Keep ‘Sacred Covenant’ with the Troops

[thedrifter]

01-22-2004 <br />
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Guest Column: Keep ‘Sacred Covenant’ with the Troops <br />
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By Stephen L. Robinson

[thedrifter]

Failure of local commanders to ensure this process is completed accurately will harm soldiers down the road when they file VA claims. Another part of post-deployment screening is the mental health...

[thedrifter]

Recommendation: The National Guard and Reserve doctors who will be tasked to conduct MEBs need to be proficient prior to deployment. The National Guard and Reserve should consider deploying with administrative experts who can assist the garrison and their own soldiers through the process. Additionally, the military needs to develop and distribute a MEB self-help guide at the demobilization site.



* Bottom Line: The problems faced Armywide related to Medical Hold soldiers should never have happened in the first place. It is unclear what action, if any, would have been taken had the conditions at these bases not been exposed by UPI and NGWRC and then aggressively investigated by Senators Kit Bond and Patrick Leahy.



Educating military personnel about their rights and responsibilities should they be placed on medical hold will do much to alleviate the frustration and anger that are born of uncertainty. Another key to preventing future situations like the one at Fort Stewart is having enough medical and administrative resources available to meet the needs of reserve and active duty personnel.



The military needs to aggressively investigate and correct deficiencies before they become major problems. The Army response to the Fort Stewart catastrophe is to be applauded. However, crisis management should not be the norm when it comes to the proper medical care and treatment of our war-wounded veterans.



DoD directives must spell out plainly that Reserve soldiers should not be penalized, but rather encouraged to promptly report medical conditions that affect their ability to deploy. Reserve unit commanders must be required to immediately follow up these claims with physical examinations to determine medical status of individuals before units are activated.



Borrowing a line from Command Sgt. Major Michelle Jones, a top Reserve NCO, “The reason that soldiers won’t re-enlist is not because they’re mobilized, but the way they are treated on active duty.” We can do better. We owe it to the soldiers and we owe it to the nation.



If we fail, then we jeopardize the concept of the all-volunteer force. The military and the government must uphold the sacred covenant made between soldier and country.



Following a 20-year career in the U.S. Army, Stephen L. Robinson became the executive director of the nonprofit National Gulf War Resource Center, which serves as an advocacy organization for veterans of the Gulf War and current conflicts.

http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=DefenseWatch.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=339&rnd=683.1306931498078


Sempers,

Roger
:marine:

[MillRatUSMC]

Based on conservative estimates, as many as one-third of the citizen-soldiers at one Army base were deployed to the MOB site with service disabling conditions. Because of this fact, garrison commanders suddenly became overwhelmed with returning wounded and non-deployable soldiers. Many soldiers reported that their service disabling conditions were downgraded by local unit commanders during the pre-deployment process. This act in effect ignored established medical diagnosis in order to send the soldier to Iraq.

ONE THIRD!!! Were deployed to the MOB site with service disabling condition.
Pray God, what's going on in the Army of One?
Does this also include Marines?
How many Marines are non-deployable dued to service disabling conditions?
If they are drawing the pay with those non-deployable conditions.
They should be able to deploy.
IMHO

Semper Fidelis
Ricardo

[MillRatUSMC]

Forgot to mention the Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard.
Wonder how many of those services are non-deployable?

Semper Fidelis
Ricardo