I won't slam you Ifferd, but I will say that it seems an awful lot like you look for these types of opportunities to once again bash the President and his staff.
Not long ago we were both in a discussion where you AGREED with me that all the president bashing was a bad thing for our troops to be exposed to...regardless if the bashing was deserved (in your eyes) or not. However, here you are again...jumping off the top rope with an elbow to the ribs.
That said, I certainly don't disagree with talking about the awful conditions at Walter Reed and what needs to be done to fix them so that our troops have the best facilities and the best care than can be provided to them. What I fail to see is where it does ANYONE...even you...any good to bash the administration over it.
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ORIGINAL: Ifferd
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Published Wednesday, February 28, 2007
The Shame Of Walter Reed
In 1869, an 18-year-old was graduated from the University of Virginia's medical program. By age 22, he was hired as one of five inspectors for the Brooklyn Board of Health in New York.
Just before turning 50, U.S. Army Maj. Walter Reed told the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association that "the mosquito serves as the intermediate host for the parasite of yellow fever."
Walter Reed Army Medical Center admitted its first patients on May 1, 1909. A new building was dedicated in 1977. Today, the center admits more than 16,000 patients a year, and the campus includes the Walter Reed Institute of Research, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Army Physical Disability Agency and several other related medical agencies.
To most Americans, it is the vanguard of medical hospitals. It is a common photo stop for presidents and presidential candidates.
It is also, as one veteran of the Iraq war wrote, "a second hell for injured veterans."
The first paragraph of a series of stories about the hospital by Washington Post writers Dana Priest and Anne Hull paint that picture: "Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan's room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses."
Duncan was housed in Building 18, among the worst of the buildings on Walter Reed's 113-acre campus. The writers noted that not all "the quarters are as bleak as Duncan's, but the despair of Building 18 symbolizes a larger problem in Walter Reed's treatment of the wounded."
Marine Sgt. Ryan Groves, a 26-year-old amputee who spent 16 months at Walter Reed, told the reporters: "We don't know what to do. The people who are supposed to know don't have the answers. It's a nonstop process of stalling."
Convalescing outpatients are forced to fend for themselves in a bureaucratic jungle. The average stay for outpatients is 10 months. Some have had to stay as long as two years.
Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, commander at Walter Reed, acknowledged problems with outpatient care and said it is trying to address them. Platoon sergeants who used to be assigned 125 patients each now manage 30. Walter Reed has recently begun holding twice-weekly informational meetings about what help is available and how to get it.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said President George W. Bush first learned of the problems at Walter Reed when he read it in The Post. Snow said Bush told him: "Find out what the problem is and fix it."
Army Secretary Francis Harvey called the conditions at some of Walter Reed's facilities a failure "that should never have happened, and we are quickly going to rectify that situation."
A few days after The Post's story appeared, repairs were being made to Building 18. Weightman told reporters that all the staff increases he had requested would be met. Better care for Walter Reed's 700 outpatients was "not an issue. This is their No. 1 priority."
Americans, especially combat veterans and their families, deserve to know why outpatients at the nation's premier military hospital received abysmal support and attention. A congressional investigation should be conducted to ensure that all wounded veterans receive the treatment and disability payments they deserve.
Walter Reed has spotless, state-of-the-art surgical wards, where government leaders - including President Bush - frequently visit patients. The hospital also has dedicated staff members.
Brady Van Engelen, an Iraq war veteran who was shot in the head, is the associate director of Veterans for America. He said he "served in Iraq and survived being shot in the head. I came back to Walter Reed and survived a different kind of hell."
The conditions in his building "made it clear that the care I had been guaranteed in return for my sacrifice was an empty promise." It is the system, not just Walter Reed, that needed an overhaul, he added: "A system designed for World War II veterans or a 19-year-old GI can never be sufficiently adequate or comprehensive to meet the needs of a 33-year-old guardsman, or any of the 16,000 single mothers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan."
He concluded by noting that those who served in Iraq or Afghanistan make up only 0.5 percent of the population. "We represent too small a portion of the U.S. population to fight for change alone," he said. "The American public needs to step up. They have indicated their discontent for the war in Iraq and now it's time for them to make clear their disgust with the way America treats service members."
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How does a president who claims to support the troops not care to ensure they are getting adequate care till a news paper and CNN report on it.
Just "assuming" everything is fine doesn't cut it. Wonder if anything would be changed if the press hadn't blown the whistle.
These apologies "after the fact" are empty, butt-covering, whining.
Didn't Bush say he didn't read the papers? Well I guess that statement has now been proven to be "factually challenged".
Disgraceful, and shows where they priorities of this admin really are,, wasting Billions in Iraq while the wounded don't get enough money for bare necessities of medical care and decent living quarters.
This type of care is "supporting our troops"??? Not hardly.
Again, Disgraceful,,,
And the personal slamming of Ifferd for reporting the truth will begin in 3,,2,,1,,,,,,,,,
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Being in my treestand puts me 15 feet closer to God
I guess you're right, Ifferd. The President, in his copious free time,should be out personally inspecting every federal facility in the country.
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Snow said Bush told him: "Find out what the problem is and fix it."
Army Secretary Francis Harvey called the conditions at some of Walter Reed's facilities a failure "that should never have happened, and we are quickly going to rectify that situation."
A few days after The Post's story appeared, repairs were being made to Building 18.
Looks to me like, when he found out, he acted quickly and decisively...
As I said in another VA thread today... It would be nice if we stopped paying billions of dollars on free medical care for illegals, and started spending it on our veterans andcitizens in need. NOT A DIME for an illegal.
I guess you're right, Ifferd. The President, in his copious free time,should be out personally inspecting every federal facility in the country.
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Snow said Bush told him: "Find out what the problem is and fix it."
Army Secretary Francis Harvey called the conditions at some of Walter Reed's facilities a failure "that should never have happened, and we are quickly going to rectify that situation."
A few days after The Post's story appeared, repairs were being made to Building 18.
Looks to me like, when he found out, he acted quickly and decisively...
As I said in another VA thread today... It would be nice if we stopped paying billions of dollars on free medical care for illegals, and started spending it on our veterans andcitizens in need. NOT A DIME for an illegal.
Bush was just using his Katrina approach tointerveing when others were in need.
More importantly, where is Congress when they have the power to fund the repairs and needed upgrades? Just blaming it on bush lets 435 elected officials off the hook and they should be held accountable. They have the purse strings and, more importantly, they have a moral obligation to take care of our troops.
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Jesus Christ--The reason for the season!
If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you can read this in English, thank a veteran.
If you're certain you know everything, there's little opportunity to learn anything.
I wonder if the hospital had to reopen an long unused wing that had been allowed to fall into dis-repair?
If you're talking about how this all got started...I don't think that was the reason. If I remember correctly it came from a complaint about the condition of a room that one of the Soldiers was staying in. From there it took off like wild fire. I could be wrong, but that's what I remember.
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Being in my treestand puts me 15 feet closer to God
More importantly, where is Congress when they have the power to fund the repairs and needed upgrades? Just blaming it on bush lets 435 elected officials off the hook and they should be held accountable. They have the purse strings and, more importantly, they have a moral obligation to take care of our troops.
You are correct, but there are so many incompetent beurocrats and idiotic soldiers/officers that willcontinue to work from their own lazy, incompentent and simply uncaring positions, that things will remain status quo; SNAFU
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