Soldiers face neglect, frustration, at army's top medical facility.

[Lady's Human]

Okay, enough.

I have had several friends from my unit go through Walter Reed, and NONE of them have complained about the care they were given there, either in the hospital itself or as outpatients.

If you want to point fingers at someone for this, ask congress why they hadn't given the military the money to repair or upgrade the facility. WRAMC has been on the BRAC list for years, and as such there is no money for facilities maintenance. Congress couldn't decide whether or not they wanted to close it, and the Army has gotten burned too many times for "scandals" because major renovations were done at a post that got closed. It was a running joke in the military in the '90s that if your post got a new comissary, start packing, the post is gone.

There isn't a post in the military that has enough money for proper housing. Base maintenance isn't cool, doesn't bring jobs or megabucks to congressman XYZ's political district, and you can't exactly make the front page for getting $$$ to renovate post housing at the local base. It has long been a sore spot in the military, and in the Army in particular.

Does that make WRAMC wonderful? No. This, however is not solely the fault of the current administration. The administration deserves credit for finally getting something done about it.

When they close military posts, you know what happens to the housing on base? 90% of it gets torn down, as it is substandard for section 8 requirements. No one wants it. The officers' quarters normally get sold, as they are the only ones that meet any kind of building code,. When FT. Devens in MA was closed, over 95% of the post housing was torn down. they kept 15 brick buildings from the oldest section of post. The rest was to the scrapheap.


The leasing of hotels off base to house soldiers in post operative care is thinking out of the box for the army. The WRAMC commander deserves credit for getting that done, and the former SecDef also had something to do with it.


As to the soldier's comments? Soldiers complain. Period. You could put a soldier in a suite at the luxor in Vegas for recovery, and they'd find something wrong. Add to the nature of most soldiers the fact that that most of them are going through treatment for psych injuries as well as physical injuries, and that alone explains some of the comments.

[Lady's Human]

BTW, as far as the Army retribution for complaining? It's not the complaining the Army would take action for. There are a myriad of ways to address complaints like this in the army, and they involve internal Army channels as well as external political channels. What the Army would take action for is talking to non-credentialed reporters, which is a violation of a standing order. A soldier can say almost anything they want to to a reporter, as long as it doesn't involve tactics/techniques/procedures or other confidential information. What a soldier CANNOT do, however, is talk to a reporter who doesn't have proper credentials. Nice scoop, guys. I hope the article 15's that the soldiers may get for your report are worth it.

[Cataholic]

As to the soldier's comments? Soldiers complain. Period. You could put a soldier in a suite at the luxor in Vegas for recovery, and they'd find something wrong. Add to the nature of most soldiers the fact that that most of them are going through treatment for psych injuries as well as physical injuries, and that alone explains some of the comments.

Just wanted to bump this thread back up and see if we can now all agree that something is stinky at WRH? Or, are the soldiers still simply complaining.....

[lizbud]

Just wanted to bump this thread back up and see if we can now all agree that something is stinky at WRH? Or, are the soldiers still simply complaining.....

I've thought about this thread since the sh** hit the fan recently. Where
are the defenders of the status quo now?

[LilacDragon]

As to the soldier's comments? Soldiers complain. Period. You could put a soldier in a suite at the luxor in Vegas for recovery, and they'd find something wrong. Add to the nature of most soldiers the fact that that most of them are going through treatment for psych injuries as well as physical injuries, and that alone explains some of the comments.

Well, I sure don't know which soldiers you talk to that complain so much. In the 18 months that my husband was in Iraq, I can count on one hand the number of times he complained about anything. One of my best friends is in Bagdad and I haven't heard him complain about his job, accomodations or anything else that has to do with his being deployed. My BIL is headed out in just a couple of months - back into a war zone - and I haven't heard him complaining much either.

I was military and then a military wife - living in crappy base housing around the world - and not only did I rarely complain about it, I don't recall anyone else complaining either.

[Lady's Human]

Soldiers around family members are completely different from soldiers around other soldiers. I've said things to my father (who is a Korean war vet) and other soldiers that I would never say around the non-military members of my family.

Liz, my post wasn't defending the status quo. However, it is what it is. The people who control the purse strings of the military (congress) never give enough funding to base improvements, especially bases that are going away.

[mugsy]

Welcome to socialized medicine

[joycenalex]

from what i've read, not socialized medicine, just "support" services sold to a rich powerful and cheapa## company that did the least amount of work for the contract. in columbus, a few years back, something simular happened, the cleaning services were seperated out and contracted to a low bidder that did horrible job. blood, stool, vomit, hot and cold bugs IN SURGERY suites. complaints made, nothing done. some bright person called the paper and the feds...medicare, a well run cost efficient division of government, told the hospital owners and administrators, you're closed. the situation was fixed, fast, hospital reopened and sold to the ohio state university chain. it's called osu east today

[Edwina's Secretary]

As In These Times reported in a piece entitled "Dishonorable Discharge," back in 2003 "Even more than his father, and Ronald Reagan before him, Bush is cutting budgets for myriad programs intended to protect or improve the lives of veterans and active-duty soldiers." Among the cuts the Administration was pushing back then were $75 a month in "imminent danger pay" and a $150 family separation allowance, deemed by the White House to be "wasteful and unnecessary," In These Times reported. Democrats in Congress led the opposition to those cuts. But a Bush budget still included $3 billion in cuts to VA hospitals. "VA spending today averages $2,800 less per patient than nine years ago," In These Times pointed out.

<<shrug>>

Check the budget the [B]administration proposed for this year. Did it increase or decrease funding for medical care for veterans?????

[Lady's Human]

Regardless of what is proposed by the administration, Congress, not the White House, controls the purse strings. WRAMC has been on the chopping block for a long, long time, and as such no one has been willing to appropriate money for improvements.

As far as the mass of resignations/firings lately, I have one question on that score. Have there been any charges filed or UCMJ action taken against the officials who have resigned? Generals are not immune to prosecution. No charges=someone was fired to give the press the requisite head on a platter.