Hearing Committee on Government Reform - Wounded Army Guard and Reserve Forces: Increasing the Capacity to Care

HEARING COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM - WOUNDED ARMY GUARD AND RESERVE FORCES: INCREASING THE CAPACITY TO CARE

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Mr. Shays. General Byrne, you provided a list of 84 of your soldiers that are now in medical hold status. Of the 84, 73 have been in longer than the current reported Army standard of 67 days, 35 of them have been in longer than 6 months. Is this the standard you have found?

General Byrne. I would like to let Dr. Eliason answer the question. This is his area. He follows a lot better.

Mr. Shays. Sure. I thought all you were going to say is no.

Colonel Eliason. Well, sir, I can't speak to the Army standard. When soldiers are put in medical holdover, under the MRP processing there is supposed to be a determination made relatively early whether they can eventually return to theater, which I suspect is where the 67-day rule is.

Our major concern is getting our soldiers home. What we would like and what we have asked and, quite frankly, what has improved markedly in the last year is getting them into programs like community based health care organizations. Their length of treatment is their length of treatment. People heal as they heal. But the sooner we get them home, we believe they are going to heal better, and so that is our push-as rapidly
as possible getting them returned to their State for care, where they are living in their own home with their family and their support system around them.

Mr. Shays. That is your answer?

Colonel Eliason. Yes, sir.

Mr. Shays. Well, frankly, this is an old story, and it is shocking except it is an old story, which kind of makes it even more shocking. I am pretty convinced that in Congress we have tried to put enough focus on this to embarrass a solution, and yet that doesn't seem to work. So I am somewhat lost for why this continues to persist, and I am just wondering if any of you could suggest to me why it continues to persist.

I would like, Mr. Kutz, for you to tell me why you think it persists.

Mr. Kutz. You are talking about the Medical Board process? I am not familiar with that, so I can't really comment on that. I mean, we heard from the soldiers that we talked to that had the MRP problems and the medical extension problems that they were in hold waiting for the Medical Boards for hundreds of days in some cases, and that is about all the knowledge that I would have on that.

Sergeant Allen. Sergeant Allen, sir. I think it is a serious lack of leadership ability in the mid-level command. People aren't willing to step up to the plate and just do what is necessary. If something is identified that is wrong, then it needs to go away. What has perplexed me this whole time living this nightmare is how could something be so wrong and continue to go on and on and on and just keep perpetuating itself? It is generation after generation.

A perfect example, I just went to get my orders to out-process and they were wrong and they had me as a specialist in the Army. I talked to my friend that got out 2 months ago and I said, ``I can't believe this. I feel like I am the first guy to go through this.'' His name is Ryan Kelly, and he said, ``Well, that is funny, because I thought I was the first guy 2 months ago to go through it.'' And so I think it is a serious lack of people just stepping up to the plate and coming up with a solution. I think if somebody can come up with a solution, then it would be implemented and there wouldn't be the problem.

Mr. Shays. See, usually what happens in something like this, when Congress decides that we are going to conduct a hearing on it, it is such a shameful thing that people start to take action. Sometimes the problem is resolved before we even have a hearing. In this case, this is not the first hearing and the problem continues. That is what I find, frankly, a bit discouraging. It clearly has to be the stovepipe nature of it, and no one taking responsibility.

Sergeant Allen. To add to that, sir, some very senior high people in DOD and the Army have been trying to help us, the guys that aren't getting paid, aren't getting orders. I mean, the one-star, two-star, three-star generals, people over at DOD, and you would think that would encourage things to be changed, but there again, you know, it is got to be in the mid-command level of the philosophy, command philosophy as a whole, which is what I put in my testimony, that people, they don't
take the time to care.

Mr. Shays. My conclusion is it is just not a priority of DOD. That is the only conclusion I can get.

If I told my Dad when I was young, ``Well, I forgot,'' he would say to me, ``If I gave you $100, you wouldn't have forgotten.'' It was a clear message to me. In other words, if it had been a priority, I wouldn't have forgotten. And in the case of DOD, this has been a longstanding problem. We have too many of our Reservists and National Guard risking their lives, and they get treated like dirt. That is the bottom line.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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