Colonel Dan on next VA Secretary Nominee

Call your Senator this week at local office... stop the Peake Nomination
also see:
www.vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/nfNOV07/nf110107-1.htm
www.vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/nfNOV07/nf110607-1.htm

VA nominee Peake’s hearing set for Dec. 5


By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Nov 20, 2007 5:52:55 EST
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/11/military_peake_nomination_071119w/
The Bush administration’s nominee to be the next secretary of veterans’ affairs will appear before a Senate committee Dec. 5 to answer questions about what he will bring to the job if confirmed.

This could be a quick process if retired Lt. Gen. James Peake, a West Point graduate and former Army surgeon general, satisfies the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee that he is prepared to take on the many challenges facing the Department of Veterans Affairs, including a growing backlog of benefits claims, lengthy waits for some appointments and treatment of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, especially for mental health issues.

But Senate aides, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Peake’s nomination could easily become a prolonged fight if his answers are unsatisfying or if his nomination somehow gets tied up in a partisan feud that has delayed action on legislation to improve veterans’ benefits and health care.

The Senate committee, chaired by Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, has been complaining that leaving the VA secretary’s post vacant since Oct. 1 seems to indicate the Bush administration considers veterans’ issues to be unimportant.

The White House formally nominated Peake for the VA post on Thursday, just as Congress was beginning a previously scheduled two-week break. The Dec. 5 hearing will come on the first week back from the break. Congressional leaders hoping to end the legislative session no later than Dec. 21, which does not allow a lot of time for extensive hearings or investigation.

Retired Army Maj. Gen. William Matz Jr., president of the National Association for Uniformed Services and a member of the Veterans’ Disability Benefits Committee that has recommended numerous improvements in veterans’ programs, said he thinks Peake is “an excelled choice.”

Peake was commander of the Madigan Army Medical Center at Fort Lewis, Wash., in the mid-1990s when Matz was deputy commanding general at that post.

“I know him well,” Matz said. “What a great choice.”

Given the fact that LTG Peake is associated with QTC a private contractor with nearly a billion dollar in contracts with the VA, and it's current Chairman was a past Secretary of the VA just prior to the contracts being awarded to QTC which raised them from a few million a year to many hundreds of millions a year, Secretary Anthony Principi, a sane person has to question "conflict of interest" exactly whose interest is General Peake going to be working for, the veterans, the governments or QTC's, these are valid areas to question.

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Colonel Dan on the VA and PTSD

Ref your document
http://www.pdhealth.mil/admin/nlAttachments/DHCC-Uploads/AJPH.2007.115436v1.pdf

US Department of Veterans Affairs Disability Policies for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder:

Administrative Trends and Implications for Treatment, Rehabilitation, and Research

*********

I believe there is a connection..with how veterans perceive treatment by the VA including delays in Claim processing..basically there is no treatment. A Vet finally get's an appointment with the VA, and is relieved.. he thinks, finally I am going to get some help making the pain of PTSD, depression, etc go away, and finally will get some financial assistance... boy is he in for a shock. Many have been thrown out of the military waaay tooooo soon.. and dumped in a new bureaucratic VA nightmare

Look at the status of claims for these suicidal veterans.... how long they fought for benefits...the feeling of abandonment.. after all it's just in their head..get over it....BS

Far too many Pysch Dr's at VA are just pill pushers.... far too many have a foreign background and ARE NOT familiar with a soldier's or American background/culture.
Far too many will not make a statement as to the probability of the veteran's mental problems being service connected. They will say, that is not their job, they will say rules prohibit them from saying so.. which is completely false... they will say that's up to a claims processor..a non-med person... Then after meeting with a Psych Dr for many months... he gets a short sitdown with a C&P examiner.. who has never met the vet before, has not read the complete file, and then despite the veteran having been blown up by a IED or such, or spending 30 years in the military, will state the veterans mental health problems are not service connected, but are related to his divorce and/or his drinking. DUH!! STRESS is Stress.... you don't have to prove being shot at, blown up, etc.... there is a lot of stress in just serving.. even just preparing for deployment is stressful..
some handle it, some don't
************

