Fifteen months of carnage in Iraq had left the 29-year-old debilitated by post-traumatic stress disorder. But despite his doctor\u2019s urgent recommendation, the Army failed to send him to a Warrior Transition Unit for help. The best the Department of Veterans Affairs could offer was 10-minute therapy sessions \u2014 via videoconference.<\/p>\n
So, early on Labor Day morning last year, after topping off a night of drinking with a handful of sleeping pills, Quinones barged into Fort Stewart\u2019s hospital, forced his way to the third-floor psychiatric ward and held three soldiers hostage, demanding better mental health treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve done it the Army\u2019s way,\u201d Quinones told Henson. \u201cWe\u2019re going to do it my way now.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Aside: As a ‘Nam vet watching friends and others trying to get help before there even WAS a diagnosis of PTSD around; and watching civilians who had watched one too many movies about Crazy Vietnam Vets cringe away from me when it became known I’d visited the place I reckon I’m just a bit sensitive.<\/p>\n
He saw an Army therapist twice a week, and he was prescribed high doses of medications to treat anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia and depression. In March 2009, his psychiatrist completed the Army\u2019s Warrior Screening Matrix, a tool implemented by the service to determine when a soldier should be assigned to a Warrior Transition Unit, a medical unit for injured soldiers.<\/p>\n
The doctor answers questions about a soldier\u2019s ability to perform his duties, his behavioral health, treatment needs, drug or alcohol abuse, suicide history, medical compliance, life stressors such as divorce and whether the illness or injury affects self-worth.<\/p>\n
Each answer gets a corresponding number, which are all totaled for a score.<\/p>\n
Less than 29: no need for the WTU.<\/p>\n
Between 30 and 199: Possible need for the WTU.<\/p>\n
Between 200 and 999: Needs to go to the WTU.<\/p>\n
A score of 1,000 or above: Failure to assign a soldier to the WTU is likely to hurt treatment.<\/p>\n
Quinones scored 2,331. The psychiatrist underlined it twice on the paperwork.<\/p>\n
He left a voicemail for Quinones\u2019 company commander, but in the Army\u2019s system, medical professionals are largely consultants. The decision on how to proceed is up to the commander.<\/p>\n
Quinones was never sent to the WTU.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThere’s a lot of Army terms I’m unfamiliar with, but the story DOES come from S&S. The comments offer further validity.<\/p>\n
And it pisses me off! <\/strong>Not quite sure what to do next, but it’s for certain that this story needs to get out there.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s taken me a coupla days to calm down enough to post this one. I kept … How Far Would YOU Go?<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":467,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126,172,10,86,118,143],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disposable-warriors","category-geezer-alert","category-historical","category-veteran-health-care","category-veterans-issues","category-veterans-affairs-department"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/467"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26261\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}