Which part of the article strikes you most? Seriously. This reporter is yanking strings here. He knows those strings are there and he has played an easy game. What about him though...
This part is something that struck me, because I had to endure the same exact thing for over 7 months.
"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
This part too. It doesnt matter how much blood, sweat and tears you have given them in the past, when you cant perform your duty anymore, they could care less about you. You become a budget issue, not a soldier who served for 27 years
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.
The barracks I was in when I went through this same process was congressionally investigated at the same time I was there, and several people were later found guilty of wrongdoing for essentially the same things these guys are going through
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.
If they are on crutches, chances are some have open wounds that are draining ar whatever. Is this sanitary for a trauma wound? How do you keep your wound clean and prevent staph infection?
I guess the rest I just ignored, because I am so used to ignorant reporters with bones to grind being out to slam the military. I focused on things I know from experience to be true. Thats why I took my position.
There is no conditioning about it - those of us who have been in the military know how we've been treated at times, and several have given very specific examples in this thread.
It's not that the military is deliberately doing it, it's that when you have so many people in such a large and diverse organization doing such varied things around the world, your going to have problems here and there and people are going to be treated lousy. These guys fell through the cracks and somebody doesn't know what to do with them.
I don't know why the reporter has it in for this one particular drug, to be honest, other than maybe he or his bosses think it's going to be a hot potato down the road that can get somebody some awards. Generally they have back this research up, or they can find themselves at the end of a very serious lawsuit.
If I were a betting man, I'd bet that if these soldiers are suffering like the reporter claims, that their suffering is going to end very soon now that this is out and brought to the attention of those above.