Special Notice: If you are a veteran in emotional crisis and need help RIGHT NOW, call this toll-free number 1-800-273-8255, available 24/7, and tell them you are a veteran. All calls are confidential.
National Call Center for Homeless Veterans:
1-877-4AID-VET or 1-877-424-3838
Defense Department Wrongfully Discharges Nearly 26,000 Veterans,
Refuses to Release Records
Washington, D.C.--The Defense Department's (DoD) failure to comply with the law in releasing records that show it has blocked disabled veterans from receiving disability compensation and other benefits, earned as a result of service to our nation has prompted Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) and VVA Chapter 120 in Hartford, Connecticut, to file a federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit.
The complaint, filed today at the U.S. District Court in New Haven by the Veterans Legal Services Clinic of the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School, charges that, since the beginning of the Global War on Terrorism, DoD has systematically discharged nearly 26,000 veterans, wrongfully classified as suffering from Personality Disorder, a characterization that renders the service member ineligible for receiving rightful benefits. Personality Disorder is a disability that begins in adolescence or early adulthood and can present with symptoms which may mimic Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
"DoD's Personality Disorder designation prevents thousands of wounded veterans from accessing service-connected disability compensation or health care," said VVA National President John Rowan.
In 2007, the Veterans Affairs Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives charged DoD with deliberately misusing personality disorder diagnoses in order to reduce to the cost of health care and disability compensation by at least $12.5 billion. Since then, DoD has dramatically decreased the number of soldiers it has discharged on the basis of Personality Disorder. After discharging an average of 3,750 service members per year for Personality Disorder between 2001 and 2007, DoD has discharged only 960 service members in 2008; 1,426 in 2009; and 650 to date in 2010. However, rather than repairing the harm it has caused to the veterans it misdiagnosed, DoD is refusing to admit that veterans were inappropriately discharged with Personality Disorder before 2008.
"While DoD protects its reputation and its pocketbook, veterans with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury continue to be denied the benefits and medical care they are due," said Dr. Thomas Berger, Executive Director of VVA's Veterans Health Council. Since 2007, VVA has publically criticized DoD's systematic misuse of Personality Disorder discharges, in correspondence to DoD Secretary Gates and in testimony before the House Veterans Affairs Committee, with the intent of curbing the wrongful discharge practice and assisting those wrongfully discharged veterans in receiving the benefits to which they are entitled.
"If DoD truly believes that all Personality Disorder discharges were lawful, why does it refuse to provide records responsive to VVA's Freedom of Information Act request?" asked Melissa Ader, a law student intern in the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School, which is counsel in the case. "We hope that this lawsuit will allow the public to assess for itself whether DoD has treated veterans unjustly."
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
as a veteran with PTSD I am glad to see at least one veterans organization trying to hold DOD accountable
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Defense Department Wrongfully Discharges Nearly 26,000 Veterans Refuses to Release Records
Phantom Charity Takes Flight Leaves Veterans Stranded
Phantom Charity Takes Flight
Leaves Veterans Stranded
The United States Navy Veterans Association (USNVA) certainly looked like a legitimate organization on the surface. This multi-million dollar charity, operating since 1927, was registered with the IRS, run by ex-military men, and had dozens of chapters and 66,000 members nationwide. Legitimate, that is, until media investigations revealed that the charity was not in operation until 2002, had only one member or charity official that could be located, was run out of an individual's duplex in Florida, and appears to have consisted of one man using a fake name for whom no record of U.S. military service could be found.
A man we will refer to as "John Doe" stole the name, social security number, and birth date of another man, Bobby Thompson, according to an August 2010 article in the Roanoke Times. He then used this fake identity to set up a sham charity and bilk donors out of nearly $100 million over a seven year period. Authorities have since charged him with identity fraud and issued a nationwide warrant for his arrest. "The real Bobby Thompson, whose identity was stolen…has absolutely no connection to the U.S. Navy Veterans Association," according to a news release on Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray's website. While John Doe abandoned his former residence and has yet to be located by authorities, he will not soon be forgotten by the donors, government lobbyists, politicians, and fundraisers he had dealings with, or by his former lawyers and cohorts he left behind.
