Nov 22, 2008 - 04:06:12 CST
South CentralDistrict Judge Bruce Romanick thought he'd be deployed for a year with the 87th Legal Services Organization of the U.S. Army Reserve."They tell you a year when they send you, then it's 400 days," he said.
Romanick, a lieutenant colonel in the Reserve, returned in July from serving his 400 days at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, where he supervised attorneys who helped injured soldiers go through Physical Evaluation Board processes. Since then, he's been back on the bench, presiding over cases in North Dakota's South Central Judicial District.
After the Washington Post ran what turned into a Pulitzer-Prize winning series on the conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the Army developed the "Army Medical Action Plan." Part of the plan involved mobilizing attorneys to provide additional legal advocacy for soldiers going through the Physical Evaluation Board process.
"That kind of tagged our unit,"Romanick said.
Attorneys from the 87th LSO, which is based in Utah and has members in Colorado, North Dakota and Utah, were deployed to Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Fort Lewis in Washington state, and Fort Sam Houston. First, all of the deployed lawyers and paralegals visited Walter Reed for a "primer course" in the Army Physical Disability Evaluation System in May 2007.
On June 4, 2007, Romanick deployed to Fort Sam Houston, where he supervised four attorneys and three paralegals. As the team leader, Romanick had mainly administrative duties.
In the Physical Evaluation Board process, dubbed "PEB," a board determines whether injured soldiers are fit or unfit for future service. If the soldier is considered unfit, the PEB can decide whether they get severance pay or disability benefits.
The attorneys would help the soldiers through the process, including helping them put together evidence to show if they were fit or unfit.
"Some people want to stay in" the Army despite injuries, Romanick said.
The work load varied, with 17 to 24 boards held per week, he said. Soldiers would fly in from other states for their hearings, but much of the communication between soldiers and attorneys was done via e-mail or telephone. At the hearings, the lawyers represented the soldiers and helped them present their cases.
Fort Sam Houston encompasses Brooke Army Medical Center, which houses the Army Burn Center, so some of the soldiers the lawyers represented had severe burns, and the lawyers had to wear special suits when visiting them to avoid infections.
The lawyers toured the medical centers, including the burn center and the Center for the Intrepid, a rehabilitation facility. Romanick said he wanted them to have an idea of what the soldiers were going through.
"It's tough,"he said.
By interjecting lawyers and paralegals into the PEB process, the Army hoped to get the process moving faster and give soldiers more information and better representation, Romanick said.
"It gave (the soldiers) somebody with the knowledge," he said, noting that they knew a lot more by the end of their stay in Texas than at the beginning. "I think there's a lot of positive outcomes for them."
Before he left, Romanick interviewed and chose a civilian attorney to serve as the permanent supervisor at the fort. Also, two attorneys who worked under Romanick as part of the 87th LSO decided to stay on permanently.
"We did that for one year straight, and then we were replaced," Romanick said.
The judge returned on July 3 and came back to the bench after spending a couple weeks with his family.
While Romanick was gone, surrogate judges, who are retired former judges, and judges from other districts helped cover cases in the South Central Judicial District.
"I had some cleanup when I got back, but it was actually very helpful," he said.
South Central District Judge Gail Hagerty said Surrogate Judges Benny Graff and Burt Riskedahl helped out, as did Surrogate Judge Ron Goodman, who heard cases in Ashley. Judges from other districts came in and covered when their case loads allowed, she said. Hagerty and the other six judges took on one-seventh of the civil cases filed instead of the one-eighth they usually do.
"Of course, it wasn't easy,"she said. "There was an impact on us. I think we could feel it."
She said the state Supreme Court helped by providing resources to bring in the retired judges.
The other judges "made it so the seven judges who were left here when I went didn't have to do everything," Romanick said. "That was very beneficial."
Before joining the Reserves in 1993, Romanick was on active duty in the Army. He served in Desert Storm in 1990-91 as a lawyer attached to a combat unit.
Romanick said being deployed again is always a possibility, but he plans to retire from the Reserves when he becomes eligible in a few months. He said it's hard on people to be away from their families and other duties. He was able to return and visit his family a few times and could communicate with them by e-mail and telephone. He said it was easier than being deployed overseas.
"It's tough on the family, tough on the job,"he said about being away.
The judge is pretty sure his children, 9-year-old Liz and 17-year-old Nick, are glad to have him back, along with his wife, Roxane. Romanick said it was hard to be away from their lives for a year, and he's glad to be back.
"You get called, and you do it,"he said. "I think we made a difference for a lot of folks."
(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@bismarcktribune.com.)
LDH wrote on Nov 22, 2008 3:11 PM:
Deb wrote on Nov 22, 2008 11:35 AM:
Laura A Hills wrote on Nov 22, 2008 10:46 AM:
I work for the VA, and see the many vets, active, discharged and retired, that fall thru the cracks, What you do makes such a difference in their future of getting the help they deserve. "
vagabond wrote on Nov 22, 2008 9:41 AM:
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