Petraeus: Military studying burn pit fumes
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Dec 12, 2008 17:10:38 EST
In response to a question about the burn pit at Joint Air Base Balad, Gen. David Petraeus, the chief of U.S. Central Command, said the need for burn pits will continue, but the military is trying to minimize exposure to possible toxins.
“Much effort has gone into locating/relocating pits in remote areas of the operating bases to minimize exposure, training personnel on proper operation, developing/circulating operating procedures and assessing burn pit operations to include corrective action,” Petraeus wrote.
After Military Times investigated possible chemicals and dioxins troops may have been exposed to in Afghanistan and Iraq from giant open-air pits that were burning everything from plastic bottles to used petroleum products, Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., wrote a letter to Petraeus asking if the burn pits were being investigated.
Petraeus said thousands of air, water and soil samples have been tested. However, Military Times has learned that the Balad is the only base where the burn pit specifically has been checked.
A military report found toxin levels in the plume at acceptable levels; however, data on testing for particulate matter in that plume has not yet been released.
More than 100 service members have contacted Military Times saying they became sick with asthma, sleep apnea, heart palpitations, bronchitis, and lymphoma or leukemia while at Balad.
Disabled American Veterans is working to see if there are any trends in their illnesses, as well as to help people file claims with the Veterans Affairs Department.
An initial report from the burn pit, which remains classified, showed high levels of cancer-causing dioxins; however, military officials say that was due to a computer error and that dioxin levels are actually within normal limits. A second unclassified report shows the toxin levels are safe, if the data on particulate matter is excluded. However, the second report also states that reliability is low due to the number of samples.
“As part of the on-going occupational and environmental health surveillance program, a second comprehensive study of the air quality at Joint Base Balad was conducted and the results will be published soon and help guide recommendations for the frequency and extent of future air quality monitoring,” Petraeus wrote.
He also said service members have health monitoring data included in their medical records.
The Joint Staff and other agencies will “continue to collect air, water and soil samples for scientific analysis in an effort to monitor potential exposure levels to our personnel and local Iraqis,” Petraeus wrote.
He also said he expects 23 incinerators, in addition to the 17 now operating in Iraq, to be completed by December 2009. In Afghanistan, treatment and disposal facilities are “in the process” of being designed.
“Additionally, I am establishing an environmental program team ... to help identify and resolve environmental issues from operations in Afghanistan,” Petraeus said.
Feingold said he had hoped to see more.
“I look forward to reviewing the results of the study of the air quality at Balad Air Base,” Feingold said by e-mail. “But based on the preliminary briefings my staff has received, I remain concerned that service members may become sick as a result of exposure to fumes at Balad Air Base and potentially other bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Feingold said he wonders about service members who spent more than 12 months, as well as Iraqis who spend years, breathing in the fumes.
“I will continue to work to ensure that the military does what it can to reduce exposures and ensure that any service member who becomes ill receives all necessary treatment,” he said.
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I am glad to see that they are asking General Petraeus directly to get involved, but then I remember back to the first Gulf War and General Colin Powell made similar remarks about getting to the root of Gulf War Illness, it took 17 years, the VA finally gets a report stating that it was caused by toxins in the war theater, so rather than accept the report the VA Secretary sends the report to the IOM for more review, come on it has been 17 years and more than 25% of all First Gulf War veterans are already in receipt of VA compensation, almost all of the other war periods have a 9% disability rate.
This alarmingly higher rate of disability for the Gulf War and desert Storm veterans indicates there is something related to military service and the medical problems these men and women suffer from.
I hope these new Gulf War veterans do not have to wait two decades for answers.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
General Petraeus: Military studying burn pit fumes
Monday, December 15, 2008
Effects of toxic smoke worry troops returning from Iraq
Effects of toxic smoke worry troops returning from Iraq
By Adam Levine
CNN Supervising Pentagon Producer
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The pervasive smoke spewing from the junk heap at Balad Air Force Base in Iraq is causing many returning troops to be concerned about the effects on their long-term health.
The U.S. military burns waste -- including medical waste -- in pits near an Air Force base in Iraq.
1 of 2 For four years, the burn pit was a festering dump, spewing acrid smoke over the base, including housing and the hospital.
