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NEW ARMY REHAB CENTER FINANCING RESULT OF BROKEN

PROMISE -- Opinion from Sarah Overstreet of the

News-Leader of Springfield, Missouri.

 

 

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Rehab center's financing result of broken U.S. promise

by Sarah Overstreet

The new Center for the Intrepid in San Antonio, Texas, marks a couple of new horizons in the treatment of wounded American soldiers:

First, it's not simply a $50 million hospital or rehabilitation center built by the government itself; it's a collaboration between private citizens who raised funds and the Army. Private donations rose to $25 million. The fund needs another $10 million; no one's worried.

Second, families are welcome, free. The center has two "Fisher Houses" nearby, hotel-like residences where families can stay while soldiers go through rehabilitation.

The partnership project originated with several mega-rich businessmen, who got other people of importance and wealth behind it.

No one is arguing whether these soldiers need and deserve such a center: Six percent of the war-wounded now are amputees, and others are severely burned or have other catastrophic injuries. The Brooke Army Medical Center, next to the center, has rehab services, but not as sophisticated as the Intrepid, which is strictly state-of-the-art.

I haven't talked with anyone who wasn't happy that these soldiers will have the best. Yet some are fearful that with the expected numbers of the cruelly wounded from this war, the government will not be able to provide medical care, rehab and continuing services. Some wonder whether this is the nose of the camel under the tent of private citizens paying for more military expenses than they already do in their taxes. What kinds of soldiers and veterans' services might taxpayers be paying for next — in addition to tax support?

Some citizens don't believe the government is so strapped for money that it needs to ask taxpayers to do what it promised soldiers when they enlisted: take care of all their medical needs, take care of their dependent families. They think it's all smoke and mirrors, that legislators withhold money from veterans to pour into pork-barrel projects that will get them re-elected.

"They've got the money if they just allocate it," says World War II veteran Mel Noll of Springfield.

"We're already paying the price in taxes, while the deficit has gone up," says Vietnam veteran Dennis Estes of Springfield. "Bush and Cheney should have paid for it themselves — they've got enough money."

"Some VA hospitals have had to close down operating rooms, wings, all kinds of things because of lack of funds," says World War II veteran Mack Williams of Springfield, chairman of the Springfield Area Military Retirees Council.

They're tired of driving long distances — either to Fayetteville or one of the other VA hospitals that require a long drive for any kind of major treatment.

"And it's a cryin' damn shame," says Springfield veteran Joseph Redden.

I would pay to help build a VA hospital in Springfield. The question is not whether veterans need and deserve the services, but why the government doesn't have the cash it promised would be available when soldiers signed up.

Is it because legislators couldn't look ahead and budget — especially once they saw the numbers of amputees coming back — or did they just waller around like pigs in the mud looking for more pork to help them get elected?

Or is it just that when they drop veterans' services, they know we'll pick them up?

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Larry Scott  --