A Wife's Battle - Walter Reed and Beyond, WaPo

[Lone_Star_Dem]

When Her Soldier Returned From Baghdad, Michelle Turner Picked Up the Burden of War

Michelle Turner's husband sits in the recliner with the shades drawn. He washes down his Zoloft with Mountain Dew. On the phone in the other room, Michelle is pleading with the utility company to keep their power on.

"Can't you tell them I'm a veteran?" asks her husband, Troy, who served as an Army scout in Baghdad and came back with post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Troy, they don't care," Michelle says, her patience stretched.

The government's sweeping list of promises to make wounded Iraq war veterans whole, at least financially, has not reached this small house in the hills of rural West Virginia, where one vehicle has already been repossessed and the answering machine screens for bill collectors. The Turners have not been making it on an $860-a-month disability check from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

After revelations about the poor treatment of outpatient soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center earlier this year, President Bush appointed a commission to study the care of the nation's war-wounded. The panel returned with bold recommendations, including the creation of a national cadre of caseworkers and a complete overhaul of the military's disability system that compensates wounded soldiers.

But so far, little has been done to sort out the mess of bureaucracy or put more money in the hands of newly disabled soldiers who are fending off evictions and foreclosures.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/13/AR2007101301426.html?nav=rss_print/asection



Michelle and Troy Turner live in rural West Virginia, 80 miles from the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital where Troy receives his care. Troy finished his tour in Iraq in 2003, but Michelle must deal with the fallout. Troy's one-year war has become his wife's endless one.

[niyad]

1. we who have fought this battle since 'nam are doing everything we can to help this

newest generation of families who are just as much casualties of war as the military members themselves.

I grew up in the millitary, so I at least had an idea of how to deal with them. I pity the ones who don't.

[primavera]

2. Simply heartbreaking n/t

[Lone_Star_Dem]

3. Evening kick for veterans services.