{"id":728065,"date":"2010-05-17T18:34:47","date_gmt":"2010-05-17T22:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/?p=84982"},"modified":"2026-10-04T12:36:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T16:36:02","slug":"is-the-army-shortchanging-national-guardsmen-on-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/728065","title":{"rendered":"Is the Army Shortchanging National Guardsmen on Healthcare?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A group of Oregon National Guardsmen returning from Iraq recently noticed that that the medical care the Army provided at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state differed significantly from what their active-duty comrades received. And they might have discovered a systemic problem in the process.<\/p>\n<p>Some Guardsmen from the 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, while still called up on active duty, found themselves getting rushed through Lewis-McChord&#8217;s medical facilities. So they contacted their members of Congress to alert them to what they considered alarming anomalies between their treatment and that given to active-duty soldiers. Staffers for two Oregon legislators, Sen. Ron Wyden (D) and Rep. Kurt Schrader (D), visited Lewis-McChord on May 11. They quickly found that &#8220;this was more than a couple of isolated incidents,&#8221; said Wyden spokeswoman Jennifer Hoelzer.<span id=\"more-84982\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Interviews with base staff and members of the 41st IBCT eventually led the congressional aides to discover a PowerPoint presentation at the base that clearly placed reservists and active-duty soldiers on two different tracks for medical attention. The PowerPoint, assembled by the family practice department at the base&#8217;s Madigan Army Medical Center, indicated that the goal for active-duty soldiers was to &#8220;RUSH&#8221; attention for an acute illness or infirmity to a unit medical provider. For reservists, the goal for most demobilizing soldiers was &#8220;GET HOME NOW.&#8221; For Guardmen and Guardswomen getting ready to deploy, it was &#8220;Get acute issues resolved and be eligible to deploy.&#8221; Feel confident about that standard of care?<\/p>\n<p>The PowerPoint itself carried a flip &#8212; to the Oregon Guardsmen, offensive &#8212; illustration of the bifurcation. I&#8217;ll put the slide below:<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-84984\" href=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/84982\/is-the-army-shortchanging-national-guardsmen-on-healthcare\/weekendwarrior\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-84984 alignnone\" title=\"weekendwarrior\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/weekendwarrior.png?resize=400%2C293\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"293\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In a letter to Wyden and Schrader, the chief of the Army&#8217;s Medical Command, Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, &#8220;apologize[d]&#8221; for what he called the &#8220;insensitive and offensive depiction of Reserve Component Soldiers in this presentation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s not good enough for Wyden and Schrader. They&#8217;ve written to Army Secretary John McHugh asking for a full investigation of whether members of the 41st were treated as &#8220;second-class soldiers&#8221; and ensuring that the Guardsmen get &#8220;all the medical, pay and other benefits to which they are entitled.&#8221; Wyden spokeswoman Hoelzer expects McHugh in for a discussion about next steps later this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A group of Oregon National Guardsmen returning from Iraq recently noticed that that the medical care the Army provided at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state differed significantly from what their active-duty comrades received. And they might have discovered a systemic problem in the process. Some Guardsmen from the 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, while [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2762,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4821],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-728065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-33oZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2762"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728065"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":829629,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728065\/revisions\/829629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}