BRecent Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Administrative Trends Regarding
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Disability
•
From 1999 to 2004, the number of veterans receiving VA disability payments for PTSD
increased 79.5% (from 120265 to 215871), whereas those receiving payments for
other disabilities increased only 12.2%.
2
•
From 1999 to 2004, total PTSD disability payments rose 148.8% (to $4.3 billion annually),
whereas payments in other disability categories increased by only 41.7%.
2
•
Most veterans’ self-reported symptoms of PTSD become worse over time until they
reach 100% disability, at which point an 82% decline in use of VA mental health services
occurs; no change in use of VA medical health service occurs.
2
•
In a recent review of disability award files, 25% of files were found lacking compelling
evidence of combat exposure, putting the monetary risk of potential fraud at $19.8
billion.
2
•
Among veterans seeking mental health treatment in VA clinics, most (up to 94%) concurrently
apply for PTSD disability benefits.
3
•
Only about half of those veterans who apply for PTSD disability are seeking psychiatric
care at the time of their disability application submission.
4
•
A nearly 2-times regional difference in the rate of approved PTSD disability claims is
found across the nation; this variation is not explained by differences in PTSD symptom
severity or psychiatric comorbidity, suggesting inconsistent evaluation standards
or procedures.
2,5,6
•
In 2006, the VA took an average of 657 days for appeals resolution of disability claims.

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Senators are home on Vacation let them know veterans need this passed

Okay all we have 97 Senators that are neglecting Veterans! Multiple Sclerosis needs to be addressed! Gulf War veterans are showing increased incidents! We need a registry by period of service!!!! But maybe Senator Murray can add this to the bill!
Now all we have 97 Senators to call by phone, email, fax....their DC staffers are still in office...the Senators are home so get their attention!
We still can make some good things happen in this session of congress TOGETHER!!!
S.847
Title: A bill to extend the period of time during which a veteran's multiple sclerosis is to be considered to have been incurred in, or aggravated by, military service during a period of war.
Sponsor: Sen Murray, Patty [WA] (introduced 3/13/2007) Cosponsors (2)
Latest Major Action: 3/13/2007 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

COSPONSORS(2), ALPHABETICAL [followed by Cosponsors withdrawn]: (Sort: by date)
Sen Brown, Sherrod [OH] - 5/8/2007 Sen Sanders, Bernard [VT] - 5/1/2007




To extend the period of time during which a veteran's multiple sclerosis is to be considered to have been incurred in, or aggravated by, military service during a period of war. (Introduced in Senate)


S 847 IS


110th CONGRESS

1st Session

S. 847
To extend the period of time during which a veteran's multiple sclerosis is to be considered to have been incurred in, or aggravated by, military service during a period of war.


IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

March 13, 2007
Mrs. MURRAY introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


A BILL
To extend the period of time during which a veteran's multiple sclerosis is to be considered to have been incurred in, or aggravated by, military service during a period of war.


Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. PRESUMPTION OF SERVICE CONNECTED ILLNESS.

Section 1112(a)(4) of title 38, United States Code, is amended by striking `within seven years from' and inserting `after'.



s

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This is a MUST read about PTSD and the Iraq War

Barbara Barrett of McClatchy News has caught the terrible pain of one man dealing with PTSD and refuses to fully address it, because he is afraid what will happen to his men.

I can't begin to do the article justice you must read all the installments of the 4 part story, she takes you thru the deployment to the battles and SFC Chad Stephens own inner battles at home. The Promise, The Silver Star and PTSD

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Letter from Colonel Dan on CNN story

Vets... go this CNN website... http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form.sound.off.html

Tell them to look at the Keith Roberts story, tell them your story..

Thank you CNN for the story... But you only scratched the surface. Story at:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/11/15/wounded.marine/index.html

Ref your story on Wounded warriors face home-front battle with VA.

This is the tip of the iceburg. Thanks you for helping to expose the VA system, Chicago VARO is one of the worst. This has been going on after every war. Research Chicago VARO. A real travesty. Follow up with a story on Keith Roberts, In the PTSD case of U.S. Navy Airman Keith Roberts (1968–71) the U.S. Dept of Justice in the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Stephen Biskupic, decided to indict a Wisconsin Vietnam-era Navy veteran (who was diagnosed with PTSD by at least five different mental health professionals), using the power of his office to convict and jail the vet on trumped-up charges of wire fraud in 2004-2005. Pushed by a VA OIG in Chicago... who is this OIG, look at him and other of his cases. He shold be lookng at the VA system, not the vets trying to use it.

