An American Lion

This memo about the job performance of Major Nidal Hasan is a kick in the pants:

The memo obtained by National Public Radio said that Hasan, then a captain, was “counseled for inappropriately discussing religious topics” with patients and went through a remediation program for inappropriate documentation of his handling of a homicidal patient during an emergency room encounter.

The document said Hasan’s remediation on that problem was successful but added that he was placed on administrative probation at the end of the year for not taking and passing the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination. He later corrected that problem as well, the memo said.

The memo also noted a poor attendance record and lower-than-expected scores on the Psychiatry Resident-In-Training Examination, a yearly exam that Hasan failed to take during one of his residency years.

In his final year of residency, the memo said, Hasan saw 30 patients in 38 weeks and was required to use elective class time to make up the lost clinic time. And, it said, he missed a night of emergency room on-call duty and did not respond to Moran’s pages the next day.

“These issues demonstrate a lack of professionalism and work ethics,” the memo said. “He is able to self-correct with supervision. However, at this point he should not need so much supervision.”

The memo concluded, however, that Hasan’s record was not enough to indicate “he is not competent to graduate” or that further academic probation would be helpful.

I believe it was me who said that whoever signed off on this man’s promotion should have ALL of their evaluations looked at again for similar examples of gross incompetence. Major Hasan should never have been promoted; he should never have been allowed to remain in the United States Army. He should have been chaptered for having an inability to adapt to Army life. And he should have been arrested when he didn’t report to work or respond to the inquiry of his supervisors. I believe they call that Absent Without Leave, and the Medical Corps had better straighten itself out and rejoin the United States Army no sooner than five minutes ago.

What a bald-faced outrage.