Sick soldiers wait for treatment (Fort Knox this time)

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20031029-020609-6750r

More than 400 sick and injured soldiers, including some who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, are stuck at Fort Knox, waiting weeks and sometimes months for medical treatment, a score of soldiers said in interviews.

The delays appear to have demolished morale -- many said they had lost faith in the Army and would not serve again -- and could jeopardize some soldiers' health, the soldiers said.

The Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers are in what the Army calls "medical hold," like roughly 600 soldiers under similar circumstances waiting for doctors at Fort Stewart, Ga.

<snip>

Many soldiers at Fort Knox said their injuries and illnesses occurred in Iraq. Some said the rigors of war exacerbated health problems that probably should have prevented them from going in the first place.

Boyd's X-rays appear to show the damage to his wrist but also bone spurs in his feet that are noted in his medical record before being deployed, but the records say "no health problems noted" before he left.

Where's the other 5000?

...plus any number of others scattered around the major Army hospital centers like:

Ft. Bliss Army Health Center in Ft. Huachuca, AZ
Bayne-Jones Army Community Hospital, Ft. Polk, LA.
Evans Army Community Hospital, Ft. Carson, CO.
Blanchfield Army Community Hospital, Ft. Campbell, KY.
Guthrie Army Health Center, Ft. Drum, NY.
Keller Army Community Hospital, West Point, NY.
Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Landstuhl, Germany.
Madigan Army Medical Center, Tacoma, WA.
Tripler Army Medical Center, Honolulu, HI.
Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
William Beaumont Army Medical Center, Ft. Bliss, TX.

Quite a few Army medical facilities can be found at the following link:

<http://www.armymedicine.army.mil/hc/medfacilities/medfacilities.htm>

...and around the major deployment centers of the units involved:

4th Infantry Division (4 brigades)- Ft. Hood, TX
3rd Infantry Division (4 brigades)- Ft. Stewart, GA
101st Airmobile Division (3 brigades) - Ft. Campbell, KY
1st Marine Division (4 brigades) - Camp Pendleton, CA
82nd Airborne Division (one brigade) - Ft. Bragg, NC
173rd Airborne Brigade (one brigade) - Vicenza, Italy

must be more at other bases. I'm betting than there's more than these at Knox too.

Surely there's somebody that could access every base with a hospital, maybe by trying to get their prescriptions filled, or getting a medical appointment, or even getting their haircut. Someway, somehow, there's got to be a way to get a handle on the number of wounded and the conditions. :shrug:

and was told contact the American Red Cross...

Yep there are days I think Innouye is a tad useless, this is one
of those days.

on board...

Goodie

Out of Ft. Collins. He was home on leave and finally got tests showing he had brain damage as a result of an attack he was in on July 12. The Army refused to send him to Germany for tests and kept him on "light" duty instead. When he left on leave, he was told to return to Iraq or "face the consequences."

:-(

NOTHING angers me more than how these soldiers are treated. Makes me so DAMN mad!!}(

After CNN showed that guy who joined up 10 years ago who's now worth close to a million (see thread in GD, search for the word "pimps" in the subject line), there was quite a discussion about what recruiters might and might not disclose to impressionable young people. I don't suppose the sentence, "And if you're injured, you can wait weeks or even months for treatment!" doesn't quite make it into the gush about all the moolah you can earn for college and what swell experiences a hitch or a career in the military get for you.

Sure would like to know if any of the hawks make time in their busy schedules to visit these guys. I know Jim McDermott of Washington has stopped by Walter Reed, but since he's a traitorous, commie peacenik who was against the invasion, he doesn't count.