Until three incinerators were installed, the smelly pit was the only place to dispose of trash, including plastics, food and medical waste.
"At the peak, before they went to use the real industrial incinerators, it was about 500,000 pounds a day of stuff," according to a transcript of an April 2008 presentation by Dr. Bill Halperin, who heads the Occupational and Environmental Health Subcommittee at the Defense Health Board. "The way it was burned was by putting jet fuel on it."
A lawsuit filed against the burn pit operators by a contractor alleges the burn pit also contained body parts. Watch burn pits spew black smoke »
"Wild dogs in the area raided the burn pit and carried off human remains. The wild dogs could be seen roaming the base with body parts in their mouths," says the lawsuit filed in Texas federal court.
Aside from Balad, there are similar pits at bases elsewhere in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some still have no incinerators.
'Iraqi crud'
Many of the soldiers who went through Balad since the beginning of the war had become used to "Iraqi crud," as they dubbed the symptom.
"I had a chronic cough, irritation, shortness of breath," said Dr. Chris Coppola, an Air Force surgeon who worked on base in 2005 and again in 2007, "I was coughing up phlegm, sometimes black stuff and dust."
While Coppola said he didn't work in the burn pit, he knew the medical waste was going there.
"In 2005, our hospital waste wasn't segregated," he said. "Our trash went out the door and went into the burn pit." By the time Coppola returned for his next tour, the hospital did separate its medical waste for disposal elsewhere, he said.
Coppola said that when he worked at the base hospital, the emergency room had frequent visits for "respiratory complaints, complaining of the coughing and breathing issues."
Since he's been back from Iraq, Coppola said he feels "very healthy."
But other soldiers said they cannot shake the symptoms and they suspect the burn pit smoke is the cause.
Dennis Gogel was stationed in Balad twice between 2004 and 2006. He said he was in housing just a few hundred yards from the pit and would often jog past the pit.
The 29-year old Gogel said that in the last two years he's had upper respiratory infections, skin irritation and he's lost 60 pounds since deployment.
"I have blotchy spots on my face. I was treated for psoriasis, but it won't go way," he said.
Gogel said his doctors do not know what caused the problems.
"You expect when you get to a new environment you would feel the effect, but it should get out of the system," he said. Gogel said it has affected his fitness, too.
"I used to run two miles in 10 minutes. I am up to 17," he said.
Gogel has recently joined a class action lawsuit against the company contracted to handle waste disposal.
Just months after returning home from his first tour in Iraq in 2006, Maj. Kevin Wilkins developed headaches, but did not see a doctor.
Soon after his second Iraq tour in 2007, Wilkins -- a registered nurse in the Air Force reserve -- died of an advanced brain tumor. He was 51.
His widow, Jill, suspects the burn pit at Balad. While the cause of his brain tumor is not known, Jill Wilkins was told by doctors who worked with her husband at a Florida emergency room that exposure to chemicals like those that come from burning trash is a potential risk.
"Kevin was in perfect health before he went to Iraq," Wilkins said. "He's always been in good health, a healthy eater, exercises on a regular basis. There was not one thing wrong with him when he went to Iraq."
Wilkins is trying to show the cause was service related so she can get access to her husband's pension, medical insurance and other benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Concerning memos, questionable tests
One reason many soldiers suspect the burn pit is a widely circulated 2006 memo in which an environmental engineer cited a still-classified study labeling the pit "the worst environmental site I have personally visited."
The memo, written by Lt. Col Darrin Curtis, a bioenvironmental engineering flight commander, concluded "there is an acute health hazard for individuals."
"There is also the possibility for chronic health hazards associated with the smoke," Curtis said.
The memo is co-signed by Lt. Col James Elliott, chief, Aeromedical Services, who wrote that he concurred with Curtis' memo.
"In my professional opinion, the known carcinogens and respiratory sensitizers released into the atmosphere by the burn pit present both an acute and a chronic health hazard to our troops and the local populations," Elliott said.
More alarm was raised in the military community when the initial draft of results from a 2007 study was released with a math error, overstating the dioxin levels tested by 1,000 times.
