Did You Hear the One About...

**NOTE 3/21/07: Authenticated via snopes.com. Chaplain Kallerson notes that he never intended his email to become public.

It's the same old story
Same old song and dance, my friend
--Aerosmith, album Get Your Wings

The below is taken from an email sent to Jim by one of his former service mates. I have not been able to corroborate its validity, but it is provocative if authentic. It concerns the Walter Reed expose, and is signed, "Chaplain John L. Kallerson, Senior Chaplain Clinician.Walter Reed Army Medical Center."

"What needs to be addressed, and finally will, is the bureaucratic garbage that all soldiers are put through going into medical boards and medical retirements. Congress is finally giving the money that people have asked for at Walter Reed for years to fix places on the installations and address shortcomings. . .

"Then they (Congress) did this thing called an A76 where they fired many of the workers here for a company of contractors, IAP, to get a contract to provide care outside the hospital proper. The company, which is responsible for maintenance, only hired half the number of people as there were originally assigned to maintenance areas to save money. Walter Reed leadership fought the A76 and BRAC process for years but lost. Congress instituted the BRAC and A76 process; not the leadership of Walter Reed."

So again, we have the story of venal government contractors cutting corners, and again, their profiteering on the backs of your fighting men and women, who are paying by enduring shabby care and facilities.

--Lisa