[Peace-discuss] abandoned veterans

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

Sent: Friday, March 05, 2004 10:53 PM

Subject: Soldier Denied Health Care After Speaking with Journalist


Soldier Denied Health Care After Speaking with Journalist
Mark Benjamin
United Press International
http://www.upi.com
Posted 3/3/2004

Summary: Congress, veterans groups, and the press should immediately launch
a full investigation into this Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran's allegation
he suffered retaliation from the military for speaking with reporters about
substandard military healthcare. A series of three UPI articles about this
major scandal are posted here. They describe the "squalor" more than 1,000
wounded, ill, or injured service members were forced to endure while on
"medical hold."



Article #1

GI Denied Health Care After Speaking Out

March 2, 2004, WASHINGTON -- An Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran says Army
officials at Fort Knox, Ky., refused him medical treatment after he talked
publicly about poor care at the base, which helped spark hearings in
Congress.

Fort Knox officials charged that soldier, Lt. Jullian Goodrum, with being
absent without leave and cut off his pay after he then went to a private
doctor who hospitalized him for serious mental stress from Iraq, Goodrum
said.

"They are coming after me pretty bad," said Goodrum, 33, a veteran who has
served the military for more than 14 years, including the first Gulf War and
Operation Iraqi Freedom.

He showed United Press International a form from Fort Knox that states that
Fort Knox officials "do not want him in medical hold." Some soldiers are
kept on medical hold during treatment while the Army determines their
status.

Goodrum has now been hospitalized in a locked mental ward at the Walter Reed
Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. after turning himself in there Feb.
9. Doctors there say he has post-traumatic stress disorder from Iraq and
major depression, and they worry he could hurt himself. He is not allowed to

go down the hall from the inpatient psychiatric clinic for a Coke without an
escort.

Goodrum said stress from Iraq, and the way he has been treated by the
military since he returned, has made him so depressed he is lucky to be
alive. He also has injuries to both wrists, in part from loading 65-pound
shells on the USS Missouri when he was in the Navy in the first Gulf War.
The ship pounded Iraqi troops in Kuwait and took fire from Iraqi tanks. An
Iraqi Silkworm missile missed her bow by 30 yards.

Goodrum appeared in an Oct. 29 UPI (see full article below) about more than
400 soldiers on medical hold at Fort Knox who were waiting weeks and
sometimes months for medical treatment.

That article, and an article on a similar situation at Fort Stewart, Ga.,
sparked a series of hearings in Congress -- including a Jan. 21 appearance
by Col. Keith Armstrong, garrison commander at Fort Knox, before a panel of
the House Armed Services Committee.

Fort Knox spokeswoman Connie Shaffery said privacy rules prohibit her from
commenting on Goodrum's case, unless he signed a waiver saying otherwise. He
declined. Shaffery said a soldier who does not show up for duty is absent
without leave.

"If a soldier is not at his or her duty station and is not in an authorized
leave or pass status, he is absent without leave," Shaffery said. "When a
soldier is listed as AWOL, it stops all pay and benefits. When instructed to
return and they do not comply, that is a violation."

After appearing in the UPI article on Oct. 29, Goodrum asked for medical
care on or about Nov. 7. He said he told Fort Knox officials that he was
having a breakdown.

"I said I was having problems. I told them I felt like I was having a
breakdown right there," Goodrum said. Goodrum said Fort Knox told him to go
away. A handwritten note in Goodrum's records from Nov. 7 says, "Colonel
Stevens do (sic) not want this patient to be in medical hold."

Goodrum said he then drove down an interstate highway at 5 miles an hour
through rushing traffic. He said he was completely dysfunctional because of
a combination of PTSD and what he says was retribution from his chain of
command for speaking up about poor medical care at the base. He said he
could have wound up dead.

"A truck could have run right over me," Goodrum said about that day. "It was
a complete nervous breakdown."

Goodrum, a member of the Army Reserve, was named the 176th Maintenance
Battalion's "Soldier of the Year" in 2001. He has received a host of awards,
including the combat action ribbon, and positive reviews from superior
officers.

"Lt. Goodrum is a truly outstanding junior officer," reads one performance
evaluation from 2002. "In addition to his technical competence, he
demonstrates great leadership potential. ... Promote to captain and select
for advance military schooling."

Goodrum said his problems began in Iraq, working under combat conditions in
a transportation company. There, he said, safety violations -- including the
use of "deadlined" or broken vehicles -- resulted in the death of a 22-year
old soldier. Goodrum appealed to the Army's Inspector General and Congress
when he returned home.

After Goodrum sought medical help at Fort Knox on Nov. 7 and was denied,
Goodrum's civilian doctor hospitalized him for PTSD and alerted Fort Knox.