The report was circulated by the military's U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine "in the interest of transparency and the fact that they needed this information very quickly in order to answer service members' concerns," said Craig Postlewaite of the force readiness and health assurance office at the Department of Defense.
But Postlewaite said the error has been corrected and the data re-analyzed. A new test and report will be out soon. The military said smoke from the pit exposed troops to toxic emissions, including low levels of cancer-causing dioxins. But its tests indicate there is no long-term danger, officials said.
"The data indicate that there are no substances above a health threshold that should generate any long-term health risks, including cancer," Postlewaite said.
At the Pentagon's Force Health Protection Directorate, officials analyzed more than 160 air samples and concluded, in a soon to be released report, that the only risk is of temporary respiratory distress, nothing that poses a long-term threat.
"We have looked at respiratory health complaints for people that have been assigned to Balad. These complaints, by and large, are temporary in nature, most of them involve eye irritation, irritation of the upper respiratory passages, possibly a cough," Postlewaite said. "We know just right here in the United States for people that are around those kinds of conditions, like firemen, this is not unusual. But we feel that the data support the fact that these all should be temporary in nature."
A review of the findings by the military's advisory group of medical scientists and doctors concurred with the report's conclusions.
However, in the general findings, the report questioned whether the conclusions would hold "when more thorough analysis is conducted." But a spokeswoman for the military said the final report, expected this week, will find the testing conducted was sufficient and conclusive.
The reviewing panel also expressed concerns about how pervasive the burn pits were, according to a meeting transcript of the advisory group.
"It seems like there may be something systematic going on here in terms of waste disposal techniques going on in the [war] theater," notes Dr. Mark Brown, director of Environmental Agents Services at the Department of Veterans Affairs. "You couldn't get away with this kind of waste disposal here in the United States.
Pits still in use
The concern about the pits was first reported in the Military Times. Upon seeing that article, Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin, wrote to Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, to express his concern about the smoke's effect on troops.
Petraeus responded citing the military findings, but said burn pits are necessary.
"There is and will continue to be a need for burn pits during contingency operations," Petraeus wrote back to Feingold in a letter provided to CNN.
Five years into the Iraq war, many bases still do not have incinerators. There are 17 solid waste incinerators, two hazardous waste incinerators and 24 medical waste incinerators operational in Iraq, according to the military. Another 23 are under construction with some not scheduled to be completed until the end of 2009.
In Afghanistan, where the United States has been fighting since 2001, there are no incinerators.
"Our military leaders in Afghanistan are in the process of designing treatment/disposal facilities for solid waste," Petraeus wrote to Feingold.
Feingold said he awaits the latest report.
"I remain concerned that service members may become sick as a result of exposure to fumes at Balad Air Base and potentially other bases in Iraq and Afghanistan," Feingold said. "Service members who serve at the base for more than a year could still be in jeopardy as a result of exposure to the fumes."
VA Urges Vets to Sign-up for Direct Deposits
VA Urges Vets to Sign-up for Direct Deposits
WASHINGTON (December 15, 2008) -- Every month, 730,000 veterans or
survivors look for their compensation, pension checks or educational
assistance payments in their mailboxes. Nearly all receive them, but
theft and mail delays cause problems for some veterans, which can be
prevented by direct deposits.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is urging those veterans and
family members now receiving paper checks to join nearly 3.1 million
others whose VA payments are safely deposited electronically.
"VA is teaming up with the Treasury Department in a new campaign to
protect government beneficiaries against the theft of funds and of their
identities," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake.
"Veterans earned -- and rely on -- the financial support we send them
every month. I urge them to help VA ensure they get those funds
reliably and safely by signing up for direct deposit."
Peake cited several easy ways to sign up for direct deposit -- calling
VA toll-free at (800) 333-1795 or enrolling online at www.GoDirect.org.
Veterans, and family members who receive VA payments, also can sign up
by contacting a VA regional benefits office or their financial
institution. Information about direct deposits will be included in VA's
monthly compensation and pension envelopes throughout 2009.
The VA Secretary urged veterans to remember that direct deposits relieve
worry about mail delivery being delayed by severe weather or natural
disasters. The deposits also eliminate trips to banks or credit unions
to deposit checks, while providing immediate access to money at the same
time each month.
