Inouye questions treatment, rehab of war vets - Military News | News From Afghanistan, Iraq And Around The World - Military Times

Inouye questions treatment, rehab of war vets

The powerful chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee said March 18 that he is not convinced the treatment and rehabilitation being given to injured Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans is significantly better than the help he received in World War II.

Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, who received the Medal of Honor for his World War II service, spent 22 months in military and veterans hospitals undergoing treatment and rehabilitation for the loss of an arm. He said he is concerned that while medical care may have made great advances in the 64 years that passed since his combat injury, rehabilitation and preparing veterans to return to civilian life has not improved.

At a hearing of the Senate defense appropriations subcommittee where the service surgeons general talked about preparations for a troop increase in Afghanistan and continuing efforts to ease the transition out of the military for wounded veterans, Inouye said he doesn’t see the same type of help available today that he received and suspects someone with his type of injury would be released after just six months of treatment and rehabilitation.

Rehabilitation training included learning carpentry and other skills, such as self-defense and how to dine and dance, Inouye said.

“Are people leaving the services, as I did, reassured and confident?” he asked the surgeons general.

Army Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker said time is not a guide to treatment and rehabilitation. Rather, the Army is “looking at goodness for the soldier” in deciding what help is needed.

Schoomaker said everything is not perfect, however, and improvement is possible, including an overhaul of the military’s physical evaluation process that seems outdated in its guidelines for deciding when a person is no longer physically able to continue military service.

Navy Vice Adm. Adam Robinson said another difference is that families are more involved today in both treatment and transition to civilian life than families were in World War II, which means that service members can get home earlier.