WELCOME HOME SOLDIER!!!!!!!!!!
From Clarion Ledger
RIPLEY — Mississippi Army National Guard Sgt. David Yancey returned home for good this week from a place that no soldier wants to go - Walter Reed Army Medical Center.It's the military's premier U.S. medical center and main treatment facility for soldiers wounded in the Iraq war. Today its name is synonymous with scandal and soldier neglect, in part because of Yancey's collaboration with the Washington Post.Yancey spent two years at the sprawling complex in the nation's capital. The first year, he recovered from wounds received when an improvised explosive devise shredded his Humvee in Iraq. Yancey suffered a fractured left femur, major nerve damage in his right arm, broken ribs, a collapsed lung and traumatic brain injury.The vehicle's driver, Spec. William Brooks of Southaven, lost both legs in the March 29, 2005, explosion. Two others suffered only minor injuries.His second year at Walter Reed, Yancey fought a battle he says no soldier should have to endure: a bureaucratic nightmare that saw him spend thousands of his own dollars, fill out form after form, collect reports, and battle what he called a dishonest disability-evaluation process so he could finally leave.Although he returned home for short visits - including his father's funeral last year - he remained at Walter Reed the entire year it required to get his discharge. During that time, Yancey spoke regularly to Washington Post reporters."I worked with the Post on and off since January 2006, because I'd been there nine months at that point and I got a grip on what was going on with all the problems," the 33-year-old said. "I had a friend who works at the Post, and we decided to have the media come in and help the soldiers out."Yancey took a background role in feeding journalists information, not wanting to be featured in the stories.He did write a letter that was published this April 8 in the Post. It described an intentionally burdensome system that, he later told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, tries to discourage soldiers from receiving their proper benefits."Most soldiers just give up and take whatever they can get and go home," he insisted. "After seven or eight months, they're tired and just want to see their families. It's intentional. And it's coming from higher up."Sitting in the dining room of the one-story house where his mother was reared, the Ripley resident said Thursday he witnessed bureaucratic atrocities.He recalled staffers withholding records he needed to present at case reviews, purposefully giving him false information, and once having him escorted to his physical evaluation board liaison officer only to be told he didn't need to be there.In February, around the same time the Post ran its investigative series, Yancey finally received a 30 percent disability rating - the minimum rating to receive monthly checks, health insurance and other privileges. His first evaluation had been at 10 percent, for which he would have received a single severance check.Fallout from the Post articles, which highlighted cases of neglect at the complex, led to the firing of Walter Reed's commander, Maj. Gen. George Weightman, and the resignation of both Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey and Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley, chief of the Army Medical Command.It also triggered congressional hearings and an extensive review of all military medical facilities by the U.S. States Department of Veterans Affairs.Yancey said he supports the war in Iraq and received good medical treatment from Walter Reed's doctors and nurses. He also got overwhelming support from the public, including visits by the Denver Broncos, NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. and country star Toby Keith.Yancey abhors the administrative cobweb tangling thousands of soldiers trying to obtain discharges with benefits."They need to completely overhaul the system," he said.Today, Yancey is free from Walter Reed but continues to suffer ailments related to the roadside bomb's explosion. He walks with a limp, has numbness in his right arm, can't make a fist with his right hand and experiences occasional short-term memory loss.He must return for medical evaluations every 18 months. If his condition hasn't improved in five years, he will be able to permanently retire from the military.Yancey, who isn't married but has a girlfriend, said he's not sure what he'll do in the meantime. Physical limitations mean he can't return to his former job at Piper Impact, a metal shaping manufacturing company in New Albany. So, the semiretired guardsman will take a year to plot the next chapter in his life."I have no regrets," said Yancey, who joined the National Guard at 30 and spent only 71 days in Iraq before the attack."I knew there were risks when I joined," he said, "even though you always think you're going to beat the odds. You think it won't happen to you."
RIPLEY — Mississippi Army National Guard Sgt. David Yancey returned home for good this week from a place that no soldier wants to go - Walter Reed Army Medical Center.It's the military's premier U.S. medical center and main treatment facility for soldiers wounded in the Iraq war. Today its name is synonymous with scandal and soldier neglect, in part because of Yancey's collaboration with the Washington Post.Yancey spent two years at the sprawling complex in the nation's capital. The first year, he recovered from wounds received when an improvised explosive devise shredded his Humvee in Iraq. Yancey suffered a fractured left femur, major nerve damage in his right arm, broken ribs, a collapsed lung and traumatic brain injury.The vehicle's driver, Spec. William Brooks of Southaven, lost both legs in the March 29, 2005, explosion. Two others suffered only minor injuries.His second year at Walter Reed, Yancey fought a battle he says no soldier should have to endure: a bureaucratic nightmare that saw him spend thousands of his own dollars, fill out form after form, collect reports, and battle what he called a dishonest disability-evaluation process so he could finally leave.Although he returned home for short visits - including his father's funeral last year - he remained at Walter Reed the entire year it required to get his discharge. During that time, Yancey spoke regularly to Washington Post reporters."I worked with the Post on and off since January 2006, because I'd been there nine months at that point and I got a grip on what was going on with all the problems," the 33-year-old said. "I had a friend who works at the Post, and we decided to have the media come in and help the soldiers out."Yancey took a background role in feeding journalists information, not wanting to be featured in the stories.He did write a letter that was published this April 8 in the Post. It described an intentionally burdensome system that, he later told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, tries to discourage soldiers from receiving their proper benefits."Most soldiers just give up and take whatever they can get and go home," he insisted. "After seven or eight months, they're tired and just want to see their families. It's intentional. And it's coming from higher up."Sitting in the dining room of the one-story house where his mother was reared, the Ripley resident said Thursday he witnessed bureaucratic atrocities.He recalled staffers withholding records he needed to present at case reviews, purposefully giving him false information, and once having him escorted to his physical evaluation board liaison officer only to be told he didn't need to be there.In February, around the same time the Post ran its investigative series, Yancey finally received a 30 percent disability rating - the minimum rating to receive monthly checks, health insurance and other privileges. His first evaluation had been at 10 percent, for which he would have received a single severance check.Fallout from the Post articles, which highlighted cases of neglect at the complex, led to the firing of Walter Reed's commander, Maj. Gen. George Weightman, and the resignation of both Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey and Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley, chief of the Army Medical Command.It also triggered congressional hearings and an extensive review of all military medical facilities by the U.S. States Department of Veterans Affairs.Yancey said he supports the war in Iraq and received good medical treatment from Walter Reed's doctors and nurses. He also got overwhelming support from the public, including visits by the Denver Broncos, NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. and country star Toby Keith.Yancey abhors the administrative cobweb tangling thousands of soldiers trying to obtain discharges with benefits."They need to completely overhaul the system," he said.Today, Yancey is free from Walter Reed but continues to suffer ailments related to the roadside bomb's explosion. He walks with a limp, has numbness in his right arm, can't make a fist with his right hand and experiences occasional short-term memory loss.He must return for medical evaluations every 18 months. If his condition hasn't improved in five years, he will be able to permanently retire from the military.Yancey, who isn't married but has a girlfriend, said he's not sure what he'll do in the meantime. Physical limitations mean he can't return to his former job at Piper Impact, a metal shaping manufacturing company in New Albany. So, the semiretired guardsman will take a year to plot the next chapter in his life."I have no regrets," said Yancey, who joined the National Guard at 30 and spent only 71 days in Iraq before the attack."I knew there were risks when I joined," he said, "even though you always think you're going to beat the odds. You think it won't happen to you."
posted by Auntie Tracye @ 9:02 PM
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