Lawmakers on Monday assailed the shabby treatment of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and other hospital facilities around the country.
“Is this just another horrific consequence of the terrible planning that went intoour invasion of Iraq?” demanded Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass., in one of several congressional hearings to be held this week examining conditions for troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.
During an unusual field hearing inside an auditorium at Walter Reed on Monday, Tierney and other members of Congress questioned wounded soldiers, the wife of one such soldier, and top military brass about how the facilities fell into disrepair and why.
“These are not new or sudden problems,” Tierney said. “Rats and cockroaches don’t burrow and infest overnight. Mold and holes in ceilings don’t occur in a week. And complaints of bureaucratic indifference have been reported for years.”
Army Specialist Jeremy Duncan told of his accommodations at Walter Reed after he “got blown up” by an improvised explosive device while on patrol in Iraq.
“The conditions in the room in my mind were just — it was unforgivable,” said Duncan, wearing fatigues and sunglasses. “It wasn’t fit for anybody to live in a room like that.”
Staff Sergeant John Daniel Shannon, wearing a black eye-patch embroidered with the symbol of a Purple Heart, told of waiting for plastic surgery so that a prosthetic eye can be inserted after a severe rifle wound.
Asked his biggest concern, Shannon replied: “My biggest concern is having these young men and women who had their lives shattered in service to their country get taken care of.”
Annette McLeod’s husband, she said, suffered inattention and mistreatment at Walter Reed. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., asked for her response to claims by top military officials who said they were unaware of the conditions.
“Were they deaf?” McLeod wondered derisively. “Because I worked the chain, I went anywhere they would listen. So, if you don’t want to hear it, you don’t want to hear it.”
The issue is a nationwide problem, said Rep. Tom Davis, R.-Va.
“The crushing complexity and glacial pace of outpatient procedures in medical evaluation boards are Army-wide problems,” he said. “All the plaster and paint in the world won’t cure a system that seems institutionally predisposed to treat wounded soldiers like inconveniences rather than heroes.”
