Sgt. Cary
Sgt. Cary's letter ran in this month's VFW magazine. This is being presented as a positive, a celebration of the munificence of the Military Order of the Purple Heart (MOPH) and other organizations that support wounded U.S. personnel.
In fact, it is a horrible damnation of the situation facing our soldiers today. I count it an after-battle tragedy.
Sgt. Cary was medavaced after a "pretty good hit," and woke up in the hospital with "nothing to wear, or any hygiene stuff," and "bloodsoaked and unwearable" uniform. He is expressing his appreciation for the nurse and the organizations who provided a backpack, which allowed him clean pajamas, among other items.
Ranger asks: How can this be? Why don't the military hospitals have these items on hand to issue?
It is an obscenity to send people into battle, not providing for the eventuality of their injury. What if there were no backpack for Sgt. Cary? I shudder to think of the others like him, not fortunate enough to be the recipient of such a care bag.
Our military personnel should not have to rely on charity. The government should and must get their act together. How can the President and his coterie sleep in the midst of such shame?
From start to finish, this medical scenario is a screw-job for veterans.
posted by rangeragainstwar at 2:10 PM
8 Comments:
The military hospital supplies are probably the same place as the body and humvee armour!
disgusted,
Right-o! Now, if we can only hire an individual who excels in hide-n-seek to uncover these stores of much-needed goodies.
Lisa
They sleep because in spite of all the rhetoric and pandering, they have no morals or conscious.
Disgusted,
Jim here:
It is an incredible concept that wounded soldiers may have to lie in bed naked. In the past we wrote about a badly wounded soldier whose medic didn't have morphine. How's that for a double whammy--then you get the hospital, and they don't have clothes for you. Maybe tying a yellow ribbon 'round their head wounds will help.
Missouri Mule,
The Bad Sleep Well, or so I've heard.
Poor guy. He reminds me of the guy in Full Metal Jacket (just judging by looks, not personality). Too bad the grunts pay all the costs of this unnecessary war. They shouldn't have to. Perhaps "Full Metal Jacket" has informed my thinking too much; but I've had friends who were generally poor and were kind of idealist go into the army. What I think is that these soldiers' lives are worth much more than the anonymous death of a roadside bomb.
Mike,
Funny, I thought the same thing, Mike. And I think the same thing re. their lives being worth far more than the anonymous death via roadside bomb.
I am reminded of the terrible Hemingway quote re. modern war--it is not glorious, and you will die like a dog.
Lisa
Mike,
Jim here:
Historically, the infantry composes 15% of the Army, and I would guess they're your grunts. But today, your grunts come from all branches.
In the past, 85% of casualties were infantrymen. The stats in Iraq will not be similar. The casualties are being incurred b/c people are not being utilized properly, therefore, the CS and CSS units are getting mauled, also.
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