Military injustice

Iraq vet Jullian Goodrum blasted his superiors for misdeeds that he says cost a soldier his life. His reward: The Army he once loved refused to treat his psychological wounds, then charged him with desertion.

By Mark Benjamin

Read more: Politics, News, Iraq, Army, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Mark Benjamin, Mark Benjamin's Veterans Reporting

June 7, 2005 | Groucho Marx once said that military justice is to justice what military music is to music. Lt. Jullian Goodrum laughs at that quote. "It's crazy," the 35-year-old Army reservist and Iraq vet says about his knock-down, drag-out fight with the Army. It pushed him to the edge, physically, emotionally and financially. "I have to laugh. Otherwise I'd go crazy," he says.

It has been a year and a half since Goodrum, back from Iraq and haunted by suicidal thoughts and flashbacks related to his time there, checked himself into a civilian psychiatric hospital in Knoxville, Tenn., after being turned away from a military hospital. The Army subsequently accused him of desertion, which can mean six years in the military's Fort Leavenworth, Kan., prison. Goodrum fought back, but he had no idea then what he was up against.

On April 1, after he'd been fighting the desertion case for 18 months, the Army found Goodrum innocent of being absent without leave, or AWOL. But the ordeal took a toll. Goodrum's 16-year career in the military is over -- he wants out. "Why would I serve a military that betrayed me?" he asks. He is $40,000 in debt from legal fees, and his relationship with his fiancée has suffered under the stress. The cause of his original hospitalization was post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from his war experiences -- a diagnosis confirmed four times, three times by military doctors. But instead of improving, some of his symptoms have worsened as a result of his protracted legal battle.

"Call me anytime, even late at night," Goodrum told me on the phone from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington as I was working on this story. "I don't sleep."

Goodrum is heavily medicated to prevent panic attacks, but he says he has sudden, violent urges that make him worry about what he might do to himself or others. He is often drenched in sweat as a result of anxiety. When I ask him about his fiancée, he says flatly: "I have no emotions. I just have no emotions."

His trust in the military has been shattered to the point where he will not let the Army fix a dental filling that has fallen out, operate on painful kidney stones, or conduct a needed liver biopsy. "I will not let them touch me," he says, and that includes the Army's doctors.

Goodrum's late father was a veteran of Korea who did intelligence work, and Goodrum said his dad was glad when he showed enthusiasm for the military. "Once I got in, I really enjoyed the majority of the functions" of the military, Goodrum said. "I was a good fit for it, and it was a good fit for me. I love being part of a team, but also you can achieve as an individual. I enjoyed defending my country." Then he said, "I'm glad he is not alive now to see this mess."

Goodrum's troubles with the military justice system started after he became a whistleblower. After he returned from Iraq, Goodrum complained to his superior officers that his unit had been sent to war with an appalling lack of equipment, including broken, unarmored vehicles. When his complaints were ignored, he went to his Congress member and to the press. He also complained about the poor medical care he received when he came back. Now, he is convinced the charge of being absent without leave for getting medical care from a civilian doctor is retribution from the Army, which he claims closed ranks and blackballed him.

"They chose a pattern," Goodrum says. "They denied me healthcare and told me to leave. You can hear it in their own testimony. I think it was just abuse of authority and being vindictive."

In fact, a review of hundreds of pages of documents and hours of tapes from Goodrum's disciplinary proceedings show his superior officers cooperating in what looks like a concerted effort to put him behind bars. Goodrum provided the records to Salon, though they are not available to the public.

Although a superior officer did order Goodrum to return to Fort Knox, and he did not -- the heart of the Army's desertion case -- the context of that order, Goodrum's medical status at the time, and the Army's subsequent actions make it clear that the desertion charge was highly literalistic and almost certainly vindictive. A contemporaneous note in the files casts severe doubt on the crucial claim, made by the officer in charge of long-term medical care, that he did not intend to deny Goodrum medical care at Fort Knox. Initially, the Army in effect ignored the PTSD diagnosis of Goodrum's civilian doctor, saying that he was not entitled to medical leave for PTSD. The officer who was the target of Goodrum's whistle-blowing, while in Iraq, took part in the stateside decision to order Goodrum to return to Fort Knox, Ky., although he had not seen Goodrum for months and could have had no knowledge of his medical condition. Officers seem to have pressured some witnesses and coached others, possibly instructing them to lie.

The documents and tapes also show Army officers trying to dig up dirt on Goodrum. Using information from a background check on a different man, the officers suggested -- incorrectly -- to military prosecutors that Goodrum might be a convicted drug dealer. A document alleging he had had an affair with a female subordinate before going to Iraq mysteriously appeared in Goodrum's record. The Army said it could not locate some defense witnesses whom Goodrum sought. And when Goodrum, after learning he was being charged with desertion, checked into a different Army hospital, the same superior officer who apparently had ordered him turned away from Fort Knox ordered him held in psychiatric lockdown for almost two weeks, although his doctors had planned to release him. No reason was given other than the Orwellian phrase "administrative concerns."

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