[Dialogue] The Army is Ordering Injured Troops to Go to Iraq

[Harry Wainwright]

Published on Monday, March 12, 2007 by Salon
<http://www.salon.com/news/2007/03/11/fort_benning/print.html>  

The Army is Ordering Injured Troops to Go to Iraq
At Fort Benning, soldiers who were classified as medically unfit to fight
are now being sent to war. Is this an isolated incident or a trend?



by Mark Benjamin 

 

"This is not right," said Master Sgt. Ronald Jenkins, who has been ordered
to Iraq even though he has a spine problem that doctors say would be damaged
further by heavy Army protective gear. "This whole thing is about taking
care of soldiers," he said angrily. "If you are fit to fight you are fit to
fight. If you are not fit to fight, then you are not fit to fight." 

As the military scrambles to pour more soldiers into Iraq, a unit of the
Army's 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Ga., is deploying troops with
serious injuries and other medical problems, including GIs who doctors have
said are medically unfit for battle. Some are too injured to wear their body
armor, according to medical records. 

On Feb. 15, Master Sgt. Jenkins and 74 other soldiers with medical
conditions from the 3rd Division's 3rd Brigade were summoned to a meeting
with the division surgeon and brigade surgeon. These are the men responsible
for handling each soldier's "physical profile," an Army document that lists
for commanders an injured soldier's physical limitations because of medical
problems -- from being unable to fire a weapon to the inability to move and
dive in three-to-five-second increments to avoid enemy fire. Jenkins and
other soldiers claim that the division and brigade surgeons summarily
downgraded soldiers' profiles, without even a medical exam, in order to
deploy them to Iraq. It is a claim division officials deny. 

The 3,900-strong 3rd Brigade is now leaving for Iraq for a third time in a
steady stream. In fact, some of the troops with medical conditions
interviewed by Salon last week are already gone. Others are slated to fly
out within a week, but are fighting against their chain of command, holding
out hope that because of their ills they will ultimately not be forced to
go. Jenkins, who is still in Georgia, thinks doctors are helping to send
hurt soldiers like him to Iraq to make units going there appear to be at
full strength. "This is about the numbers," he said flatly. 

That is what worries Steve Robinson, director of veterans affairs at
Veterans for America, who has long been concerned that the military was
pressing injured troops into Iraq. "Did they send anybody down range that
cannot wear a helmet, that cannot wear body armor?" Robinson asked
rhetorically. "Well that is wrong. It is a war zone." Robinson thinks that
the possibility that physical profiles may have been altered improperly has
the makings of a scandal. "My concerns are that this needs serious
investigation. You cannot just look at somebody and tell that they were
fit," he said. "It smacks of an overstretched military that is in crisis
mode to get people onto the battlefield." 

Eight soldiers who were at the Feb. 15 meeting say they were summoned to the
troop medical clinic at 6:30 in the morning and lined up to meet with
division surgeon Lt. Col. George Appenzeller, who had arrived from Fort
Stewart, Ga., and Capt. Aaron K. Starbuck, brigade surgeon at Fort Benning.
The soldiers described having a cursory discussion of their profiles, with
no physical exam or extensive review of medical files. They say Appenzeller
and Starbuck seemed focused on downplaying their physical problems. "This
guy was changing people's profiles left and right," said a captain who
injured his back during his last tour in Iraq and was ordered to Iraq after
the Feb. 15 review. 

Appenzeller said the review of 75 soldiers with profiles was an effort to
make sure they were as accurate as possible prior to deployment. "As the
division surgeon and the senior medical officer in the division, I wanted to
ensure that all the patients with profiles were fully evaluated with clear
limitations that commanders could use to make the decision whether they
could deploy, and if they did deploy, what their limitations would be while
there," he said in a telephone interview from Fort Stewart. He said he
changed less than one-third of those profiles -- even making some more
restrictive -- in order to "bring them into accordance with regulations." 

In direct contradiction to the account given by the soldiers, Appenzeller
said physical examinations were conducted and that he had a robust medical
team there working with him, which is how they managed to complete 75
reviews in one day. Appenzeller denied that the plan was to find more warm
bodies for the surge into Baghdad, as did Col. Wayne W. Grigsby Jr., the
brigade commander. Grigsby said he is under "no pressure" to find soldiers,
regardless of health, to make his unit look fit. The health and welfare of
his soldiers are a top priority, said Grigsby, because [the soldiers] are
"our most important resource, perhaps the most important resource we have in
this country." 

Grigsby said he does not know how many injured soldiers are in his ranks.
But he insisted that it is not unusual to deploy troops with physical
limitations so long as he can place them in safe jobs when they get there.
"They can be productive and safe in Iraq," Grigsby said. 

The injured soldiers interviewed by Salon, however, expressed considerable
worry about going to Iraq with physical deficits because it could endanger
them or their fellow soldiers. Some were injured on previous combat tours.
Some of their ills are painful conditions from training accidents or, among
relatively older troops, degenerative problems like back injuries or
blown-out knees. Some of the soldiers have been in the Army for decades. 

And while Grigsby, the brigade commander, says he is under no pressure to
find troops, it is hard to imagine there is not some desperation behind the
decision to deploy some of the sick soldiers. Master Sgt. Jenkins, 42, has a
degenerative spine problem and a long scar down the back of his neck where
three of his vertebrae were fused during surgery. He takes a cornucopia of
potent pain pills. His medical records say he is "at significantly increased
risk of re-injury during deployment where he will be wearing Kevlar, body
armor and traveling through rough terrain." Late last year, those medical
records show, a doctor recommended that Jenkins be referred to an Army board
that handles retirements when injuries are permanent and severe. 

