Military & Veterans: Politics for the deserving

First meeting of IOM SHAD II Committee January 19 in Washington, DC

2012-01-05T17:39:00.001-08:00

First meeting of IOM SHAD II Committee January 19 in Washington, DC

***We invite you to share this announcement with other interested individuals or organizations***

In response to the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010 and an ensuing request from the Department of Veterans Affairs, the IOM has assembled a committee of experts to conduct an epidemiological study comparing the health status of the SHAD veterans with a comparison population. This study will build on knowledge gained from a prior study conducted by IOM between 2003 and 2007.

As part of the data collection process, the committee will plan and conduct meetings to receive suggestions and input from SHAD veterans about their experiences so that the study can be informed by the insights of these veterans.

The first meeting of the Committee on Shipboard Hazard and Defense will take place on January 19-20, 2012, at the Keck Center of the National Academies, 500 Fifth St. NW , Washington , DC. An agenda for the open session of the meeting on January 19th is available at http://www8.nationalacademies.org/cp/projectview.aspx?key=IOM-BSP-10-08 and at an IOM study site: http://www.iom.edu/Activities/Veterans/SHADII.aspx A second committee meeting will be held February 23-24, 2012, in Sacramento, California.

If you would be interested in providing brief comments at the meeting on January 19 in Washington , DC or on February 23 at the meeting in Sacramento , CA , please contact Jon Sanders at jsanders@nas.edu. On January 19, public comments will be heard during the late afternoon. Time constraints may limit the number of speakers who can be accommodated, but all written submissions will be welcome.

Written materials can be submitted to the committee through the IOM staff at the e-mail or postal addresses shown below. Please note that any comments or materials submitted to the committee in paper or electronic form will normally become part of the study’s public record.

Committee on Shipboard Hazard and Defense II

Institute of Medicine, Keck 775

500 Fifth Street, NW

Washington, DC 20001

SHADStudyII@nas.edu

Background

From 1962 to 1973, more than 5,800 military personnel, mostly Navy personnel and Marines, participated in Project SHAD (Shipboard Hazard and Defense) -- a series of tests of U.S. warship vulnerability to biological and chemical warfare agents. Only some of the involved military personnel were aware of these tests at the time. Many of these tests used simulants, which are substances with the physical properties of chemical or biological warfare agents, that were thought at the time to be harmless. The existence of these tests came to light many decades later.

In 2007, the Institute of Medicine ’s Medical Follow-up Agency (MFUA) published a report on the long term health effects of participation in Project SHAD, based on the results of a health survey (the report is available at http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11900). In the new study, an expert committee will work in conjunction with IOM's MFUA and build on knowledge gained from the previous IOM study. The SHAD II study will use the established list of SHAD participants and the comparison population determined from the prior study.

The results of the study will be provided in a brief IOM report by the study committee and an analytic paper for publication.

Questions about the study or providing materials for the committee’s consideration should be directed to study director Lois Joellenbeck (ljoellen@nas.edu) or program associate Jon Sanders (jsanders@nas.edu).

Lois Joellenbeck, Dr.P.H.

Study Director

Institute of Medicine

The National Academies

500 Fifth St. N.W.

Washington, DC 20001

202-334-1715

ljoellen@nas.edu

Lois Joellenbeck, Dr.P.H.

Study Director

Institute of Medicine

The National Academies

500 Fifth St. N.W.

Washington, DC 20001

202-334-1715

ljoellen@nas.edu

Drawing Down Troops from Iraq Infographic

2011-12-16T10:44:00.000-08:00

Brought to you by USC: MSW Programs

Gulf War Syndrome: A lot of questions, few answers

2011-11-03T21:55:00.001-07:00

Gulf War Syndrome: A lot of questions, few answers

By Maggie Koerth-Baker at 1:36 pm Thursday, Nov 3

Twenty years ago, the United States sent almost 700,000 soldiers to Kuwait and Iraq as part of Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. The war was quick. Bombing began on January 17th and the whole thing was officially over by February 28th. If you started a semester of school just before the first Gulf War began, the conflict would have ended before you even took your midterm exams.

But this short war left a long tail of consequences.

Shortly after the War ended, people who’d served in the Gulf began to turn up in Veterans Hospitals, complaining of a range of symptoms: Fatigue, unexplained pain in their joints and muscles, memory problems and cognitive impairment, malfunctioning digestive systems, and more. There wasn’t a clear pattern—different soldiers reported different clusters of symptoms, some of the people who had symptoms had arrived in the Gulf after the fighting ended, other soldiers had boots on the ground from the beginning but no symptoms. As the years went by, epidemiological studies showed no increase in cancers or other deaths in Gulf War veterans, aside from suicides and accidents. Yet, the symptoms were quite clearly linked to service in the Gulf. The same symptoms occur among other groups of military veterans, but are significantly less common. Today, more than 250,000 U.S. veterans report suffering from one or more unexplained symptoms that have, together, come to be known as Gulf War Syndrome. Scientists are still debating the cause, or even if there is one cause.

In the October 2011 issue of the journal Radiology, Dr. Robert Haley and his colleagues at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center published research that identified a nervous system abnormality that exists in some Gulf War Syndrome patients, but not in the healthy veterans who served with them. Haley says it’s evidence that the Syndrome is actually the result of exposure to a miasma of toxins, particularly low doses of sarin nerve gas, extremely high doses of various pesticides, and a drug meant to protect users from the effects of nerve gas.

But, while everybody agrees veterans are suffering, not everyone agrees with Haley’s conclusions, or his evidence. In fact, some big reviews have discounted it completely. There’s a lot we don’t know, but the stakes aren’t just academic. Research on the cause of Gulf War Syndrome affects the funding, benefits, and well-being of the veterans. Ultimately, this Syndrome represents a big, fat example of what happens when the timetables of good science don’t match up with the timetables of individual health needs.

New Pieces

It all began at Khamisiyah. This town in Iraq was the site of a storage center, filled with munitions, including warheads loaded with two different nerve agents, sarin and cyclosarin. In March of 1991, American soldiers blew up the Khamisiyah storage depot, not realizing that there were chemical weapons inside. The diluted chemicals fell on thousands of soldiers who were downwind of the explosion. Nobody was monitoring the air for chemical weapons at the time, and no one reported or was treated for symptoms consistent with nerve gas exposure. But in very low levels, the chemicals were there.

It doesn’t take much sarin or cyclosarin to cause noticeable symptoms. And we know what those symptoms are. As the chemicals attack the central nervous system, victims first get runny noses, watery eyes, and feel a tightness in their chests. As the poisoning progresses, they lose control of bodily functions, twitch and jerk uncontrollably, and finally lose consciousness. That’s all well documented.

But we don’t really know what happens to people exposed to minute amounts of sarin. If the chemical is there, but the dose is so low there’s no symptoms, can it still have an effect on your body years later? That’s where sarin and Gulf War Syndrome cross paths.

Robert Haley thinks he’s found a way to prove that the poison and the illness are more than just passing strangers. His study focused on a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine. Sarin (and certain pesticides that work through a similar mechanism) attack the enzymes that break down acetylcholine. The rhythym of a burst of acetylcholine, followed by breakdown of acetylcholine, followed by a new burst is what allows information to be sent from one neuron to another. If the breakdown doesn’t happen reliably, the message disappears, like an image on a black and white TV suddenly going all white. Haley hypothesized that soldiers who suffered from symptoms associated with Gulf War Syndrome would also have suffered long-term damage to this system.

To test that, Haley measured blood flow in soldiers’ brains. Anything that inhibits the enzymes that break acetylcholine down should also slow blood flow to certain parts of the brain, including the hippocampus. If previous exposure to sarin had damaged those systems, Haley thought, then the brain might not respond in a normal way when the acetylcholine system was put to the test. He took 57 soldiers from a single battalion, some who had symptoms associated with Gulf War Syndrome and some who didn’t. The soldiers were assigned, at random, to get either an injection of a saline placebo, or an injection of a drug that would inhibit acetylcholine breakdown. Then Haley looked at how the different brains responded.

He saw a clear difference. Both healthy soldiers and those with symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome showed normal blood flow to the hippocampus under normal conditions, and with the saline injection. With the injection of the inhibiting drug, however, the picture changed. The healthy soldiers’ brains responded exactly as expected: Blood flow to the hippocampus slowed, and the people got tired. Some of the sick soldiers, however, had a very different experience. When exposed to the drug, their brains didn’t seem to know how to respond. In some, blood flow to the hippocampus actually increased, in others it decreased far more than was normal, and for some blood flow stayed exactly the same. Haley says this is evidence of damage. Those soldiers’ acetylcholine systems no longer functioned as they should.

Old Puzzle

That seems pretty damning, but Haley’s new study has its faults. While it does mark a replication of results from one of his own earlier studies, Haley’s research has focused exclusively on small sample sizes within a single unit—the 24th Reserve Naval Construction Battalion. When the Khamisiyah storage depot was demolished, that unit wasn’t in a location where they would have been likely to receive even a small dose of the sarin. Haley believes they may still have been exposed to sarin gas from another source, or that the damage is due to exposure to the high levels of pesticides that Gulf War veterans remember applying directly to their clothing and skin.

Haley has also chosen to define Gulf War Syndrome differently than most other researchers. The Centers for Disease Control defines it as, “as the presence, for 6 months or longer, of one or more symptoms from at least two of the following clusters: general fatigue, mood and cognitive abnormalities, and musculoskeletal pain.”

Instead, Haley has used surveys of the 24th Reserve Naval Construction Battalion to split the Syndrome into Syndromes, based on clusters of symptoms. In a 1997 paper, he identified six different syndromes. This new paper focused on three of those: Veterans who reported problems with attention, memory, and reasoning; those who reported far more serious cognitive problems with disorientation, confusion, and balance; and veterans whose symptoms clustered around joint and muscle pain and fatigue.

That makes it difficult to directly compare Haley’s results to those of other scientists. It also muddies the results of his own work. The veterans with confusion and muscular-skeletal symptoms showed damage to their acetylcholine systems, just as I told you before. But the veterans with memory and attention problems didn’t. Their brains seemed to be functioning normally, and it’s hard to say what, if anything, that means.

Haley’s work hasn’t been replicated by others, says Simon Wessely, head of the department of psychological medicine at King’s College, London. Using larger samples, drawn from multiple British military units, Wessely found no neurological differences between people experiencing symptoms of Gulf War Illness, and those who were not. A 2004 American study turned up similar results. All of this suggests to Wessely, and other researchers, that Gulf War Syndrome is psychological in nature—not that soldiers are making up their symptoms, or that they really aren’t impaired, but that the symptoms stem from legitimate psychological causes, like post-traumatic stress disorder.

There could be more to it than that, however. Other researchers have found neurological differences between Gulf War veterans who were likely to be downwind of Khamisiyah and those who weren’t.

Roberta White, professor of environmental health at Boston University, found that the volume of white matter in veterans’ brains varied with their exposure to Khamisiyah—those who likely had high exposures had lower volumes of white matter. In a separate study, White’s team found that likely higher exposure to sarin from Khamisiyah also correlated with poor performance on cognitive tests.

The confusing part is that results like these doesn’t necessarily tell you much about Gulf War Syndrome. Linda Chao, with the Center for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Disease and and the department of radiology at the University of California San Francisco, has run a couple of studies looking for neurological differences in a group of more than 400 Gulf War Veterans. She found that neurological damage didn't correlate with people who experienced Haley’s definition of Gulf War Syndrome, nor with people who experienced the Syndrome the way the CDC defines it. But she did find that neurological damage correlated with likely exposure to sarin from Khamisiyah.

In other words, the people with neurological damage were exposed to sarin, and some of them show observable evidence of that damage, but those people aren’t necessarily ones reporting symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome.

Right now, Gulf War Syndrome is like a puzzle with pieces missing. The theory linking it to toxin exposure makes sense in a lot of ways, but doesn’t line up with all the evidence. Studies are often contradictory, seldom replicated by independent researchers, and frequently use small sample sizes. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people are receiving treatment and benefits (or not, as the case may be) based on an incomplete picture. Haley’s new, small study presents some important questions, but doesn’t do much to help clarify the situation.

Instead, if we really want to understand Gulf War Syndrome we need two things: More studies using large sample sizes drawn from a wide swath of Gulf War veterans (something Haley says he’s turning his research towards next), and more attempts to replicate the findings of other researchers. Without that, all we have is a lot of important questions, and no answers.

Find Out More:

• The Gulf War and Health — National Academies summary of research, published in 2010.

• Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors and Gulf War Illness — a 2008 research paper by Beatrice Golomb of the University of California San Diego. It looks at epidemiological evidence of whether sarin and pesticides can damage the acetylcholine system in the way Haley has proposed, and what the symptoms of that damage would likely be.

• GulfLink — The primary Department of Defense website for Gulf War Illness information.

Panel Hears Grim Details of Venereal Disease Tests

2011-09-06T05:17:00.000-07:00

Panel Hears Grim Details of Venereal Disease Tests

August 30, 2011
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

Gruesome details of American-run venereal disease experiments on Guatemalan prisoners, soldiers and mental patients in the years after World War II were revealed this week during hearings before a White House bioethics panel investigating the study’s sordid history.

From 1946 to 1948, American taxpayers, through the Public Health Service, paid for syphilis-infected Guatemalan prostitutes to have sex with prisoners. When some of the men failed to become infected through sex, the bacteria were poured into scrapes made on the penises or faces, or even injected by spinal puncture.

About 5,500 Guatemalans were enrolled, about 1,300 of whom were deliberately infected with syphilis, gonorrhea or chancroid. At least 83 died, but it was not clear if the experiments killed them. About 700 were treated with antibiotics, records showed; it was not clear if some were never treated.

The stated aim of the study was to see if penicillin could prevent infection after exposure. But the study’s leaders changed explanations several times.

“This was a very dark chapter in the history of medical research sponsored by the U.S. government,” Amy Gutmann, the chairwoman of the bioethics panel and the president of the University of Pennsylvania, said in an interview.

President Obama apologized to President Álvaro Colom of Guatemala for the experiments last year, after they were discovered.

Since then, the panel, the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, has studied 125,000 pages of documents and has sent investigators to Guatemala. While the panel will not make its final report until next month, details emerged in hearings on Monday and Tuesday.

The most offensive case, said John Arras, a bioethicist at the University of Virginia and a panelist, was that of a mental patient named Berta.

She was first deliberately infected with syphilis and, months later, given penicillin. After that, Dr. John C. Cutler of the Public Health Service, who led the experiments, described her as so unwell that she “appeared she was going to die.” Nonetheless, he inserted pus from a male gonorrhea victim into her eyes, urethra and rectum. Four days later, infected in both eyes and bleeding from the urethra, she died.

“I really do believe that a very rigorous judgment of moral blame can be lodged against some of these people,” Dr. Arras said.

Also, several epileptic women at a Guatemalan home for the insane were injected with syphilis below the base of their skull. One was left paralyzed for two months by meningitis.

Dr. Cutler said he was testing a theory that the injections could cure epilepsy.

Poor, handicapped or imprisoned Guatemalans were chosen because they were “available and powerless,” said Anita L. Allen, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania’s law school and a panelist.

The panel’s hearings also brought to light that a local doctor had invited the American researchers, and that Guatemalan military and health officials had initially approved the work. In 1947, an international conference on venereal diseases — based on the experiments — was held in Guatemala City, according to Dr. Rafael Espada, the vice president of Guatemala, in remarks quoted by the Guatemalan news media.

Dr. Espada, a physician, is leading his country’s inquiry into the matter and is expected to deliver his report in October. On Monday, he told Guatemalan reporters that five survivors, all in their 80s, had been found and would receive medical tests.

Dr. Cutler’s team took pains to keep its activities hidden from what one of the researchers described as “goody organizations that might raise a lot of smoke.”

Members of the bioethics commission recalled Nazi experiments on Jews and said that Dr. Cutler, who died in 2003, must have known from the Nuremberg doctors’ trials under way by 1946 that his work was unethical.

Also, according to Dr. Gutmann, Dr. Cutler had read a brief article in The New York Times on April 27, 1947, about other syphilis researchers — one of them from his own agency — doing tests like his on rabbits. The article stated that it was “ethically impossible” for scientists to “shoot living syphilis germs into human bodies.” His response, Dr. Gutmann said, was to order stricter secrecy about his work.

Also, one commission member added, “Regardless what you think of the ethical issues, it was just bad science.”

The results were never published in medical journals, note-keeping was “haphazard at best” and routine protocols were not done.

The Guatemala experiments came to light only last year when a medical historian found descriptive notes in the archives of the University of Pittsburgh. The historian, Susan M. Reverby of Wellesley College, was researching the infamous Tuskegee study, in which Alabama sharecroppers infected with syphilis were left untreated from 1932 to 1972. Dr. Cutler oversaw the Tuskegee study after his Guatemala work finished; he was also an acting dean at the University of Pittsburgh in the 1960s.

Dr. Cutler sent his Guatemala reports to only one supervisor, but Dr. Gutmann said they went up the chain to Surgeon General Thomas Parran Jr., a favorite of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. According to a government biography, Dr. Parran was famous for his long campaign against syphilis, which was then a major public health problem but could not even be mentioned on the radio.

In 1943, Dr. Cutler’s team had tried to infect 241 inmates of a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., with gonorrhea. But that time they adhered to ethical protocols, using only volunteers, explaining the risks and offering cash or help getting reduced sentences in return for participating.

Dr. Nelson L. Michael, an AIDS researcher at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and a panelist, speculated that the research was rushed and badly done because it had started under intense pressure to help the war effort. Curing troops’ venereal diseases was a major goal of military medicine.

The panelists generally agreed that the ethical review boards now mandated by the American government, universities, foundations and medical journals would prevent similar abuses today by anyone spending taxpayer or foundation money.

Pharmaceutical and medical device companies also do research in poor countries and still need watching, panel members said. But large companies say publicly that they adhere to ethical principles.

“The problem in 1946,” Dr. Gutmann said, “was that ethical rules were treated as obstacles to overcome, not as fundamental bedrock of human dignity. That can still apply today. That’s why our panel is doing our report.”

Panel members endorsed the idea of creating compensation funds for subjects who are harmed in the future, or requiring researchers to buy insurance for that purpose. Some countries require these steps; the United States does not.

Elisabeth Malkin contributed reporting.

NY Times page

I follow these type of reports due to my own use in human experiments that were done by the military, and were done with consent which is a far cry from "informed consent" then to be told 40 years later in a letter from the Veteran Affairs that we are not allowed to talk to anyone other than the doctors at the VA about our experiiments issues, excuse me, I don't know any of the data about lethal doses, delivery systems or any other information that would be needed to make these substances into weapons let alone know how to re-create them.

http://edgewoodtestvets.org/ this is about the current active lawsuit over this

Life goes on

2011-05-10T11:30:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting anything lately as I have been in the hospital and recuperating from my last heart attack I spent almost 3 weeks between Lexington Medical Center and the MUSC in Charleston, it was severe enough they called in family members from all over the country, I got to see my son Kevin before he left for South Korea and a years duty there

I will be back and posting more often now.

Survivor: War hero reaches out to help Soldiers

2011-05-10T11:29:00.000-07:00

Survivor: War hero reaches out to help Soldiers
Apr 28, 2011

By Dave Larsen, III Corps and Fort Hood Public Affairs

Story Highlights
"Depression, suicidal ideation, alcoholism - they can all be beaten ... as long as you find something to live for."
"I didn't consider myself an alcoholic."
"I sat in our home in Temple with a loaded pistol in my hand."
"I like to say that I finally made it back from Vietnam in 1987."

Related Links
Army Substance Abuse Program
Suicide prevention tools, resources
III Corps and Fort Hood
Fort Hood Press Center
Follow Fort Hood on Facebook
Fort Hood on YouTube
Army.mil: Human Interest News

FORT HOOD, Texas -- John McCormick is a survivor. He survived two combat tours in Vietnam and came out a hero. He survived deep depression and suicidal ideations and came out addicted to alcohol. He survived his substance abuse and came out with a message for today's troops who face the same fight he fought himself: You can conquer it all, but you don't have to go it alone.

The 72-year-old retired Army officer, a graduate of West Point's class of 1961 and Corpus Christi resident, visited Fort Hood in March 2011, when national media outlets were reporting a spike in suicides among Soldiers in February.

Later that month, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli held a press conference at the headquarters of the 1st Cavalry Division here. With national Alcohol Awareness Month observed in April, the general discussed the correlation between substance abuse and suicide.

"There's no doubt in my mind that there is a correlation between substance abuse, both alcohol and prescription drugs, and suicide," Chiarelli, who has spearheaded the Army's suicide prevention efforts, said March 28. "Suicide is a compulsive act, and when you mix alcohol or some other form of medication with individuals who may have ready access to a firearm you have a lethal combination."

McCormick is living proof of that correlation.

"It really means a lot to me," he said, "if I can help one Soldier by telling my story."

WAR HERO

The armor officer's DD 214 (record of service) reflects uncommon heroism: Legion of Merit, Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster and "V" device for valor, Army Commendation Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, Air Medal (ten, two for valor), Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Silver Star, Vietnamese Staff Services Honor Medal 1st Class, Vietnam Service Medal with one Silver Star and one Bronze Star, Vietnam Campaign Medal with "60" device, Ranger Tab, Parachutist Badge and four overseas bars.

During his first tour to Vietnam, 1966-67, he served with the 25th Infantry Division's 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, commanding Headquarters Troop. His exploits, and those of his men, are recalled by correspondent David Reed in his 1967 book, "Up Front in Vietnam."

Reed discussed "McCormick's Raiders," a group of combat support Soldiers - cooks and clerks, mostly - who then-Capt. McCormick organized into a fighting force to ambush enemy infiltrators at his squadron's base camp in Cu Chi. He led his raiders several times each week over a five month period. He never lost a man.

McCormick returned in '67 a hero, and a bit of a celebrity, as McCormick's Raiders were also featured on NBC and "CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite."

"I use the word euphoric. I'm going home. My wife was there. My kid was there, and there were going to be demonstrators. I didn't care. They didn't spit on me or anything like that. I didn't care," McCormick recalled. "I brought a sword home from McCormick's Raiders. It's still hanging in my house (today)."

McCormick believed he was destined for great things in the Army: high rank, senior command. He was promoted to major June 17, 1968. He was what the Army calls a "fast-tracker."

For the next four years, academics, in particular the French language, dominated McCormick's life: a year to study in Paris to receive three French diplomas, followed by a Master's Degree at Columbia University and three years teaching French at West Point.

But the war beckoned.

His second tour to Vietnam was very different from his first. This time, now a major, McCormick served as an operations officer for a Special Operations unit operating on the Vietnam border with Cambodia and in Cambodia itself. He flew in more than 250 combat missions. Two aircraft were shot out from under him, but he survived the hard landings unscathed. Operations he planned accounted for more than 1,200 confirmed enemy killed in action. He received a plaque noting the exact figure: 1,269.

But something was very different when it was time to return home.

"I slept on the plane almost all the way home. I was sitting next to a colonel, and we talked about family, the war, while drinking scotch and water. We got off together in San Francisco and I went on to Corpus Christi," McCormick recalled. "I was just emotionally spent. I had no great feelings about meeting the family or not, it just wasn't there. The sense of responsibility was so intense, that when it was lifted from me, I just collapsed. I didn't want to do it anymore."

When he arrived home, that lack of emotion followed him.

"I'm sure I smiled and hugged everyone," McCormick said, "but it didn't feel the same."

NIGHTMARES

After returning from that second tour to Vietnam, McCormick was assigned as the operations officer for a tank battalion at Fort Hood. Nightmares began to assault him. He couldn't concentrate. He couldn't function properly. He nearly lost hope.

"I sat in our home in Temple with a loaded pistol in my hand," McCormick recalled. He said he was prepared to end his own life that night in 1972. What stayed his hand was his concern that he'd somehow botch the job and leave himself a vegetable, a burden on his family.

He checked himself into Fort Hood's Army hospital the next day. He was sent to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.

"They didn't have all the programs they have now," McCormick said. "I didn't have much choice, I was sent. I remember walking into that ward, and it was like walking into hell. It was filled with alcoholics mostly - some old, some middle age, some younger guys. I remember they took us swimming in a pool that was ice cold. I thought, at the time, that must have been some sort of treatment. It was shocking."

Eventually, McCormick was sent back to Fort Hood and given menial supervisory tasks to perform. He avoided crowded places.

"My Legion of Merit arrived from Vietnam," he recalled. "The post commanding general gave it to me. I remember hiding behind a tree (before the ceremony) not wanting to get it."

He thought his career was in jeopardy, until orders came in 1973 sending him to Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and the Command and General Staff College.

"I was euphoric again," McCormick said. "I was back on track." But four months into his studies, depression took over again.

"I was writing a paper about my time with Special Operations, and it all came back," he said.

He admitted himself to the hospital again. This time, he would bounce from Fort Leavenworth to Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Aurora, Colo. (since closed, in 1999) and, finally, out of the Army, medically retired June 12, 1974.

"The next thing you know, I'm on a plane home," McCormick said. "I'm supposed to be healed, right? It didn't happen."

Through it all, the nightmares continued.

SELF-MEDICATING

"They were always there. I'd just get up at night, get in the closet, close the door and pull the clothes," McCormick recalled. "The NVA (North Vietnamese Army) are chasing me. We've crashed and everyone else is dead. It wasn't just a nightmare: it was the same one, over and over and over."

He landed a job at an employment agency and quickly rose to office manager. But McCormick turned to alcohol, at first, just to help him sleep.

"I didn't consider myself an alcoholic," he said. "(But) it was progressive."

He lost his first civilian job. His marriage suffered.

"I'd say to myself, 'It was my disability pay. If I wanted to buy a gallon of scotch, it was my money,'" McCormick remembered. "I was destroying a marriage and didn't care. I got to sleep at night. No more closets, no more wide-eyed in bed. If you drink enough, it goes away.

"As a matter of fact," he said, "Vietnam disappeared."

Though he lost his first civilian job, McCormick headed back to the classroom and completed a second Master's Degree, in education. He began teaching at Moody High School in Corpus Christi. But by 1987, the booze got the best of him.

"I crashed in the classroom, shaking uncontrollably, freezing," he recalled. "I was hauled out on stretcher in front of the whole student body."

While in the hospital, unable to help himself any longer, McCormick said two words that would change his life forever: "treatment facility."

He was sent to a now-defunct treatment facility in Corpus Christi, manned mostly by recovering alcoholics.

"I learned humility there," McCormick said. "The biggest impression was during a group session. As we sat in a circle and they asked, 'Is there anything that happened today that would cause you to take a drug or a drink?' No."

He asks himself that same question now, every day of his life.

It was in the treatment facility that the nightmares finally stopped.

"I like to say that I finally made it back from Vietnam in 1987," McCormick said.

WORTH LIVING

McCormick has been sober for 23 years. He's retired twice over now, once from the Army and again from the teaching profession. He volunteers at the USS Lexington, Museum on the Bay's library in Corpus Christi. He remains a regular at Alcoholics Anonymous, where cliches and catchphrases, like "Let go, Let God," "One day at a time," and "Keep coming back, it works if you work it," are used liberally by its participants.

In sobriety, McCormick likes using the cliche, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." But, actually, he said to survive, there's much more to it than that.

"The only problem is that when you're going through this, you don't feel tough," he said. "You've got to be able to see a future that is worth living for - be it family, job, health - anything to get out of that horrible depression.

"Depression, suicidal ideation, alcoholism - they can all be beaten, even if they happen at the same time, as long as you find something to live for," McCormick said, as his eyes misted with tears and his voice cracked with emotion. "I'm a major, retired, U.S. Army, who has been through hell, and there is light at the end of the tunnel. It can be done. It can be done."

McCormick's first marriage ended in 1990, his relationship with his ex-wife damaged irreparably. He remarried in 1995 and said he's mended his relationship with his grown children. John McCormick is a survivor. But he didn't do it alone. He had to reach out to others, and he's reaching out again.

Walking slowly to his car parked outside the III Corps headquarters following an emotional two-and-a-half-hour interview session, one question remained.

"Do you think we'll help someone?" he asked. "If we can help save just one ..."

Burial at Sea

2011-02-04T12:46:00.000-08:00

To only those who would and could appreciate it. This account is one of a kind. A powerful one that touches your heart. Tough duty then as it is now.

Burial at Sea

by LtCol George Goodson, USMC (Ret)

In my 76th year, the events of my life appear to me, from time to time, as a series of vignettes. Some were significant; most were trivial...

War is the seminal event in the life of everyone that has endured it. Though I fought in Korea and the Dominican Republicand was wounded there, Vietnam was my war.

Now 42 years have passed and, thankfully, I rarely think of those days in Cambodia, Laos, and the panhandle of North Vietnam where small teams of Americans and Montangards fought much larger elements of the North Vietnamese Army. Instead I see vignettes: some exotic, some mundane:

*The smell of Nuc Mam.

*The heat, dust, and humidity.

*The blue exhaust of cycles clogging the streets.

*Elephants moving silently through the tall grass.

*Hard eyes behind the servile smiles of the villagers.

*Standing on a mountain in Laos and hearing a tiger roar.

*A young girl squeezing my hand as my medic delivered her baby.

*The flowing Ao Dais of the young women biking down Tran Hung Dao.

*My two years as Casualty Notification Officer in North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland.

It was late 1967. I had just returned after 18 months in Vietnam. Casualties were increasing. I moved my family from Indianapolis to Norfolk, rented a house, enrolled my children in their fifth or sixth new school, and bought a second car.

A week later, I put on my uniform and drove 10 miles to Little Creek, Virginia. I hesitated before entering my new office. Appearance is important to career Marines. I was no longer, if ever, a poster Marine. I had returned from my third tour in Vietnam only 30 days before. At 5'9", I now weighed 128 pounds - 37 pounds below my normal weight. My uniforms fit ludicrously, my skin was yellow from malaria medication, and I think I had a twitch or two.

I straightened my shoulders, walked into the office, looked at the nameplate on a Staff Sergeant's desk and said, "Sergeant Jolly, I'm Lieutenant Colonel Goodson. Here are my orders and my Qualification Jacket."

Sergeant Jolly stood, looked carefully at me, took my orders, stuck out his hand; we shook and he asked, "How long were you there, Colonel?" I replied "18 months this time." Jolly breathed, you must be a slow learner Colonel." I smiled.

Jolly said, "Colonel, I'll show you to your office and bring in the Sergeant Major. I said, "No, let's just go straight to his office." Jolly nodded, hesitated, and lowered his voice, "Colonel, the Sergeant Major. He's been in this job two years. He's packed pretty tight. I'm worried about him." I nodded.

Jolly escorted me into the Sergeant Major's office. "Sergeant Major, this is Colonel Goodson, the new Commanding Office. The Sergeant Major stood, extended his hand and said, "Good to see you again, Colonel." I responded, "Hello Walt, how are you?" Jolly looked at me, raised an eyebrow, walked out, and closed the door.

I sat down with the Sergeant Major. We had the obligatory cup of coffee and talked about mutual acquaintances. Walt's stress was palpable. Finally, I said, "Walt, what's the h-ll's wrong?" He turned his chair, looked out the window and said, "George, you're going to wish you were back in Nam before you leave here. I've been in the Marine Corps since 1939. I was in the Pacific 36 months, Korea for 14 months, and Vietnam for 12 months... Now I come here to bury these kids. I'm putting my letter in. I can't take it anymore." I said, "OK Walt. If that's what you want, I'll endorse your request for retirement and do what I can to push it through Headquarters Marine Corps."

Sergeant Major Walt Xxxxx retired 12 weeks later. He had been a good Marine for 28 years, but he had seen too much death and too much suffering. He was used up.

Over the next 16 months, I made 28 death notifications, conducted 28 military funerals, and made 30 notifications to the families of Marines that were severely wounded or missing in action. Most of the details of those casualty notifications have now, thankfully, faded from memory. Four, however, remain.

MY FIRST NOTIFICATION

My third or fourth day in Norfolk, I was notified of the death of a 19 year old Marine. This notification came by telephone from Headquarters Marine Corps. The information detailed:

*Name, rank, and serial number.

*Name, address, and phone number of next of kin.

*Date of and limited details about the Marine's death.

*Approximate date the body would arrive at the Norfolk Naval Air Station.

*A strong recommendation on whether the casket should be opened or closed.

The boy's family lived over the border in North Carolina, about 60 miles away... I drove there in a Marine Corps staff car. Crossing the state line into North Carolina, I stopped at a small country store / service station / Post Office. I went in to ask directions.

Three people were in the store.. A man and woman approached the small Post Office window. The man held a package. The Storeowner walked up and addressed them by name, "Hello John. Good morning Mrs. Cooper."

I was stunned. My casualty's next-of-kin's name was John Cooper!

I hesitated, then stepped forward and said, "I beg your pardon. Are you Mr. and Mrs. John Cooper of (address.)

The father looked at me-I was in uniform - and then, shaking, bent at the waist, he vomited. His wife looked horrified at him and then at me. Understanding came into her eyes and she collapsed in slow motion. I think I caught her before she hit the floor.

The owner took a bottle of whiskey out of a drawer and handed it to Mr. Cooper who drank. I answered their questions for a few minutes. Then I drove them home in my staff car. The storeowner locked the store and followed in their truck. We stayed an hour or so until the family began arriving.

I returned the storeowner to his business. He thanked me and said, "Mister, I wouldn't have your job for a million dollars." I shook his hand and said; "Neither would I."

I vaguely remember the drive back to Norfolk. Violating about five Marine Corps regulations, I drove the staff car straight to my house. I sat with my family while they ate dinner, went into the den, closed the door, and sat there all night, alone.

My Marines steered clear of me for days. I had made my first death notification.

THE FUNERALS

Weeks passed with more notifications and more funerals. I borrowed Marines from the local Marine Corps Reserve and taught them to conduct a military funeral: how to carry a casket, how to fire the volleys and how to fold the flag.

When I presented the flag to the mother, wife, or father, I always said, "All Marines share in your grief." I had been instructed to say, "On behalf of a grateful nation...." I didn't think the nation was grateful, so I didn't say that.

Sometimes, my emotions got the best of me and I couldn't speak. When that happened, I just handed them the flag and touched a shoulder. They would look at me and nod. Once a mother said to me, "I'm so sorry you have this terrible job." My eyes filled with tears and I leaned over and kissed her.

ANOTHER NOTIFICATION

Six weeks after my first notification, I had another. This was a young PFC. I drove to his mother's house. As always, I was in uniform and driving a Marine Corps staff car. I parked in front of the house, took a deep breath, and walked towards the house. Suddenly the door flew open, a middle-aged woman rushed out. She looked at me and ran across the yard, screaming "NO! NO! NO! NO!"

I hesitated. Neighbors came out. I ran to her, grabbed her, and whispered stupid things to reassure her. She collapsed. I picked her up and carried her into the house.. Eight or nine neighbors followed. Ten or fifteen later, the father came in followed by ambulance personnel. I have no recollection of leaving.

The funeral took place about two weeks later. We went through the drill. The mother never looked at me. The father looked at me once and shook his head sadly.

