To meet the demand for troops in Iraq, the military has been deploying some National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers who aren't fit for combat.
More than a dozen members of the Guard and reserves said they were shipped off to battle with little attention paid to their medical histories.
Those histories included ailments such as asthma, diabetes, recent surgery and hearing loss. Once in Iraq, the soldiers faced severe conditions that aggravated their medical problems, and the medical care available to them was limited.
David Lloyd, 44, a mechanic with the Tennessee National Guard, died of a heart attack in Iraq last August. His wife, Pamela Lloyd, said her husband didn't know he had a problem, but his autopsy showed three blockages in his coronary arteries.
"He should have never been deployed," she said. "He was supposed to have been given a thorough physical. He had none. The only thing he had was the shots."
Michael Scott, an Iowa National Guardsman who had a herniated disk, said: "They funneled us through the medical part: boom, boom, boom. They let it be known they weren't real interested in hearing about stuff. 'No, you're fine right now.' "
A memo from the European Regional Medical Command in Germany, where many injured soldiers were sent, criticized the pre-deployment medical screening and said soldiers who were unfit for Iraq were being sent home. Deploying them was a risk to their health and an added cost for the military, it said.
Seattle Times article
More than a dozen members of the Guard and reserves said they were shipped off to battle with little attention paid to their medical histories.
Those histories included ailments such as asthma, diabetes, recent surgery and hearing loss. Once in Iraq, the soldiers faced severe conditions that aggravated their medical problems, and the medical care available to them was limited.
David Lloyd, 44, a mechanic with the Tennessee National Guard, died of a heart attack in Iraq last August. His wife, Pamela Lloyd, said her husband didn't know he had a problem, but his autopsy showed three blockages in his coronary arteries.
"He should have never been deployed," she said. "He was supposed to have been given a thorough physical. He had none. The only thing he had was the shots."
Michael Scott, an Iowa National Guardsman who had a herniated disk, said: "They funneled us through the medical part: boom, boom, boom. They let it be known they weren't real interested in hearing about stuff. 'No, you're fine right now.' "
A memo from the European Regional Medical Command in Germany, where many injured soldiers were sent, criticized the pre-deployment medical screening and said soldiers who were unfit for Iraq were being sent home. Deploying them was a risk to their health and an added cost for the military, it said.
Not enough fit, trained soldiers for Operation Inigo Montoya, and yet...
The Bush administration wants Congress to let it send more military and civilian personnel to Colombia to help it "deal a decisive blow against narco-terrorists" in the decades-long conflict there, the top U.S. general for the region said on Wednesday.
Reuters article
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
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