Soldiers left languishing at Fort Lewis

FORT LEWIS, Wash. — About a dozen Oregon National Guard soldiers say they languished for months at this military base in Washington because the Army lacked a protocol to allow them to return to Oregon to convalesce.

The soldiers also waited hours for doctor appointments, were forced to fill out confusing paperwork and faced months of delays with benefits, they told Brig. Gen. Raymond Byrne, acting adjutant general of the Oregon National Guard, on Monday.

“I feel that the system is lacking all common guidance,” said Sgt. William Harris of Bend, Ore. “I don’t have anything to fall back on. There’s nothing for me here on the inside, and nothing on the outside.”

Guard officials concede the soldiers, some of whom had only slight injuries, could have returned home, perhaps commuting to a base or a clinic for care.

The problem arose from an oversight in the Army’s war planning, which failed to anticipate the large number of wounded soldiers returning from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Col. Douglas Eliason, chief medical officer with the Oregon Guard.

He said a new program introduced in Oregon two weeks ago will send more guard members home to heal. Under the program, soldiers will be provided with a job suited to their injuries at a National Guard armory, and given treatment options at a Department of Veterans Affairs clinic or with private doctors.

Around the country, close to 5,000 reserve and guard soldiers are receiving medical care at active duty bases, a consequence of the military’s reliance on reserve soldiers for the occupation of Iraq and the war in Afghanistan.

From Oregon, 49 National Guard soldiers are convalescing from wounds at Army bases around the country — some because they need specialized care for severe injuries, but many because the Army had no system to allow them to return home.

Of the Oregon soldiers treated at active duty bases, 39 were wounded in Iraq. Twenty-six of them are at Fort Lewis.

The soldiers discussed their problems Monday at the meeting with Byrne. Some limped into the hospital chapel on crutches, while Byrne shook their hands and thanked them for their service.

The soldiers, in turn, loosed an angry tirade about Army red tape and, some said, inferior medical care.

“If you guys expect us to just sit here and suck it all in, I’m sorry sir,” Harris said. “With all due respect, I’ve lost my respect for the uniform.”

Byrne said the Guard would investigate the soldiers’ concerns and try to untangle the skein of Army policies, Veterans Administration rules and state laws that kept the soldiers at base unnecessarily.