Trouble started for John Doe when the St. Petersburg Times (SP Times) began a six-month investigation into USNVA in late 2009. When attempting to locate the charity's national headquarters using the same address the group filed on its tax form and listed on its web site, only a "rented mailbox…at a UPS shipping store" was found, according to the paper. The SP Times had no better luck when trying to locate many of the charity's chapters throughout the country, or any of the officers and directors reported on the charity's tax return and state registration documents. It found that "most state chapter addresses…also are rented mailboxes," and that "none of the three officers listed in Florida registration papers could be found." One officer's address was non-existent, one was the address for the Hilton hotel in Miami, and the last was the address of a condo owned by someone with a different name. Among other searches, the paper looked for the physical address of the commander of the New Mexico chapter, Howard Bonifacio, but found the address did not exist. If it did, it "would sit on a parking lot adjacent to a car dealership," reported the SP Times. For six months the paper conducted "hundreds of searches of directories, online public records databases and newspaper and broadcast stories going back more than 25 years" and reported it was unable to locate 84 of the 85 officers or directors named in the charity's IRS filings.
The only charity representative the paper could locate was John Doe, who apparently ran the charity's operations out of his Florida duplex, but he was not a big fan of transparency. "We are a great charity," he told the SP Times, citing the paper's "character assassination" and "McCarthy-like witch hunts" as an explanation for why the USNVA's state officers and executive board did not want to disclose their whereabouts or respond to the reporter's inquiries. Searches for the charity's internal auditor, Deborah Johns, were also unfruitful. The paper reported in its March 20th, 2010, article that when it asked USNVA for Johns' contact information, John Doe said the charity would release a copy of her audit when "pigs fly."
USNVA was registered with the IRS under a special section of the tax code that exempted it from some of the public disclosure requirements most public charities must follow. For example, USNVA had to report its total expenses each year but did not have to publicly disclose how much it was spending on its programs vs. fundraising and other overhead. For John Doe, however, even this level of transparency was too much for his taste. When asked by the SP Times to supply copies of USNVA's tax returns and IRS exempt status application, which it is required to do within 30 days under IRS rules, John Doe falsely claimed that his charity was exempt from this rule.
If you do not like the rules, change them. This seemed to be John Doe's attitude when he hired attorney Samuel F. Wright to lobby Senator Patsy Ticer of Virginia. The state of Virginia has a large military presence, making it a key fundraising area for veterans and military charities. The vast majority of U.S. states, including Virginia, require charities to register financial and other information with oversight agencies as a condition of being allowed to solicit contributions from residents in their state. Ticer reported to the SP Times that Wright showed up at her office with another Northern Virginia lobbyist whom she knew and that Wright asked her to sponsor legislation that would exempt certain veterans groups like USNVA from registration. She agreed to sponsor the bill, and it passed the state Senate and House unanimously in February and March 2010, respectively. By the time Ticer became aware of the serious problems at USNVA and wanted to squash her bill, it was too late to prevent Governor Robert McDonnell from signing it.
USNVA "has never made a contribution to any candidate for office, ever," John Doe told the SP Times, according to the paper's March 20th, 2010, article. Contributions were definitely made by John Doe to various politicians and officeholders in Virginia, but with so little accountability over the charity's finances, it is difficult to confirm whether he used the charity's funds or his own. Among campaign donations to politicians in that state, $1,000 went to Senator Ticer; $5,000 went to Governor McDonell; $2,000 went to House Speaker Bill Howell, and the largest donation, $55,500, went to Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. Once major issues at USNVA were brought to light, most quickly agreed to donate the contributions they received to other veterans charities, except for Cuccinelli, who held out for about two months before publicly stating he would do the same.
