A Denver Post series that started today delves into the plight of injured soldiers in Fort Carson’s 3^rd Brigade Combat Team who were sent to war despite their medical concerns.

The Monday story highlights a growing problem in the Army of dealing with wear and tear of war while having to frequently deploy combat units. You can see the Post stories, authored by Erin Emery and David Olinger at http://www.denverpost.com/thebattlewithin on the Internet.

The series examines a number of soldiers who complain that the Army ignored serious medical conditions in favor of meeting troop-strength numbers.

Whether the problems pointed out by the Post in the series are handled differently by the Army will play out at the post this week when the 2^nd Brigade Combat team of the 4^th Infantry Division heads out to Iraq duty.

Under plans unveiled in the Gazette Saturday,  the 2^nd Brigade will leave nearly 15 percent of its soldiers behind, mostly for medical reasons. The Gazette story also includes the 3^rd Brigade’s commander, Col. John Hort, expressing no regrets over sending injured troops to battle in non-combat jobs. Hort, like his boss Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, admits mistakes were made in sending medically-troubled soldiers to Iraq and Kuwait, but stands by the decision.

Here’s the story: http://www.gazette.com/articles/soldiers_39672___article.html/brigade_hort.html

The Post series examines other issues that have been frequent topics in the Gazete, including a rise in suicides in the Army. One of their stories features Sgt. Chad Barrett, whose suicide was highlighted in a May edition of The Gazette. Here’s that story: http://www.gazette.com/articles/barrett_36692___article.html/iraq_army.html

Let’s talk about how the Army is handling this issue.

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