Army torments soldiers with gunfire

The Washington Post, obviously uninformed about the nature of the business of the Army, accuses the Army of tormenting soldiers with the sound of gunfire inside a military base;

Army Sgt. Jonathan Strickland sits in his room at noon with the blinds drawn, seeking the sleep that has eluded him since he was knocked out by the blast of a Baghdad car bomb.

Like many of the wounded soldiers living in the newly built “warrior transition” barracks here, the soft-spoken 25-year-old suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. But even as Strickland and his comrades struggle with nightmares, anxiety and flashbacks from their wartime experiences, the sounds of gunfire have followed them here, just outside their windows.

Across the street from their assigned housing, about 200 yards away, are some of the Army infantry’s main firing ranges, and day and night, several days each week, barrages from rifles and machine guns echo around Strickland’s building. The noise makes the wounded cringe, startle in their formations, and stay awake and on edge, according to several soldiers interviewed at the barracks last month. The gunfire recently sent one soldier to the emergency room with an anxiety attack, they said.

I’ve lived at Fort Benning and there are ranges every where – because it’s mainly a training facility for infantrymen. Infantryman shoot guns day and night. And, funny thing, none of the soldiers have been complaining about it;

“Fort Benning is a training unit, so there is gunfire around us all the time,” said Elaine Kelley, a behavioral health supervisor at the base hospital. If a soldier had a severe problem, it would have been identified, she said.

Lt. Col. Sean Mulcahey, who recently took command of the Warrior Transition Battalion, where wounded soldiers are assigned, said: “No soldier has talked with me about the ranges.” If it is an issue, “we will address it,” he said, stressing that the battalion’s mission is “getting those soldiers to heal.”

So if no one complained to the commander of the unit, how did the Washington Post find out about it?

Soldiers interviewed said complaints to medical personnel at Fort Benning’s Martin Army Community Hospital and officers in their chain of command have brought no relief, prompting one soldier’s father to contact The Washington Post.

Emphasis is mine. I’m sure the father thinks he’s helping, but the Washington Post isn’t very helpful.

Under Army rules, commanders of warrior transition units are supposed to enforce “quiet hours.” Officials said the location of the barracks for wounded soldiers, along with a $1.2 million Soldier and Family Assistance Center, was chosen for its proximity to central facilities such as the hospital.

The hospital isn’t near any ranges – how stupid would that be to build a hospital near ranges. However, there are big booms emanating from the impact area that can be heard all the way into Columbus, Ga. You can hear rifle fire all night from miles away all over the post. I remember hearing the gunfire from the ranges while I stumbled from bar to bar on Victory Drive. My quarters were a few hundred yards from the hospital and the sound of gunfire never bothered me or my family.

I’m not completely unsympathetic to people who suffer from PTSD from the war, but, I have to ask them what would be their solution to this problem? What would the Washington Post like the Army to do about it? Develop silent weapons? Stop training for night combat operations (our greatest advantage over every army on earth)? Or put these troops in sound-proofed cells?

I’m sure the Washington Post has proof it’ll release later that that Dick Cheney has the sound from the ranges piped directly into soldiers’ rooms.

Category: Media, Politics, Terror War