Psychiatrist Claims Foul & Cover Up After Firing From Camp Lejeune

Psychiatrist Claims Foul & Cover Up After Firing Fr ... (Added: February 03, 2010)

Psychiatrist Claims Foul & Cover Up After Firing From Camp Lejeune (more)

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Psychiatrist Claims Foul & Cover Up After Firing From Camp Lejeune

A psychiatrist who worked at Camp Lejeune is taking aim at the Marine Corps for what he claims was wrongful termination. Now, there seems to be evidence of a cover up.

By Jim Niedelman
Published: February 03, 2010

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A psychiatrist who worked at Camp Lejeune is taking aim at the Marine Corps for what he claims was wrongful termination.

Now, there seems to be evidence of a cover up.

Dr. Kernan Manion says he was fired after complaining that marines back from combat were not getting proper care for mental disorders.

Manion worked on Camp Lejeune from January to September last year.

He's a civilian who was hired through a private contractor to work with marines coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan.

They were marines with post traumatic stress disorder and other problems.

"It's dangerous,” said Dr. Kernan Manion, a clinical psychiatrist. “These guys, some of these guys are suicidal, homicidal."

He says orders to place his distressed patients on limited duty often went ignored by their commanding officers.

"If you said no weapons handling, no field training and a commander still said we're gonna do it anyway,” Manion said. “That's of concern."

Manion claims he raised his concern up through the chain of command that disasters could happen if the system didn't change.

That was April.

Soon came the attack on Camp Liberty in May that killed Commander Charles Springle and four others.

And, then Fort Hood.

Manion says he saw no changes and brought his complaint to the inspector general.

Within weeks he was fired.

It doesn't stop there.

The website salon.com obtained internal records of Manion's performance review.

The first signed by his supervisor in November found him satisfactory across the board.

Then, another one signed by someone Manion didn't know in December contained negative marks.

"I was outraged," Manion said. "There needs to be a way to hold people accountable to that."

Manion found an ally in his congressman.

Representative Walter B. Jones says he wants answers.

"I'm going to try to get to the bottom of it because when you come down to it, yes, I care for Dr. Manion, but I care more for those marines that need that type of treatment," said Rep. Walter B. Jones, (R) North Carolina.

"The fact that I made noise and I stood by these guys and said you will not do that to them, bothered them," Manion said.

Manion's now in the process of suing the Marine Corps on grounds of wrongful termination and breach of contract.

We made several calls today to Camp Lejeune, the Naval Hospital and the Department of Defense.

No one with the authority to speak about the issue returned our calls.

Dr. Manion says he continues to treat some of the marines he saw on the base privately at no charge.