Dr. Vijay Jethanandani wrote Fort Knox Nov. 15 that Goodrum needed medical
leave until Dec. 7. The doctor kept officials there up to date on Goodrum's
condition in a series of five letters.

"Unfortunately, recent intimidation, threats of being arrested for staying
on medical leave from his superiors has resulted in recurrent psychiatric
symptoms," Jethanandani wrote Dec. 3. "Until 11/26/03, Mr. Jullian Goodrum
was progressing fairly well."

"It does not help that Mr. Goodrum was in combat with a unit in Iraq, where
a superior officer ignored safety protocol jeopardizing the safety of
soldiers and resulting in the death of one man," Jethanandani wrote.
"Instead of following up on his complaints, it appears that some of his
superiors on stateside may be penalizing him for reporting his superior
officer in Iraq."

In the wake of the Fort Stewart and Fort Knox stories, last fall
Undersecretary of Defense David S.C. Chu ordered that if medical care is not
available on base, "medical commanders shall promptly refer patients to
other military, Veteran Affairs, or civilian sources of care."

Goodrum said he showed Chu's memo to Fort Knox officials, but it did not
help. "I told them they were ignoring an order from the undersecretary of
Defense," Goodrum said.

Goodrum's medical files shows that Walter Reed medical staff also have been
unable to get Fort Knox medical officials to discuss his case. "Patient is
currently assigned to the medical hold company in Fort Knox, Ky., and to a
Capt. Savage. Capt. Savage has NOT returned any phone calls from this
office," his record states.

Soldiers at Fort Knox contacted UPI about another situation they consider a
sign of poor care.

On Feb. 11, a soldier on medical hold at Fort Knox who served in Iraq
apparently attempted suicide in the barracks. He was attached to a Special
Forces unit in Iraq.

Soldiers there said he deeply slashed both of his wrists, spraying blood in
the barracks hallway and around his room before being rushed to the
hospital.

"If it was not for about three guys, if they had not applied direct pressure
and immediate pressure, he would have died," said a soldier at Fort Knox who
knows him.

Soldiers said they worry that Army officials did not act aggressively to
address his problems, including heavy drinking, that appear to have surfaced
since Iraq.

Shaffery said she could not comment on that case, either. "We are sensitive
to psychiatric or suicide issues with all of our population," she said.

Article #2

Sick Soldiers Wait for Treatment

October 29, 2003, FORT KNOX, Ky. -- More than 400 sick and injured soldiers,
including some who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, are stuck at Fort
Knox, waiting weeks and sometimes months for medical treatment, a score of
soldiers said in interviews.

The delays appear to have demolished morale -- many said they had lost faith
in the Army and would not serve again -- and could jeopardize some soldiers'
health, the soldiers said.

The Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers are in what the Army calls
"medical hold," like roughly 600 soldiers under similar circumstances (see
full article below) waiting for doctors at Fort Stewart, Ga.

The apparent lack of care at both locations raises the specter that Reserve
and Guard soldiers, including many who returned from Iraq, could be
languishing at locations across the country, according to Senate
investigators.

Representatives from the office of Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., were at Fort Knox
Wednesday looking into conditions at the post.

Following reports from Fort Stewart, Senate investigators said that the
medical system at that post was overwhelmed and they were looking into
whether the situation was Army-wide.

Army officials at the Pentagon said they are investigating that possibility.
"We are absolutely taking a look at this across the Army and not just at
Fort Stewart," Army spokesman Joe Burlas said Wednesday.

"I joined to serve my country," said Cpl. Waymond Boyd, 34. He served in
Iraq with the National Guard's 1175 Transportation Company. He has been in
medical hold since the end of July.

"It doesn't make any sense to go over there and risk your life and come back
to this," Boyd said. "It ain't fair and it ain't right. I used to be
patriotic." He has served the military for 15 years.

Boyd's knee and wrist injuries were severe enough that he was evacuated to
Germany at the end of July and then sent to Fort Knox. His medical records
show doctor appointments around four weeks apart. He said it took him almost
two months to get a cast for his wrist, which is so weak he can't lift 5
pounds or play with his two children. He is taking painkilling drugs and
walks with a cane with some difficulty.

Many soldiers at Fort Knox said their injuries and illnesses occurred in
Iraq. Some said the rigors of war exacerbated health problems that probably
should have prevented them from going in the first place.

Boyd's X-rays appear to show the damage to his wrist but also bone spurs in
his feet that are noted in his medical record before being deployed, but the
records say "no health problems noted" before he left.

"I don't think I was medically fit to go. But they said 'go.' That is my
job," Boyd said.

