A master's degree project by a University of Colorado at 麻豆影院 journalism student uncovered a morass of bureaucratic roadblocks faced by injured Iraq War soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center six months before similar stories broke in the national press.
Kelly Kennedy, now an Army Times reporter, began compiling information for her master's thesis last summer, focusing on inadequate treatment and other health care issues faced by military service members hospitalized at Walter Reed in Washington, D.C.
Kennedy's project led to an in-depth story, "Wounded and Waiting," which was published in the Army Times, a Gannett Co. Inc. publication. While most media coverage has focused on reports of mold, mice and cockroaches, Kennedy's reports have detailed the lumbering medical evaluation process that has left many injured troops in "administrative limbo" at Walter Reed.
Since her story and others first appeared, lawmakers and support groups have called for answers, solutions and accountability. The fallout has led to the resignations or dismissals of several high-ranking military officials and congressional hearings that hinted at a more widespread problem with the nation's military health care system.
"Kelly did a terrific job digging out the human tragedies hiding behind the bureaucratic jargon," said Len Ackland, an associate professor in the CU-麻豆影院 School of Journalism and Mass Communication and Kennedy's graduate adviser.
Last fall, Kennedy began talking to soldiers at Building 18, an off-campus Walter Reed housing facility, where they expressed their frustrations with the disability classification process. The process determines post-service disability payments and medical treatment for injured military personnel and can be a complicated and highly political process, she said.
Having served in the Army for four years, including stints in Iraq and Kuwait in 1991 during Desert Storm and in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1992 and 1993, Kennedy was able to write in depth about the harrowing lives of soldiers nursing physical and psychological scars as they negotiated a quagmire of paperwork and hearings.
"These guys just told their stories," said Kennedy, who now lives in the Washington, D.C., area. "I think being a former military person helped. I knew exactly what they were talking about."
After learning that the Washington Post planned to run a story about reported substandard conditions at the medical center, Kennedy's editors moved quickly to post her developing story on the newspaper's Web site a day earlier.
"The wounded soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are stuck in holding companies awaiting hearings and decisions on whether they will continue their military service or be discharged, and if so, at what level of benefits - if any," Kennedy wrote in her piece.
Military disability pay is based on the extent of injuries suffered by troops during active service and not on rank or years of service, but Kennedy's research indicates that Army and Marine personnel receive a smaller percentage of disability payments than Air Force and Navy officers. "Officers across the board are getting higher ratings than enlisted personnel," she said. "And enlisted personnel are usually more severely injured."
In the end, Kennedy has been most gratified by the messages from soldiers and officers thanking her for "taking care of us."
"This is why I'm here. This is why I started doing this," she said.
To read Kennedy's Army Times story, go to . To learn more about the CU-麻豆影院 School of Journalism and Mass Communication, visit .