The state of the troops support
The news coming from the Walter Reed story is much more prevalent and wider reaching than most people realize. This is not the way anyone should be treated much less veterans coming back from a war that was started based on lies and false statements by people who are out only to fulfill their own agenda.
I would like to relate to you a story about a young soldier I served with at Ft. Stewart, Georgia. This young soldier served a tour of combat in the initial invasion of Iraq and upon his return started experiencing severe post traumatic stress syndrome. The stress got to the point where he attempted suicide by taking 32 percocet tablets and as a result of this attempt he was taken to the Liberty County Regional Medical Center.
The command of the 2-7 Infantry Battalion upon learning of the soldiers whereabouts promptly forced the med-cen to release him to the commanders custody. This was done against the professional medical judgement of the staff at the medical center. The soldier was transferred to the Winn Army hospital on Ft. Stewart where you would think he would receive the proper treatment for his PTSD.
The commander of this soldier's company would have none of that, he promptly went to the soldiers hospital room and physically forced the soldier's wife from the room and began to scream at this young soldier, telling him that if he did not get up and deploy to Iraq for a second tour and to stop faking his pyschological problems he would ensure that he was sent to Iraq in leg irons, handcuffs and in his hospital pajamas.
This young soldier contacted me in the capacity of and NCO and asked if could help him. I proceeded to attempt to file an Inspector General report about the way the command was treating this young soldier and was promptly given the brush-off. I can relate many more stories of this nature from soldiers at Ft. Stewart which goes to show that the problem that came to light at Walter Reed is more wide-spread than most people realize.
I am glad this information was published by the Washington Post and the reporters who had the intestinal fortitude to put this info out. But what makes me a little angry is that when I was trying to go through the military channels to try and address similar problems at Ft. Stewart I was brushed off by the command. I even talked the division command sergeant major and informed him of some these problems and as a result I was brought up on false charges of desertion and missing movement by a command that was incompetent and corrupt.
There was a Captain in the intelligence section of the battalion, (2-7 Infantry), who was selling the ceramic body armor plates on e-bay and pocketing the money. Those plates go into the new vests that were purchased for soldiers in order for them to receive the most protection possible. This CPT was caught and he received 45 days confinement and was allowed to resign his commission. I believe this constitutes endangering soldiers lives who are in combat without the plates he sold for personal gain.
The reason I received the sentence I did was because the prosecution said I was endangering soldiers by applying for conscientious objector status to war and by not being there I was depriving them of experienced leadership in a combat zone. But I have to ask, which do you think is more dangerous to soldiers? My applying for C.O. status or a greedy commisioned officer selling safety equipment for personal gain. You will have to make up your own mind about that. I know where I stand on that matter. You can also verify what I am saying by using the Freedom of Information Act to view his record of "trial". I want you to do so and not just take my word for that.
This Walter Reed story is just the tip of the ice-berg and now the politicians are coming out of the wood work trying to seem like they are so concerned by this. I have to ask, "Why didn't they see that this was not allowed to be the case in the first place instead of scurrying around like rats after the fact?"
