[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 81 (Monday, June 14, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6737-S6738]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. PRYOR:
  S. 2516. A bill to recognize the sacrifices of the members of the 
Armed Forces who are injured in combat, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on Armed Services.
  Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, I come to the Chamber today to discuss a 
reality of today's world in Iraq and elsewhere that I think has not 
received the appropriate attention. I am referring to the thousands of 
men and women who have been seriously wounded in recent U.S. combat 
missions. The numbers wounded in Iraq have soared in recent weeks. 
Fatalities have risen likewise to a total of 817 yesterday. Of the 
latest data I have been able to find, 5,015 military personnel have 
been injured in Iraq, 2,049 have been able to return to action within 
72 hours, and 2,964 could not, and many of these injured troops will 
face months, if not years, of rehabilitation. Many of these troops will 
suffer lifelong disabilities.
  I am told Walter Reed Army Hospital is close to being filled to 
capacity. I have been to Walter Reed twice this year, and while I 
talked with soldiers who were wounded in the Iraqi theater, I can tell 
you that coming face to face with our soldiers in a hospital ward is a 
sobering event. It makes you think about the costs of war and the 
sacrifices these men and women have made for our Nation, for each of 
us.
  Memorial Day has just passed, and I have tried to think how best to 
recognize the sacrifices of our wounded service men and women. I am not 
sure that I ever can appropriately and fully recognize their sacrifice, 
but I want to try. That is why I introduce today the Service Act for 
Care and Relief Initiatives for Forces Injured in Combat Engagement 
Act, or the SACRIFICE Act. The SACRIFICE Act addresses the commitment 
shown by our troops injured in combat and attempts to reciprocate in 
kind.
  My bill does three things. First, it would recognize the sacrifice of 
American military personnel killed and injured in combat and the heroic 
efforts of our medical teams through a sense of the Senate.
  Second, it would aim to ease the stress of families who are 
attempting to follow the whereabouts of a loved one injured by combat 
by establishing a tracking system for wounded personnel being 
transported out of a combat zone.
  Third, it would call for a $10 million authorization to modernize 
medical combat equipment, treatment, and combat care triage for our 
medics in their fight to save lives.
  Let me tell my colleagues how I came to write this bill.
  Arkansas is a relatively small State with a relatively high 
enrollment of Arkansans serving our Nation in Active Duty and in the 
National Guard and Reserve. In March of this year, we said goodbye to 
3,000 fellow Arkansans who were deployed to Iraq as part of the 39th 
Infantry Brigade of the first Cavalry.
  It was hard for me to witness separation of families as soldiers 
prepared for year long war zone deployment. It has been painful to 
receive news of the 8 Arkansans who have fallen since the beginning of 
that deployment and the additional 44 who have been seriously injured 
and transported out of theater.
  In honor of this sacrifice, the first section of my bill is a sense 
of the Senate regarding the American military personnel killed and 
injured in combat and the heroic efforts of our medical teams.
  The second section of the bill, the tracking portion, is an easy, no-
cost provision to ease emotional stress of families whose loved ones 
have been listed as seriously injured or very seriously injured and are 
being transported out of theater.
  As I mentioned before, 44 Arkansas members of the 39th Infantry 
Brigade have thus far been listed as seriously injured or very 
seriously injured and evacuated out of theater. Although Congress does 
not receive notification of the wounded, I continuously receive calls 
from families who are distraught and worried because of failures in the 
current family notification system.
  The Defense Department has a computer tracking system that is 
designed to help keep families of fallen soldiers informed of their 
whereabouts, but the system is not without glitches. For example, some 
families who have contacted my office have been distraught after 
hearing from military that they are not exactly sure where the soldiers 
were at the time. This has made it difficult for families to make plans 
to travel to the hospitals where their loved one are being cared for.
  Also, when a soldier is upgraded from seriously injured or very 
seriously injured to not seriously injured, the Department of the Army 
closes out their case in the computer tracking system, making it 
particularly difficult for families to keep track of their loved ones. 
We can and should do more for families of loved ones during such trying 
times.
  I want to recognize SPC Henry Austin Phillips of Charlie Company of 
the 153rd Infantry, 39th Brigade out of DeQueen, AR.
  For example, some families that have contacted my office have been 
distraught after hearing from the military that they were not sure 
exactly where the soldiers were at that time. This has made it 
difficult for families to make plans to travel to the hospital where 
their loved ones are being cared for.
  Also, when a soldier is upgraded from ``seriously injured'' or ``very 
seriously injured'' to ``not seriously inured,'' the Department of the 
Army closes out their case in the computer tracking system, making it 
particularly difficult for families to keep track of their loved ones. 
We can--and should--do more for the families of loved ones during such 
trying times.
  I want to recognize SPC Henry Austin Phillips of the Charlie Company, 
1-153d Infantry, 39th Brigade out of DeQueen, AR. He did a great job in 
the field, and the communication problems that ensued following his 
injury are not a reflection of him or the military.
  He was proud to serve his country, and his State and country are 
proud of him. I know that if he could return, he would.
  As I understand it, this is the situation that Pam Phillips endured 
when her husband was wounded in Iraq, losing his lower right leg.
  After suffering his injury, Specialist Phillips requested that he 
deliver the news to Pam regarding the seriousness of his condition.
  He talked with Pam on Wednesday, May 19, asked her to join him as 
soon as possible at the Landstuhl Hospital in Germany, where Specialist 
Phillips understood he would be receiving critical treatment. 
Naturally, Pam told her husband that she would be there.
  I can only imagine that call but it should come as no surprise that 
Pam and Specialist Phillips both assumed that the Army would assist Pam 
in joining her husband as soon as possible. That was Specialist 
Phillips's wish.
  But that did not happen.
  The nature of Specialist Phillips's injuries required that he be 
heavily sedated following this phone call so he was unable to speak 
directly with his wife for several days.
  After talking with her husband on May 19, Pam assumed that someone in 
the Army would assist her in getting to Germany and advise her of her 
husband's health status. For the record, we do indeed provide spouses 
with Invitational Travel Orders to transport immediate family members 
of the seriously wounded. I have encountered several problems with 
those orders, too.

