A stunning video, shot by a returning combat veteran's dad, and uploaded to YouTube by him, shows the deplorable conditions awaiting his son in the barracks at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, after 15 long months in Afghanistan. The screen capture to the left is a soldier plunging a clogged bathroom drain, on a bathroom floored filled with inches of standing water and raw sewage. Ft. Bragg's living conditions, at least as shown in this video by a suitably outraged father, bring to mind those at Walter Reed, profiled by the reporting team at the Washington Post last year. The Fayetteville Observer has weighed in with an article on the conditions at Fort Bragg, prompted by the release of this video, and they're asking for answers, too. Do yourself a favor and watch what one citizen journalist did to document the conditions facing some returning military. We are not remotely giving them the care that they deserve. And it's shameful that public pressure has to be brought to bear, by videos like this, before conditions are improved for returning servicemembers. When you think of all the challenges they've been through, which are more than enough to process and decompress from, the last thing they need it to be "greeted" with hospitality like this. If this is how we treat our returning soldiers, what hope can they have that we as a country really care about their welfare -- mental, emotional, physical and spiritual. These pictures speak louder than words. Watch the video, below. The article in the Fayetteville Observer is linked here; with follow-up linked here, and three full days later (cough, cough) on CNN, linked here. (It's great to scoop CNN on a blog ;-). (Military.com has not covered it yet, but ideally they will, and soon.) Over time, of course, we can expect to see follow-up, and damage control, and spin -- and eventually, one hopes, actual change.
Editor's Note: the video was uploaded by Edward Frawley, the father of a sergeant who served with the Army in Afghanistan, as part of Charlie CO 2/508 82n Airborne. His son returned to the U.S. on April 13, 2008, and is living in the dilapidated barracks on base.
