Borderline troops

Cecil Acuff, Editorialist

July 14, 2008 10:52 am

— More U.S. and NATO troops have died in the past two months in Afghanistan than in Iraq, although Iraq has three times as many U.S. and coalition forces. News items say “President Bush to send more troops to Afghanistan by year’s end.” Commanders faced with increasing violence say they need at least 7,500.
The Pentagon predicts the pace of attacks in Afghanistan by a resurgent Taliban is likely to rise this year. About 32,000 troops are serving; 14,000 with NATO forces, 18,000 conducting training and counterinsurgency.
The Pentagon has lately extended the tour of 2,200 Marines, after insisting for months that the unit would come home on schedule. When asked in early May of an extension possibility, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he would “be loathe to do that.”
“Borderline” soldiers are being used to meet this need for deployed troops. Pentagon records show that more than 43,000 deployed troops have been listed as medically unfit for combat — non-deployable. Nonetheless, they were sent to combat duty because commanders must meet goals.
Writer Dan Ephron, in an article in the June 30 issue of Newsweek, uses “David” as an example of borderliners. David had a history of significant mental problems —he was diagnosed at 16 as having severe processing problems. Several Army superiors saw him as unfit for the military. He was so slow processing new things that some soldiers called him Forrest Gump.
David seemed to lack the essential skills needed; concentration, decisiveness and the ability to move around without being noticed. He suffered from Attention-Deficit Disorder. He was psychologically evaluated twice, yet David advanced from Fort Knox to Iraq in November 2006.
Eight weeks later, David was killed by a sniper. He was awarded a Bronze Star medal for meritorious service. His parents, loved ones and friends would surely have chosen a live David than a medal.
David’s problems didn’t surface on enlistment tests, yet his superiors had serious misgivings — that he would pose a danger to himself, and to others around him. They pushed to have him processed out of the military. They were rebuffed by higher-ups.
During testimony before the Armed Forces Committee in February, Sen. Carl Levin asked Army leaders about borderline soldiers. An official at Fort Carson said that borderline soldiers went to war because “We have been having issues reaching deployable strength.”
One 19-year-old Bronze Star Army veteran on leave suffered a leg fracture and destroyed tendons. Doctors ordered that he not run, jump or carry more than 20 pounds for three months. He was sent to Iraq anyway. The veteran said he worried about not being fully mission-capable; a risk to further injury and to others in his unit.
What parent would want a son or daughter, just to say they’re in the military, to experience such life-threatening misuse?
Contributory negligence is “When you know of a bad and or harmful situation that you are able to do something about, but do not. If you could have prevented something wrong or detrimental from happening, and did not, that is contributory negligence.”
Dereliction is a deliberate and reprehensible neglect of a responsibility. Harry S. Truman’s “Buck” should be stopped by someone, somewhere — the military, Pentagon, Congress or administration.
Will the current presidential candidates interrupt their “Pies In The Sky” campaigns long enough to address borderlining?
Cecil Acuff is a Perkins resident.