Something a bit unusual seems to be going around Washington these days….accountability:
The Army forced its surgeon general, Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, to retire, officials said Monday, the third high-level official to lose his job over poor outpatient treatment of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Kiley, who headed Walter Reed from 2002 to 2004, has been a lightning rod for criticism over conditions at the Army’s premier medical facility, including during congressional hearings last week. Soldiers and their families have complained about substandard living conditions and bureaucratic delays at the hospital overwhelmed with wounded from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Kiley submitted his retirement request on Sunday, the Army said in a statement.
“We must move quickly to fill this position – this leader will have a key role in moving the way forward in meeting the needs of our wounded warriors,” Acting Secretary of the Army Pete Geren said in an Army statement.
Geren asked Kiley to retire, said a senior defense official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was not involved in the decision to ask Kiley to retire, the official said.
That may or may not be true. There is a PATTERN under Gates, which is greater accountability — which means consequences — versus in-your-face, let’s rally the base, toughing it out. We’ll know more in coming weeks as reporting from the newsmagazines, etc…come out whether this was more than merely a higher-up giving Kiley the boot, particularly when it is no secret Gates was reportedly furious that Kiley was appointed to take over.
ABC News:
Geren did not give a reason for Kiley’s retirement, but in a room packed with medical staff and troops said, “A soldier who fights the battle should not have to come home and fight the battle of bureaucracy. … I will never leave a fallen comrade — that means on the battlefield or in the hospital.”
That doesn’t exactly sound like a vote of confidence in Kiley.
The decision to fire Kiley comes 10 days after Gates fired Army Secretary Francis Harvey.
Kiley, who served as the commander of the Walter Reed center from 2002 to 2004, came under withering criticism after stories in the Washington Post exposed the poor treatment and deplorable living conditions facing some wounded soldiers at Walter Reed.
Kiley’s first reaction was to criticize the stories as one-sided “yellow journalism.”
“I submitted my retirement because I think it is in the best interest of the Army,” Kiley said in a written statement released by the Army.
“I want to allow Acting Secretary Geren, General Schoomaker, and the leaders of the Army Medical Command to focus completely on the way ahead and the Army Action Plan to improve all aspects of Soldier care. We are an Army Medical Department at war, supporting an Army at war — it shouldn’t be and it isn’t about one doctor.”
That’s pro forma: if it had come a week ago, it would have been a resignation. The word that isn’t used is: fired.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.