A copy of Jenkins' profile written after that Feb. 15 meeting and signed by
Capt. Starbuck, the brigade surgeon, shows a healthier soldier than the
profile of Jenkins written by another doctor just late last year, though
Jenkins says his condition is unchanged. Other soldiers' documents show the
same pattern. 

One female soldier with psychiatric issues and a spine problem has been in
the Army for nearly 20 years. "My [health] is deteriorating," she said over
dinner at a restaurant near Fort Benning. "My spine is separating. I can't
carry gear." Her medical records include the note "unable to deploy
overseas." Her status was also reviewed on Feb. 15. And she has been ordered
to Iraq this week. 

The captain interviewed by Salon also requested anonymity because he fears
retribution. He suffered a back injury during a previous deployment to Iraq
as an infantry platoon leader. A Humvee accident "corkscrewed my spine," he
explained. Like the female soldier, he is unable to wear his protective
gear, and like her he too was ordered to Iraq after his meeting with the
division surgeon and brigade surgeon on Feb. 15. He is still at Fort Benning
and is fighting the decision to send him to Baghdad. "It is a numbers issue
with this whole troop surge," he claimed. "They are just trying to get those
numbers." 

Another soldier contacted Salon by telephone last week expressed
considerable anxiety, in a frightened tone, about deploying to Iraq in her
current condition. (She also wanted to remain anonymous, fearing
retribution.) An incident during training several years ago injured her
back, forcing doctors to remove part of her fractured coccyx. She suffers
from degenerative disk disease and has two ruptured disks and a bulging disk
in her back. While she said she loves the Army and would like to deploy
after back surgery, her current injuries would limit her ability to wear her
full protective gear. She deployed to Iraq last week, the day after calling
Salon. 

Her husband, who has served three combat tours in the infantry in
Afghanistan and Iraq, said he is worried sick because his wife's protective
vest alone exceeds the maximum amount she is allowed to lift. "I have been
over there three times. I know what it is like," he told me during lunch at
a restaurant here. He predicted that by deploying people like his wife, the
brigade leaders are "going to get somebody killed over there." He said there
is "no way" Grigsby is going to keep all of the injured soldiers in safe
jobs. "All of these people that deploy with these profiles, they are
scared," he said. He railed at the command: "They are saying they don't care
about your health. This is pathetic. It is bad." 

His wife's physical profile was among those reevaluated on Feb. 15. A copy
of her profile from late last year showed her health problems were so severe
they "prevent deployment" and recommended she be medically retired from the
Army. Her profile at that time showed she was unable to wear a protective
mask and chemical defense equipment, and had limitations on doing pushups,
walking, biking and swimming. It said she can only carry 15 pounds. 

Though she says that her condition has not changed since then, almost all of
those findings were reversed in a copy of her physical profile dated Feb.
15. The new profile says nothing about a medical retirement, but suggests
that she limit wearing a helmet to "one hour at a time." 

Spc. Lincoln Smith, meanwhile, developed sleep apnea after he returned from
his first deployment to Iraq. The condition is so severe that he now suffers
from narcolepsy because of a lack of sleep. He almost nodded off
mid-conversation while talking to Salon as he sat in a T-shirt on a sofa in
his girlfriend's apartment near Fort Benning. 

Smith is trained by the Army to be a truck driver. But since he is in
constant danger of falling asleep, military doctors have listed "No driving
of military vehicles" on his physical profile. Smith was supposed to fly to
Iraq March 9. But he told me on March 8 that he won't go. Nobody has
retrained Smith to do anything else besides drive trucks. Plus, because of
his condition he was unable to train properly with the unit when the brigade
rehearsed for Iraq in January, so he does not feel ready. 

Smith needs to sleep with a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure)
machine pumping air into his mouth and nose. "Otherwise," he says, "I could
die." But based on his last tour, he is not convinced he will be able to be
in places with constant electricity or will be able to fix or replace his
CPAP machine should it fail. 

He told me last week he would refuse to deploy to Iraq, unsure of what he
will be asked to do there and afraid that he will not be taken care of.
Since he won't be a truck driver, "I would be going basically as a number,"
says Smith, who is 32. "They don't have enough people," he says. But he is
not going to be one of those numbers until they train him to do something
else. "I'm going to go to the airport, and I'm going to tell them I'm not
going to go. They are going to give me a weapon. I am going to say, 'It is
not a good idea for you to give me a weapon right now.'" 

The Pentagon was notified of the reclassification of the Fort Benning
soldiers as soon as it happened, according to Master Sgt. Jenkins. He showed
Salon an e-mail describing the situation that he says he sent to Army
Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley. Jenkins agreed to speak to Salon
because he hopes public attention will help other soldiers, particularly
younger ones in a similar predicament. "I can't sit back and let this happen
to me or other soldiers in my position." But he expects reprisals from the
Army. 

Other soldiers slated to leave for Iraq with injuries said they wonder
whether the same thing is happening in other units in the Army. "You have to
ask where else this might be happening and who is dictating it," one female
soldier told me. "How high does it go?"

C 2007 Salon Media Group, Inc

###

 

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