Wounded warriors face home-front battle with VA
Story Highlights
Ty Ziegel lost an arm, part of his skull when he was attacked in Iraq

VA initially rated his brain injury at 0%, meaning he got no compensation for it

Another vet: VA rejected his claim, saying his wounds were "not service connected"

Ziegel: "I want to make the VA system better"

http://malcontends.blogspot.com/2007/09/national-va-director-pushed-us-atty.html
http://malcontends.blogspot.com/2007/09/national-va-director-pushed-us-atty.html

How this ties into other Vets, such as Keith Robert's.

Vets... go this CNN website... http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form.sound.off.html

Tell them to look at the Keith Roberts story, tell them your story..

to the veterans and widows of veterans I agree with Colonel Dan flood the CNN site with your personal stories of how the VA has dealt with you and your family, the good, the bad and the ugly......

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The DOD claims DU is safe, this shows it is anything but

VA Watchdog.org has this story today showing what happened to a town that use to build DU weapons, and it is an eye opener, I wonder how DOD try's to spin this, and if they even try.

'Safe' uranium that left a town contaminated

They were told depleted uranium was not hazardous. Now, 23 years after a US arms plant closed, workers and residents have cancer - and experts say their suffering shows the use of such weapons may be a war crime

David Rose in Colonie, New York
The Observer



It is 50 years since Tony Ciarfello and his friends used the yard of a depleted uranium weapons factory as their playground in Colonie, a suburb of Albany in upstate New York state. 'There wasn't no fence at the back of the plant,' remembers Ciarfello. 'Inside was a big open ground and nobody would chase us away. We used to play baseball and hang by the stream running through it. We even used to fish in it -though we noticed the fish had big pink lumps on them.'

Today there are lumps on Ciarfello's chest - strange, round tumours that protrude about an inch. 'No one seems to know what they are,' he says. 'I've also had a brain aneurysm caused by a suspected tumour. I'm constantly fatigued and for years I've had terrible pains, deep inside my leg bones. I fall over without warning and I've got a heart condition.' Ciarfello's illnesses have rendered him unable to work for years. Aged 57 and a father of five, he looks much older.

The US federal government and the firm that ran the factory, National Lead (NL) Industries, have been assuring former workers and residents around the 18-acre site for decades that, although it is true that the plant used to produce unacceptable levels of radioactive pollution, it was not a serious health hazard.

Now, in a development with potentially devastating implications not only for Colonie but also for the future use of some of the West's most powerful weapon systems, that claim is being challenged. In a paper to be published in the next issue of the scientific journal Science of the Total Environment, a team led by Professor Randall Parrish of Leicester University reports the results of a three-year study of Colonie, funded by Britain's Ministry of Defence.

Parrish's team has found that DU contamination, which remains radioactive for millions of years, is in effect impossible to eradicate, not only from the environment but also from the bodies of humans. Twenty-three years after production ceased they tested the urine of five former workers. All are still contaminated with DU. So were 20 per cent of people tested who had spent at least 10 years living near the factory when it was still working, including Ciarfello.

The small sample size precludes the drawing of statistical conclusions, the journal paper says. But to find DU at all after so long a period is 'significant, since no previous study has documented evidence of DU exposure more than 20 years prior... [this] indicates that the body burden of uranium must still be significant, whether retained in lungs, lymphatic system, kidneys or bone'. The team is now testing more individuals.

In 1984, having bought the factory from NL for $10 in a deal that meant the firm was exempted from having to pay for its clean-up, the federal government began a massive decommissioning project, supervised by the Army Corps of Engineers. The clean-up did not finish until summer 2007, having cost some $190m. Contractors demolished the buildings and removed more than 150,000 tons of soil and other contaminated detritus, digging down to depths of up to 40ft and trucking it 2,000 miles by rail to underground radioactive waste sites in the Rockies. All that is now left of the NL plant is a huge, undulating field, ringed by razor wire.

Despite this colossal effort, Parrish and his colleagues found high concentrations of DU particles in soil, stream sediments and household dust in the vicinity of the site, deposited long ago when the factory burnt the shavings and chips produced by the weapons manufacturing process: the study estimates that, over the years, about 10 tons of uranium oxide dust wafted from the chimney into the surrounding environment.

The Army Corps clean-up team tested the soil from some of the gardens of houses backing on to the plant, and in cases where it was found to be emitting more than 35 pico curies of radiation per gram they removed it. The researchers discovered dust in and around buildings emitting up to 10 times as much. DU, inhaled in the form of tiny motes of oxide that lodge inside the lungs, emits alpha radiation, nuclei of helium. Unlike the gamma radiation produced by enriched, weapons-grade uranium, alpha particles will not penetrate the skin.