ANOTHER NOTIFICATION

One morning, as I walked in the office, the phone was ringing. Sergeant Jolly held the phone up and said, "You've got another one, Colonel." I nodded, walked into my office, picked up the phone, took notes, thanked the officer making the call, I have no idea why, and hung up. Jolly, who had listened, came in with a special Telephone Directory that translates telephone numbers into the person's address and place of employment.

The father of this casualty was a Longshoreman. He lived a mile from my office. I called the Longshoreman's Union Office and asked for the Business Manager. He answered the phone, I told him who I was, and asked for the father's schedule.

The Business Manager asked, "Is it his son?" I said nothing. After a moment, he said, in a low voice, "Tom is at home today." I said, "Don't call him. I'll take care of that." The Business Manager said, "Aye, Aye Sir," and then explained, "Tom and I were Marines in WWII."

I got in my staff car and drove to the house. I was in uniform. I knocked and a woman in her early forties answered the door. I saw instantly that she was clueless. I asked, "Is Mr. Smith home?" She smiled pleasantly and responded, "Yes, but he's eating breakfast now. Can you come back later?" I said, "I'm sorry. It's important. I need to see him now."

She nodded, stepped back into the beach house and said, "Tom, it's for you."

A moment later, a ruddy man in his late forties, appeared at the door. He looked at me, turned absolutely pale, steadied himself, and said, "Jesus Christ man, he's only been there three weeks!"

Months passed. More notifications and more funerals. Then one day while I was running, Sergeant Jolly stepped outside the building and gave a loud whistle, two fingers in his mouth... I never could do that and held an imaginary phone to his ear.

Another call from Headquarters Marine Corps. I took notes, said, "Got it." and hung up. I had stopped saying "Thank You" long ago.

Jolly, "Where?"

Me, "Eastern Shore of Maryland. The father is a retired Chief Petty Officer. His brother will accompany the body back fromVietnam..."

Jolly shook his head slowly, straightened, and then said, "This time of day, it'll take three hours to get there and back. I'll call the Naval Air Station and borrow a helicopter. And I'll have Captain Tolliver get one of his men to meet you and drive you to the Chief's home."

He did, and 40 minutes later, I was knocking on the father's door. He opened the door, looked at me, then looked at the Marine standing at parade rest beside the car, and asked, "Which one of my boys was it, Colonel?"

I stayed a couple of hours, gave him all the information, my office and home phone number and told him to call me, anytime.

He called me that evening about 2300 (11:00PM). "I've gone through my boy's papers and found his will. He asked to be buried at sea. Can you make that happen?" I said, "Yes I can, Chief. I can and I will."

My wife who had been listening said, "Can you do that?" I told her, "I have no idea. But I'm going to break my ass trying."

I called Lieutenant General Alpha Bowser, Commanding General, Fleet Marine Force Atlantic, at home about 2330, explained the situation, and asked, "General, can you get me a quick appointment with the Admiral at Atlantic Fleet Headquarters?" General Bowser said," George, you be there tomorrow at 0900. He will see you.

I was and the Admiral did. He said coldly, "How can the Navy help the Marine Corps, Colonel." I told him the story. He turned to his Chief of Staff and said, "Which is the sharpest destroyer in port?" The Chief of Staff responded with a name.

The Admiral called the ship, "Captain, you're going to do a burial at sea. You'll report to a Marine Lieutenant Colonel Goodson until this mission is completed..."

He hung up, looked at me, and said, "The next time you need a ship, Colonel, call me. You don't have to sic Al Bowser on my ass." I responded, "Aye Aye, Sir" and got the h-ll out of his office.

I went to the ship and met with the Captain, Executive Officer, and the Senior Chief. Sergeant Jolly and I trained the ship's crew for four days. Then Jolly raised a question none of us had thought of. He said, "These government caskets are air tight. How do we keep it from floating?"

All the high priced help including me sat there looking dumb. Then the Senior Chief stood and said, "Come on Jolly. I know a bar where the retired guys from World War II hang out."

They returned a couple of hours later, slightly the worst for wear, and said, "It's simple; we cut four 12" holes in the outer shell of the casket on each side and insert 300 lbs of lead in the foot end of the casket. We can handle that, no sweat."

The day arrived. The ship and the sailors looked razor sharp. General Bowser, the Admiral, a US Senator, and a Navy Band were on board. The sealed casket was brought aboard and taken below for modification. The ship got underway to the 12-fathom depth.

The sun was hot. The ocean flat. The casket was brought aft and placed on a catafalque. The Chaplin spoke. The volleys were fired. The flag was removed, folded, and I gave it to the father. The band played "Eternal Father Strong to Save." The casket was raised slightly at the head and it slid into the sea.

The heavy casket plunged straight down about six feet. The incoming water collided with the air pockets in the outer shell. The casket stopped abruptly, rose straight out of the water about three feet, stopped, and slowly slipped back into the sea. The air bubbles rising from the sinking casket sparkled in the in the sunlight as the casket disappeared from sight forever....

The next morning I called a personal friend, Lieutenant General Oscar Peatross, at Headquarters Marine Corps and said, "General, get me out of here. I can't take this anymore." I was transferred two weeks later.

I was a good Marine but, after 17 years, I had seen too much death and too much suffering. I was used up.

Vacating the house, my family and I drove to the office in a two-car convoy. I said my goodbyes. Sergeant Jolly walked out with me. He waved at my family, looked at me with tears in his eyes, came to attention, saluted, and said, "Well Done, Colonel. Well Done."

I felt as if I had received the Medal of Honor!

A veteran is someone who, at one point, wrote a blank check made payable to 'The United States of America'

for an amount of ‘up to and including their life.'That is Honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

I sat here with tears in my eyes as I read this, I had to do a few notifications decades ago, but nothing that rose to this level, I buried a lot of troops in over 20years of service, that is one of the hardest things you ever do while in the military is notification detail, being part of the Honor Guard is hard enough, but folding the flag, carrying the caskets, or firing the volley none of that even comes close to having to tell a parent that their child has died in service, there is no easy way to do it, and you remember them, they are impossible to "forget", some stick out more than others, but none are ever forgotten.

In war or peace military people will die while in service and someone has to personally notify the next of kin, my prayer was that the news didn't kill whomever it was I had to tell, that kind of stress can cause heart attacks.

Like SGT Jolly stated "well done Colonel"

Agent Orange: Thailand Military Bases

2011-02-04T07:46:00.001-08:00

Subject: RE: Agent Orange: Thailand Military Bases

The complete report with the FOIAs can be found at http://tmai18.spaces.live.com along with the authorization to use them. It would be appreciated if anyone that has pictures of their work area and bases sent them to me. Do not be deterred by the references to SPs and MWDH personnel.&n bsp; There are already approvals for direct exposure for Army engineers, MMS personnel, and aircraft mechanics who worked near the perimeters, especially arming/dearming, engine run-up, etc. Additionally, there are approvals of comm/radio operators both which worked in complete bare sites, all near the perimeters of AF and USA bases. The barracks at Udorn RTAFB were less than 100 yards from the perimeter.

Additional evidence such as performance reports, unit histories, pictures and buddy statements can help. Also, refer to Army Field Manual 3-3, Tactical Employment of Herbicides which state a 500 meter safe zone was required.

I would like a brief moment to introduce myself. My name is Kurt Priessman I am a retired Air Force Master Sergeant who served from 1970 to 1990. Much of my career was spent in places where herbicides, insecticides, and toxic petroleum by-products wer e used, stored, or dumped; from Mather AFB, California to Korat RTAFB, Thailand to Taegu AB, Republic of Korea. I traveled across the entire Pacific theater during the final years of the Vietnam War and have transited the Pacific six times.

I was exposed to herbicides (agents orange, white, and blue at a minimum), Malathion, and other chemicals that cause cancers, diabetes-mellitus, and attack the nervous and immune systems.

Like many of you, I suffer from diabetes-mellitus with neuropathy, nephropathy, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and Gastroparesis. I also suffer from secondary symptoms such as Dupuytren’s contracture, Peyronies disease, and a rare blood disease called polycythemia vera.

And like many of you, after thirty five years, the paper trail is lost. There are parts, but nothing like the evidence (without the benefit, the assistance, and honesty) the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense requires. I have already done research on routes to Southeast Asia, the use of herbicides in Thailand, and am now seeking people who want to help.

In my research using the Freedom of Information Act, available archives, and many veterans organization’s websites, I have found that the Department of Defense (Marines, Navy, Air Force, and Army) and the State Department have maintained the classification of documents that should have been declassified between 1975 and 1985 and were not. I have found that histories exist that hold the truth.

Where you may ask? I found them in the histories themselves, in footnotes of documents and reports, and in messages between. While there is sometimes anger, frustration, and yes, even disbelief at why this has happened, I believe that the full truth is there, waiting for someone to ask for the release of the right document.

So what can you do you ask? Help to research, cross-reference, and link these documents so that specific FOIA requests can be made that will finally tell enough of the story that they can no longer deny claims for benefits.

Why you ask? The truth is for us, for our comrades in arms, both those still living and those who have past, for those who fought in the Gulf War, and for those serving today. We served to protect our country, our democracy, our way of life and now as we look back at what the government has done, what they have not done, and what it appears they fully intend to keep doing, our only solution is to band together as brothers to fight until we see the light of a new day. A day where the treatment we receive is documented whether the diagnoses is compensable or not, a day when after the documentation is complete, treatment, compensation, and dignity are given back to us.

If you want to help, contact me at kpriessman@msn.com or kpriessman@yahoo.com. Give me some idea of what you would like to help with, and a phone number where you can be reached. Today, we do have heroes, we do have some support, and we cannot give up, we can never give up.

50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War Commemoration

2011-01-18T12:25:00.000-08:00

50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War Commemoration

Introduction
In Accordance With Public Law 110-181 SEC. 598; the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act authorized the Secretary of Defense to conduct a program to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War and “in conducting the commemorative program, the Secretary shall coordinate, support, and facilitate other programs and activities of the Federal Government, State and local governments, and other persons and organizations in commemoration of the Vietnam War."

The Secretary of Defense shall determine the schedule of major events and priority of efforts for the commemorative program, in order to ensure achievement of the objectives specified in Law.

The commemorative program will include activities and ceremonies to achieve the following objectives:

(1) To thank and honor veterans of the Vietnam War, including personnel who were held as prisoners of war (POW), or listed as missing in action (MIA), for their service and sacrifice on behalf of the United States and to thank and honor the families of these veterans.

(2) To highlight the service of the Armed Forces during the Vietnam War and the contributions of Federal agencies and governmental and non-governmental organizations that served with, or in support of, the Armed Forces.

(3) To pay tribute to the contributions made on the home front by the people of the United States during the Vietnam War.

(4) To highlight the advances in technology, science, and medicine related to military research conducted during the Vietnam War.

(5) To recognize the contributions and sacrifices made by the allies of the United States during the Vietnam War.

About the Logo
A representation of the Vietnam Service Ribbon rests atop the inner rings of the logo. "The Vietnam Service Medal is awarded to all members of the United States Armed Forces serving in Vietnam and contiguous waters or airspace thereover, and members of the Armed Forces of the United States in Thailand, Laos, or Cambodia, or the airspace thereover, during eligible periods and serving in direct support of operations in Vietnam."

The red, white, and blue inner rings represent the flag of the United States of America.

The outer black ring serves as a reminder of the prisoners of war and those missing in action.

The Great Seal at the top of the inner blue ring represents the contributions of Federal agencies, governmental and non-governmental organizations that served with, or in support of, the Armed Forces, and the contributions made on the home front by the people of the United States during the Vietnam War.

The six additional seals represent the service and dedication of the men and women of the following organizations, presented in order of precedence, left to right, top to bottom, the U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Coast Guard, and the U.S. Merchant Marine.

The seven white stars between the seals symbolize the contributions and sacrifices made by the United States and its allies: Vietnam, the Republic of Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines and Thailand.

The center circle contains a map of Vietnam in black, with outlines of Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand representing the contiguous territories where U.S. Armed Forces served.

The gold color of the banner and the center circle represents the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War.

The laurel wreath signifies honor to all who served.

Disclaimer for External Link
The appearance of external hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by the United States Department of Defense of the linked web sites, or the information, products or services contained therein.

Please let us know about existing external links which you believe are inappropriate and about specific additional external links which you believe ought to be included.

Links
25th Infantry Division Association (Tropic Lightning)

www.25thida.org

The 25th Infantry Division Association is the dedicated to serving those who have served or are currently serving with the 25th Infantry Division, from World War II through today. It includes information on upcoming reunions, unit histories, division history, memorabilia, and links to related military sites.

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An Airman's Story

www.anairmansstory.com

"This is the epic anthology of Military Air Power. From the biplanes of WWI, to current times against global terrorism. Join me as I tell of their heroic feats of valor, an sacrifice, within these courageous stories."
-Leon J. DeLisle

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Association of the United States Navy

www.ausn.org

Standing the Watch for Your Navy and YOU, AUSN is the only organization focused exclusively ons erving the enitre Navy and the only organization primarily on the welfare of the Navy people. It is know as being one of the most effective lobbying organizations for the military on Capitol Hill. Visit our website--ausn.org--and learn more

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Coast Guard Combat Veterans

www.coastguardcombatvets.com

The Coast Guard Combat Veterans Association is a Non-Profit Association of Active Duty, Retirees, Reservists and Honorably Discharged Former Members of the U. S. Coast Guard, who served in, or provided direct support to combat situations recognized by an appropriate military award, while serving as a member of the United States Coast Guard. Established in 1985 the CGCVA is dedicated to extending knowledge of the Coast Guard’s service and participation in those significant historical events in United States history. In addition to being a fraternal organization, dedicated to fellowship among it’s membership, we provide educational scholarships, as part of our effort to support the public and to bring awareness of the United State Coast Guard’s military missions and reinforce the motto Semper Paratus, “Always Ready”

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Counterparts

www.counterparts.net

"Counterparts (Túóng Huu Ðông Nam Á) An Association of US Military and Civilian Advisors in Southeast Asia & Their Foreign Counterparts.Our purposes includes promoting an appreciation of the Advisory Experience and accomplishments to the general public, providing aid and assistance when possible to Southeast Asia’s war refugees, especially former comrades of the Vietnamese Armed Forces, Montagnard and tribal fighters, commemorating the service and sacrifice of Advisors and their Counterparts, promoting fellowship and fraternity among our members, lending encouragement and service to the orphans and relatives of former Advisors, and compiling and preserving the history of the Advisory effort in Southeast Asia. Counterparts also sponsors or participates in a number of ongoing programs in Southeast Asia to provide humanitarian aid, education and assistance to our former allies.

Counterparts also operates a nationwide locator service to assist former Advisors and their Counterparts and the families of former Advisors and their Counterparts in locating one another and renewing contacts with their comrades."

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Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office

www.dtic.mil/dpmo

The Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office leads the U.S. government’s effort to achieve the fullest possible accounting of MIAs from the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Korean War, and World War II.

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Disabled American Veterans

www.dav.org

The 1.2 million-member Disabled American Veterans, a non-profit organization founded in 1920 and chartered by the U.S. Congress in 1932, represents this nation's disabled veterans. It is dedicated to a single purpose: building better lives for our nation's disabled veterans and their families.

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DUSTOFF Association

www.dustoff.org

The DUSTOFF Association is a nonprofit incorporated veterans’ organization for Army Medical Department enlisted and officer personnel, aviation crewmembers, and others who are (or ever were) engaged in (or actively supported in any capacity) Army aeromedical evacuation programs in war or peace.

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Fighter Pilot - The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds

www.Amazon.com

Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds was a larger-than-life hero with a towering personality. A graduate of West Point and an inductee in the National College Football Hall of Fame for his All-American performance for Army, Olds was one of the toughest college football players at the time. In WWII, Olds quickly became a top fighter pilot and squadron commander by the age of 22—and an ace with 12 aerial victories.

But it was in Vietnam where the man became a legend. He arrived in 1966 to find a dejected group of pilots and motivated them by placing himself on the flight schedule under officers junior to himself, then challenging them to train him properly because he would soon be leading them. Proving he wasn’t a WWII retread, he led the wing with aggressiveness, scoring another four confirmed kills, becoming a rare triple ace.

Olds (who retired a brigadier general and died in 2007) was a unique individual whose personal story is one of the most eagerly anticipated military books of the year. "

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Marine Corps League

www.MCLeague.org

The Marine Corps League perpetuates the traditions and spirit of ALL Marines and Navy FMF Corpsmen, who proudly wear or who have worn the eagle, globe and anchor of the Corps. Members of the Marine Corps League join together in camaraderie and fellowship for the purpose of preserving the traditions and promoting the interests of the United States Marine Corps, banding together those who are now serving in the United States Marine Corps and those who have been honorably discharged from that service that they may effectively promote the ideals of American freedom and democracy, voluntarily aiding and rendering assistance to all Marines, FMF Corpsmen and Veteran Marines and FMF Corpsmen and to their widows and orphans; and to perpetuate the history of the United States Marine Corps and by fitting acts to observe the anniversaries of historical occasions of particular interest to Marines. Founded in 1923, the League is the only Federally Chartered Marine Corps related veterans organization in the country. Since its earliest days, the Marine Corps League has enjoyed the support and encouragement of the active duty and Reserve establishments of the U. S. Marine Corps.

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Military Officers Association of America

www.moaa.org

MOAA is the nation’s largest and most influential association of active duty, National Guard, Reserve, retired, and former military officers and their families and survivors. It is an independent, nonprofit, and politically nonpartisan organization with around 370,000 members from every branch of service. MOAA promotes a strong national defense by advocating for equitable treatment of those who serve and have served their country in uniform. For more information, visit www.moaa.org.

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National League of POW/MIA Families

www.pow-miafamilies.org

The National League of POW/MIA Families’ sole purpose is to obtain the release of all prisoners, the fullest possible accounting for the missing and repatriation of all recoverable remains of those who died serving our nation during the Vietnam War in Southeast Asia.

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RAVEN FACs (EALPS)

www.ravens.org

EAPLS (Edgar Allan Poe Literary Society Inc. is a nonprofit incorporated veterans organization for former Raven FACs that flew in Laos during the Vietnam War. One of our main purposes is to give scholarships to qualifying descendents of a Lao or Lao-Hmong individual who served in the Royal Laotian Military or Hmong forces in defense of the Kingdom of Laos between 1960 and 1975.During the course of American history, there have been many covert military operations. None, however, reached the scope or intensity of the war in Laos during the Viet Nam era. The backbone of this war were the Ravens-Forward Air Controllers (FACs) who flew small, slow propeller driven airplanes. The mission of the Ravens was to support indigenous forces in Laos in their fight against invading forces from North Vietnam.

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Rural Affairs Vietnam

www.ruralaffairsvn.com

Started in mid-1962 with a special $10 million fund from the Kennedy White House, this was America’s first integrated counterinsurgency program, blending local economic and social development with incentives for better local government and security. This program turned the traditional AID country effort on its head. AID/Vietnam (known as USOM) was a headquarters-focused, capital-oriented organization that worked by helping national ministries and had virtually no presence in the countryside. By contrast, a new special office, Rural Affairs, was created. It put volunteers into the provinces who lived on the local economy and were creative, problem-solving and often strikingly young, highly motivated Americans. They worked with Vietnamese on vital local needs, which included schools, wells, refugees, and improved rice and pig culture, as well as more basic issues of physical security and representative local government. The philosophy was to create a tie between villagers and government and, more basically, a greater sense of national identity and of value in belonging to the national, as opposed to Communist, side of the prolonged civil war. There was also an iconoclastic system to bring AID supplies from Saigon to the provinces when needed, unprecedented at the time and suggestive of today’s just-in-time supply procedures. And there was a new way to make funds immediately available for urgent projects in the provinces, based on decisions by a joint committee of Vietnamese and American officials at the provincial level. Over time, some Rural Affairs personnel were killed and others captured by the Vietcong and suffered greatly in captivity. The Vietnamese staff of Rural Affairs were close colleagues, strongly active in its work, and are among the most enthusiastic participants in its American reunions. Rural Affairs was succeeded by larger and more bureaucratized organizations such as the Office of Civil Operations (OCO) and Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support (CORDS).

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Sons and Daughters In Touch

www.sdit.org

Sons and Daughters In Touch was formed in 1990 to 'locate, unite and support the children of American servicemen who were lost, or remain missing as a result of the Vietnam War.' Since then, SDIT has established contact with more than 3000 of these now-grown children. Beginning in 1992, the organization began holding national Father's Day reunions at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial ('92, '93, '97, 2000, '05 and '10.) In 2003, more than 50 SDIT members were part of an historic delegation that traveled to Vietnam to see the places where their fathers fought and died.

In addition to fulfilling its mission, SDIT also works to share its insights and experiences with organizations committed to meeting the needs of Gold Star families who have suffered losses in our nation's current military conflicts.

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The American Legion

www.legion.org

The American Legion was chartered and incorporated by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic veterans organization devoted to mutual helpfulness. It is the nation’s largest veterans service organization, committed to mentoring and sponsorship of youth programs in our communities, advocating patriotism and honor, promoting a strong national security, and continued devotion to our fellow service members and veterans.

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The Marine Corp Association

www.mca-marines.org

The Marine Corps Association is the professional association for all Marines. MCA supports the Marine Corps by providing professional development opportunities for Marines, disseminating knowledge of military art and science, and fostering the spirit and preserving the traditions of the Marine Corps. MCA publishes Leatherneck, Magazine of the Marines, and The Marine Corps Gazette, the Professional Journal of U.S. Marines. The Association’s efforts are supported by the Marine Corps Association Foundation. www.mca-marines.org"

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The Mobile Riverine Force Association

www.mrfa.org

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The Retired Enlisted Association

www.trea.org

The Retired Enlisted Association is the powerful voice of retired enlisted and active duty enlisted personnel from all branches of service. They are the premier source of grassroots lobbying, and the leading resource for legislative and healthcare information. They fight every day in Washington D.C. to protect and ensure the health and welfare of enlisted military personnel, and to defend the military retirement entitlements and benefits.

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The Tan Son Nhut Association

www.tsna.org

The Tan Son Nhut Association has been established to respect all of those service personnel from the Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard, as well as the many civilians who served at any time during the Vietnam conflict at the great airdrome at Tan Son Nhut, Air Base, Saigon, Republic of Vietnam.

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The Vietnam Center & Archive at Texas Tech University

www.vietnam.ttu.edu

Created in 1989 by Vietnam Veterans, The Vietnam Center and Archive at Texas Tech University is home to the largest collection of Vietnam-related material outside the U.S. National Archives. Its joint missions are to support and encourage research and education regarding all aspects of the American Vietnam experience and to collect and preserve the documentary record of the Vietnam War. The Vietnam Center and Archive has collected millions of pages of material and tens of thousands of photographs, slides, maps, periodicals, audio, moving images, and books related to the Vietnam War, Indochina, and the impact of the war on the United States and Southeast Asia. Many of these materials are available online through the Virtual Vietnam Archive (http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/virtualarchive/ ). Please visit www.vietnam.ttu.edu for more information.

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The Virtual Wall

www.VirtualWall.org

"The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC honors the 2.7 million

American women and men who served in the Vietnam War. Carved of the granite panels of ""The Wall"" are the names of the 58,267 who gave the ultimate sacrifice in that war.

The web site named The Virtual Wall(TM) has a memorial tribute page honoring each casualty.

Many tribute pages have personal remembrances in the form of photographs, letters, and poems submitted by the general public. The names of the fallen can be found on index pages by Wall panel, by State/City, by last name, and through a photographic index."

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U.S. Army Center of Military History

www.history.army.mil

Establish a global forum for the Center of Military History to distribute historical information and products to inform, educate and professionally develop the soldiers and leadership of the U.S. Army

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United States Navy Memorial

www.navymemorial.org

Conveniently located on Pennsylvania Avenue - halfway between the White House and the Capitol, the United States Navy Memorial provides a living tribute to Navy people and a place for them to gather and celebrate their service. The outdoor plaza features a “Granite Sea” map of the world, towering masts with signal flags, fountain pools and waterfalls and The Lone Sailor© statue. Adjacent to the plaza is the Naval Heritage Center, where visitors can find educational displays about the contributions of the men and women of the Sea Services (Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine). Also housed in the Naval Heritage Center is the Navy Log - the online place for Navy people to stay connected with each other, celebrate their service and preserve the memories of their service. There, Navy veterans can build a record of their service online and anyone with a passion for the Navy can create and join affinity communities. Call (202) 737-2300 or visit www.navymemorial.org for more information.

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US Army Heritage & Education Center

www.usahec.org

Mission: The US Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC) educates a broad audience on the heritage of the U.S. Army by acquiring, preserving, and making available historical records, materials, and artifacts. USAHEC educates the Army and the public on the central role of the Army in the development and protection of our nation and its way of life. USAHEC supports the US Army War College education, research and publication, and strategic communication missions through its public programs, historical holdings, and preservation practices.

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US Army Office of Medical History

history.amedd.army.mil

"The Office of Medical History is part of the OTSG/MEDCOM History Program. Our mission is to support the men and women of the U.S. Army Medical Department and Army Medical Command through the assembly and publication of reference materials, original works, previously unpublished works, reprints, special studies, web publications, AMEDD newspaper/professional publications, and print series. The program includes the administration of a field history program as well as an oral history program for the conduct of regular interviews with key OTSG/MEDCOM active and retired personnel and provides coverage of current operations and issues with participants and decision makers."

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Veterans History Project, Library of Congress

www.loc.gov/vets

The Mission of the Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress American Folklife Center is to collect, preserve, and make accessible the personal accounts of America’s wartime veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war.

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Veterans of Foreign Wars

www.vfw.org

The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. is a nonprofit veterans' service organization composed of combat veterans and those who currently serve in uniform on active duty or in the Guard and Reserves. Founded in 1899 and chartered by Congress in 1936, the VFW is the nation's largest organization of war veterans and its oldest major veterans' organization. With 2.1 million members located in 7,700 VFW Posts worldwide, the VFW and its Auxiliaries are dedicated to "honor the dead by helping the living"" through veterans service, legislative advocacy, youth scholarships, Buddy Poppy and national military service programs. The VFW and its Auxiliaries volunteer more than 13 million hours annually in community service to the nation.

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Vets With A Mission

www.vetswithamission.org

"Vets With A Mission was founded in 1989 and for over twenty years has implemented various humanitarian programs and projects in the country formerly known as the Republic of South Vietnam.

Over 1,600 volunteers mostly Vietnam vets have participated on medical teams, ministry teams, disaster relief, or project teams. VWAM has built or sponsored nearly 40 medical clinics or rural healthcare stations, renovated several health facilities as well as two orphanages and two churches, built one school, and shipped 36 cargo containers filled with medical equipment, disaster relief supplies, and other humanitarian aid. In addition, Vets With A Mission has established the Children’s Heart Surgery Program in Hue and Da Nang that provides life-saving procedures for special patients. Vietnam vets participate in “Reconciliation” events with former VC/NVA, and each Vietnam vet is “Honored” during the trip by non-vet team members at a special team farewell event.

VWAM is an IRS approved 501 (c) (3) non-profit charitable organization and officially recognized by the government of Vietnam as a NGO or Non-Governmental organization with a PTO or Permit to Operate in Vietnam.

Vietnam vets went to Vietnam to help the Vietnamese people, and through VWAM that commitment continues."

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Vietnam Babylift

www.Vietnambabylift.org

This site will not politicize Babylift. Its purpose is to gather as much information as possible about Babylift and make it available to our visitors.

It was born of a promise I made to my daughter, Heather Constance Noone / Mai Ngoc Tranh before she died on May 17, 1975. As my husband and I watched Heather's life slip away, I told her how sorry I was that medicine couldn't save her. I pledged to do whatever I could to help the world remember Babylift and her short life.

Heather was born somewhere in Vietnam circa February, 1975 and, although critically ill, was flown halfway around the world in a valiant attempt to save her life. That effort failed but her beautiful spirit did not.

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Vietnam Veterans of America

www.vva.org

Vietnam Veterans of America is the only congressionally chartered national veterans service organization dedicated to working on behalf of our nation’s Vietnam-era veterans and their families. Founded in 1978, VVA celebrates 32 years In Service to America. VVA's goals are to promote and support the full range of issues important to Vietnam veterans, to create a new identity for this generation of veterans, and to change public perception of Vietnam veterans. In keeping with our founding principle, “Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another,” VVA’s theme of VetsConnect enables it to reach out to our newer veterans in many ways. VVA has grown from humble beginnings in 1978 into one of our nation’s most respected and successful veterans service organizations on the national, state, and local levels. The organization’s many successes are a direct result of the hard work of thousands of dedicated men and women: our members; our national committee and task force chairs; our national officers and board of directors; and the staff at our national headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. More information about VVA can be found at www.vva.org

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Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association

www.vhpa.org

The Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association is a non-profit war veterans' group comprised of helicopter pilots from all countries who flew helicopters in the Vietnam War. Out of the estimated 40,000 helicopter pilots who flew helicopters in the Vietnam War, approximately 14,000 are currently members or have been members in the past. There are currently 8,200 active members.

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VO-67 Observation Squadron Sixty-Seven

www.VO-67.org

The Navy's Observation Squadron Sixty-Seven (VO-67) existed for just a little over a year, a total of 500 days, from February 1967 to July 1968. The unit was officially declassified in 1998. The "Observation" in the name is meaningless. It hid, at the time, what was a highly classified mission. The "67" stood for the year it came into being. VO-67 was a vital part of project Muscle Shoals. The mission of the project was to detect, classify, hinder and penalize the North Vietnamese Army infiltration into the South. Steel Tiger was the code name for the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos. IGLOO WHITE was the code-name for the technologies associated with the project located at NKP Thailand and operated by USAF Task Force Alpha. The VO-67 squadron was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation in 2007, forty years after it was decommissioned due to the ultra secret nature of its mission in 1967-68 in South East Asia.

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I was a young man during the Vietnam War, yes I enlisted during the war period and I am classified as an era veteran, but my only work in the actual war was as part of the 9th Infantry Division we provided soldiers to go to McChord Air Force base to help with the children and babies brought thru Tacoma and they stopped there before sending them on to the groups that would place these children with the families that would eventually raise them. During my assignment to Korea in 1975/1976 I came back to the states on Air Force planes using Space A standby, in Guam I was bounced off the C-141 that was going to Norton AFB which is ten miles from my parents home in Riverside, something about another flight crew needed the spaces and when I checked with Panam they wanted 1200 dollars for a one way ticket from Guam to Los Angeles so that was not feasible as I didn't have that much money, I was only a SP4 then. My step father Dale Jennings was retired Air Force and he still knew a lot of Air Force NCOs and Officers, I called hom an hour later and he told me to go to the Escort Office there at the Guam Air Force Base a frind of his had arranged for mt to do escort duty.

When I got there he said so yo are Dale's son huh. He asked me how Dale was doing, he hadn't seen him in a long time he said he knew Dale when he first joined the Air Force back in 1959 and up to when Dale retired in 1962 and Dale was a good man, I agreed, I told him how he had taken care of my birth father in a nursing home until he died, he didn't have to, but he thought that our father deserved better than being put into a govt paid for nursing home. Dale and my mother paid my fathers bills for the better care facility and I cared the world for Dale. He said Dale had helped him as a young enlisted man and he was happy to be helping Dale and me now. He had me sign for 2 military caskets which were being flown out on the first plane heading to Travis AFB which happened to be a contract plane from United that was moving military personnel from Thailand back to the US. They put the caskets on the plane in the cargo area, I was told I could not leave the plane in Hawaii it was my job to ensure that the caskets were not removed in Hawaii when they refuled and wehn the plane got to Travis I would be met from someone there to sign the receipts I had for the caskets and then I would be relived of my responsibility for them when that officer signed the receipts I had.

I was shocked to see a full bird Colonel come in the door as soon as they opened it at Travis, he called me out by name, I had been traveling for 4 days and I looked rough, when I left Korea it was 10 degrees and in California it was 80 degreees and I was in winter dress uniforms and they were badly wrinkled and I needed a shave. He asked me for the paperwork abd the signed it giving me a copy of the receipt so I could prove I had delivered them, he arranged for a MSG that was there to get me into the terminal to get a ride to Norton. A little bit surprised the plnae they put me on was the same C-141 I was bumped off of in Guam, back in the early 70s all Air Force planes had to stop at Travis AFB regardless of their ultimate destination, so it wasn't until the next morning when I saw a picture in the newspaper of the reception at Travis, that it was for the remains of 2 marines who had fallen when the Embassy in Saigon fell, they were just now being returned to the states for burial, which explained the Colonel and all of the Generals that were present at Travis for the planes arrival. I think every General from 1 star to 4 stars who could be there, was. My only hazardous duty in that time period was on the DMZ of Korea where the 1/31st Infantry ran combat patrols in the DMZ every night and manned the 2 out posts over looking the fence into North Korea.

Families Bear Brunt of Deployment Strains

2011-01-06T16:44:00.000-08:00

Families Bear Brunt of Deployment Strains

By JAMES DAO and CATRIN EINHORN
Published: December 30, 2010
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CloseLinkedinDiggMixxMySpaceYahoo! BuzzPermalink WAUTOMA, Wis. — Life changed for Shawn Eisch with a phone call last January. His youngest brother, Brian, a soldier and single father, had just received orders to deploy from Fort Drum, N.Y., to Afghanistan and was mulling who might take his two boys for a year. Shawn volunteered.

A Year at War
The Home Front

Articles in this series are chronicling the yearlong deployment of the First Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, based in Kunduz Province, Afghanistan. The series follows the battalion’s part in the surge in northern Afghanistan and the impact of war on individual soldiers and their families back home.

So began a season of adjustments as the boys came to live in their uncle’s home here. Joey, the 8-year-old, got into fistfights at his new school. His 12-year-old brother, Isaac, rebelled against their uncle’s rules. And Shawn’s three children quietly resented sharing a bedroom, the family computer and, most of all, their parents’ attention with their younger cousins.

The once comfortable Eisch farmhouse suddenly felt crowded.

“It was a lot more traumatic than I ever pictured it, for them,” Shawn, 44, said. “And it was for me, too.”

The work of war is very much a family affair. Nearly 6 in 10 of the troops deployed today are married, and nearly half have children. Those families — more than a million of them since 2001 — have borne the brunt of the psychological and emotional strain of deployments.

Siblings and grandparents have become surrogate parents. Spouses have struggled with loneliness and stress. Children have felt confused and abandoned during the long separations. All have felt anxieties about the distant dangers of war.

Christina Narewski, 26, thought her husband’s second deployment might be easier for her than his first. But she awoke one night this summer feeling so anxious about his absence that she thought she was having a heart attack and called an ambulance. And she still jumps when the doorbell rings, worried it will be officers bearing unwanted news.

“You’re afraid to answer your door,” she said.

Social scientists are just beginning to document the rippling effects of multiple combat deployments on families — effects that those families themselves have intimately understood for years. A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine in January found that wives of deployed soldiers sought mental health services more often than other Army wives.

They were also more likely to report mental health problems, including depression, anxiety and sleep disorder, the longer the deployments lasted.

And a paper published in the journal Pediatrics in late 2009 found that children in military families were more likely to report anxiety than children in civilian families. The longer a parent had been deployed in the previous three years, the researchers found, the more likely the children were to have had difficulties in school and at home.