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I have to say I spent 17 years at the Postal Service, I even had my pay check direct deposited rather than worry about it every 2 weeks. I first started direct deposit in the Army decades ago, and I learned the safety and security of having the check auomatically deposited and most banks don't charge you for having a checking account if you have direct deposit, like they do if you take your monthly checks in and deposit them. I have never missed a check or lost one in the past 30 years.
Former Ranger on cross-country trek for Tillman
http://www.walkforpat.org/ He is currently just East of Little Rock on US 40
the approx route:
http://www.walkforpat.org/The_Route.html
current location is available on-line.. Virginia Beach, Va., to Hermosa Beach, Calif.,
Former Ranger on cross-country trek for Tillman
By Kendall Owens - Times-Herald via AP
Posted : Sunday Dec 14, 2008 14:37:57 EST
FORREST CITY, Ark. — The story of Pat Tillman is well known. He’s the former professional football player who walked away from a multi-million dollar contract and career to join the Army and become a Ranger before being killed in Afghanistan.
A 31-year-old former Ranger is now walking across the country to raise money for Tillman’s foundation and to share his own personal story about Tillman.
Rory Fanning, a Chicago native, began his trek in September, walking a circuitous route from Virginia Beach, Va., to Hermosa Beach, Calif., in hopes of bringing more awareness to Tillman’s foundation and seeking to raise $3.6 million in the process.
Fanning served with Tillman in the 2nd Ranger Battalion, and said that, while Tillman may be known for his crushing hits on the football field and his service to his country, he was much more than that.
“I served with Pat at Fort Lewis in Washington when we were going through Ranger training,” Fanning said in an interview as he passed through Forrest City. “He was an all-around good guy.
“Most folks remember him for hitting receivers as they came across the middle on a football field and that strong will of his, but he was so much more,” Fanning said. “He was one of the most well-read men I’ve ever met. He was a great listener and a great leader.”
Fanning said 80 percent of those who go to Ranger school don’t finish.
“Pat would always take those guys to the side and put his arm around them and reassure them and tell them how he didn’t make the cut when he first went to the NFL. That’s the kind of guy he was,” said Fanning.
Fanning said money raised during his cross-country walk will provide scholarships for students along with leadership training. He said that he averages about 100 miles a week and has followed a route along area railways.
“I average about 100 miles a week and have met some interesting people along the way. I’ve slept outside 90 percent of the time behind a Waffle House or another business in the towns I come to and cook my meals over a fire most of the time,” he said.
“The amazing thing that I’ve encountered along the way, by far, is the people that I’ve met. In this day and age, I’ve been invited into several people’s homes,” Fanning said. “It’s a testament to the generosity and trust that we as Americans still have to this day.”
In Forrest City, Fanning was met by Jerry England, also a former Army Ranger. England escorted Fanning through town and said he was impressed by Fanning.
“Being a former Ranger, I was very impressed with what this young man is doing and proud of what he’s doing in honor of his friend by walking across the country,” said England.
England offered Fanning a place to lay his head while he was in town as temperatures dropped.
“He told me that he would be okay and even called ... just to check in and let me know that he had made it all right,” England said.
England, Forrest City and Arkansas have impressed Fanning, who is detailing his stops on his blog site at www.walkforpat.org. During the interview this week, Fanning said that Forrest City was a refreshing site in his travels.
“I’ve been within 10 feet of a bear in Alabama, and I’ve been chased by pit bulls as I’ve walked,” he said. “When I walked off of the tracks in Forrest City there was just something about this town I liked. It was nice to see a town that still had shops in the downtown area and wasn’t just a Walmart.
“The people here have been just wonderful and helpful and made me feel welcome. It’s been that way since I got into Arkansas. It’s really made an impression on me,” he said.
Fanning left Forrest City headed for Little Rock. He said that his journey would take him to Hot Springs later this month.
Asked when he hoped his travels would end, he said, “I’m not really certain, I’m not rushing, and this is all about bringing awareness to the foundation. I’ve been stopping talking to the kids and talking at schools and high schools and, if it takes me a little longer than I expected to do this, then so be it. It’s just been great so far, and I’m in no hurry.”