Fort Knox Public Affairs Officer Connie Shaffery said, "Taking care of
patients is our priority." Soldiers see specialists within 28 days, Shaffery
said and Fort Knox officials hope to cut that time lag.

"I think that we would like for all the soldiers to get care as soon as
possible," Shaffery said.

Shaffery said of the 422 soldiers on medical hold at Fort Knox, 369 did not
deploy to Operation Iraqi Freedom because of their illnesses. Around
two-thirds of the soldiers at Fort Stewart did serve in Operation Iraqi
Freedom.

Soldiers at Fort Knox describe strange clusters of heart problems and
breathing problems, as did soldiers at Fort Stewart and other locations.

Command Sgt. Major Glen Talley, 57, is in the hospital at Fort Knox for
heart problems, clotting blood and Graves' disease, a thyroid disorder. All
of the problems became apparent after he went to war in April, he says. He
is a reservist.

Talley said he was moved to Fort Knox on Oct. 16 and had not seen a doctor
yet, only a physician's assistant. His next appointment with an
endocrinologist was scheduled for Dec. 30.

"I don't mind serving my country," Talley said. "I just hate what they are
doing to me now." Talley has served for 30 years. He was awarded two Purple
Hearts in Vietnam.

Sgt. Buena Montgomery has breathing problems since serving in Operation
Iraqi Freedom. She said she has been able to get to doctors but worries
about many others who have not.

"The Army did not prepare for the proper medical care for the soldiers that

they knew were going to come back from this war," Montgomery said. "Now the
Army needs to step up to the plate and fix this problem."

In nearly two dozen interviews conducted over three days, soldiers also
described substandard living conditions -- though they said conditions had
improved recently.

A UPI photographer working on this story without first having cleared his
presence with base public affairs officials was detained for several hours
for questioning Tuesday and then released. He was told he would need an Army
escort for any further visits to the base. He returned to the base
accompanied by an Army escort on Wednesday.

This reporter also was admonished that he had to be accompanied by an Army
public affairs escort when on base. The interviews had been conducted
without the presence of an escort.

After returning from Iraq, some soldiers spent about eight weeks in Spartan,
dilapidated World War II-era barracks with leaking roofs, animal
infestations and no air conditioning in the Kentucky heat.

"I arrived here and was placed in the World War II barracks," one soldier
wrote in an internal Fort Knox survey of the conditions. "On the 28th of
August we moved out. On 30 Aug. the roof collapsed. Had we not moved,
someone would be dead," that soldier wrote.

Shaffery said all of the soldiers have moved out of those barracks. "As soon
as we were able to, we moved them out," Shaffery said. The barracks now
stand empty and have been condemned.

Also like Fort Stewart, soldiers at Fort Knox claimed they are getting
substandard treatment because they are in the National Guard or Army Reserve
as opposed to regular Army. The Army has denied any discrepancies in
treatment or housing.

"We have provided, are providing, and will continue to provide our
soldiers -- active and Reserve component -- the best health care available,"
Army spokesman Maj. Steve Stover said Oct. 20. He said Army policy provides
health care priority based on a "most critically ill" basis, without
differentiation between active and our Reserve soldiers.

"Medical hold issues are not new and the Army has been working diligently to
address them across the Army," Stover said.

"They are treating us like second-class citizens," said Spc. Brian Smith,
who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom until Aug. 16 and said he is having
trouble seeing doctors at Fort Knox. The Army evacuated him through Germany
for stomach problems, among other things. "My brother wants to get in (the
military). I am now discouraging him from doing it," Smith said.

"I have never been so disrespected in my military career," said Lt. Jullian
Goodrum, who has been in the Army Reserve for 16 years. His health problems
do not appear to be severe -- injured wrists -- but he said the medical
situation at Fort Knox is bad. He said he waited a month for therapy. "I
have never been so treated like dirt."

Article #3

Sick, Wounded U.S. Troops Held in Squalor

October 17, 2003, FORT STEWART, Ga. -- Hundreds of sick and wounded U.S.
soldiers including many who served in the Iraq war are languishing in hot
cement barracks here while they wait -- sometimes for months -- to see
doctors.

The National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers' living conditions are so
substandard, and the medical care so poor, that many of them believe the
Army is trying push them out with reduced benefits for their ailments. One
document shown to UPI states that no more doctor appointments are available
from Oct. 14 through Nov. 11 -- Veterans Day.

"I have loved the Army. I have served the Army faithfully and I have done
everything the Army has asked me to do," said Sgt. 1st Class Willie Buckels,
a truck master with the 296th Transportation Company. Buckels served in the
Army Reserves for 27 years, including Operation Iraqi Freedom and the first
Gulf War. "Now my whole idea about the U.S. Army has changed. I am treated
like a third-class citizen."

