GAO Report: Walter Reed Problems Have Not Been Fixed

Remember Walter Reed? After the huge scandal last spring, President Bush and the members of Congress promised to improve troops' care. They promised to take action and get our wounded veterans the care they were waiting for. They promised to make things right. Well, that promise has been broken.

This week, we got definitive proof that our nation's wounded veterans are still waiting for government leaders to deliver much needed resources. According to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the response to shoddy outpatient treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center has been woefully inadequate.

This latest report joins the increasing chorus of bipartisan commissions, independent review groups, and task forces which all confirm that the DoD and the VA are ill-prepared to meet the needs of returning servicemembers. Among its findings, the GAO concluded that there has been little progress in rectifying staffing shortfalls, facilitating VA/DoD data sharing, and streamlining disability evaluation systems. Processing disability payments still takes an average of 177 days. Furthermore, efforts to improve the care provided to servicemembers with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) have also been largely unsuccessful: only 6 of the Army's 32 Warrior Transition Units had completed training for all staff. (You can read the complete report here.)

The bottom line: the problems of Walter Reed have not been fixed. Not even close. More than seven months have passed since the major problems were revealed by the Washington Post-- and after seven months, our veterans continue to wait. While Congress and the President went on vacation this summer, people like my courageous friend Annette McLeod and her wounded husband Wendell were paying the price for our governments negligence. Our nation's heroes and their families deserve better.

Americans were outraged when they first saw the images from Walter Reed. It is time for them to be outraged again.

Follow Paul Rieckhoff on Twitter: www.twitter.com/PaulRieckhoff

Comments

[1differentdrummer]

Steering the ship of state is like turning an ocean liner, but man it seems slow. Let's hope we get the job done for our vets all the while w and his managers are messing up more of them.

[esquire07]

Dead and Wounded Soldiers don't matter. They are just a business expense in Bush's eyes - funded by US taxpayers for the benefit of Corporate War Profitiers.

All that matters is Halliburton Profits, Oil Profits, Arms Proftis, Blackwater Profits.

The returning wounded can lie in their own shit as far as Bush/Cheney are concerend.

By the WaY:
When are the Democrats gonna give Bush another blank check for his so called "War?"

What a truly disgusting Nation America has become.

[MasterfullyInept]

I'm a vet.Peacet­ime cold warrior and all that.Not a great soldier by any means.But folks don't get it.The maimed have served their purpose, screw em.You cannot expect the President or his minions to treat our heroes with dignity and respect when they are so busy playing three card monte with the public regarding the truth.Peop­le who will betray the trust implicitly invested them by an all volunteer military that their lives will not be spent in vain, aren't going to go weak in the knees because the wounded aren't getting the very best of care.I don't know a single veteran who supports this war.But then I don't get out much.

[TankerRat]

Masterfully, you have a great way with words. I'm a vet as well (VietNam) and I've OPPOSED this damn war from before it began and I can prove it if need be. Keep at it buddy. You're doing just fine.

[WolfLarsen]

What kind of country are we? We honor the able bodied and hide the wounded. The caskets are returned in the dead of night without the glare of cameras. We are horrified at the treatment of Americans broken and shattered by an obscene war and it stays with us till the next Paris Hilton arrest.

We are a society with the shortest of memories and attention spans to match. Politicians seize on the atrocity of Walter Reed when the cameras come. They make there political hay, cry their crocodile tears and say all the right things as long as the spotlight shines. Then they move on.

They do nothing because they know we don't demand it. Our demands are on 48 hour news cycles. Its not that we don't care, we do. It's just that there are more interesting things to do. The Republicans don't want to bring up Walter Reed because it is only a constant reminder of their failed administration and their failed Congress. The Democrats don't have time to dedicate to Walter Reed because they are too busy trying to take power in '08.

While the bravest and most broken among us who gave more for their country than any of us will ever give, are abandoned to short news cycles, tabloid news and electioneering. We are not bad people. We are like most people. In a world with so much pain and chaos it is hard to pay attention to one more horror in a world full of them.

But this is a horror because we have not paid attention. We have allowed or representatives to get away with doing nothing. We the people are the ranks these brave soldiers came from and the least we can do is demand they be treated with the care and respect they deserve.

[realitytrumpsbull]

I think they're going to have to fire a LOT of people to finally fix whatever's wrong at that
hospital..­.I read that the whole defense thing
now commands a 1/2 trillion dollar budget,
and I think it's like with a car, talking about
fuel efficiency, eventually someone's got
to lift the heads off and find out what's REALLY wrong in order for the engine to ever
really perform again...fr­aud, incompetence,
graft, corruption, and outright theft have
put paid to a lot of the positive attributes we used to assign to the military, and the
according expectations that went along with
that. But, reform has to start at the top, so,
write to the people that run the whole mess or
at least claim to...

[Herrington]

Rieckhoff, this is no surprise. You are expecting what has never been done before, to give the full issue of gratitude deserved by our wounded and disabled veterans. You and your brothers may have been given reason to expect it, but it is new ground for American politicians accustomed to the resignation of past generations.

On my mantle I have a Victory Medal issued to British and Commonwealth soldiers who participated in WWI. Next to it is a Death Penney, a largish bronze coin given to families of those who died. Of all my family descended from the parents of that American boy who, seeing the need, crossed to Canada to join their expeditionary force, I am the only one who even remembers.