Fanning said he intended for his pilgrimage to be as low-tech as possible. He carries only his backpack, a walking stick, a Blackberry cellular phone and a GPS.
“I bought a pair of $10 leather shoes from Walmart, and they’ve lasted me through the first four months,” he said laughing. “I had someone in Birmingham insist on buying me a good pair of shoes, but I’m fine with what I have. I had my laptop when I started out so that I could post my blog entries every night, but I’ve sent that home and now just use my Blackberry to update the site. I have my GPS to give me directions in case I get a little lost,” he said.
Sent: Monday, December 15, 2008 6:20 AM
To: Jim
Subject: Walking for Pat.......
Former Ranger on cross-country trek for Tillman
The story of Pat Tillman is well known. He’s the former professional football player who walked away from a multi-million dollar contract and career to join the Army and become a Ranger before being killed in Afghanistan.
A 31-year-old former Ranger is now walking across the country to raise money for Tillman’s foundation and to share his own personal story about Tillman.
Walk For Pat: http://www.walkforpat.org/
Read Rest Here: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/12/ap_ranger_tillman_walk_122408/
“What sets us apart from our enemies in this fight… is how we behave. In everything we do, we must observe the standards and values that dictate that we treat noncombatants and detainees with dignity and respect. While we are warriors, we are also all human beings”
-- General David Petraeus
May 10, 2007
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Pat Tillman is a hero and they did not need to dishonor him by making up the bogus stories to award him the Silver Star when he died. He was a true patriot and showed it by walking away from a multi million dollar football contract to join the Army and to become a Ranger. Pat Tillman will always be remembered as a hero by military personnel not because of his death, but because of his life, and his selflessness and his love of his country.
I have worked with a lot of men awarded medals and called "hero's" Pat truly is a hero, and he really did live he lived large.Sphere: Related Content
Veterans in need return to a nation in the red
Veterans in need return to a nation in the red
In Baltimore and across the nation, officials are bracing for new waves of war veterans to return home - amid worries that federal and state budget cuts will threaten programs that offer a lifeline for those facing health and career problems.
Demand for jobs and mental health services among veterans is swelling as public and nonprofit organizations struggle to build and maintain a support network to address issues that might not emerge for months or even years.
More than 1.8 million Americans have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, creating a need for veterans' services not seen since the World War II generation came home six decades ago.
There are 480,000 veterans in Maryland, and their ranks are growing as troops return from the two battlegrounds.
Yet after several boom years for veterans, there are just barely enough services to care for their needs. And trouble is brewing.
"I anticipate we are going to have difficult times," said James A. Adkins, Maryland's secretary of veterans affairs.
At first caught unprepared, federal and state veterans departments have responded in recent years with a smorgasbord of new and expanded programs for tuition assistance and financial aid, employment counseling, and physical and mental health programs.
The demand for mental health services is especially troublesome, and officials are warily awaiting what might be a tidal wave of new claims.
According to a Defense Department Mental Health Advisory Team study released earlier this year, as many as one in three of the troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan have been exposed to blasts from roadside bombs, rockets, mortars or suicide bombers.
About 590,000 such soldiers reported outright injury, short-term memory loss or being in a dazed or confused state that prevented them from completing their mission.
One of them was Aliyah Hunter, 27, who grew up in Baltimore before she joined the Army. Her base in northern Iraq in 2004 was hit almost daily with mortars and rockets. Car bombs exploded outside the walls. She was terrified, with reason. One day, a suicide bomber got into the mess tent and detonated his charge.
Her world turned orange. She was flung away through a jumble of bodies and smoking wreckage. Friends and tent-mates were killed outright. Their bodies were set aside while the wounded were taken away. Hunter staggered out with perforated eardrums, a concussion and back injuries.
Her troubles really started when she got home to Baltimore after completing her tour. It seemed that nobody understood or appreciated what she'd done, what she'd gone through, what she'd lost. Life for others went on as before. She felt betrayed for being unprotected.
She didn't have the words to make people feel what she felt.
You return from that experience, she said, "speaking a foreign language."
