Oh rest assured it is very true. Military medical facilities and transition assistance programs are sadly lacking in upkeep and validity. They promised transition assistance to me and several others... all we got was discharge papers and a kick to the curb. But no High placed head will roll they never do... some poor bastard will become a scape goat and that will be that.
Meanwhile, over at the VA healthcare facilities, staffed with third world doctors who can barely speak english or doctors who can't get a job anywhere else, things are really beginning to suck again.
They need legislation to fix this?
Monitor lizards for the bugs. They're big enough to smack the cats. The cats will be brought in for the rodent infestation. I don't what to say about the mold.
There is no excuse for this screw-up by the Army. None!! I want a few generals' heads served up on a platter and the sooner the better. Throw in a few Colonels and Lt. Colonels and we have the making of a real shakeup going. The head medical officer should be fired and demoted to Private E-1 for allowing this kind of crap to exist on his watch. Our military men and women deserve the best treatment they can get, and there is no excuse for that not being the case.This just really sucks and I'm ashamed of our medical officers for allowing this to happen.
What? The military medical systems sucks! Who knew?
Government health care. Anyone is surprised?
Some of this is due to the fact that WRAMC is on the BRAC list and the medical treatment is moving to Bethesda. Funding for maintenance/upgrade becomes hard to justify. That said the Army deserves egg on their face for not budgeting for the facilities maintenance.
As far as being kicked to the curb, well when and where in the military did you not need someone to work the system. In this day of the internet it should be easy to organize resources amongst the mil bloggers. I don't remember that training included waiting for someone to load your weapon. You can be pissed, angry and feel deserted but in the end it's up to you and your buddies to drive on.
Vets gotta face it. When in uniform they are heros. When they get out, they are costs.
Interesting that when the original story was first posted on FR, just about the only codemnation was for the reporters.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1787162/posts
I'm not making excuses for the condition of any of those unacceptable rooms, but given the hysterical media portrayal, most people would be surpised to learn we're talking about maximum 54 rooms. Also, the soldier with the worst room, mold and a hole in the shower ceiling, could have been moved to another room but elected to stay in that one because he did not want a roommate.
The holes were patched, mattresses and rugs replaced basically in a day. The mold correction was started and the soldiers were moved out of those rooms.
Again, the Washington Post and the WH Press Corps wanted to ride a hobby horse to replace the Libby one that just had it's legs sawed off.
It this were peacetime, and military people get seriously hurt in training during peacetime, if you bought this problem to Dana Priest and asked for her help, not only would she NOT cover it, as a graduate of University of California Santa Cruz she'd probably spit in your eye.
Sympathy or outrage by the WaPo played no role in this story, bashing Bush did.
That the admin problems will now get quick attention and hopefully improve, I'm thrilled, but that was the unitended consequences of this article.
Well, this is the government and the military we're talking about here. Bureaucracy is their very life blood. When you put the two of them together, well... that's what you get.
What is surprising is that the veteran's organizations were AWOL on this.
I found two, 6-page or so articles on this. Haven't had a chance to read them yet, but they were quite in-depth.
I just finished watching Rome (the HBO series) and I'll tell you that decimation comes to mind when dealing with the admin folk.