by Mark Benjamin – Salon.com – Soldiers on crutches and canes were sent to a main desert camp used for Iraq training. Military experts say the Army was pumping up manpower statistics to show a brigade was battle ready…Salon recently uncovered another troubling development in the Army’s efforts to shore up troop levels, reporting earlier this month that soldiers from the 3rd Brigade had serious health problems that the soldiers claimed were summarily downgraded by military doctors at Fort Benning in February, apparently so that the Army could send them to Iraq. Some of those soldiers were among the group sent to Fort Irwin to train in January.
As an aside – This exact same thing happened to me in 1998-99 when my unit was put on alert for deployment to Kosovo. We’d have been the first Army unit in, and naturally, officers were dazzled by visions of promotions and medals. Anyone can look it up if they’d like to, as the unit was 2/2 Infantry, 1st ID (Vilseck, Germany) and the battalion commander at the time was Lieutenant Colonel Burch. The order from him to the battalion doctor was to deny any request for treatment that could result in someone becoming non-deployable.
My four broken ribs sustained during a riot-control training exercise were just the kind of thing that fell into that category. And so, I was denied an x-ray for over a month, given Ibuprofen and told they were bruised. I’d have been exposed to Article-15 punishment if I sought medical attention outside of my unit (as I was told), and the only thing that worked for me was to head to sick call at a support unit one day when the battalion doctor wasn’t in. This was going on 4-5 weeks.
Three weeks into this, I decided it was worth the risk and got someone to drive me over to the base clinic in Graffenwohr on a Saturday. Horrible luck, as my battalion’s doctor was on duty and he got agitated immediately, told me I was disobeying a direct order, sent me on my way. The thing to keep in mind here is that not only was I denied an x-ray and treatment, but more importantly I wasn’t given a “profile”. A profile is a piece of paper from a doctor that means when you’re told to do something physically (lift a certain amount, do pushups, situps, running, etc), if it is not allowed based on the doctor’s signature on that profile, the Army can’t technically force you to do it.
I was without a profile during this time. And if anyone has been in the Army, they’d know that when your unit is put on alert, it’s a 6-7 day a week hustle, with a lot of time spent up at the motor pool performing manual labor. Eventually my platoon commander realized what was going on and stopped making me participate in PT each day. All that was temporary as I perceived it though, as the real fear was that we’d get the order and a couple days later I’d be fighting a war with broken ribs. It could have happened. Luckily it was decided that we wouldn’t launch a ground assault, but hold off for a number of months.
So for what it’s worth, this shit can and will happen in the Army as long as there are commanders like LTC Burch and officers above him whose own careers are paramount to the needs of anyone under their command. Unreported is how this dynamic, the career path of an officer, is so often put before everything and anything standing in its way. From my experience I can say for certain that the mental injuries suffered by soldiers in this position are far worse than the pain of a physical injury. You realize exactly what you are in moments like these, and believe me, it’s far less than the fireworks on 4th of July would have you think.
I always thought that Kurt Vonnegut Jr. put it best in Chapter 7 of Player Piano.
You were mech infantry too? I was an old Bradley Master Gunner back in my day, spent a lot of time in Graf.
Lots of stuff like this happened to in 3/5 Cav near Kirch Gons in late 94-early 95 when we were getting ready to go to Macedonia. One of my troops had a large tumor on his rib, later found to be cancerous, and they tried to deploy him inspite of removing a rib and chemo.
I was in a mech infantry unit, but I worked in the PAC as the SIDPERS specialist.
It’s a dirty little secret that numbers on a spreadsheet, specifically the +1 count you represent as a soldier, is all you really are to the brass. I delivered our readiness report to division each month, and we weren’t on the edge of becoming anything lower in terms of our readiness rating…counting all the soldiers on profile or otherwise “broke” in 2/2 IN at the time, there was a healthy cushion of at least 25 if memory serves me.
That the mission was postponed and Army forces ended up deploying 7 months later as part of a peace keeping force rather than in a war fighting posture, my only guess is that the brass simply wanted to make sure that if the mission was postponed, that they lose their chance to pick up those ribbons and OERs once it was time to go.
I lost all faith in the institution when this went down. As much as you grow accustomed to dog-shit status in general, it’s on another level entirely when they turn their back on you like that. As a soldier you take pride in being able to know for certain that whatever vulnerability you’re carrying along with, can be overcome with hard work, discipline and above all else – pride. I’ve seen plenty of soldiers who scraped pride along the way, or thought they did, seemingly intent on believing that life is suffering, and they were used to it…so fuck it.
I think that’s all bullshit, because even the twice divorced, not-all-there NCO with nothing good to say besides how many years are left to his 20, whether he knows it or not, still benefits from that pride, and it is that which makes the others possible. My take at least.
Anyways, when this went down I was honestly at the height of my brief Army career…well respected for my abilities by peers and higher-ups, with three soldiers reporting to me within the section. If we had to go somewhere and do something, I knew that everyone around me would be glad I was who I was and that it wasn’t someone else. All that changed though.
It sounds silly, but what it really came down to was being able to lift things. As you well know Hal, when you’re in the field, it’s about working hard, digging, hauling, setting things up, taking them down, etc. Out in Hohenfelds I’d get into the frame of mind at times where I’d think of myself as Lennie from ‘Of Mice and Men’…6’1″, strong as a mule, and able to get shit done.
Removing that aspect of my game just made me as good as what was in my head, and that’s only part (a big part, but still just ‘a’ part) of what makes a soldier. All those years of getting good at it, and when we’re about to do it for real, I’m broke.
Disillusioned isn’t the right word for it. Crazy is more appropriate now that I’ve got a house and children…no way in hell I’d ever agree to go fight a war. When you’re young though, the idea of doing just that doesn’t seem so crazy. That said…going off to fight a war with 4 broken ribs, or a missing rib while on chemo…that’s crazy 100% of the time.
Which always brings me back to the +1 count on a spreadsheet, and how in the end, that’s all you really are. Talk about a mindfuck!
Master gunner – – – shoot, you LIVED in Graf!
Al,
Fascingating story. Were your superiors ever reprimanded Ah, never mind; I think I know the answer to that one.
–Ron
http://revolttoday.blogspot.com/
Yea, they punished themselves with only half a desert after dinner one night…so I was told.
With all of this Walter Reed stuff, I keep thinking about army doctors. Can you imagine…a doctor…and an army officer! At once! The arrogance would create a vacuum large enough to eat up a commissary.