<p><a href=“Ailing GIs deployed to war zones – The Denver Post”>Ailing GIs deployed to war zones – The Denver Post;
<p>OLORADO SPRINGS Fort Carson sent soldiers who were not medically fit to war zones last month to meet “deployable strength” goals, according to e-mails obtained by The Denver Post.
One e-mail, written Jan. 3 by the surgeon for Fort Carson’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team, says: “We have been having issues reaching deployable strength, and thus have been taking along some borderline soldiers who we would otherwise have left behind for continued treatment.”
Capt. Scot Tebo’s e-mail was, in part, a reference to Master Sgt. Denny Nelson, a 19-year Army veteran, who was sent overseas last month despite doctors’ orders that he not run, jump or carry more than 20 pounds for three months because of a severe foot injury.
Nelson took the medical report to the Soldier Readiness Process, or SRP, site on Fort Carson, where health-care professionals recommended Nelson stay home.
The soldier, who has a Bronze Star and is a member of the Mountain Post’s Audie Murphy Chapter, was sent to Kuwait on Dec. 29.
Nelson says he was one of at least 52 soldiers deployed who should not have been, and a veterans group says the military is endangering soldiers to meet its goals.</p>
<p>Let me get this straight:</p>
<p>Soldier injures himself on his daughter’s trampoline making him unfit for combat for 3 months. So, the army sends him to a non-combat role in Kuwait. And this is the poster boy for some leftist attack against the army/Iraq War? Must be that things really are going much better there if this is the best that they can come up with.</p>
<p>And if the powers that be were able to meet recruiting goals, as they claim, then they wouldn’t have to send this man, now would they</p>
<p>you are arguing against yourself- if things are going so well, they wouldn’t need to send in injured soliders</p>
<p>and nice supporting our troops there, a 19 year vet…tsk tsk</p>
<p>Recruiting goals is not the point. The point is that the man is a professional who made a commitment. He needs to follow through with that commitment, he is an adult and not a child. Commitments mean something. Guess you’re right FF, good to know things are going so well.</p>
<p>committment, you must be JOKING!! 19 years isn’t enough of a committment for you? risking his life over and over again isn’t enough of a committment ?</p>
<p>and then gosh darn him, having a LIFE when he has a short break is too much for you?</p>
<p>"committment, you must be JOKING!! 19 years isn’t enough of a committment for you? risking his life over and over again isn’t enough of a committment ?</p>
<p>and then gosh darn him, having a LIFE when he has a short break is too much for you?"</p>
<p>He chose to be a member of the professional military and is expected to be fulfill his obligations. What about that don’t you understand?</p>
<p>CGM; I hope you don’t believe that a 19 year soldier and a 1 year soldier are the same? That they perform the same job? That they are interchangable? They aren’t. There are plenty of jobs in the military mission where you need a 19 year sergeant just as you need so many privates, LT’s, Majors, Pilots, infantry, tanks, etc… You obviously know very little of how the military is structured and how the mission is accomplished. They could have plent of people in one area or rank and not enough in another area or rank. That’s a lot different than believing that because he’s a 19 year soldier that he shouldn’t be going over there.</p>
<p>So let me get this right, the military docs gave him a direct order not to do something, but yet he did it and is now crying foul?</p>
<p>BTW Bronze Stars are equivalent to a Meritorious Service Device in a combat zone unless he got a V for Valor.</p>
<p>CGM, Please explain how being sent to Kuwait for non-combat duty is any different than being sent to a base in the US? Do you honestly think that a soldier should be given complete time off because he has an injury that makes him unfit for combat but perfectly fit for other duty? Like I said, you must be really having a hard time finding those dark clouds these days. The silver linings must be blinding to you.</p>