But those studies do not describe the myriad ways, often imperceptible to outsiders, in which families cope with deployments every day.

For Ms. Narewski, a mother of three, it has meant taking a grocery store job to distract her from thinking about her husband, a staff sergeant with the First Battalion, 87th Infantry, now in northern Afghanistan.

For Tim Sullivan, it has meant learning how to potty train, braid hair and fix dinner for his two young children while his wife, a sergeant in a support battalion to the 1-87, is deployed.

For young Joey Eisch, it meant crying himself to sleep for days after his father, a platoon sergeant with the battalion, left last spring. His older brother, Isaac, calm on the outside, was nervous on the inside.

“It’s pretty hard worrying if he’ll come back safe,” Isaac said. “I think about it like 10 or more times a day.”

Joining the Army Life

Soon after Christina and Francisco Narewski married in 2004, he applied for a job with the local sheriff’s office in Salinas, Calif. But he got tired of waiting and, after talking things over with Christina, enlisted in the Army instead.

“We both signed up for it,” Ms. Narewski said. “We knew deployments were going to come.”

That day arrived in the fall of 2007, when their third child was just 5 months old. Ms. Narewski missed Francisco dearly and sometimes cried just hearing his voice when he called from Iraq. But when he returned home in October 2008, it took them weeks to feel comfortable together again, she recalled.

“It’s almost like you’ve forgotten how to be with each other,” she said. “He’s been living in his spot for 15 months. Me and the kids have our own routine. It’s hard to get back to, ‘Oh, you’re home.’ ”

“I’ve never missed him as much as I do right now,” she said recently. “It doesn’t feel like we’re moving. It’s like you’re in a dream and you’re trying to get something and you can’t get it.”

Not all the spouses back home are women. Tim Sullivan’s days have revolved almost entirely around his two children, Austin, 4, and Leah, 2, since his wife, Sgt. Tamara Sullivan, deployed to Afghanistan in March.

He rises each weekday at 5:30 a.m. to dress and feed them before shuttling them to day care. Evenings are the reverse, usually ending with him dozing off in front of the television at their rented ranch-style house in Fayetteville, N.C.

He has moved twice and changed jobs three times in recent years to accommodate his wife’s military career. But he does not mind being home with the children, he says, because his father was not, having left the family when Mr. Sullivan was young.

“I’m not going to put my kids through that,” said Mr. Sullivan, 35, who handles child support cases for the county. “I’m going to be there.”

He worries about lost intimacy with his wife, saying that they have had a number of arguments by phone, usually about bill paying or child rearing. “She tells me: ‘Tim, you can’t just be Daddy, the hard person. You have to be Mommy, too,’” he said. “I tell her it’s not that easy.”

Yet he says that if she stays in the Army — as she has said she wants to do — he is prepared to move again or even endure another deployment. “I love her,” he said. “I’m already signed up. I made a decision to join the life that goes with that.”

Doing What Uncle Sam Asks

Isaac and Joey Eisch have also had to adjust to their father’s nomadic life. “I don’t try to get too attached to my friends because I move around a lot,” said Isaac, who has lived in five states and Germany with his father. (Joey has lived in three states.) “When I leave, it’s like, hard.”

When Sergeant Eisch got divorced in 2004, he took Isaac to an Army post in Germany while Joey stayed with his mother in Wisconsin. Soon after returning to the States in 2007, the sergeant became worried that his ex-wife was neglecting Joey. He petitioned family court for full custody of both boys and won.

In 2009, he transferred to Fort Drum and took the boys with him. Within months, he received orders for Afghanistan.

After nearly 17 years in the Army with no combat deployments, Sergeant Eisch, 36, was determined to go to war. The boys, he felt, were old enough to handle his leaving. Little did he know how hard it would be.

When Shawn put the boys in his truck at Fort Drum to take them to Wautoma, a two-stoplight town in central Wisconsin, Isaac clawed at the rear window “like a caged animal,” Sergeant Eisch said. He still tears up at the recollection.

“I question myself every day if I’m doing the right thing for my kids,” he said. “I’m trying to do my duty to my country and deploy, and do what Uncle Sam asks me to do. But what’s everybody asking my boys to do?”

Within a few weeks of arriving at his uncle’s home, Joey beat up a boy so badly that the school summoned the police. It was not the last time Shawn and his wife, Lisa, would be summoned to the principal’s office.

The boys were in pain, Shawn realized. “There was a lot more emotion,” he said, “than Lisa and I ever expected.”

Shawn, a state water conservation officer, decided he needed to set strict rules for homework and behavior. Violations led to chores, typically stacking wood. But there were carrots, too: for Joey, promises of going to Build-a-Bear if he obeyed his teachers; for Isaac, going hunting with his uncle was the prize. Gradually, the calls from the principal declined, though they have not ended.

In September, Sergeant Eisch returned for midtour leave and the homecoming was as joyful as his departure had been wrenching. Father and sons spent the first nights in hotels, visited an amusement park, went fishing and traveled to New York City, where they saw Times Square and the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.

But the two weeks were over in what seemed like hours. In his final days, Sergeant Eisch had prepped the boys for his departure, but that did not make it any easier.

“Why can’t we just, like, end the war?” Isaac asked at one point.

As they waited at the airport, father and sons clung to each other. “I’m going to have to drink like a gallon of water to replenish these tears,” the sergeant said. “Be safe,” Isaac implored him over and over.

Sergeant Eisch said he would, and then was gone.

Despite his worries, Isaac tried to reassure himself. “He’s halfway through, and he’s going to make it,” he said. “With all that training he’s probably not going to get shot. He knows if there’s a red dot on his chest, run. Not toward the enemy. Run, and shoot.”

But his father did not run.

Dad Comes Home

Just weeks after returning to Afghanistan, Sergeant Eisch, the senior noncommissioned officer for a reconnaissance and sniper platoon, was involved with Afghan police officers in a major offensive into a Taliban stronghold south of Kunduz city.

While directing fire from his armored truck, Sergeant Eisch saw a rocket-propelled grenade explode among a group of police officers standing in a field. The Afghans scattered, leaving behind a man writhing in pain. Sergeant Eisch ordered his medic to move their truck alongside the officer to shield him from gunfire. Then Sergeant Eisch got out.

“I just reacted,” he recalled. “I seen a guy hurt and nobody was helping him, so I went out there.”

The police officer was bleeding from several gaping wounds and seemed to have lost an eye. Sergeant Eisch started applying tourniquets when he heard the snap of bullets and felt “a chainsaw ripping through my legs.” He had been hit by machine gun fire, twice in the left leg, once in the right.

He crawled back into his truck and helped tighten tourniquets on his own legs. He was evacuated by helicopter and taken to a military hospital where, in a morphine daze, he called Shawn.

“Are you sitting down?” Brian asked woozily. “I’ve been shot.”

Shawn hung up and went into a quiet panic. He could not tell how badly Brian had been wounded. Would he lose his leg? He called the school and asked them to shield the boys from the news until he could get there.

Outside school, Shawn told Isaac, Joey and his 12-year-old daughter, Anna, about Brian’s injury. Only Isaac stayed relatively calm.

But later, Shawn found Isaac in his bedroom weeping quietly while looking at a photograph showing his father outside his tent, holding a rifle. Shawn helped him turn the photograph into a PowerPoint presentation titled, “I Love You Dad!”

For Shawn, a gentle and reserved man, his brother’s injury brought six months of family turmoil to a new level. Sensing his distress, Lisa urged him to go hunting, a favorite pastime. So he grabbed his bow and went to a wooded ridge on his 40 acres of property.

To his amazement, an eight-point buck wandered by. Shawn hit the deer, the largest he had ever killed with a bow. It seemed a good omen.

A few days later, Shawn flew with the boys, his father and Brian’s twin sister, Brenda, to Washington to visit Sergeant Eisch at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. At the entrance, they saw men in wheelchairs with no arms and no legs. Others were burned or missing eyes. Shawn feared what the boys would see inside Brian’s room.

But Brian, giddy from painkillers, was his cheerful self. His right leg seemed almost normal. His left leg, swollen and stapled together, looked terrible. But it was a real leg, and it was still attached. The boys felt relieved.

Within days, Brian was wheeling himself around the hospital and cracking jokes with nurses, a green-and-yellow Green Bay Packers cap on his head. While Joey lost himself in coloring books and television, Isaac attended to his father’s every need.

“I feel a little more grown up,” Isaac said. “I feel a lot more attached to him than I was when he left.”

One doctor told Brian that he would never be able to carry a rucksack or run again because of nerve damage in his left leg. Someone even asked him if he wanted the leg amputated, since he would certainly be able to run with a prosthetic. Brian refused, and vowed to prove the doctor wrong. By December, he was walking with a cane and driving.

For Shawn, too, the future had become murkier. It might be many weeks before Brian could reclaim his sons. But he also knew how glad the boys were to have their father back in one piece.

“Brian came home,” Shawn said one evening after visiting his brother in the hospital. “He didn’t come home like we hoped he would come home, but he came home.”

“Every single day I think about all those families and all those kids that are not going to have a dad come home from Afghanistan,” he said. “That hurts more than watching my brother try to take a step because I know my brother will take a step and I know he’s going to walk down the dock and get in his bass boat someday.”

It was late, and he had to get the boys up the next morning to visit their father at the hospital again. The holidays were fast approaching and the snow would soon be arriving in Wisconsin. Shawn wondered whether he could get Isaac out hunting before the season ended.

Yeah, he thought. He probably could.

Disabled troops, vets misled on service dogs

2011-01-04T11:57:00.000-08:00

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Dec 30, 2010 13:03:36 EST

Some service members and veterans are being misled and possibly harmed by well-meaning charities promising to provide a trained service dog to help with medical needs, according to representatives of a major veterans service organization.

What o ften happens, according to officials from the organization AmVets, is that disabled veterans who might benefit from a dog trained to do certain tasks may end up with an animal that a charity group has rescued from a pound, has been taught no special skills and might not be a true “service dog” for legal purposes.

“A dog with little or no training might be a great companion, but that’s all,” said Cristina Roof, AmVets legislative director.

Is it a real service dog?
Minimum training standards for service dogs established by Assistance Dogs of America:

• 90 percent of the time, a service dog must respond the first time it is asked to do a basic obedience and skill task.

• By voic e command or hand signal, a service dog must sit, stay, lie down, come and heel.

• A service dog must perform at least three tasks to mitigate a disability.

• The dog must be clean, well-groomed and not have an “offensive odor.”

• Unnecessary barking, growling, whining or soliciting attention from other people is not allowed. That includes begging for or stealing food from the general public.

• When working, a dog should be calm and quiet, and not distracted (even by cats or squirrels). When not working, it should lie quietly without blocking aisles or doorways.

• Unless told otherwise, a dog should be within two feet of its handler at all times.

• In public, a service dog must wear a cape, harness, backpack or other clothing or equipment identifying it as a service dog.

Roof said some media stories about nonprofit groups providing veterans with dogs rescued from shelters give the incorrect impression that an untrained dog is essentially the same as a trained service dog.

“It is incredibly important to remember a service dog may not be a good fit for everyone,” Roof said. “It is also crucial to remember that a service dog is in no way a replacement for your rehabilitation, either.”

Roof said service members and veterans should never pay for a service dog and should try to deal only with groups accredited by Assistance Dogs International, which sets training g uidelines and placement standards.

Dogs not officially recognized as service dogs — sometimes called therapy dogs or emotional support dogs — are pets, and although they may have some basic training, they are not covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act. They may not have access to public spaces and may not enter military and veterans hospitals and clinics.

Roof said ADA rules cover guide dogs for the blind or deaf, seizure-alert dogs, and mobility dogs trained to pull a wheelchair, pick up dropped items and perform similar tasks. A month-old ADA policy revision now also allows public access for psychiatric service dogs if they are trained to perform a specific task.

The Veterans Affairs and Defense departments don’t have to abide by ADA rules, Roof said. VA operates on rules dating to 1994 that al low only seeing-eye dogs into VA facilities, but allow case-by-case access for other types of service dogs.

DoD has similar rules, giving discretion about allowing dogs into hospitals and clinics to base commanders, Roof said.

Roof said access restrictions on dogs can be embarrassing for service members and veterans who believe they have a trained and officially recognized dog but are later barred from bringing the animal into public buildings and medical facilities.

Having a companion dog rather than a recognized service dog also can make a difference in terms of benefits. VA can provide financial help to veterans for service dogs, covering some costs for food and health care, but those benefits don’t extend to emotional support or therapy dogs, said AmVets spokesman Ryan Gallucci.

“It’s a confusing situation,” Gallucci said.

One example of a potentially confusing message is from Pets For Vets, a California-based charity that takes animals from shelters and pairs them with veterans.

Pets for Vets does not claim its dogs are certified as service dogs, but says in promotional material that their program is “a win-win way to give back to our troops who have given so much to us.”

Veterans with physical and mental injuries can have a difficult transition to civilian life, and having a companion can help, the group says. “Our goal is to heal their wounds by bringing together man’s best friend and our returning soldiers while showing them both that we have not forgotten,” the group says.

P ets for Vets did not respond to calls for comment.

Roof said there is no industrywide standard for what skills a dog may need to be certified to help a veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder or other mental health issues. VA is in the early stages of research to devise standard requirements for dogs to be trained to help veterans suffering from PTSD.

A Laurel, Md., nonprofit group, Fidos for Freedom, trains dogs in specific skills. They can be trained to open and close doors, retrieve objects, help someone keep their balance while walking, help someone get in or out of a chair, pull a wheelchair for short distances, assist in dressing or undressing, or help someone who has fallen get back on their feet.

The group also trains dogs to help the deaf or hearing impaired by responding to the phone, smoke detector, alarm c lock, microwave, someone knocking at the door or calling a name, the sound of something being dropped or even a baby’s cry.

Disabled troops, vets misled on service dogs

CIA Tries Again to Duck Responsibility for Doing Drug Experiments on Veterans

2011-01-03T12:18:00.000-08:00

CIA Tries Again to Duck Responsibility for Doing Drug Experiments on Veterans

By MARIA DINZEO
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SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - The Central Intelligence Agency in January will argue for dismissal of Vietnam veterans' claims that the CIA must provide them with information about the health effects of chemicals used on them during Cold War-era human experiments. The CIA also claims it is not obligated to provide the veterans with medical care for side effects of the drugs. It's the CIA's third attempt to get the case dismissed.
In a 2009 federal lawsuit, Vietnam Veterans of America claimed that the Army and CIA had used at least 7,800 soldiers as guinea pigs in "Project Paperclip." They were given at least 250 and as many as 400 types of drugs, among them sarin, one of the most deadly drugs known to man, amphetamines, barbiturates, mustard gas, phosgene gas and LSD.
Among the project's goals were to control human behavior, develop drugs that would cause confusion, promote weakness or temporarily cause loss of hearing or vision, create a drug to induce hypnosis and identify drugs that could enhance a person's ability to withstand torture.
The veterans say that some of the soldiers died, and others suffered grand mal seizures, epileptic seizures and paranoia. The veterans say the CIA promised in the 1970s to compensate those who were made guinea pigs, but the 2009 complaint states that the government "never made a sincere effort to locate the survivors."
In its 32-page motion to dismiss the group's third amended complaint, the CIA claims it has no legal obligation under the Administrative Procedures Act to provide the veterans with notice of the drugs' health effects and that the veterans' notice claim "rests solely on state common-law duty."
The CIA claims that the law on which the veterans base their claim for health care compensation stems from the Department of Defense and Army regulations, "which do not purport to have a binding affect on the CIA."
And it claims that the Defense Department "never intended nor committed to providing medical care for service member participants in the test programs."
In its response, the veterans group says the CIA has already tried, in past motions, "to re-argue issues already decided" by U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken in 2009. "Defendants argue that plaintiffs do not state a claim for relief under the APA against the CIA or the Department of Defense because they do not allege a legally enforceable duty against those agencies," the response states. "Defendants presented this argument in each of their previous motions to dismiss," but the court has already "rejected this line of argument," finding that a letter from the Department of Justice supports the groups' claim that the CIA is obligated to provide them with medical care.
"Contrary to the court's express direction, defendants now seek to use the addition of the new parties as a crass opportunity for another bite at the apple (their third), seeking to re-litigate issues the court already decided nearly a year ago," the group says.
The hearing is set for Jan. 13, 2011 before Judge Wilken. The case is expected to go to trial in 2012.

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the writer made the mistake of calling these "7,800 soldiers as guinea pigs in Project Paperclip." The conde names used for the experiments were known as MKULTRA, Artichoke, Naomi, Blueberry etc Operation paperclip was the OSS/CIA project to bring Nazi war criminals into the US after WW2 as President Truman had stated that no known Nazi's could be brought in they had to be "good germans" so the agencies cleaned up the records of these 2100 men and their families and brought them in primarily thru Canada in the early 50s, men like Werner Von Braun, Dr Strughold men who would do great things for the science and medical communities of the US and many worked for American corporations after they spent a few years or a decade working for military programs at places like Edgewood Arsenal, Fort Detrick, Fort McClellan, Dugway Proving Grounds etc it is estimated that nine of them worked at Edgewood Arsenal during the years that human testing was done on enlisted Army volunteers, however none of the volunteers were ever told that some of the researchers were tied to the death camps of WW2 Europe, I get the feeling that the power to be knew that the soldiers would not have volunteered if they had been given that information. I know I would not have volunteered, knowing what I know now I feel that I was duped and lied to, and I think it is time for the government to tell these veterans all of the substances they were or might have been exposed to and the toxix water wells that were used until 1978, for the bases drinking water and other uses such as cooking and bathing, swimming pools etc, after the EPA conducted tests in 1978 all of the wells were capped on base and in the aquifer of Edgewood Maryland and water was then piped in from an outside source that was clean. The EPA superfund is still working on the clean up of Edgewood Arsenal in 2010, more than 30 years later, the base was really contaminated. The water could hardly be called "safe" before 1978 how much of the toxins were we exposed to and how many of mour medical problems are related to either the experiments themselves or the water? Will we ever know? Who is repsonsible? The Army declines to answer and the VA states we can't prove the water harmed us, can they prove it didn't harm us? What about reasonable doubt?

Seriously a program that has a 75% death and disability rate for men aged 45-65 just leaves a lot of questions and it seems that our government would prefer NOT to answer them, why? What about the PROMISE to care for military personnel either killed by service or harmed by service we have to fit in here some place.

They can stonewall the truth but the graves are full and more will be and that can not be changed. The right or wrong is now irrelevant helping the veterans and their widows should be the goal the misguided reasons for doing the experiments and the men who authorized them are mostly deceased as are most of the "volunteers" but some of them are still alive and they need medical care and compensation as do the widows. The children of these men also deserve the truth. Their fathers were not just crazy old men who felt abused by the Army, they were veterans who were abused by the Army and then the VA, the CIA just used some of the scientists at Edgewood Arsenal to share the data and in some cases guided the substances used to find what would be advantageous for men like Sidney Gottlieb.

Lawsuit against the VA Fiduciary Program and the veterans rights to appeal

2010-12-28T16:41:00.000-08:00

William E. Freeman link to VA Watchdog Today article by Jim Strickland

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR VETERANS CLAIMS
William E. Freeman
Petitioner,
v.
Eric K. Shinseki
Secretary of Veterans Affairs,
Respondent.

"The Freeman case stands to change the way the VA views fiduciary-related matters.

Currently, a veteran who has been found incompetent and appointed a VA fiduciary has no say in the appointment process nor any recourse whatsoever if he or she wants a different fiduciary, is having problems with the VA fiduciary, etc. This is because the VA currently interprets the law regarding fiduciary-related matters (38 USC section 5502) as being at the Secretary's discretion.

The Freeman case is important because it stands to show how fiduciary-related issues "affect the provision of benefits" to a veteran and therefore must be able to be reviewed by the Board of Veterans' Appeals and the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. Given that the VA's Fiduciary Program only has some 102,000 beneficiaries (according to VA OIG report from Mar 2010), the outcome of this case will not affect many veterans.

But, for this group of veterans, if the outcome is favorable for Mr. Freeman, then this case will improve all incompetent veterans' rights to say who can control their VA benefits."

Katrina Eagle, Esq.
President, National Organization of Veterans Advocates, Inc.

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I really encourage all veterans and their family members to go to the link to VA Watchdog Today and read what Jim Strickland has written about this subject, all veterans who get benefits from the VA might one day be affected by the outcome of this court case and you should know what your rights are in dealing with the VA when they deny you appeal rights to a determination of incompentency and mandate a fiduciary of their choice and deny the veterans and their spouses of the right to manage theiir own funds, deny to pay bills, insurance policies, utility bills and provide the necessities of life that most people take for granted.

Some veterans die with tens of thousands of dollars in accounts that the families do not even know about and the veterans were denied funds to fix their vehicles, and in some cases buy their children health insurance, and even Christmas presents because the fidicuary could not be troubled.

This is important to all veterans as this could be you one day.

Families At Ease VA Program Helps Families Help Their Veterans

2010-12-28T16:15:00.000-08:00

Do you know a Veteran who needs help?

“Families At Ease” is a new program developed by Department of Veterans Affairs that works with family members and friends of Veterans of any era to help them help their Veteran get care.

Many Veterans are reluctant to get help for the symptoms or difficulties they are having, or may not recognize their need for help.

It could be difficulty at work or at home, problems sleeping, driving too fast, or drinking too much. Or it could just be that they seem irritable or sad.

Whatever the problem, family members are often very aware of Veterans’ mental health difficulties and want to play a positive role in helping Veterans seek the help they need.

The “Families At Ease” educational campaign attempts to reach new Veterans through their concerned family members and provides information and support to help the Veteran access VA facilities for services and benefits.

A multi-site call center was developed at the Philadelphia, Pa. and Durham, N.C. VA Medical Centers to answer calls from family members and friends, as well as Veterans.

Callers can get information on how to enroll in VA care. They can also get free telephone-based coaching by a mental health consultant to help when a Veteran is reluctant to admit having difficulties.

According to Dr. Steven Sayers, “Familes At Ease” Director, “We take a positive approach to motivating the Veteran, which means while we work with the family member to motivate the Veteran, the choice to come in is always in the Veteran’s hands.”

Dr. Sayers is a Clinical Psychologist with the Mental Illness, Research, Education, and Clinical Center at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center.

Dr. Steven Sayers
Families At Ease Director
He adds that, “Coaching of family members involves discussing ways to talk to the Veteran about the difficulties they are having and offering help without trying to force the Veteran to go for this help. A family member may have one, two or several coaching calls over the span of a few days or weeks in order to try to help them encourage the Veteran to seek care.”

The program has served about 50 family members and Veterans so far and has had positive results. About half of the calls pertained to Veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan, with the rest serving in Vietnam, the first Gulf War, and other conflicts.

Seventy percent of Veterans associated with callers were already enrolled in VA care; the coaching of family members has resulted in an increase from 70% to 85% for enrollment in VA care.

A significant improvement was seen in Veterans receiving mental health care, with an increase from 24 percent to 45 percent, thanks to the coaching of family members.

Explaining the importance of the program, Dr. Sayers notes, “The role of family members in supporting treatment of our military Veterans is now a key part of the services provided by VA. ‘Families At Ease’ is an example of the innovative strategies now part of VA services.”

The pilot phase of the program was launched in Philadelphia and Durham in January 2010. By January 2011, “Families At Ease” will being to take calls during expanded business hours and start the process of becoming a national program.

Following the pilot phase of the new program, “Families At Ease” will be a national program with an additional call center site in Los Angeles.

VA is getting the word out on the new program with web-based advertising and networking on Facebook and Twitter.

VA has also reached out through clergy, Welcome Home events, newspaper ads, mass transit ads and grocery store carts.

Family members or Veterans can reach “Families At Ease” at 888-823-7458 (8:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m. ET), by e-mailing Families.Ease.PA@va.gov, or on the web at www.mirecc.va.gov/FamiliesAtEase.

Defense Department Wrongfully Discharges Nearly 26,000 Veterans Refuses to Release Records

2010-12-23T18:54:00.000-08:00

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."

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as a veteran with PTSD I am glad to see at least one veterans organization trying to hold DOD accountable

Phantom Charity Takes Flight Leaves Veterans Stranded

2010-12-23T14:55:00.000-08:00

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

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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

2010-12-23T09:37:00.001-08:00

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.'

Fort Detrick to clean up contaminated Area B

2010-12-22T22:03:00.000-08:00

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

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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

2010-12-22T17:37:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-22T13:43:00.000-08:00

{ 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

2010-12-22T12:43:00.000-08:00

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

Defense Department Wrongfully Discharges Nearly 26,000 Veterans, Refuses to Release Records

2010-12-20T11:08:00.000-08:00

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.”

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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.

Bobsledder Chose War to Repay the Army

2010-12-18T10:00:00.000-08:00

Bobsledder Chose War to Repay the Army

Napier, a sergeant in the Vermont Army National Guard, returned to competition this month, just 16 days after coming home from a six-month tour in Afghanistan.

“Sometimes I dream that I’m back in Afghanistan going on missions,” said Napier, 24, who served with the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. “But it’s completely normal to have those sleep problems after what I’ve been through, so I’m O.K. with that. I know those dreams will fade with time. Bobsled keeps my mind busy, and that’s a good thing.”

His unit was based in the turbulent southeast, near the Pakistan border. Yet it was by choice — not by obligation — that Napier ended up there.

Through the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, he was in the Army’s World Class Athlete Program, which gives Olympians and elite Olympic hopefuls full Army salaries and benefits as they train. In turn, those athletes promote a positive image of the military, helping with recruiting.

But for Napier, being an Army promoter simply was not enough. In a move Army officials say is rare, he asked to be released from the World Class Athlete Program for the opportunity to join his National Guard unit in Afghanistan.

In Vancouver, he finished 10th as the driver for the USA-2 two-man bobsled, but his sled crashed during the four-man event, and he did not finish. Even during the Olympics, he dreamed of becoming “a real soldier,” he said, to repay the Army.

Napier said he could not forget how Capt. Brian Freeman, an American former bobsled athlete, was killed in Iraq after being taken hostage in 2007. Freeman’s death, Napier said, was additional motivation for him to serve.

“I just kept asking to go because I couldn’t get away from the guilt of being here while other guys were over there fighting,” Napier said.

First Sgt. Christopher Button, who helps run the World Class Athlete Program, said he was impressed with Napier’s enthusiasm but warned him to be careful of what he asked for.

“I don’t have people knocking down my door to go,” Button said, adding that one of Napier’s Olympic teammates, First Lt. Chris Fogt, was serving in Iraq now.

Napier’s life had been built around the close-knit community of bobsledding, with the war a world away. He grew up with the sport. His father, Bill, who died of cancer in 2005, was a bobsled driver from the 1960s to the ’80s and later became president of USA Bobsled and Skeleton, the sports’ national governing body.

John’s mother, Betsy, also drove bobsleds in her day. She is volunteering at this weekend’s World Cup event, where she is the unofficial den mother for the competitors.

The Napiers called Schenectady home but spent many weekends at their Lake Placid cabin on Bobsled Run Lane, the street that leads to the track here.

By the time John was 8, Bill Napier was teaching him how to drive a bobsled, propping him atop a telephone book so he could see. Napier later become one of the best drivers in the country in a sport in which the sleds often scream down the track at 85 to 90 miles an hour.

“My dad was a former Marine, a tough son-of-a-gun, so that was a lot to live up to,” said Napier, now 6 feet 3 inches and 205 pounds.

John Napier joined the National Guard in 2006 for the money. His father had just died and the family was in debt from financing John’s bobsled career. Napier was accepted into the World Class Athlete Program two years later, and a huge financial burden was lifted.

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You should go to the NY Times story on the above link and read the entire story, this is a story of a real patriot and should be an inspiration to all Americans, he didn't have to do this, he insisted and that say's plenty about his character, I am sure his father would be proud of him, despite the fact he became a National Guardsman rather than a Marine. He served his nation well, and that is all that matters.

Local veterans in need of Christmas

2010-12-10T14:47:00.000-08:00

Local veterans in need of Christmas

Posted: Dec 10, 2010 4:23 PM EST
Updated: Dec 10, 2010 4:23 PM EST

By Jillian Capobianco - bio | email

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - When we think of giving during the Christmas season, we often think of children and families, but there are others in need, including veterans.

This Sunday is the 10th annual Charity Ride. It helps bring Christmas presents to hospitalized veterans at Dorn V.A. as well as their two homeless shelters. Medal of Honor recipient John Baker says it's what Christmas is all about.

With his 5'2" stature and strong silent demeanor, you may just walk by Baker in the lobby of Dorn V.A. Hospital, but if you did, you would miss out on the stories he could tell. They're stories as to why there is now a bridge and a monument in his name.

On November 5th, 1966, John's life would never be the same. He was fighting in Vietnam when his unit came under fire. Men were going down, but Private First Class Baker stepped in. "I knocked out eight machine gun bunkers and carried eight of my wounded soldiers back to be evacuated," says Baker.

It was his heroism that awarded him the highest military honor, the Medal of Honor. Baker says it was amazing when President Johnson pinned the nation's highest military decoration on him. "I felt great at the time," says Baker, "When they read the citation, I just felt like I was right back."

42 years later, Baker still says the medal is not just his own. " I wear it, not because I won it," says Baker, "It belongs to the men that served our great country of ours. It belongs to them, not me."

It's the love he has for his military brothers that has him involved in this year's Vets' Christmas Charity Ride. The ride raises money to give veterans staying at Dorn V.A. at Christmas. " They're my brothers, my family," says Baker.

The 10th annual Vets' Christmas Charity Ride is happening Sunday, December 12th at 2:00pm. Riders will meet at the Carolina Honda Powerhouse store on 901 Buckner Road in Columbia and depart for the Dorn V.A. Hospital.

You can find out more by calling (803) 252-3381, and to read more about how you can get involved in or donate to this cause, click Give Veterans a Christmas.

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It is nice to see veterans helping veterans especially the likes of men like John Baker he really stepped up in 1966 while in Vietnam and he is still stepping up in 2010 SALUTE

Iraqi War veteran says he's suffering from exposure to burn pits, but is happy to receive military honor

2010-12-10T14:33:00.000-08:00

Iraqi War veteran says he's suffering from exposure to burn pits, but is happy to receive military honor

By Kathleen Berger

St. Charles, MO (KSDK) -- The Missouri Air National Guard presented the Hometown Heroes Salute to an Iraqi War Veteran, whose health has been in failure since his return. His family members have become huge advocates in raising awareness about burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan.

That's what the Retired Tech Sgt. Tim Wymore blames for his health problems that have only gotten worse since he returned from Iraq. But the St. Charles man was all smiles Friday as he received a very special honor.

Iraqi War Veteran Tim Wymore was supposed to have received his Hometown Heroes Salute last January, but somehow his name was missed. When the Missouri Air National Guard discovered the mistake, they arranged a ceremony just for him.

"It is kind of amazing that they did this for me, because now I got the whole thing to myself," said Wymore.

The medal and framed letter of appreciation are well deserved for Wymore's 181 days of service in Iraq. Especially after everything Wymore and his family have gone through after they say he was exposed to hazardous chemicals.

"Did a lot of runs to what they call the burn pits, that's what's affected me," said Wymore. "I came home sick, they took a softball size infection out of my colon and small intestine, and I've been kind of sick ever since."

As more health problems persist, Wymore's wife, Shanna, has become an advocate for thousands who've been exposed.

"It's 2010, we've got to shut these burn pits down," said Shanna Wymore.

But the Wymores call the burn pits the new Agent Orange.

"I have to fight and fight and fight," said Shanna. "Arms, limbs, corpses from the dogs, they burn all the water bottles, the Styrofoam, all the plastic, all the food stuff, all the medical supply," said Shanna.

While she focuses on that fight, Tim Wymore is focusing on another.

"I just want to get better. I don't want to have to wear this oxygen or be in this wheelchair the rest of my life, so that's my goal," said Tim Wymore.

Through it all, Tim Wymore says he's very patriotic. He waves American flags from his house. And he considers the hometown Heroes Salute a huge honor.
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I first became interested in the "Burn Pits" when I was contacted by Jill Wilkins whose husband had died from brain cancer that started after being assigned to Balad AFB, and she was looking for some help in how to deal with the VA Regional Office about the DIC and CHAMPVA benefits her and the children were entitled to. The VA is making some major improvements in handling claims related to the Burn Pit exposure, but to many veterans and their families are still having to fight to hard and to long for service connection. Like Agent Orange the VA is still coming to terms more than 40 years after that war what medical issues are related to the exposures, hopefully the VA will not make this new generation of war veterans wait 40 years for full disclosure of medical conditions related to the exposures.

"What's TRICARE Anyway?"

2010-12-10T14:29:00.000-08:00

We read your blog, military & veterans: politics for the deserving, and
believe you can help us spread the word to your readers about our upcoming
Webinar. "What's TRICARE Anyway?" is an interactive Webinar co-hosted by
TRICARE and Military OneSource and will be held Monday, Dec. 13, from 11
a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Eastern time.

The webinar will cover general benefit information and participants can
submit questions online or over the phone to be answered following the
information session. More information can be found at:
http://www.health.mil/ or
http://www.tricare.mil/mediacenter/news.aspx?fid=675.

Monday, Dec. 13, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Eastern time.

Fpr all retired military members who use Tricare for some or all of their medical care this is a place where you need to be on Dec 13, 2010

http://www.tricare.mil/mediacenter/news.aspx?fid=675.

http://www.health.mil/

Thse are the links to the Tricare information you need

Report: Defense faces large and growing mental health problem

2010-12-09T11:55:00.000-08:00

Report: Defense faces large and growing mental health problem

By Bob Brewin bbrewin@govexec.com December 6, 2010 During the past decade, 767,290 active-duty military personnel have received a diagnosis of a mental health disorder, according to a series of reports expected to be released today by the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center in Silver Spring, Md. Overall, from January 2000 through December 2009, such diagnoses increased 60 percent.

The center also reported that mental health disorders rank as the top cause of hospitalization for male service members and the second cause of hospitalization for women after pregnancy-related conditions. The Army topped the number of admissions.

RELATED STORIES Number of Army suicides already surpasses 2009 total 11/22/10 Soldiers struggle emotionally under stress of war 10/04/10 Agencies examine combat-related substance abuse 08/26/10 Grim trend in Army suicides continues 01/21/10 Suicide prevention continues to elude Army leaders 01/12/10

During this period, 94,391 active-duty service members experienced 109,895 mental disorder hospitalizations. The number of hospitalizations remained fairly stable and then sharply increased from 2006 to 2009, with 15,328 hospitalizations in 2009, up 50 percent from 10,262 in 2006.

The Health Surveillance Center said the findings in the four mental health reports in its November Medical Surveillance Monthly Report "document a large and growing mental health problem among U.S. military members." The reports examined five selective disorders from 2007 through 2009, mental health problems across the active component from 2000 through 2009, hospitalizations for mental health, and the relationship between childbirth and mental health diagnoses.

This includes a sharp increase in mental health disorder diagnoses from 78,658 active-duty troops in 2003, or 5.6 percent of the force, to 123,374, or 8.5 percent of the force in 2009, which reflects the increase in troops deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq, the report said. This upsurge reflects the "increasing psychological toll" combat operations had on deployed troops, the center said.