The information on USNVA's web site, navyvets.org, made the group seem impressive, even if its low quality design could have clued donors in that something was amiss. In addition to boasting of its 66,000 members and dozens of state chapters throughout the U.S., it also cited substantial contributions from several foundations, and claimed to have received an award for international news reporting. According to the SP Times, USNVA "refused to provide addresses or phone numbers for the foundations." The paper could not locate any "tax records, web sites, or news stories" about the Irene T. Boyar Foundation, the John F. Kearney Foundation, or the Deborah & Charles Pissot Foundation, nor could it find them listed "in major reference directories of U.S. foundations." As for the Jill Dando Award the charity claimed to have received in 2003, an official from this institution told the SP Times it had "no record of giving any award to the U.S. Navy Veterans Association."
Perhaps most disturbing are the countless thank-you notes and other praise the charity posted on its web site from soldiers who had supposedly received care packages from the group. Disturbing because the SP Times confirmed that many of the notes of praise were substantively copied without permission from the web site of anysoldier.com, an organization that helps Americans connect with active duty soldiers and send them care packages. "Everyone in the unit who received a package from you wants to thank you so much. And for your [web] site," reads a thank you letter on USNVA's web site from Gina Pronzati, U.S. Navy, Afghanistan. The paper reported finding seven thank-you letters on USNVA's web site that "were near duplicates of messages written to anysoldier.com or anysailor.com." According to a June 2010 article in the SP Times, Pronzati told the paper that she never received a package from USNVA, and never wrote the group a thank-you. "I knew immediately it was some sort of scam, because it was exactly what I posted on anysailor.com. It's a pretty horrible thing for someone to do," said Pronzati.
Throughout the SP Times' investigation, USNVA communicated with the paper primarily through its attorney, Helen MacMurray, who also happens to be former Chief of the Consumer Protection Section of the Ohio Attorney General's Office, the department that oversees charity regulation in that state. In response to the paper's allegations that USNVA lifted soldiers' thank-you notes from other web sites, the charity responded through MacMurray that "sometimes out of haste, negligence or simply a belief that charity is its own reward," they did not always include something in the care packages that would identify them as coming from USNVA. For this reason, the group claims that when it saw a thank-you note posted on anysoldier.com from care package recipients, it "felt justified in changing some language and advertising that thank-you message as its own," reported the SP Times.
USNVA made efforts to legitimize the organization in the eyes of donors by associating itself with all things veterans and military related. For example, until recent events compelled the Department of Veterans Affairs to remove the charity from its list, USNVA was listed on the Department's web site as a resource for veterans. John Doe referred to himself as "Commander Bobby Thompson" on the charity's web site and told the SP Times he was a lieutenant commander in the Navy Reserves. Assisted by the nonprofit veterans rights group, the POW Network, the paper searched for Bobby Thompson's military service records but could find none. The charity's tax records listed "Jack Nimitz" as the group's "Director & CEO," who shares a familiar last name with Chester William Nimitz, a well-known five-star admiral in the U.S. Navy during World War II for whom the famous USS Nimitz ship was named. According to the SP Times, the charity "would not say" if Jack Nimitz was related to Admiral Nimitz, and "provided no help locating him…" when the paper requested to speak with him directly.
As bad press drew more and more negative attention to the group, pressure mounted and USNVA scrambled to show that it was doing something charitable. It recruited several acquaintances to pose for photos to be posted on the charity's web site to show that real people were involved with the organization, and rushed out a handful of grants to various charities. While these grants were likely appreciated by the charities that received them, they are surely of little comfort to the donors who contributed millions to the group and for whom little evidence exists that much of what they gave was ever used for the charitable purposes they intended. The charity reports in its 2008 tax return that its national office spent over $2.6 million of its $4.2 million budget on "grants and other assistance to individuals in the U.S." When the SP Times could find no evidence that such assistance was actually provided, it asked the charity for backup. USNVA responded that it can account for the funds, but was not willing to share any of the documentation with the SP Times.
