Get Yer Sorry Ass back to Iraq
An Iraq veteran suffering from bipolar disorder, alchoholism and homicidal tendencies, and who voluntarily checked himself into a hospital after attempting suicide, was forcibly removed by his commanding officer to be sent back to Iraq.
The 28 year old specialist had been returned to Fort Carson from Kuwait after health care professionals had made that diagnosis. His treatment was supposed to end Dec. 10 but his commanding officer showed up Nov. 29 and ordered him back to base for deployment.
Soldiers from Fort Carson and across the country have complained they were sent to combat zones despite medical conditions that should have prevented their deployment. Late last year, Fort Carson said it sent 79 soldiers who were considered medical “no-gos” overseas.
The brigade surgeon, says the 3rd Brigade Combat Team had “been having issues reaching deployable strength” and that some “borderline” soldiers were sent overseas.
This soldier was prescribed three drugs and was told that he was non-deployable while taking them. But his commander had a different idea. He was given 3 months worth of the drugs, Lamictal for treatment of bipolar disorder; Seroquel, an anti-psychotic; and Klonopin for anxiety and mood disorders and sent back to Iraq.
Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, was outraged.
“If he’s an inpatient in a hospital, they should have never taken him out. The chain of command needs to be held accountable for this. Washington needs to get involved at the Pentagon to make sure this doesn’t happen again. “First, we had the planeload of wounded, injured and ill being forced back to the war zone. And now we have soldiers forcibly removed from mental hospitals. The level of outrage is off the Richter scale.”
Read the whole story, but here is my favorite quote, from Col.B.Shannon Davis, chief of staff at Fort Carson.
“Caring and competent commanders make these decisions.”
WORLD GONE MAD 
February 12, 2008 at 10:40 am
[…] Birmingham News wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptAn Iraq veteran suffering from bipolar disorder, alchoholism and homicidal tendencies, and who voluntarily checked himself into a hospital after attempting suicide, was forcibly removed by his commanding officer to be sent back to Iraq. … […]
February 13, 2008 at 1:40 am
What utter and total bullshit. And there doesn’t seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel – other than the damned freight train bearing down on us. I don’t know what else to say.
February 13, 2008 at 7:15 am
No matter what else is going on, what side of the aisle we support, or how we feel about the war, the treatment of our veterans and troops by our own government and military is an absolute National Disgrace. There are so many things going on…trying to avoid paying education benefits, trying to lower disability payments, providing only the most meager of health care for the wounded, lowering the recruitment standards so dramatically that soldiers can’t even depend on sensible backup from their fellow troops, and now sending those with obvious mental and even physical health problems back into combat.
And we continue to allow it because we STILL can’t believe our government LIES to us about this slaughter.