- Congress, veterans groups, and the press should immediately
launch a full investigation into this Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran's
allegation he suffered retaliation from the military for speaking with
reporters about substandard military healthcare. A series of three UPI
articles about this major scandal are posted here. They describe the "squalor"
more than 1,000 wounded, ill, or injured service members were forced to
endure while on "medical hold." -- Veterans for Common Sense
-
-
- WASHINGTON -- An Operation
Iraqi Freedom veteran says Army officials at Fort Knox, Ky., refused him
medical treatment after he talked publicly about poor care at the base,
which helped spark hearings in Congress. Fort Knox officials charged that
soldier, Lt. Jullian Goodrum, with being absent without leave and cut off
his pay after he then went to a private doctor who hospitalized him for
serious mental stress from Iraq, Goodrum said.
-
- "They are coming after me pretty bad," said
Goodrum, 33, a veteran who has served the military for more than 14 years,
including the first Gulf War and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
-
- He showed United Press International a form from Fort
Knox that states that Fort Knox officials "do not want him in medical
hold." Some soldiers are kept on medical hold during treatment while
the Army determines their status.
-
- Goodrum has now been hospitalized in a locked mental
ward at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. after turning
himself in there Feb. 9. Doctors there say he has post-traumatic stress
disorder from Iraq and major depression, and they worry he could hurt himself.
He is not allowed to go down the hall from the inpatient psychiatric clinic
for a Coke without an escort.
-
- Goodrum said stress from Iraq, and the way he has been
treated by the military since he returned, has made him so depressed he
is lucky to be alive. He also has injuries to both wrists, in part from
loading 65-pound shells on the USS Missouri when he was in the Navy in
the first Gulf War. The ship pounded Iraqi troops in Kuwait and took fire
from Iraqi tanks. An Iraqi Silkworm missile missed her bow by 30 yards.
-
- Goodrum appeared in an Oct. 29 UPI (see full article
below) about more than 400 soldiers on medical hold at Fort Knox who were
waiting weeks and sometimes months for medical treatment.
-
- That article, and an article on a similar situation at
Fort Stewart, Ga., sparked a series of hearings in Congress -- including
a Jan. 21 appearance by Col. Keith Armstrong, garrison commander at Fort
Knox, before a panel of the House Armed Services Committee.
-
- Fort Knox spokeswoman Connie Shaffery said privacy rules
prohibit her from commenting on Goodrum's case, unless he signed a waiver
saying otherwise. He declined. Shaffery said a soldier who does not show
up for duty is absent without leave.
-
- "If a soldier is not at his or her duty station
and is not in an authorized leave or pass status, he is absent without
leave," Shaffery said. "When a soldier is listed as AWOL, it
stops all pay and benefits. When instructed to return and they do not comply,
that is a violation." After appearing in the UPI article on Oct. 29,
Goodrum asked for medical care on or about Nov. 7. He said he told Fort
Knox officials that he was having a breakdown.
-
- "I said I was having problems. I told them I felt
like I was having a breakdown right there," Goodrum said. Goodrum
said Fort Knox told him to go away. A handwritten note in Goodrum's records
from Nov. 7 says, "Colonel Stevens do (sic) not want this patient
to be in medical hold." Goodrum said he then drove down an interstate
highway at 5 miles an hour through rushing traffic. He said he was completely
dysfunctional because of a combination of PTSD and what he says was retribution
from his chain of command for speaking up about poor medical care at the
base. He said he could have wound up dead.
-
- "A truck could have run right over me," Goodrum
said about that day. "It was a complete nervous breakdown."
-
- Goodrum, a member of the Army Reserve, was named the
176th Maintenance Battalion's "Soldier of the Year" in 2001.
He has received a host of awards, including the combat action ribbon, and
positive reviews from superior officers.
-
- "Lt. Goodrum is a truly outstanding junior officer,"
reads one performance evaluation from 2002. "In addition to his technical
competence, he demonstrates great leadership potential. ... Promote to
captain and select for advance military schooling."
-
- Goodrum said his problems began in Iraq, working under
combat conditions in a transportation company. There, he said, safety violations
-- including the use of "deadlined" or broken vehicles -- resulted
in the death of a 22-year old soldier. Goodrum appealed to the Army's Inspector
General and Congress when he returned home.
-
- After Goodrum sought medical help at Fort Knox on Nov.
7 and was denied, Goodrum's civilian doctor hospitalized him for PTSD and
alerted Fort Knox. Dr. Vijay Jethanandani wrote Fort Knox Nov. 15 that
Goodrum needed medical leave until Dec. 7. The doctor kept officials there
up to date on Goodrum's condition in a series of five letters.
-
- "Unfortunately, recent intimidation, threats of
being arrested for staying on medical leave from his superiors has resulted
in recurrent psychiatric symptoms," Jethanandani wrote Dec. 3. "Until
11/26/03, Mr. Jullian Goodrum was progressing fairly well."
-
- "It does not help that Mr. Goodrum was in combat
with a unit in Iraq, where a superior officer ignored safety protocol jeopardizing
the safety of soldiers and resulting in the death of one man," Jethanandani
wrote. "Instead of following up on his complaints, it appears that
some of his superiors on stateside may be penalizing him for reporting
his superior officer in Iraq." In the wake of the Fort Stewart and
Fort Knox stories, last fall Undersecretary of Defense David S.C. Chu ordered
that if medical care is not available on base, "medical commanders
shall promptly refer patients to other military, Veteran Affairs, or civilian
sources of care."
-
- Goodrum said he showed Chu's memo to Fort Knox officials,
but it did not help. "I told them they were ignoring an order from
the undersecretary of Defense," Goodrum said.
-
- Goodrum's medical files shows that Walter Reed medical
staff also have been unable to get Fort Knox medical officials to discuss
his case. "Patient is currently assigned to the medical hold company
in Fort Knox, Ky., and to a Capt. Savage. Capt. Savage has NOT returned
any phone calls from this office," his record states.
-
- Soldiers at Fort Knox contacted UPI about another situation
they consider a sign of poor care.
-
- On Feb. 11, a soldier on medical hold at Fort Knox who
served in Iraq apparently attempted suicide in the barracks. He was attached
to a Special Forces unit in Iraq.
-
- Soldiers there said he deeply slashed both of his wrists,
spraying blood in the barracks hallway and around his room before being
rushed to the hospital.
-
- "If it was not for about three guys, if they had
not applied direct pressure and immediate pressure, he would have died,"
said a soldier at Fort Knox who knows him.
-
- Soldiers said they worry that Army officials did not
act aggressively to address his problems, including heavy drinking, that
appear to have surfaced since Iraq.
-
- Shaffery said she could not comment on that case, either.
"We are sensitive to psychiatric or suicide issues with all of our
population," she said.
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