Fort Sill Warrior Transition Unit, mold and morale morass

Army leaders defend supervision of soldier care unit
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
LAWTON, Okla. — Staff Sgt. Michael Riley plans to leave the Army later this month on a medical discharge. He suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder along with back and brain injuries from blasts in Iraq. And he's angry about the care he received at Fort Sill's program for wounded soldiers here.

Riley is among 20 soldiers who complained to USA TODAY last week about mold in the barracks, delays in processing medical cases and morale in the Warrior Transition Unit (WTU) for wounded and injured outpatients at Fort Sill, an artillery training installation. While leaders of the unit are addressing the mold issues, they defended the unit's supervision and morale.

After problems surfaced last year at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., the Army established a WTU at each of 35 installations. Soldiers assigned to these units receive specialized care. They are assigned a squad leader, nurse case manager and doctor to care for them, and usher them to return to duty or medical retirement. "Those three people are with this soldier from start to finish … (to ensure) that the soldier can get through the system without having to fight," Gen. Michael Tucker said in announcing the program last year. "The soldier's mission is to heal."

But as the number of soldiers in the program doubled from 6,000 to 12,000 by June, individual care slipped, congressional investigators found. In July, Army leaders told Congress they were struggling to improve the program. "It takes time to kill bureaucracies," Lt. Gen. Michael Rochelle said.

The mold in the barracks is just one of the problems in the Fort Sill transition unit, soldiers there told USA TODAY. The soldiers described commanders who seem more concerned with enforcing discipline and punishing infractions than with creating an environment conducive to healing.
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http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2008-08-17-Mold-Inside_N.htm


UPDATE
Wounded soldiers complain of mold at Fort Sill barracks
By GREGG ZOROYA • USA Today • August 18, 2008

LAWTON, Okla. — Barracks at a Fort Sill wounded-soldier unit — created in response to poor conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. — are infested by mold, soldiers said. They say their complaints went unheeded for months.


Col. Robert Bridgford, garrison commander, said he ordered workers to replace ventilation ducts apparently encrusted with mold in two 48-room wounded-soldier barracks at Fort Sill.
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http://www.theleafchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080818/NEWS01/808180320

Bad news on Army Mental Health. Is McCain Listening?

Latest Army Mental Health Survey Brings More Bad News -- Is McCain Listening?
Posted March 6, 2008 12:46 PM (EST)

Today's release of the Army's latest mental health survey provides very little to be happy about. In the past, I've talked repeatedly about mental injuries in war, so I won't rehash all of that again. But here are the highlights from today's report:

Despite all the talk about how wonderful things are in Iraq, the overwhelming majority of troops in Iraq continue to say that morale in their units and their own morale is low. Just 11 percent reported that their unit's morale was "high or very high." Only 20 percent said their own morale was "high or very high."

Afghanistan, which is quickly becoming the 'forgotten war' for Bush/McCain, is finding a worsening of the mental health among our troops there. Preliminary reports are that there has been a rise in the amount of troops in Afghanistan reporting depression. In Iraq, troops report the same level of depression as last year.

Combined, the findings are highly troubling. What it tells me, and any person with an elementary school education, is that for all the talk of success in Iraq, the troops aren't feeling that, at all. At the same time, we're crushing our troops in Afghanistan, who have done heroic work there with little help, but now are feeling increasingly overwhelmed.
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