Kiley out as Army surgeon general over Walter Reed scandal
posted at 3:28 pm on March 12, 2007 by Allahpundit
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Matter of time. He used to be commander at the hospital until he was promoted to SG; he was, reportedly, warned numerous times by numerous people about the conditions there; and even if he hadn’t been, he lived right across the street. Then, when the story finally broke, he tried to pass the buck.
And in spite of it all, according to the AP, when it came time for him to go the Secretary of the Army had to demand his retirement request.
Some good’s come out of it, though:
Kiley’s removal underscored how the fallout over Walter Reed’s shoddy conditions has yet to subside. Instead, the controversy has mushroomed into questions about how wounded soldiers and veterans are treated throughout the medical systems run by the military and the Department of Veterans Affairs and has become a major preoccupation of a Bush administration already struggling to defend the unpopular war in Iraq…
Amid the focus on Walter Reed, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson on Monday ordered his department’s clinics to provide details about their physical condition by next week to determine if squalid conditions found at Walter Reed exist elsewhere.
Nicholson has been under pressure to reduce claims backlogs and improve coordination at the VA’s vast network of 1,400 hospitals and clinics, which provide supplemental care and rehabilitation to 5.8 million veterans.
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How is this a “scandal”??
This kind of crap has been going on in the US military since the continental army was formed. 99% of the time it is because Congress has their collective heads up their collective asses.
No excuse for it and our wounded troops deserve a hell of a lot better than they will EVER get from the government.
I want to see some of the custodians responsible for ACTUALLY CLEANING THE GD PLACE asked some tough questions as to WHY they would allow this place to become such a sh**hole.
Oh wait……..that’s right. It’s Bush’s fault. None of these problems existed prior to him stealing both of those elections. He and Karl snuck in to WR and released rats and planted mold.
s/off
Talon on March 12, 2007 at 3:48 PM
Talon, the Continental Congress didn’t even fund the troops enough, to be able to wear shoes many times, their salaries were unpaid, and many starved. You’re right, it is nothing new.
amerpundit on March 12, 2007 at 3:58 PM
Standby for 26 hearings, 19 investigations, 7 more firings, a handful of subpoenas, the formation of a commission or two, followed by finger pointing, temporary bandaids, throwing tons of money at the problem, and bureaucracies wasting the money and nothing getting fixed.
Been there. Done that.
fogw on March 12, 2007 at 4:16 PM
Anyone who has ever spent any time in an Army hospital is familiar with thes stories. I had to make a few trips to the body & fender shop over a 6 year period in the Army and although I was treated OK, there was always an attitude that I was just meat on the slab, or an assembly line.
“Maybe we’ll fix you, maybe not. It’s cool. There’s a guy right behind you and I’ve got 15 more to see before I can cut out for the day.”
I almost lost my eye because of a misdiagnosis; during Desert Storm I had to keep having the IV tube reinserted because blood kept running backwards into the line when I carried the IV bottle to the cut-drum latrine 100 yards away from the hospital tent. I almost died from an as-yet-unidentified SE Asian virus that made my temperature hit 105 deg.
They did take care of me & get me well, eventually, but unless you’re actively bleeding or in immediate peril, no one really gives a rip.
I’m not even a little surprised to find that the same attitude infests the VA. Maybe now something will be done, but I’m not holding my breath. And even if I was a socialist my Army time would certainly inform my dislike for socialized medicine.
nauticalbear on March 12, 2007 at 4:55 PM
nauticalbear,
It sounds like you and I had the same “SE Asian virus.” You weren’t by chance stuck at Cement City outside of Daharan were you? (Pun not intended.) I was there for about about 45 days while my unit waited for our Hummers to arrive by ship.
Nasty, dirty, dusty place… still a great time in my life. LOL We affectionately called it, “Semen City,” because so many lady troops went home pregnant.
AAHHHHH
The mamm… errrr… memories. ;-)V5
V5 on March 12, 2007 at 6:39 PM
People are avoiding this topic like the plague.
Nonfactor on March 12, 2007 at 8:59 PM
“Then, when the story finally broke, he tried to pass the buck.”
I’ll repeat what I’ve said before. The conditions described in the stories about Walter Reed go beyond what can be “cured” by firing. What is needed are charges of dereliction and COURTS MARTIAL for the officers involved.
As has been noted, the problems with the military hosptial system are endemic and systemic. They have gone on for YEARS. While some parts of the system shine, others sink pretty low. And everybody, especially Congress and the DOD, seem only to give it lip service.
I believe that placing commanders on notice that “going along” isn’t good enough any more; that “ticket punching” on the way to that 4th star isn’t going to cut it any more.
What I want is the DOD and the commanders to testify in front of Congress every day, if necessary, not trying to justify things, or to cop pleas, but to DEMAND THAT CONGRESS FUND IT PROPERLY. This is also CONGRESS’S problem, not just the Army’s, because Congress decides how much money there is to spend and exactly how to spend it.
The attention being paid now is only because there is political capital for the Democrats to acquire. After the enext election, the problem will again “go away,” and our wounded troops will still be in substandard conditions.
Well, that is not good enough.
We’re going to need a modern day “Revolt of the Generals” to keep the pressure on.
We owe no less to our wounded troops.
My 2 cents.
georgej on March 13, 2007 at 2:25 AM
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