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Injured troops describe woes at Reed hearing

Key witnesses called for a top-to-bottom review and revamping of the Army’s military disability retirement system Monday during a House Oversight and Government Reform national security subcommittee hearing on the problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Read complete coverage of the Walter Reed controversy.

At the hearing, held on the Walter Reed campus in Washington, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard Cody went through a multitude of problems he said the Army was taking responsibility for:

* Regulations that have not been updated for 50 years and are “needlessly cumbersome.”

* Information overload for soldiers trying to make their way through the disability evaluation system.

* Overworked case managers with poor training.

* Understaffed Medical Hold Unit employees.

* Facilities that are not maintained.

“We owe the soldiers a quality of care that is at least equal to their quality of service to this nation,” Cody said.

Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass., chairman of the subcommittee, said he feared the problems cited in news reports over the past two weeks “go well beyond the walls of Walter Reed.”

“As we send more and more troops into Iraq and Afghanistan, these problems are only going to get worse, not better,” Tierney said. “We need a sustained focus here, and much more needs to be done.”

Subcommittee members talked about reports from the Rand Corp. and the Government Accountability Office they had seen before, as well as newspaper articles from Military Times and other publications that go back more than a year. Then they listened to the personal tales of soldiers who had appeared before them last year with the same list of ills, as well as those featured in The Washington Post.

Staff Sgt. John Daniel Shannon, who lost his left eye and suffered traumatic brain injuries from a rifle wound, said that after he was discharged from Walter Reed, he was given a map of the grounds and eventually found his way to outpatient quarters by wandering around and asking for directions.

Then, he said, he “sat in my room for a couple of weeks wondering when someone would contact” him about continuing treatment.

“My biggest concern is having young men and women who have had their lives shattered in service to their country ... get taken care of,” Shannon said. “I just want them to fix the problem. I personally got a little upset when [secretary of the Army Francis] Harvey resigned. In combat, we don’t get to resign when the bullets are flying and people are dying.”

Annette McLeod cried as she described having to act as her husband’s personal case worker after a brain injury left him incapacitated — and disinterested counselors left him on his own. She talked about knocking on Col. Ron Hamilton’s door, and then the commanding general’s door, and complaining to case workers and doctors, to no avail, she said.

Spc. Jeremy Duncan, missing an ear from a roadside bomb attack, talked about filling out three work orders to get rid of the mold in his room in Building 18, the facility just outside the Walter Reed gates where some outpatient soldiers were housed.

“It wasn’t fit for anyone to live in a room like that,” Duncan said.

The subcommittee members gave Army surgeon general Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley and former Walter Reed commander Maj. Gen. George Weightman, whom Kiley fired last week, a chance to apologize to the families of the injured soldiers in attendance.

“I feel terrible for them,” Kiley said, facing the committee members. “I know this is very hard for them.”

Weightman — whom McLeod had just praised, saying she believed he was fired as a scapegoat — turned around in his chair to face the family.

“I promise we will do better,” he said.

McLeod looked up to help blink back tears, her arm wrapped around her husband's shoulder.

As the subcommittee went through their questioning, some of the problems seemed obvious, such as the percentages of service members who receive money for their disabilities through temporary and permanent disability payments.

“I notice that the Marine Corps approves about 35 percent for temporary and permanent disability,” said Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass.

Then he read off: 24 percent for Air Force. And 4 percent for Army

“It’s a massive difference,” he said. “It can’t just be random.”

Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., wondered why only 20 percent of soldiers ask for a formal evaluation board hearing, instead deciding to accept the first informal decision made on disability rating without them even being present. Military Times has reported that going through the second formal board often leads to a higher disability rating.

“Is there pressure to sign away benefits?” McCollum asked.

Cynthia Bascetta, director of health care for the Government Accountability Office, explained that all of the issues had been brought up before — many times — to the Defense Department.

“The cumulative message is that too often our wounded soldiers have been poorly served” by VA and the Defense Department, she said.

Kiley said the processes and regulations are “complex and demand urgent simplification,” and that the conditions of all buildings at all medical installations are being examined for problems. He talked about redoing 22 convoluted forms, as well as getting rid of the commander’s statement all together. That way, he said, board members would have to take a soldier’s word for it if he said he had been injured in the line of duty.

Cody said he had been asked to personally focus all his attention on the issue, and then made another suggestion. Because Walter Reed is due to close in 2011, with its functions transferred six miles away to the campus of the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., Cody said it’s difficult to get people to work there knowing many of their jobs are short-term.

Committee members wondered if the building problems might be related to unwillingness to spend money on buildings that will be closed. Cody responded by suggesting that perhaps the decision to close Walter Reed should be revisited.

“I think we need to take a look at whether we ‘sanctuary’ Walter Reed during this long war,” Cody said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.