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The medical plight of combat casualties on the homefront attracted more attention than the war itself. All three Pentagon correspondents covered Kiley's ouster. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski consulted his unnamed sources: "Kiley sealed his fate when he appeared to play down decrepit conditions" at the hospital's out-patient quarters. Defense Secretary Robert Gates "had Kiley in mind," CBS' David Martin remarked, "when he delivered a scathing public rebuke of the army." ABC did not file a full report: in a brief stand-up Jonathan Karl (no link) observed that the Walter Reed scandal had now forced out more high-ranking army officials than "even abu-Ghraib."
On NBC, Robert Bazell followed up with statistics on mentally ill combat veterans: almost one third of all Veterans Administration patients were diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or some other psychiatric problem. Bazell theorized that repeated attacks from roadside bombs, so-called Improvised Explosive Devices, are more likely to drive a soldier mad than the battles of previous wars.
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