USNVA's last-ditch efforts to provide charity were too late for some state regulators, who by that time had launched their own investigations into the charity or had barred it from soliciting in their respective states. Florida ordered USNVA to cease operations in its state, and launched an investigation into its "potentially unfair and deceptive trade practices." Hawaii began an investigation to find out whether the association fabricated its chapter officials and deceived the public. New Mexico ordered the charity to cease and desist operations in its state after finding that the addresses the association provided in its registration documents are fictional. In May 2010 Senator Jim Webb of Virginia made a request to the IRS that it launch a federal level investigation which would look into USNVA's activities nationwide.
Things began to unravel quickly from here. USNVA's attorneys, MacMurray, Petersen & Shuster LLP, told the SP Times that John Doe "disappeared" around June 20th, 2010, and shortly thereafter the law firm broke ties with the group. The charity's professional fundraisers soon followed suit. On July 30th, 2010, federal and state agents seized documents and computer records from a Florida mother and daughter who were associates of John Doe, according to a SP Times article of the same date. Nancy Contreras and her mother, Blanca Contreras, a former citrus processing plant employee, had signed registration papers in several states claiming to hold official positions at USNVA ranging from acting vice president, to chief financial officer, to acting secretary, according to the SP Times. They had also been described as association members and were featured in photographs on the charity's web site. Months earlier the SP Times had attempted to contact one of the associates, Nancy Contreras, 20, and was warned by USNVA's then attorney, Helen MacMurray, that any future attempt on the paper's part to contact her might "constitute criminal 'stalking'," according to the paper.
Of the nine states currently investigating USNVA, Ohio has arguably been the most aggressive, freezing the charity's bank accounts and shutting down its fundraising in the state. Its investigation into the charity uncovered that John Doe, in addition to stealing the identity of "Bobby Thompson," also stole the identity of a leader of another veterans charity in New Mexico. On October 15th, 2010, an Ohio grand jury indicted both John Doe and Blanca Contreras on corruption, theft, and money laundering charges, according to a SP Times article of the same date. Contreras was arrested in a Charlotte, North Carolina airport, according to the paper, and booked into jail there on an Ohio warrant. John Doe has yet to be located by authorities as of the date this article was published.
The story of John Doe and the U.S. Navy Veterans Association is an unfortunate example of how easily the public can be duped out of millions of charitable dollars by failing to properly research a charity before deciding to give. Many donors automatically assume that a charity is "legitimate" if it is registered with the IRS and are too often impressed by the claims made by a charity in its solicitations, on its web site, or in self-reported tax filings. It is tragic that a large portion of the donations USNVA collected over the years will unlikely be recovered and used to help deserving veterans.
Leaves Veterans Stranded
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
This is one of the reasons you seldom see me mentioning any veterans charity organizations, and the grades some of the well known organizations make many veterans question how well their donations are being used even by the so called "good ones"
I always recommend going to any "watch sites" and learn about the group or charity you are donating to BEFORE you write the check
Christmas Poem
TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS,
HE LIVED ALL ALONE,
IN A ONE BEDROOM HOUSE MADE OF
PLASTER AND STONE.
I HAD COME DOWN THE CHIMNEY
WITH PRESENTS TO GIVE,
AND TO SEE JUST WHO
IN THIS HOME DID LIVE.
I LOOKED ALL ABOUT,
A STRANGE SIGHT I DID SEE,
NO TINSEL, NO PRESENTS,
NOT EVEN A TREE.
NO STOCKING BY MANTLE,
JUST BOOTS FILLED WITH SAND,
ON THE WALL HUNG PICTURES
OF FAR DISTANT LANDS.
WITH MEDALS AND BADGES,
AWARDS OF ALL KINDS,
A SOBER THOUGHT
CAME THROUGH MY MIND.
FOR THIS HOUSE WAS DIFFERENT,
IT WAS DARK AND DREARY,
I FOUND THE HOME OF A SOLDIER,
ONCE I COULD SEE CLEARLY.
