This is Walter Reed, Senator McCain

You GUNKY

During his nomination speech, the crack team of Crony, Buddy, & "Oh my GAWD, you're not COLORED, are you?", threw up a slide of Walter Reed on the Green Screen behind the world's oldest nominee.

Only one problem.

It was Walter Reed MIDDLE SCHOOL.

In California.

Over 4,000 freaking miles from Walter Reed ARMY MEDICAL CENTER.

The one in Washington D.C., that does such brilliant work on post-blast patients after they've been processed through Germany.

They're not too shabby with the eye care either. They did surgery on me at age 17, a buck private in the U.S. Army, still in AIT, trying to fix my left eye which had been slashed into a zillion fucking pieces in a fight at 13. Did a good job too; made it possible for me to have enough depth perception I could go on flight status, even if I still couldn't see worth a frack... but they let more LIGHT in and cleaned out a whole shitload of scar tissue. It was really state-of-the-art work for what was possible back in winter 77, just months before I turned 18.

Walter Reed has always been a world-class hospital, even though all this commotion about shitty quarters is nothing new. Hell, they stuck me in shitty quarters while I was recovering from surgery back in 78. I ate spam on crackers -- no lie; I remember, after all these years. I went and bought them myself. It was better than the shit they were feeding me, plus, I could eat all I wanted, whenever I wanted instead of waiting for some overworked orderly for whom I was absolutely the lowest of the lowest priority, to bring me shit on a shingle.

Spam on Triscuit (Nabisco) crackers. Delish. Listened to my music on a mini-boom-box in this remote barracks for an entire weekend, cockroaches and all.

The cockroaches liked the Spam and Triscuits. I remember how congealed the Spam was when you finally got the damn thing open, turning the heavy key around and around and around the outside till finally it had a metal strip all wrapped around the key with Spam and congealed processed meat juices dripping down. So that's where I stayed all weekend. With a great big patch over my left eye. (That's back when both eyes were still the same color. Now of course if you look closely, you'll see my eyes are two different colors, since the transplant back in 2000.) After a week on the ophthalmology ward I was SO glad to get the hell out of there I didn't give a shit about the roaches; they were my new best friends. I just lay there in that barely heated barracks all weekend, wrapped in all the clothes I had with me (barely any; fucking Army), listening to my music, reading books, and jerking off.

Come Monday it was a bus back to WRAMC main buildings. They took the eye patch off, told me not to scratch it or I'd tear the stitches out and ruin their work and that would piss them off and I didn't want to piss them off, did I? (Plus, I'd go blind, they said. Yeah. Like that had ever stopped me before. The real threat was these OFFICERS would be mad at me. *shudders* I was a 17 year old kid. What the fuck did I know. Looking back at it there were probably 26-27 year old 3-4 year Ophthalmo residents. *laughs* I think they were only Captains. Captains! *cracks up* At the time though, that was like Gods from on high.)

Then they gave me three weeks of convalescent leave. I hopped a flight to Tucson and surprised the hell out of my Mom. BIG improvement in my vision. GOOD doctors (even if they scared a poor buck private.)

Walter Reed is the best.

If John "FUCK THE VETERANS" McCain had ever even bothered to haul his Senatorial ass over to WRAMC to, oh, I don't know, hell, even tell the troops recovering from having their legs and arms and eyes and nuts blown off and brains scrambled that he too, the mighty John McCain, had been a POW and knew a thing or too about getting through hard times, well, I might have something good to say about him right now.

But he doesn't do that. He hasn't done that.

Worse, he's vetoed every bill that would actually HELP the GI's, fucked over the Veteran's Administration over and over again, and because my family is from Arizona I'll let you in on a little secret. John McCain's senatorial constituent services' SUCK. If you're from Arizona and you actually NEED something, call your Congressman. 'Cause McCain is an asshole. AND incompetent.

For example, he doesn't know the difference between Walter Reed MIDDLE SCHOOL.

And Walter Reed ARMY MEDICAL CENTER.

Here's a hint...

The MIDDLE SCHOOL is NOT the one where neurosurgeons and neurologists are doing surgery and rehab on troops returned from the war with Traumatic Brain Injury. And also doing research in memory and cognition which might help REALLY FUCKING OLD PEOPLE WITH MASSIVE BRAIN PROBLEMS.

Not that you would remember, Senator McCain. YOU GUNKY.

Video by Americans United.

There's more...

Forgive Them, For They Know Not What They Do

Army Still Discharging Traumatic Brain Injury Patients
Without Benefits, Any Way It Can

Sgt. Darren Mischke got hurt bad in Iraq.

A two-tour vet, he was in a wreck tour one, and knocked out. In his second tour, his vehicle was mortared. He has Traumatic Brain Injury.

Like many chronic pain, PTSD, and depression patients, he became a different person, a different "I" from the person his family had always known.

Happens. But the Army, consistently has been taking the easy way out, and shoving soldiers out any way they can, rather than rate them properly.

Colorado Confidential

"I told him to get help," Teresa Mischke said. "He told me he'd get in trouble with his unit. He said one of his superiors had told him he'd make his life a living hell."

Shortly thereafter, Darren Mischke, pain-riddled and confused, turned abusive, then suicidal. His wife, trying to save him, called 911.

The El Paso County Sheriff's Department "arrested him for domestic violence and the District Attorney's office fast-tracked him to plead guilty," Teresa Mischke said.

The third-degree assault plea became the basis for an attempt by the Army to give Mischke a general discharge.

"He would have nothing, no insurance and limits on his VA coverage," his wife said.

Working with the advocacy group Veterans for America, Teresa Mischke pushed the military to send her husband to a medical review board.

The medical board talked about depression and post traumatic stress, but not brain injury. The diagnosis didn't help. Eventually, a military doctor decided Sgt. Mischke suffered from "post concussive syndrome," but offered no regimen of treatment, his wife said.

"He's actually worse now than when he came home from Iraq," she added.

In addition to the already noted 30,000 injured veterans from Iraq, a full 20,000 more at least likely have TBI. But not on the official casualty rolls of the Iraq war. (It's the fucking Agent Orange and Depleted Uranium fights all over again.)

USA Today

At least 20,000 U.S. troops who were not classified as wounded during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have been found with signs of brain injuries, according to military and veterans records compiled by USA TODAY.

The data, provided by the Army, Navy and Department of Veterans Affairs, show that about five times as many troops sustained brain trauma as the 4,471 officially listed by the Pentagon through Sept. 30. These cases also are not reflected in the Pentagon's official tally of wounded, which stands at 30,327.

The number of brain-injury cases were tabulated from records kept by the VA and four military bases that house units that have served multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Soldiers and Marines whose wounds were discovered after they left Iraq are not added to the official casualty list, says Army Col. Robert Labutta, a neurologist and brain injury consultant for the Pentagon.

More than 150,000 troops may have suffered head injuries in combat, says Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., founder of the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force.

"I am wary that the number of brain-injured troops far exceeds the total number reported injured," he says.

TBI can be hard to pick up initially. You don't always know you have it, just perhaps that something is wrong. That 20,000 additional number comes from looking at records from the VA and just four key bases.

What would happen if ALL of the troops who have served over the last years were examined?

The debt continues to climb.

There's more...