Dereliction of Duty--the Army Fails Another One among Thousands
'A Soldier's Officer'
Washington Post Staff Writers Sunday, December 2, 2007; Page A01
In a nondescript conference room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 1st Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside listened last week as an Army prosecutor outlined the criminal case against her in a preliminary hearing. The charges: attempting suicide and endangering the life of another soldier while serving in Iraq.
Her hands trembled as Maj. Stefan Wolfe, the prosecutor, argued that Whiteside, now a psychiatric outpatient at Walter Reed, should be court-martialed. After seven years of exemplary service, the 25-year-old Army reservist faces the possibility of life in prison if she is tried and convicted.
. . . Whiteside's superiors considered her mental illness "an excuse" for criminal conduct, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.
. . . As an executive officer of a support company, she supervised 150 soldiers and officers, and her evaluations from that time presaged the hi…