The Broken Soldier

Seriously, what the hell?  Is this really that hard to grasp?  I just finished up discussing billeting for my wife during my stay, which is indefinite by the way, with some folks at Knox.  People in the know about Warrior Transition Unit.  I appreciate that they’re trying to help, but Jesus Christ, can someone please give these folks a mandatory crash in critical thinking?

This is the description of the program I’m soon to enter, along with what I’m sure is hasty congratulation:

“Changes in the Army’s health care delivery system have become visible, even to the untrained eye. What’s more, the Warriors in Transition (WT) and Families under the care of that system have begun to feel the results of the changes.

Soldiers and their families are assigned a treatment team. This physician, nurse case managers, and military squad leader triad works together to help each Soldier and Family in the healing process. This personalized attention and treatment plan leads to better care and increased morale.

The Army has adopted many procedures from private sector health care and from lessons learned in military treatment facilities, to open communication channels between WTs and medical decision-makers:

• Encourage WTs and Families to express exactly what their needs are.
• Treat each person according to those individual needs.
• Ensure Triad members communicate with one another on the treatment.
• An ombudsman listens to WTs, Families, and the Triad, when things don’t work the way they ought to, then recommends improvements in the process.”

Notice, if you will, that family is to play an essential role in this new approach.  Yet, from conversation with two people associated with this program, it is uncertain, and I would say unlikely the Army will pay for my wife (at this juncture, my only real family besides my little brother) to be present during my stay.  How then is my wife, my only available family - little bro’s working and in college - to play a part in this new approach?

This is modus ponens folks.  If Warrior Transition Unit, then Family.  Warrior Transition Unit.  :. Family.  Is this tough to understand?  Does pointing this out make me a smart ass?  I sense it does to the boys in green.  But the playful method of this post belies serious matters.  Central among them are matters of trust, as in how am I to trust these people given past experience and given that they can’t live up to the standards and definitions they’ve created?  How am I to heal without the calming influence of family presence, especially when I don’t trust anyone else involved?