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Bureaucracy Played Role in Veteran's Death

Man, called up despite stress diagnosis, killed in standoff with police

By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff

Posted Sep 5, 2007 7:08 PM CDT

(Newser) – Deployment to Afghanistan markedly changed Sgt. Jamie Dean, and the news that the Army was calling him out of reserve and sending him to Iraq—despite a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder—helped send him into a fatal standoff with Maryland police in December 2006. As his family prepares lawsuits, Salon examines how Dean fell through the bureaucratic cracks.

An application to have Dean declared disabled was pending when Dean was recalled to duty in November 2006—and the Veterans Administration never shared Dean's diagnosis with the Army. Also at issue is the police response to a drunk, depressed and armed Dean. "If they'd just left him alone and let him pass out," his wife says, "he'd be alive today."

U.S. Soldiers Search Caves In Afghanistan
U.S. Soldiers Search Caves In Afghanistan   (Getty Images)
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Jeff Ebert wears a virtual-reality headset and holds a video-game-type controller Friday, June 29, 2007 as he demonstrates an experimental virtual-reality computer simulation at Madigan Army Medical Center at Fort Lewis, Wash. that psychologists plan to begin using in the future to treat soldiers suffering...
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Jeff Ebert wears a virtual-reality headset and holds a video-game-type controller Friday, June 29, 2007 as he demonstrates an experimental virtual-reality computer simulation at Madigan...   (Associated Press)
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., center, is joined with Vermont National Guard Gen. Michael Dubie, center left; Vt. Guard Chaplain Jim MacIntyre, left, and Veterans Administration Medical Center Director Gary De Gasta, right, Monday, July 16, 2007, at a Burlington, Vt., news conference. They are announcing they are nationally...
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., center, is joined with Vermont National Guard Gen. Michael Dubie, center left; Vt. Guard Chaplain Jim MacIntyre, left, and Veterans Administration Medical Center Director...   (Associated Press)
British soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Anglian Regiment, known as Vikings, put explosives inside caves used by militants during clashes with NATO troops in Habibollah Kalay village in Helmand province, Afghanistan, Tuesday, May 1, 2007. Thousands of British, Afghan, U.S. and other NATO troops clashed with...
British soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Anglian Regiment, known as Vikings, put explosives inside caves used by militants during clashes with NATO troops in Habibollah Kalay village in Helmand...   (Associated Press)
WORLD NEWS AFGHAN 13 DE
WORLD NEWS AFGHAN 13 DE   (KRT Photos)
GARDAZERI, AFGHANISTAN -- A member of the British Royal Marines shows a cave filled with a Taliban-al Qaida arms cache in Gardazeri, Afghanistan Friday, May 10, 2002. The Marines blew up the cache fou
GARDAZERI, AFGHANISTAN -- A member of the British Royal Marines shows a cave filled with a Taliban-al Qaida arms cache in Gardazeri, Afghanistan Friday, May 10, 2002. The Marines blew up the cache fou   (KRT Photos)
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