Write an email or regular letter to George Bush including a quote from his own lips,

"We owe them all we can give them," Bush said during his last visit, a few days before Christmas. "Not only for when they're in harm's way, but when they come home to help them adjust if they have wounds, or help them adjust after their time in service."

Mainstream media scored big yesterday when the Washington Post published an article entitled Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration At Army's Top Medical Facility, by Dana Priest and Anne Hull. Now, before you yawn and turn away, at least get a feel for the horrible situation thousands of troops endure and thousands more will endure as we send more troops into war.

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"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.

This is the world of Building 18, not the kind of place where Duncan expected to recover when he was evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center from Iraq last February with a broken neck and a shredded left ear, nearly dead from blood loss.

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Vera Heron spent 15 frustrating months living on post to help care for her son. "It just absolutely took forever to get anything done," Heron said. "They do the paperwork, they lose the paperwork. Then they have to redo the paperwork. You are talking about guys and girls whose lives are disrupted for the rest of their lives, and they don't put any priority on it."

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"If they can have Spanish-speaking recruits to convince my son to go into the Army, why can't they have Spanish-speaking translators when he's injured?" Morales asked. "It's so confusing, so disorienting."

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"They've been behind from Day One," said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), who headed the House Government Reform Committee, which investigated problems at Walter Reed and other Army facilities. "Even the stuff they've fixed has only been patched."

Among the public, Davis said, "there's vast appreciation for soldiers, but there's a lack of focus on what happens to them" when they return. "It's awful."

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Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, commander at Walter Reed, said a 21,500-troop increase in Iraq has Walter Reed bracing for "potentially a lot more" casualties.

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The disappearance of necessary forms and records is the most common reason soldiers languish at Walter Reed longer than they should, according to soldiers, family members and staffers. Sometimes the Army has no record that a soldier even served in Iraq. A combat medic who did three tours had to bring in letters and photos of herself in Iraq to show she that had been there, after a clerk couldn't find a record of her service.

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One case manager was so disgusted, she bought roach bombs for the rooms. Mouse traps are handed out. It doesn't help that soldiers there subsist on carry-out food because the hospital cafeteria is such a hike on cold nights. They make do with microwaves and hot plates.

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READ THE ARTICLE

Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration At Army's Top Medical Facility

Then make your voice heard. Quote Bush back to himself via White House email at the very least. Email the Secretary of Defense, and any other federal official you have time to contact. Send handwritten letters as follow-up. Make this an ongoing project. Find ways to support these troops outside the bureaucracy.

UPDATE 2.28.07 - It appears that things started moving - possibly as a DIRECT result of the reporting of the WP.

Is there a lesson in there somewhere?

Walter Reed patients told to keep quiet - ArmyTimes

Gates' candor on hospital woes lauded - ArmyTimes

2.19.2007

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