THE SOLDIER LAY SLEEPING,
SILENT, ALONE,
CURLED UP ON THE FLOOR
IN THIS ONE BEDROOM HOME.
THE FACE WAS SO GENTLE,
THE ROOM IN SUCH DISORDER,
NOT HOW I PICTURED
A UNITED STATES SOLDIER.
WAS THIS THE HERO
OF WHOM I'D JUST READ?
CURLED UP ON A PONCHO,
THE FLOOR FOR A BED?
I REALIZED THE FAMILIES
THAT I SAW THIS NIGHT,
OWED THEIR LIVES TO THESE SOLDIERS
WHO WERE WILLING TO FIGHT.
SOON ROUND THE WORLD,
THE CHILDREN WOULD PLAY,
AND GROWNUPS WOULD CELEBRATE
A BRIGHT CHRISTMAS DAY.
THEY ALL ENJOYED FREEDOM
EACH MONTH OF THE YEAR,
BECAUSE OF THE SOLDIERS,
LIKE THE ONE LYING HERE.
I COULDN'T HELP WONDER
HOW MANY LAY ALONE,
ON A COLD CHRISTMAS EVE
IN A LAND FAR FROM HOME.
THE VERY THOUGHT
BROUGHT A TEAR TO MY EYE,
I DROPPED TO MY KNEES
AND STARTED TO CRY.
THE SOLDIER AWAKENED
AND I HEARD A ROUGH VOICE,
'SANTA DON'T CRY,
THIS LIFE IS MY CHOICE;
I FIGHT FOR FREEDOM,
I DON'T ASK FOR MORE,
MY LIFE IS MY GOD,
MY! COUNTRY, MY CORPS.'
THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER
AND DRIFTED TO SLEEP,
I COULDN'T CONTROL IT,
I CONTINUED TO WEEP.
I WEPT FOR HOURS,
SO SILENT AND STILL
AND WE BOTH SHIVERED
FROM THE COLD NIGHT'S CHILL.
I DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE
ON THAT COLD, DARK, NIGHT,
THIS GUARDIAN OF HONOR
SO WILLING TO FIGHT.
THEN THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER,
WITH A VOICE SOFT AND PURE,
WHISPERED, 'CARRY ON SANTA,
IT'S CHRISTMAS DAY, ALL IS SECURE.'
ONE LOOK AT MY WATCH,
AND I KNEW HE WAS RIGHT.
'MERRY CHRISTMAS MY FRIEND,!
AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT.'
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Fort Detrick to clean up contaminated Area B
Fort Detrick to clean up contaminated Area B
by Pat Dulnier on December 20, 2010
Officials at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland, have signed an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Defense outlining how to clean up the groundwater contamination located in Area B.
Area B was added to the EPA’s National Priorities List in 2008. The list is a collection of the country’s most contaminated land that is in immediate need of remediation, the Frederick News-Post reports.
The clean-up falls under the recently signed Federal Facilities Agreement, which is a required pact for any federal land that has been placed on the National Priorities list. It is a legally enforceable document that details roles, responsibilities and timeline for the departments involved.
The agreement includes a history of Area B and the contamination, which includes chemical and biological warfare testing in the 1960s and the discovery in 1992 of high levels of carcinogens in a nearby water well, the Frederick News-Post reports. The document also details the steps needed to examine and cleanup the contamination.
The EPA can fine the Army if it fails to comply with the timeline, which includes $5,000 for the first week and $10,000 a week for additional weeks.
Chuck Gordon, a Spokesman for Fort Detrick, told the Frederic News-Post that the Army is glad to see an agreement reached and wants to move forward with the environmental cleanup.
Fort Detrick to clean up contaminated Area B
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
For some reason I don't think the idea of being fined bothers the DOD or Department of the Army to hurry up, the clean up effort. Why did it take them so long to even find out it is contaminated, the EPA listed Edgewood Arsenal on the clean up list in 1978 when they found the contaminated wells and soil, they are still working on it 32 years later and they aren't finished yet according to the EPA Super Fund web site. When will they start fining them?
