WASHINGTON (Oct. 24) – U.S. Sens. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) and Patrick
Leahy (D-Vt.), co-chairs of the United States Senate National Guard
Caucus, Friday called for action by the U.S. Army to rectify
"inadequate" and "unacceptable" living conditions and long waits for
medical clearance at the Army’s Ft. Stewart training base in
Georgia. Bond and Leahy issued a report Friday based on their staff
investigations earlier this week of press reports that injured and
sick Guard and Reserve troops were being provided inadequate care
and unsuitable housing at the base.
"Like any American would be, I was concerned and disappointed to
hear that we have National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers who are
not being adequately cared for," said Bond. "The situation we have
in Ft. Stewart is totally unacceptable and my first priority is to
ensure our troops are receiving the health care they need. Also, I
can not stress enough that without our National Guard and Reserves
we can not sustain the war on terror."
"In the war on terrorism, we have called on the National Guard
and Reserves early and often," said Leahy. "They are bravely serving
side-by-side with our active duty soldiers. The conditions we found
at Ft. Stewart are troubling and they are unacceptable. We need to
take swift action to immediately get these soldiers into more
appropriate living situations, but more importantly, we need to fix
a system that lets these men and women down. That means making sure
soldiers don’t get bogged down in medical holds by ensuring they
have access to health insurance, like TRICARE, before they are
deployed. We are counting on them for our security, and they need to
know they can count on us to fix these problems. We can’t afford to
let our Guard down."
Currently, injured soldiers are not receiving proper medical care
or evaluation, the report concludes. Further, poor conditions of the
barracks designed for healthy Guard soldiers on annual training are
not suitable for ill, injured or wounded soldiers.
These inadequate conditions are a result of a lack of
preparedness for the influx of injured soldiers. As a result, the
Army has an insufficient number of medical clinicians, specialists
and support personnel to care for, and evaluate, the injured
National Guard and Army soldiers who either did not deploy because
they were found to be physically unqualified for deployment or were
returned to the U.S. because of wounds, injuries or illness
sustained while operating in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The report concluded these problems were worsened by a lack of
leadership at the unit level and the lack of organizational
oversight at higher levels of command. Also addressed in the
Bond-Leahy report is the perception among National Guard and Army
Reserve soldiers that they are not getting the same level of care as
their traditional active duty counterparts.
The Bond-Leahy report also detailed some important questions and
recommendations for the Army and other branches of the Armed
Services, including whether this type of troop neglect was occurring
at other military facilities. In the short term, the report
recommends that the Army immediately reassign soldiers that are not
in the final stages of medical evaluation to a military or Veterans
Health Administration facility close to their homes and families.
The Senators are also planning to meet next week to discuss what
additional measures may be necessary to ensure the situation at Ft.
Stewart is not replicated in the future.
The entire United States Senate National Guard Caucus Report is
available by clicking below. [PDF available].
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Related Links:
[READ THE REPORT]
