Veterans speak up for military Right to Repair

U.S. armed forces veterans have launched a new sign-on campaign in support of reforms that would “ensure military service personnel have the Right to Repair the equipment they rely on.” Specifically, the veterans are calling for the adoption of Section 828 of the pending National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The amendment, sponsored by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, would require contractors to include granting the military full access to parts, tools and information needed to repair a product, when they sell equipment to the armed forces. 

After this pro-Right to Repair amendment advanced through committee with broad bipartisan support, a host of opponents emerged — including appliance and medical device manufacturing trade groups. In a letter to Senate Armed Service Committee leaders, those industry groups argued that “Manufacturers already provide a wide range of resources, including parts, manuals, product guides, product service training, and diagnostic tools,” and further reforms are “unnecessary.”

Retired Master Sgt. Wesley Reid disagrees with that characterization. During his 20 years in the Army, he found that repair restrictions put soldiers’ lives at risk. He is one of the veterans supporting the letter, and we spoke about his experiences fixing equipment, including while deployed in Afghanistan. 

Fixing equipment with ‘one hand tied behind my back’ 

When a soldier is wounded in the line of duty, triage to determine the severity begins immediately, starting what is referred to as the “Golden Hour.” You have roughly one hour to get that person to a higher echelon of medical care if you want to save their life. “That hour is everything,” Reid says. 

In many of these situations, a CT scan is critical. It can detect internal bleeding, or shrapnel the field medic could have missed. Reid’s job was to make sure the CT in his hospital was working. It was one of only two U.S. CT scanners in Afghanistan at the time, from 2007-2008. 

At some point during Reid’s 14-month deployment, he lost access to a critical diagnostic feature used to keep the scanner running. It had a microcontroller that would allow access for him to use the diagnostic program to address artifacts and errors in the scan without much downtime. These controllers were designed to last one year and then deactivate. Normally, the Army would order a new one, but while Reid was deployed, the manufacturer said it would not send a new controller because the device was too old. Instead, the manufacturer told Reid to “buy a new device.” 

Meanwhile, wounded service members who needed a scan that could save their lives kept arriving at Reid’s medical facility. Reid did what he could to keep the equipment running, though it was a lot harder without the microcontroller. 

Reid recalls that he received special training from the manufacturer on the device, and that the Army had paid for the highest level of support. However, the way the equipment was built required the manufacturer’s permission to keep using the repair tool every year, and one day, it decided not to. 

“My mental health really struggled,” Reid told me, recalling what a challenge it was to keep the CT scan working and how many lives were at stake. “I was fixing that equipment with one hand tied behind my back.” 

Another service member I spoke with, who I will call Peter (he asked me not to share his name for fear of retaliation), has a similar story of working in Bagram Air Field. A six-year veteran of the Army, he was based at the largest overseas U.S. military field hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, and also in Kabul, Afghanistan. 

The surgical team for the Afghan National Army’s 215th Corps operates in the Role 2 medical facility at Camp Shorabak, Afghanistan, Nov. 2, 2013.Photo by Sgt. Tammy Hineline | Public Domain

Peter recalls that his MRI machine and CTs required special software service keys to access critical repair and diagnostic functions, such as reading the error logs, adding a new doctor’s network designation to send patient scans, or run diagnostic self-tests. Unfortunately, these service keys expired periodically, and sometimes it would take several days or longer to restore access. These delays often meant the equipment went down, and people couldn’t get the scans they needed. 

“It was broke all the time there. It was a disgrace, honestly,” Peter added. 

Making things more difficult, manufacturers’ contracts forbid trained Army technicians from training other field technicians, requiring everyone to attend the manufacturers’ (pricey) trainings. Peter wasn’t allowed to even share manuals with other technicians. 

“It’s ridiculous,” said Peter, when describing the hoops they were forced to jump through. “The military school is the hardest … Everyone who is deployed is training. We should give them everything they need.” 

We can’t travel to you, and we won’t train your team

After deployment in Afghanistan, Master Sgt.Reid oversaw all the Army’s medical and lab equipment in the Pacific region. “A lot of area, but mostly water.” 

Among his responsibilities was equipment at the U.S Army Base Garrison Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, some 2,500 miles west of Hawaii. The base employs a large number of civilian personnel, including many engineers and scientists. 

On a routine visit to the island, Reid encountered a faulty chemical analyzer, a piece of lab equipment used at the medical center. When he called the manufacturer, the company referred him to its service operations in the Philippines. That office, however, did not have staff who could legally travel to Kwajalein (only U.S. residents are permitted at this sensitive facility, and in some cases, security clearance is also required). Despite this, the manufacturer refused to send an American technician, or to allow Reid to send his staff to its “proprietary” training programs, or even to access documentation. 

“Why even sell it to us if you weren’t going to allow us to fix it?” Reid asked. 

Reid reported that he had to do a painstaking forensic examination, building his own schematics and guides. That process wasted considerable time. 

We made a promise to our soldiers

Master Sgt. Reid believes that when we ask our service members to go to battle, we make an implicit promise to take care of them. The medical service we provide is a big part of that. “It’s important to me to keep that promise,” he said.

Peter agreed, and expressed frustration recalling the impact of equipment downtime. “Who knows how people’s lives were affected?” Are you a current or former service member who wants to support the military Right to Repair? Check out the letter and add your name.