Governor William J. Le Petomane
Holy underwear! Sheriff murdered? Innocent women and children blown to bits? We've got to protect our phoney-baloney jobs, gentleman!
We must do something about this immediately! Immediately, immediately! Harrumph, harrumph!"
[Other staff 'harrumph' as well] I didn't get a "harrumph" out of that guy!
Hedley Lamarr: Give the governor "harrumph"
Staff member: Harrumph!
Governor William J. Le Petomane: You watch your ass.
This morning I opened my email and discovered a report on Senator Joe Donnelly pushing more bills right after the bubble wrap was cut off his last one. Why? Why is he repeating the same "efforts" that have come out of other senators decades ago that didn't work?
For Donnelly it isn't just one bill but a "package of legislation designed to reduce military suicides" leaving out the most vital piece of information. It's all been done before and didn't work.
Yet one more reason as to why I have no tolerance for politicians.
The other members are also pushing their own bills naming them after veterans failed within their own state. Why? So it will appear as if they really care about them and their families. Had that been true, in any decade, suicides would have gone down instead of up.
If any of them were really telling the truth then the VA would have no problems at all. Considering the first House Veterans Affairs Committee was sitting on their harrumphs back in 1946 there should be no veteran waiting for care they were promised.
We're reading the news reports about veterans falling apart all over the country year after year and then reading how this Representative and that Senator are doing this and that from reporters pretending they actually know something about any of this. Too bad they forget all too easily what they reported on last year when the outcome of past efforts caused more heartaches for far too many other families.
Top that off with taxpayers not only pay the salaries of politicians, they pay for the gazillionth bill because they love veterans and want to only see the best for them. The last thing they think of is how is making money off these bills and who is just trying to get votes for doing them. They want to believe veterans matter so much that members of Congress are doing things for them instead of to veterans.
What's wrong with all the service groups out there making sure reporters get it right? Why haven't they stepped up and said that it's all been done before? After all, reporters just repeat what they are told. The days of true investigative reporting ended a long time ago. That is why it was so shocking to read what the Dallas Morning News and NBC managed to do when they reported on yet one more failure the public was deluded enough to think worked.
(I posted on these stories as they happened but linking back to the original reports since they are still active. Thank God!)
Injured Heroes Broken Promises The war after the war
Wounded soldiers allege mistreatment in the Army’s Warrior Transition Units
Dallas News
David Tarrant, Scott Friedman and Eva Parks of NBC
November 22, 2015
KILLEEN — At a shop that sells vacation packages to soldiers in the Killeen Mall, there’s a shrine to Zackary Filip. Newspaper clippings, congratulatory letters from congressional leaders and a large poster of Filip in his Army combat uniform cover a wall.
The Denton native was named 2010 Soldier of the Year by Army Times for his actions while in near-constant combat in Afghanistan and just afterward during the Fort Hood massacre.
“Injured Heroes, Broken Promises,” a joint investigative project between The Dallas Morning News and NBC5 (KXAS-TV), examines allegations of harassment and mistreatment in the U.S.’ Warrior Transition Units, which were created to serve soldiers with physical and psychological wounds. Reporters David Tarrant, Scott Friedman and Eva Parks based their findings on dozens of interviews with soldiers, Army officials and medical experts, and hundreds of pages of military documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
Filip, a combat-hardened medic, saved the life of a civilian police officer and treated many other victims of the Fort Hood attack that killed 13 and wounded 32 others five years ago.
By the age of 24, with a Bronze Star and the Army Commendation Medal with the V device for valor, Filip looked forward to a long, successful military career.
But the Army he served with such distinction wasn’t there for him when he most needed its help, he says.
When he began suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, he entered a special program — a Warrior Transition Unit — for soldiers in need of ongoing outpatient treatment. He expected to find the kind of care he needed to heal.
Instead, he once again felt under attack.
