[Marxism] Salon: Injured troops shipped back into battle

[Greg McDonald <sabocat59@xxxxxxx>]

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/04/09/injured_soldiers/print.html

Injured troops shipped back into battle

Salon has uncovered further evidence that the military sent soldiers  
with acute post-traumatic stress disorder, severe back injuries and  
other serious war wounds back to Iraq.
By Mark Benjamin

Apr. 09, 2007 | On March 9, Army Spc. Thomas Smith was ordered to  
board a plane from Fort Benning, Ga., to deploy back to Iraq, even  
though he was known to be suffering from chronic post-traumatic  
stress disorder from a previous tour there. Only weeks prior,  
military doctors determined that Smith should not be allowed around  
weapons because of his PTSD symptoms, which included bouts of sudden,  
extreme anger. Smith's medical records, obtained by Salon, also show  
that doctors had "highly recommended" that Smith not be deployed  
because of his condition.

But that did not stop Smith's commanders from ordering him to Iraq as  
his unit, the 3,900-strong 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division,  
was rushing to move out as part of President Bush's so-called surge  
plan for securing Baghdad.

"I was told to have my bags in at midnight that night," for the  
flight, Smith said. "I was sitting there looking at these letters in  
my hand from my doctors," he recalled in a telephone interview. In  
order to follow the doctors' recommendations, Smith said, "I had to  
check myself into the hospital." He avoided the flight by just a few  
hours. Smith's condition was serious enough that the doctors there  
kept him hospitalized for nearly two weeks.

On March 11, two days after Smith checked himself in, Salon reported  
on claims by numerous soldiers from Smith's brigade that commanders  
were pressing injured troops to deploy to Iraq. Soldiers at Fort  
Benning said that two doctors from the division met with 75 injured  
soldiers, including Smith, on Feb. 15, in what the troops said was an  
effort to reevaluate -- and downgrade -- their health problems so  
that they could be deployed with the rest of the unit. In several  
cases, medical records provided to Salon supported those allegations,  
showing the soldiers to be healthier, on paper, than they were prior  
to that meeting.

It remains unclear how many injured troops from the 3rd Brigade were  
deployed last month. But others continue to come forward who, like  
Smith, had serious medical problems and narrowly avoided being  
shipped back to Iraq. The concern of these soldiers is not only that  
they could worsen their injuries by being deployed, but that they  
could also be a danger to themselves and the soldiers around them.  
Their stories add new evidence to accusations that brigade  
commanders, in desperate need of more troops for the surge were  
willing to deploy broken soldiers.

Hunter Smart, who until recently was a captain in the 3rd Brigade,  
has experience preparing unit status reports. These detailed accounts  
showing how many soldiers in a unit are able to deploy to a war zone,  
make their way up to decision makers in the Pentagon. Smart says he  
believes brigade commanders were manipulating the reports and  
pressing injured soldiers to deploy to Iraq. "The unit status report  
is a big deal," Hunter explained in a phone interview. "You list by  
name and number the number of soldiers that are hurt and non- 
deployable," he said. "There was a concerted effort to keep those  
numbers down."

Smart was caught up in those efforts himself. He had suffered a back  
injury during a previous tour in Iraq when his Bradley Fighting  
Vehicle crashed, and his injuries were so severe, the Army finally  
allowed him medical retirement last month, after determining he was  
no longer fit to serve.

Medical retirement from the Army is a lengthy, paperwork-intensive  
process, one that had started for Smart last December. But to his  
astonishment, Smart's commanders pushed to deploy him in March, even  
as the paperwork for his medical retirement was working its way  
through the bureaucracy. "They were definitely wanting me to be  
deployed," Smart said. "Up until a few weeks ago, I was set to go on  
a plane," he said.

Smart saved an e-mail exchange in which his battalion commander, Lt.  
Col. Todd Ratliff, suggests that if the paperwork for Smart's medical  
retirement was not complete when the unit deployed, Smart might be  
forced to come along. "If for some reason you are still around when  
we deploy there is a chance we may take you to support us in Kuwait,"  
Ratliff wrote in an e-mail to Smart on Feb. 16.

Smart fought against his redeployment, using the resources available  
to him as an officer to carefully shepherd his medical retirement  
papers through the Army bureaucracy just in time. But the experience  
left him worried about injured enlisted soldiers who were not so  
lucky -- and left him furious at those in charge. Military commanders  
"could care less about the soldier's physical and mental welfare, as  
long as they can shoot straight," Smart said. "Our military is  
stretched to its breaking point," he added. "Commanders are being  
backed into a corner in order to produce units that on paper are  
ready to deploy. They are casting the moral and ethical implications  
-- and soldiers -- to the side."

Smith, the enlisted soldier who was hospitalized, began noticing  
symptoms of his PTSD within months of returning from Iraq in January  
2005, a tour that included significant time in Ramadi, a hotbed of  
the insurgency. It was nasty, face-to-face work, Smith said, which  
included a lot of "kicking down doors."

