by Gene C. Gerard

Last week the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative unit of Congress, released a report

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06105.pdf

indicating that the Pentagon has been calling up reserve soldiers who are ill or medically unfit to serve. The reservists are serving primarily in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness is responsible for managing medical and physical fitness policy and procedures, the report determined that this office has no way to determine if reserve soldiers are fit to serve or have pre-existing medical conditions prior to deployment. Consequently, the GAO found that the Pentagon couldn’t confirm to the Secretary of Defense or Congress that reserve forces are medically and physically fit when they are called to active duty. Yet under federal law reserve forces are required to have a medical exam every five years and an annual review of their medical status...

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Nov05/Gerard1109.htm