My maternal uncle would not come to Fourth of July celebrations because the fireworks unnerved him so. His tour in a frontline combat unit in Italy during WWII put him under fire for days and weeks at a time.

My mother lost her first husband in WWII. He was a Navy flier who, having swept her off the farm to a life of elegance and station, was shot down off the Philippines in March of 1945. She never spoke of him to me but once in 1970, never again. But on her death I found she had kept every scrap of letter and service record from their brief time together.

One night, drinking with an old acquaintance, he showed me the deep open surgical gashes in his butt where the tumors had been removed and left open to drain. His main detail was to spray Agent Orange in Vietnam. He died a few months later.

Rieckhoff, you are now in a fight that is larger and more important and more difficult than any mere pass through the valley of death. The very existence of the U.S. Military depends on the reforms and public disclosures that you are at the forefront of making possible with your visibility and courage.

God’s speed.

[NoFactsJustTruth]

Soldier Paul, sir, were that it was JUST the Military and VA Hospital system, and WE could tackle it as being 'THE' problem. And, let me say up front that I do NOT think ANY part of this so-called War on Terror hss so far been worth the life of ONE soldier, especially lightly spent. Unfortunately, you'd also be hard pressed to find a military program that HASN'T currently been affected in a 'negative' way by this destructive use of OUR forces. Life and limb value does NOT seem to be on the list of priorities.

I think if WE could get everyone on the same page that 'THEIR oil' is not worth OUR ARMED FORCES nor mortgaging OUR financial future, OUR country may have a chance to yet regain it's sanity.

[Annette]

Why do the veterans and military vote for the Republicans. They fight wage increases to the military which would take military families off of foos stamps. The cut taxes for themselves and then don't have any money to care for the injured. So they say. The republicans will fight tooth and nail for tax cuts for themselves and will shortchange the military. The current crop of Republicans avoided military service while democrats have served, they they smear decorated veterans. The military laps it up. Why? Are they fools or just not paying attention.

[didereaux]

As a veteran, I was outraged beyond belief when the Walter Reed story broke. Now after listening to the veterans organizations, VFW, American Legion, Viet Veterans, and almost all of the active members of the armed services from Generals on down to no-stripers. All supporting this administration, all declaring what a wonderful priviledge etc: It comes down to this.

I think everyone involved is getting just what they have earned. Oh, don't get me wrong, the wounded absolutely should be taken care of, in fact they should be getting the care that sonuvabastich Cheney and Bush get at Bethesda, and especially every member of Congress should wait in line until every last wounded serviceman is treated.

But still, it would not be a good thing for a single one of them to complain in my presence right at this time.

America, these veterans have put this bunch of incompetent, jackasses in power, America, has returned them so America suck it up!

The bast#$%ds better hope the hell my son comes back in one piece from his third, count 'em third tour in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[bedrocklib]

I too hope your son comes back in one piece.
The military must start telling the truth about this illegal invasion of Iraq.
The House and Senate must wake up and see that our military is being decimated by this current administrations policies and their fear tactics.
Most of all, the American people must stand and say enough.
Our soldiers are dieing for nothing.
Our freedoms here and abroad are being curtailed.
The current administration and it's enablers in Congress do not really give a sh*t about our soldiers at all. Not now, not ever.

[provgrays]

Today, I went to visit a friend's classroom. I am a fellow teacher and had a chance to speak with one her students.

He was a gentleman who served six months in Iraq and came back with serious wounds. He was in need of other services as well that were promised to him by the government that sent him into a war zone.

He told me he had to wait seven months for any tangible assistance upon returning home. He is cleary a devoted, kind and talented young man who has been ignored like so many other American soldiers. It's one thing to read about many nameless people in need of help. It's quite another to stand across from a soldier and hear his or her story. This man is in college trying to move forward. If only this government would help him do that.

If you encounter an Iraq veteran and the opportunity presents itself, stop and listen for a few minutes. It will bring the problem home to you in a whole new way.

[mamacat]

Forgive me, but I am still in mourning for my friends killed and hurt in Vietnam, that other big Lie. I do not know how to deal with veterans from this war.

[larry278]

The GAO shows us how W & Co plus assorted neo-cons & those who make a fetish of displaying Old Glory, aka old snaggle tooth to neo-cons are supporting the troops when the troops return home wounded. Exactly jack shit.
The USA has the program down to a pseudo-science since we've been doing it since Korea.
Discard the troops after the fight ends. Those who come home alive & uninjured go to the unemployed underclass till age makes them unemployable; they are kept out of sight. Those who come home alive but injured are shunted to DOD & VA hospitals to rot & be kept out of sight. The dead return unnoticed & unmourned by W, the POTUS; their families may mourn the dead at a hasty funeral frequently without a military honor guard but sometimes taps is played on a cheap portable cassette player; the flag draped casket goes into the grave & the fallen are forgotten by the USA save on Memorial Day & Veterans Day when the graves are marked with a small Old Glory made in China.

[scooperss]

I'd like to say that I'm surprised and shocked that congress didn't follow through but I'm not. Scandals are discovered, reported on for weeks, promises are made, and the promises vanish into the night.
I wrote my dem senator several months ago about the VA employees getting fat bonuses even though veterans claims were years behind. I reminded him of promises to investigate and perhaps to withhold bonuses until claims were updated.
His response-it wasn't his job but he would voice my concerns to the appropriate committee and as always he values my thoughts.
BULL