After two years of spasmodic white-hot anger, broken friendships and family bitterness, Hunter sought help for post-traumatic stress disorder.
At the VA Medical Center in Baltimore, she got it, working through long and intense sessions with mental health professionals. Still in therapy, she is working as an outreach counselor for homeless veterans.
"We speak the same language," she explained.
"I'm OK. I'm contributing," she said in a soft voice. "Maybe I was a little greedy before. Everything was about me. My life now is dedicated to giving back."
But, she added, "I think I'll be in transition for five years."
Other veterans have spiraled downward for years and even decades before they hit bottom.
Vietnam, 1968: Dwight Lamar flew in medevac helicopters under fire, "bagging and tagging" American dead and lifting the wounded from bloody battlefields. Back home, deeply disturbed and angry, he turned to drugs.
Lamar lost 40 years to cocaine before he realized he'd be gone if he didn't grab a lifeline. So last spring he turned up on the steps of a former paper cup factory in downtown Baltimore, a red brick building that houses the Maryland Center for Veterans Education and Training.
"I don't blame anybody for my drug problem," said Lamar, a handsome, rangy 57-year-old. "The most important thing for me was to be honest about what I was doing to destroy my life."
Now he is clean, drug-free and learning to manage life's sometimes bumpy path without narcotics. Soon, he will graduate back out into the world with a new confidence and a good job.
"I came to the Vets Center crying for help," he said. "They answered."
MC Vets, as it's known informally, operates on a $3.3 million budget, providing an intensive continuum of care for the most needy veterans: those who are homeless, jobless, addicted to alcohol or drugs or both, and suffering from chronic mental and physical complications like schizophrenia, major depression, hypertension, diabetes and HIV.
"People come in who need an overhaul - a tune-up just won't do," said Larry Smyth, a VA clinical psychologist and Vietnam veteran who works at MC Vets.
The center is not a shelter; its goal is to return vets to society as productive citizens, and it claims a 75 percent success rate, with graduates earning an average of $13 an hour in full-time employment.
"This is one of the very, very few places where you can get an overhaul," Smyth said.
Veterans taken into the program here must be clean - detoxed. Once inside, they live in a structured military environment and are provided counseling, vocational education, medical and dental treatment and other services from state and federal agencies as well as the University of Maryland, the Johns Hopkins University and other organizations.
According to its most recent annual report, the center receives 78 percent of its funding from government sources.
"Right now, we're pretty safe," said Charles Williams, the center's executive director and a Vietnam veteran.
But he sees potential trouble ahead as the veterans' population swells and as other nonprofit organizations cut back their services because of shortfalls in financial support. "Some programs not as secure as us will have to cut back, and we will see those people here," he said.
Maryland Lt. Gov Anthony Brown, an Iraq war veteran, has fought to increase services for veterans, winning approval earlier this year for increased spending that includes a three-year national pilot program to locate veterans and connect them with such state and federal services as family counseling, substance abuse and financial counseling.
Adkins, the state veterans chief, is hiring three full-time counselors to help veterans file claims to benefits they have earned and to help veterans not eligible for benefits find other assistance.
These counselors will help Maryland veterans navigate the bewildering maze of U.S. Veterans Affairs regulations and procedures. About half of them now attempt it on their own, and as a result, the Maryland veteran's average compensation is one of the lowest in the country, about $7,654. In West Virginia, where veterans get better assistance from claims counselors, the average government compensation is $11,348.
Adkins says he hopes his department can make progress despite the storm clouds he sees ahead.
"We have not had to cut any support yet, but I've asked my staff to prepare just in case things get worse," he said in an interview last week. "I hope I don't have to deal with anything that cuts to the bone."
That's a worry shared by Williams, the director of MC Vets. With veterans like Hunter and Lamar not seeking services until months or years after they leave active duty, he knows that it is difficult to plan ahead.
"We have to get to them before drug and alcohol abuse becomes a pattern," he said. "If we can get them in here, we can work with them."
Military Turns Health Care into "Warrior Care"
Military Turns Health Care into "Warrior Care"
By Jeff Hess @ December 15, 2008 3:31 AM Permalink | Comments (0)
The Department of Defense and Veteran's Affairs remake their health services to prevent another Walter Reed.
