[AngelsSix]

Part 1

By NANCY BARR CANSON / Special Contributor to The
Dallas Morning News

KARNACK, Texas - Staff Sgt. James Alford can't talk.
He doesn't recognize his wife. His head shakes, his
hands tremble.

He is agitated, restless, diapered and helpless,
requiring round-the-clock care from his family. Unable
to coordinate his fingers and hands, the former
marathon runner can still walk, with assistance, and
his daily ritual is to unsteadily "walk the floor," as
his wife, Army Spec. Amber Alford, describes it.

In April, the Green Beret and Bronze Star recipient
was sent home from Iraq by the Army. But it wasn't
because he badly needed medical care.

"They sent him home to be court-martialed," said his
mother, Gail Alford, a former Army nurse. "They wanted
to strip him of his Special Forces tab. They wanted
him out of the Army."

Army officials say they did not realize the
24-year-old soldier's increasingly erratic behavior
was an early symptom of the difficult-to-diagnose
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. CJD is a fatal,
degenerative brain disorder that attacks the human
brain in the same way that "mad cow" disease attacks
cattle.

Staff Sgt. Alford was disciplined and demoted.
Although the Army has restored his rank and corrected
what it admits was a mistake, the Alfords - a family
in which many members have served in the armed forces
- question how this could have happened.

"I don't blame the Army for this disease," said his
father, retired Army Command Sgt. Maj. John Alford,
who was in the service 34 years. "I blame them for how
they treated my son. They treated him like yesterday's
garbage. They reduced his rank. They called him an
idiot, called him stupid - this is a wounded soldier.
It's no different than if he had taken a bullet to the
brain."

The family has asked for and received acknowledgement
that commanders in the 5th Special Forces Group erred.

"It's a terrible thing that happened," said Maj.
Robert E. Gowan, public affairs officer for the
Special Forces. "Everyone is deeply sorry for Sergeant
Alford and his family. I think personal apologies,
apologies that really mean something, will happen in
time."

During his first six years in the Army, Staff Sgt.
Alford was ranked an "excellent" soldier in every
evaluation. He was awarded two Army Commendation
medals, five Army Achievement medals, an Army Good
Conduct Medal, numerous division ribbons and, in May
2002, the Bronze Star for "peerless expertise" in
Afghanistan.