Madigan Army Medical Center - Allegations of War Stress Treatment Issues

Allegations of War Stress Treatment Issues

The alleged perpetrator of the Kandahar massacre was based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM). Before and after the massacre questions were raised about the quality of medical treatment and psychological diagnostics at Madigan. The center was under investigation because of allegations that the center's staff downgraded diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder for 300 service members to lesser conditions. The center's chief, Colonel Dallas Homas, and mental health chief, William Keppler, were placed on administrative leave during the inquiry. Keppler had reportedly told the center's staff that a diagnosis of PTSD costs the military $1.5 million over each servicemember's lifetime in health benefits and disability payments. A forensic psychologist at the center, Juliana Ellis-Billingsley, confident that doctors at MAMC were properly diagnosing MAMC patients using the highest mental health standards, resigned on 23 February 2012 due to what she apparently believed was undue pressure being brought on the MAMC physicians by politicians and DoD leadership in Washington D.C. to make PTSD diagnosis that were not consistent with the legitimate medical standards. In her resignation letter, Dr. Billingsley stated, "I find that I can no longer work in a system that requires me to sacrifice my professional and moral principles to political expediency." in her resignation letter.

Military support groups around the base have alleged that base commanders did not give returning troops sufficient time to recover before sending them on more deployments. The groups have also alleged that the base's medical staff is understaffed and overwhelmed by the numbers of returning veterans with deployment-related medical and psychological trauma. Since 2003, 68 servicemembers stationed at the base have committed suicide, with 16 taking their own lives in 2011. Other US Army bases, however, such as Fort Hood, Fort Campbell and Fort Bragg, have experienced higher rates of suicide and similar crime rates.

Soldiers from the base have been linked to other atrocities and crimes. The 2010 Maywand District murders involved JBLM-based soldiers. Also in 2010, a recently discharged AWOL soldier from JBLM shot a police officer in Salt Lake City. In April 2011, a JBLM soldier killed his wife and 5-year-old son before killing himself. In January 2012, a JBLM soldier murdered a Mount Rainier National Park ranger. Two JBLM soldiers have been charged with waterboarding their children. Jorge Gonzalez, executive director of a veterans resource center near Fort Lewis, said that Kandahar's killings offer more proof that the base is dysfunctional: "This was not a rogue soldier. JBLM is a rogue base, with a severe leadership problem", he said in a statement. Base officials responded, saying that the crimes committed by its soldiers were isolated events which don't, "reflect on the work and dedication of all service members." Robert H. Scales opined that conditions at JBLM were not necessarily an underlying factor in the shootings, instead suggesting that it was the 10 years of constant warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, and the repeated deployments required of the US's overtasked military.