Pentagon Puzzle

On Wednesday, a pair of concerned readers sent me an email written to the appointed members of the Recovering Warrior Task Force , the committee created by Congress in the wake of the Walter Reed scandal to reform the way our military treats our sick, injured and wounded personnel.

I’m not sure that there’s any issue of greater concern to either our lawmakers or the American people than how we care for our most vulnerable servicemembers – the men and women who often have suffered the most  during a decade of constant bloodletting.

Expected to meet for several more years, the panel already has issued one report detailing the changes they would like to see the Pentagon and Congress make, and they’re gathering findings for another one and had planned to travel soon to Iowa  and Illinois to check out those facilities.

Well, they were trying to do so, when they ran into Department of Defense red tape, and the duo who sent me the email wanted me to shred it.  They also fretted that the Office of the Secretary of Defense was trying to dump the task force or, at least, impede its fact-finding mission.

Because there are no issues with classification or opsec, I’ll just put the message out there so that you can read it:

 Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have informed the Co-Chairs and I want to ensure you all are aware also.  The Task Force membership has expired.  The renewals and the new appointments membership package are in the Secretary of Defense’s queue for correspondence signature.  Until signature by the SECDEF on the membership and then the non government members completion of the appropriate renewal paperwork, I have to cancel the upcoming travel to Iowa JFHQ and the Rock Island Community Based Warrior Transition Unit.  As we go farther down the road and if membership has not been approved, I will have to evaluate our reasonable ability to accomplish the next site visits and business meeting events also.  I cannot estimate how long it will take for the Membership package to complete the SECDEF correspondence queue.  I have not informed the Military Services or the site visit locations; I wanted you to know first. Once you know, I will inform the Military Services responsible for the upcoming two installation visits and my points of contact at the installations.

Denise Dailey

A retired O-6, Denise Dailey is the highly-respected executive director of the task force.  The co-chairs are the Surgeon General of the Air Force Charles B. Green, M.D., and Suzanne Crockett-Jones, the wife of a seriously wounded U.S. Army officer.    I genuinely admire both of them and if you don’t believe me you might check out this Q&A I did with Mrs. Crockett-Jones in July.

Both Green and Crockett-Jones tamped down fears that the task force was getting nixed.

“I honestly do not know what is going on,” wrote Crockett-Jones in a message.  “I certainly have no indication  that the task force is going away. I hope it is just a frustrating/disappointing paperwork snafu.”

They also referred me to Dailey, who said she couldn’t talk because policy forbids it.

Usually, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness and the Office of the Director of Administration and Management oversee task force matters, with the Administration and Program Support Division handling the nomination packages, so I began there.

I called the Administration and Program Support and no one bothered to call me back.  Of course!

As for DoD’s P&R, to understand how messed up it is all you have to do is go to the bio page and look at the two ladies currently doubling down on their toil.   That’s because of a scandal that rocked the department for much of the summer and fall.  They must be exhausted there.

So I decided to try to get an answer from the Office of the Secretary of Defense.  They replied late Friday, saying that SecDef Leon Panetta would take it up:  “As required by DoD policy and the task force’s charter, task force member appointments are renewed on an annual basis by the Secretary of Defense.  The packet is currently being reviewed by the Secretary, and we expect the package to be signed by early next week,” wrote Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith.

I couldn’t get an answer on why the packages were delayed for so long or who was responsible for the task force having to apparently put off their upcoming fact-finding destinations.

Maybe we’ll get that next week, too.  The wounded can wait, of course.

Tags: Leon Panetta, Recovering Warrior Task Force, Walter Reed scandal, Wounded Warrior Task Force