To put the numbers in context, the center noted a recently completed national survey that showed at least half of all adult Americans will meet the criteria for a mental disorder diagnosis sometime in their life, and that "clearly the large and growing problem of mental disorders among military members reflects to some extent the similar experience of the general U.S. population."

The Army experienced twice the rate of mental disorder hospitalizations than any of the other services during the past decade, the Health Surveillance Center reported: 3.09 hospital years per 10,000 person years (one person year is equivalent to one year in the life of one person) versus 1.52 hospital years for the Marine Corps, 1.51 hospital years for the Air Force and 1.4 hospital years for the Navy.

The report that examined the prevalence of five mental disorders -- post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression, bipolar disorder, alcohol dependence and substance dependence -- found that from 2007 through the second quarter of 2010, the Army had the highest rates of new diagnoses for these disorders while the Air Force the lowest.

The only exceptions were in 2007, 2008 and the first two quarters of 2010, when the Marine Corps exceeded the Army in rates of new diagnoses for alcohol dependence.

The Army also had the highest percentage of troops on active duty with prior mental health diagnoses, 10 percent versus 5.7 percent of Marines. The 10-year study noted "the overall incidences of mental disorders were higher in the Army than in any of the other services."

The Health Surveillance Center also examined the effect of childbirth and deployment on the mental health of female troops and determined mental disorders were linked to early deployment after childbirth. The rate of mental disorders diagnosed within six months of returning from deployment was 37 percent higher among women who had deployed within six months of giving birth compared with women who had deployed later after giving birth.

Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army's vice chief of staff, acknowledged the connection between mental health problems, alcohol and substance abuse, and troop suicides at a Pentagon news briefing in July when the service released its comprehensive report on suicide in the Army. (

That report said, ""No one could have foreseen the impact of nine years of war on our leaders and soldiers," including PTSD and other mental health problems.

According to Tom Vande Burgt, an Army National Guard veteran who served in Iraq and runs the PTSD peer support group Lest We Forget in Charleston, W.Va., with his wife Diane, the mental health reports did not make any attempt to link the abuse of drugs and alcohol to the rise in prescription drugs given to troops diagnosed with PTSD.

The center reports also do not detail the Defense Department's treatment methods for mental health problems. But a June 2010 report from the Department of Defense Pharmacoeconomic Center at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, shows 20 percent of active-duty personnel are on high-risk medications, including psychotropic and anti-depressant medications used to treat mental health problems.

Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, said he is "highly alarmed the military continues reporting record mental health and suicide statistics." Sullivan added, "As suicides skyrocket and drug use soars, top military leaders need to be held accountable for their failures to care properly for our troops."

The Defense Department needs to fill hundreds of vacancies in mental health positions, expand efforts to reduce the stigma associated with seeking treatment, and treat mental health wounds of war as equal to physical wounds, Sullivan said.

The Health Surveillance Center noted the data it used to compile its reports resulted in lower estimates for mental health disorders, such as PTSD, than previous reports widely disseminated in the media. The rates of mental health disorders found by the center are not directly comparable to other published rates and the reports generated by the data do not examine the relationship between deployments and mental health, which is something future reports will explore, the center said.

Information in the reports was drawn from health records maintained in the Defense Medical Surveillance System, which documents visits to military hospitals and clinics and civilian facilities covered by military insurance plans. The reports did not include medical facilities serving deployed troops, but included the 39 percent of the force that has not deployed to a combat zone during the past decade.

The information in the reports, which is based on a formal diagnosis entered into an electronic health record, showed an overall PTSD rate of 9.2 percent versus previous reports that showed a 12 percent or higher rate.

The Health Surveillance Center said previous studies relied on self-reported data in post-deployment health assessments, anonymous questionnaires and retrospective interviews in which service members affirm or deny the presence of symptoms associated with mental health disorders. Such screening does not carry the weight of formal diagnosis.

The center said its reports document the incidence of mental health disorders for all 1.4 million active-duty personnel and did not focus solely on the those who have served in a combat zone, which it cited as a risk factor for most, if not all, mental disorders.

The reports also did not contain data about the mental health of National Guard and reserve members who have served combat tours. Nor did they take into account the barriers to care, such as a shortage of military mental health personnel and the stigma that keeps troops from reporting mental health problems and seeking help.

As a result, the Health Surveillance Center said its reports "very likely underestimate the true incidence and prevalence" of mental health disorders in the military.

this is a graph that is in the article that shows the break down by service and the different diagnosis PTSD, Depression, substance abuse etc this is a very eye opening document and should be looked at

to me this shows that the problems are a lot larger than the DOD has been telling the general public and tells me that a lot more help is needed in the military for more mental health professionals to help the soldiers and marines and other military members that have served us during this turbulent period of the past decade and the "war on terror". We have a PROMISE to care for these people while inservice and after they leave active duty and become veterans, are we doing enough? I don't think so.

I am a veteran who is rated as 100% P&T by the Veterans Administration with an effective date of Dec 2003. My stressors go back to Feb 1975 and I have numerous incidents in my 20 years of Army service but one of the easiest to prove was an attempted murder and robbery by fellow soldiers while at Fort Wainwright, Alaska in Feb 1975, they were given general court martials and 4 of the 7 were sentenced to 15 years in leavenworth for their attack on me. I also served in the Korean DMZ during the fall of 1975 and thru Operation Paul Bunyan in August 1976. There were many more incidents that are related to my service conencted PTSD. Like many veterans with PTSD I also had problems with alcohol during service and after, it doesn't help PTSD it just masks the issues and is a terrible method for coping with the issues.

PTSD and substance abuse are usually present in most people with PTSD and they must be treated at the same time. We are failing to do enough and there are not enough beds in VA mental health facilities for the veterans who are falling thru the cracks.

The Valley of the Shadow of Death

2010-12-08T18:36:00.000-08:00

words from the soldier awarded a Silver Star the entire mission in his words

I was returning fire to those bastards from behind a tree when all of a sudden I hear the soft voice of New Dick attempting to yell “Doc’s hit, Doc’s hit.”

Side Note: this is exactly why I wanted that kid to start speaking the fuck up. You MUST be loud in this job. That kid never grasped the concept. He’s lucky I even heard him.

I looked all around me and finally, thirty-five meters to my right, I see Doc laying face down in the dirt on the porch of one of the houses. My stomach dropped out. There are literally no words I can use to fully understand the feeling you get when you see that. I ran over to where he was and dropped directly, but carefully, on top of him. You do that in a fire fight to protect the casualty. The first thing I noticed was the blood on his neck. The second thing I noticed was that he was alive and responding to me. That immediately made me feel better. Doc said he was hit in the left arm, but upon inspection of his arm there was nothing visibly wrong with it. That’s when I started to look more closely at his neck. He had been shot right through the left side of his neck and I could not see an exit wound.
I decided, since the enemy had that spot locked down with heavy machine gun fire, it was time to move him. Yes, he had a gunshot wound to the neck, but if we had stayed there we both would have been killed. That’s when I started to move him.

Wearing all his combat gear, Doc probably weighed two hundred and ten pounds or so. Moving him myself was a slow process. While I was dragging him to a nearby room in this random village, I noticed two things almost simultaneously. The first thing was that the wall to my right was being peppered with incoming small arms fire that originated from the corn fields to my left. The second was that New Dick was about five feet away from Doc in the doorway of a small barn and he had obviously been there the whole time. He had frozen and couldn’t bring himself to come out and help Doc. I’m still not sure if I should have beat his ass or tried to understand his position. I’ve been working with Doc as our Platoon medic for a long time and he’s a good friend of mine. The first thing I thought when I saw him was that I needed to help him right away. New Dick’s first thought was probably something along the lines of “Oh shit, I’m gonna get shot.” He doesn’t know Doc that well and he’s not at all seasoned as a combat Infantryman. So, as I said, I’m still on the fence as to either beating the living crap out of him or telling him to use that instance as a learning experience.

When I saw New Dick I continued to drag Doc to the room (that was now about 10 feet away) and screamed at the top of my lungs to him the following words…

“GET THE FUCK OUT HERE AND HELP ME RIGHT FUCKING NOW YOU LITTLE SHIT!!!”

He didn’t move.

“HELP ME RIGHT NOW OR I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU MYSELF MOTHER FUCKER!!!”

That’s when New Dick worked up the courage to take his first step toward Doc and I. And as he took that step, a round hit him right in his left hand. By that time, Washout had made it to our position. I yelled at him to grab New Dick and get back inside the barn, which he did immediately. Shortly after that, Vice City and The Situation had run over, grabbed up Doc, and got him into the room.

Then there is the article about the award of his Silver Star Sec of Defense Robeert Gates awards some Silver Stars for Heroism

St. Charles native and U.S. Army Spc. Richard Bennett thought only of his fallen comrade’s peril when he bolted through heavy gunfire to aid the injured medic during a mission in eastern Afghanistan.

Bennett remained focused on his “brothers” Tuesday after he and Army 1st Lt. Stephen R. Tangen of Naperville each collected a Silver Star medal for their separate actions under fire there this summer. The pair was among six Army soldiers earning the third-highest award for bravery in combat given by the military. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates presented the honors in person to the soldiers for their actions during various Operation Strong Eagle missions in the Kunar province.

“It was an incredible honor that the secretary of defense would come. It was a little overwhelming,” said Tangen, according to a Department of Defense news account. “Forward Operating Base Joyce gets attacked almost every day, so just the fact that he would come to a remote FOB like this and put his life on the line it doesn’t happen every day.”

Noted recipients of the honor include Lt. Col. Oliver North, Gens. George S. Patton and Douglas MacArthur, as well as Sens. John Kerry and John McCain. More recently, former Arizona Cardinals football player Pat Tillman, who died in friendly fire in Afghanistan, was given the award posthumously.
Heroic actions must be “performed with marked distinction” to earn a Silver Star, an honor bestowed for acts that do not rise to the level deserving of a Medal of Honor or Distinguished Service Cross.

“As far as the award, it is for my platoon. I may have gotten it, but we were all there that day and all of us went through that,” Bennett wrote in e-mail from Afghanistan.

Bennett and his 101st Airborne platoon were on a mission on foot in a valley along a mountainside when they came under heavy fire. During the skirmish, the platoon medic was shot in the neck and he was lying face down on a porch.

“My stomach dropped out,” Bennett wrote. “There are literally no words I can use to fully understand the feeling you get when you see that. … I’ve been working with Doc as our platoon medic for a long time and he’s a good friend of mine. The first thing I thought when I saw him was that I needed to help him right away.”
Seeing the fellow soldier was pinned down by enemy bullets, Bennett left his cover provided by a tree and ran to provide aid and protection for his comrade.
“He ran 35 meters under a hail of gunfire,” said his mom, Lisa Bennett.
Bennett dropped down atop the injured man using his own body to shield the medic while he assessed his injuries, he recalled.

He then pulled the man into the vacant house as gunfire continued. Bullets “peppered” the building, and as he waited for the gunfire to subside, he looked at the bullet-ridden wall and was reminded of a scene from the movie “Pulp Fiction.” In the scene, two characters survive a hail of gunfire unscathed, much like Bennett.

“It was one of the single craziest moments I’ve ever experienced,” he wrote.
The man Bennett saved, and another soldier who was nearby and wounded by a bullet to the hand, survived and are recovering from their wounds.
The award-winning soldiers’ parents were thrilled for their sons.
“I’m incredibly proud of him, but I always have been,” said Bennett’s mom, Lisa Bennett, of Geneva. “He’s always been a person with courage in his convictions … and unafraid.”
She continued, “He’s with an impressive group of soldiers over there too. He really sees those guys in his platoon as brothers. He knows they would do the same for him. They’re all heroes.”

Bennett’s father, South Elgin Police Sgt. Richard Bennett, said it was the second-best news he could get about his son.
“The Silver Star … wow. I’m on the verge of tears now,” said his father, who lives in Elgin. “It doesn’t surprise me. He’s been a heck of a kid his whole life. I don’t think he even thought about it. He just reacted. The only better news is if he was coming home.”
Likewise, Andrew Tangen was impressed but not surprised by his 24-year-old son’s heroic actions.

“They’re like his family,” said Tangen, whose three sons are all Eagle Scouts. His eldest son, Andrew, is a lieutenant in the Navy and also deployed in Afghanistan. “It’s just who they are. They’re doing what needs to be done.”
Tangen suspects his son, who didn’t share details in a weekend call home, was honored for his efforts to save his staff sergeant and close friend during one of the mission’s firefights. Staff Sgt. Eric Shaw of Massachusetts died in Stephen Tangen’s arms as he tried to move him to safety, Tangen wrote to his family.
“He’s a very humble young man,” Andrew Tangen said of his son.
Bennett, 29, graduated in 2000 from St. Charles High School. He attended Aurora University and Northern Illinois University, and then worked as a personal trainer for a few years before enlisting just after President Barack Obama’s election to office.

Bennett and Tangen, who are in the 101st Airborne based out of Fort Campbell in Kentucky, arrived in Afghanistan in May for a one-year deployment.
Bennett plans to return to college for an education degree. Tangen, who is a 2004 Naperville North High School and 2008 West Point graduate, plans to attend medical school and become a doctor.

Read more: http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20101208/news/712099904/#ixzz17Zvu5GhH

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this is the story of a true hero, even though he does not want this label, his actions have earned him this award and distinction, and I am an old Infantry NCO SALUTE him.

New Approach to Smoking Cessation Boosts Quit Rates

2010-12-08T13:52:00.000-08:00

New Approach to Smoking Cessation Boosts Quit Rates

for Veterans with PTSD

WASHINGTON -- Smoking cessation treatment that is made part of mental
health care for Veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
improves quit rates, according to a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
study published in the Dec. 8 Journal of the American Medical
Association.

"The smoking cessation techniques used in this new approach will give
Veterans an important step towards a better quality of life," said VA
Under Secretary for Health Dr. Robert Petzel. "Veterans will be at a
lower risk for cardiovascular or lung disease if they do not smoke."

On measures of smoking abstinence for shorter periods of time,
researchers found that quit rates were as high as 18 percent for the
integrated care group, versus 11 percent for those receiving usual care.
When compared to usual care-referral to a standard smoking cessation
clinic-the new, integrated approach nearly doubled the rate at which
study volunteers stayed smoke-free for a year or longer, from 4.5
percent to almost 9 percent.

Importantly, Veterans in the study who quit smoking showed no worsening
of symptoms of PTSD or depression. In fact, study participants averaged
a 10-percent reduction in PTSD symptoms, regardless of which treatment
they received or whether they quit smoking or not. The findings help
dispel concerns that combining care for PTSD and smoking cessation
detracts from PTSD treatment or makes it less effective.

Study leaders Miles McFall, Ph.D., and Andrew Saxon, M.D., say the
results validate a promising new VA model of care that can make safe,
effective smoking cessation treatment accessible to far more Veterans
with PTSD. The new approach may also be effective for smokers receiving
mental health care for other psychiatric illnesses, they add.

Says McFall, "One of the most important things mental health providers
can do to improve the quality and length of their patients' lives is to
help them stop smoking by using proven, evidence-based practices."

McFall is director of PTSD Programs and Saxon is director of the
Addictions Treatment Center at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System.
Both are professors in the department of psychiatry and behavioral
sciences at the University of Washington.

VA smoking cessation care generally involves a mix of group and
individual counseling, typically in combination with nicotine
replacement therapy or other medication prescribed by a VA health care
provider. In VA's study, Veterans in the integrated-care group worked
with the same therapist on PTSD and smoking issues. Medication for
smoking cessation, if used, was prescribed on an individual basis by the
same medical provider managing pharmacologic treatment of the Veteran's
PTSD symptoms.

The study followed 943 Veterans at 10 VA medical centers nationwide.
Prolonged abstinence from tobacco, as reported by participants, was
confirmed using breath and urine tests to detect evidence of smoking.
Using such "bio-verification" measures in combination with self-reports
is considered the "gold standard" in smoking cessation research, says
McFall.

Of some 400,000 Veterans being treated for PTSD in the VA health care
system, roughly 30 to 50 percent are smokers, compared to a smoking rate
of about 20 percent among VA enrollees and U.S. adults in general.
Research shows, also, that those with PTSD smoke more heavily than
smokers without PTSD and have an especially hard time quitting.

"We've come a long way in understanding that nicotine dependence for
many Veterans with PTSD is a chronic, relapsing condition that responds
best to intensive treatment extended over time," McFall says. "These
study findings will help us empower more Veterans with the resources
they need to quit smoking. Single-shot, brief episodic care for nicotine
addiction is no match for what is a chronic, relapsing disorder for many
of our Veterans."

Based on the findings and evidence from prior research, VA has begun
piloting the integrated smoking cessation approach as a standard of
practice at six VA medical centers. The researchers say they hope to see
the new approach further expanded over time.

McFall notes that while most of the participants in the study were
Vietnam-era Veterans, integrated smoking cessation care may be
especially beneficial for younger Veterans with PTSD, such as many of
those returning from Iraq or Afghanistan, who stand to benefit greatly
from quitting smoking relatively early in life.

Says McFall, "Ideally, we can help Veterans quit smoking before it
becomes a chronic or intractable condition and causes irreversible
health problems such as cardiovascular or lung disease."

The study was conducted by VA's Cooperative Studies Program. For more
information on CSP, visit www.csp.research.va.gov.

Veterans' Caregiving Often Falls to Spouse

2010-12-07T11:51:00.000-08:00

Veterans' Caregiving Often Falls to Spouse

96% of Veterans’ Caregivers Are Women, and the Burden Can Be Heavy, Study Finds
By Bill Hendrick
WebMD Health NewsReviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD Nov. 10, 2010 -- When veterans with service-related injuries or illness need caregivers, the role typically falls on women, usually spouses or partners, a new report finds.

The study by the National Alliance for Caregiving and the United Health Foundation reports that 96% of veterans’ caregivers are women, compared to an overall nationwide finding that 65% of family caregivers are women. The study also says that 70% of veterans’ caregivers are their spouses or partners, compared to 6% nationally.

The youngest veterans requiring caregivers are those whose ranks are growing from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, says the report. More than 40% of veterans who need caregivers are between the ages of 18 and 54, the report finds.

Younger Veterans Receive Help From Parents and Family
About one in four (26%) of the youngest veterans are being cared for by parents who are likely to need more caregiving support as they age.

Conditions for which veterans need help differ widely, depending on when and in which war they served, the report says.

Among key findings:

70% of caregivers say the veteran they help has a mental illness, such as depression, anxiety, or posttraumatic stress disorder. Nationally, mental or emotional health problems are reported by only 28% of caregivers.
29% of caregivers say their veteran has traumatic brain injury, 28% list diabetes, and 20% paralysis or spinal cord injury.

80% of veterans’ caregivers say they deal with two or more of the 10 specific conditions they were asked about, and 67% named additional conditions, with 24% mentioning problems such as bone, joint, or limb trouble, 12% hearing or ear problems, 9% heart conditions, and 9% neuropathy or nerve issues.
The time involvement for caregivers of veterans is also much greater than for other people, with 30% reporting being in their role for 10 years or more, compared to only 15% of caregivers of others nationally.

Toll of Caring for Veterans

“Not only are caregivers of veterans in their role for a longer period, but their burden of care is also heavier -- 65% are in a high-burden caregiving situation, compared to 31% nationally,” the report says. “The increased burden is due to a greater likelihood of helping with activities of daily living, including dressing, bathing, feeding and dealing with incontinence.”

The burden on caregivers also can affect their physical and mental health, the report says. Those who take care of veterans with mental problems, including PTSD and depression, are much more likely to report feeling emotionally stressed, isolated, and financially pressed. The report says that:

68% of caregivers of veterans feel highly stressed, compared to 31% of those who take care of other adults nationally.

Among the 30% of veterans’ caregivers who have children under 18 in their homes, two-thirds report spending less time with their kids than they would like.
57% of veterans’ caregivers said their children or grandchildren had emotional or school problems as a result of their caregiving or the veteran’s condition.
60% of caregivers report declines in healthy behaviors, such as going to the dentist or their own doctor.

The study was based on an online survey of adult caregivers who provide care to a veteran whose injury or illness is related to military service. The report also includes finding from focus groups that discussed caregiving and telephone interviews with people from the online survey. The report puts the total number of survey respondents at 462.
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My wife Dori, had to quit working in the spring of 2003 as I was at the point I could not be left alone during the day, she turned into a full time care giver, luckily we are able to live on the SSD and VA benefits and her lost income from working did not leave us unable to pay our bills, it has cut down on some of the frills and spending on wants and the grand kids don't get everything they want.

I regret having to put her into this position but my health is what it is and that is not going to change, I am lucky that she has stuck by me as I have fallen apart, that part where they say thru sickness, richer or poorer I don't think they imagined the part where we turned our sposues into full time nurses. My depression has to have an affect on her, but she never complains, but I can see where many disabled veterans would have problems with family members being turned into full time care givers and there is no vacations for them, they deal with it 24/7 365 days a year, year in and year out.

Medical care lacking, some veterans say

2010-12-07T11:31:00.000-08:00

Medical care lacking, some veterans say

Specialty services often require traveling.
By YESENIA AMARO
yamaro@mercedsun-star.com
War may be hell, but peace is no little slice of heaven.

At least some of the county's military veterans feel that way about their post-service health care.

But others say they've been treated fairly once they hung up their uniforms.

BEA AHBECK
Merced Sun-Star - PHOTO BY BEA AHBECK

Larry Garcia, who is retired from the military reserves and served in Iraq in 2004-2005, gets his lungs checked by Dr. Jeanette Paz Kuizon, at the VA Merced outpatient clinic in Merced.

Eli PaintedCrow has complained for years about the lack of medical services available for military veterans in Merced County.

The Veterans Affairs Merced Outpatient Clinic, whose parent company is the VA Central California Health Care System in Fresno, has limited services, PaintedCrow said. "They don't have therapists in Merced, period. The VA has never bothered to look for qualified therapists to work in Merced. They also don't provide physical therapy, which I'm in need of."

PaintedCrow, 50, who served in the U.S. Army and completed two tours of duty in Iraq, has to travel to the main facility in Fresno to get the services she needs -- and that's not easy. In addition to the long travel, appointments can be as much as two months away, she said. "They brag about being the No.1 in the nation, yet they fail to see the places that need correction, even if they've been told year after year about what's not happening in Merced County," she said of the VA Central California. "I really think Merced needs to improve its services."

While some veterans in Merced County have a tough time getting the services that are owed to them, others have had a positive experience, but say improvements could be made.

Antonio Talamantes, 27, who served in the Marine Corps, said he usually seeks services in Merced, but also travels to Fresno when he needs specialized services.

He was at the clinic in Merced recently and was told that he was going to have to travel to Fresno to get X-rays done. Talamantes, who suffers from lower-back pain, received a letter in the mail a few days later indicating his appointment to get the X-rays done is on Dec. 2. "That was pretty quick," he said.

Sean Hinds, acting program director for Public Affairs at the main facility in Fresno, said their goal is to see a patient within 30 days of the referral.

Talamantes said overall, he can't complain about the service in Merced or in Fresno. "I think they've been doing a really good job in helping us out," he said. Still, he said he "could always hope that there would be more doctors" at the clinic in Merced.

VA services in Merced

Shannon Deen, clinical nurse manager at the Merced clinic, said it has three primary care physicians. Two of them are full-time and one is part-time.

One of the providers is a woman, and she sees most of the female patients, Deen said. Overall, they serve more than 3,000 veterans in primary care.

There are about 12,000 veterans in Merced County. According to the most recent figures, as of 2008, there were an estimated 23.4 million living veterans in the U.S. Only about 8.4 million of them received veterans benefits and services that year, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Deen said the facility in Merced is mainly a primary care clinic. Mental health is provided, since they employ a psychologist and a psychiatrist. Lab work also is done in Merced.

Deen said the clinic is going to begin using a telehealth system. The system, which consists of a monitor and a camera, connects the patient with a provider via videostream. "It's going to allow us to prevent some of the travel to Fresno for specialty services," she said. "We will be able to connect people with a specialist, but the patient will come to Merced to be seen."

Depending on a patient's issue, providers in Merced will be able to take images and send them to Fresno to be examined. Deen said some specialist visits will still have to made to Fresno, but the new telehealth system will help reduce the number of trips.

The clinic also plans to expand other services, such as group therapy and diabetes education, among others.

According to Deen, the clinic in Merced will have to expand its staff as the demand increases. "Once we get enough patients to require more staff, we'll look at hiring," she added.

Hinds said the clinic in Merced used to be located in Atwater, but it was recently transferred to a new location in Merced on East Yosemite Avenue. He said the new location has more space to accommodate demand in Merced.

Deen said new veterans are welcome to stop by the clinic and register for services.

The VA Central California's budget is $164 million a year, Hinds said. The VA satellite clinics in Merced and in Tulare are under the same budget, and so is the new clinic in Oakhurst, which is scheduled to open in 2011.

Transportation to Merced and Fresno The Disabled American Veterans offers a shuttle service from Merced to the facility in Fresno, Deen said. Also, the clinic in Merced recently began a program to bring patients to the clinic from surrounding communities, such as Atwater, Los Banos, Turlock and Mariposa. To bring patients "into the clinic even from across town," she continued.

She said the transportation program will also help homeless veterans. There's a pickup point near a homeless shelter in Merced.

Other services for veterans in Merced County:

Merced County Veteran Services Officer Darren Hughes said the county helps veterans file claims and referrals for other services. He said the CVSO sees more than 2,000 office visits a year.

Hughes said his agency enjoys a 99 percent success rate in the claims that are awarded. The awarded claims bring in an average of $1.8 million a year in benefits.

The CVSO also helps bring in an average of $250,000 worth of college fee waivers per year, but not all of them are spent in Merced, Hughes said.

However, he said not all veterans are aware of these services. "It's always a challenge to reach out to every deserving veteran to make them aware that these benefits may be available to them," he added.

According to Hughes, many of their clients are still from the Vietnam era and a few from World War II. A couple of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan also seek their services. "We serve all," he said.

Just as his clients did for their country.

Reporter Yesenia Amaro can be reached at (209) 388-6507, or yamaro@mercedsun-star.com.
Read more: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2010/11/23/1664976_p2/medical-care-lacking-some-veterans.html#ixzz17SLjEBaq

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I get all of my medical care from the VA health care system and I have since I became totally disabled in June 2002, and I have nothing but good things to say about it, but then I live near two major VAMC's the one in Augusta Ga which has two facilities Downtown and Uptown, and then I live 5 miles from Dorn VA in Columbia SC, I choose to drive to Augusta for my medical care as I like the doctors and support staff that work there, I have no respect for the people at Dorn, they treat veterans like they are a nuisance, rather than the reason they have a job.

Not all VA treatment facilities have all services and even at Dorn they send people to salisbury NC for some treatments, as far as I know Augusta VA treats all medical conditions.

Veterans that choose to live in small towns or near small VA community based clinics have made the shoice to accept the available care available to them, if they really wanted better healthcare they would move to a town or city that would allow them access to the services they want or desire, the VA will provide healthcare for all service connected veterans but no where have I ever seen where they said they would provide full medical facilties in every town in America, if you live in a town or the country you will have to travel to where the facility is, if you have a service connected issue they do pay veterans travel pay to get to these facilities.

I know I have extensive medical issues and I need to be near a major medical center due to my cardiac issues, so I bought a home near a VA medical center for this reason, my future is more medical care and I needed to be near a VA medical center so after I was medically retired I moved to be near a VA medical center, all veterans have that option, no one is forced to live anywhere. Is it not cost effective to build major VA facilties in every town in America, and it is not the VAs fault it is the fact of having a budget that Congress sets.

Not all VAMCs have PTSD lock down wards, not all of them do open heart surgery etc if you need these services they pay to transport the veteran to a facility that does provide these services or they authorize the service thru the fee-basis program in the local community.

I have seen far more satisfaction with VA health care than I have seen people upset with it, most veterans I know would much rather keep the VA health care system as it is today, than to go to a national health care card and be told we can go to any hospital or doctor for treatment and then they would close all the VA hospitals, no veterans I know advocates that type of system, VA doctors and nurses understand the medical issues that concern veterans, most if the issues and the causes are similar and veterans seem to enjoy being with other veterans when they are seriously ill and or hospitalized. Regardless of what branch they served in there is a brotherhood with all veterans regardless of what war, what branch etc. VA health care is still one of the most approved government services we have.

Pine Tree Legal Develops National Website for Veterans, Military Families

2010-12-01T20:01:00.000-08:00

Pine Tree Legal Develops National Website for Veterans, Military Families

For Immediate Release

November 22, 2010

Contact: Nan Heald

207-774-4753

nheald@ptla.org

Portland Maine – At a White House conference on access to justice on November 19, officials announced the launch of a new national website for military and veteran families with legal problems.

The website, www.statesidelegal.org, is the first site in the country to focus exclusively on the unique legal needs and rights of military and veteran families around the country. The site includes user-friendly legal information and self-help tools (including videos and interactive documents) related to common legal problems, including divorce, foreclosure, and disability benefits. The website also identifies legal referral resources available though the military, State veteran services, and legal aid programs funded by the Legal Services Corporation. Information on the website is organized and searchable according to legal problem, military status, and State of residence.

“Pine Tree is honored to receive this recogni tion and to be part of an initiative to provide critical legal services to veterans, members of the military and their families,” Nan Heald, Executive Director of Pine Tree Legal Assistance, said.

Developed with funding from the Legal Services Corporation and other sources, the site has been in development since the fall of 2009. Pine Tree was chosen to serve as the lead agency for this project, based on its national reputation in developing other websites with high quality legal information written in plain English, including www.ptla.org , www.helpmelaw.org and www.kidslegal.org. Arkansas Legal Services Partnership and legal experts in Maine and around the country have also contributed content to the website. A special website advisory group includes nationally recognized experts in military and VA legal issues, as well as key leaders from the military and veteran communities in Maine.

Pine Tree’s Executive Director Nan Heald and Website Coordinator Kathleen Caldwell were present for the event at the White House, which also addressed other initiatives associated with improving access to justice. Additional content will be added to the website on an ongoing basis.

Who is behind it?
Two primary partnering organizations have worked toge ther to create the Stateside Legal website. These organizations are Pine Tree Legal Assistance of Maine and the Arkansas Legal Services Partnership. In addition, the website has received help from many volunteers, including private attorneys, members of the Judge Advocate General [JAG] Corps, civilian Legal Assistance Attorneys, and veteran service officers. See a list of our advisors.

Who pays for it?
The Legal Services Corporation, www.lsc.gov provided the initial funding.

To maintain and expand this website will require additional and ongoing funding.

If you would like to support this effort as an individual on a tax-deductible basis, click here.

If you are interested in getting more information about ways to support this effort as a business or organization, please contact Pine Tree Legal Assistance Executive Director Nan Heald at 207-774-4753.

What about local help that I'm not finding here?

This is a national website focusing initially on federal programs. Many laws vary from state to state. We hope to expand our state-specific infor mation as time goes on. If you are aware of resources in your State that should be included in this site, please let us know.

Also, you may be able to find more state-specific information on your statewide legal services website.

Nan Heald, Executive Director
Pine Tree Legal Assistance
PO Box 547, Portland, ME 04112
phone: 207-774-4753
www.ptla.org and www.helpmelaw.org

Historical look at benefits reveals trends

2010-12-01T20:00:00.000-08:00

MILITARY UPDATE: Historical look at benefits reveals trends

TOM PHILPOTT 2010-11-30 16:09:37

Proposals to raise VA health care fees for some veterans in efforts to curb federal budget deficits, causes some to conclude that veteran benefits are under attack.

Bernard Rostker, former under secretary of defense for personnel and now a senior fellow at the RAND Corp., has a more optimistic perspective on how America cares for and compensates its wartime veterans.

For more than a year Rostker has researched what will be a two-volume study on the treatment of veterans and their survivors, going back to before the Revolutionary War, with a special focus on wounded warrior care.

His original premise, he said, was that veterans’ care and benefits today reflect a deeper attachment to the force, the result of moving from a military of conscripts after the Vietnam War, to a more professional force comprised of volunteers.

But as he completed volume one, covering the Colonial era through World War II, Rostker said he found the premise to be wrong. Much of what’s being done today for veterans of the all-volunteer force is “rediscovering” what’s been done before.

One exception, he said, are the unprecedented resources aimed at the invisible mental wounds, reflecting more medical knowledge, the nature of current wars and an attitude shift, even since the Persian Gulf War.

Otherwise, the infusion of money and staff for veterans’ care and benefits fits an historical pattern, Rostker said, noting the nation’s deep appreciation for those who fight for country and suffer wounds or illness.

Other patterns emerge, Rostker said. Government support tends to deepen with budget surpluses. Benefits tend to improve as veterans age, their ranks thin out, and enhancements become more affordable.

Wars bring change too. The Department of Veterans Affairs budget has more than doubled since U.S. troops invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 -- from $51 billion then to $114 billion in the fiscal years that ended Sept. 30. VA spending is set to climb another 10 percent this year, to $125 billion.

Vet groups laud a 25 percent rise in VA spending since President Obama took office. Some contrast that largess to the Bush administration difficulty in June 2005 when it had to request a $2 billion supplemental for VA to meet pressing health care obligations. Some veterans groups had called the original budget that year “tightfisted, miserly” and “woefully inadequate.”

Rostker avoids such comparisons. But his research might inform cost-conscious politicians about the perils of scrimping on veterans.

President Franklin Roosevelt made such a misstep, he said, while trying to pull the nation out of the Great Depression. At his urging, Congress in 1933 passed the Economy Act, which cut deeply into veterans’ benefits. Roosevelt told the American Legion convention “the mere wearing of a uniform” in war should not entitle a veteran, and later his survivors, to a pension for disabilities incurred after he left service.

The backlash was strong enough that the following March, Congress overrode Roosevelt’s veto and restored most benefits it had cut a year earlier.

The Continental Congress in 1776 first recognized responsibility for wounded v eterans, voting to authorize half pay for life to anyone who lost a limb or their ability to earn a living due to the revolution. By 1805 Congress approved pay for disabilities developed years after a veteran left service.

By 1818, with federal coffers flush with tariff money, the Department of War gave pensions to anyone who served in wartime, not just disabled.

Ten years later Congress settled complaints of Revolutionary War veterans by granting 850 surviving officers and soldiers full pay for life.

Rostker noted too that in 1833 Congress first approved “concurrent receipt” – payment of both an “invali d pension” and service pension. In 1836, Congress extended pension eligibility to widows and children of Revolutionary War veterans, adding enormously to the cost. The last spouse eligible for that Revolutionary War pension died in 1906, Rostker said.

The Civil War Pension Law of 1862 was viewed as the most generous any government had ever adopted, Rostker said, allowing disability payments for injuries or ailments incurred as a direct result of service. It set up a medical screening system, though reliance on hometown doctors led to rampant fraud and soon a purging of the rolls, Rostker said.

Payments to surviving spouse and children could exceed what veterans got. The last Civil War pensioners lived well into the 20th Century.

The study will span newer, more controversial periods including Gen. Omar Bradley’s reform of the VA after World War II, Korea and Vietnam and Gulf War Syndrome.

Through history, Rostker said, “you see the generosity in many ways. You see it in the amount of money given, in the change of eligibility standards. And recently in the understanding of the mental aspects of conflict.”