Rep. John Hall Accomplishments - 2006-2010 on Scribd
Rep. John Hall Accomplishments - 2006-2010
John Hall has been a great veterans advocate and veterans will miss the strong voice he has been for us during his past 4 years in Congress, we need more representatives like he has been not fewer, he will be missed.
Deadline for Retroactive Stop Loss Special Pay Extended
{ http://vato21stcentury.blogspot.com/2010/12/deadline-for-stop-loss-special-pay.html }
Deadline for Retroactive Stop Loss Special Pay Extended
Washington - December 22, 2010 - The deadline for eligible service members, veterans and their beneficiaries to apply for Retroactive Stop Loss Special Pay (RSLSP) has been extended to March 4, 2011, allowing personnel more time to apply for the benefits they've earned under the program guidelines.
The deadline extension is included in the continuing resolution signed by President Obama today, providing funding for federal government operations through March 4, 2011.
"There was a surge of applicants as we approached our earlier deadline, but there may still be more out there who have yet to apply," said Lernes Hebert, director, Officer and Enlisted Personnel Management. "We are pleased that this extension was included in the continuing resolution which will give those remaining the opportunity to apply as we continue to work through the current applications."
The RSLSP was established to compensate for the hardships military members encountered when their service was involuntarily extended under Stop Loss Authority between Sept. 11, 2001, and Sept. 30, 2009. Eligible members or their beneficiaries may submit a claim to their respective military service in order to receive the benefit of $500 for each full or partial month served in a Stop Loss status.
When RSLSP began on Oct. 21, 2009, the services estimated 145,000 service members, veterans and beneficiaries were eligible for this benefit. Because the majority of those eligible had separated from the military, the services have engaged in extensive and persistent outreach efforts over the past 14 months. Outreach efforts including direct mail, engaging military and veteran service organizations, social networks and media outlets, will continue through March 4, 2011.
To apply for more information, or to gather more information on RSLSP, including submission requirements and service-specific links, go to Stop Loss.
http://vato21stcentury.blogspot.com/2010/12/deadline-for-stop-loss-special-pay.html
VA to consolidate Lejeune water claims at Louisville office
Posted on Mon, Dec. 20, 2010
VA to consolidate Lejeune water claims at Louisville office
By BARBARA BARRETT McClatchy Newspapers
Responding to heightened publicity and an uneven smattering of decisions on claims, the Department of Veterans Affairs will begin training a specialized cadre of workers this week to handle disability claims related to historic water contamination at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C.
The agency will consolidate claims at one office in Louisville, Ky. Eight employees there will focus on culling, researching and adjudicating disability claims related to the contaminated water.
The move is more than bureaucratic; it could prove significant to Marine veterans across the country who are suffering from cancers and other diseases that they think are related to the poisonous chemicals that flowed through Lejeune's water from the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s.
"Great. Great!" Marine veteran Peter Devereaux of North Andover, Mass., said when he heard about the VA's decision. "It seems they're steppin g up and trying to take control."
Devereaux, 48, suffers from a terminal form of male breast cancer. It took him two years to finally earn service-connected disability benefits in August, and all along the way, he said, he had to explain the Lejeune water problems to VA officials.
"It felt like I had to beg," he said. "You try to be a man. You know, I served my country. The last thing you want to say 20 years later is, 'I need benefits."'
McClatchy Newspapers reported in June that the VA's decisions on Lejeune-related claims appeared uneven and that they varied for Marines across the country. That led to questions from Congress about whether the VA was doing enough to track cases related to the contamination. Devereaux was among those who testi fied on the issue.
A million people - civilian workers, Marines and their family members - are thought to have been exposed to the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, and more than 160,000 have registered with the Marine Corps to learn more about the case.
