment to Iraq. The condition is so severe that he
>> now suffers from narcolepsy because of a lack of sleep. He almost nodded
>> off mid-conversation while talking to Salon as he sat in a T-shirt on a
>> sofa in his girlfriend's apartment near Fort Benning.

>> Smith is trained by the Army to be a truck driver. But since he is in
>> constant danger of falling asleep, military doctors have listed "No
>> driving of military vehicles" on his physical profile. Smith was
>> supposed to fly to Iraq March 9. But he told me on March 8 that he won't
>> go. Nobody has retrained Smith to do anything else besides drive trucks.
>> Plus, because of his condition he was unable to train properly with the
>> unit when the brigade rehearsed for Iraq in January, so he does not feel
> ready.

>> Smith needs to sleep with a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure)
>> machine pumping air into his mouth and nose. "Otherwise," he says, "I
>> could die." But based on his last tour, he is not convinced he will be
>> able to be in places with constant electricity or will be able to fix or
>> replace his CPAP machine should it fail.

>> He told me last week he would refuse to deploy to Iraq, unsure of what
>> he will be asked to do there and afraid that he will not be taken care
>> of. Since he won't be a truck driver, "I would be going basically as a
>> number," says Smith, who is 32. "They don't have enough people," he
>> says. But he is not going to be one of those numbers until they train
>> him to do something else. "I'm going to go to the airport, and I'm going
>> to tell them I'm not going to go. They are going to give me a weapon. I
>> am going to say, 'It is not a good idea for you to give me a weapon
>> right now.'"

>> The Pentagon was notified of the reclassification of the Fort Benning
>> soldiers as soon as it happened, according to Master Sgt. Jenkins. He
>> showed Salon an e-mail describing the situation that he says he sent to
>> Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley. Jenkins agreed to speak to
>> Salon because he hopes public attention will help other soldiers,
>> particularly younger ones in a similar predicament. "I can't sit back
>> and let this happen to me or other soldiers in my position." But he
>> expects reprisals from the Army.

>> Other soldiers slated to leave for Iraq with injuries said they wonder
>> whether the same thing is happening in other units in the Army. "You
>> have to ask where else this might be happening and who is dictating it,"
>> one female soldier told me. "How high does it go?"

>> -- By Mark Benjamin

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