President's Commission Underreports the Number of Injured Soldiers

The report released (.pdf) yesterday by the President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors states that 94 soldiers have suffered spinal cord injuries during the "Global War on Terror". Unfortunately, this number is wrong.

I contacted the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA) in March 2006 to learn how many soldiers had sustained spinal cord injuries during the war for a potential story. Neither the DoD nor the VA had the statistic immediately available, but they graciously looked them up for me and the numbers don't add up.

228 soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan had been treated for spinal cord injuries at the VA and other military hospitals as of March 14, 2006.

I am still trying to figure this out. How could there be 228 spinal cord injured soldiers in March 2006, but only 94 now?

Does military health care suck so much that most soldiers with spinal cord injuries die, or is the commission underreporting the number of injuries? I doubt that military health care is that bad -- the VA has 23 spinal cord injury centers that are considered among the best in the country -- so it has to be the latter.

The commission was created by the following Executive Order:

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to provide a comprehensive review of the care provided to America’s returning Global War on Terror service men and women from the time they leave the battlefield through their return to civilian life, it is hereby ordered as follows:

The mission of the Commission shall be to:

(a) examine the effectiveness of returning wounded service members’ transition from deployment in support of the Global War on Terror to successful return to productive military service or civilian society, and recommend needed improvements;

(b) evaluate the coordination, management, and adequacy of the delivery of health care, disability, traumatic injury, education, employment, and other benefits and services to returning wounded Global War on Terror service members by Federal agencies as well as by the private sector, and recommend ways to ensure that programs provide high-quality services;

(c) (i) analyze the effectiveness of existing outreach to service members regarding such benefits and services, and service members’ level of awareness of and ability to access these benefits and services, and (ii) identify ways to reduce barriers to and gaps in these benefits and services; and

(d) consult with foundations, veterans service organizations, non-profit groups, faith-based organizations, and others as appropriate, in performing the Commission’s functions under subsections (a) through (c) of this section.

The number in the report may be referring only to combat-related injuries, but that would mean the Bush administration doesn't care about those who served honorably and sustained a non-combat-related injury.

I am jaded, but I still don't think the Bush administration is that callous.

Or are they? Fewer injured soldiers means less pressure on the Bush administration to cure them -- so maybe.

I will be looking into this.