The United States Military is an elitist, patriarchal, hierarchical organization and had been since the time of George Washington. So why is everybody so shocked by this ward 72 business?? This is old news. Officer’s Clubs serve fine, twenty-year-old Scotch in crystal glasses with embroidered linen napkins. In an NCO club or a soldier’s bar, you’re lucky if your beer is served cold.
As a disabled veteran from another era, I can assure you that nothing much has changed. Like my father before me, I was an enlisted man, so I had to live with the consequences of low-priority veterans’ health care. I spent a couple of years in crowded, filthy, badly ventilated wards in the early 70’s at the Bethesda Naval Hospital and the Portsmouth Naval Hospital. I spent months in the Fort Jackson Army Hospital and later, when I had complications from my service-connected disability, I suffered through many weeks in understaffed, overflowing Veterans Administration Hospitals in Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina.
During most of this time, the esteemed Senior Senator from my state, Strom Thurmond was the Chairman (or the ranking minority member) of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. The conditions in VA Hospitals were horrible. Everybody knew this. It was no secret. In fact, it was sort of a standing (sick) joke about how dangerous these hospitals were. But interestingly, no matter how deplorable the conditions in VA hospitals got, the American Legion and the VFW fellows never held Thurmond accountable. These guys (including my father, bless his heart) would have followed Strom to hell and back as long as he stood for the preservation and purity of the White Race (cough, cough.)
I am not at all surprised by the existence of a Ward 72 at Walter Reed Hospital. Bethesda Naval Hospital probably has a super luxurious suite standing by for their congressional benefactors, too. Congress should de-fund this exorbitant outrage now! These Multi-Zillionaire Senators and Congressmen have plenty of private health insurance. Let them use it. Public funds should be used to care for Soldiers, Marines, Sailors and Airmen who have been wounded and maimed in the line of duty.
