Caring For One Of Our Own?

[rayboyusmc]

In a nondescript conference room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 1st Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside listened last week as an Army prosecutor outlined the criminal case against her in a preliminary hearing. The charges: attempting suicide and endangering the life of another soldier while serving in Iraq.

Her hands trembled as Maj. Stefan Wolfe, the prosecutor, argued that Whiteside, now a psychiatric outpatient at Walter Reed, should be court-martialed. After seven years of exemplary service, the 25-year-old Army reservist faces the possibility of life in prison if she is tried and convicted.

Military psychiatrists at Walter Reed who examined Whiteside after she recovered from her self-inflicted gunshot wound diagnosed her with a severe mental disorder, possibly triggered by the stresses of a war zone. But Whiteside's superiors considered her mental illness "an excuse" for criminal conduct, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

At the hearing, Wolfe, who had already warned Whiteside's lawyer of the risk of using a "psychobabble" defense, pressed a senior psychiatrist at Walter Reed to justify his diagnosis.

"I'm not here to play legal games," Col. George Brandt responded angrily, according to a recording of the hearing. "I am here out of the genuine concern for a human being that's breaking and that is broken. She has a severe and significant illness. Let's treat her as a human being, for Christ's sake!"

tp://tinyurl.com/2r282a

 

[Gunny]

tp://tinyurl.com/2r282a

So the shrink didn't back down and bucked up. Good for him. The military eats its own. I know that, you know that, and every vet on this board knows that.

Most officers I knew would have cowered at being questioned and taken the hint to go quietly back to their holes. I have to wonder would this doctor have done the same for an enlisted man.

Actually, no I don't. I saw too many good Marines get hung out to dry by the chair-polishing weasels and few (and yes there are/were those few) that were willing to risk a few marks down on the all-important fitrep.

That is the ugly side of the military, but anyone who has served has seen it.

Oh, and rayboyUSMC, to clarify: having not served with you that I am aware of and not knowing you personally, my comments are not directed at you personally.

 

[82Marine89]

Kudos to the Colonel.

 

[rayboyusmc]

The majority of Marine Officers that I served with would have stood up for their troops.

The problem with our system is that to get to the top, 0-6 and on, you may have to kiss a lot of ass just like Colonel Hackworth used to write about. There are a lot of his "perfumed princes" who infect the Pentagon like cockaroaches feeding off the crumbs of their senior officers.

I don't think this is a hell of a lot different than the civilian sector that I have worked in for almost 20 years since I retired. Unless you have real leaders at the top, shit will often rise above the cream.

Next to Smedley Butler, you might want to read up on LtCol Evans Carlson. He was a real leader who valued his men and accomplished the mission. Highest kill ratio and lowest casualty ratio. WW II First Raider Battalion.

Too many weasels make it to the top because organizations reward the wrong behaviors.

 

[maineman]

Kudos to the Colonel.

I agree completely!

 

[Gunny]

The majority of Marine Officers that I served with would have stood up for their troops.

The problem with our system is that to get to the top, 0-6 and on, you may have to kiss a lot of ass just like Colonel Hackworth used to write about. There are a lot of his "perfumed princes" who infect the Pentagon like cockaroaches feeding off the crumbs of their senior officers.

I don't think this is a hell of a lot different than the civilian sector that I have worked in for almost 20 years since I retired. Unless you have real leaders at the top, shit will often rise above the cream.

Next to Smedley Butler, you might want to read up on LtCol Evans Carlson. He was a real leader who valued his men and accomplished the mission. Highest kill ratio and lowest casualty ratio. WW II First Raider Battalion.

Too many weasels make it to the top because organizations reward the wrong behaviors.

Evans Carlson was also a bigtime socialist.

When did you retire, might I ask? The Corps changed drastically from the time I enlisted to the time I retired.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Evans Carlson was also a bigtime socialist.

When did you retire, might I ask? The Corps changed drastically from the time I enlisted to the time I retired.

Yup by the mid 90's when I retired there was a whole crop of officers that had been taught that there was no room for any failure or mistakes at all.

 

[Gunny]

Yup by the mid 90's when I retired there was a whole crop of officers that had been taught that there was no room for any failure or mistakes at all.

Yeah, the called it the "zero defect mentality" and told us we were supposed to not do it. When I joined, you could screw up, pay the piper and it was forgotten. If you screwed up by the mid-90s you might as well start hitting jobsearch on google.

Yet they couldn't figure out why no wanted to hang it out on a limb and do a b billet.

 

[rayboyusmc]

Retired in 88. I didn't see a lot of change in the Corps culture when I was in.

I completely enjoyed my tour. I was just ready to move on to other things, didn't want to go back to Washington or Okinawa, the promotions had slowed down completely and Florida was a good place to retire then.

I think today the military is a whole different kettle of fish. Not sure what exactly it is, but it is different.

 

[Gunny]

Retired in 88. I didn't see a lot of change in the Corps culture when I was in.

I completely enjoyed my tour. I was just ready to move on to other things, didn't want to go back to Washington or Okinawa, the promotions had slowed down completely and Florida was a good place to retire then.

I think today the military is a whole different kettle of fish. Not sure what exactly it is, but it is different.

It's very different. I enjoyed my tour as well, and did not mean to give any other impression. Like you, it was just time for me to move on. Part of that decision was made based on the fact the Corps I retired from was not the Corps I had joined. Sometimes for better, sometimes for the worse.

One of the reasons I JOINED was to get the Hell away from Miami though and retiring there had NO appeal for me.

 

[pegwinn]

Interesting comments by everyone.

It happened about 86 I think. The promotions were so slow and they were starting the high year tenure. Might've been as late as 88 but certainly before the 90's.

Suddenly an office hours was a killer if you wanted to re-up. And there were no more career SSgts. Up or out meant that you had to rise above your natural best and that meant you were bound to fuck up. I knew several twenty year great SSgts. A few would have made a good Gunny, but most had reached the limit of comfortable competence.

Overall I think our Corps got better with time. But like anything there were spikes. The biggest foul up was also that around the same time the micromanagement got so bad that Cpl's and Sgts became Pvt E4's and Pvt E5's. Hell, as a PFC I was getting career advice from LCpl's and Cpl's with hashmarks.

Fortunately war changed that quick, fast, and in a hurry.