[[Page S6738]]

  However, Pam received no additional communication from the Army. Two 
days later, on May 21, I received a call from Arkansas State 
Representative Daryl Pace, Pam's brother. Regrettably, this was not the 
first call I have gotten from families trying to locate their loved 
ones who have been wounded. I have had four such calls since April.
  My staff and the Arkansas National Guard worked tirelessly to track 
down Specialist Phillips. Finally, on Monday, May 24, 5 days later, Pam 
learned that her husband had arrived at Walter Reed on Friday, May 21. 
After 5 days of sheer emotional stress, Pam finally learned that her 
husband was recovering, that he was OK.
  Here is what Daryl Pace has to say about the experience that his 
sister Pam went through:

       There's an empty channel between the field and the 
     hospital. When nobody could find Austin, Pam was horrified 
     that Austin's condition had deteriorated. We were left with 
     the assumption that he was no longer with us.

  I ask my colleagues, can they imagine getting a phone call from their 
son, their daughter, their husband or their wife telling them that they 
had lost their leg and that they wanted my colleagues to be with them 
as soon as possible?
  Can you imagine that their loved one is in the care of the U.S. Armed 
Forces, but nobody in the military calls them? Nobody can answer an 
inquiry about their loved one's whereabouts?
  Again, my bill language is direct, I simply want the Secretary of 
Defense to put into place a uniform policy and procedure that notifies 
families of an injury to a loved one in combat, followed by regular 
updates on the health and location of the wounded member.
  I ask my colleagues to support me in helping families during a time 
of terrible tension and emotional pain by requesting that the Secretary 
review this matter and put into place a policy that supports families 
rather than burdens them.
  The last section of the bill aims to reduce fatalities and disability 
rates by providing medics in theater with tools that they need.
  Like many of my colleagues, I have taken note of the rising 
casualties and the rising wounded count. But I have also taken note of 
a rising number of news articles detailing the conditions that our 
medics must work under while treating our wounded.
  According to a Washington Post article on April 27, 2004: ``So far in 
April, more than 900 soldiers and Marines have been wounded in Iraq, 
more than twice the number wounded in October, the previous high.'' 
While half of those wounded were able to return to duty, ``The others 
arrive on stretchers at the hospitals operated by the 31st Combat 
Support Hospital.
  And I quote, ``These injuries,'' said LTC Stephen M. Smith, executive 
officer of the Baghdad facility, ``are horrific.''
  The article goes on to document the struggles that the medical team 
confronts everyday in meeting their goal to provide ``lightning-swift, 
expert treatment'' and the transfer of the wounded to a military 
hospital.
  An Army survey has documented that the unit with the lowest morale in 
Iraq was one that ran the combat hospitals.
  Another article from the Washington Times dated May 5, 2004, carries 
the headline: ``Casualties of Iraq war can `get to' U.S. Medics.'' The 
article reports that in April 2004, the deadliest month for the U.S.-
led coalition in Iraq, the Baghdad hospital treated more than 500 
wounded Americans.
  The article chronicles the amazing efforts by U.S. medical personnel 
to save the lives of the wounded.
  It details the adverse conditions where ``the emergency room 
overflows with wounded soldiers on stretchers.'' It quotes Major 
Wenner, a family doctor from Fort Sill, OK, as saying that:

