Wounded Warrior Awareness Day of terrible treatment

Wounded Warrior awareness day was one of reports of terrible treatment. It should make us all aware of aspects we don't pay enough attention to.

Is this anyway to treat the wounded?

This Captain had to wait a month for a primary care doctor and a year for surgery. Think about that. He is a member of the National Guard. While he said things have changed since the scandal of Walter Reed, this had happened to our wounded. If they didn't come out and tell their stories, no one would even be aware of any of this. Why should they have to? Who is watching over the wounded? Anyone?

I remember when the story of Walter Reed came out in the Washington Post. There was a great uproar across the nation but not all of it was upset over the way the wounded were treated. Some of it was directed at the Washington Post instead for reporting on it. Imagine that!

We ask so much of the men and women serving this nation in uniform, especially the members of the National Guards. We ask they to leave their families, their regular jobs, businesses, give it all up so they can deploy and then if they have the bad luck to get wounded, they are put thru hell even more. When you think about Capt. Perez waiting a year for surgery, think about what that did to him and his family.

Capt. Adrian Perez collects his thoughts while recounting his story of recovering from wounds sustained in Iraq. Perez, of the Army National Guard's Manpower Analysis section, spoke at the Army National Guard Readiness Centeras part of Wounded Warrior Awareness Day, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jon Soucy)(Released)

Wounded warrior shares his experiences with Army Guard audience
By Army Staff Sgt. Jon Soucy
National Guard Bureau

ARLINGTON, Va., (Nov. 20, 2008) - Education was the goal of Wounded Warrior Awareness Day held here at the Army National Guard Readiness Center yesterday.

“What we want to do today is educate ourselves,” so we can take action, said Brig. Gen. Leodis Jennings, special assistant to the director of the Army National Guard. “It doesn’t have to be a real overt action.

“It can be something as simple as sitting down and talking with them and asking if they need help and how you can assist,” he said.

During the event, which featured several speakers and information booths and was hosted by the ARNG’s Soldier/Family Support Service Division, Capt. Adrian Perez of the Army National Guard’s Manpower Analysis section, and his wife Sara, spoke about their experiences when Perez was wounded in 2006 while serving in Iraq with the 1st Armored Division’s 16th Engineer Battalion.

For the Perezes, the experience proved frustrating.

Injured during a patrol by an Improvised Explosive Device that left him partially blind and with wounds to his shoulders and back, Perez was evacuated first to a hospital in Mosul, then to Landsthul, Germany, and finally ended up at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

Once at Walter Reed, that’s “where it almost gets comical,” said Perez, who said he had to find his own way to Walter Reed after flying into Washington with six other wounded Soldiers.
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http://www.ngb.army.mil/news/archives/2008/11/112008-Wounded.aspx