NEWS
July 8, 2007
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Last January, John Mellencamp traveled to San Antonio for a program celebrating the opening of the Center
for the Intrepid, a rehab facility for injured Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.
He sang and played acoustic guitar and shared a stage with Army officials and politicians such as Hillary Clinton and John McCain. But he
also did something much more important to him.
“I took advantage of the opportunity to hang around,” Mellencamp said last week. “I just walked around and talked to the soldiers and it really was just a fantastic
experience. Their spirit was fantastic. It was really good to talk to them and hear what they’re thinking.”
It wasn’t lost on the Bloomington-based musician — or others — that the handsome new facility at Brooke Army
Medical Center in Texas provided a stark contrast to substandard conditions and stifling bureaucracy facing returning veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
A friend in the music business
suggested staging a big benefit concert for Walter Reed in Washington. “I said, forget it. Any money we’d raise would be a pittance compared with what they need, what it takes to operate these facilities in the long-term,”
Mellencamp said.
A small show
And so Mellencamp’s manager approached Walter Reed officials, asking if John could perform for the patients. After weeks of negotiations, Mellencamp and Army officials
announced on Friday that the concert will take place on Friday at 8 p.m.
HDNet will seize the opportunity to make the show its first live broadcast of a concert. The high-definition television network is owned by
Indiana University graduate Mark Cuban, who created the Fallen Patriot Fund to assist families of killed or injured military personnel.
“My thing has always been about supporting the troops,” Mellencamp said from his
home overlooking Lake Monroe. “It’s about the moment. It’s about maybe being able to give them a good time for an hour.
“The people at Walter Reed are great,” he went on. “They’ve just been fantastic throughout this.
The people at Walter Reed aren’t the problem and I don’t think they ever were.”
Mellencamp was disappointed that “higher-ups” have dictated that the concert cameras focus only on Mellencamp and his band and not include
the audience. “They’re saying that the reason is they don’t want to exploit the troops.” You get the impression that the singer-songwriter isn’t buying it. And while he raises his eyebrows in implied agreement that the real
reason is that the Army or Bush administration doesn’t want to show maimed veterans to the world, he quickly shifts the subject back to the positive.
“We’ve been rehearsing for two weeks, 12 hours a day, six days a week
for this,” Mellencamp said. “We wanted something new, something fresh for the soldiers and the television audience. They’re going to want to hear the hits. But we’ve rearranged the songs so they all sound like they could have
come off of (the current album) ‘Freedom Road.’”
The Bayh view
Earlier this month, just prior to a postponed announcement for the Walter Reed concert, Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh had plenty to say on the
deterioration of what once was the gold standard of veterans hospitals. “What we’ve learned about conditions at Walter Reed is shameful. It’s inexcusable. There’s just no good answer for it,” he said in a phone interview.
“That being said, my guess is that part of it was because of a substantial number of casualties coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan and that pushed the system to its limits,” said Bayh, a member of the Armed Services
Committee. “Secondly, there’s a reluctance on the part of some in the military to complain up the chain of command for fear of harming their own careers.
“Finally I think we’ve witnessed just plain garden variety
incompetence, which is inexcusable, but particularly so when you’re dealing with injured soldiers. We should err on the side of doing too much instead of too little.”
Bayh agreed that yet another explanation is that the
Bush administration has lowballed expected Iraq war costs to Congress. “That’s been true from the beginning, whether it’s been the financial costs or the human costs. Their reluctance to show pictures of coffins coming home.
That sort of thing.
“I will say this,” the Indiana senator emphasized. “I think the new defense secretary has been a breath of fresh air. (Former secretary) Donald Rumsfeld would have denied everything and swept this
under the rug. When secretary (Robert) Gates heard about this, heads rolled.”
Bayh said he’s optimistic that with Gates, an IU master’s degree recipient, in charge and Congress now fully aware of the issues regarding
medical care for returning troops, conditions at Walter Reed and other veterans hospitals will improve.
The senator also tipped his cap to Mellencamp for pursuing his idea to perform at Walter Reed. “I’m proud of him
for doing it,” Bayh said. “It’s a very Hoosier thing to do. People may disagree about why we got into this war and they may disagree with the way the war has been handled, but when it comes to standing by our troops, we come
together.”
Mellencamp didn’t ascribe his offer to perform for the veterans as anything particularly associated with Hoosiers or Midwesterners. But he did quote a Democratic president. “It’s the old JFK thing,” he said
earnestly. “Ask not what your country can do for you . . .”
John On The Ellen DeGeneres Show April 4th
John and the band are heading to Orlando , Florida this weekend to tape an episode of the nationally syndicated The Ellen DeGeneres Show daytime talk show at Universal Studios theme park.
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