Posted on 02/18/2007 8:15:31 PM PST by kristinn
The guests of Mologne House have been blown up, shot, crushed and shaken, and now their convalescence takes place among the chandeliers and wingback chairs of the 200-room hotel on the grounds of Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Oil paintings hang in the lobby of this strange outpost in the war on terrorism, where combat's urgency has been replaced by a trickling fountain in the garden courtyard. The maimed and the newly legless sit in wheelchairs next to a pond, watching goldfish turn lazily through the water.
But the wounded of Mologne House are still soldiers -- Hooah! -- so their lives are ruled by platoon sergeants. Each morning they must rise at dawn for formation, though many are half-snowed on pain meds and sleeping pills.
SNIP
Mostly what the soldiers do together is wait: for appointments, evaluations, signatures and lost paperwork to be found. It's like another wife told Annette McLeod: "If Iraq don't kill you, Walter Reed will."
SNIP
Two Washington Post reporters spent hundreds of hours in Mologne House documenting the intimate struggles of the wounded who live there. The reporting was done without the knowledge or permission of Walter Reed officials, but all those directly quoted in this article agreed to be interviewed.
SNIP
After a while, the bizarre becomes routine. On Friday nights, antiwar protesters stand outside the gates of Walter Reed holding signs that say "Love Troops, Hate War, Bring them Home Now." Inside the gates, doctors in white coats wait at the hospital entrance for the incoming bus full of newly wounded soldiers who've just landed at Andrews Air Force Base.
And set back from the gate, up on a hill, Mologne House, with a bowl of red apples on the front desk.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Anne Hull and Dana Priest
Well that about covers it...
and second, " I have been trying to find something to say that would not get me banned..."
Dana Priest's Husband Gets Joe Wilson Media Gigs
Sweetness & Light ^ | April 22, 2006 | N/A
Posted on 04/22/2006 3:22:34 PM PDT by Sam Hill
Pulitzer Prize winning Dana Priest is married to William Goodfellow. William Goodfellow is the Executive Director of the the Center for International Policy (CIP).
http://tinyurl.com/2yyevn
So Dana Priest reports on the CIA through leaks by the Democratic donor Mary O. McCarthy, while her husband heads a left-wing organization that wants to "reform the CIA"... Sweet!
While Dana Priest was writing about clandestine "rendition" operations that actually started under Bill Clinton, her husband's group, The Center for International Policy, was/is actively promoting an anti-Bush, anti-American foreign policy message:
Before 9/11, The Center for International Policy, CIP, a Fenton Communications client, mainly acted as Fidel Castro's greatest "think tank" ally. Much of its million-dollar budget was spent lobbying to end economic sanctions and travel restrictions against Cuba.
Now, it has another mission. Fenton has established a "war room" with CIP called The Iraq Policy Information Program (IPIP). Its main job is getting the anti-Bush foreign policy message out to the media and providing guests for talk shows. A featured speaker of the IPIP is former ambassador Joe Wilson, one of the Bush administration’s most vocal enemies. Like Moveon.org and Win Without War, the contact for the Iraq Policy Information Program is Fenton Communications. Win Without War also collects tax-deductible donations through CIP.
http://tinyurl.com/yqsczj
This articles reads like a new version of the movie "Born on the 4th of July"
;*)
they're both despicable.
Amen!!!
Yes, there is. What I don't get is how they were not known by WR personnel especially if they used their press passes to gain access.
;*) We have a consensus!!!
Enemy + media = ENEMEDIA
Aren't they the ones that created the ditch witch, Sheehag?
Well. Her care and concern is so obvious.
You shouldn't talk about whores like that. Whores are just tying to make a living............
This is the one of the stupidist things I've ever read -- a soldier who can take a bullet can't take a beer. Thank you effing MADD!
What a hatchet job. And the comments from readers are equally disrespectful. It took everything I had to read the article and the comments.
[Mr] T
That's called rehab in most hospital settings.
I hope this author never has to go to a rehab center and meet up with one of those "nasty" nurses that want them to get better.
I hope this story gets around. Every medical professional in the US will be all over these morons.
That's something she will understand when she reads this.
WRAMC...has been slated to be closed...it sits on a hiue campus on 16th st in DC...prime realestate developmnet property.....I wonder if this piece isn'nt just somebody's "insurance" that its closing will proceed as scheduled...
Dana Priest - treason!
These are my observations from the short time I was at WRAMC when my husband got wounded. The system is overwhelmed there. We heard from several soldiers that they had been there over a year waiting for their Med Board to take place or for the results of it. One soldier sought my husband out because he had heard he was in the 82nd. This soldier was also in the 82nd and had been there since the summer of '05 waiting for his Med Board to be completed. He ultimately sent his family back to his home state.
Hubby was there for 3 weeks and then got sent to the VA in Richmond for another 3 weeks for further rehab/treatment. They were telling us that after he left Richmond and his convalescent leave was over, he was going to have to be back at Walter Reed. We insisted that he be assigned back here to Fort Bragg because we had heard about the wait time and we didn't really want to live up there. It did take several calls and hubby's case manager was hard to locate (he got a new one in the middle of it all)...he didn't know he had a new one until he tried to call his old one! Our social worker at the VA couldn't even locate his case manager at WRAMC when he was getting discharged from the VA to get his convalescent leave squared away.
Fortunately, in the end, we were able to get what we wanted and get assigned back home, but we fought/aggressively campaigned for that. We let everyone from his doctors, to his nurses, social workers, case managers, etc know we wanted to be back at home. I do not understand why some soldiers have to wait up there for over a year. They should let them go back to their home base or home while the Medical Board process is taking place. I do understand why the Army keeps soldiers up there perhaps; it is hard to maintain control and ensure the soldiers are getting proper medical care back at home. Hubby has had to actively seek medical care here for his issues and sometimes it has been frustrating for him (especially to tell the story of what happened to him over and over), but he has been getting great care here at home. But, I realize some soldiers would get back home and not go seek out care. Maybe the Army could send them home and have the soldiers come check in at WRAMC every so often. I don't know the best answer to all of this.
All this said, my husband received excellent care on the battlefield, in the hospital in Iraq, at Landstuhl,at WRAMC and the VA. I'm convinced he would not be doing as well right now if he hadn't received the top notch care that he did.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.