Nervous American Generals Punish Injured Soldiers in Afghanistan - Some wounded soldiers more likely to be punished
- From: Muhammad Javed Iqbal <kaleemjavediqbal@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:14:08 -0700 (PDT)
FORT BRAGG, N.C. – Staff Sgt. Jason Jonas says when he goes to bed at
night, he is terrified his medication will cause him to oversleep and
miss morning roll call again.
His commanders are fully aware the paratrooper wounded in Afghanistan
has been diagnosed with a sleep disorder, because he is one of about
10,000 soldiers assigned to the Army's Warrior Transition units,
created for troops recovering from injuries.
Instead of gingerly nursing them back to health, however, commanders
at Fort Bragg's transition unit readily acknowledge holding them to
the same standards as able-bodied soldiers in combat units, often
assigning chores as punishment for minor infractions.
In fact, the unit has a discipline rate three times as high as Fort
Bragg's main tenant, the 82nd Airborne Division, and transition units
at two other bases punish their soldiers even more frequently than the
one at Fort Bragg, according to an Associated Press review of records
obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
"In my 10 years of service I have often seen soldiers mistreated,
abused or left hanging, but never have I seen an entire unit
collectively mentally and physically break down its members," said
Jonas, a 28-year-old from Tempe, Ariz.
Jonas is one of 11 current or former soldiers who have spent time in
Fort Bragg's transition unit and say that its officers are either
indifferent to their medical needs or trying to drive injured men and
women from the military. Some complain they are being punished for the
very injuries that landed them in the unit.
"It is the military's way of dealing with it: `You're a fake. You need
to go back to work,'" said Pfc. Roman Serpik, 25, who enlisted in
Duluth, Ga. He said he injured his head and back in a practice
parachute jump last April.
Jonas suffered a concussion on a jump in 1999 at Fort Bragg, and
military doctors determined that that led him to develop narcolepsy, a
disorder that causes people to fall asleep abruptly, he said. He
provided copies of his medical profile to the AP to confirm he has the
disorder.
He said medication for his condition made him miss formation five
times, resulting in a demotion that cost him $400 a month.
Officers in the transition battalion at Fort Bragg's Womack Army
Medical Center would not discuss individual soldiers' medical or
disciplinary records, citing privacy laws. Speaking generally, they
said the way to get soldiers back on their feet is discipline, not
accepting excuses.
"Do we hold our capable warriors in transition accountable to these
standards, to include the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the
various Army regulations? Unapologetically, yes, we do," said Lt. Col.
Jay Thornton, the unit's commander.
Thornton said soldiers are "helped, not harmed, by maintaining an
appropriate level of structure and military discipline."
Advocates for wounded soldiers question whether the tough-love
approach is an effort to get rid of soldiers considered unlikely to
return to regular duty.
"It creates a hostile environment where soldiers buckle and take a low-
balled disability rating and benefits just to get out when they can,"
said retired Army Lt. Col. Mike Parker.
The Warrior Transition system was established two years ago to improve
treatment of wounded soldiers after the scandal over shoddy conditions
at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
Soldiers assigned to the units have combat injuries such as
amputations and mental health problems such as post-traumatic stress
disorder, as well as minor ailments that didn't come from combat.
The transition unit at Fort Bragg issued what is known as an Article
15 — used for minor misconduct that doesn't rise to the level of a
court-martial — roughly once a month for every 135 soldiers through
the first nine months of 2008.
At Fort Knox, Ky., the rate was even higher — one Article 15 per month
for every 96 soldiers. The highest rate was at Fort Drum, N.Y., home
to the 10th Mountain Division, where the injured warriors' commanders
issued one Article 15 per month for every 76 soldiers.
On the more lenient end, the Article 15 rate for the transition
battalion at Fort Riley in Kansas, home of the 1st Infantry Division,
was one for every 309 soldiers, and one for every 371 soldiers in the
transition unit at Hawaii's Schofield Barracks, the base of the 25th
Infantry Division.
The differences in the discipline rates point to a flaw in policy
rather than pockets of misbehaving soldiers, said Paul Rieckhoff,
founder and executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of
America.
"We will be looking to the Army to take swift action and hold the
appropriate people accountable," he said.
Commanders at the transition units at Forts Knox and Riley and at
Schofield Barracks all declined to comment on how they handle
discipline. At Fort Drum, spokeswoman Kate Agresti said only that the
base's transition battalion "follows appropriate military guidelines"
that take a soldier's medical condition into account.
Jaime Cavazos, a spokesman with the Army Medical Command, declined to
speculate on why the rate of Article 15s in the units differs so
widely. "I suspect you'd find similar variances between line units
throughout the Army," Cavazos said.
The current and former soldiers interviewed by the AP told similar
stories about discipline within the unit at Fort Bragg. Most spoke on
condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisal and warnings from
above not to speak with reporters.
Sgt. Sheree Snow, 30, of Indianapolis, said she was evacuated from
Iraq to Germany with fibroid tumors in February 2008, had a
hysterectomy that May and was prescribed pain and sleeping medication
for months afterward while at Fort Bragg. She said the medication led
her to miss nine morning formations, and when she was trying to wean
herself off the painkillers, an entire day.
Thornton, her commander, punished her with 14 days of extra duty and
docked her two months' pay, she said.
"The leadership isn't trained to work with wounded soldiers," said
Snow, who returned to her primary assignment at Fort Eustis, Va., this
year. "I feel that the unit holds us to such high standards because
they do not know better."
Jason Thomasson, a 34-year-old Iraq veteran from Winston-Salem, N.C.,
said he was sent to the unit after developing post-traumatic stress
disorder, which he said led to extreme paranoia. He missed formations
and left Fort Bragg without permission. For that he was demoted and
eventually kicked out of the Army.
"Solders are being punished for injuries that they sustained while
they were defending the nation," Thomasson said. "I was a model
soldier before I had PTSD."
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