Arny forced to Investigate poor treatment of ill Iraq veterans

ONLY beccause of bad press coverage, has the Army been forced to
respond to their critics about the poor treatment the soldiers
are receiving, and recieving after weeks of waiting to even see a doctor.


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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/21/national/21SOLD.html

Army Investigates Treatment of Ill Iraq Veterans
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

Published: October 21, 2003


TLANTA, Oct. 20 — The Army is investigating complaints that hundreds of sick and wounded soldiers who just returned from Iraq are languishing in crudely furnished barracks without proper medical care at the Fort Stewart military base, army officials disclosed on Monday.

Many of the soldiers have been housed in short-term training barracks with concrete floors and outdoor latrines. Many have had to wait weeks to see a doctor.

"Some of these soldiers are certainly not happy," said Col. John Kidd, garrison commander at Fort Stewart. "But we're asking for more resources. And we're open to any suggestions on how to fix this."
Lt. Col. Kevin Curry, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon, said an assessment team had been sent to the base, near Savannah, to look into the complaints. "The advance party of the assessment team is already on the ground," Colonel Curry said.
He added that Pentagon officials were aware of a backlog of medical cases at Fort Stewart and were trying to find more doctors, possibly from other bases or even civilian hospitals.

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http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/10/19/sick.reservists/index.html

Sick, wounded reservists complain about treatment
Living conditions at Fort Stewart called 'substandard'

Sunday, October 19, 2003 Posted: 9:08 PM EDT (0108 GMT)

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Wounded and injured soldiers at Fort Stewart, Georgia, some of whom served in Iraq, are sometimes forced to wait months for follow-up treatment, according to several Army reservists.

CNN confirms that soldiers are complaining of a lack of timely medical care and "substandard" living conditions, as first reported by UPI investigations editor Mark Benjamin after a visit to the U.S. Army base.

Veterans' advocate Steve Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center, spent several days with Benjamin at Fort Stewart. The center is "a resource for information, support, and referrals for all those concerned with the complexities of Persian Gulf War issues, especially Gulf War illnesses and those held prisoner or missing in action," according to a statement on its Web site.

Robinson told CNN he was "so concerned about what I saw that I called the House Veterans Affairs Committee as soon as I got home."

A Fort Stewart spokesman took issue with the depiction, calling the
conditions "Spartan" and "austere," but "safe."
"I don't think it's fair to call it substandard," said the spokesman, who asked not to be named. "There's no squalor in the military barracks. Is it hot? Absolutely."

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http://www.motherjones.com/news/dailymojo/2003/43/we_595_02b.html

October 21, 2003
Soldier Blues
It's becoming more apparent every day that the U.S. military has a serious morale problem. Depression, mild and servere, is plaguing the troops, sometimes with fatal consequences.

A recent survey by Stars and Stripes, a newspaper for soldiers and government civilians abroad, revealed that over one-third of soldiers rate their morale as low, or very low. Suicides of U.S. servicemen in Iraq are running up to three times the usual rate, and news headlines bring daily news of U.S. soldiers dying in Iraq.

As stories of low morale and soldier suicides began to surface last week, the Bush administration decided that news from Iraq was being negatively filtered by the media, leaving Americans under the misperception that things aren't going well. Bush said he wanted to bypass the filter and tell the news of real progress directly to the American people. But while some things in Iraq may indeed be getting better, troop morale isn't one of them.

After receiving hundreds of letters from unhappy troops, Stars and Stripes was conducted an "unscientific" survey, questioning nearly 2000 soldiers in Iraq. One-third reported that their mission was "not clearly defined" or "not at all defined". Thirty-one percent said that the war in Iraq was of "little value" or of "no value at all."

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