From the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s, water wells at Lejeune were poisoned with trichloroethylene (TCE), tetrachloroethylene (PCE), benzene, vinyl chloride and other volatile organic chemicals. The wells were shuttered in the mid-'80s, but many Marine veterans and their families had no idea of the contamination until Congress required the military to notify them beginning in 2008.
Bradley Flohr, the VA's assistant director for policy in compensation and pension service, said in an interview that the agency was acting now because it had grown concerned that disability decisions hadn't been consistent across regional offices.
"Perhaps we're not getting as consistent decisions as we would like to have," Flohr said. "We've committed to do training for staff dedicated to do these claims."
The department found about 195 adjudicated disability claims that listed Camp Lejeune's contaminated water as a cause. Of those, just 32 have been approved.
In September, Thomas J. Pamperin, now the VA's deputy undersecretary for disability assistance, testified to the House of Representatives that the VA hadn't found conclusive evidence to link the water to a host of cancers and other diseases. Instead, the VA reviewed claims on a case-by-case basis, which resulted in scattershot d ecisions.
Now the agency has decided to have one office review all incoming Lejeune claims. So far, about 100 new ones await adjudication, Pamperin said in an interview.
Flohr plans to travel to Louisville this week to educate workers about the exposure, the types of chemicals that were in the water and the associated diseases. He said Louisville was chosen as the central site because it was a high-performing regional office.
"We know for certain benzene is most often associated with leukemias, acute myelocytic leukemia, and others," Flohr said. "Kidney cancer as well, with TCE and PCE, and liver cancer is associated with vinyl chloride."
The VA's move to consolidate Lejeune-relat ed claims comes even as federal scientists in Atlanta continue a years-long project to understand the contamination's health effects better. Results of water-modeling and other studies from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry are expected in 2013, Flohr said.
The VA already had tried this year to update regional offices about the water contamination - but not always with the most up-to-date information. The agency sent a memo last spring to regional offices, but it referenced a controversial 2009 report from the National Research Council that left out significant contaminants and that epidemiologists have disputed.
Flohr said the letter was updated this past summer to include other contaminants, such as benzene and vinyl chloride.
This fall, the direct or of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry sent a letter to the Department of the Navy and the Marines warning them that the National Research Council report had flaws, including leaving out certain contaminants, low-balling potential impacts of exposure to the chemicals and not fully appreciating how more scientific study would better explain the health effects of the contamination.
"Let me be perfectly clear; there was undoubtedly a hazard associated with drinking the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune," wrote Christopher Portier, the director of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the National Center for Environmental Health.
The VA also received a copy of the letter, Flohr said.
In response to congressional inquiries, the agency has begun tagging claims that list Lejeune's water as a cause; traditionally claims have been tracked by disability, not cause.
APPLYING FOR DISABILITY BENEFITS:
To apply for service-connected disability, a veteran must fill out VA Form 21-526, Veteran's Application for Compensation and/or Pension. More information is online at http://vabenefits.vba.va.gov/vonapp/main.asp.
In order to have a service connection for a disability, a veteran must show that exposure to the contaminated water "as likely as not" caused the disability. That comes through what's called a "nexus letter," which is written by a physician and shows the connection. The veteran also could request a medical opinion from a VA doctor.
To learn more about the Marines' registry on historic water contamination at Camp Lejeune, go to https://clnr.hqi.usmc.mil/clwater/index.html or call 877-261-9782.
