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Sick, wounded U.S. troops held in squalor
UPI ^ | Oct. 17, 2003 | MARK BENJAMIN

Posted on 10/17/2003 2:10:36 PM PDT by tomball

FORT STEWART, Ga., Oct. 17 (UPI) -- 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."
 



TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: fortstewart
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1 posted on 10/17/2003 2:10:37 PM PDT by tomball
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To: tomball
If true, then this is a terrible way to treat those who have gone in harm's way. An immediate investigation should be done by the Inspector General's office, and the families of these soldiers should be contacting their legislators.

Some here will say this is not happening, but I'm not so sure. Given the lousy system that exists in the VA for veterans, it wouldn't surprise me if this story is accurate.
2 posted on 10/17/2003 2:16:19 PM PDT by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: tomball
"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."

This writer is making it sound worse than the Civil War. Heck, Valley Forge was better than that. LOL! Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm so convinced. I'm just all tears, all choked up. I'll register as a rat today. Yep. I'm finished as a conservative now, er... neo-con? Whatever.
3 posted on 10/17/2003 2:17:18 PM PDT by Arthur Wildfire! March (Pray for Zel Miller. The Rats will want to "Rush" him.)
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To: tomball
btt
4 posted on 10/17/2003 2:18:15 PM PDT by GailA (Millington Rally for America after action http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/872519/posts)
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To: MineralMan
It's Valley Forge, man. It's like, Colonial era medical. That evil Bush. Let's FReep him!
5 posted on 10/17/2003 2:18:38 PM PDT by Arthur Wildfire! March (Pray for Zel Miller. The Rats will want to "Rush" him.)
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To: Arthur Wildfire! March
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm so convinced. I'm just all tears, all choked up.
"

Have you been there? Can you refute this story directly? I'm sorry, but the military has not always done right by our fighting men. Having served and having seen just how messed up things can be, depending on the base and the commander, I want more information here. When did you serve?
6 posted on 10/17/2003 2:20:53 PM PDT by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: tomball
Are you f'in kidding me? The feds bend over backwards to see to that illegals get all sorts of medical benefits and our own soldiers get treated like this? God help the limp wristed #$&*% bureaucrats that treat our hero's like this.
7 posted on 10/17/2003 2:20:55 PM PDT by american spirit (ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION = NATIONAL SUICIDE)
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To: tomball
This article is very loaded for slant. Cinder block buildings without latrines? Standard military accommodation. Communal showers? Standard military amenity. Having to move about on a "crutches only" profile? Standard military procedure. I've had to do this myself. Ripped out both anterior cruciate ligaments at the same time. Still had to show up for formation at 0630 hours, although I could not walk. Still bathed in a communal shower and peed in in a communal toilet. And you know what? Latrines smell like urine because that's where soldiers go to leave their urine.

The one soldier quoted in this article says he had experienced "side pain" and has just managed to get a 20% for... Knee problems.

The one who wrote this article is fishing- pure and simple.

8 posted on 10/17/2003 2:22:22 PM PDT by Prodigal Son
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To: Arthur Wildfire! March
LOL.
9 posted on 10/17/2003 2:23:13 PM PDT by Prodigal Son
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To: tomball
I find it interesting how many citizen soldiers are suddenly front and center in the media. Even more interesting is the media's sudden concern for reserves and the guard.

I'm glad to see that the press cares.

Yes. Really glad.

Did I mention that I found the press' new fascination for the military interesting?

10 posted on 10/17/2003 2:24:18 PM PDT by niteowl77 (If you haven't prayed for our troops, please start; if you stopped, then do some catching up.)
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To: tomball
The problem here is that we offer our vets Hillary care. What the army should simply do is buy every soldier and vet entitled to care an HMO plan.
11 posted on 10/17/2003 2:24:29 PM PDT by Rodney King (No, we can't all just get along.)
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To: Prodigal Son
"Cinder block buildings without latrines? Standard military accommodation"

Not at any US base where I was stationed. Every barracks had latrines indoors. What bases were you at that didn't? When?
12 posted on 10/17/2003 2:26:04 PM PDT by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: tomball
Remember the drawdown initiated about 10 years ago? Here's payback.
13 posted on 10/17/2003 2:27:18 PM PDT by pfflier
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To: american spirit
that treat our hero's like this.

This is how I was treated in the military. Was normal. If I didn't want the latrine to stink it was time to whoop out the disinfectant and scrub brush.

14 posted on 10/17/2003 2:27:33 PM PDT by Prodigal Son
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To: tomball
True or not, I hope someone in Don Rumsfeld's office is put on a jet and sent down there to check it out and personally report back to the Secretary of Defense.

We can't allow our military personnel to be poorly treated no matter where they serve or what physical condition they are in. They are all doing a tough job at our request and out of love of country. We owe them big time.
15 posted on 10/17/2003 2:30:33 PM PDT by RicocheT
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To: tomball
"Another Army Reservist with the 149th Infantry Battalion said he has had real trouble seeing doctors about his crushed foot he suffered in Iraq."

This is NOT a pre-existing condition, I would like to know why this soldier
is not being treated by a surgeon. Grrrrrrrr
16 posted on 10/17/2003 2:30:46 PM PDT by DeepDish (Depleted uranium and democrats are a lot alike. They've both been sucked dry of anything useful)
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To: tomball; snopercod; joanie-f
It's a strange situation.

My neighbors, the husband, is stuck in that hold.

The government refuses to release him. There is no explanation other than all manner of gobbledygook, meaning "wait ... " in effect.

The wife is home, next door, and frankly, suffering something herself.

The've seen each other maybe three times since he was sent back with an unknown ailment from Iraq.

I thought that she'd either gotten mono or a mild case of the blues because of the distance between them.

I've seen him twice, and he looks OK, but the government is acting without an distinguishable signs of affirmative direction in the matter.

Perhaps there is some extra caution being practiced, so that some bacteriological warfare possiblities do not seep back through into the country.

His only symptoms were pneumonia-like, but he's well past that since, maybe six weeks now.

Enforced limbo; no explanation, really.

17 posted on 10/17/2003 2:32:00 PM PDT by First_Salute (God save our democratic-republican government, from a government by judiciary. (Merge Right!))
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To: Prodigal Son
"This is how I was treated in the military. Was normal. If I didn't want the latrine to stink it was time to whoop out the disinfectant and scrub brush.
"

Yes, yes. And how many miles did you walk through the snow to school. When did you serve and in what branch?
18 posted on 10/17/2003 2:32:19 PM PDT by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: Prodigal Son
Cinder block buildings without latrines? Standard military accommodation. Communal showers? Standard military amenity.

These were standard military amenities - in the 1950s and 1960s. This is no longer the Army standard in housing single soldiers. The rest of the Army uses dormitory-style barracks once you get out of basic training.

I'm in the Georgia National Guard, and my mobilization station is Ft. Stewart. We train there at least three times a year, not including Annual Training. I lived in these same barracks for three months (December 00-February 01) during my unit's train-up to go to Bosnia.

The conditions in these barracks are deplorable. One entire company in my battalion contracted scabies due to the unsanitary conditions. Those barracks in the National Guard Training Center at Ft. Stewart are an insult to our soldiers.

But then again, I'm just a dumb-@$$ grunt -- what do I know?

19 posted on 10/17/2003 2:32:47 PM PDT by Terabitten (Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of All Who Threaten It)
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To: tomball
this is not the case for vets in washington state so i find it hard to believe.
20 posted on 10/17/2003 2:34:08 PM PDT by camas
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