43,000 troops medically unfit for combat are deployed anyway

[babylonsister]

43,000 deployed unfit for combat
Troops sent since 2003; health issues unknown

By Gregg Zoroya
USA TODAY


WASHINGTON — More than 43,000 U.S. troops listed as medically unfit for combat in the weeks before their scheduled deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2003 were sent anyway, Pentagon records show.

This reliance on troops found medically "non-deployable" is another sign of stress placed on a military that has sent 1.6 million servicemembers to the war zones, soldier advocacy groups say.

"It is a consequence of the consistent churning of our troops," said Bobby Muller, president of Veterans For America. "They are repeatedly exposed to high-intensity combat with insufficient time at home to rest and heal before redeploying."

The numbers of non-deployable soldiers are based on health assessment forms filled out by medical personnel at each military installation before a servicemember's deployment.

According to those statistics, the number of troops who doctors found non-deployable but who were still sent to Iraq or Afghanistan fluctuated from 10,854 in 2003, down to 5,397 in 2005, and back up to 9,140 in 2007.

more...

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080508/1a_lede08_dom.art.htm

[malaise]

1. Soooooooooooooooo!

Get over it. They're just working class kids who are as dispensable as athletes. :sarcasm:

"Someone will have to pay for the innocent blood
that they shed every day oh children of the world..." Marley

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpkbeI9IZkE

[Solly Mack]

2. I saw it firsthand

People with heart conditions and super high blood pressure, and on medication that made them ultra sensitive to the sun and heat...having to be sent back because they kept passing out.

Soldier on suicide watch before being sent getting sent anyway. (Yes, he came back long before the tour was over)

A pregnant officer - who should NOT have gone - going just to make the percentage higher for level of deployable soldiers.

BCs doing everything they could to meet the percentage of deployable soldiers (looks bad on them if it's low and good if it's high)

The one constant that kept a soldier from being deployed?

Hearing loss.

Those with significant hearing loss were not deployed.

This was 2003. The company went from about 56% deployable to 97% deployable in a few days - by making those who were non-deployable deployable with a stroke of a pen.

[babylonsister]

5. Proof all they want is fodder for the machine.

I cannot believe how low this country has sunk. :(

[libodem]

3. That is so sad and scary

First of all the poor soldiers and their families. Second of all the recipients of the aggression and madness. Third of all the frustration of being denied benefits for depression or PTSD because the crooks deciding the percentage of permanent damage will say it was pre-existing. It must cost less in the long run to see these men and women dead than it is to pay out a lifetime worth of benefits on them. Social security must be taking a hit for all the widows and orphans. The actual costs incurred to this country by Cheneybush will be phenomenal by the end of all this. What also needs to be counted is the enormous pay-off to the 9/11 families to keep them quiet at the start of all this. Then the incalculable amount in lives, limbs and minds.

[indepat]

4. Demonstrates the real way 'pukes support the troops

:grr: