Army secretary visits wounded troops at NC base after AP article details punishments

The secretary of the Army visited the wounded warrior barracks at a North Carolina post after the service said it would review disciplinary actions against recuperating troops.

Secretary Pete Geren's visit to the unit came after an Associated Press story last week said wounded soldiers were punished three times as often as healthy soldiers. Geren also was at Fort Bragg to speak at a 50th anniversary ceremony for the Army's Golden Knights parachute team.

Geren said he has been to nearly every one of the 35 wounded warrior units to talk to soldiers about what works and what doesn't in their care and treatment, The Fayetteville Observer reported Tuesday.

Geren also said the units were evolving and that he personally hadn't heard any complaints.

"I'm here to hear firsthand from them what their experiences have been," Geren said before his visit to the unit, which wasn't open to the public. "These are men and women who've carried the burden of battle for our country, and we're doing everything we can to make the warrior transition units work for them, to help them to get rehabilitated."

The general in charge of the Army's more than 9,000 wounded soldiers said last week he is ordering a review of how the ones at Fort Bragg are being punished for minor violations. The units were created two years ago after reports of poor conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

Former soldier Christina Steele told The Observer that she spent more than a year in the unit before getting out of the Army. Steele told the newspaper she was disciplined several times for sleeping through a morning formation because of sleeping pills doctors prescribed for her.

Steele said she saw other soldiers treated similarly.

"The morale is terrible," she said. "You've got a bunch of already busted and broken soldiers as it is."

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Information from: The Fayetteville Observer, http://www.fayobserver.com