Historical look at benefits reveals trends

Controversial Drug Given to All Guantanamo Detainees

2010-12-01T18:28:00.000-08:00

EXCLUSIVE: Controversial Drug Given to All Guantanamo Detainees Akin to "Pharmacologic Waterboarding"
Wednesday 01 December 2010

by: Jason Leopold and Jeffrey Kaye, t r u t h o u t | Investigative Report

The Defense Department forced all "war on terror" detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison to take a high dosage of a controversial antimalarial drug, mefloquine, an act that an Army public health physician called "pharmacologic waterboarding."

The US military administered the drug despite Pentagon knowledge that mefloquine caused severe neuropsychiatric side effects, including suicidal thoughts, hallucinations and anxiety. The drug was used on the prisoners whether they had malaria or not.

The revelation, which has not been previously reported, was buried in documents publicly released by the Defense Department (DoD) two years ago as part of the government's investigation into the June 2006 deaths of three Guantanamo detainees.

Army Staff Sgt. Joe Hickman, who was stationed at Guantanamo at the time of the suicides in 2006, and has presented evidence that demonstrates the three detainees could not have died by hanging themselves, noticed in the detainees' medical files that they were given mefloquine. Hickman has been investigating the circumstances behind the detainees' deaths for nearly four years.

Interviews with mefloquine and malaria experts and a review of peer-review journals and government documents show there were no preexisting cases where mefloquine was ever prescribed for mass presumptive treatment of malaria.

All detainees arriving at Guantanamo in January 2002 were first given a treatment dosage of 1,250 mg of mefloquine, before laboratory tests were conducted to determine if they actually had the disease, according to a section of the DoD documents entitled "Standard Inprocessing Orders For Detainees." The 1,250 mg dosage is what would be given if the detainees actually had malaria. That dosage is five times higher than the prophylactic dose given to individauls to prevent the disease.

Maj. Remington Nevin, an Army public health physician, who formerly worked at the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center and has written extensively about mefloquine, said in an interview the use of mefloquine "in this manner ... is, at best, an egregious malpractice."

The government has exposed detainees "to unacceptably high risks of potentially severe neuropsychiatric side effects, including seizures, intense vertigo, hallucinations, paranoid delusions, aggression, panic, anxiety, severe insomnia, and thoughts of suicide," said Nevin, who was not speaking in an official capacity, but offering opinions as a board-certified, preventive medicine physician. "These side effects could be as severe as those intended through the application of 'enhanced interrogation techniques.'"

Mefloquine is also known by its brand name Lariam. It was researched by the US Army in the 1970s and licensed by the Food and Drug Administration in 1989. Since its introduction, it has been directly linked to serious adverse effects, including depression, anxiety, panic attacks, confusion, hallucinations, bizarre dreams, nausea, vomiting, sores and homicidal and suicidal thoughts. It belongs to a class of drugs known as quinolines, which were part of a 1956 CIA-sponsored, human experiment program to investigate "toxic cerebral states."

The Army tapped the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) to develop mefloquine and it was later licensed to the Swiss pharmaceutical company F. Hoffman-La Roche. The first human trials of mefloquine were conducted in the mid-1970s on prisoners, who were deliberately inoculated with malaria at Stateville Correctional prison near Joliet, Illinois, the site of controversial antimalarial experimentation in the early 1940s.

The drug was administered to Guantanamo detainees without regard for their medical or psychological history, despite its considerable risk of exacerbating pre-existing conditions. Mefloquine is also known to have serious side effects among individuals under treatment for depression or other serious mental health disorders, which numerous detainees were said to have been treated for, according to their attorneys and published reports.

In 2002, when the prison was established and mefloquine first administered, there were dozens of suicide attempts at Guantanamo. That same year, the DoD stopped reporting attempted suicides.

By February 2002, there were at least 459 detainees imprisoned at Guantanamo. In March of that year, according to the book "Saving Grace at Guantanamo Bay: A Memoir of a Citizen Warrior" by Montgomery Granger, "the situation" at the prison began "deteriorating rapidly."

"There is more and more psychosis becoming evident in detainees ...," wrote Granger, an Army Reserve major and medic who was stationed at Guantanamo in 2002. "We already have probably a dozen or so detainees who are psychiatric cases. The number is growing."

"Presumptively Treating" Malaria

Though malaria is nonexistent in Cuba, DoD spokeswoman Maj. Tanya Bradsher told Truthout that the US government was concerned that the disease would be reintroduced into the country as detainees were transferred to the prison facility in January 2002.

A "decision was made," Bradsher said, to "presumptively treat each arriving Guantanamo detainee for malaria to prevent the possibility of having mosquito-borne [sic] spread from an infected individual to uninfected individuals in the Guantanamo population, the guard force, the population at the Naval base or the broader Cuban population."

But Granger wrote in his book that a Navy entomologist was present at Guantanamo in January and February 2002 and during that time only identified insects that were nuisances and did not identify any insects that were carriers of a disease, such as malaria.

Nevertheless, Bradsher said the "mefloquine dosage [given to detainees] was entirely for public health purposes ... and not for any other purpose."

"The risks and benefits to the health of the detainees were central considerations," she added.

But a September 13, 2002, DoD memo governing the operational use of mefloquine said, "Malaria is not a threat in Guantanamo Bay." Indeed, there have only been two to three reported cases of malaria at Guantanamo.

The DoD, signed by Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs William Winkenwerder, was sent to then-Rep. John McHugh, the Republican chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Military was sent to the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel. McHugh is now Secretary of the Army.

A Senate staff member told Truthout the Senate Armed Services Committee was never briefed about malaria concerns at Guantanamo nor was the committee made aware of "any issue related to the use of mefloquine or any other anti-malarial drug" related to "the treatment of detainees."

When questions were raised at a February 19, 2002 meeting of the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board (AFEB) about what measures the military was taking to address malaria concerns at Guantanamo, Navy Capt. Alan J. Lund did not disclose that mefloquine was being administered to detainees as a form of presumptive treatment.

Yund said the military gave detainees a different anti-malarial drug known as primaquine and noted that "informed consent" was "absolutely practiced" prior to administering drugs to detainees, an assertion that contradicts claims made by numerous detainees who said they were forced to take drugs even if they protested. Yund did not return calls for comment.

Bradsher declined to respond to a follow-up question about who made the decision to presumptively treat detainees with mefloquine.

An April 16, 2002, meeting of the Interagency Working Group for Antimalarial Chemotherapy, which DoD, along with other federal government agencies, is a part of, was specifically dedicated to investigating mefloquine's use and the drug's side effects. The group concluded that study designs on mefloquine up to that point were flawed or biased and criticized DoD medical policy for disregarding scientific fact and basing itself more on "sensational or best marketed information."

The Working Group called for additional research, and warned, "other treatment regimes should be carefully considered before mefloquine is used at the doses required for treatment."

Still, despite the red flags that pointed to mefloquine as a high-risk drug, the DoD's mefloquine program proceeded.

In fact, a June 2004 set of guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says mefloquine should only be used when other standard drugs were not available, as it "is associated with a higher rate of severe neuropsychiatric reactions when used at treatment doses."

According to the CDC, "'presumptive treatment' without the benefit of laboratory confirmation should be reserved for extreme circumstances (strong clinical suspicion, severe disease, impossibility of obtaining prompt laboratory confirmation)."

A CDC spokesman refused to comment about the "presumptive treatment" of malaria at Guantanamo and referred questions to the DoD.

Nevin said, if "mass presumptive treatment has been given consistently, many dozens of detainees, possibly hundreds, would almost certainly have suffered such disabling adverse events."

"It appears that for years, senior Defense health leaders have condoned the medically indefensible practice of using high doses of mefloquine ostensibly for mass presumptive treatment of malaria among detainees from the Middle East and Asia lacking any evidence of disease," Nevin said. "This is a use for which there is no precedent in the medical literature and which is specifically discouraged among refugees by malaria experts at the Centers for Disease Control."

Even proponents of limited mefloquine usage are seriously questioning the logic behind the DoD's actions. Professor James McCarthy, chair of the Infectious Diseases Division of the Queensland Institute of Medicine in Australia, who is an advocate of the safe use of mefloquine under proper safeguards, and takes it himself when traveling, told Truthout he was unaware of the use of mefloquine for mass presumptive treatment as described by the DoD, but could imagine it under certain circumstances.

However, when informed that lab tests were available and the detainees were screened for the blood product G6PD, used to determine the suitability of certain antimalarial drugs, McCarthy found the DoD's use of mefloquine at Guantanamo difficult to understand and "hard to support on pure clinical grounds as an antimalarial."

Treatment, Torture or an Experiment?

Another striking point about the DoD's decision to presumptively treat mostly Muslim detainees with mefloquine beginning in 2002 is that it is the exact opposite of how the DoD responded to malaria concerns among the Haitian refugees who were held at Guantanamo a decade earlier.

Between 1991 and 1992, more than 14,000 Haitian refugees were held in temporary camps set up at Guantanamo. A large number of Haitian refugees - 235 during a four-month period - were diagnosed with malaria. But instead of presumptively treating the refugee population at Guantanamo, the DoD conducted laboratory tests first and only the individuals who were found to be malaria carriers were administered chloroquine.

Another example of how the DoD approached malaria treatment differently for other subjects is in the case of Army Rangers who returned from malarial areas of Afghanistan between June and September 2002 and were infected with the disease at an attack rate of 52.4 cases per 1,000 soldiers.

However, the Rangers did not receive mass presumptive treatment of mefloquine. They were given other standard drugs after laboratory tests, according to documents obtained by Truthout.

Nevin said the DoD's treatment of Haitian refugees represented "a situation that arguably presented a much higher risk of disease and secondary transmission, but one which US medical experts stated at the time could be safely managed through more conservative and focused measures."

Why did the government use the "conservative and focused" approach in treating Haitian refugees and the Army rangers, but then revert to presumptive mefloquine treatment in the case of the Guantanamo detainees, who - a month after the prison facility opened in January 2002 - were stripped of their protections under the Geneva Conventions?

According to Sean Camoni, a Seton Hall University law school research fellow, "there is no legitimate medical purpose for treating malaria in this way" and the drug's severe side effects may actually have been the DOD's intended impact in calling for the drug's usage.

Camoni and several other Seton Hall law school students have been working on a report about mefloquine use on Guantanamo detainees. Their work was conducted independently of Truthout's investigation into the drug.

A copy of the Seton Hall report, "Drug Abuse? An Exploration of the Government's Use of Mefloquine at Guantanamo," says mefloquine's extreme side effects may have violated a provision in the antitorture statute related to the use of "mind altering substances or other procedures" that "profoundly disrupts the senses or the personality."

Legal memos prepared in August 2002 by former DoD attorneys Jay Bybee and John Yoo for the CIA's torture program permitted the use of drugs for interrogations. The authority was also contained in a legal memo Yoo prepared for the DoD less than a year later after Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld convened a working group to address "policy considerations with respect to the choice of interrogation techniques."

In September, Truthout reported that the DoD's inspector general (IG) conducted an investigation into allegations that detainees in custody of the US military were drugged. The IG's report, which remains classified, was completed a year ago and was shared with the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Kathleen Long, a spokeswoman for the Armed Services Committee, told Truthout at the time that the IG report did not substantiate allegations of drugging of prisoners for the "purposes of interrogation."

The medical files for detainee 693 released in 2008 shows that, two weeks after he first started taking mefloquine in June 2002, he was interviewed by Guantanamo medical personnel and reported he was suffering from nightmares, hallucinations, anxiety auditory and visual hallucinations, anxiety, sleep loss and suicidal thoughts.

The detainee said he had previously been treated for anxiety and had a family history of mental illness. He was diagnosed with adjustment disorder, according to the DoD documents. Guantanamo medical staff who interviewed the detainee did not state that he may have been experiencing mefloquine-related side effects in an evaluation of his condition.

Mark Denbeaux, the director of the Seton Hall Law Center for Policy and Research, who conducted an independent investigation into the 2006 deaths of the three Guantanamo detainees, said in an interview "almost every remaining question here would be solved if the [detainees'] full medical records were released."

The government has refused to release Guantanamo detainees' medical records, citing privacy concerns in some cases, and assertions that they are "protected" or "classified" in other instances. The few medical records that have been released have been heavily redacted.

"A crucial issue is dosage" Denbeaux said. "Giving detainees toxic doses of mefloquine has mind-altering consequences that may be permanent. Without access to medical records, which the government refuses to release, the use of mefloquine in this manner appears to be grotesque malpractice at best, if not human experimentation or 'enhanced interrogation.' The question is where are the doctors who approved this practice and where are the medical records?"

Bradsher did not respond to questions about whether the government kept data about the adverse effects mefloquine had on detainees.

An absolute prohibition against experiments on prisoners of war is contained in the Geneva Conventions, but President George W. Bush stripped war on terror detainees of those protections. Some of the "enhanced interrogation techniques" also had an experimental quality.

At the same time detainees were given high doses of mefloquine, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz issued a directive changing the rules on human subject protections for DoD experiments, allowing for a waiver of informed consent when necessary for developing a "medical product" for the armed services. Bush also granted unprecedented authority to the secretary of Health and Human Services to classify information as secret.

Briefings on Side Effects

As the DoD was administering mefloquine to Guantanamo prisoners, senior Pentagon officials were being briefed about the drug's dangerous side effects. During one such briefing, questions arose about what steps the military was taking to address malaria concerns among detainees sent to Guantanamo.

Internal documents from Roche, obtained by UPI in 2002, indicated that the pharmaceutical company had been tracking suicidal reactions to Lariam going back to the early 1990s.

In September 2002, Roche sent a letter to physicians and pharmacists stating that the company changed its warning labels for mefloquine.

Roche further said in one of two new warning paragraphs that some of the symptoms associated with mefloquine use included suicidal thoughts and suicide and also "may cause psychiatric symptoms in a number of patients, ranging from anxiety, paranoia, and depression to hallucination and psychotic behavior," which "have been reported to continue long after mefloquine has been stopped."

Cmdr. William Manovsky, who is retired from the US Navy and currently on disability due to post-traumatic stress disorder and side effects from mefloquine, said those are some of the symptoms he initially suffered from after taking the drug for several months beginning in November 2002 after he was deployed to the Middle East to work on two Naval projects.

In March 2003, "I became violently ill during a night live-fire exercise with the [Navy] SEALS," Manovsky said. "I felt like I was air sick. All the flashing lights from the tracers and rockets ... targeting device made me really sick. I threw up for an hour straight before being medevac'd back to the Special Forces compound where I had my first ever panic attack."

For three years, he had to walk with a cane due to a loss of equilibrium. Numerous other accounts like Manovsky's can be found on the web site lariaminfo.org.

In 2008, Dr. Nevin published a study detailing a high prevalence of mental health contraindications to the safe use of mefloquine in soldiers deployed to Afghanistan. Responding in part to concerns raised by the mefloquine-associated suicide of Army Spc. Juan Torres, internal Army presentations confirmed that the drug had been widely misprescribed to soldiers with contraindications, including to many on antidepressants.

A formal policy memo in February 2009 from Army Surgeon General Eric Schoomaker removed mefloquine as a "first-line" agent, and changed the policy so that mefloquine would not be prescribed to Army personnel unless they had contraindications to the preferred drug, the antibiotic doxycycline. Nor could mefloquine be prescribed to any personnel with a history of traumatic brain injury or mental illness.

By September 2009, the policy was extended throughout the DoD.

It's unknown if mefloquine is still in use at Guantanamo. New prisoners are no longer arriving and the prison population has been in decline in recent years as detainees are released or transferred to other countries. Currently, the detainee population at Guantanamo is a reported 174.

But Nevin said the justification the Pentagon offered for using mefloquine to presumptively treat detainees transferred to the prison beginning in 2002 "betrays a profound ignorance of basic principals of tropical medicine and suggests extremely poor, and arguably incompetent, medical oversight that demands further investigation."
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

EXCLUSIVE: Controversial Drug Given to All Guantanamo Detainees Akin to "Pharmacologic Waterboarding"

this might explain a lot of the suicides of detainees at Gitmo

Guardsman, Army at odds over PTSD claim

2010-11-29T14:58:00.000-08:00

By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Nov 29, 2010 14:33:57 EST

Staff Sgt. Francisco Carrillo was a squad leader on patrol in Iraq search ing for weapons and insurgents, riding in the lead vehicle of a convoy when an improvised explosive device ripped through one of the Humvees, injuring his platoon sergeant, another squad leader in his company and the gunner.

That was five years ago. Today, Carrillo is locked in a battle with the Army. He says he has suffered symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder since he returned from the deployment in 2005.

The Army says he’s lying.

Carrillo, who has 18 years of service, is seeking medical retirement.

But a panel of doctors at Madigan Army Medical Center said the California National Guardsman with the 649th Engineer Company lied in his Fit for Duty Evaluation and faked PTSD symptoms to collect the benefits that come with medical retirement.

< h3>DISCUSS:
PTSD claims, lies or truth?

The panel recommended Carrillo return to duty and remain eligible to deploy.

Carrillo’s platoon sergeant from Iraq respectfully disagrees. He said the 29 Purple Hearts awarded to his company of 105 soldiers proves the level of violence Carrillo’s unit sustained.

Carrillo’s company was assigned to provide security for Joint Base Balad. As a squad leader, Carrillo went on patrols searching for IEDs and executing raids to capture weapons and insurgents.

“I was surprised when I heard he got denied,” s aid retired Sgt. 1st Class Norman Valdez, who was injured in the attack and has shrapnel in his body. “I have it and a lot of the soldiers working under me have it.”

Madigan’s rejection of Carillo’s PTSD claims comes as the Pentagon is trying to reduce the stigma of PTSD and encourage soldiers to come forward.

In July, the Veterans Affairs Department announced it would reduce the proof required for soldiers to seek PTSD treatment and benefits. Soldiers no longer need to provide written statements to prove they saw combat.

Many soldiers have said they suspect the Army has failed to diagnose soldiers with PTSD to save money.

Madigan doctors cited money as Carrillo’s motivation for faking his symptoms. If medically retired, Carrillo would recei ve his retirement pay immediately rather than wait until age 60, provided he finished his 20 years in the Guard.

John Wickham, a lawyer who has represented veterans with PTSD, was surprised.

“I find it incredible that an 18-year veteran, senior [noncommissioned officer] and technician with unblemished performance records would suddenly concoct a vast fraudulent scheme,” Wickham said after reviewing Carrillo’s Fit for Duty report.

The California National Guard and Madigan Army Medical Center did not comment, citing privacy laws.

When Carrillo returned to his home in Chico, Calif., he said he turned to alcohol to numb himself. Carrillo knew he needed help. He said he suffered from nightmares, difficulty sleeping, hyper-vigilance, avoidance and obsessing.< o>

He went to Darryl Lyons, the therapist with the 649th Engineer Company who diagnosed him with PTSD in 2006. In addition to Lyons, seven medical professionals have diagnosed Carrillo with PTSD. Carrillo has visited Stephen Diggs, a Chico, Calif., psychologist, once a week for the past two years.

“It was undeniable he had this,” said Diggs, who treats four other Iraq veterans suffering from PTSD.

“He will wake up and go to work and live his life in a way, but it doesn’t mean he’s not suffering from this,” said Diggs, who Carrillo allowed to speak to a reporter about his medical history.

In the Fit for Duty evaluation, the report cited Carrillo’s ability to earn his master’s degree and his marriage to his wife, Casey, followin g his return from deployment as proof he was faking the symptoms.

The panel also cited inconsistencies in Carrillo’s testimony specifically when compared to an interview Madigan’s doctors did with 1st Sgt. Darrell Taylor, the 649th Engineer Battalion’s first sergeant. Madigan did not contact Valdez or retired Staff Sgt. Mike Gilmore, who was a squad leader with Carrillo in the company.

Taylor stated that Carrillo was “never involved in a firefight or in a vehicle that was hit with an IED.”

But Gilmore said he remembers Carrillo taking charge of the convoy after the attack. Carrillo raced back to the Humvee and called for a medevac, Gilmore said.

Carrillo said he has tried to appeal the decision and contacted his congressman, Rep. Wally Herge r. With his enlistment over at the end of November, he is resigned to separating two years from reaching his 20-year mark.

“After 18 years of service, nothing is more shaming and demeaning to a soldier than not being heard, believed and being discredited,” Carrillo wrote in a letter to Madigan Army Medical Center.

Guardsman, Army at odds over PTSD claim

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I do not know on how many levels that this is JUST wrong, being accused of fraud after 18 years of honorable service is the way to tell other soldiers NOT to seek help for PTSD as they will be accused of fraud, malingering the past 5 years of teaching veterans to come forward and seek help will soon be lost if combat veterans are being accued of fraud for financial gain, soon all we will have is the Army and National Guard units full of many soldiers with PTSD and alcohol problems and other issues, broken marriages, abused kids, lost jobs, bad discharges etc I see a return to the Army of the 1970s again if this is allowed to be the way the Army proceeds forward on PTSD cases.

Troops exempt from fed pay freeze proposal

2010-11-29T14:53:00.000-08:00

Troops exempt from fed pay freeze proposal

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Nov 29, 2010 13:57:22 EST

Uniformed military personnel are exempt from a proposed two-year freeze on government salary increases — for now.

President Obama has decided that federal civilians, including those working for the Defense Department, should not receive pay increases for two years, beginning with the cancellation of the 1.4 percent increase that was to come on Jan. 1. Congress could override Obama’s decision, but the budget-cutting mood of lawmakers makes that seem unlikely.

Meanwhile, a presidential commission looking at ways to cut federal spending will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday to vote on several debt-reduction recommendations, including one that would impose a three-year freeze on all government salaries, both military and civilian.

Military personnel are exempted from Obama’s two-year plan, meaning they would get the 1.4 percent across-the-board increase in basic pay scheduled for this January and a 1.6 percent pay raise on Jan. 1, 2012.

The 1.4 percent raise this year seems safe because it is unlikely that Congress would pass any law revoking the raise before it takes effect. But the potential 2012 pay increase is less certain because spending cuts will be part of the legislative agenda next year.

The potential 1.6 percent raise for 2012 would match the average private-sector pay increase last year, and is the amount due to the military under a pay formula currently set in federal law, which lawmakers could change if they wanted to.

Obama’s announcement that he is seeking to freeze federal civilian pay for two year s — saving $2 billion next year and $60 billion over the next decade — comes on the eve of votes by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform on proposals to cut military pay and benefits, including retired pay, to raise Tricare health insurance fees for military retirees, and to cut many defense programs to save money.

The commission has 18 members, and its charter requires 14 commissioners to vote in favor of a specific cut for it to become part of the final report.

One reason the administration has decided to cancel federal civilian pay increases for two years is that there were no cost-of-living adjustments in Social Security, military and federal civilian retired pay and veterans’ disability and survivor benefits in 2009 and 2010 because of the sagging U.S. economy.

If retirees and pensioners are not getting an increase, it is difficult to explain why federal workers are getting a raise, White House officials said.

Troops exempt from fed pay freeze proposal

Please visit the Army Times site

reasons to vote on Nov 2, 2010 you decide who to vote for

2010-10-05T15:57:00.000-07:00

Weitz & Luxenberg

2010-09-14T13:10:00.000-07:00

I have never before advocated the use of any specific lawyers to veterans in regards to veterans claims. I am going to do it this time because I belive that the time has come for veterans to get proper legal representation in dealing with the Veterans Administration.

I use to believe that if a veteran was harmed while on active duty the VA would automatically care for them, that is just not the case. Especially in dealing with chemical or toxic exposures. TCE is a big health issue coming down the road and quickly and veterans just can not handle these type of claims on their onw, you need legal help. Weitz and Luxenberg have been fighting for veterans and their families on the Mesothelioma and asbestos related health claims for years, with very good results.

You need experts to handle your claims and care for you and your families, investigate them on your own as I have and I think you will come to the same conclusion, these are the type of lawyers I want to fight for me, now that I can't fight for myself. Being sick and disabled I no longer have the energy to fight, I know I have needed help. If you have chemiocal or toxic related veterans claims, this is one firm you should consider using.

Michael Bailey U.S. Army October 1973 - Sep 1982 SSG, 11B3M Goergia Army National Guard astivated for Desert Storm Nov 30, 1990 - May 1991 100% disabled veteran June 2002 - present

Help yourself and your family use a GOOD lawyer

Ships that were exposed to Agent Orange

2010-08-10T07:08:00.000-07:00

http://www.bluewaternavy.org/shiplist2%20announcement.htm

If you have any documentation showing that any other ship not listed was on the inland waters of Vietnam, or if any additional dates for inland waters service applies to any of the ships already listed, please forward that information to navy(at)bluewaternavy.org.
If you were on a ship that docked in Vietnam and was tied fast to a pier, and there is proof that liberty was granted to the crew, and you went ashore, that ship should appear on this list. Submit a claim for service connection along with a sworn statement that you in fact did step ashore. You will be given presumption of exposure. If that ship is not listed, please provide the documentation to navy(at)bluewaternavy.org so it can be added to the list.
If you were on a ship that anchored in a port, bay or harbor and there is documentation that liberty was sounded for the crew, and there is documentation that ship-to-shore launches were used to ferry personnel on liberty to and from the beach, that documentation should be accepted as proof of your boots-on-ground. That ship should appear on this list. Provide a sworn statement that you actually took the liberty launch to the shore of Vietnam. If that is not listed, provide the necessary documentation so that ship can be added to this list
Here is a combined listing of ships from the first and second release of ships eligible for service connection for all crew due to service on the Inland Waters of Vietnam

Policy (211)

Additional Information on Vietnam Naval Operations

If evidence places a Veteran on one of these vessels at the time of inland waterway operations, the Veteran is eligible for the presumption of herbicide exposure. In the case of a ship with confirmed docking to the shore, the Veteran must also provide a statement that he went ashore to be eligible for the presumption.

Vessels that operated primarily or exclusively on the inland waterways

All vessels of Inshore Fire Support [IFS] Division 93 during their entire Vietnam tour

USS Carronade (IFS 1)

USS Clarion River (LSMR 409) [Landing Ship, Medium, Rocket]

USS Francis River (LSMR 525)

USS White River (LSMR 536)

All vessels with the designation LST [Landing Ship, Tank] during their entire tour

All vessels with the designation LCVP [Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel] during their entire Tour

All vessels with the designation PCF [Patrol Craft, Fast] during their entire tour, Also called Swift Boats

All vessels with the designation PBR [Patrol Boat, River] during their entire tour, Also called River Patrol Boats

All U.S. Coast Guard Cutters with hull designation WPB or WHEC

USS Antelope (PG-86)

USS Asheville (PG-84) patrol gunboat

USS Askari (ARL-30)

Barracks Barge (APL-26)

Barracks Barge (APL-30)

USS Belle Grove (LSD-2)

USS Benewah (APB-35)

USS Bexar (APA-237)

USS Brule (AKL-28)

USS Comstock (LSD-45)

USS Canon PG-90)

USS Colleton (APB-36)

USS Crockett (PG-88)

USS Elkhorn (AOG-7)

USS Gallo (PG-85)

USS Genesee (AOG-8)

USS Indra (ARL-37)

USS Kishwaukee AOG-9

USS Krishna (ARL-38)

USS Marathon (PG-89)

USS Mark (AKL-12) [light cargo ship]

USS Mercer (APB-39)

USS Montrose (APA-212) [attack transport]

USS Noxubee (AOG-56)

USS Nueces (APB-40)

USS Okanogan (APA-210)

USS Patapsco (AOG-1) [gasoline tanker]

USS Ready (PG-87)

USS Satyr (ARL-23) [repair ship]

USS Sphinx (ARL-24)

USS Tombigbee (AOG-11)

USS Tutuila (ARG-4) [repair ship]

USS Tortuga (LSD-261)

Winnemucca (YTS-785)

Floating Base Platform

(YRBM-17) [repair, berthing, and messing barge]

(YRBM-20)

Vessels that operated temporarily on Vietnam's inland waterways or docked to the shore

USS Basilone (DD-824) [Destroyer] [Operated on Saigon River, May 24-25, 1966]

USS Black (DD-666) [Destroyer] [Operated on Saigon River, July 13-19, 1966]

USS Buck (DD-761) operated on Mekong River Delta and Saigon River during October 1966

USS Bolster (ARS-38) [salvage ship] crew operated on land to extract USS Clark County (LST-601) from beach after grounding at Duc Pho from November 18 to December 1, 1967

USS Boxer (LPH-4) [amphibious assault ship] docked to pier at Cam Rahn Bay on September 9, 1965

USS Card (ACV-11) [escort carrier] mined, sunk, and salvaged in Saigon River Harbor during May 1964

USS Carter Hall (LSD-3) [landing ship dock] operated on Cua Viet River and at Dong Ha during December 1967

USS Canberra (CAG-2) [guided missile cruiser] operated on Saigon River from March 31 through April 1, 1966, on Cua Viet River during December 15, 1966, and on Mekong Delta Ham Luong River during January 15, 1967

USS Cleveland (LPD-7) operated on Cua Viet River and at Dong Ha, as well as Hue River, from November 1967 through 1968 and Saigon River during September 1969

USS Conway (DD-507) [Destroyer] [Operated on Saigon River, early August 1966]

USS Dubuque (LPD-8) docked at Da Nang on March 15, 1970

USS Duluth (LPD-6) [amphibious transport dock] docked to pier at Da Nang during March and October 1971

USS Dyess (DD-880) operated on Saigon River and Rung Sat Special Zone from June 19—July 1, 1966

USS Epperson (DD-719) docked to Da Nang Pier on October 4, 1970

USS Fiske (DD-842) [Destroyer] [Operated on Mekong River, June 16-21, 1966]

USS Hamner (DD-718) [Destroyer] [Operated on Song Lon Tao and Long Song Tao Rivers,

August 15-September 1, 1966]

USS Henrico (APA-45) [amphibious attack transport] operated on Hue River during March 1965 and conducted numerous troop landing through March 1967

USS Ingersoll (DD-652) [Destroyer] [Operated on Saigon River, October 24-25, 1965]

USS Richard E. Kraus (DD-849) [Destroyer] [Operated on coastal inlet north of Da Nang,

June 2-5, 1966

USS Mahan (DLG-11) [Guided Missile Frigate]

[Operated on Saigon River October 24-28, 1964]

USS Mansfield (DD-728) [Destroyer] [Operated on Saigon River August 8-19, 1967 and

December 21-24, 1968]

USS Maury (AGS-16) [mapping survey ship] conducted surveys of Mekong Delta and other coastal areas and rivers beginning November 1965 through 1969

USS Montrose (APA-212) operated on Song Hue River during December 1965, operated on Long Tau River during March 1967, and operated on Cua Viet River and at Dong Ha during May 1967

USS Newell (DER-322) [radar destroyer escort] docked at port of Nha Trang during December 22-24, 1965

USS Niagara Falls (AFS-3) [Combat Stores Ship] [Unloaded supplies on Saigon River April 22-25, 1968]

USS Okanogan (APA-220) [Attack Transport] [Operated on Saigon River July 22-23, 29-30,

1968 and August 5-6, 1968]

USS Orleck (DD-886) operated on Mekong River Delta during July 1969

USS Perkins (DD-877) operated on Saigon River during June 1969

USS Picking (DD-685) operated on Saigon River during November 16, 1965

USS Preston (DD-795) operated on Mekong River Delta, Ganh Rai Bay, and Saigon River during September 28 — 29 and December 27 — 29, 1965

USS Providence (CLG-6) [Cruiser, Light, Guided Missile] [Operated on Saigon River 3 days during January 1964]

USS Southerland (DD-743) operated on Song Nga Bay and Saigon River during July 1966

USS Sproston (DD-577) [destroyer] operated on Mekong Delta and Ganh Rai Bay during January 1966

USS Joseph Strauss (DDG-16) [guided missile destroyer] operated on Mekong River Delta and Ganh Rai Bay during November 7 and December 7, 1968

USS Talladega (APA-208) operated on Saigon River during October 1967

USS John W. Thomason (DD-760) operated on Nga Be River during 1969

USS Warrington (DD-843) operated on Mekong River Delta Rung Sat Special Zone, North of Vung Gahn Rai Bay during March 1967

USS Waddell (DDG-241) operated on Cua Viet River during March 1967

original list and article on the list

Ground-zero of Imperial Japan's germ war

2010-08-04T07:37:00.000-07:00

Ground-zero of Imperial Japan's germ war
By Peter J Brown
Jul 29, 2010

the original article

In 1989, a mass grave was unearthed at the construction site for a National Institute of Health facility in the Shinjuku section of Tokyo.

Flash forward 21 years to another site a short distance from where the remains were discovered in 1989. Excavation work will soon commence at this second site, one of three identified in 2006 by a former nurse who worked at the Imperial Japanese Army Medical College in Shinjuku, and who pinpointed possible locations where human remains were hastily buried.

These were all probably the unfortunate victims of a string of medical experiments performed on living subjects in Japan as well as in Manchuria and China by the Imperial Japanese Army.

The nurse reported that she and other medical workers were ordered to bury these complete and partial remains after Japan surrendered to the US in August, 1945.

The Imperial Japanese Army Medical College's Research Institute for Preventive Medicine once occupied this site. The infamous Unit 731 created in 1932 - aka the "Kwantung Army Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Department" or simply the "Manchuria 731st Unit" - was also headquartered there.

"If the bones are actually there, they are likely related to Unit 731 itself, because the facility that used to stand in that part of the compound was closely linked to the unit," Professor Tsuneishi Keiichi of Kanagawa University, one of Japan's top biological warfare (BW) experts, told the Taipei Times newspaper in 2006. [1]

Today, a soon-to-be demolished government-funded residential complex is located at the Tokyo compound.

"From a procedural standpoint, the government had to wait for the government building built over the site to be obsolete enough to be torn down," said Yukie Yoshikawa, a senior research fellow at the Edwin O Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies in Washington DC. "But my sense is that in 1989 [when the first bodies were discovered in Shinjuku] many of the people involved in this issue were still alive, and wanted the truth not to be uncovered."

Ishii Shiro, the director of Unit 731 who died in the 1950s, was once described as the "Japanese Mengele", a reference to Josef Mengele, the German SS officer and a physician in Nazi concentration camps who was also known as the "Angel of Death". Unit 731's operations in China included a large contingent in Harbin, along with one in Singapore.

Shinjuku was the source of BW agents that infected thousands of people in China. Estimates of the total death toll in China range from anywhere between 250,000 and 1 million. The BW experiments conducted in Shinjuku and elsewhere which Ishii supervised killed more than an estimated 3,000 people, including many Chinese.

Many of the army officers and personnel responsible for these horrific acts who were captured by the Russians were imprisoned. But in Japan after the war, the US turned a blind eye and allowed them to simply walk away. The perpetrators were never prosecuted or punished in any way.

According to Koga Kei, a 2009-2010 Vasey Fellow from Japan at the Pacific Forum Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Honolulu and a PhD candidate in international relations at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, the upcoming excavation in Shinjuku is tied to the broader joint effort recently undertaken by Japan and China to jointly explore historical issues often divisive and painful in an attempt to gain a better understanding of each other's different perspective, among other things.

