Posted on 02/25/2012 7:30:34 AM PST by darrellmaurina
Capt. Susan Carlson was not a typical recruit when she volunteered for the Army in 2006 at the age of 50. But the Army desperately needed behavioral health professionals like her, so it signed her up.
Captain Carlson went to Afghanistan in 2011, seeking to experience what soldiers experience. Though she was, by her own account, not a strong soldier, she received excellent job reviews at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where she counseled prisoners. But last year, Captain Carlson, a social worker, was deployed to Afghanistan with the Colorado National Guard and everything fell apart.
After a soldier complained that she had made sexually suggestive remarks, she was suspended from her counseling duties and sent to an Army psychiatrist for evaluation. His findings were shattering: She had, he said in a report, a personality disorder, a diagnosis that the military has used to discharge thousands of troops. She was sent home.
She disputed the diagnosis, but it was not until months later that she found what seemed powerful ammunition buried in her medical file, portions of which she provided to The New York Times. Her command specifically asks for a diagnosis of a personality disorder, a document signed by the psychiatrist said.
Veterans advocates say Captain Carlson stumbled upon evidence of something they had long suspected but had struggled to prove: that military commanders pressure clinicians to issue unwarranted psychiatric diagnoses to get rid of troops.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
It will end up just suing the DOD for causing it.
“But her problems began soon after she arrived in Afghanistan last February. She got lost outside a combat outpost and wore shorts when she should have been in combat uniform. Then a junior enlisted soldier accused her of sexual harassment, citing an off-color remark she made during a game of Scrabble with several soldiers at a combat outpost.”
Does anybody know what happen to male Soldiers who get “lost” outside a combat outpost? Bad stuff. I wonder how many Soldiers had to go and find Capt Carlson when she got lost, thus endangering everybody with her fruit loop actions.
“Hmm, I shall put on these shorts, and take a hike through the exotic wilds of Afghanistan. Let me take my expensive camera, and photograph the harsh beauty of the rugged terrain.” Hint- it’s war. She got lost, and a few good men had to mount up and find her before she was kidnapped, raped, and possibly killed.
I don’t know her, her case, or anything, but if the NYT had these facts and her pic and interviewed her, these facts are probably good.
My read of this specific situation is that it's sad for all involved. We may or may not get the details later since this isn't a high-profile case, or at least it wasn't until Capt. Carlson entered the media fray.
My long-term concern is not so much Capt. Carlson, since I don't know the facts in her case, but rather the issue of “psychologizing” behavior issues. Mental health issues exist, and they need to be dealt with, but when people are pushed out of the military based on very subjective criteria rather than specific bad behavior, we need to be concerned.
If we're going to have a RIF, let's do it right by first getting rid of people who are proven poor performers, not by psychologizing things which warrant prosecution, especially when that has the effect of cutting the bills by reducing benefits paid.
Good gracious, people!
The article is from the New Yort Times! The New York Times!!!!
Take it with a very big grain of salt.
In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb here to state most of the “facts” are BS because it is from the New York Times.
A soldier comes on here and posts that he actually KNOWS the Captain, speaks a few words of support for her, and you are all going to dispute him in favor of what you read in the New York Freekin’ Times? That’s an M.O. for liberals; not FReepers.
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