       It's not the names I remember as I go to sleep, It is the 
     faces and the injuries. . . . My alarm goes off, and it is 
     time to start all over again. Groundhog Day, we call it.

  These medics and the wounded that they tend to everyday merit 
immediate attention by this body for the conditions they work under and 
medical equipment they work with.
  The 212th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital is an example of our current 
combat support hospital system that we use in Iraq. It is basically a 
bunch of tents. I have had the opportunity to tour a model similar to 
that used by the 212th, but that was on the Capitol lawn when it wasn't 
in use.
  According to an Army Lessons Learned Report on the 212th, the reality 
of these medic platforms is frightening. The tents are porous and the 
report sites adverse conditions for medical personnel and the wounded 
they treat due to sand and dirt filtering through the seams, doors and 
floors impacting the medical team's ability to function.
  I think we can do better than this and in fact, so does the Army. The 
Army has a plan to modernize the combat support hospitals into the 
Future Combat Hospital Systems. Let me share with you the Army's view:

       The U.S. Army Medical Department has a continuing 
     requirement to support its deployed medical forces with 
     shelters appropriate to battlefield medical missions. 
     Currently a combination of aged ISO Shelters and TEMPER Tents 
     are being used at Combat Support Hospital (CSHs), and Forward 
     Surgical Teams (FST) are using a composite of less than 
     optimal tents. A formal Operational Requirements Document was 
     drafted by the U.S. Army Medical Department Center and School 
     to support an upgrade/modernization to these new platforms. 
     With the recent changeover to the new Joint requirements 
     process, this document will eventually roll into this new 
     format.

  This Army report further states that the U.S. Army Medical Research 
and Material Command placed a requirement into the fiscal year 2006-
2011 Program Objective Memorandum for the development effort. The 
funding requested was $14 million for fiscal year 2005-2006 and $10 
million for fiscal year 2007. However, modernization of the Combat 
Support Hospital System fell below the core funding capability.
  In another report, the modernization, conversion and recapitalization 
for the non-medical equipment components necessary to support the Army 
medical casualty care platform was recognized as a shortfall in the 
organizational structure in the first gulf war, Operation Desert 
Shield/Desert Storm.
  In other words, we have known for more than a decade that the current 
system does not work well in today's battlefields but we didn't fund 
the upgrade. We are basically putting U.S. medical personnel in a 
situation that makes their jobs even harder.
  I am not aware of any objection to this provision, except for the 
offset. It is not the merits, it is the money.
  So I ask my colleagues, what is it worth to save one soldier, one 
Marine? I think it is worth at least $10 million for medical equipment 
that has been identified as a necessary readiness requirement. I think 
$10 million is more than reasonable.
  Medical analysis suggests that each additional dollar spent on 
modernization of medical equipment can produce health gains, including 
reducing death and disability rates.
  Just as important, additional investments in the combat support 
hospital system will send a message to our doctors, nurses and other 
critical medical support personnel in theater. It will tell them that 
we recognize the tremendous job that they are doing and that we back up 
that recognition with real tools that will aid them in their work. 
Given the conditions that these medics are working under, $10 million 
is the least we can do.
  The $10 million for medical equipment and combat casualty care 
technologies would be funded by an offset from a defense-wide reduction 
in travel monies. The General Accounting Office recently found that the 
Department of Defense is losing millions of dollars in fraud, waste and 
improper papers for travel. Fixing this problem is a double victory for 
taxpayers and our Defense priorities.
  In closing, my bill SACRIFICE is a humble act that holds very 
important initiatives. I urge my colleagues to join me in my effort to 
recognize the sacrifice being made by members of the Armed Forces, to 
provide support for their families, and to provide the necessary tools 
to bring them home safely.
                                 ______