There was ameeting last March between an Army team from Washington and VA officials at Fort Drum Army base in upstate New York. At that meeting, Army representatives told the VA not to review the narrative summaries of soldiers’ injuries, and the VA complied with the Army’s request.
NPR did a story about the issuestory aired and the Army Surgeon General Eric B. Schoomaker denied that the Army that told the VA to stop this help.
Since that denial NPR obtained a four-page VA document that contradicts the surgeon general’s statement. The document says Col. Becky Baker of the Army Surgeon General’s office told the VA to discontinue counseling soldiers on the appropriateness of Defense Department ratings because “there exists a conflict of interest.”
