15 percent of the active forces aren’t able to deploy for medical reasons

Army says number of medically unfit GIs on rise
By Patricia Kime - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Oct 10, 2011 17:33:29 EDT
As the Army faces a prospective drawdown, it is grappling with a growing percentage of soldiers who aren’t medically fit for duty, Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker said Monday.

About 15 percent of the active forces aren’t able to deploy for medical reasons — a growing problem that has “begun to erode the readiness of the Army as a whole,” Schoomaker said during a forum on soldier resilience at the Association of the U.S. Army conference in Washington.

With the elimination of stop-loss, attrition of surge forces and expansion of medical programs that better identify troops’ medical needs, the pool of those who are considered medically “not ready” for duty is broadening, and the Army must act quickly to ensure the burden doesn’t overwhelm the force, Schoomaker said.

Many of the soldiers involved are not those injured in combat, he added. For a variety of reasons, troops might not meet unit health standards for deployment, parameters set by the strategic commands for combat or they reside on the temporary disability retirement list awaiting discharge, under the Army fold of administrative oversight and personnel support.
read more here