A tragic disconnect

Nov. 11 was the day that the nation remembered the sacrifice of those who have served in the military.

But all the chest thumping, flag waving, parades, and solemn ceremonies were hollow when placed in the context of what was really going on.

Let’s recall some recent history that reminds us how we really treat the service men and women who have been killed or wounded in our defense. Let’s recall Walter Reed Army Hospital, Arlington National Cemetery, and the mortuary at Dover Air Force Base.

The horrendous conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center date back to 1999. But it was a series of articles in the Washington Post in 2007 that ignited the firestorm. There were widespread reports of neglect and incompetence brought forward by wounded soldiers and their families. The epicenter of the neglect was located in the infamous Building 18 at Walter Reed. It was a rat and cockroach infested facility that had extensive Black Mold, no heat, no water, and at which the wounded soldiers has to “pull guard duty” to maintain security at the entrance in order to cope with drug dealers. In addition, the wounded soldiers frequently had to prove that they were wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan because the Walter Reed employees could not find their records.

That was followed in 2010 with the revelations concerning Arlington National Cemetery. There were 6,600 graves that were mislabeled, bodies were lost, cremated remains were unidentified, and over $5 million dollars was spent in an unsuccessful attempt to computerize the cemetery’s burial records.

The Army’s Inspector General’s Office accused the Arlington Superintendent of failing to ensure that burials were done properly and failing to respond when the problems were discovered. At ensuing Congressional hearings Arlington’s top officials invoked 5th Amendment protection to avoid incriminating themselves.

And now we’ve got the scandal at Dover Air Force Base where the remains of the fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan come home to America. Thanks to whistleblower reports it has become clear that for years there has been gross mismanagement at the Dover mortuary. Body parts have been lost and misidentified. Families of the deceased have been misled. Troops’ remains have been cremated and the ashes have been dumped into a landfill in Virginia. And the Air Force has not fired any of the three Dover mortuary supervisors.

Terrible things like this happen in part because America is largely disengaged from the thankless and heroic effort of our armed forces. In their book, “That Used To Be Us,’’ Tom Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum report, “the military has become disconnected from mainstream America. The troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and their families make up less than 1 percent of the population. The rest of us contribute nothing. 1 per cent make all the sacrifice and the other 99 per cent make no sacrifice at all.”

Don’t kid yourself; America whistled past the graveyard on Veterans Day.