Disrespecting the Nation's Warrior Elite
It is, some soldiers quietly say, their worst nightmare-the prospect of going from peak physical condition one moment to becoming an incapacitated burden to loved ones the next.
Last week came news, in a Washington Post series, that Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the premier military hospital charged with nursing the nation's injured warriors back to health, has been neglecting those very same heroes. Soldiers and their families were made to feel, they say, like afterthoughts-like burdens.
These days especially, there is no more bulletproof political rhetoric than the exhortation to support the troops. But the swift reaction to the Post's disclosures shows that there is also considerable wrath among ordinary Americans when they feel their soldiers are being neglected and abused. Along with the outpouring of media attention, outraged callers phoned senators, wondering how such conduct could go unnoticed in a facility so often visited by celebrities and aspiring politicians. Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey neatly captured the potent mix of anger and disappointment: "In the warrior ethos, the last line says you should never leave a fallen comrade, and from that facility point of view, we didn't live up to it."
After claiming responsibility in a series of mea culpa press conferences, some in the Pentagon began downplaying the problems. "It's not the accuracy I question," the chief of the Army Medical Command said of the Post series. "It's the characterization." But the facts remain undisputed: one inconsolable 19-year-old, who saw three buddies killed in Iraq, found dead of alcohol poisoning; rooms infested with rodents and black mold; a disoriented Army sniper with a major head injury cavalierly tossed a map and told to find his own way across the sprawling base.
The Army vows to show that it does care deeply about its wounded. But the shame of Walter Reed, as with so much about the misbegotten Iraq venture, will not be soon forgotten. And with more troops now headed into the fray, the hospital commander is bracing for "a lot more" casualties to come.
This story appears in the March 5, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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