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He Knew. And He Did Nothing: Bill Young Failed Our Veterans
"C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla., former chairman of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, said he stopped short of going public with the hospital's problems to avoid embarrassing the Army while it was fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan." "Young said he ‘separates my life as a member of Congress and the work I do on a volunteer basis,' visiting military hospitals with his wife almost every week."
"[Young] said he was frustrated that some of those problems were not fixed, but ‘I have never suggested that Walter Reed is in crisis.' "The congressman said that ‘Walter Reed, in general, provides good medical care.'"
"In 2004, Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.) and his wife stopped visiting the wounded at Walter Reed out of frustration. Young said he voiced concerns to commanders over troubling incidents he witnessed but was rebuffed or ignored. ‘When Bev or I would bring problems to the attention of authorities of Walter Reed, we were made to feel very uncomfortable,' said Young, who began visiting the wounded recuperating at other facilities."
"Walter Reed is in the nation's capital, which means that prior to its exposure last month by The Washington Post, this scandal percolated right under the noses of the country's highest political and military officials. How could that happen? "The St. Petersburg Times and other media reported on Thursday that U.S. Rep. Bill Young, a Republican from Indian Shores and formerly one of the most powerful members of Congress, acknowledged that he knew of the squalid conditions at Walter Reed but failed to disclose them. In one instance, Young recalled one soldier who was sitting in his bed in a pool of urine when Young's wife discovered him. Hospital staff, Young noted, did nothing and when questioned told him, ‘This is war. We have a lot of casualties. We don't have enough sheets and blankets to go around.'" "The top Republican who previously chaired the committee that wrote Defense Department budget bills admitted yesterday that he was aware of many problems at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center but feared that more aggressive oversight would ‘give the Army a black eye."
"According to the Post's interviews, the commander of Walter Reed, who is now the Army's top medical officer, was told in 2003 that wounded soldiers were often neglected at the medical facility. And this wasn't a one-time thing since they heard complaints at several meetings and in a few inspector-general reports. Even former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's wife knew about the problems. Officials also heard from Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla., who said he and his wife stopped visiting Walter Reed because they were so frustrated that their complaints were ignored. I wonder why Rep. Young didn't tell his colleagues in Congress about these frustrations. If he did, why didn't they do anything?"
"We can and should blame the generals and administration officials who turned a blind eye to these problems. But we also should blame the past two Congresses for a total lack of oversight in this area. "The story in The Washington Post last week that said [Bill Young] and his wife were appalled by the conditions there, mentioned the problems to officials and were ignored - leading the Youngs to give up in despair - left one large unanswered question: Why didn't Bill Young raise holy hell on the committee that has the Pentagon by its short hairs via its budget? "One hearing to blast the conditions at Walter Reed, especially if it were accompanied by press coverage, would have grabbed the attention of every official who matters at the Defense Department. Good oversight would have uncovered the problems that flowed from a rash move to privatize many of the services at Walter Reed and perhaps at other veterans' facilities. But we know the attitude of Republican Congressional leaders during the Bush presidency had been to avoid embarrassment to ‘the team' at all costs. Now we know how high some of those costs happened to be."
"On frequent trips to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Rep. C.W. ‘Bill' Young said he and his wife found wounded soldiers who didn't have adequate clothes, even one doing his rehabilitation in the bloody boots he had on when he was injured. "On the third day of hearings on Walter Reed, Young told Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, the Army's top medical officer, and other brass that he repeatedly took his concerns to officials. Young didn't raise them in public, he said, because he didn't want to undermine patients' confidence or the military."
"At a hearing on the shoddy conditions at the Washington military hospital, Young said Wednesday he had not previously gone public because he wanted to respect family privacy and ‘did not want to undermine the confidence of the patients and their families and give the Army a black eye while fighting a war.' "Young, a Republican from Indian Shores who was chairman of the House Appropriations Committee from 1999 to 2005, was criticized last week for not speaking up sooner." "Young was publicly praising Kiley during a congressional hearing as recently as January:
"Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley, the U.S. Army's surgeon general, announced his resignation Monday - the third high-level official to lose his job in a growing scandal over the poor treatment of soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. "Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Indian Shores...said it was ‘something that needed to happen.' "‘His attitude just didn't measure up to the responsibility,' Young said. ‘His attitude was, ‘Don't try to tell me how to do my job.'"
"The Washington Post reported Thursday that Young, R-St. Petersburg, and his wife, Beverly, stopped visiting the wounded at Walter Reed in 2004 because of frustration with conditions there. Stories in the Post have led to major upheavals, with the White House announcing Friday that President Bush will name a commission to investigate the quality of care at the nation's military and veterans hospitals."
"But Young admits, "What else do you want me to do? I am not going to go into a hospital and push my way into a medical situation," adding, "what I was dealing with was basically isolated cases, solder by soldier." "Rep. Davis adds, "We are not appropriators... I don't know what else we could have done. If generals don't go around and look at the barracks, how do you legislate that?"
"Also, while Young claims he didn't want to go public with the problems at Walter Reed, he was more than willing to use wounded veterans publicly as a political cudgel. Here is Young on the House floor on 11/18/05, speaking against Rep. John Murtha's (D-PA) redeployment plan:
"If it weren't for the tragic circumstances surrounding the substandard medical treatment that our returning servicemen and veterans are currently suffering in many of our military and VA hospitals, this recent Walter Reed scandal would be almost laughable. Why is everyone so shocked by Walter Reed Medical Center's recent shortfalls?"
"Finally Rep. C.W. Bill Young is getting the press a man with his political clout deserves. "We don't hear much from Young because, like the administration he supports, he says he doesn't "do business through the press." |
