Chiarelli Rejects “Medicated” Army Claim

Military.com

Bryant Jordan

August 9, 2010

The Army is not drugging the troops to cope with combat, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli said during an August 8 interview on ABC’s “This Week with Christiane Amanpour.”

Chiarelli, referencing a July Army report showing a sharp increase in soldier suicides and an increase in serious crimes committed by GIs, said the study’s claim that “data would suggest [the Army is] becoming more dependent on pharmaceuticals to sustain the force” is a concern.  The report continues: “In fact, anecdotal information suggests that the force is becoming increasingly dependent on both legal and illegal drugs,” with about one-third of soldiers on some kind of prescription drug.

Chiarelli acknowledged that more than 106,000 soldiers were on prescription medication for three weeks or more last year—including antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication.  But he said the drugs were authorized by U.S. Central Command’s medical personnel, rejecting Amanpour’s comment that the report “raises the specter of a significant number of people out there, heavily armed, afraid, under fire, IEDs [around], and drugged.”

“But we know,” Chiarelli said, “that the drugs we’re talking about are cleared by CentCom surgeons for soldiers to be taking when they’re down range.  So we’re not sending any soldier into harm’s way who is taking any drug that we feel would somehow endanger him or some others.”

Chiarelli didn’t address the report’s claim that some soldiers are self-medicating with illegal drugs, but said many of the troops on prescription medications—14 percent, the report states—were taking them for physical pain and had nothing to do with a soldier’s behavior.

“There are soldiers who have been on two, three, four deployments, humping a rucksack filled with equipment that may weigh 70 to 80 pounds at 8,000 feet, and they’ve got a knee injury or a leg injury that is painful,” Chiarelli said.  “Probably [they] should stay home and get operated on, but they go back for the second deployment and they’re on some kind of a pain medication.  We have soldiers who suck it up all the time and hide from their leaders when they’re hurt.”

The report, which Chiarelli had requested, says the high number of suicides among soldiers reflects a rise in “risky behavior,” including illegal drug use and alcohol consumption.  But it also laid responsibility for the problem on Army leadership, which has failed to see warning signs or looked the other way because sidelining troops over behavioral issues might interfere with mission and deployment schedules.

According to the report, there were 160 soldier suicides in 2009—a record that put the rate of Army suicides well over the rate for the civilian population.  The report also noted 146 deaths last year linked to murder, drug use and other behavior, The Associated Press reported July 30.

Chiarelli has conceded that the faster pace of deployments and troops having to make multiple combat tours are part of the problem, but he said the spike in suicides is not solely because of the frequent deployments.  About 60 percent of the soldiers who commit suicide, he said, were on their first enlistment and the deaths occurred early in their tour.

That said, Chiarelli also believes that giving troops more time at home between combat tours will help.  The Army’s goal is to have soldiers back home two months for every one deployed—and eventually to get that garrison time up to three months for each one deployed, he said.

“We’re not there yet,” he told Amanour.  “We know when that happens many of the problems that we’ve seen will in fact meliorate themselves.”

Source:  http://military.com/news/article/chiarelli-rejects-medicated-army-claim.html