I bumped into this story about 1LT Katie Ann Blanchard, had not heard it before. It took a bit of searching to find an article that identified Currie by picture. An absolute tragedy and an epic failure of her command. He was sentenced for 20 yrs. Seems like some of those in her command should be held responsible. Link for more info and pics.

Toxic Command: Army ignores nurse’s pleas for help after being lit on fire

At approximately 5:10 p.m. on September 7, 2016, a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (NP) at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, heard screaming from an office adjacent to hers at Munson Army Health Center. The civilian NP ran into the hallway and found 26-year-old 1LT Katie Ann Blanchard, an active duty Registered Nurse (RN) and mother of three, on fire from the waist up. (Details of the attack from the FBI Criminal Complaint, dated 8SEP16 can be found here.)

The smell of gasoline filled the hallway. The NP could see another coworker, 54-year-old Clifford Currie, in the office with Katie. He was clutching a straight-edged razor in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other. Currie, a short, rotund man weighing well over 200 pounds, was screaming at Katie and stabbing at her face even as she was engulfed in flames.

Katie after laser surgery from burnsThe NP rushed in and attempted to help Katie put out the flames and get away from Currie. Both the NP and Katie fell to the floor while struggling with Currie, who continued to stab at Katie while putting his foot on her neck and hollering incomprehensibly.

A Doctor from a neighboring office heard the commotion and rushed to assist. She and the NP struggled to restrain Currie, who continued to stab at Katie. Even with Katie’s two heroic female co-workers fighting him, Currie was hell-bent on continuing his assault as Katie lay smoldering on the floor.

Currie was finally restrained by a Non-Commissioned Officer who was also among the first to respond to the commotion.

Several of the people who were immediately on the scene of the attack in the hospital reported that they could hear Katie screaming,

“I TOLD YOU THIS WOULD HAPPEN!”

When a fireman commented that the smell might indicate that Katie had been chemically burned, Currie shouted out,

“IT’S GASOLINE, YOU IDIOT!”

And as Clifford Currie was being arrested shortly after by the Leavenworth Military Police, he was coherent enough to insist that he needed psychiatric help and wanted to speak to a lawyer.

This tragedy was altogether preventable. Prior to the attack, Clifford Currie gave every overt indication that he was a threat to Katie.

Multiple witnesses and coworkers reinforced the fact that Katie felt unsafe around Currie. He had a history of threatening behavior towards her and towards his patients, and Katie requested to have another co-worker present for any and every dealing she had with him. For most of the thirteen months that she worked with Currie, she tried to have him disciplined or removed before his disturbing behavior would eventually escalate to her attemptedmurder.

Katie was Currie’s immediate supervisor, and she wrote over twenty negative counseling statements for Currie stemming from his consistently abysmal work performance, complaints directly from patients, and his outright negligence in performing his role as the Exceptional Family Member Program Care Coordinator. Katie repeatedly communicated to her command that she felt unsafe with Currie at work, and she felt untrained to deal with his combative attitude and escalating threats.

Currie overtly threatened Katie on multiple occasions prior to the September 7, 2016, attack.

http://usmclife.com/2017/08/to...pleas-help-lit-fire/

I generally tend to believe unions have a place even in today's society but from reading the article, i think the problem stemmed from the perp being a union employee.

It's hard enough to get rid of a federal employee, even more so a union federal employee. Although, I think it still applies that if a group is represented by a union, then union representation covers all employees in that group even if they're not union members.

The article goes into way more detail about Currie and his behavior. The Lt followed the rules but was basically noted.
She's now in San Antonio and the screw up continue. While thatticle is heavily supportive of her, the overall situation is disgraceful.

Such disgraceful incidents serve to high light the totally screwed up gubbermint "support" systems demonstrate on nearly a daily basis.

It further demonstrates the casual attitudes of what appears to be a fair number of said employees.

Will not go into facts experienced by our family in dealing with Walter Reed. But it was not pretty, at all.

I can't help but wonder if she elevated her concerns above her immediate chain of command. I know hindsight is 20/20, but after he screamed in her face and was acting that crazy I would have went to the IG if they wouldn't do anything.