My name is Joseph Gutheinz and I was asked by Theresa Bentley Gomez, a friend, to help shed light on a recent policy change at Brook Army Medical Center (BAMC) , which many believe is anti-family and anti-service member.
Today in the heart of Texas, San Antonio, military nurses are being directed to ask pre-teen children highly sensitive information during routine sports physicals, and these nurses refuse to stop asking these intrusive questions even when asked to do so by a parent.
Theresa is the type of American everyone should be proud of, as she, along with husband Robert Gomez both served in the first Gulf War as Air Force Officers. She was a Military Intelligence Officer who helped find targets for B-52's and he was a Radar Navigator in one of those B-52's which carried out the often perilous missions. Her husband is now a retired Major and she is now an Air Force Major in the Inactive Reserve. As a young girl she waited for her father, an Army Medivac Commander and helicopter pilot, to return from service in Vietnam while at the same time paving a perilous journey of her own, by volunteering to be the first white girl in her 5th grade class to be bussed to an all black school in Savannah, Georgia. She had shown true grit as a child, as an officer and with what she is doing today in defense of her children, as a mom.
Theresa would be the first to tell you that she loves the military to include the superb doctors and nurses that brought both her and her husband into this world and who have treated her children so well. She has seen these professionals save her loved ones lives and would gladly entrust them with her life and her children's lives. Her own father, Col. William Bentley, was the former Chief of Staff of Medical Command Europe, over all the military hospitals and clinics there, and so she knows through his service about the compassion the staffs of military hospitals have for patients. However, a recent policy change at Brook Army Medical Center (BAMC) has caused her to seek my help and yours.
On June 8, 2006, Theresa took her sons, who are ages 12 and 11, to BAMC for sports physicals. Theresa, who is a good mom sat in on the physical of her 12 year old and was shocked to discover that over 50% of the "physical”, was spent conducting a highly inappropriate and intrusive interview. She was horrified as she witnessed her 12 year old son get drilled about illegal drug use, mental illness, personal family relationships, and most troubling of all, questions regarding his sexual activity. Questions asked also included: "Are there any guns in your house?" "Do you feel safe at home?" "Do you feel like you can speak freely with your parents?"
Theresa said: “I tried to stop the interview (I wish you could've seen the look on my skinny little boy's face). Unfortunately, the nurse wasn't to be deterred. She said she didn't make up the questions, and was required to ask them. She kept on drilling away despite my protests.
My son was beyond embarrassed. I was sickened. The callous insensitivity was appalling."
Still shell shocked her 11 year old son was brought in to see another nurse, and this time Theresa tried to stop the questions from the outset, but Theresa advised "the second nurse disregarded my request and asked questions on everything but the sex topic this time, because the nurse said he was 11 and not 12, which apparently is the magic age for conducting this type of sexual inquiry."
Theresa has spoken to other families to discern if anything like this had happened to their children at BAMC and learned about BAMC's "Adolescent Clinic" where the nurses strongly encourage the parents not to accompany their children for routine exams. She says "I've heard of how clinic personnel actually place pressure on the parents to allow the children to be seen without them (the parents) in the room. In fact, one female child I know, also a BAMC patient, told me that the practitioner asked her very similar intrusive and inappropriate questions and told her that if she had any "special problems and issues" concerning family, sexuality, etc., she could feel free to come back and speak with them without the parents. The embarrassed girl smartly told the gentleman that if she had problems she'd feel more comfortable speaking with her parents. Apparently, the man didn’t appear too happy with that answer."
What happened to Theresa Gomez and her children at BAMC is wrong. The military should respect American military families and not turn simple sports physicals into a fact finding endeavor into the lifestyles of American military families.