ON THE WEB
Department of Veterans Affairs information on Camp Lejeune water contamination:
http://www4.va.gov/healtheligibility/Library/pubs/CampLejeuneWaterContamination/CampLejeuneWaterContamination.pdf
Department of Veterans Affairs benefits:
http://www.vba.va.gov/VBA
The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten: Camp Lejeune Toxic Water:
< span style="font-size:14.0pt;">http://www.tftptf.com/
Camp Lejeune Historic Drinking Water:
https://clnr.hqi.usmc.mil/clwater/
About Camp Lejeune:
http://www.lejeune.usmc.mil/about/
"Keep on, Keepin' on"
Dan Cedusky, Champaign IL "Colonel Dan"
See my web site at:
http://www.angelfire.com/il2/VeteranIssues/
VA to consolidate Lejeune water claims at Louisville office
Monday, December 20, 2010
Defense Department Wrongfully Discharges Nearly 26,000 Veterans, Refuses to Release Records
Defense Department Wrongfully Discharges Nearly 26,000 Veterans, Refuses to Release Records
Washington, D.C.--The Defense Department's (DoD) failure to comply with the law in releasing records that show it has blocked disabled veterans from receiving disability compensation and other benefits, earned as a result of service to our nation has prompted Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) and VVA Chapter 120 in Hartford, Connecticut, to file a federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit.
The complaint, filed today at the U.S. District Court in New Haven by the Veterans Legal Services Clinic of the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School, charges that, since the beginning of the Global War on Terrorism, DoD has systematically discharged nearly 26,000 veterans, wrongfully classified as suffering from Personality Disorder, a characterization that renders the service member ineligible for receiving rightful benefits. Personality Disorder is a disability that begins in adolescence or early adulthood and can present with symptoms which may mimic Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
"DoD's Personality Disorder designation prevents thousands of wounded veterans from accessing service-connected disability compensation or health care," said VVA National President John Rowan.
In 2007, the Veterans Affairs Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives charged DoD with deliberately misusing personality disorder diagnoses in order to reduce to the cost of health care and disability compensation by at least $12.5 billion. Since then, DoD has dramatically decreased the number of soldiers it has discharged on the basis of Personality Disorder. After discharging an average of 3,750 service members per year for Personality Disorder between 2001 and 2007, DoD has discharged only 960 service members in 2008; 1,426 in 2009; and 650 to date in 2010. However, rather than repairing the harm it has caused to the veterans it misdiagnosed, DoD is refusing to admit that veterans were inappropriately discharged with Personality Disorder before 2008.
"While DoD protects its reputation and its pocketbook, veterans with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury continue to be denied the benefits and medical care they are due," said Dr. Thomas Berger, Executive Director of VVA's Veterans Health Council. Since 2007, VVA has publically criticized DoD's systematic misuse of Personality Disorder discharges, in correspondence to DoD Secretary Gates and in testimony before the House Veterans Affairs Committee, with the intent of curbing the wrongful discharge practice and assisting those wrongfully discharged veterans in receiving the benefits to which they are entitled.
"If DoD truly believes that all Personality Disorder discharges were lawful, why does it refuse to provide records responsive to VVA's Freedom of Information Act request?" asked Melissa Ader, a law student intern in the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School, which is counsel in the case. "We hope that this lawsuit will allow the public to assess for itself whether DoD has treated veterans unjustly."
For more information visit: http://www.vva.org/ppd.html
Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) is the nation's only congressionally chartered veterans service organization dedicated to the needs of Vietnam-era veterans and their families. VVA's founding principle is “Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another.”
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
For combat veterans to be discharged under these type of discharges after returning back to the states after their tour of duty in either Iraq or Afghanistan is just plain wrong. If they had Personality disorders they should have been detected during either Basic Training or Advanced Individual Training which together take about 6 months of time if not more, their inability to conform to military rules would have exposed them during this time period, to wait until they return from combat and now have possible PTSD or TBI issues affecting them and for the military to resort to tactics they used during the Vietnam war to discharge war veterans without benefits of the Veterans Administration or possiblle Chapter 61 medical discharges is a very sad fact affecting tens of thousands of American veterans, and it does need to be investigated.
I am a disabled Infantry NCO who served from 1973 (Vietnam War Era) to Sep 1982 and then I joined the National Guard and was activated for Gulf War One in November 1990 and discharged in May 1991 after the end of the active part of GW1. I did not become disabled until June 2002. I am also a "test vet" from the Cold War research program at Edgewood Arsenal that took place from 1955 thru 1975, my time was from June 25 1974 - August 22 1974 and I was test subject 6778A.