"The issue relating Unit 731 is a point of contention. The research group provided its reports both in Japanese and Chinese last January, and the descriptions in these Japanese and Chinese reports differ," said Koga. "Regarding the issue of biological weapons, the Japanese report did not directly mention Unit 731, while the Chinese version explicitly described that biological and chemical warfare was committed by the Japanese, and that Unit 731 carried out experiments on Chinese subjects."

Koga remains concerned that given the sensitivity of the subject at hand, "if exaggerated information about this issue is disseminated, this might instigate anti-Japanese sentiment in China".

"This should be understood as a voluntary movement by the Japanese without any foreign and especially American pressure to recognize the dark side of Japan's past, in contrast with the recent 'comfort women' issue," said Yoshikawa. "It often takes time in Japan, but wait in patience, and things will move."

Thanks in great part to the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and the concerted pressure exerted by a particularly persistent and unyielding Japanese civic organization - the Association Demanding Investigation on Human Bones Discovered from the Site of the Army Medical College - Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare approved the excavation in Shinjuku.

"The health minister under the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) cabinet of Junichiro Koizumi promised in June 2006 to continue investigations of human remains at the old army medical college originally found in 1989. He was, in fact, responding to questions from a representative of the DPJ," said Professor Frederick Dickinson of the University of Pennsylvania.

"A proper accounting of this issue has, in other words, been DPJ policy since at least 2006 and, it is safe to say, with the DPJ now in power since last September, it makes sense for the party to move on the investigation. Funds for the new excavation were approved in the latest budget approval in the parliament at the beginning of March."

In effect, this issue is one of many others including a friendlier relationship with China, and a harder line on the US - Japan security treaty that the DPJ has used to distinguish itself from the LDP and that it is now trying to capitalize on.

"Now that the DPJ has completely backtracked on its hardline stance vis-a-vis the US, it needs to maintain some semblance of its identity of being the 'reform' party. The medical college site issue, although a very small one compared to the US-Japan security alliance, is one small way of doing so," said Dickinson.

While there has been a long history of revelations in Japan about wartime Japanese atrocities and while some might argue that the Japanese are very aware of them, many view Japan as moving ahead too slowly and still dragging its feet.

"There has been insufficient Japanese scholarly or governmental investigation of these episodes and this new investigation is long overdue. A large part of Japan's difficulty addressing these issues was that the conservative LDP had in its DNA ties to the pre-war leadership, while the left in Japan had a political agenda that went beyond truth and reconciliation and was therefore suspect from the beginning," said Michael Green, senior adviser and Japan chair at CSIS in Washington, DC.

With the rapid recent rise of the DPJ, more space has perhaps emerged for less politically motivated inquiries that can enjoy broader political support.

"This is not the same Japan," said Green. "And coming at a time of sagging confidence among Japanese citizens about the future, it will be important for the emerging generation of leaders to expose and learn from this tragic history while also instilling pride and confidence in Japan's role in the world."

Japan must prepare for what will surely be an extremely sensitive and perhaps painful episode.

"Japan's biological warfare program in China was, as far as we know, the first use of scientifically organized germ warfare in history," Iris Chang told the Shanghai Star in March, 2004 just a few months before she took her own life. Chang, a noted Chinese-American historian, is best remembered for her book The Rape of Nanking, about the atrocities committed there by Japanese occupation forces in 1937.

A close friend and former instructor of Chang informed this writer in 2008 that she was unaware that Chang was engaged in any in-depth research focused on Japan's BW program before and during World War II. Still, Chang appeared to know quite a lot about what transpired. She must have known that Unit 1644 established a forward base in Nanjing. Unit 1644 specialized in BW like Unit 731 and conducted extensive BW field operations in China, especially from late 1940 until 1942. China conducted a formal inquiry into one of this unit's BW attacks - on Ningbo in October 1940 - for example.

"Details from this period were suppressed during the Cold War. The US government cut a secret deal with these Japanese doctors, giving them immunity from prosecution in exchange for their medical data," said Chang in 2004. [2]

Decisions made years ago by the Japanese government to undertake government-funded construction projects at these troubling sites are seen by many as no mere coincidence.

"According to the former nurse, the public housing for government officials was constructed immediately after the war so that no one could dig up the human subjects buried there," Tsuneishi, who represents the Association Demanding Investigation, was quoted as saying by the Mainichi Daily News. "The search may uncover the facts that the government had sought to conceal." [3]

Asia Times Online's attempts to contact Tsuneishi were unsuccessful.

Tsuneishi gave a speech at the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies last March in Philadelphia entitled, "The Purchase of the Data of 'experiments' conducted in the Japanese BW Program by the US in 1947."

The truth about the role of Unit 731 in so many BW-related deaths in China and the US government's deliberate attempt to cover up this war crime really did not emerge until the late 1970s and early 1980s. Japanese and American researchers pursued every shred of evidence.

Professor Sheldon Harris at California State University at Northridge stood out early on in this regard.

However, while Harris and others helped to expose the fact that the US secretly decided to overlook the criminal acts perpetrated by members of Unit 731 and not prosecute them as war criminals once the US had obtained the data derived from countless human experiments performed by the Japanese, the fact that the US actually paid Ishii and other members of Unit 731 an enormous sum in order to obtain this data only recently came to light, due to Tsuneishi's diligent research.

There was no mention of any payment from a secret US fund in this 1947 memorandum to US General Douglas MacArthur, for example.

"For all practical purposes, an agreement with Ishii and his associates that information given by them on the Japanese BW program will be retained in intelligence channels is equivalent to an agreement that this [US] government will not prosecute any of those involved in BW activities in which war crimes were committed. Such an understanding would be of great value to the security of the American people because of the information which Ishii and his associates have already furnished and will continue to furnish." [4]

In Philadelphia, according to one person who was in the audience, Tsuneishi spoke about the many errors that can be found in English publications and books about Unit 731, and he criticized authors for not doing thorough research on this topic. However, while historical inaccuracies and distortions are unwelcome and distracting, this does not excuse the conduct of the Japanese government which bears much if not all of the responsibility for concealing the truth about Shinjuku.

Among other things, the Japanese Health Ministry has repeatedly denied Chinese requests for DNA tests. [5]

According to Koga, one Japanese Health Ministry official said during the 164th Diet (parliament) session in 2006 that although several DNA investigations were undertaken, sampling was difficult and because a substance known as hormaline might be present in the human bones in question, it would be difficult to reach definitive conclusions. There is no firm indication of any substantive DNA work done prior to 2006 on any remains recovered in Shinjuku.

In late 2010, there might be a change of heart in Tokyo.

"The DNA technology may be what makes a more objective and scientific study possible," said Green.

While analyzing DNA evidence might reopen the door to another dark dimension of this chapter in Japanese history, it must be done.

"As for DNA analysis, yes, it will be very useful to have concrete proof of Japanese, Chinese, perhaps victims of other nationalities at this site," said Dickinson.

What about the American prisoners of war in Shinjuku? Is this file now closed? After all, a quick scan of state and local prisoner of war (POW) accounts from the Pacific theater, for example, has revealed that hundreds of American POWs were held at a POW camp(s) in Shinjuku during World War II for varying lengths of time, and it would have been very easy for the Japanese to conceal their fate.

''It is significant that these are probably the skeletons of non-Japanese,'' said Tsuneishi a short time after the mass grave was discovered in 1989. ''The Health and Welfare Ministry has been very eager to collect bones in the South Pacific islands for decades. I just wish they had that enthusiasm for the mysterious bones here in Tokyo.'' [6]

Notes
1.) WWII horrors believed hidden in Tokyo neighborhood, Taipei Times, September 18, 2006
2) Book Exposes WWII Japanese Biowarfare Program in China, China Internet Information Center
3) Government to excavate Shinjuku site for remains of WWII-era live human experiment victims, July 8, 2010, Mainichi Daily News
4) Memos Say US Hid Japanese War CrimeDecember 18, 1988, LA Times
5) Human bones could reveal truth of Japan's 'Unit 731' experiments February 15, 2010, Daily Telegraph
6) Skulls Found: Japan Doesn't Want to Know Whose, August 13, 1990, New York Times

Peter J Brown is a freelance writer from Maine USA.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

If Americans are buried in these mass graves I hope the US govt can explain to the families of the deceased WW2 veterans WHY they bought and paid for the research of Unit 731 and ignored recovering the bodies of the fallen American soldiers who had become POWs and were used in Biological weapons research by their captors.

It is my understanding from years of research that General MacArthurs staff arranged the "deal" with the Japanese Officers for cash and immunity for the research papers of their doctors and scientists, from what I have read it took a better part of 2 years to get the deal into place and the papers were then taken to the US, more than likely to either Fort Detrick and or Edgewood Arsenal where the US was doing it's own research into biological weapons and experimenting on American soldiers from 1941 thru 1973 when President Nixon signed the 1972 Biological Weapons Treaty which banned the use and research of Bio Weapons the use of Operation White Coat volunteers was ended at Fort Detrick, in 1975 all "human experimentation" using chemical weapons and drugs was stopped when Congress learned of the Edgewood Arsenal experiments. In 1976 Presindent Gerald Ford signed a law that forbid any "human experimentation" by the military and the CIA.

Gov't to excavate Shinjuku site for remains of WWII-era live human experiment victims

2010-08-04T07:31:00.000-07:00

Gov't to excavate Shinjuku site for remains of WWII-era live human experiment victims

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20100708p2a00m0na024000c.html

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare says it will excavate the former site of an Imperial Japanese Army medical college, where the victims of experiments on live human subjects are suspected to have been buried.

The ministry will embark on its first search of the site in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward this autumn. In 2006, a former nurse at the college confessed that they had buried human subjects at three different locations in the area at the end of the war.

The college's laboratory for epidemic control supervised the infamous Unit 731 -- a group of scientists who allegedly carried out medical experiments on live Chinese subjects -- and the Association Demanding Investigation on Human Bones Discovered from the Site of the Army Medical College had requested the government search the site, saying, "Those buried there could be the victims of experiments on live subjects."

One of the three locations indicated by the former nurse as dumping sites for human bodies will be excavated. The project will cover some 3,000 square meters, including a public housing complex scheduled for demolition by October. The ministry and the Shinjuku Ward Office are currently arranging procedures for the search.

In 1989, human bones from 62 individuals were discovered during construction of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in the same area. The site was one of the locations identified by the witness.

In 2001, the ministry conducted interviews with about 370 individuals who had worked for the Imperial Army's medical college. The survey concluded that the remains discovered at the construction site belonged to both Japanese and Chinese war victims used as medical subjects. It remained unknown whether the Unit 731 had been involved in the case.

Kanagawa University Professor Keiichi Tsuneishi, a representative of the citizen's group demanding the investigation into the remains, said, "According to the former nurse, the public housing for government officials was constructed immediately after the war so that no one could dig up the human subjects buried there. The search may uncover the facts that the government had sought to conceal."

click here for original article
(Mainichi Japan) July 8, 2010

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After 65 years I think it is finally time for the Japanese govt to deal with what really happened in WW2 and quit the cover up 731 was a real unit, they did unspeakable things to fellow humans, some of the things they did was as bad if not wrose than what happened under Dr Mengele and other doctors in WW2 German camps

The diiference was that General MacArthur bought and paid for the research papers of Unit 731 and none of the Japanese Officers were prosecuted for War Crimes as were the Nazi's.

Naval and Coast Guard ships exposed to AO in Vietnam

2010-06-26T00:27:00.001-07:00

NAUS today in their newsletter published the following list of Navy
ships which were added this week to the AO List

VA Adds Ships to Agent Orange Exposure List
This week the VA has added the below named ships to the already
existing list for Navy and Coast Guard ships and vessels that are
presumed to have been exposed to Agent Orange. If you served on any
of these mentioned ships and you have had a claim denied, you should
reapply citing the VA list as the source for your reapplication. NAUS
is told the VA is already working on a third list that will have more
ships listed. If you have a claim and evidence the ship you served on
was in Vietnamese waters and/or actually tied up to a dock there, make
sure you include that with your claim.

Vessels that operated primarily or exclusively on the inland waterways

All U.S. Coast Guard Cutters with hull designation WPB [patrol boat]
and
WHEC [high endurance cutters]

USS Mark (AKL-12) [light cargo ship]; USS Brule (AKL-28)

USS Patapsco (AOG-1) [gasoline tanker]; USS Elkhorn (AOG-7)
USS Genesee (AOG-8); USS Kishwaukee (AOG-9)
USS Tombigbee (AOG-11); USS Noxubee (AOG-56)

USS Okanogan (APA-210) [attack transport]; USS Montrose (APA-212)
USS Bexar (APA-237)

USS Benewah (APB-35) [self-propelled barracks ship]; USS Colleton
(APB-36)
USS Mercer (APB-39); USS Nueces (APB-40)

Barracks Barge (APL-26) [sleeping quarters] ); Barracks Barge
(APL-30)

USS Tutuila (ARG-4) [repair ship]; USS Satyr (ARL-23) [repair ship]
USS Sphinx (ARL-24); USS Askari (ARL-30); USS Indra (ARL-37)
USS Krishna (ARL-38)

USS Belle Grove (LSD-2) [landing ship dock]; USS Comstock (LSD-19)
USS Tortuga (LSD-26)

USS Asheville (PG-84) [patrol gunboat]; USS Gallop (PG-85)
USS Antelope (PG-86); USS Ready (PG-87); USS Crockett (PG-88)
USS Marathon (PG-89); USS Canon (PG-90)

Floating Base Platform (YRBM-17) [repair, berthing, and messing barge]
Floating Base Platform (YRBM-18); Floating Base Platform (YRBM-20)

Winnemucca (YTB-785) [harbor tug]

Vessels that operated temporarily on Vietnam's inland waterways or
docked to the shore:

USS Card (ACV-11) [escort carrier] mined, sunk, and salvaged in Saigon
River Harbor during May 1964
USS Maury (AGS-16) [mapping survey ship] conducted surveys of Mekong
Delta and other coastal areas and rivers beginning November 1965
through
1969
USS Henrico (APA-45) [amphibious attack transport] operated on Hue
River
during March 1965 and conducted numerous troop landings through March
1967
USS Montrose (APA-212) operated on Song Hue River during December
1965,
operated on Long Tau River during March 1967, and operated on Cua Viet
River and at Dong Ha during May 1967
USS Talladega (APA-208) operated on Saigon River during October 1967
USS Bolster (ARS-38) [salvage ship] crew operated on land.
USS Canberra (CAG-2) [guided missile cruiser] operated on Saigon River
from March 31 through April 1, 1966, on Cua Viet River during December
15, 1966, and on Mekong Delta Ham Luong River during January 15, 1967
USS Sproston (DD-577) [destroyer] operated on Mekong Delta and Ganh
Rai
Bay during January 1966
USS Picking (DD-685) operated on Saigon River during November 16, 1965
USS Epperson (DD-719) docked to Da Nang Pier on October 4, 1970
USS Southerland (DD-743) operated on Song Nga Bay and Saigon River
during July 1966
USS John W. Thomason (DD-760) operated on Nga Be River during 1969
USS Buck (DD-761) operated on Mekong River Delta and Saigon River
during
October 1966
USS Preston (DD-795) operated on Mekong River Delta, Ganh Rai Bay, and
Saigon River during September 28 - 29 and December 27 - 29, 1965
USS Warrington (DD-843) operated on Mekong River Delta Rung Sat
Special
Zone, North of Vung Gahn Rai Bay during March 1967
USS Dyess (DD-880) operated on Saigon River and Rung Sat Special Zone
from June 19-July 1, 1966
USS Perkins (DD-877) operated on Saigon River during June 1969
USS Orleck (DD-886) operated on Mekong River Delta during July 1969
USS Joseph Strauss (DDG-16) [guided missile destroyer] operated on
Mekong River Delta and Ganh Rai Bay during November 7 and December 7,
1968
USS Waddell (DDG-24) operated on Cua Viet River during March 1967
USS Newell (DER-322) [radar destroyer escort] docked at port of Nha
Trang during December 22-24, 1965
USS Duluth (LPD-6) [amphibious transport dock] docked to pier at Da
Nang
during March and October 1971
USS Cleveland (LPD-7) operated on Cua Viet River and at Dong Ha, as
well
as Hue River, from November 1967 through 1968 and Saigon River during
September 1969
USS Dubuque (LPD-8) docked at Da Nang on March 15, 1970
USS Boxer (LPH-4) [amphibious assault ship] docked to pier at Cam Rahn
Bay on September 9, 1965
USS Carter Hall (LSD-3) [landing ship dock] operated on Cua Viet River
and at Dong Ha during December 1967

VA quietly giving benefits to Marines exposed to toxic water

2010-06-20T19:25:00.000-07:00

VA quietly giving benefits to Marines exposed to toxic water

By Barbara Barrett
McClatchy Newspapers
Published: Saturday, Jun. 19, 2010 - 9:01 pm
WASHINGTON — Former Marine Corps Cpl. Peter Devereaux was told about a year ago that he had just two or three years to live.

More than 12 months later, at 48, he still isn't ready to concede that the cancer that's wasting his innards is going to kill him. He swallows his pills and suffers the pain and each afternoon he greets his 12-year-old daughter, Jackie, as she steps off her school bus in North Andover, Mass.

The U.S. Department of the Navy says that more research is needed to connect ailments suffered by Marines such as Devereaux who served at Camp Lejeune and their families who lived there to decades of water contamination at the 156,000-acre base in eastern North Carolina. Meanwhile, however, the Department of Veterans Affairs has quietly begun awarding benefits to a few Marines who were based at Lejeune.

"Right now, I would venture to say that any Camp Lejeune veteran who files a claim now is presumed to have been exposed to the contaminated drinking water," Brad Flohr, the assistant director for policy, compensation and pension service at the VA, told a meeting of affected Marines and family members in April.

It's estimated that as many as a million people were exposed to the water from the 1950s to the 1980s. The water was laced with trichloroethylene, known as TCE; tetrachloroethylene, known as PCE; benzene and other volatile organic chemicals.

Peter Devereaux doesn't expect to be around for Jackie's college years, but he hopes to be able to pay for them. Along with hundreds of other veterans across the country, he's convinced that contaminated water caused his cancer.

"It's like it's criminal, you know?" said Devereaux, who has male breast cancer.
While the Department of the Navy, which oversees the base, is funding continuing research on the issue, in some cases the VA has acknowledged that as likely as not, some Marine veterans' ailments were caused by drinking and bathing in poisonous water.

Despite the exposure, though, there's no presumption that a veteran's disease was caused by the contamination. Each case is judged on hits own merits, Flohr said.

Still, veterans' advocates have hope.

"It matters. That's an admission, right there," said Jerry Ensminger, a Marine veteran in North Carolina who lost his daughter to leukemia in 1985 after living at Camp Lejeune.

James Watters of Lubbock, Texas, was told in 2008 that he had a year to live. In June 2009, he learned that the VA had linked his cancer to the Lejeune contamination.

"This thing is huge in its ramifications," Watters said. "I think it just opens the floodgates."

More Marine veterans are learning about what happened years ago at Camp Lejeune.

Two years ago, a new law required the Defense Department to contact veterans through the Internal Revenue Service and tell them about their exposure.

Many veterans interviewed by McClatchy said they had no idea that they'd been exposed until they opened the envelopes in the mail.

"You know what went off in my head? A light bulb," said Allen Menard, 47, of Green Bay, Wis. His doctor had told him years before that his form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, mycosis fungoides, was chemical-related.

He filed for VA disability in 2008, blaming his cancer on Lejeune's water, and was at first denied before finally he was granted a full service connection, a recognition that his illness is related to his service, this spring.

"I did my research. I had to fight," Menard said. "I had two professors at Boston University write letters for me."

One of those professors, epidemiologist Richard Clapp, said veterans deserve an answer about what effects the water might have had on their health.

"It's a horrific problem," said Clapp, who serves on a community panel that's studying the Lejeune contamination. "There are lots of people exposed, some to very high levels of these chemicals. Some for short periods for time, some for decades."

The public is only now beginning to realize the extent of the contamination.

Stories among the veterans indicate a handful have been given service connections. Each case means the VA has established that there's at least a 50 percent chance that the veteran's military service caused the ailment.

The awards are inconsistent, however. While a veteran in Wisconsin is offered payment, one in Florida with similar symptoms is denied. The VA doesn't keep track, and Flohr said this spring that he'd just learned about many of the successful appeals.

Legislation in the House of Representatives and Senate would establish presumptions between service connection and illnesses associated with the contamination, but those bills are still pending.

Although advocates are energized by recent VA benefits awards, a McClatchy review of some Veterans Affairs decisions shows that connections to the toxic water at Lejeune have been made in the past.

In 2002, for example, the agency granted a service connection to a veteran with cancer of the hard palate. The veteran, whose name is redacted, had served from 1982 to 1987 at Lejeune. His application was denied in 1995 and again in 1999.

After he sent in medical opinions about the contamination, an appeals board granted the service connection.

Another challenge for Veterans Affairs and federal scientists comes in deciding what diseases might have been caused by which chemical in the water.

For now, Flohr said the VA is trying to educate regional offices around the country. Last month, the agency sent a memo to its regional offices describing contamination of TCE and PCE.

The memo says there may be limited association between those chemicals and cancers of the kidney, breast, bladder, lung or esophagus.

The Veteran Affairs memo doesn't mention benzene, even though federal scientists said a year ago that benzene has emerged as a central suspect in the contamination. Benzene is a known carcinogen.

The distinction about which chemicals were present in the water is important, because they're associated with different diseases.

For years, Marine veteran Michael Schooler suspected that Agent Orange he was exposed to in Vietnam was responsible for his acute myoletic leukemia. Then McClatchy and other news outlets reported this year that benzene has had a far greater significance in the contamination than scientists had previously realized.

"I asked my doctor, 'Does benzene cause it?' " recalled Schooler, 61, of Jasper, Ind. "He lit up like a Christmas tree. He said, 'That's what causes it.'"

Schooler filed an appeal this spring. He expects to learn this month whether the VA will grant the service connection for benzene exposure.

In Massachusetts, Peter Devereaux also waits, drawing on the patience he learned while he was in the Marines.
"I'm terminal," he said. "Being a man, I only want to take care of my wife and daughter, like I always have."

FOR VETERANS WHO MIGHT BE AFFECTED

Veterans who think they might have been affected by contaminated water at Camp Lejeune can apply for service connection health benefits from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. You can apply by filling out VA Form 21-526, Veterans Application for Compensation and/or Pension.

The VA recommends that if you have any of the following material, please attach it to your application:

Discharge or separation papers (DD214 or equivalent)
Dependency records (marriage & children's birth certificates)
Medical evidence (doctor & hospital reports)
Veterans who have applied for benefits related to water contamination at Camp Lejeune say they strongly recommend a medical nexus letter from a doctor.

For more information, contact your local VA office or your local veterans service organization, or go online to http://www.vba.va.gov/VBA/

The Marine Corps also has a website about the Lejeune contamination, https://clnr.hqi.usmc.mil/clwater/

A group of Marine veterans and affected family members has a website on the issue, The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten, www.tftptf.com

ON THE WEB

Department of Veterans Affairs fact sheet on Camp Lejeune water contamination

Department of Veterans Affairs benefits website

"The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten: Camp Lejeune Toxic Water"

Camp Lejeune Historic Drinking Water

About Camp Lejeune

MORE FROM MCCLATCHY

Congress pushes military to release data on Camp Lejeune water

Warnings about Lejeune's tainted water unheeded for years

Lejeune water probe: Did Marine Corps hide benzene data?

Judge: Lejeune ex-resident can move ahead with injury claim

Marine base's residents, many ill, only now learning of toxic water

Toxins in Camp Lejeune water 30 years ago still a problem

Follow the latest politics news at McClatchy's Planet Washington

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go to the link at the top of the page and you can access all of these topics and get more information about the exposures and follow the mess......

Low approval rate for vets' chemical tests

2010-06-19T08:36:00.000-07:00

By Erica Werner, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON — The Veterans Affairs Department has granted only 6 percent of health claims filed by veterans of secret Cold War chemical and germ warfare tests conducted by the Pentagon, according to figures obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.
Veterans advocates called the number appallingly low.

By comparison, about 88 percent of processed claims from Gulf War vets were granted as of last year, according to VA documents. More than 90 percent of processed claims from Iraq and Afghanistan vets were granted as of earlier this year.

In a statement the VA said it was "incorrect" to make such comparisons because of the unique circumstances of different groups of veterans.

The VA noted that most of the veterans of the chemical and germ tests ended their service more than three decades ago and a study by the advisory Institute of Medicine -- dismissed by veterans as shoddily done -- found no clear connection between the tests and the cancer, respiratory illnesses and other problems the veterans are now having.

During the tests thousands of service members were exposed, often without their knowledge, to real and simulated chemical and biological agents, including sarin and VX.

The tests were conducted at sea and above a half-dozen U.S. states from 1962-1973 to see how U.S. ships would withstand chemical and germ assaults and how such weapons would disperse.

The Defense Department says 6,440 service members took part in the experiments called Project 112 and Project SHAD, and 4,438 veterans have been notified of their participation. Others could not be located or have died.

As of May, the VA had processed 641 claims filed by veterans of the tests. Thirty-nine of the claims were granted, 56 were pending and 546 were denied.

AP obtained the figures from the VA on Thursday following a congressional hearing on the issue last week.

"These numbers are shocking, disgraceful and disappointing and reflect poorly on VA," said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense.

"This is ridiculous," said Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. "These guys were there. They all have cancer. Take care of them."

The VA's statement said that some of the SHAD/112 veterans who filed claims were already getting benefits for other service-connected conditions. "The service of most of these veterans ended more than 30 years ago, and their service medical records do not reflect treatment for currently claimed conditions," the statement said.

Filner's committee last week held a hearing on legislation by Reps. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., and Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., that would grant coverage to project veterans without them having to prove a link between their problems and their participation in Projects SHAD/112.

The bill is patterned after legislation passed in 1991 to help people exposed to Agent Orange, the chemical defoliant used by U.S. forces in Vietnam that was linked to cancer and other ailments

Filner said he hoped to vote the bill out of his committee by July 4.

The VA and Pentagon both oppose the bill, arguing that there's no clear scientific evidence supporting a need for it.

The Pentagon only began to disclose details of the tests publicly in 2001, after pressure from veterans and lawmakers. Two years later Defense officials stopped looking for additional project participants, despite criticism from the Government Accountability Office, which said untold numbers of veterans and civilians could remain unaware of their potential exposure.
Low approval rate for vets' chemical tests

This article is 2 years old, the sad thing is the approval rate for these veterans or their widows has not improved since then, we have been told many times over the decades that it was going to be corrected, that DOD would notify the veterans and the widows that the VA was notified that the veterans were exposed the substance or substances they had been exposed and that they can now file compensation claims with the VA, the first time was in 1976, again in 1994, 2001, in 2004 Donald Rumsfeld told a senate hearing that the VA would have the names again in early 2009, right after the Bush Administration left office, and now we are being told it will be sometime in 2011, the first exposures were in 1941 and the last in 1975 these veterans and their widows are dying since they have never done indepth study of the SHAD/112 veterans they don't know the death and disability rate but the last study of the Edgewood veterans in March 2003 compiled by the IOM shows a death and disability rate of 75% for the veterans then aged 45-65 they would now be 55-75 a decade later there were 3098 known deaths by FY 2000 when the data was gathered for the March 2003 Sarin study, so it is more likely than not that the death rate has climbed in the past 10 years. These rates of death and disability far exceed the ratios that the Social Security Administration states is normal for men aged 65.

It's time for the truth and for justice to be done for these veterans and their families........

Weapons are common catch, fishermen say

2010-06-17T16:59:00.000-07:00

Weapons are common catch, fishermen say

By Peter Schworm and Beth Daley
Globe Staff / June 9, 2010

NEW BEDFORD — In a bizarre incident that spotlights the vast amount of chemical weapons and munitions debris littering the ocean floor, a crewman aboard a clamming boat remained hospitalized yesterday for exposure to mustard gas after his vessel dredged up World War I-era munition shells.

Konstantin Burndshov sustained burns and blisters on an arm and leg and was sickened after handling a shell that had been hauled aboard the ESS Pursuit on Sunday in waters off Long Island, New York. The incident probably marks the first civilian exposure to the chemical warfare agent in the United States in decades, said Edward W. Boyer, a medical toxicologist who is leading the team treating Burndshov.

Burndshov, a New Jersey resident, remained hospitalized last night at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, but is expected to make a full recovery, according to Boyer. Three other crew members suffered milder symptoms and were treated in New Bedford and released.

Crew member Kevin O’Sullivan said Burndshov, who was wearing rubber oil skins and rubber gloves, was injured after throwing a bullet-shaped canister overboard, after the crew discovered it among a catch of clams. He said the canister smelled strange.

“It was just a strong chemical odor that didn’t seem right,’’ he said.

For decades, the military used the waters off the United States as a dumping ground for surplus or outdated weapons. With the ocean seemingly bottomless and far from people, it was considered a prudent way to get rid of old bombs and other weapons.

But today, as fishermen chase catches in deeper waters, encounters with the remnants of past wars have become more common, some fishermen say.

Clamming boats are particularly prone to hauling up munitions because their gear stirs up the seabed. Last month, for example, workers sorting clams at a New Bedford plant discovered nearly 200 hand grenades.

The clammers of the ESS Pursuit, which operates out of Atlantic City, were exposed to the mustard gas when canisters appeared on the boat’s conveyor belt. The captain, Kieran Kelly, said in a telephone interview from aboard the vessel that one canister had broken open. Burndshov was exposed, and other crew members experienced breathing difficulties and eye irritation.

The boat brought the sick men in to New Bedford, where the vessel was scheduled to unload its catch, about 24 hours later. Dave Little, 32, a commercial fisherman from New Hampshire, helped unload the boat Monday, and joined the crew as it pushed back out to sea, unaware the boat was contaminated.

About five hours later, when the boat was about 20 miles out, the Coast Guard called it back to port. “If they hadn’t turned us around, we’d still be out there,’’ said Little, who experienced some irritation around his eyes and mouth from the exposure.

The ESS Pursuit remained in isolation yesterday, moored off New Bedford and flanked by Coast Guard vessels as officials developed a decontamination plan. Tests on the boat revealed the presence of blister agents, a group of chemicals that includes mustard gas.

Mustard gas, used infrequently after World War I, was intended to disable enemies because the gas would get on skin and cause large, raised blisters. It was not designed as a killing agent, although it can cause death if inhaled. It is also persistent, remaining in the environment and on surfaces for days.

“That is what is stunning to everyone; it is still potent now,’’ said Boyer, professor of emergency medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

State Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan is leading the effort to figure out what to do with the boat’s catch of thousands of pounds of clams.

Even though a state hazardous materials unit and bomb squad determined that no mustard gas or chemical agents had seeped into the clams, the state has ordered them destroyed. The catch, 168 containers, each containing 80 bushels of clams, must be disposed of.

Coan said the state has never had to dispose of so much shellfish before. A team will meet this week to develop a plan to do this safely and properly, he said. “The Commonwealth has declared that the catch cannot be sold and will not be sold,’’ Coan said.

Fishermen in New Bedford said they often find discarded munitions at sea, but that they are typically harmless. “It’s pretty routine,’’ O’Sullivan said. “We throw them overboard as quick as possible.’’

Little said old weapons often turn up in the dredge, which digs several inches into the ocean floor. The weapons are shaken violently in the sorting process on board, and Little said he worries some day one will explode.

Massachusetts fishermen and even beachgoers occasionally come across unexploded ordnance on Cape Cod and Island beaches, or near shore areas, because those areas were once used as practice ranges by the military. There are also former dumping grounds off Massachusetts, including a region often called the Foul Area, which had been used to dump radioactive and toxic waste until the 1970s.

“More experienced fishermen know to steer clear of dumping sites where drums of nuclear waste were found, but once in a while people pick up all kinds of crazy things,’’ said Angela Sanfilippo, president of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association.

Most of the dumping took place after World War I, World War II, and from 1950 to 1970, said David Foster, an Army spokesman.

In 1972, Congress prohibited the disposal of chemical munitions at sea, and international treaties soon followed suit.

“The bottom line is the sea disposal of chemical and conventional munitions was an acceptable practice up until 1972,’’ Foster said.

Bill Greene and John M. Guilfoil of the Globe staff and Globe correspondents Constance Lindner and Shana Wickett contributed to this report. Beth Daley can be reached at bdaley@globe.com.

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reprinted with the permission of Beth Daley

VVA Calls for Support of the Decision by VA Secretary

2010-06-13T09:22:00.000-07:00

VVA Calls for Support of the Decision by VA Secretary
To Declare Presumptive Agent Orange/Dioxin and
VVA Calls on the President and Congress to Fund Research Now, And Not
Wait for an Army to Die

( WASHINGTON , D.C. ) There have been reports in the media recently in
which some, including Senator Jim Webb, seem to question the
legitimacy of service-connected disability compensation for exposure
to Agent Orange/Dioxin on the battlefield, such as Type II diabetes
mellitus and ischemic heart disease. Further, it appears that there is
confusion on the part of some about how the process established by the
Agent Orange Act of 1991 should and does work.

The facts of the matter are so clear that, after deliberation, Vietnam
Veterans of America (VVA) restates our position which is dictated by
those clear facts:

First, Public Law 102-4, the Agent Orange Act of 1991, was enacted to
address a plethora of health issues in veterans that stemmed from our
exposure to Agent Orange while serving in-country. Congress, in its
collective wisdom, passed this legislation because of the severe
impact exposure to dioxin was wreaking on the lives of tens of
thousands of veterans.

Senator Webb is mistaken about the intent of the law, which is
understandable, because Webb was not in the Congress at that time. By
the same token, no Senator or Member of Congress suggested, at the
time of passage, that there should be any arbitrary or artificial
limit placed on diseases covered, or on the numbers of veterans who
might be affected, and, hence, covered. Rather, a process was set up
to seek the level of association, if any, between exposure and the
onset of specific diseases. Just as no one today would even think that
we, as a nation, would cease treating and compensating our troops and
veterans suffering from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), simply because
the incidence is far more prevalent among returning warriors than
anyone might have imagined five years ago.

Second, we strongly support the actions of VA Secretary Eric K.
Shinseki in following both the letter and the spirit of Public Law
102-4, to conclude that the evidence analyzed by a distinguished panel
from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and
published in the 2008 Biennial Review of Veterans and Agent Orange:
Health Effects of Herbicides Used in Vietnam was compelling enough to
declare Parkinson’s disease, B cell leukemias, and ischemic heart
disease as service-connected presumptive due to Agent Orange for those
in the military who served in Vietnam (and along the demilitarized
zone in Korea in 1968 and 1969).

Third, VVA can unequivocally state that the process set up by Congress
under the Agent Orange Act continues to be the most objective and
valid way of making decisions regarding environmental diseases of
military service. These decisions should be scientific, not political.
Any Secretary of the VA should adhere to the process, required by law,
and follow the facts, as Secretary Shinseki has done.

Fourth, the evidence for inclusion of diabetes mellitus type II as a
presumptive disease is very strong. It is true that people are more
prone to develop type II diabetes as they age, but the facts of the
matter are that Vietnam veterans are at least more than twice as
likely to develop this disease as the non-veterans in our cohort
group, when balanced for age, weight, exercise, and diet. The same is
true of prostate cancer and other service-connected presumptive
conditions.

