Another Walter Reed horror story, from the Army Times

[Ian David]

by John in DC 2/19/2007 10:18:00 AM

This is a national disgrace. From the Army Times:

A pale scar creates a deep furrow connecting Van Antwerp’s eyebrows. Doctors replaced bone with titanium after he fractured his skull. Bare-chested as he trimmed, Van Antwerp has a deep, laddered line from beneath his sternum to at least the top of his sweatpants. A blast ruptured his spleen and ripped out his colon. Pushing up his left pant leg as he told his battle story, Van Antwerp showed where three ligaments tore away from his knee, and then pointed out the scar from his broken tibia.

Above his heart, the ranks and last names of two dead friends are etched in ink. But he calls a friend to ask their first names. Short-term memory loss arrived for Van Antwerp in the same attack that killed his buddies....

Yet when it was time for the Army to take care of him, one of its wounded warriors, Van Antwerp gave up before he even began. Rather than fight for a higher disability rating, he quietly signed for 20 percent — and no medical benefits — saying he knew he couldn’t do better. He inherited his father’s stubbornness, he said, and refused to ask anyone to pull strings based on his dad’s rank. Then his first medical board counselor, the person who would help him make his way through the medical evaluation board system, left. The second, he said, “wasn’t on the ball.”

“The Army is trying to give you the lowest amount of money possible,” he said....


And the Veterans Administration is backlogged 400,000 cases.

Soldiers go to VA to try for more benefits, but the department had a staggering 400,000-case backup on new claims in fiscal 2006, according to VA.

Then there's the soldier with the brain tumor who the military screwed.

More:
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2007/02/another-walter-reed-horror-story-from.html

[peace13]

1. It would be interesting to know

what the case backup was in the years before this war. 400,000 is a staggering number. This is such a sad article.

[Olney Blue]

2. When we elect our Dem president, Max Cleland should be put in charge

of the VA. That place is a disaster.

[Drifter]

3. Start taking care of our Veterans ...

and STOP making new ones.

This is serious message to the AWOL cowboy, and the next Dem president.
I stand for Impeachment, until all of our soldiers are home.

Cheers
Drifter

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. THAT is the best statement so far on this shit.

I agree completely, Drifter. Stop the increase AND start taking proper care of them

[Monkeyman]

5. Only way is to force them too America needs to see for them self's

[OneBlueSky]

6. we Democrats MUST make proper care for our veterans central to our platform . . .

but we can't wait until the 2008 elections to do something . . . these folks need help NOW, and I urge everyone to contact their Congressperson and/or Senator about this issue . . . my new Congressman, John Hall, in on the Veterans Committee, and he'll be hearing from me . . . as will Sentators Clinton and Schumer . . .

what we are putting these men and women through is more than a disgrace . . . it is a crime, and it needs to stop . . .

[ChairmanAgnostic]

7. funny. . .

we librul, military hating, global peas supporters, and democrat party members care more for the health, welfare and future than the GOP or the neocons. The latter is easy to explain. they care about no one but themselves. But the rest of the GOP, why can't they start doing the same thing