Service Civilians and the Wounds of War

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/24/AR2007072402459.html

Service Civilians and the Wounds of War
Many Fill Vital Roles in Iraq, but Medical Care Can Be Spotty

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 25, 2007; Page A01

Traveling through Sunni insurgent territory north of Baghdad, the U.S. military convoy was nearing a base when a roadside bomb ripped into the lead Humvee, leaving its gunner, Mike Helms, bleeding and swaying from a strap in the open back.

Helms, 31, a civilian counterintelligence expert with the Army's 902nd Military Intelligence Group, had been sent to Iraq in 2004 to help fill a critical intelligence gap in the area known as the Sunni Triangle. While in Iraq, he lived with soldiers and ate military rations, took fire from mortar rounds and small arms, and clocked hundreds of miles manning a machine gun on the back of a Humvee.

Nevertheless, his status as an Army civilian would leave him stranded in the aftermath of the June 16, 2004, attack, when the bomb hit his Humvee so hard it blew his M-60 off its turret.

In the months that followed, Helms recalled, he was denied vital care for his wounds -- ranging from shrapnel in his left arm to traumatic brain injury. Forced to rely on federal workers' compensation and turned away from regular care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and other military hospitals, Helms has faced years of frustration grappling with bureaucracies unprepared to help a government civilian wounded in combat.

"I did not have an 'accident' while working. I was subjected to an offensive attack by an enemy of the U.S. government who attempted to kill me," said Helms, now a counterintelligence agent at the 902nd's Fort Knox, Ky., field office. "Why am I under workers' comp if workers' comp does not recognize a combat injury?"

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[lazer47]

1. The last thing I want to see is how another D.A.C.

(Department of the Aemy Civilian) bitchin' about how bad he has it, I heard and saw all of these stories 35yrs ago in 'Nam, you should hope to ever have the amount of benefits and salary the people have including health insurance, tell me about some poor PFC whose wife is having to live off food stamps and having to have her Husband gone for 2 tours back to back and compare his salary with some over paid Hack who is doing the same job but getting paid 10 times his salary.