Michael Dominguez with the DoD says they were rattled by the Walter reed scandal.
"Bluntly, we failed. We let our service members down," Dominguez said they learned a lot from the mistakes that led to Walter Reed.
They have changed health care to warrior care. This represents a change in their approach to health care in response to the lessons of Walter Reed.
He said they are working much more closely with the VA to ensure a smooth hand off for soldiers who are badly wounded.
"They're cared for. The VA knows they're coming. There's a smooth hand off," He said they are also simplifying the program so that warriors just get one injury number that they can use with DoD and VA, instead of two.
They are also trying to make the health care less contentious.
"We have tried to take the adversarial nature out of it. We have tried to push a lot more customer care forward," He said they needed to make the health care more focused on the person instead of getting hung up in the process.
To do this they are working in a command structure to help soldiers focus on the goal of getting well.
"So they have a squad leaders and battalion commanders and people who advocate for them in their mission to get well," he said that includes support for those officers so they can focus on their soldiers as well.
He says they VA and DoD still provide some of the best health care on earth, as evidenced by the fact they send the worst injuries there and not somewhere else. The failure of Walter Reed, according to Dominguez, was structural not with the doctors or patients.
"WE needed to do better on that. WE weren't paying attention to that costumer care challenge. And again, it wasn't the docs. The medics were doing superb," Dominguez said.
He said they still have a lot of work to do and plan to keep the warrior care project around to continue to improve the program. He said they are trying to expand coverage and access to areas that had been hard to reach before. He also points to recent investment in research into brain trauma and PTSD as evidence that they are preparing for the unique health challenges that soldiers are incurring during the Iraq war.
Fighting On Two Fronts
Fighting On Two Fronts
By Daniel Stone | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Dec 10, 2008
When Sharlet Lynn found out she had breast cancer last January, she was alone. Sitting in a hospital room in San Antonio, Texas, a doctor told her that she had ductal carcinoma, a fairly common and treatable type of breast cancer. The road ahead would require surgery, chemotherapy and a hefty bout of radiation. As devastating as the news was, Sharlet couldn't share the news with anyone just yet. Her husband was more than 7,000 miles away, having been deployed with the Army to Afghanistan for a full year. And she didn't think her teenage daughters, already struggling with their dad's absence, were ready to hear that their mom was seriously ill.
When the couple did talk a few days after the diagnosis, Sharlet, 52, and her husband Lt. Col. Chip Lynn, 44, wrestled with a question facing roughly 1,600 military families each year. What to do when one spouse is serving abroad and the one back home is faced with a life-threatening condition? The military makes some accommodations for unexpected situations on the home front, but some families say it's almost impossible to compensate for the absence of a spouse in times of real family crisis.
A long war-zone deployment is a trying psychological experience even without any complicating factors. A 2006 study from the University of Virginia found that more than 20 percent of all Iraqi veterans are diagnosed with psychological disorders, many with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Add to that the anxiety of being absent from a high-stakes health crisis back home, and the difficulties are unimaginable. "The fear abroad that you may lose a family member, or concern that you aren't there when they need you is enormously traumatic," says Col. Kathy Platoni, a psychologist with the Army. "Talk about a psychological overload of catastrophic stressors."
Meanwhile, on the home front, families are also in a war zone—trying not to worry too much and to keep the household functioning on their own. While PTSD is a condition the military normally uses only with the service members themselves, Platoni says that family members can be affected by similar symptoms, like anxiety disorders. The dark cycle of each spouse worrying about the condition of the other can lead to deeper and deeper depression, in some cases alienating the two from each other, which can exacerbate the PTSD symptoms upon a soldier's return. Chip says that being so far away, he sometimes felt emotionally removed from his family, not being there to help when he could tell they needed him.
The military does have a safety net to help families. The Department of Defense helps coordinate what they call Family Readiness Groups (FRGs) that consist of military families, volunteers and military officials to provide assistance on the home front. Officially, they lay the framework for communication among families in a particular unit, like drafting a phone tree to spread news, good or bad. But less structured is the community that FRGs create. With access to families in similar situations, military families often help one another with neighborly tasks, too, like coordinating errand runs or help finding a babysitter. Banding together is something you find often among military communities. "People come together in times of crisis or just to help each other out," says Platoni, "I've seen it happen in many resource groups."