Entrusted to guide him through the greatest crisis of his life, those in charge of the Warrior Transition Unit, or WTU, showed him and others disrespect, belittling and treating some unfairly and at times disregarding their physical abilities and mental health.
“WTU made everything a lot worse — especially mentally. And I thought it was going to be great,” said Filip, who spent two years in the Fort Hood WTU until his discharge in September 2013.
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Complaints about wounded warriors’ treatment pile up
Benn sought to help, but PTSD hindered him
Editorial: Wounded warriors deserve better
Army orders new training for Warrior Transition Units
NBC 5 takes a closer look at Warrior Transition Units
Hundreds of soldiers allege mistreatment at Army Warrior Transition Units
Injured soldiers question training of WTU leaders
Feb 21, 2015
NBC 5 Investigates has learned that the U.S. Army has launched a new investigation inside Fort Hood’s Warrior Transition Unit (WTU), looking at claims of harassment and abuse.
The investigation comes after NBC 5 Investigates partnered with The Dallas Morning News for a six-month investigation that revealed hundreds of complaints from injured soldiers who said commanders harassed, belittled them and ordered them to do things that made their conditions worse at three Warrior Transition Units in Texas: Fort Hood, Fort Bliss and Fort Sam Houston.
How about they start way back to when these units were set up after the Walter Reed scandal in 2007?
This is what we were told back then and it may sound very familiar.
Army Activates New Warrior Transition Brigade at Walter Reed
Each company will have a physician and staff who work with specialists in the hospital to develop a patient care plan for each patient-soldier. Before, the military medical system assigned primary care managers from a pool of managers scattered within Walter Reed. Now a 25-member cell of physicians, nurses and support staff will focus only the primary care needs of those in the brigade, Bell said. The goal is to develop a seamless program that improves access and continuity of care, he said.
The brigade has been receiving cadre for the past seven weeks. Most of the company-level leaders are in place, and all should be here by the end of May. Hartless said the first task for the brigade leaders will be earning the trust of the patient-soldiers.
“We have to gain their trust. They’re scared,” he said. “Things are changing again for them. Some are getting new case managers. They are getting new platoon sergeants. They are going to have a squad leader. It’s unknown for them. They already trust the medical part.”
Each staff member will undergo a cadre training plan that includes 55 briefings on topics ranging from an overview of the medical command, the duties of squad leaders and platoon sergeants, and the medical and physical board process.
Still, Hartless said, he will be keeping a close eye on how the new cadre and patient-soldiers interact.
“I have no problem pulling a cadre member aside and saying, ‘Hey, remember who you are talking to. This guy’s had a traumatic brain injury,’” Hartless said. “He has an appointment at 10 at physical therapy tomorrow. You need to make sure he gets there. You may have to take him. You have to know where your people are. Go check up on them.”
The first company to stand up April 27 is made up of the National Guard and Reserve soldiers receiving care at the center. After June 8, when the other two companies are staffed, those soldiers will be integrated into the other companies down to the squad leaders.
“They shouldn’t be separate. A soldier is a soldier is a soldier,” Hartless said. “It’s one fight, one team. That’s what we are going to do here.”
As you can see it wasn't fixed back then and it led to servicemembers being discharged by the thousands, betrayed by the system that was set up in response to a crisis reported on in the Washington Times. Hell, by 2010, things hadn't changed much either. Tom Ricks reported this for Foreign Policy
Here’s how screwed up the Army’s Warrior Transition Units are: Genuinely sick soldiers try to get out of using them
After 2012 with the record high for military suicides I wrote The Warrior SAW, Suicides After War, because families were pissed off all this was going on and the general public had no clue what members of Congress were doing about any of it.
Nothing will be fixed as long as members of Congress are more interested in protecting their jobs instead of protecting the lives of our troops and veterans. After all, they put their lives on the line while politicians just talk about honoring them.
In most cases, it is just one huge slap on the back and "We must do something about this immediately! Immediately, immediately! Harrumph, harrumph!"
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