Last week, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the
investigative unit of Congress, released a report
indicating that the Pentagon has been calling up reserve soldiers who are ill
or medically unfit to serve. The reservists are serving primarily in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Although the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for
Personnel and Readiness is responsible for managing medical and physical
fitness policy and procedures, the report determined that this office has no
way to determine if reserve soldiers are fit to serve or have pre-existing
medical conditions prior to deployment.
Consequently, the GAO found that the Pentagon couldn�t confirm
to the secretary of defense or Congress that reserve forces are medically and
physically fit when they are called to active duty. Yet under federal law
reserve forces are required to have a medical exam every five years and an
annual review of their medical status.
The report also found that the Defense Department has not
even determined what type of pre-existing medical conditions would preclude a
reservist from being called to duty. Consequently, it doesn�t track the
pre-existing conditions of reserve soldiers being deployed. According to the
surgeon�s office of the commander of the U.S. Central Command, �There were many
instances of individuals who deployed into Iraq and Afghanistan with conditions
for which they should have been considered non-deployable.�
Given the recruitment shortages that the armed services
currently face, it shouldn�t be surprising that reservists in poor health are
being called up. When the 2005 fiscal year ended in September the Army was
7,000 recruits short of its annual goal. This was the largest gap in
recruitment since 1979 when the draft was abolished. And it was the first
recruitment shortage for the Army since 1999. The Army National Guard and the
Army Reserve had even greater recruitment shortages this year.
The Army has taken various approaches to its lackluster
recruitment efforts. It increased its advertising budget by $130 million for
2006. Over the course of fiscal year 2005, the Army handed out $207 million in
bonuses to recruits and those who re-enlisted. This was a sizable increase over
2004, when $125 million was distributed as bonuses. The Army gave a bonus of a
least $1,000 to 53 percent of new recruits between October 2004 and June 2005;
the average bonus was $5,589.
The Army�s maximum bonus of $20,000 was distributed to six
percent of new recruits. And the Pentagon has already made a request to
Congress to double the maximum bonus for 2006 to $40,000. The Army is also
handing out bonuses of $400 per month for three years for soldiers with
much-needed skills, such as infantry.
Last Month, Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey announced that
due to the recruitment shortages the Army will now double the number of
recruits it accepts who score the lowest on the intelligence test administered
to all potential recruits. Secretary Harvey also announced that the Army was
decreasing its requirement that the recruiting class each year be comprised of
at least 67 percent of applicants who scored in the top half of the
intelligence test. The portion has now been lowered to 60 percent.
What has not been known until now is that recruitment
shortages have resulted in the Pentagon calling up reservists who are ill or
medically unfit. According to the GAO report, this includes reservists who have
suffered from heart attacks, those with severe asthma (weather conditions in
the desert exacerbates this condition), hernias, severe hypertension, and a
woman who was four months into chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer. It
also includes reservists suffering from sleep apnea who need medical equipment
to help them breath, yet large portions of Iraq and Afghanistan lack the
electricity necessary to run the equipment.
Reserve forces that are diabetic and require insulin pumps
have been called to active duty. A soldier was called up only two weeks after
receiving a kidney transplant. Other reservists have required kidney dialysis.
The GAO report also found that reserve soldiers have been called to active duty
that suffer from psychiatric problems, including bipolar disorder. By one estimate
as much as 10 percent of the reservists who have been medically evacuated out
of the Middle East was attributable to pre-existing medical conditions that
could not be treated properly.
The GAO report ominously concluded, �The impact of those who
are not medically and physically fit for duty could be significant for future
deployments as the pool of reserve members from which to fill requirements is
dwindling and those who have deployed are not in as good health as they were
before deployment.� The findings of this report are particularly ironic,
considering that one year ago veterans voted for President Bush by a 16-point
margin, in large part because he convinced military families that he would
protect the armed forces better than Senator Kerry. Many of them are likely
having second thoughts today.
Gene
C. Gerard taught history, religion, and ethics for 14 years at several colleges
in the Southwest, and is a contributing author to the forthcoming book
�Americans at War,� to be published by Greenwood Press. His previous articles
have appeared in Intervention Magazine, The Free Press, The Modern Tribune,
Political Affairs Magazine, Alternative Press Review, and Online Journal.