Whitewash

Where are your legs that used to run
When you went for to carry a gun
Indeed your dancing days are done
Oh Johnny, I hardly knew ye
--Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye, Irish ballad
__________

The Warrior Transition Brigade is yet another ridiculous tack by the Army to patch a broken system. It is a supposed attempt to shepherd seriously wounded soldiers through the veterans health care maze with the help of a newly created brigade of 166 soldiers, which "became operational in June ('07)" (Combat Vets Lead Wounded Troops, VFW magazine, October '07).

It is "broken up into three companies of three platoons each. Platoons comprise three squads. The Army says it will become the model for all its medical treatment facilities." Why do I think this is an absurd band aid? Let me count the ways--

[1] This is a phony press-oriented measure to deflect criticism from a system which is labyrinthine for even relatively healthy service members to navigate.

On a purely rhetorical basis, since when is a brigade manned by 166 soldiers? Counting the 700 wounded personnel assigned, this is a total of 866 warm bodies. Calling this figure a brigade is hyperbole targeted at civilians, who are being groomed to see the military as the fix to any problems facing our nation.

A good withdrawal tactic from Iraq would be to leave 866-man Brigades in Iraq and bring the rest of the troops home. If 866 man Brigades are good enough for the troops at Walter Reed, the it should also suffice for the Iraqis.


[2] "The hope is that wounded soldiers will respond better to sergeants and officers, many of whom have combat experience." May as well throw a prayer in there, too. It looks like what should be based on good science has now become co-opted by faith-based rhetoric, as well.

These are broken soldiers, many of whom are predictably feeling betrayed, depressed, desperate. Most are facing a painful transition back into civilian life following protracted medical treatments. It is nonsensical to force them back into the very command structure which they are now being mustered out of. They are not part of a brigade, so don't phony one up.

This faux brigade is an insult to people in need of informed medical intervention.


[3] "Some [patients] are non-compliant, deliberately missing appointments, [brigade leader Col. Terrence McKendrick said]. "Some of that is based on despair of the condition they're in."

Of course their despair must be palpable, and that is exactly why MSWs and other professionals should be performing this function, rather than this phony "brigade". Soldiers of the combat arms are trained to kill, not heal. Using them as hospital admin types is gross mismanagement.

In an odd ending to the story, we are told the "brigade" is housed in a building named in honor of medic Cpl. Angelo Vaccaro, killed by an RPG in 2006, the first service member to earn two Silver Stars in the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©).

"A Plaque next to Vaccaro Hall's entrance. . .describes his final moments." I suppose this was designed to alleviate flashbacks amongst the patients (?)

In a Washington Post article on the brigade three months ago, Army Maj. Lionel Walton, who has been treated at Walter Reed since January 2005, said "To me, it's cosmetic stuff." One soldier's mother called it "hogwash." It is definitely a whitewash.

What is most grating about this story is the inappropriateness of the response. When soldiers are so traumatically wounded that they are never to return to duty, start transitioning them immediately into their civilian life. Stop this absurd imposition of the warrior tag upon a wounded soldier returning to his society.

Images of warrior may make the civilian population feel more impervious to threats, but that label only further alienates these soldiers from a culture which has no place for the professional warrior, thereby keeping him in an isolated limbo land.