Sick, wounded U.S. troops held in squalor

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Sick, wounded U.S. troops held in squalor

 

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20031017-024617-1418rBy MARK BENJAMIN, UPI Investigations EditorFORT STEWART, Ga., Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Hundreds of sick and woundedU.S. soldiers including many who served in the Iraq war arelanguishing in hot cement barracks here while they wait --sometimes for months -- to see doctors. The National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers' living conditionsare so substandard, and the medical care so poor, that many ofthem believe the Army is trying push them out with reducedbenefits for their ailments. One document shown to UPI statesthat no more doctor appointments are available from Oct. 14through Nov. 11 -- Veterans Day."I have loved the Army. I have served the Army faithfully and Ihave done everything the Army has asked me to do," said Sgt. 1stClass Willie Buckels, a truck master with the 296thTransportation Company. Buckels served in the Army Reserves for27 years, including Operation Iraqi Freedom and the first GulfWar. "Now my whole idea about the U.S. Army has changed. I amtreated like a third-class citizen."Since getting back from Iraq in May, Buckels, 52, has been tryingto get doctors to find out why he has intense pain in the side ofhis abdomen since doubling over in pain there.After waiting since May for a diagnosis, Buckels has accepted 20percent of his benefits for bad knees and is going home to hisfamily in Mississippi. "They have not found out what my side isdoing yet, but they are still trying," Buckels said.One month after President Bush greeted soldiers at Fort Stewart-- home of the famed Third Infantry Division -- as heroes ontheir return from Iraq, approximately 600 sick or injured membersof the Army Reserves and National Guard are warehoused in rows ofspare, steamy and dark cement barracks in a sandy field, waitingfor doctors to treat their wounds or illnesses. The Reserve and National Guard soldiers are on what the Armycalls "medical hold," while the Army decides how sick or disabledthey are and what benefits -- if any -- they should get as aresult.Some of the soldiers said they have waited six hours a day for anappointment without seeing a doctor. Others described waitingweeks or months without getting a diagnosis or proper treatment.The soldiers said professional active duty personnel are gettingbetter treatment while troops who serve in the National Guard orArmy Reserve are left to wallow in medical hold."It is not an Army of One. It is the Army of two -- Army andReserves," said one soldier who served in Operation IraqiFreedom, during which she developed a serious heart condition andstrange skin ailment.A half-dozen calls by UPI seeking comment from Fort Stewartpublic affairs officials and U.S. Forces Command in Atlanta werenot returned. Soldiers here estimate that nearly 40 percent of the personnelnow in medical hold were deployed to Iraq. Of those who went,many described clusters of strange ailments, like heart and lungproblems, among previously healthy troops. They said the Army hastried to refuse them benefits, claiming the injuries andillnesses were due to a "pre-existing condition," prior tomilitary service.Most soldiers in medical hold at Fort Stewart stay in rows ofrectangular, gray, single-story cinder block barracks withoutbathrooms or air conditioning. They are dark and sweltering inthe southern Georgia heat and humidity. Around 60 soldiers cramin the bunk beds in each barrack.Soldiers make their way by walking or using crutches through thesandy dirt to a communal bathroom, where they have propped officepartitions between otherwise open toilets for privacy. A row ofleaky sinks sits on an opposite wall. The latrine smells of urineand is full of bugs, because many windows have no screens.Showering is in a communal, cinder block room. Soldiers say theyhave to buy their own toilet paper. They said the conditions are fine for training, but not for sickpeople."I think it is disgusting," said one Army Reserve member who wentto Iraq and asked that his name not be used. That soldier said that after being deployed in March he suffereda sudden onset of neurological symptoms in Baghdad that hasgotten steadily worse. He shakes uncontrollably. He said the Army has told him he has Parkinson's Disease and itwas a pre-existing condition, but he thinks it was something inthe anthrax shots the Army gave him."They say I have Parkinson's, but it is developing too rapidly,"he said. "I did not have a problem until I got those shots."First Sgt. Gerry Mosley crossed into Iraq from Kuwait on March 19with the 296th Transportation Company, hauling fuel while underfire from the Iraqis as they traveled north alongside combatvehicles. Mosley said he was healthy before the war; he could runtwo miles in 17 minutes at 48 years old. But he developed a series of symptoms: lung problems andshortness of breath; vertigo; migraines; and tinnitus. He alsothinks the anthrax vaccine may have hurt him. Mosley also has atorn shoulder from an injury there. Mosley says he has never been depressed before, but found himselflooking at shotguns recently and thought about suicide.Mosley is paying $300 a month to get better housing than thecinder block barracks. He has a notice from the base that appearsto show that no more doctor appointments are available forreservists from Oct. 14 until Nov. 11. He said he has never beentreated like this in his 30 years in the Army Reserves. "Now, I would not go back to war for the Army," Mosley said. Many soldiers in the hot barracks said regular Army soldiers getto see doctors, while National Guard and Army Reserve troopswait. "The active duty guys that are coming in, they get treated firstand they put us on hold," said another soldier who returned fromIraq six weeks ago with a serious back injury. He has gotten tosee a doctor only two times since he got back, he said.Another Army Reservist with the 149th Infantry Battalion said hehas had real trouble seeing doctors about his crushed foot hesuffered in Iraq. "There are not enough doctors. They areovercrowded and they can't perform the surgeries that have to bedone," that soldier said. "Look at these mattresses. It hurtsjust to sit on them," he said, gesturing to the bunks. "There arepeople here who got back in April but did not get their surgeriesuntil July. It is putting a lot on these families." The Pentagon is reportedly drawing up plans to call up morereserves. In an Oct. 9 speech to National Guard and reserve troops inPortsmouth, New Hampshire, Bush said the soldiers had become partof the backbone of the military. "Citizen-soldiers are serving in every front on the war onterror," Bush said. "And you're making your state and yourcountry proud."Mark Benjamin can be contacted at mbenjamin