Since getting back from Iraq in May, Buckels, 52, has been trying to get
doctors to find out why he has intense pain in the side of his abdomen since
doubling over in pain there.

After waiting since May for a diagnosis, Buckels has accepted 20 percent of
his benefits for bad knees and is going home to his family in Mississippi.
"They have not found out what my side is doing yet, but they are still
trying," Buckels said.

One month after President Bush greeted soldiers at Fort Stewart -- home of
the famed Third Infantry Division -- as heroes on their return from Iraq,
approximately 600 sick or injured members of the Army Reserves and National
Guard are warehoused in rows of spare, steamy and dark cement barracks in a
sandy field, waiting for doctors to treat their wounds or illnesses.

The Reserve and National Guard soldiers are on what the Army calls "medical
hold," while the Army decides how sick or disabled they are and what
benefits -- if any -- they should get as a result.

Some of the soldiers said they have waited six hours a day for an
appointment without seeing a doctor. Others described waiting weeks or
months without getting a diagnosis or proper treatment.

The soldiers said professional active duty personnel are getting better
treatment while troops who serve in the National Guard or Army Reserve are
left to wallow in medical hold.

"It is not an Army of One. It is the Army of two -- Army and Reserves," said
one soldier who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, during which she
developed a serious heart condition and strange skin ailment.

A half-dozen calls by UPI seeking comment from Fort Stewart public affairs
officials and U.S. Forces Command in Atlanta were not returned.

Soldiers here estimate that nearly 40 percent of the personnel now 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.

Most soldiers in medical hold at Fort Stewart stay in rows of rectangular,
gray, single-story cinder block barracks without bathrooms or air
conditioning. They are dark and sweltering in the southern Georgia heat and
humidity. Around 60 soldiers cram in the bunk beds in each barrack.

Soldiers make their way by walking or using crutches through the sandy dirt
to a communal bathroom, where they have propped office partitions between
otherwise open toilets for privacy. A row of leaky sinks sits on an opposite
wall. The latrine smells of urine and is full of bugs, because many windows
have no screens. Showering is in a communal, cinder block room. Soldiers say
they have to buy their own toilet paper.

They said the conditions are fine for training, but not for sick people.

"I think it is disgusting," said one Army Reserve member who went to Iraq
and asked that his name not be used.

That soldier said that after being deployed in March he suffered a sudden
onset of neurological symptoms in Baghdad that has gotten steadily worse. He
shakes uncontrollably.

He said the Army has told him he has Parkinson's Disease and it was a
pre-existing condition, but he thinks it was something in the anthrax shots
the Army gave him.

"They say I have Parkinson's, but it is developing too rapidly," he said. "I
did not have a problem until I got those shots."

First Sgt. Gerry Mosley crossed into Iraq from Kuwait on March 19 with the
296th Transportation Company, hauling fuel while under fire from the Iraqis
as they traveled north alongside combat vehicles. Mosley said he was healthy
before the war; he could run two miles in 17 minutes at 48 years old.

But he developed a series of symptoms: lung problems and shortness of
breath; vertigo; migraines; and tinnitus. He also thinks the anthrax vaccine
may have hurt him. Mosley also has a torn shoulder from an injury there.

Mosley says he has never been depressed before, but found himself looking at
shotguns recently and thought about suicide.

Mosley is paying $300 a month to get better housing than the cinder block
barracks. He has a notice from the base that appears to show that no more
doctor appointments are available for reservists from Oct. 14 until Nov. 11.
He said he has never been treated like this in his 30 years in the Army
Reserves.

"Now, I would not go back to war for the Army," Mosley said.

Many soldiers in the hot barracks said regular Army soldiers get to see
doctors, while National Guard and Army Reserve troops wait.

"The active duty guys that are coming in, they get treated first and they
put us on hold," said another soldier who returned from Iraq six weeks ago
with a serious back injury. He has gotten to see a doctor only two times
since he got back, he said.

Another Army Reservist with the 149th Infantry Battalion said he has had
real trouble seeing doctors about his crushed foot he suffered in Iraq.
"There are not enough doctors. They are overcrowded and they can't perform
the surgeries that have to be done," that soldier said. "Look at these
mattresses. It hurts just to sit on them," he said, gesturing to the bunks.
"There are people here who got back in April but did not get their surgeries
until July. It is putting a lot on these families."

The Pentagon is reportedly drawing up plans to call up more reserves.

In an Oct. 9 speech to National Guard and reserve troops in Portsmouth, New
Hampshire, Bush said the soldiers had become part of the backbone of the
military.

"Citizen-soldiers are serving in every front on the war on terror," Bush
said. "And you're making your state and your country proud."