Injured troops shipped back into battle

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Salon.com

On March 9, Army Spc. Thomas Smith was ordered to board a plane from Fort Benning, Ga., to deploy back to Iraq, even though he was known to be suffering from chronic post-traumatic stress disorder from a previous tour there. Only weeks prior, military doctors determined that Smith should not be allowed around weapons because of his PTSD symptoms, which included bouts of sudden, extreme anger. Smith's medical records, obtained by Salon, also show that doctors had "highly recommended" that Smith not be deployed because of his condition.

But that did not stop Smith's commanders from ordering him to Iraq as his unit, the 3,900-strong 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, was rushing to move out as part of President Bush's so-called surge plan for securing Baghdad.

"I was told to have my bags in at midnight that night," for the flight, Smith said. "I was sitting there looking at these letters in my hand from my doctors," he recalled in a telephone interview. In order to follow the doctors' recommendations, Smith said, "I had to check myself into the hospital." He avoided the flight by just a few hours. Smith's condition was serious enough that the doctors there kept him hospitalized for nearly two weeks.

On March 11, two days after Smith checked himself in, Salon reported on claims by numerous soldiers from Smith's brigade that commanders were pressing injured troops to deploy to Iraq. Soldiers at Fort Benning said that two doctors from the division met with 75 injured soldiers, including Smith, on Feb. 15, in what the troops said was an effort to reevaluate -- and downgrade -- their health problems so that they could be deployed with the rest of the unit. In several cases, medical records provided to Salon supported those allegations, showing the soldiers to be healthier, on paper, than they were prior to that meeting.

It remains unclear how many injured troops from the 3rd Brigade were deployed last month. But others continue to come forward who, like Smith, had serious medical problems and narrowly avoided being shipped back to Iraq. The concern of these soldiers is not only that they could worsen their injuries by being deployed, but that they could also be a danger to themselves and the soldiers around them. Their stories add new evidence to accusations that brigade commanders, in desperate need of more troops for the surge were willing to deploy broken soldiers.


Read more: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/04/09/injured_soldiers/

[Monkeyman]

1. Yep with a profile three which means you can left nothing over 15 lb.

[sutz12]

2. PTSD.....I think we're about to see another Patton "head slap" nt

[Monkeyman]

3. Bush and DOD is slapping these kids everyday

[mikelgb]

4. why not just dump the flag covered coffins intead of bombs?

it would be a lot cheaper

[ninkasi]

5. Ok, Freepers

please explain to me how this is "supporting the troops."

[WePurrsevere]

6. This is not acceptable... This is Wrong & downright criminal. It is

obvious that BushCo do NOT see these as human beings but simply as toy soldiers on a toy map playing their game of war... meanwhile the blood that runs is real... the lives destroyed are real... the children and loved ones left behind are real.

I'm so sick and tired of them trying to dehumanize living breathing people by using words like "troop" and "collateral damage" when the fact remains that these soldiers... these Iraqi men, women and children are not made of plastic... they are not a machine... they are not merely blips on a computer screen or a number... they are human beings. They have people that love them and need them to be home, safe and well.

"Support the troops"? Yeah, right, flippin' bunch of hypocrites. :grr:

[Judi Lynn]

7. Right-wingers need to know this is happening. I haven't heard a peep about it on any tv news show,

so that probably means they still haven't heard about it, yet.

They need to know how their buddy they'd like to have a beer with is handling his bogus war they wanted, killing off all those people who have never been a threat to them, and brutalizing American soldiers in the process, sending them back again and again and again, when they should be allowed to return to their lives to recuperate.

How can they buy this crap? Don't they ever wander what the hell is happening? Like their pResident, they must be astoundingly indifferent to the rest of humanity as long as there's no direct threat, nor any direct benefit to them from others.

[WePurrsevere]

8. Reading that this isn't on any news shows saddens me terribly...

this should be BIG news and plastered all over the place but the only time I've seen anything on this other then online was a PBS show a couple weeks ago that discussed sending soldiers back with PTSD. :(

Dem candidates and reps should be grabbing this story and running with it. I wish I understood why they don't unless it's so well hidden that they don't know about it yet. In that case I would suggest folks call and write their reps about this injustice. Although it may be wishful thinking if word gets out more to the masses it may give the Dems a little more leverage (and motivation) to take a stand to start bringing our soldiers home.