Scott's Story

I'm writing on behalf of my brother, Sgt. Scott Irving who has recently been let go from his full time position with the Oregon National Guard in Medford, Oregon. He was told his discharge was due to malingering, though he has not been given any paperwork about this discharge. He has twenty-one years of service with the Guard and three years ago he was injured while on duty which led eventually to a surgery replacing two of the lower discs in his back.

During the period leading up to and after this very long and dangerous surgery he has had other on duty injuries, all of which I'm sure were made worse by his superiors insistence that he continue doing work that was inappropriate for him, given his injuries. He was ordered to drive twenty ton trucks that were very jarring to his back and to move thousands of pounds of ammunition on numerous occasions. This caused further aggravation to his injuries and caused him a lot of physical pain. Read more...

Scott and his family have been struggling with the Oregon National Guard over this for three years. He reported the accident to his commanders as regulations dictated. He reported his doctor's findings and provided doctors records when asked. He told us that he had to do things "by the book". Time after time his requests were denied, and finally when his rebuttal to the REFRAD was also denied he said, "Now we need help, we need to tell people about this".

From the moment we started writing letters on Facebook, community support poured out to Scott and his family. People started writing letters and calling the media and government officials. When the media coverage began even greater support and love came from not only family and friends, but total strangers offering to help because they could clearly see the injustice of his situation. People are starting to be more aware of the lack of support for our soldiers who serve to protect us at home and abroad, but when this story about one of our own community came out it touched that part in each of us that calls us to want to help.

The Great Blessing is the love and caring expressed by the local community and the greater community reached through Facebook. That was the first Miracle. The second Miracle is that all this support which brought media coverage finally caught the attention of the Oregon Guard commanders who were just a few days away from being completely ready to pull the income and medical benefits from a soldier who clearly was not able to work as a result of an on the job injury. The third Miracle is that those commanders finally decided to extend Scott's AGR status, pay and benefits until January 2011.

The continuing Miracles and Blessings are all of you who made this possible. We are so deeply grateful for your outpouring of love, support and action on Scott's behalf. Without your help Scott and his family could have easily lost their home and their hope. You have given him both in gracious acts of kindness and compassion and for this we are deeply grateful and newly hopeful.

SUBJECT: Rebuttal of AGR-REFRAD for SFC Scott R Irving

1. On 03 February 2010, I was given Developmental Counseling by CPT Michael Heinsch. During this counseling I was informed that I will be REFRAD from the AGR program, effective 15 March 2010, which includes leave accrued. The REFRAD is due as a direct result of a 15-6 investigation completed 20 January 2010, specifically for malingering. The purpose of this memorandum is to rebut the findings of the 15-6 investigations even though I have not been made aware of what I have allegedly done. It is my intent to show that through a long series of medical and professional events that I have not been judged correctly. It is also my intent to show that due process and counseling was not carried out correctly over the preceding three years. Read more...

I sent out another round of letters to government officials and media and this is the letter I wrote:

I'm writing on behalf of my brother, Sgt. First Class Scott Irving of OREGON ARMY NATIONAL GUARD, HHC Battalion 186 Infantry, 1420 East Main Street, Ashland, Oregon 97520. Sgt. First Class Irving has applied for a Medical Retirement due to his disabilities as a result of an on the job accident on a military vehicle and has been denied because the Guard refuses to accept the findings and medical records of his civilian doctors. It is military policy that soldiers use civilian doctors when there is no military medical facility available where they are serving. After serving half his life with soldiers who he thought were his brothers, the Oregon Guard is working as hard as they can to dump him before they have to pay any compensation or give any support for the physical rehabilitation he needs.

He was recently informed that he would be REFRAD (released from active duty) from his full time AGR position with the National Guard. Read more...

Medford Mail Tribune Article
Paul Fattig wrote a very informative article on Scott's situation

An Oregonian Story on Scott from March 12th Another look for SFC Scott Irving of Medford

Right now Scott has his active duty status extended until Jan 2011, which means he still has his pay and health benefits and that is very good. Thank you so much for your kindness and support, which has made this possible.

The section below this has links to all the updates I have been posting about Scott as things change. you can get an RSS feed to automatically get these updates sent to you when they are written, but I'll have to ask Barrie how that is done.

As of today, 4/27/10, he is home and doing better. He is getting around pretty well with his walker and is also very happy to have the new computer I got for him with the help of the generous donations from Holly, Amber and Audrey. Thanks to Jack for putting up that facebook call out.

Thank you all so much for your thoughts and action to help my brother. It's working!!!

Here's the list of all the people I have written to (who could be written to again):
In most cases I just googled 'contact so & so' or 'email contact for so & so', though the military addresses were a lot harder to find.

Oregon Officials:
Gov. Kulongoski, Greg Walden (Medford area state Rep.), Peter DeFazio, Ron Wyden, Earl Blumenauer

National Government:
The Honorable Hillary Clinton
Secretary of State
2201 C St., NW
Rm. 7226
Washington, DC 20520

Speaker of the House Nanci Pelosi:
Office of the Speaker
H-232, US Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-0100

I wrote to Barack and Michele Obama separately: The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500)

Politics OL.com
This is the coolest one stop shop for government official contact information for every state. You can write your letter, select your congress person or President, paste in your letter and once you have filled out the form with your info, it holds it, so you can click on person after person, past in your letter and send it off to them all. Loved that!

Emails sent to newspapers:
Oregonian, Willamette week, Portland Mecury, Salem Statesmen Journal and the Medford Mail Tribune

Emails sent to local TV stations:
Portland: KGW, KATU, KOIN and KPTV
Medford: KOBI, KTVL, KDRV and KMVU Fox 26

National shows:
NBC today show, NBC nightly news, 60 Minutes, Dateline, MSNBC, Rachel Maddow, Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Katie Couric at CBS Nightly News

Military people I wrote to:
-Robert Gates Sec of Defense
-US office of Personnel Management
-Dr. S. Ward Casscells -Asst. Sec. of Defense for Health Affairs
-Col. James Burks, chief of staff office of Asst. Sec. of Defense for Health Affairs
(I think most of the above went to the Pentagon: 1400 Defense Pentagon Washington, DC 20301-1400)

-Army Brig. Gen. Dr. Loree K. Sutton
Defense Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injuries
1401 Wilson Blvd Suite 400 Rosslyn, Va 22209

-Army Inspector General
The National Guard Bureau
1411 Jefferson Davis Highway
Arlington VA 22202-3231

-Oregon Army Inspector General & AMP; JAG
1776 Militia Way SE PO Box 14350. Salem, OR 97309-5047