Fort Irwin, Calif., May 23, 2014: “The unit is dysfunctional and is causing more stress to the … soldiers than they are helping.”

Fort Knox, Ky., Nov. 4, 2013: “The leadership in his company does not care about soldiers, treats them like garbage and talks down to them.”

The complaints roll in from soldiers across the country.

“Injured Heroes, Broken Promises,” a joint investigative project between The Dallas Morning News and NBC5 (KXAS-TV), examines allegations of harassment and mistreatment in the U.S.’ Warrior Transition Units, which were created to serve soldiers with physical and psychological wounds. Reporters David Tarrant, Scott Friedman and Eva Parks based their findings on dozens of interviews with soldiers, Army officials and medical experts, and hundreds of pages of military documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

And Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, Sept. 4, 2014: Soldier “felt threatened by the platoon SGT.”

These are not examples of a tough dressing-down of regular infantry by an old-school sergeant. These complaints come from wounded, injured or ill soldiers who are supposed to find caring and healing at the U.S. Army’s Warrior Transition Units, or WTUs, but instead are experiencing mistreatment and harassment by superiors.

Many of the soldiers are getting treatment for physical or psychological wounds suffered in combat.

Since 2010, across the country, WTU soldiers have lodged more than 1,100 complaints about the way their chain of command treated them at more than two dozen WTUs, according to an ongoing investigation by The Dallas Morning News and its broadcast partner, KXAS-TV (NBC5).

Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, had the most complaints, with 163 reports in the five-year time frame; Fort Hood, in Killeen, was second with 142.

In November, The News/KXAS-TV investigation first revealed problems at three Texas WTUs. Reporters examined complaints filed to the Army’s ombudsman program from soldiers at Fort Hood; Fort Bliss, in El Paso; and Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, in San Antonio.

On Feb. 3, a top Army official appeared before a congressional hearing to address the problems at the Texas WTUs. Col. Chris Toner heads the Warrior Transition Command in Alexandria, Va., which provides oversight and policy guidance for the WTU system.

Toner confirmed that there had been incidents of “disrespect, harassment and belittlement of soldiers” at Texas WTUs from 2009 to 2013. At Fort Bliss, he said, there were problems “beyond a shadow of a doubt.”

Army officials repeatedly said the problems in the WTU program were isolated and rare. And Toner told Congress that the complaints had all been resolved. “I am confident that the program and policies and procedures that are in place now have the program going in the right direction,” he said.

But more than 300 pages of new documents recently released by the Army Medical Command show that complaints of harassment and abuse continued beyond 2013.

And the documents, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by The News and KXAS-TV, show hundreds more allegations of harassment and mistreatment in WTUs across the country — not just at those in Texas.

Six WTUs recorded as many ombudsman complaints as, or even more than, Fort Bliss — the post that Toner had described in his testimony as having problems “beyond a shadow of a doubt.”

The Army surgeon general’s office is in charge of the Army Medical Command, which oversees the WTUs. Lt. Gen. Patricia Horoho, the Army’s surgeon general, declined multiple requests for an interview. Army Secretary John McHugh also declined to be interviewed, citing an ongoing investigation of the Fort Hood WTU that began after the initial reports last fall by The News and KXAS-TV.

Lt. Gen. Patricia Horoho, the Army’s surgeon general, ordered an investigation at Fort Carson after a soldier on the Colorado base complained of mistreatment by behavioral health professionals. She told Pentagon reporters in February that the case did not indicate a “systemic” problem with Army care. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

In a written reply to questions, Army Medical Command spokeswoman Maria Tolleson said the Army had taken care of the issues raised in the most recent batch of complaints.

“All reported ombudsmen cases, [including] any identified in 2014, have been resolved through established systems within this program,” Tolleson said. “The Army takes allegations of harassing, belittling or disrespecting soldiers very seriously.”

‘Mission is to heal’

“The purpose of a Warrior Transition Unit is for soldiers to go there, get the care they’re required, and to have their care improve,” said Beverly Sweeney, a captain in the California Army National Guard.

She is one of those who filed complaints with an ombudsman about problems she encountered and observed last fall while assigned to a WTU in Washington state.

“The mission is to heal,” Sweeney said. “But that’s not what I received.”

Georg-Andreas Pogány, an Army veteran and national advocate for injured soldiers based in Colorado, said the volume and types of complaints reflect what he hears.