This points, yet again, to the need for federal funding of additional
research into the adverse health impacts on Vietnam veterans, on our
children, and on our grandchildren, by respected independent
scientific entities outside of the VA. This is just as evident today
as it was twenty years ago. The clear need for such research is even
more pressing today, given the number of Vietnam veterans who have
died well before their time in the last twenty years, and the number
who are continuing to die early because of the ravages resulting from
exposure to Agent Orange/dioxin in Southeast Asia.

Lastly, there have been media reports that the amendment to Emergency
Supplemental Appropriation by Senator Webb would delay the process,
and thus delay the payment of justly due back compensation to affected
veterans, pushing off the time when veterans who are owed back
compensation actually will receive their entitled compensation. This
simply is not the case. Neither action by Senator Webb nor anyone else
has thus far caused any action that will slow down the payment of
claims as soon as the VA can work though the public rule-making
process to get this accomplished.

We urge all affected Vietnam veterans and eligible surviving
dependents to file claims for the newly presumptive diseases
associated with Agent Orange: Parkinson’s disease, B Cell leukemias,
and ischemic heart disease. These diseases bring the total to 14
illness categories that entitle Vietnam veterans–and veterans who
served along the demilitarized zone in Korea in 1968 and 1969–to
health care and disability compensation. VVA also contends that many
Vietnam-era veterans were also exposed in their service elsewhere in
Southeast Asia during the war, including in Thailand and Laos , and
aboard Navy vessels off the coast of Vietnam , as well as certain
military bases located in the continental U.S. and its territories.

Among the other diseases recognized by the VA as presumptive to
exposure to Agent Orange are diabetes mellitus (Type 2), non-Hodgkin’s
lymphoma, prostate cancer, and respiratory cancers (of the lung,
bronchus, larynx, or trachea). Additional information about these and
other presumptive diseases and long-term health care risks for
veterans can be found at the Veterans Health Council web site,
www.veteranshealth.org, and in the VVA Self-help Guide to Service-
Connected Disability Compensation For Exposure to Agent Orange at
www.vva.org/Guides/AgentOrangeGuide.pdf

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Karen Heller: Veterans Court winning cases

2010-05-28T19:53:00.000-07:00

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/karen_heller/20100526_Karen_Heller__Veterans_Court_winning_cases.html#axzz0pFusifRR

Needed in IL & CU Area

-----Original Message-----
From: LARRY HOLMAN via Ney, Gerald A CIV []
Sent: Friday, May 28, 2010 3:14 PM
To: VVA-Talklist
Subject: FW: Veterans Court winning cases

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/karen_heller/20100526_Karen_Heller__Veterans_Court_winning_cases.html#axzz0pFusifRR

Posted on Wed, May. 26, 2010

Karen Heller: Veterans Court winning cases

By Karen Heller

Inquirer Columnist

Today is Veterans Day at the Criminal Justice Center. So is every

Wednesday, when it's time for Veterans Court, the Hon. and U.S. Army

Reserve Capt. Patrick F. Dugan presiding.

Established in March by state Supreme Court Justices Ronald D. Castille

and Seamus P. McCaffery, both decorated veterans, the court is one of

three in the state, and almost 20 nationwide, exclusively handling

veterans' misdemeanor cases.

It's already a success, a "problem-solving" court, like drug court and

mental health court, designed to expedite assistance and avoid costly

legal delays and jail time. Defendants range from age 20 (Iraq) to 80

(Korea), but the cases are remarkably sad and similar - virtually all

male, charged with driving under the influence, disorderly conduct,

possession, spousal abuse.

"A vast majority of the defendants are involved with drugs and alcohol,"

Dugan says. They need treatment and attention.

"I finished the ninth grade," says an Army veteran, picked up for

possession. He looks as if his best years are decades behind him.

"I believe you attended the University of Vietnam," says Dugan, who

speaks respectfully to all veterans. "You need to clean up. You've been

there. You've seen some crazy stuff in your life. This is illegal.

You've been through too much to go through that. So step up."

Normally, the wheels of justice grind slow. That is not the case in

Veterans Court, where 25 cases are adjudicated in two hours.

"In most courtrooms, it takes a long time to get a diversion program to

kick in because of the sheer size of the bureaucracies," says Dugan, a

former infantryman and paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne, who later

served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He may also be, quite possibly,

the only judicial candidate who ran partially on an "I hate the Dallas

Cowboys" platform.

"It can take six months for a diversion program to kick in," he says.

"Here, it's almost instantly. Some veterans start the program before

I've heard the case."

This is thanks, in large part, to the work of Rebecca Hicks of the

Department of Veterans Affairs, who works in Courtroom 1003 Wednesdays

along with Kelley Hodge of the District Attorney's Office, public

defender Brunilda Vargas, and a trio of proud, elegant veteran mentors

sitting in the front bench, waiting to help.

"She's outstanding. I can't commend Rebecca enough for the job she's

doing," Dugan says of the soft-spoken social worker. "She goes to prison

to meet with these people. We're blessed to have her in the room."

Veterans represent a tenth of the jail population, according to the VA,

the majority charged with nonviolent offenses. All legal and government

entities present in the courtroom share the same goals: to get these men

help before they seriously hurt others, while keeping them out of jail.

Veterans Court is also there to help defendants from slipping further

and becoming homeless. A third of all men on the street are believed to

have served in the military, according to the National Coalition for

Homeless Veterans.

"The majority of our veterans are really grateful," says Hicks. The

Philadelphia office assists 60,000 veterans annually, a third of them

for behavioral health issues, and drug and alcohol abuse. "We're trying

to turn a negative set of circumstances into a positive, life-changing

experience. I see the veterans as quickly as I can after their first

hearing. Sometimes, the very next day." After each case, Hicks beckons

the veteran to her table and in her old-fashioned daybook schedules an

assessment appointment.

"Obviously, we're in favor of any program that aids our clients," says

Assistant Public Defender Charles Cunningham. "We certainly think people

who have served our country are entitled to some special consideration.

Sometimes the reason they're in this position is because of service to

this country."

Veterans Court is able "to provide therapeutic assistance while reducing

the risk of recidivism," says Hodge, who is chief of the district

attorney's Municipal Court unit. "How an individual does with treatment

dictates whether he 'graduates' out of the system. What benefit is it to

us if he goes into jail and serves his time but is never treated for

alcoholism?"

One Navy veteran, 54, returns to court after his third DUI offense and

detox treatment at the VA's Coatesville facility. "I've been in trouble

with alcohol all my life. You've saved my life," he tells the court, the

public defender requesting that his name not be published. "My life was

going right down the drain. You're giving me the tools to get my life

back. Hospitalization is the best thing that could happen to me."

Dugan addresses three defendants, all charged with DUI. "This is like

shooting a gun into a crowd. I've read your files and, between you guys,

the places you saw, the things that you've done, the ribbons you have,

you've done so much," he says.

"You guys are the good guys. I expect more of you," Dugan says. "So

don't be coming back into my courtroom because I'll hold you to a higher

standard. And I will hammer you. And you would expect that of me."

All three defendants stand at military attention, nodding their heads in

unison.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------

Contact columnist Karen Heller at 215-854-2586 or

kheller@phillynews.com.

Karen Heller: Veterans Court winning cases

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sounds like a good program hopefully a few bad apples won't mess it up for all of the men and women who will also need a little help along their way to adjust to "home life again" some people do not understand sometimes veterans just need a friendly kick in the azz to remind them of who and what they were and can be again. All they need is a chance

War Veteran Says Military Burn Pits Caused His Cancer

2010-05-25T09:05:00.000-07:00

War Veteran Says Military Burn Pits Caused His Cancer

Posted: May 17, 2010 12:27 AM EDT

Yuma, AZ May 16 - Iraqi war veterans know the risks associated with combat, but one local soldier never thought he would be put at risk for cancer.

He says government contractors are to blame. He thought Al-Qaeda and the Taliban were deadly but it turned out, that was the least of his worries.

Burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan, hundreds are speaking out saying they're sick because of toxins in the air from what's getting burned.

Yuma resident Rigo Gonzalez says, "I brought these tents, large all purpose tents that are petroleum base and when you burn these tents, they release a toxin called benzene."

Benzene is a probable cause for the type of leukemia Rigo Gonzalez has been diagnosed with. And he's not the only American hero with these problems.

"The symptoms were exactly the same as mine: leukemia's, cancers, respiratory problems, all kinds of symptoms and diseases that these burn pits were causing."

And now there's a class action lawsuit against KBR, the government contractor in charge of the burn pits.

Gonzalez says, "when you take shortcuts and you don't take into consideration safety and human life, then you have to be held accountable for it."

Hundreds are involved in the lawsuit and Gonzalez says the number is growing everyday. He says concern over the burn pits was never a consideration.

"Your main concern is just to survive that day. You think it'd be things related to the enemy, but when it comes from people that supposedly are on your side, it's hard to take."

Gonzalez says a physical saved his life and he's encouraging all war veterans to protect themselves.

"You need a thorough physical with blood work and everything and I stress that for people coming back from combat in Iraq or Afghanistan."

KBR denies the allegations they are being negligent. On June 4th, a judge will rule whether the case will go to trial. Until then, hundreds of people like Gonzalez and several widows and their families wait.

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I sympathize with this veterans and the tens of thousands others that have been exposed to these toxic materials due to the burn pits since the war began, but I fear as other military contractors of the past have been protected by the DOD and the federal courts as the work the companies were doing were under the rules established by the DOD and that the Feres Doctrine will prevent these injured soldiers, marines and air men and any other military personnel harmed by the toxic environment. KBR will claim they were doing what the military asked them to do, the governemnt supplied them with the JP4 that was used as the accelerants to make everything burn, and that KBR itself is not responsible for what the Generals were asking them to do. Just as DOW and other makers of Agent Orange escaped large financial liability, I forsee KBR escaping financial harm in this case.

I am sorry for feeling this way, and I wish all of the sick veterans a vetter outcome but like the Agent Orange victims the only real financial liability will come from the Veterans Adminsitration for what can be proved as medical problems caused by exposures to the toxic substances, I will give the government credit that this is the first time in history that the VA has recognized the issues emanating from the toxic fumes of the burn pits while the wars are still being fought in Iraq and Afghanistan where the burn pits are still in use in some places. Normally the government will fight for 10-40 years before admitiing any type of liability thru the VA, so in that aspect these veterans are better off than veterans of past wars, look at the veterans of Gulf War One they still have not "found" the cause of the 25% disability rates of that era's veterans.

I wish these veterans well in court but I will not be shocked when the court system rules in favor of the contractor.

In tide of new PTSD cases, fear of growing fraud

2010-05-02T06:09:00.000-07:00

In tide of new PTSD cases, fear of growing fraud

5/1/2010 11:15 AM
In tide of new PTSD cases, fear of growing fraud

By ALLEN G. BREED AP National Writer

Moved by a huge tide of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress, Congress has pressured the Department of Veterans Affairs to settle their disability claims _ quickly, humanely, and mostly in the vets' favor.

The problem: The system is dysfunctional, an open invitation to fraud. And the VA has proposed changes that could make deception even easier.

PTSD's real but invisible scars can mark clerks and cooks just as easily as they can infantrymen fighting a faceless enemy in these wars without front lines. The VA is seeking to ease the burden of proof to ensure that their claims are processed swiftly.

But at the same time, some undeserving vets have learned how to game the system, profitably working the levers of sympathy for the wounded and obligation to the troops, and exploiting the sheer difficulty of nailing a surefire diagnosis of a condition that is notoriously hard to define.

"The threshold has been lowered. The question is how many people will take advantage of that," said Dr. Dan G. Blazer, a Duke University psychiatrist who has worked with the military on PTSD issues. PTSD, he adds, is "among the easiest (psychiatric) conditions to feign."

Mark Rogers, a longtime claims specialist with the Veterans Benefits Administration, agrees. "I could get 100 percent disability compensation for PTSD for any (honorably discharged) veteran who's willing to lie," said Rogers, a Vietnam-era vet who is now retired. "I just tell him what to say and where to go."

Some claims are built on a foundation of fake documents; in other cases, the right medals _ plus a gift for storytelling _ secure unearned benefits. Consider:

_Gulf War veteran Felton Lamar Gray told a VA psychologist he was spattered with "blood and chunks of head" when his "best friend" was shot in the face in Iraq. But only after the VA rated Gray 100 percent disabled did anyone check into his stories _ and discover the comrade he spoke of is very much alive and said he barely knew Gray.

_Thomas James Barnhart is a Coast Guard veteran who used forged documents to convince VA doctors he was an elite, much-decorated Navy SEAL. Barnhart's tales of daring rescues and of cradling a dying helicopter pilot in his arms won a congressman to his cause and helped him get a 30 percent PTSD disability rating from the VA, before he was outed by a watchdog group.

_Vietnam-era veteran Keith Roberts of Gillett, Wis., said he was traumatized when he was prevented from rescuing a friend being crushed under a Navy airplane, and was eventually granted 100 percent disability. But when the case was reopened, investigators could find no evidence that Roberts was even present when the accident occurred.

Each of these cases represents potentially millions of dollars in tax-free benefits over the veteran's lifetime _ benefits that may continue while the veteran works and even into retirement.

"There's pressure from the public to sympathize with veterans and treat them with respect," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig J. Jacobsen in Roanoke, Va., who prosecuted Barnhart and has handled other such "stolen valor" cases. "And you don't want to go questioning their stories unless you have a very good reason to do so. ... So I think it's hard to sift out the phonies from that."

PTSD is an undeniably real sickness whose symptoms _ flashbacks, vivid nightmares, intrusive thoughts, exaggerated startle response, emotional numbness _ can be debilitating. As of Fiscal Year 2009, nearly 390,000 veterans were receiving benefits for PTSD, making it the fourth-most prevalent service-connected disability, according to the VA.

Authorities have tried to brace the public for a tidal wave of psychically damaged veterans from the current wars. Of the roughly 1.6 million troops who have served in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq, more than 134,000 had been seen at VA health care facilities for "potential PTSD" as of late last year, according to a government report. Researchers suggest the numbers of actual sufferers are much higher.

A much-cited telephone survey published in 2008 by the Rand Corp. suggested that 300,000 veterans of the current wars were suffering from PTSD or major depression. A more recent study by researchers at the Naval Postgraduate School and Stanford University estimates that the PTSD rate among Iraq War veterans will be about 35 percent.

In its latest budget request, the VA estimates it will receive more than 1.3 million disability claims in 2011 _ a 30 percent increase over last year. New claims continue to pour in from veterans of Vietnam, Korea and even World War II.

Veterans groups have sued the VA, complaining that claims take months and even years to be approved, and that some veterans had committed suicide as a result.

Last year, U.S. Rep. John J. Hall, D-N.Y., introduced legislation to streamline the VA claims process, especially for veterans in traditionally noncombat roles. Arguing that the system failed to recognize the changing face of war, Hall said the claims process had become an obstacle to healing, "inflicting upon the most noble of our citizens a process that feels accusatory and doubtful of their service."

VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki responded last summer with a proposed rule change. Until now, the agency has required independent proof that a traumatizing event _ or "stressor" _ occurred. Under the proposed changes, a veteran's "lay testimony" about what happened to him would suffice, as long as it "is related to the veteran's fear of hostile military or terrorist activity" and is "consistent with the places, types, and circumstances of the veteran's service."

Already, VA officials are legally bound to resolve "any reasonable doubt" in the veteran's favor. And Rogers, the retired claims specialist, and others say the system is vulnerable to fraud because of the way it was designed: Doctors make diagnoses without fact-checking the veteran's story, and once that diagnosis is made, claims raters' hands are essentially tied.

No one knows the full extent of PTSD fraud; there is little political will to pursue a systematic investigation. But there have been some hints.

In 2005, a VA Inspector General's review of 2,100 PTSD cases found that a quarter lacked proper documentation of a stressor; if the sample was representative of all PTSD claims, questionable compensation payments would have totaled $860 million that year. Then-VA Secretary Jim Nicholson announced that the review would be expanded to cover 72,000 cases where veterans had received a 100 percent disability rating for PTSD.

But when a veteran from New Mexico was found shot to death, his Purple Heart and a letter about the VA review by his side, a group of senators drafted an amendment to halt the review, which was termed "wrong-headed, costly and unnecessary" by one senator.

The critic? Barack Obama.

A 1990 law allows the Veterans Benefits Administration to crosscheck its rosters with federal tax and Social Security databases to find "unemployable" veterans reporting work-related income. In 2004, this program identified 8,846 such veterans who reported at least $6,000 in earnings, including 289 with income of $50,000 or more.

VBA management referred these cases for review to see if benefits should be revoked or reduced, but the inspector general found the agency "lax in tracking the results."

The best way to catch phonies is on the front end, but that's not how VA operates, said Jim Gaughran, a former VA program director for benefits fraud.

"They never get in trouble for paying; they only get in trouble for not paying," said Gaughran, now a deputy assistant inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security. "They'd rather pay and chase."

Most frauds are uncovered by investigators outside of the VA, observers say.

Barnhart _ the Coast Guardsman who masqueraded as a Navy SEAL _ was exposed by Chuck and Mary Schantag of the P.O.W. Network, which has outed thousands of phony heroes.

The closest Barnhart got to the jungles of Vietnam was a stint on a Navy warship off the coast in 1969 and 1970, Jacobsen told a judge during a hearing in January. But when he switched to the Coast Guard, Jacobsen said, Barnhart would "spin yarns about his secret missions with the Navy SEALs" and even claimed to have been nominated for the Medal of Honor.

"The defendant further admitted that he had lied about his medals and death experiences during his medical exam in the hopes that it would increase his chances to get disability for PTSD," Jacobsen testified. Barnhart was granted a 30 percent disability rating for PTSD and collected $13,923 before he was caught.

Barnhart pleaded guilty Jan. 6 in U.S. District Court in Roanoke, Va., to two counts of violating the Stolen Valor Act. On April 8, Judge James C. Turk sentenced him to 12 months and a day in prison and two years of supervised release, and ordered him to pay $11,098 in restitution.

He hung up on an AP reporter seeking comment.

In the case of Felton Gray, the Gulf War veteran told a psychologist at the VA medical center in Portland, Ore., that he'd put "hundreds of Iraqi soldiers in bags," and that his best friend was hit in the face with a bullet during a mission to clear an enemy trench, spraying Gray with gore. As a result, he said, he could not sleep at night and found it difficult to leave his apartment.

"This man has suffered severe enough traumas to qualify for a diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder and in fact has serious symptoms," Dr. Ruth Parvin wrote in her evaluation. With other, physical problems, that finding earned Gray a designation of "individual unemployability" _ and 100 percent compensation.

Trouble is, none of what Gray told the doctor happened.

When initially examined by the VA in June 1993, Gray "did not report any stressors in the military relating to combat," his records show. He was later granted service connection for migraine headaches, a shoulder injury and bunions, for a total disability rating of 50 percent.

Gray filed for PTSD in 1996, and was granted service-connected disability two years later.

Normally, such records are closed to the public, unless the veteran signs a waiver. But AP obtained nearly 1,500 pages from Gray's VA claims file because they were part of a criminal investigation.

Gray was charged with murder in the Aug. 4, 1998, shooting of former NFL linebacker Marquise Leslie Thomas. Gray claimed that the larger Thomas had forced himself into his Beaverton, Ore., apartment, and that he had fired in self-defense. He was eventually convicted of first-degree manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Gray's attorney initially planned to mount a PTSD defense. When Beaverton police checked out Gray's war stories, they fell apart, police and court records show.

Although his "best friend," Ronald Rowe, did have an M-16 explode in his face during a training exercise in a mock-up of an Iraqi entrenchment, he only had "a little scratch on my face and ringing in my ears" and didn't require medical attention, he told the AP recently from his home in Madison, Tenn.

As for handling dead Iraqis, Rowe said: "Everybody we captured was alive. There wasn't no body bags."

When the Board of Veterans Appeals granted Gray a 70 percent rating for PTSD, the panel acknowledged that it did so without verifying his stressors or even his dates of service. The board accepted Gray's Combat Infantryman Badge "as sufficient evidence of in-service stressors relating to combat and reasonable doubt has been ruled in favor of the veteran."

The AP recently contacted Gray, 42, at his home in Tigard, Ore. "There was no fake," Gray said. He declined to open his updated VA file but insisted that his disabilities have been "validated." The VA would say only that Gray is currently drawing $2,882 a month _ 100 percent disability.

"All of that is a part of the past, and I choose to move forward," Gray said.

Some critics complain that a lack of personnel _ clinicians to do the evaluations and ratings specialists to handle the claims _ slows down the claims process. But that same shortage makes it more difficult for examiners to make accurate diagnoses and catch frauds.

Gray "fooled me. It's easy," said Dr. Landy F. Sparr.

Sparr _ former acting chief of psychiatry at the Portland VA Medical Center _ conducted a forensic examination of Gray and confirmed the PTSD diagnosis. He said the three hours recommended by the VA for a compensation and pension exam are hardly sufficient to form an opinion.

"If you wanted to do a proper evaluation, it would take you hours and hours _ I'm talking at least five, six hours _ to review the records and do everything," said Sparr, now an associate professor at Oregon Health & Science University. Given rates of $500 per exam for contractors, Sparr said, "It's just not going to happen."

Rogers, the claims specialist, said the clinicians don't feel it's their job to verify a veteran's stories.

Duke's Blazer adds: "Checking behind a patient actually breaks the confidentiality of the doctor/patient relationship, putting (it) into a position of adversarial rather than cooperative."

But claims raters are basing their decisions on diagnoses from psychiatrists and other mental health professionals. Once a diagnosis of PTSD is given, the rater is "prohibited from cross-examining the veteran," said Rogers, who worked at the VBA for nearly 30 years.

VBA workers say they are under enormous pressure to push claims through. Richard Allen, a Vietnam-era veteran who worked in the VBA's Wichita, Kan., office, remembers a sign on the wall there: "Pay if you can, deny if you must."

He recalls one manager telling him, "'You don't get it. Your job is to pay.' Myself and others thought it was our job to take care of veterans and, when they're entitled, to pay them everything they're entitled to. But when they're not entitled, someone has to say, `No.'"

But generally, they say yes.

Robert Warren, 45, of Sullivan, Ill., played the SEAL role to the hilt, right down to the signature trident tattooed on his left calf. He told harrowing stories of action in Somalia and Lebanon, low-altitude parachute jumps and of being a prisoner of war _ stories so convincing that when he applied for PTSD benefits in February 2002, Vietnam War Medal of Honor recipient Allen J. Lynch agreed to personally shepherd the claim.

But in his application to the VA, Warren _ who was in the Navy from 1984 to 1988 and never rose above the rank of petty officer third class _ cited as the event that ruined his life a November 1984 accident aboard the submarine tender USS Hunley that left two sailors badly burned. Warren told the VA he hadn't held a job in five years, and that his condition had made it impossible for him to work around people.

In November 2003, the VA granted 80 percent disability for PTSD and a knee injury, making him eligible for 100 percent compensation and "unemployability." Six months later, the Social Security Administration determined that Warren "suffered from significant and severe mental impairment," making him eligible for simultaneous benefits from that agency.

This continued until late 2008, when investigators at both agencies became suspicious.

Prosecutors found that while Warren was on board the Hunley when the accident occurred, he did not witness it. And his disabilities were as phony as his stories, they say.

As a member of the Sullivan Volunteer Fire Department, Warren had accumulated more than 400 hours on hundreds of emergency calls, and had completed 70 hours of training. And the man who supposedly couldn't work around people was manager of the Dragon Inn, a Sullivan tavern he'd bought in 2000.

By the time Warren's benefits were halted in October 2008, he had received $166,116 from the VA _ including money for his son's college _ and $114,045 in Social Security disability payments.

On Jan. 6, Warren pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to six counts of wire fraud, four counts of mail fraud, one count of making false statements and one count of Social Security fraud. Under a plea agreement, he faces between 21 and 27 months in prison and must repay all the money he received.

In a telephone interview with the AP, Warren maintained that he did see the accident _ through a catwalk, from below.

"Skin was just dripping off," he said, his voice almost a monotone. "It just had this horrible, horrible, horrible smell of burning flesh that I can't get out of my system."

Warren said the SEAL ruse began as a barroom ploy "to pick up girls," and acknowledges that it has destroyed his credibility. But he insists that his work at the fire department and bar have been blown out of proportion, that his ailments are very real, and that he only pleaded guilty on the advice of his public defender.

A veterans group "filed the paperwork for me on this claim. And I just sat back and kept doing my thing, living my life, going to these doctors, doing whatever I had to do," he said.

Ricky Bell, whose face was severely burned in the Hunley accident, told the AP there is no way Warren or anyone else could have seen the explosion, and that Warren's story got key details wrong. The Atlanta man still gets "jumpy" lighting a brazing torch and has lost numerous air conditioning/refrigeration jobs because of his "frights about fire," yet his four applications for PTSD benefits have been denied.

"I was IN the accident and can't get it," says Bell, 46, his voice rising. "Does that sound like the American way?"

But these cases can be difficult to sort out, as the case of Vietnam-era veteran Keith Roberts illustrates.

Roberts was stationed at the U.S. Naval Air Facility in Naples, Italy, in February 1969 when Airman Gary Holland was crushed to death in the wheel well of a C-54 Skymaster transport plane. Roberts, then a 20-year-old aircraft lineman, said he tried to rescue his "very good friend" by having a forklift raise the craft's nose, but that superiors nixed the plan to avoid damaging the plane.

Starting in 1987, Roberts filed a string of disability claims with the VA, eventually blaming PTSD for everything from smoking addiction to arthritis. In 1999, Roberts was declared 100 percent disabled and got a lump sum payment, retroactive to August 1993.

But investigators later determined that Roberts didn't even participate in the rescue effort and was not as close to Holland as he'd claimed. The Board of Veterans Appeals concluded that Roberts "elevated the rather mundane facts ... into what appeared on the surface to be a bona fide PTSD stressor (his best friend died in his arms)."

The board said the VA's regional office "simply conceded" Roberts' claims "without obtaining credible supporting evidence." After losing his benefits, Roberts was convicted of wire fraud, sentenced to 48 months in prison and ordered to pay $262,943.52 in restitution.

Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims concluded in a 45-page ruling that Roberts "committed fraud in securing VA benefits for his PTSD" and affirmed the BVA's decision to sever them.

In a recent telephone interview, the 62-year-old veteran denied that he lied, but argued that under VA rules, he could have PTSD from merely being "vicariously aware of the situation."

"I could have been downtown Naples (having sex) and I STILL could have PTSD. It's the way you perceive it," Roberts said from the Federal Correctional Institution near Denver, before his release in March.

And these are the standards that VA officials would loosen by taking at face value veterans' testimony that they had endured a traumatizing event.

But even then, Gulf War veteran Paul Sullivan argues that the threshold for PTSD claims would still be too high.

"In our view, someone who's deployed to a war zone should be presumed to have a stressor," Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, told participants in a Washington round-table discussion.

When asked whether the new rule would throw open the doors to more fraud, Shinseki stressed the need for more research into PTSD and traumatic brain injury, the war on terror's other "signature" wound.

"I know if we take your temperature and you're registering at 102 degrees, you've got a fever, and there are ways to cope with that," the VA secretary told the AP. "PTSD and TBI are in need of the same kind of metrics."

But in the meantime, his agency is stuck in a morass that seems to have no solution, typified by the case of one Vietnam veteran from Kentucky.

Over the course of more than a decade of denials and appeals, examiners had caught the man in repeated lies. The worst was a tale of trauma related to the 1968 Tet Offensive _ which occurred more than a year before he arrived in-country.

Yet the Board of Veterans Appeals voted to grant the man service connection for PTSD, making him eligible for disability benefits. In making the grant, the panel basically acknowledged that the claims system was overwhelmed, and that the veteran had simply worn them down.

"In so holding," the panel wrote, "the Board ... observes that to remand once again would be an ill-advised use of VA resources at a time when veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with confirmed PTSD are in need of treatment."

___

AP Writer Kimberly Hefling in Washington, D.C., also contributed to this report. Allen G. Breed, a national writer for The Associated Press based in Raleigh, N.C., can be reached at features(at)ap.org.

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I am surprised at the intesity of this article towards veterans committing FRAUD, normally the AP had a very good reputation to just reporting the news, and using facts rather than innuendo. The writers have taken some very bad cases of a few veterans that have used fraud to obtain benefits which in any program the government has there will be some fraud, in other programs a lot of fraud.

In the case of the 2100 cases of PTSD review mentioned yes there were errors what the article ignored was the fact that the errors were not the veterans fault but rather the VA officer workers themselves, not properly documenting the veterans files, it doesn't say the stressors (incidents) never happened just that the VA employees improperly documented them.

The case of the New Mexico veteran who killed themselves upon learning the review was taken to Congress by the New Mexican Congressman Udall not Senator Obama, now Senator Obama may have used it during the Senate VA Committee hearing to get then VA Chairman Larry Craig to bring an end to the witchhunt for fraud, there were many voices in Congress demanding that mentally ill veterans stop being the focus of the Bush Administrations attempt to cut the VA expenses.

This article is not the work of the caliber I have grown used to reading for the past 54 years, this is more of the style of the AEI's DR Sally Satel, where they think PTSD is not a problem at all.

Yes, veterans should be checked and the stressors should be checked and verified before awards are made, but it has been my experience that is exactly what is done 99.9% of the time, yes mistakes are made but it is not only the veterans committing the fraud but the VA employees handling that claim that allowed it to happen.

Normally a veteran can NOT walk into the VA and walk out a few weeks later with a check for the rest of their life, in many cases it turns into a years long battle for benefits which is rather the normal experience in veterans claims. These cases described in this article are the exceptions that give all veterans a bad name,but I know very few disabled veterans that had this easy of a time getting disability benefits especially for PTSD.

New Scholarship for the Children of Fallen Service Members

2010-04-30T12:03:00.001-07:00

New Scholarship for the Children of Fallen Service Members
Benefit Honors Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry

WASHINGTON (April 30, 2010) - The children of military personnel who
died in the line of duty since Sept. 11, 2001 can apply for an
educational scholarship similar to the new Post-9/11 GI Bill. Benefits
are retroactive to Aug. 1, 2009.

The scholarship, which is administered by the Department of Veterans
Affairs, are named after Marine Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry, 28, a
Texas native who died in Iraq in 2006 while disarming an explosive. He
was survived by three young children.

"The Fry scholarship represents this nation's solemn commitment to care
for children whose mothers and fathers paid the ultimate price for our
country," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki.

VA begins accepting applications for the Fry scholarship on May 1, 2010.
For more information or assistance applying, call toll-free
1-888-GIBILL-1 (1-888-442-4551), or visit the VA GI Bill Website at
www.gibill.va.gov .

VA estimates nearly 1,500 children will receive benefits under the Fry
scholarship program in 2010. Recipients generally have 15 years to use
their benefits, beginning on their 18th birthdays.

Eligible children attending institutions of higher learning may receive
payments to cover their tuition and fees up to the highest amounts
charged to public, in-state students at undergraduate institutions in
each state. A monthly housing allowance and stipend for books and
supplies are also paid under this program.

VA will begin paying benefits under the Fry scholarships on Aug. 1,
2010. Eligible participants may receive benefits retroactively to
August 1, 2009, the same day the Post-9/11 GI Bill took effect.
Eligible children may be married. Recipients are entitled to 36 months
of benefits at the 100 percent level.

When dependents also serve in the military, the reserves or are Veterans
in their own right, eligible for education benefits under the Montgomery
GI Bill for Active Duty, the Montgomery GI Bill for Selected Reserves or
the Reserve Educational Assistance Program (REAP), then they would
relinquish their eligibility under those programs to receive benefits
under a Fry scholarship.

UW conference to battle the ravages of war

2010-04-29T18:01:00.000-07:00

UW conference to battle the ravages of war

Sponsors of a global health conference this weekend at the University of Washington hope to frame war as a grave but solvable public-health crisis.

By Andrew Doughman

Seattle Times staff reporter

Conference details

WHAT: Western Regional International Health Conference
WHEN: 9 a.m.- 9:30 p.m. Saturday and 9:30 a.m.-

4:30 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: The Husky Union Building (HUB) on the University of Washington campus.

WHY: The UW Department of Global Health and Physicians for Social Responsibility are sponsoring the conference to address war as a public-health problem. They say approaching war in this way will promote peace.

COST: Student/Medical resident/unemployed: $75; nonstudent/professional: $125. Registration is online only: http://wrihc.org/registration

When Evan Kanter adds up the costs of war, he doesn't only consider the cost of fighter jets and tanks, he also counts his patients at a veterans hospital in Seattle, where he works as a psychiatrist treating active-duty military personnel and veterans who have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

For him, the costs of war include the health strain placed on these people when they redeployed, again and again, to Iraq and Afghanistan.

"You know that, in a sense, they may never really be able to go home again," he said.

Watching people lose their jobs or lose their marriages because of PTSD is devastating.

Kanter will describe these long-term consequences of conflict at a global-health conference at the University of Washington Saturday and Sunday. The organizers hope to frame war as a grave but solvable public-health crisis.

They hope to put war in the same context as tobacco, which evolved in the public perception from habit to health hazard as a result of public-health campaigns in the 1960s.

More than 60 speakers — academics, journalists and doctors — will address how war affects those serving in the military, veterans, refugees, civilians and the environment at the eighth annual Western Regional International Health Conference.

The Department of Global Health at the UW — founded four years ago — and Physicians for Social Responsibility, a nonprofit environmental-advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., are sponsoring the event.

This year, organizers expect about 700 students, faculty and community members to attend.

Organizers such as UW graduate student Rebecca Bartlein want those attending to challenge the ideas that war is inevitable.

"War is not just something that happens," she said. "We can impact those causes of war."

Government could cap its military spending and offer young people an array of nonviolent ways to serve their country, she suggested.

Bartlein said most people envision diseases such as AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis when they think about global health. War is not what springs to mind.

But war ravages more than armies. It upends a society.

Civilians often can't access health care in a conflict zone. Essential services often shut down, making health problems worse.

Governments invest in weapons rather than health, education and the environment, Bartlein said.

But it's not only such indirect effects of war that make it a pressing health concern, conference organizers say. The direct effects of modern warfare are devastating, as well.

"One hundred years ago, 90 percent of the people killed by war were actually combatants, and today 90 percent of the people killed by war are civilians," Kanter said.

Bartlein, the UW graduate student, went abroad several years ago to work at a camp for Somali refugees in Ethiopia.

Her job was to help doctors at the camp deliver care to those who had fled conflict in Somalia.

"It just really hammered home," she said.

"I mean, here you have these camps filled with tens of thousands of refugees. The most cost-effective and efficient way to take care of their health needs is to prevent them from being displaced in the first place," Bartlein said.

"This is a really opportune time as the Seattle global-health community is defining itself and defining what its priorities are going to be," she added.

Seattle has its share of global-health heavyweights. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which donated millions to start the UW's global-health department, operates out of Seattle. So does PATH, which works in developing countries.

There are enough of these organizations in Seattle that a group called Washington Global Health Alliance formed two years ago to encourage the health organizations to work together.

