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Wounded US Solider Billed For Lost Body Armour
9:26 AM, 08 Feb 2006
A U.S. soldier who was removed from the battlefield in Iraq on a stretcher has reportedly been forced to pay US$700 for the body armour taken off his blood-soaked body.
The Charleston Gazette reports 1st Lt. William “Eddie” Rebrook IV last saw his body armor when he was lying on a stretcher in Iraq with his arm shattered and covered in blood.
The paper says a field medic tied a tourniquet around Rebrook’s right arm to stanch the bleeding from shrapnel wounds and soldiers yanked off his body armor. Lt. Rebrook says he never saw it again.
25 year old Lt. Rebrook was leaving the Army for good because of his injuries. He says he turned in his gear at his base in Fort Hood, Texas, but was informed there was no record that the body armor had been stripped from him in battle.
He was told to pay nearly $700 or face not being discharged for weeks, perhaps months.
“I last saw the [body armor] when it was pulled off my bleeding body while I was being evacuated in a helicopter,” Rebrook was quoted as saying.“They took it off me and burned it.”
He says no one documented that he lost his Kevlar body armor during battle and no one wrote down that armor had apparently been incinerated as a biohazard.
Rebrook, 25, raised the cash from his Army buddies and has returned home to Charleston.
Rebrook’s mother, Beckie Drumheler, says she was saddened and angry when she learned that the Army discharged her son with a $700 bill.
“Soldiers who serve their country, those who put their lives on the line, deserve better,” the Gazette reported her as saying.
“I wanted to stand on a street corner and yell through a megaphone about this,” she said.
Rebrook’s right arm has not recovered completely and he still has range of motion problems. He says he still has pain when he turns over to sleep at night.
Lt. Rebrook says in the past the Army allowed to soldiers to write memos, explaining the loss and destruction of gear, but a new policy required a “report of survey” from the field that documented the loss.
He says he knows other soldiers who also have been forced to pay for equipment destroyed in battle.
There was no immediate comment from the U.S. Military.
What?
9:26 AM, 08 Feb 2006
A U.S. soldier who was removed from the battlefield in Iraq on a stretcher has reportedly been forced to pay US$700 for the body armour taken off his blood-soaked body.
The Charleston Gazette reports 1st Lt. William “Eddie” Rebrook IV last saw his body armor when he was lying on a stretcher in Iraq with his arm shattered and covered in blood.
The paper says a field medic tied a tourniquet around Rebrook’s right arm to stanch the bleeding from shrapnel wounds and soldiers yanked off his body armor. Lt. Rebrook says he never saw it again.
25 year old Lt. Rebrook was leaving the Army for good because of his injuries. He says he turned in his gear at his base in Fort Hood, Texas, but was informed there was no record that the body armor had been stripped from him in battle.
He was told to pay nearly $700 or face not being discharged for weeks, perhaps months.
“I last saw the [body armor] when it was pulled off my bleeding body while I was being evacuated in a helicopter,” Rebrook was quoted as saying.“They took it off me and burned it.”
He says no one documented that he lost his Kevlar body armor during battle and no one wrote down that armor had apparently been incinerated as a biohazard.
Rebrook, 25, raised the cash from his Army buddies and has returned home to Charleston.
Rebrook’s mother, Beckie Drumheler, says she was saddened and angry when she learned that the Army discharged her son with a $700 bill.
“Soldiers who serve their country, those who put their lives on the line, deserve better,” the Gazette reported her as saying.
“I wanted to stand on a street corner and yell through a megaphone about this,” she said.
Rebrook’s right arm has not recovered completely and he still has range of motion problems. He says he still has pain when he turns over to sleep at night.
Lt. Rebrook says in the past the Army allowed to soldiers to write memos, explaining the loss and destruction of gear, but a new policy required a “report of survey” from the field that documented the loss.
He says he knows other soldiers who also have been forced to pay for equipment destroyed in battle.
There was no immediate comment from the U.S. Military.
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