In the face of a crisis like the one that the Lynns were facing, the obvious solution is to ask that the deployed member come home; aborting the national mission in order to enlist in a more personal one. The military has guidelines in place for such occasions, like when an accident occurs or a child is in immediate need of parental care. The policy states that since "most soldiers are mature and responsible individuals," emergency-leave requests can be "considered on their merits." In many cases, the Red Cross is called on to verify the need for a sudden trip home and to help with logistics. (The military declined to release statistics on how often this occurs.)
Chip requested leave in February, just a few weeks after Sharlet's diagnosis, but he didn't get the OK. The colonel above him who made the decision encouraged him instead to wait until April when he'd be eligible for the regular two-week leave that's granted to anyone who has been deployed for six months. Chip, a calm, quiet man seemingly out of place in a war zone, politely explained that his wife was fighting cancer, and that regular leave was for rest and relaxation, which there would be little of in going home to help care for Sharlet.
The request was denied again and Chip decided not to pursue it any higher. (A military spokesman wouldn't comment on the decision of a particular officer, but said that members of the military who need to take leave in extraordinary circumstances are usually granted it.)
Telling Sharlet he couldn't be with her for this ordeal was the hardest part for Chip. "He denied me," Chip explained in February when he managed to get a rare call through.
Sharlet stayed silent for a moment, "So you'll be here in April?" she asked him.
"It'll have to be April, then home for good in September," he said.
Aiming to let Chip know that she was staying strong, Sharlet answered carefully: "Just come home when you can."
With even a brief visit out of the question, there was no getting around the fact that during some of the toughest moments for Sharlet, like when she fought chemo nausea and her hair began to thin, she couldn't have her husband at her side or hear his voice. So the two created some unconventional ways to keep in touch. Phone access is sparse in battle areas and the military often filters and delays e-mail messages for security reasons. But they found a free Web site run by a nonprofit group called Caring Bridge which allows loved ones to connect during an illness.
Caring Bridge estimates that almost 10 percent of its 130,000 personalized pages were created by military spouses as a way to keep in touch with loved ones abroad. Founder Sona Mehring started the site in 1997 to help a friend communicate during premature-birth complications. "Helping people go through any type of health condition or crisis is very powerful," Mehring said. "The last thing they want to worry about is keeping in touch with everyone." One military family used the service to keep in touch during a full-term pregnancy. Another stayed connected while several members recovered from a car accident.
The site allows a family administrator to post photos and write journal entries and messages; visitors can leave thoughts by signing a guest book. Chip says this was the primary way he kept up with how Sharlet was doing. And Sharlet took great comfort in the community she created with her personalized portal, which had more than 2,500 visits from friends. "I am so thankful your surgery has gone well," one friend wrote in late January. Two months later when her hair began to fall out, another visitor joshed, "I LOVE the new do!!!" At one point when Sharlet was unable, her sister took the reins of the site. "Sharlet is home and doing well," she told the community. "She is not in pain and is in good spirits."
By the time Chip got back on leave in June, Sharlet had just finished her last radiation treatment, after a rigorous round of chemotherapy. "He and I were both bald," she joked.
The one thing Sharlet didn't have to worry about was health insurance. Military families say that the silver lining for them is that if they are hit by an illness, every dime of treatment is covered if patients seek treatment at approved hospitals and medical centers in their region.
Under the military's current time parameters, Chip is now loosely afforded two years at home after his one year in the field, though with the fight against terrorism ongoing and a new president about to assume office, he knows he's on call. For now, he's working with the Army based at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio.
With Christmas on its way, the Lynns say that they're grateful not to be facing a new year like the last. And with Sharlet's cancer in remission, she and Chip and their daughters have had some time to reflect on how waging simultaneous battles tested their family. Despite moments of strain early in the process, Sharlet says they came out of it stronger than before. "This was something bigger than any of us," she says. "And yeah it was hard, but it brought us a lot closer, which was a blessing."
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God help the families caught in situations like this.