Smith's medical records are sadly typical of soldiers beset by PTSD.  
His doctors have documented agitation, irritability, anxiety,  
nightmares, flashbacks and a heightened startle response. He has a  
hard time going out in public. "My family had noticed some big  
differences with me," after his tour in Iraq, he recalled, including  
his sudden, intense anger. "They said, 'Hey, you need help.'"

Smith sought treatment, and doctors soon diagnosed chronic PTSD. He  
is now heavily medicated, taking anti-psychotic pills and  
antidepressants.

His records show him struggling with his symptoms as the brigade was  
gearing up to deploy. On Feb. 8, several military doctors completed a  
"report of mental status evaluation" on Smith. "It is highly  
recommended that patient be placed on non-deployable status and have  
no access to weapons," the doctors wrote. On Feb. 20, another doctor  
circled "violence risk" on another of Smith's health-assessment forms.

But two weeks after that violence-risk notation, Smith found himself  
just hours away from stepping on to a plane to Iraq. He was running  
out of time and options. His company commander had already gone to  
bat for him, with no luck. Smith claims that on two separate  
occasions, his company commander took his doctors' notes to the  
brigade commander, Col. Wayne W. Grigsby Jr., in an effort to  
persuade Grigsby to leave Smith behind in doctors' care. "I've got to  
hand it to my company commander for trying," Smith said. But Smith  
said his company commander told him that Grigsby wouldn't budge.  
Smith resorted to checking himself into the hospital.

Privacy rules restrict what Army commanders can say about an  
individual soldier's medical file. Public affairs officials for the  
3rd Infantry Division did not respond to questions for this report on  
the plight of soldiers who were deployed with injuries. The division  
surgeon, Lt. Col. George Appenzeller, confirmed in an interview last  
month that medical officials met with 75 soldiers on Feb. 15.  
However, Appenzeller maintained that it was to conduct medical exams,  
update paperwork and make sure injured troops were getting the best  
healthcare possible.

Grigsby, the 3rd Brigade commander, said in an interview last month  
that the well-being of his soldiers was among his top priorities. He  
did not deny deploying injured troops, but he asserted that the  
injured soldiers who were deployed were to be confined to relatively  
safe jobs. He said those troops would work in a capacity that  
strictly followed each soldier's "physical profile," a document  
prepared by doctors spelling out a soldier's physical limitations.

But one injured soldier who was deployed to Iraq in March wrote in an  
e-mail to Salon that her back condition has worsened significantly.  
"Now my left leg has started to go numb and they are telling me to  
double up on my meds, which I can't," she wrote. "They are not  
putting us in safe jobs at all. I still wear all of my gear and by  
the end of the day the pain is more than unbearable," she added. "I  
break my [physical] profile pretty much on a daily basis. At this  
point I will either go back [home] in a wheel chair or paralyzed or  
worse."

"Do what you can," she pleaded in the e-mail, "for the [injured  
soldiers] that come after me."

As Salon revealed in a second report on March 26, the commanders of  
the 3rd Brigade shipped dozens of injured soldiers to Fort Irwin,  
Calif., in January as the brigade conducted a month of desert-warfare  
training. The injured soldiers were put up in two large tents, doing  
odd jobs and biding their time. Some military experts said they  
believed commanders were attempting to artificially boost manpower  
statistics by making it appear that a healthier percentage of the  
brigade was out in the desert training for Iraq deployment.

Both Smith and Smart were among the dozens of soldiers who spent  
weeks in those tents. Neither could properly train. Smith had already  
been diagnosed with PTSD at that time, and would awaken at night  
agitated by the sound of mortars going off in the desert that were  
used for training. Neither Smith nor Smart was treated for his  
medical problems while in the desert.

In Smart's case, that went directly against the recommendations of  
his doctors. "I believe taking a month off from his treatment plan  
will be detrimental to his condition," one chiropractor wrote in  
Smart's file in late December. "Lack of treatment for this prolonged  
period of time could cause a setback in his condition that may be  
difficult to recover."

Military families are angered by the treatment of injured soldiers  
based at Fort Benning. Janie Smith, Thomas' mother, says she was  
horrified that the Army tried to send her ailing son back to Iraq,  
which prompted her to contact the media about his predicament.

She described him as an outgoing, personable boy. But the 26-year-old  
man who came back from Iraq is quiet, withdrawn and sometimes  
suddenly, frighteningly angry, she says. In a restaurant, he sits  
facing the door, ready to confront an enemy at any moment. His hands  
constantly shake. "He is an entirely different person," Janie  
explained in a phone interview.

Janie said she was glad when her son first joined the Army. "I was  
really proud of him," she recalled. But while she is still proud of  
her son, her feelings for the Army have changed. "They don't care,"  
she said. "I don't know what I'm going to do now."

The Army's inspector general and the Government Accountability Office  
have both launched inquiries since Salon first reported on the  
deployment of injured troops. There is no indication of when either  
will issue its findings.



-- By Mark Benjamin

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