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Rules unclear for wounded troops back on duty

Not since the Civil War have so many wounded service members returned to duty.

But that may be the last time anyone looked at policies related to keeping on the job men and women missing limbs, eyes or hearing.

“We fix them up, we send ’em back to mama, and then they go to the local VA,” said Army Maj. David Rozelle, director of the new Military Advanced Training Center at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

For Rozelle, who lost a foot in Iraq in August 2003, that wasn’t an option. When Vietnam veterans showed up at Walter Reed with information about medical retirement, Rozelle lost it.

“I didn’t want to be a veteran,” he said. “I sure as hell didn’t want to talk to some old veterans. I wanted them to fix me, and I wanted to get back at the job. At the time, we didn’t have anything in place to do that.”

Rozelle was not alone. Since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began, 65 of 680 service members with amputations have returned to duty, and eight have gone back to a combat zone.

Early last year, the Pentagon created a new policy that allowed war veterans with amputations to stay on active duty. But even with the new rules, getting the word out was difficult, with service members fighting to stay in and doctors not knowing they could. At the 2007 Defense Forum on Tuesday, sponsored by the Military Officers Association of America and the U.S. Naval Institute, a panel addressed the problems that remain — problems that still center on policy and updating rules.

Army Capt. D.J. Skelton Jr. also reacted differently than expected as he waited to go through a medical evaluation board after having “walked in front of” a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq in November 2004. He was left with a mangled left arm and right leg, a prosthetic palate, severe trauma to the head, and only one eye.

“As I was going through, people kept saying, ‘Thanks so much for serving, good luck in the civilian world,’” he said. “I thought, ‘I speak Chinese fluently. Maybe that’s a commodity you want to hold onto.’”

In February 2006, Skelton moved to the Defense Department’s Office of Health Affairs to help implement policy changes and updates.

“It was completely selfish,” he said. “I really just wanted to change the policy so I could stay in the Army.”

But then he discovered even more issues.

“It seems really easy to say that if you want to continue to serve, you can continue to serve,” he said.

But then he wondered if it’s safe for troops to be led in a war zone by someone who may not be able to get in and out of a vehicle quickly, or who can’t see to scan his entire sector. He also wondered how service members with disabilities can stay competitive for promotion with able-bodied troops when so much is determined by points for physical fitness tests or war-zone experience.

And what if that service member isn’t a good troop?

“If I was a horrible soldier and horrible leader, would you retain me solely because I lost an eye?” Skelton said.

He helped come up with a career management plan to address those issues but said much remains to be done.

When injured service members remain in the military, they choose not to take disability retirement pay — usually 100 percent for someone with an amputation — or the health benefits that come with a military medical retirement.

While they’re in the service, of course, the military takes care of their health needs. But what happens when they finally do leave service?

“Do I deserve less of a settlement from DoD or VA when I retire because I was found fit for duty with an amputation?” Rozelle said. “No. It should be the same as anyone with my injury.”

And what if another injury, such as back problems, causes Rozelle to be medically separated in the future? Will his missing foot be considered in his disability percentage?

Because no one has ever gone through that before, there’s no policy in place to deal with it.

Skelton said his biggest gripe with trying to change policy to account for service members who may not be able to shoot or do push-ups (he can’t do either — but he can run marathons) is the military leadership’s habit of saying, “That’s the way it’s always been.”

“We can’t keep doing things the way we’ve always done them,” Skelton said.