Fort Carson Soldier Pulled Out Of Hospital To Redeploy

Fort Carson Forcibly Removed Soldier from Mental Hospital and Deployed Him to Iraq War

Erin Emery


Denver Post

Feb 10, 2008

Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, was outraged. "If he's an inpatient in a hospital, they should have never taken him out. The chain of command needs to be held accountable for this. Washington needs to get involved at the Pentagon to make sure this doesn't happen again. "First, we had the planeload of wounded, injured and ill being forced back to the war zone. And now we have soldiers forcibly removed from mental hospitals. The level of outrage is off the Richter scale."

Ill GI says he was deployed from hospital

Februray 10, 2008 - A Fort Carson soldier who says he was in treatment at Cedar Springs Hospital for bipolar disorder and alcohol abuse was released early and ordered to deploy to the Middle East with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team.

The 28-year-old specialist spent 31 days in Kuwait and was returned to Fort Carson on Dec. 31 after health care professionals in Kuwait concurred that his symptoms met criteria for bipolar disorder and "some paranoia and possible homicidal tendencies," according to e-mails obtained by The Denver Post.

The soldier, who asked not to be identified because of the stigma surrounding mental illness and because he will seek employment when he leaves the Army, said he checked himself into Cedar Springs on Nov. 9 or Nov. 10 after he attempted suicide while under the influence of alcohol. He said his treatment was supposed to end Dec. 10 but his commanding officers showed up at the hospital Nov. 29 and ordered him to leave.

"I was pulled out to deploy," said the soldier, who has three years in the Army and has served a tour in Iraq.

Soldiers from Fort Carson and across the country have complained they were sent to combat zones despite medical conditions that should have prevented their deployment.

Late last year, Fort Carson said it sent 79 soldiers who were considered medical "no-gos" overseas. Officials said the soldiers were placed in light-duty jobs and are receiving treatment there. So far, at least six soldiers have been returned.
go here for the rest
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/ArticleID/9321

When Maj. Gen. Mark Graham took over command of Fort Carson, I had high hopes the problems at Carson would addressed and corrected. With this, those hopes are gone. I wanted to see what Graham had to say about all of this since he stated he would correct the problems at Carson. I found this.

From CBS

AP) Seventy-nine injured soldiers were pressed into war duty last month as the U.S. Army struggled to fill its ranks, but most were assigned to light-duty jobs within limits set by doctors, two Army leaders said. The Denver Post, quoting internal Army e-mails and a Fort Carson soldier, reported that troops had been deployed to Kuwait en route to Iraq while they were still receiving medical treatment for various conditions.

Fort Carson's top general Maj. Gen. Mark Graham said most of the 79 soldiers remain in Iraq, while about a dozen are in Kuwait, the newspaper reported in Friday editions. A few returned to the United States because of inadequate rehabilitation available in theater, Graham said. Graham said he has asked Fort Carson's inspector general to investigate whether proper procedures were followed in sending the soldiers into war zones. Congressional investigators also are reviewing allegations that medically unfit soldiers have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan to shore up lagging troop numbers.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/19/national/main3731718.shtml

A fraction of hope returned with this but it is shaky at best. Wouldn't Graham have given orders when he took over Carson to make sure this kind of thing would never even be considered? Wouldn't Graham have enforced the attitude the wounded are wounded and should be treated accordingly? How could he leave open to interpretation pulling a soldier out of the hospital to redeploy them when they were already wounded? Graham, Fort Carson and the DOD have a lot to answer for. This is disgusting and disgraceful.

The other issue is are they now diagnosing soldiers with bipolar disorder instead of PTSD?