Soldiers: Mold infests Okla. barracks for wounded

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Soldiers: Mold infests Okla. barracks for wounded

USA Today*

http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2008-08-17-mold_N.htm

LAWTON, Okla. — Mold infests the barracks that were set up here a

year ago for wounded soldiers after poor conditions at Walter

Army Medical Center triggered a systemwide overhaul, soldiers say.

Twenty soldiers, who spoke to USA TODAY early last week, said their

complaints about mold and other problems went unheeded for months.

They also said they had been ordered not speak about the conditions

at Fort Sill.

Officers at the Army base last week ordered that ventilation ducts

in two barracks be replaced and soldiers be surveyed, anonymously if

they wished, about any concerns. Maj. Gen. Vangjel, the

commanding officer, said it was " inappropriate " for soldiers to be

ordered not to talk about the mold.

" We're going in and we're going to take care of this for these

guys, " he said over the weekend.

Images of mold growing on walls of wounded-soldier bedrooms at

Walter last year, along with issues of bureaucratic delays in

health care, led to an overhaul of the Army's wounded-care system.

Warrior Transition Units (WTU) were created to expedite the care and

treatment of wounded and ailing soldiers.

Army commanders testified before Congress on July 22 that the

population of wounded and ailing soldiers in the units had doubled

from 6,000 to 12,000 since the program's inception in June 2007,

straining resources at several installations.

Col. Bridgford, garrison commander at Fort Sill, said he

ordered workers last week to replace ventilation ducts encrusted

with mold in two 48-room wounded-soldier barracks at the base.

About 70 of the 142 patients who are part of the unit for wounded

and ailing troops at Fort Sill live in the barracks, said Col. Ellen

Forster, who oversees the WTU program. The soldiers are temporarily

relocated during the repair work.

LEADERS: Army defends oversight of soldier care unit

Early last week, soldiers told USA TODAY that in April they first

noticed what looked like layers of mold in flexible air ducts above

their rooms when ventilation covers were removed to be

cleaned. " (The duct work) was just caked black, " said Sgt. Willard

Barnett, 51, an Iraq war veteran.

Some soldiers said they have been affected by air in their rooms.

" When I wake up in the morning, I have crud in my eyes, and I have

like this slimy phlegm in the back of my throat, " said Spc.

Dodson, 26.

Vangjel and Forster said they were unaware of any complaints in

April.

Bridgford said that Aug. 8 lab tests, taken in response to a July 25

inspector general's review, show the barracks have " common mold "

that is not hazardous. He also said some vents were cleaned earlier

this year.

Forster, a nurse who commands the Fort Sill hospital, told WTU

soldiers Friday that the barracks are safe.