On Monday, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey made the rounds between Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston and the Warrior Transition Unit at Fort Hood in respect to Army Warrior Care Day and Military Warrior Care Month.
“It’s an opportunity in November, where we already recognize our veterans on Veterans Day and give thanks for what we have in this country on Thanksgiving - to recognize and recommit to the soldiers and families who have been wounded,” Casey said.
It took a war to bring change to healthcare for the troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq.
And while much of that was, and still is, needed, Casey said much of the finger pointing that erupted from the Walter Reed scandal in 2005 helped fix a system that was antiquated and led to the creation of the WTU.
“You had a disability system that was designed for a conscript army, that basically backed up and broke under the stress of what was going on in the war,” he said. “And we’ve done an awful lot to mitigate how we take care of these inpatient soldiers.”
Casey said the Army is in the process of implementing a program that elevates mental fitness to the same level as physical fitness.
“We’re all human and we are not built to deal with some of the horrors that our soldiers have to deal with,” Casey said. “There is nothing to be ashamed of. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and mild Traumatic Brain Injury are wounds of war and we need to treat them.”
Casey had other reasons for visiting Fort Hood, specifically to speak with the commanders who’ve spent months gearing up for another rotation to Iraq.
And with that rotation, will come change, which could very well spell the final rotation to Iraq for the division, after the announcement Monday that a Status of Forces agreement had been reached calling for the withdrawal of Coalition Forces by the end of 2011.
Casey said the agreement was the goal the United States had worked to accomplish, but it could not succeed unless the Iraqis stand up and govern themselves.
“Having a mark on the wall, I don’t think is necessarily a bad thing,” he said. “You can imagine that there will have to be a reduction of forces over the next three years, and I expect, at least in the near term, some of those forces will go to Afghanistan. When you’re talking about the future, you never make guarantees.”
Casey said soldier training will change very little in respect to training for deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan.
Sitting in the backdrop of the 1st Cavalry Division Headquarters, Casey addressed the change that will occur under the administration of President-elect Barack Obama.
Casey said the soldiers and families of the 1st Cav. had already had it tough, having spent 15 months in theater and only 12 back home recuperating from the rigors of war.
“I think it is appropriate that more and more Americans are realizing that it’s not just soldiers who are sacrificing for their country, it’s the families,” Casey said.
He praised the soldiers and their families for remaining strong and indicated that shorter times between long deployments would become less and less common in the very near future.
“The Army is out of balance,” Casey said. “We’re deploying at a rate that we can’t sustain.”
Casey said that the only way to getting back in balance is increasing dwell time - the time a soldier spends back at home.
“It’s not just so they can spend more time with families, it’s so they can recover themselves, and it’s also they can begin training to do other things.”
Casey said if the Army continues at the pace it is deploying, while simultaneously increasing overall troop strength, then the dwell time back home will increase from one year to 18 months, or longer, before redeployment.
“What I would expect to see is gradual improvement in the time that units spend at home over the next three years,” Casey said.