"The Northwest seems to be a nexus for this kind of work and the development for this sort of strategy," Kanter said.

It's that network of academics, doctors and regional groups the event organizers want to reach.

They're hoping their war-as-health-problem message will last longer than the conference.

Andrew Doughman: 206-464-3195 or adoughman@seattletimes.com

AACE: Agent Orange Ups Some Thyroid Risks

2010-04-28T12:19:00.000-07:00

AACE: Agent Orange Ups Some Thyroid Risks

By Kristina Fiore, Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Published: April 26, 2010
Reviewed by Dori F. Zaleznik, MD

; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston and
Dorothy Caputo, MA, RN, BC-ADM, CDE, Nurse Planner

§ Explain that veterans who'd been exposed to Agent Orange were three times more likely to develop Graves' disease, but were not at greater risk of other thyroid disorders including cancer or nodules.

§ Note that this study was published as an abstract and presented at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

BOSTON -- Vietnam veterans who came in contact with Agent Orange are more likely to develop Graves' disease than those who avoided exposure, researchers said here.

The autoimmune disorder was three times more prevalent among veterans who encountered the dioxin-containing chemical, Ajay Varanasi, MD, of SUNY Buffalo, and colleagues reported at the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists meeting here.

"We also looked at other [thyroid] diagnoses," Varanasi told MedPage Today, "but we didn't find any significant differences in thyroid cancer or nodules."

Varanasi and colleagues originally hypothesized that the latter two diagnoses may be more prevalent among vets exposed to the toxin.

Agent Orange was a defoliant sprayed from U.S. planes and helicopters during the Vietnam War to deprive Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers of cover. Veterans have long complained that exposure to the chemical caused them a variety of health problems, though few have been confirmed.

Since most Vietnam veterans have been assessed for possible Agent Orange exposure, the researchers were able to review their records and correlate that with disease.

In 2008, they assessed the prevalence of major thyroid diagnoses in the Veterans Affairs (VA) electronic medical record database beginning in 1996 for veterans born between 1925 and 1953 who were treated in a VA network in upstate New York.

They compared the frequency of diagnosis with thyroid cancer, nodules, hypothyroidism, and Graves' disease in both exposed and nonexposed populations.

A total of 23,939 vets had been classified as exposed to Agent Orange, while 200,109 were not exposed.

The researchers found that the prevalence of Graves' disease in those exposed to Agent Orange was three times that of the unexposed group (OR 3.05, 95% CI 2.17 to 4.50, P=0.001).

The relationship remained even after multivariate analyses accounted for potential confounders such as smoking (OR 2.76, 95% CI 2.22 to 3.81, P<0.001).

Interestingly, Varanasi said, prevalence of hypothyroidism was lower in those exposed to Agent Orange. Nor was there any difference in the prevalence of thyroid cancer or nodules between those exposed and those not exposed.

"There's no real mechanism as to why it should cause a high prevalence of cancer," Varanasi said.

But the literature holds a likely mechanism linking exposure to Graves' disease, he added.

"In doing a literature search, we found that the dioxin in Agent Orange might have some immune-modulating effects in human beings," he said.

This dioxin -- 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) -- binds to aryl hydrocarbon receptors (AhR) very tightly, leading to prolonged activation of genomic and nongenomic metabolic disorders, the researchers said.

In mice, for example, AhR can regulate the differentiation of regulatory T cells and of T cells that produce interleukin-17. Also, AhR ligands like TCDD can modulate autoimmunity.

"The effects could be through this hydrocarbon, and this receptor is mainly expressed in T-helper-17 cells," Varanasi said. "Through this mechanism, we could have some immune modulating effects, and this could cause a higher prevalence of Graves' disease in exposed patients."

He and colleagues concluded that the relationship of Graves' disease to Agent Orange exposure warrants further investigation.

The researchers reported no diclosures.

Primary source: American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists
Source reference:
Varanasi A, et al "Are veterans exposed to Agent Orange more likely to get Graves' disease?" AACE 2010; Abstract 1046.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Cases Rise in German Soliders in Afghanistan

2010-04-28T09:18:00.000-07:00

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Cases Rise in German Soliders in Afghanistan

One Psychiatrist for 4,500 Troops

The Germany armed forces' deployment in Afghanistan appears to be having an impact on soldiers' psyche. Several newspaper reports claim the number of cases of post-traumatic stress disorder is on the rise. And the Bundeswehr lacks psychiatrists to provide the necessary treatment.

The number of Bundeswehr soldiers affected by psychiatric problems has increased rapidly in recent months, with the number of those suffering from so-called post-traumatic stress disorder having risen particularly quickly, two German newspapers reported on Thursday.

Both of the dailies, the Rhein-Zeitung and the Süddeutsche Zeitung, referred to a request for information made to the defense affairs committee of the German federal parliament by politician Elke Hoff of the Free Democratic Party (FDP). "Up until now the government has neglected to do anything to better the psychological care and treatment of soldiers," she told the Süddeutschen Zeitung.

According to the newspapers, the number of soldiers suffering first symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder had risen by over 30 percent in the first six months of 2009. This resulted in a total of 163 cases. Last year, a total of 245 cases of the psychiatric disorder were reported in the military, with 226 of them occurring in Afghanistan. In 2006, only 55 soldiers were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. During the past six months, attacks on German forces in Aghanistan have risen.

More Mental Health Care Urgently Needed

Hoff brought up the issue because of the findings of a study she commissioned from German military psychiatrist, Mario Horst Lanczik. He spent time in Afghanistan examining soldiers with PTSD and found that the psychiatric care of German soldiers was not adequate either before, during or after combat. Hoff also pointed out that there are not enough psychiatrists available in the military to provide the necessary support. Only half of the 40 potential positions for psychiatric support in the military's medical corps are currently filled. And there was only one psychiatrist available to the 4,500 German troops in Afghanistan.

According to the Rhein-Zeitung newspaper, two therapists are available directly to soldiers in the Hindu Kush. The Bundeswehr has said that they are part of a network of pastors and army doctors.

Hoff is now demanding more mental healthcare options for German soldiers. She told the Rhein-Zeitung that she wants the empty positions in the medical corps filled and she has said that psychiatric problems following military deployment abroad should not be stigmatized as a hindrance to a career in the army. If this was the case, then soldiers might be tempted to hide their problems, she noted.

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It appears that the American Army and other military forces are the only ones to have problems getting enough mental health care available in the war theater and back at the troops home bases. This is an issue that is not going to go away, as long as troops are in war zones there will be stress related issues and either the troops get treatment early or they will do much like they do now, suck it up, ignore it because they fear it will harm their careers by asking for help, or wait decades like many Vietnam war veterans before they have a melt down.

Official Calls Wounded Warriors Report ‘Unrepresentative’

2010-04-27T11:35:00.000-07:00

Official Calls Wounded Warriors Report ‘Unrepresentative’

By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 26, 2010 – The focus of a New York Times article depicting neglect and suffering endured by a group of wounded soldiers recovering in an Army program is unrepresentative of the recovery effort at large, the Army surgeon general said today.Video

Lt. Gen. (Dr.) Eric B. Schoomaker stopped short of calling the article that appeared yesterday inaccurate, but said the overwhelming majority of soldiers in warrior transition units are satisfied with the recovery regimen, according to an Army survey.

“I don't see them as necessarily crafting fiction,” Schoomaker said to Pentagon reporters about the article. “But I do believe that it is wholly unrepresentative of the totality and the context of what we’ve done for warrior care, especially in the last three years.”

Overall, 81 percent of participating soldiers are satisfied with the program, and about 90 percent of wounded soldiers recovering at Fort Carson, Colo. -- the focal point of the New York Times article -- are satisfied with their warrior transition unit according to the survey, Schoomaker said.

These figures paint a picture in stark contrast to the New York Times report, which the paper said was based on interviews with more than a dozen soldiers and health care professionals from Fort Carson’s transition unit and reports from other Army posts. The article states that warrior transition units have become “warehouses of despair” for many soldiers.

The Army surgeon general took umbrage at this portrayal of warrior transition units -- which are responsible for some 9,300 soldiers -- calling it “a poor characterization” and “almost 180 degrees of the truth.”

Schoomaker was asked specifically to comment on the report’s description of the units as “warehouses of despair, where damaged men and women are kept out of sight, fed a diet of powerful prescription pills and treated harshly by noncommissioned officers.”

“Of all of the descriptions in there, with the exception perhaps of the suffering that individual soldiers and families have had,” he said, “that sentence alone is among the most offensive to us. And I think it wholly describes a situation that we feel is not present.

“We welcome you and any member of the press to go out and physically visit warrior transition units,” he continued, “to talk with those soldiers, to talk with their cadre and to see the larger context of how care is being delivered.”

The article raised concerns about the over-prescription of drugs by doctors and the abuse or misuse of both prescribed and illicit substances. A military official told reporters that 78 incidents of illegal drug use have been recorded at the Fort Carson warrior transition unit since 2008.

“We have concerns about the diversion of prescription drugs that can be used for recreational uses, just as in the nation at large,” Schoomaker said. “That's a big problem right now across the country. We’re also concerned because illegally obtained drugs can be used as complements to these other drugs.”

Schoomaker said an inspection of warrior transition units by the Army inspector general will be completed soon, and Army Brig. Gen. Gary Cheek, commander of Warrior Transition Command, is slated to visit Fort Carson to review policies and practices of their warrior transition unit later this week.

“With 9,300 soldiers currently in the program, we don't always get it right,” Schoomaker said. “To that end, we take every criticism and concern seriously and continuously strive to improve our program.”

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The Warrior Transition Units were created with the purest of goals when they came into being, it was because the old "medical holding companies" of the past just were not doing a job of maintaining control over the ever growing number of wounded veterans filling the nations military hospitals that were not bad enough to still be hospitalized but not well enough to return to their units. Most will be given medical discharges due to PTSD and or amputations or other significant wounds. The majority of these soldiers are on so much medication that actually showing up for formations atregular times can be more than should be expected. Many are "zombies" from the narcotics the hospitals are giving them, or anxiety medications, etc, many of them are walking pharmacies, hardly capable of doing "work" of any meaningful type, yet the chain of command are writing these soldiers up for missing formations, reducing their ranks, taking away part of their paychecks and by the time many of their medical discharges are ready to be processed these soldiers have found themselves in so much disciplinary problems that instead of getting a medical discharge they are being thrown out of the Army on bad conduct discharges and finding themsleves owing the military thousands of dollars in over payments of enlistment or re-enlistment bonuses, which makes the depression even worse.

Last week they were hero's this week they are zero's and owe the Army they served honorably at war. Yes there is a requirement for discipline even for soldiers in medical treatment for war injuries but throwing a wounded soldier out of the Army with no medical benefits and a bad discharge which will now prevent them from getting even the basic care at the Veterans administration or being able to file for veterans compensation for their injuries, you have some very depressed veterans left kicked to the curb. There needs to be a lot more leeway given to these type of soldiers, they are not infantry troops training to go to war, they have been there and injured now they need help and compassion not to go thru a version of hospital boot camp and see who survives with all the stripes they arrived with.

VA refuses to make ASST Sec Tammy Duckworth available

2010-04-27T11:24:00.000-07:00

The text of Mitchell’s letter to Shinseki is below:

April 23, 2010

Honorable Eric K. Shinseki

Secretary

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

810 Vermont Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20420

Dear Secretary Shinseki:

I am concerned about what appears to be an emerging pattern of non-compliance by the Department of Veterans Affairs with recent Subcommittee requests for witnesses and information. Most recently and notably, I am concerned about the Department’s refusal to comply with our Subcommittee’s request to produce Undersecretary for Health, Dr. Robert Petzel, and Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs, L. Tammy Duckworth, to testify before our oversight hearing, Examining the Progress of Suicide Prevention Outreach Efforts at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, that had originally been scheduled for April 28, 2010.

As you may be aware, on April 23, 2010, an Army Times article reported that there is troubling new data showing that there is an average of 950 suicide attempts each month by veterans who are receiving some type of treatment from the VA.[1] The subject of the hearing was to be outreach to all veterans – many of whom are not being treated by the VA – who have committed or attempted suicide.

As you know, our Subcommittee has long believed that the epidemic of veteran suicides, and the VA’s outreach efforts to veterans at risk are of paramount concern, and has held numerous oversight hearings on the subject.[2]

On Wednesday, April 21, 2010, we were told by Assistant Secretary of Congressional and Legislative Affairs that the Undersecretary for Health, Dr. Robert Petzel, and Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs, L. Tammy Duckworth, would not be complying with our request.

Our Subcommittee has an obligation, on behalf of our nation’s veterans, to examine the VA’s efforts to address this problem. We cannot, however, conduct our work without access to appropriate witnesses and appropriate information from the Department of Veterans Affairs. That is one of the reasons why our Committee is vested with subpoena power. [3]

I urge you to reconsider the Department’s response, and to produce the requested witnesses.

This most recent exchange follows the Department’s decision not to produce Deputy Secretary Gould to testify at the Subcommittee’s hearing on February 25, 2010, entitled Gulf War Illness: The Future for Dissatisfied Veterans. My first request was on October 26, 2009. Again on November 3, 2009, I reiterated the importance of having top leadership who can speak with necessary authority at the hearing. In my third letter, dated January 22, 2010, I stated my position yet again on the importance of Deputy Secretary Gould attending the hearing as a witness.

Instead, on February 18, 2010 we were informed that the Department would not comply with my request and had unilaterally decided to send Chief of Staff, John Gingrich, as a replacement.

As I am sure you are aware, Congress determines who testifies at hearings – not the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.

Moreover, I am also concerned that the VA has yet to return questions from our Subcommittee’s Acquisition Deficiencies hearing on December 16, 2009. Responses were originally due on February 23, 2010. We granted an extension until March 2, 2010. To date, however, we have yet to receive the VA’s response.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time I’ve expressed my concerns regarding requests going unanswered or unreasonably delayed.

Additionally, as Chairman, I have received complaints from other Members of Congress that their requests for information from the Department are going unanswered or unreasonably delayed. Based on our Subcommittee’s recent experience with the Department, I am hardly in a position to dispute them. I am concerned that perhaps what we are experiencing is a cultural problem stemming from a disregard for Congressional prerogatives evident through refusals to send specific requested personnel or waiting until the last minute to inform us they are unavailable, and not responding to the specific requests made through this Subcommittee.

The power of Congress to conduct investigations is inherent in the legislative process. The Supreme Court had held that this power is broad.[4] It encompasses inquires concerning the administration of existing laws as well as proposed or possibly needed statues. It includes surveys of defects in our social, economic or political system for the purpose of enabling the Congress to remedy them. It comprehends probes into departments of the Federal Government to expose corruption, inefficiency or waste.[5] Congress does not take this power lightly. As the Court has stated, it must be related to, and in furtherance of, a legitimate task of the Congress.

Because this tremendous power is trusted by the Constitution to Congress, it is unquestionably the duty of all citizens to cooperate with the Congress in its efforts to obtain the facts needed for intelligent legislative action.[6] The Supreme Court makes clear the duty of all citizens, and agency officials, that it is their unremitting obligation to respond to subpoenas, to respect the dignity of the Congress and its committees and to testify fully with respect to matters within the province of proper investigation.[7]

I ask that the VA share the same unswerving commitment that I know you do, and be rededicated to a teamwork approach. The American public and veterans demand accountability from the VA through their elected representatives.

I urge you to ensure that the Department responds to all Congressional requests in timely and forthcoming manner. Our veterans deserve nothing less than full accountability and transparency. In this effort, you have my support.

Sincerely,

HARRY E. MITCHELL

Chairman,

Subcommittee on Oversight

and Investigations

1 Rick Maze, 18 Veterans Commit Suicide Each Day, Army Times, April 23, 2010 (visited on Apr. 23, 2010) < http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/04/military_veterans_suicide_042210w/>.

2 Media Outreach to Veterans, Before the Subcomm. on Oversight and Investigations of the House Vet. Aff. Comm., 110th Cong (2007); Media Outreach to Veterans: an Update, Before the Subcomm. on Oversight and Investigations of the House Vet. Aff. Comm., 110th Cong. (2008).

3 Rules of the House of Representatives, Subpoena power, Rule XI (m)(1)(B), (m)(3)(A)(i), (m)(3)(C); See Watkins v. United States, 354 U.S. 178, 187-8, 200-1 (1957); See also U.S. House of Representatives v. U.S. Dep’t of Commerce, 11 F,Supp.2d 76, 86 (D.D.C.1998) (“[I]t [is] well established that a legislative body suffers a redressable injury when that body cannot receive information necessary to carry out its constitutional responsibilities. This right to receive information arises primarily in subpoena enforcement cases, where a house of Congress or a congressional committee seeks to compel information in aid of its legislative function.”).

4 Watkins v. United States, 354 U.S. 178, 187-88, 77 S.Ct. 1173, 1 L.Ed.2d 1273 (1957).

5 Id.

6 Id.

7 Id. See also Committee on the Judiciary v. Harriet Miers, 558 F. Supp.2d 53.

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The last time I looked Congress has the wallet or checkbook that funds the VA and they have oversight responsibility, which means that the VA must make their executives or anyone else employed by them available to the House or Senate Committees that want to question them under oath at hearings, it is part of their jobs. The federal agencies can't say no we are not going to comply or no we ain't coming to your hearings, they must be held accountable if they are defying Congress with the blessing of the Secretary of the VA's approval then he must answer to Congress on why he won't make these officials available and on what authority does he base this on? Executive privilege does not extend to people this far down the list from the President, we are a nation of laws, and we can not have federal employees deciding that they just are not going to comply with Congress, if necessary these individuals either show up at the hearings or be fired it's that simple, they are public employees, some who have been selected by the President and confirmed by the Senate, but they are still accountable, to us the taxpayers, and given the fact that the subject of these hearings is about suicides of this nations veterans, it is appalling that the VA would refuse to help get to the bottom of the problem. Maybe they don't have the answers but they should not be the road block to trying to find better solutions to a problem that is harming this nations veterans and their families, suicide has no winners, only pain is left in the wake of each and every suicide.

Can the Peace Drug Help Clean Up the War Mess?

2010-04-21T09:24:00.000-07:00

Can the Peace Drug Help Clean Up the War Mess?

SAN JOSE, California—Michael Bledsoe's story begins like that of many other Iraqi war veterans. In 2007, he was chasing insurgents through Anbar province when a roadside bomb exploded, breaking Bledsoe's back and both his feet. A former Army Ranger working as a security contractor, Bledsoe soon knew his high-paying military career was over.

Back home, Bledsoe (not his real name) felt angry almost constantly. Nightmares haunted him. He withdrew and became isolated. "It was a serious sense of loss," he says. His psychiatrist quickly diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Despite months of talk therapy, the nightmares continued, and Bledsoe grew desperate. Then "something almost miraculous" happened, he says. An online search brought him to a unique study of the banned drug MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine), well known as the street drug ecstasy. The 21-patient study, sponsored by the nonprofit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), launched in 2004 as the first U.S. clinical trial of a psychedelic drug in 35 years.

After several bond-building sessions with psychiatrist and study leader Michael Mithoefer and a co-therapist, Bledsoe swallowed a white tablet, donned eyeshades and reclined in Mithoefer's comfortable Charleston, S.C., office. Over the next eight hours, Bledsoe revisited the explosion and recounted the trauma to Mithoefer. After two more MDMA-assisted psychotherapy sessions, Bledsoe says his PTSD symptoms were "completely eliminated."

This weekend at a MAPS-sponsored meeting here, Mithoefer reported similar results for nearly all of the trial's participants. After two or three MDMA sessions, patients who received MDMA experienced huge drops in symptoms as measured by a standard PTSD scale. At baseline, study patients had an average Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) score of 79, but after MDMA-assisted therapy, CAPS scores dropped to 23.4 in the 13-person MDMA group, whereas an eight-person placebo group averaged a score of 60. (Later, seven of eight placebo patients chose to receive MDMA as well.)

The improvements appeared to endure, Mithoefer reported. After an average of 3.5 years, 13 of 16 patients remaining in contact with the researchers no longer met the criteria for PTSD. However, two of the patients "clearly relapsed," Mithoefer says. In addition, many of the patients returned to using antidepressants and other psychoactive medications, though the total number of prescriptions in the group was much lower than before.

Julie Holland, a psychiatrist in New York City who used to work at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center in the Bronx, says the data "look really great. It's amazing that when patients are done with therapy, they don't meet criteria for PTSD. I've never even seen that. It's a very big deal." If MDMA were legal, Holland added, she would "absolutely" use it in her practice.

Brain-imaging studies in healthy volunteers show that MDMA quiets the amygdala, an almond-shaped structure deep in the brain that some researchers call a “fear center” due to its central role in triggering strong negative emotions. MDMA also releases a flood of the brain messengers serotonin and dopamine while increasing blood levels of the hormones oxytocin and prolactin, which promote social bonding. This potent mix diminishes fear and defensiveness and boosts empathy and the desire to connect with others, says Holland, so “the therapy work goes faster and deeper.”

Veterans suffer very high rates of PTSD, according to surveys. One 2004 study in The New England Journal of Medicine estimated that up to 18 percent of Iraqi and Afghanistan combat veterans experience the disorder. "This is our way of trying to contribute to our moral obligations to our veterans," says MAPS founder and executive director Rick Doblin. He added that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has rejected overtures from MAPS to work together on five separate occasions.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been friendlier to the group. This month, the agency granted MAPS permission to continue testing MDMA in 16 additional veterans with PTSD. But the road to full FDA approval is long and expensive, and Doblin anticipates five to 10 years of additional trials. He envisions eventually building a network of psychedelic therapy centers.

A dedicated network of therapists experimented with MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in the 1970s and 1980s before the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration banned the drug in 1985. The next year, Doblin launched MAPS to revive psychedelic research, a movement that's now gaining steam. A dozen human studies of MDMA, LSD, a powerful African drug called ibogaine and psilocybin, from so-called "magic mushrooms," are now under way, testing the once-stigmatized drugs as treatments for not only PTSD, but also cluster headaches and addiction, as well as anxiety and depression in cancer patients.

Charles Grob, a psychiatrist at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, dosed 12 end-stage cancer patients with psilocybin to test whether the experience could ease anxiety and help the patients cope with their diagnosis. Grob did not present his data, which are under review for publication, at the San Jose meeting, but the buzz on the results is positive. Grob and his co-investigators did offer snippets of letters and reactions from study patients. One said, “It feels like healing.” Similar studies of psilocybin in the terminally ill are now launching at New York University in New York City and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

However, the going has been slow, with Doblin carefully dotting every regulatory "i" to prevent a second backlash against psychedelics. "This isn't the '60s," he says. "We've learned the lessons of that era, and now we're trying to integrate ourselves into science, into medicine, into society."

At the San Jose meeting, dubbed "Psychedelic Science in the 21st Century," that integration was in full swing. Eleven hundred therapists, physicians, basic researchers and psychedelics enthusiasts gathered for three days of scientific and cultural talks, visionary art shows and late-night celebrations. The unlikely mix found conservatively dressed researchers from prestigious universities mingling with the heavily tattooed and the green haired.

As for Bledsoe, he's now a true believer. His MDMA sessions were "an almost sacred experience, a very special and uplifting experience," he says. After the therapy, he vacationed in Jamaica, began dating a local woman and bought a house on the island. "I'm happy and well adjusted now," he says. "It's a good fairy-tale ending. As soon as we get some little Bob Marley kids it'll be even better."

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I am sorry to have to question the validity of "science" that uses ecstacy as the "cure" for PTSD, I can still remember when the CIA and the Army wereconducting tests with LSD-25 in the 50s and 60s as the new agent of warfare, the drug that would make everyone forget the horrors of war and hopefully allow the military to have control of the mind of the soldiers under the influence of this drug.

Now here we are another 50 years later and again we have the VA now experimenting with another psychedelic and they are wanting to experiment with others A dozen human studies of MDMA, LSD, a powerful African drug called ibogaine and psilocybin, from so-called "magic mushrooms," are now under way, testing the once-stigmatized drugs

Being one of the 7120 "med vols" I have had a very bad experience with human research and I can not condone anything the government is doing along these lines, the 7120 men of Edgewood Arsenal human experimenst were found in the last medical follow up study to have a 75% death and disability rate in the FY 2000 study published by the IOM as the March 2003 Sarin Report by DR William Page, 3098 men aged 45-65 could not be located using all government databases IRS, VA and Social Security and men aged 45-65are either paying taxes or drawing compensation checks from the VA or Social Security either as SS or SSD the report also reported that of the 4022 men they did find alive 54% of them or another 2200 men were disabled, yet they never explained what the disabilities were, why? Also given that GW1 veterans were exposed to mustard agents and sarin why did the IOM only look at Sarin exposures and NOT mustard agent problems, the Edgewood Arsenal veterans had been exposed to both Sarin and mustard between 1955 thru 1975, the Army destroyed the Iraqi ammo bunkers ay Kamiasyah, Iraq on March 19, 1991 with sarin and mustard filled rockets and artillery shells, spewing the chenical weapons for miles of the spring winds of the desert, if the veterans of the first gulf war may have been exposed to Sarin then it is also likely they were exposed to mustard agents, why hasn't the IOM looked at the medical problems caused by exposure to low level mustard agent exposure or was it the fact that DOD refused to write of fund a contract for the huge potential financial liability they know the mustard agent expsoure would cause, as the known medical problems related to mustard agents are extensive to the human body and the compensation could runinto the hundreds of billions of dollars to the 500,000 veterans of the first gulf war.

Veterans Face Two-Front War: A Response from the DVA

2010-04-05T14:51:00.000-07:00

You would have to read the hundreds of emails I get weekly from veterans pleading for help, saying their VSO’s will not return their phone calls. The DAV, as I understand it have reduced their attorney staff that takes cases to the Court of veteran Appeals. Had a veteran who DAV refused to pursue their case to the Court, found him an attorney, won a procedural decision from the court, and is now back at the VBA awaiting a decision. Attorney Bob Walsh is a Godsend to veterans, as is Attorney Joe Moore, and several others. They provide much pro bono help, where no help existed before… what do you do? who do you turn to? after VSO has had your claim for years, then drops you?

Far too many veterans just give up… don’t give up.. at the end of your rope? Get an attorney.

Remember? , 16,112 of the Vietnam Veterans with claims for Parkinson’s are deceased, who should have won their case years ago, if the VSO’s had fought for it, as

Hard as a number of veteran advocates, like me, fought for it. That doesn’t include the many thousands who never filed a claim because a VSO said not to, as it wasn’t covered.

There are a lot of good Vet service officer, but far too many bad ones, and most are overwhelmed just passing the papers back & forth between denial, appeal, denial, appeal and requesting a burial flag, before case is ever decided.

Mike:

I had not seen the article. Thanks for sending it to me.

I was informed recently that the local DAV service officer stood up in a public veterans meeting here in Battle Creek, Michigan and lied to all present.

He said that if you hire an attorney to work on your VA benefits claim and win you will pay 1/3 of the back pay and then 1/3 of the benefits for life.

I charge 20% of the back pay. I do not get paid when I help veterans with new claims. I had over $ 250,000.00 recovered for veterans last year that was pro bono, without fees. Some attorneys charge 33% of the back pay. No attorney can charge a veteran for life.

That lie I suggest is the official “big lie” coming from DAV. I do not think our local service officer could come up with such foolishness on his own.

The DAV response may be accurately stating how much their claimants recovered last year. As to how many cases the DAV takes up to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC) and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the answer is very few. To my knowledge no service organization staffed up with attorneys to assist their members after the creation of the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. There is no “G.M. Legal Services Plan” type of free legal assistance available to the membership of the national service organizations. There are only two or three thousand attorneys in the U.S. that assist veterans with benefits claims. The VA has a large number of expert attorneys in Washington to represent them on each case at the CAVC and Federal Circuit.

A few Pro Bono attorneys will not clean up the 1 million claims backlog the VA has created with the able assistance of the DAV and the other service organizations. The system is broken, and veterans and their families suffer every day because of it.

The DAV approach of “pissing on a forest fire” has not been effective for the past 60 years. It is not effective now, and will not work in the future. But they press on.

If you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem.

The major changes in veterans benefits in the past 50 years have been through grass roots efforts or by small organizations. Agent Orange was tackled by the Vietnam Veterans of America. A workable G. I. Bill was recently rammed through by the Iraq Afghanistan Veterans Association. The ban on concurrent receipt was a grass roots effort by thousands of disabled military retirees with little support from the large organizations. Veterans for Common Sense had the courage to sue the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs over the benefits claims processing debacle.

The recent improvements in Agent Orange benefits and Gulf War Illness was the work of a handful of men and women. Less than a hundred. Many of them are seriously ill with the diseases they have been seeking benefits for. They were able to effectuate change in the system. But for 60 years the national service organizations have been unwilling or unable to modernize and improve the system.

I do not believe in bringing a pen knife to a gun fight. I do not think veterans should have to hire an attorney to get their benefits. But since they have had little or no help from the National Service Organizations my position is that 80% of 100% is far better than 100% of nothing, and easier to spend.

These are my personal views and are not the views of the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law or Project Salute.

Veterans Face Two-Front War: A Response from the DVA

Veterans Face Two-Front War: A Response from the DVA
April 3, 2010 by Michael Leon · 39 Comments

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Bob Walsh, Attorney Fighting for Veterans
Last month, Veterans Today ran a piece on the effort of veterans service organizations impeding veterans from getting legal assistance against the U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs, an agency ranging from hostile to indifferent to the plight of veterans in a rigged and crooked bureaucratic system.

The fact is there is no unified veterans lobby fighting on behalf of veterans to mitigate a hostile bureaucracy.

Veterans service organizations have been captured by the VA and partisan interests. Groups like Veterans for Common Sense and attorneys like Robert Walsh wage a lonely war on behalf of their clients against the VA, but also against the national veteran service organizations that are part of the problem.

Emblematic is the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) that I say seeks an effective roll-back of legal assistance for veterans after years of working against the right of veterans to obtain legal counsel to fight the VA.

Joseph A. Violante, National Legislative Director of the Disabled American Veterans disagrees with the above sentiment. Mr. Violante’s views on the matter are reprinted below, and I will let them stand without further comment so that the group’s view are heard here. Intelligent disagreement is critical, as is dialogue with the enemy.

By Joseph A. Violante

The column, ‘Attorneys Fight for Veterans Against VA and VSOs’ contains some inaccuracies, which I would like to address.

You claim that the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) is targeting the use of attorneys by veterans. This is absolutely false. While we have a resolution calling for repeal of the law that allows attorneys to charge veterans a fee for services render on claims, DAV is not actively pursuing that goal. DAV does not oppose attorneys assisting veterans with their claims; we are opposed to veterans paying forthose services with their earned disability compensation. It is our firm belief that veterans have already paid for their earned benefits. For your information, DAV has reached out to and been contacted by many law firms and individual attorneys who are helping active duty service members and veterans with claims assistance on a pro bono basis. DAV works closely with these attorneys in identifying active duty service members and veterans who need assistance before Physical Evaluation Boards (PEBs) and the U.S. Courts of Appeal for Veterans’ Claims and Federal Circuit.

The reference to Veterans Service Organizations (VSOs) as the ‘veritable enemy’ couldn’t be further from the truth. Last year alone, DAV National Service Officers were responsible for our clients receiving $4.3 billion in new and retroactive benefits. DAV Transition Service Officers are on military installations providing free TAP and DTAP counseling, as well as assisting with claims work and reviewing files. Our Mobile Service Offices, with state-of-the-art electronic equipment, go out to inner cities and rural areas to provide claims representation to veterans who cannot get to regional offices in person. DAV assists any veteran, his or her dependents and survivors free of charge. Our assistance doesn’t stop there. DAV volunteers help veterans in the hospital, drive veterans to and from their VA medical appointments and assist veterans in their communities with services that include cutting lawns or grocery shopping to name but two. These statistics are hardly the work of an enemy.

Again, the reference to VSOs, and specifically DAV, as ‘part of the problem in denying and delaying veterans [sic] disability claims’ is false. You provide no facts to back up this fallacious allegation. First, I believe the benefits we obtain annually for our clients prove you are mistaken. Second, there is no reason for us to delay a veteran’s benefit claim. Unlike an attorney, our representatives get no fee based on the retroactive payment our client receives. Further, we don’t have the ability or any reason to ‘deny’ our own client’s claim. Finally, DAV and many VSOs and Military Service Organizations have been recently working on a comprehensive plan to improve the VA claims process and speed up decisions, outlined in our National Commander’s recent testimony and other testimony provided over the past two years by national legislative staff.

It is interesting that the link embedded in your article, ‘the Attorneys for Veterans right [sic],’ links to a blog that claims it is ‘independent,’ yet it is littered with ads from attorneys looking for business. The page you link to is from 2007, three years ago.

To support the allegations in the article, ‘Attorneys Fight for Veterans Against VA & VSOs,’ you print a letter from a Mr. Priessman. He starts by claiming: ‘Recently, the DAV, after testimony by its Commander, Roberto Barrera, sought to overturn legislation [Public Law 109-461].’ I have no idea where he got that information, because it is totally unfounded. I would direct your readers and Mr. Priessman to National Commander Barrera’s full written statement (http://www.dav.org/voters/documents/statements/Barrera20100302.pdf), DAV Talking Points (issues provided to our members to raise at their meetings with elected officials) (http://www.dav.org/news/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=219) or a video of Commander Barrera’s oral remarks and answers to questions (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzLBDFVNhvU (part 1) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehZkEhQikNo(part 2)). Nowhere is there any reference to repealing P.L. 109-461, which allows attorney to charge veterans for services. Nowhere is there any mention of attorneys except for DAV’s work with law firms, which provide pro bono services before PEBs and the federal courts. Nor is it clear where he believes we have portrayed ‘attorneys as complete scoundrels’ and ‘veterans as complete dolts.’ DAV employs several attorneys, myself included. DAV’s objection is about attorneys receiving a veteran’s disability compensation as their fee.

There are some veterans or other claimants who believe that they will get better results by using an attorney, but this is simply not borne out by the facts. One need only look at the annual statistics from the Board of Veterans’ Appeals. Annually, attorneys are below the average for allowances. Last year, the average for allowances at the Board was 24 percent. The average allowance rate for attorneys was 22.7 percent. The only group lower than attorneys were unrepresented veterans. Not only did all VSOs come in higher than attorneys, but so did ‘agents’ and ‘other representatives.’ While attorneys do have a higher remand rate and hence a lower denial rate than the averages, there is no way to identify what percent of the remanded cases were for procedural due process reasons and failed to put any money in the veteran’s pocket.

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The only comment on this I have is the DAV VSO had their Power of Attorney revoked by me when their VSO insisted I drop my cardiac claims from Dec 2002 in May 2007 and start a new claim for hypertension a 10% disability which would have cost me the effective date and thousands of dollars in back pay for the CAD and hypertension I was successfully rated for after the BVA appeal which was handled by a pro bono lawyer from NOVA I would have been happy to pay the lawyer the attorney fees they should have been entitled to as the VA does NOW allow the lawyers to collect 20% of back pay on granted claims, since the case was taken pro bono the lawyer declined my offer to pay, "ethics" ruled the day. Something the DAV has forgotten about over the years.......I am now SMC S thanks to a lawyer not the DAV