Wounded Troops Denied Benefits?

[Guest guest]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/12/18/eveningnews/main589380.shtml

CBS) Many wounded U.S. soldiers are treated at the Walter Army Medical

Center in Washington, where President Bush today awarded Purple Hearts to 21

soldiers.

But CBS News Correspondent reports, wounded troops may return

from war to find themselves in a different kind of battle - with the U.S.

military.

A disabled soldier will never see combat again, but he might find himself

fighting a new fight against the government's medical bureaucracy.

Lieutenant Fernandez, who lost part of both legs in Iraq, knows he can

no longer be a soldier, but he's not ready to leave the army.

" I personally don't think it's right to be forced out of the - the military

and all of a sudden be forced to live on half of the pay that I was

getting, " he says.

Kelley, who lost his left leg below the knee, makes about $20,000 a

year as a staff sergeant. Once he leaves the army, he will receive about

$8,000 a year in benefits.

Fernandez is appealing his medical discharge. " I'm not gonna let myself be

pushed around, " he says.

He and his wife have become self-taught experts in the bureaucratic

ins and outs.

" I can see how many soldiers can get confused, " says Fernandez.

" I think that the military wants to get them off their hands, " says

Gorman, who lost both legs in Vietnam.

Gorman is executive director of Disabled American Veterans, a group he says

normally has easy access to wounded soldiers; but not this time.

" I don't know if it's a clouded secret about who's coming back, who's there,

the nature of their disabilities, the nature of their wounds or not but

there is not the kind of unfettered access that we used to have at Walter

, " says Gorman.

A spokesman for Walter Army Medical Center says the restricted access

is the result of post 9/11 security concerns and new federal guidelines

protecting patient privacy, which by coincidence took effect just as the war

in Iraq was starting.

" We can't do our job which means in many cases, I believe personally, that

there's just an outright denial of benefits coming to these young men and

women because they simply don't know about it, " says Gorman.

The army cannot be expected to keep badly disabled soldiers on active duty

and no one is suggesting they're deliberately being kept in the dark. But

even inadvertently denying them benefits is a wound they shouldn't have to

suffer.