Text 3719, 244 rader
Skriven 2007-03-15 10:38:46 av Roy Witt (1:123/789.0)
   Kommentar till text 3693 av Janis Kracht (1:261/38)
Ärende: The Army is ordering injured troops to go to Iraq
=========================================================
"Janis Kracht -> Roy Witt" <1:261/38> wrote in message
news:20313$POL_INC@JamNNTPd...
 JK> Hi Roy,

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

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

I try not to watch left wing whackos make up their own version of the news.


 JK> Take care,
 JK> 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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 JK> --- BBBS/LiI v4.01 Flag
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