But inside the body DU travels around the bloodstream, accumulating not only in the lungs but also in other soft tissues such as the brain and bone marrow. There, each mote becomes an alpha particle hotspot, bombarding its locality and damaging cell DNA. Research has shown that DU has the potential to cause a wide range of cancers, kidney and thyroid problems, birth defects and disorders of the immune system.

When DU 'penetrators' - armour-piercing shells that form the standard armament of some of Britain's and America's most commonly deployed military aircraft and vehicles - strike their targets, 10 per cent or more of the heavy DU metal burns at high temperatures, producing oxide particles very similar to those at Colonie.

TV footage shot in Baghdad in 2003 shows children playing in the remains of tanks coated with thick, black DU oxide, while there have long been claims that the DU shells that destroyed Saddam Hussein's tanks in the 1991 Gulf war were responsible for high rates of cancer in places such as Basra.

Parrish's team includes David Carpenter, an environmental health expert from Albany University. 'DU burns, it releases particulates that can be breathed in, and it doesn't go away,' he says. 'The issue does not concern military personnel as much as civilian populations in theatres where they are used. Now we know that we can still find measurable levels of DU among the people of Colonie, we need a much bigger study to establish whether they have suffered disproportionate ill-effects such as cancers as a consequence. If they have, it would raise a serious ethical challenge to the use of these weapons. Arguably it could constitute a war crime.'

The NL plant on Central Avenue, Colonie's main artery, opened in 1958 and became one of the Pentagon's main suppliers. DU - the material left in huge quantities by the process of refining enriched uranium for bombs and nuclear reactors - is extremely dense. A pointed rod fired at high velocity will penetrate not only armour but several feet of concrete. In 1979 a whistleblower from inside the plant told the local health department that it was releasing large amounts of DU from its 50ft chimney, which was not properly filtered. The state government carried out atmospheric tests and in 1981 ordered that main production cease. The factory shut three years later.

One of those who has now tested positive is Mike Aidala, 71, who worked at the plant for 22 years and became its health and safety director. 'When it started, the place was spotless,' he says. 'But over the years it got dirtier and dirtier. We burnt the chips produced by the lathes in a steel furnace.' He added: 'A lot of my co-workers died young. Whether the plant was the reason, I guess we'll never know.'

As concern in Colonie rose, a residents' group began to call for a publicly funded health study. For Anne Rabe, a founder member of a campaign that has now lasted for 25 years, the Parrish study represents overdue vindication. 'I do find it very ironic that the US government at state and federal level refused for so long to do anything, and now the UK comes along and has funded these tests,' Rabe says.

Repeatedly, US agencies have claimed that the Colonie plant was reasonably safe, despite the massive clean-up. Most recently, in 2003, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry issued a report saying that, although the pollution produced when the plant was operating might have slightly increased the risks of kidney disease and lung cancer, there was now 'no apparent public health hazard'.

Rabe's campaign has conducted a health study of its own, assembling a dossier from personal contacts and by knocking on neighbours' doors. It found that among almost 400 people surveyed there were numerous cases of rare cancers, thyroid and kidney complaints and birth defects.

The main difficulty the campaigners faced in the past is that DU eventually dissolves and is passed in the urine. The US government claimed that the plant had been shut so long that it would be impossible to determine who had been contaminated - so rendering a full health survey pointless.

However, Parrish has developed new, more sensitive methods. At the same time, his impartiality is impeccable. Before his work in Colonie, Parrish tested more than 400 Gulf war veterans, failing to detect DU in any of them - so dealing a serious blow to those who claimed that DU is one of the causes of Gulf war syndrome. 'I did not expect to find it in Colonie,' he says.

Some of those who have tested positive display classic, common symptoms found in DU victims elsewhere. For example, Ciarfello says he was still in his twenties when his teeth 'just started to crumble: they ground down to nothing until they were just these little stumps and I pushed them out with my tongue'. Other members of his family are sick. His son developed a severe kidney condition, while his brother, Frank, can barely walk and also suffers chronic fatigue. A nephew was born with a disfiguring facial skin tumour that has required repeated surgery.

Tom Donnelly, 56, spent 34 years as a foreman at a garage door workshop next to the NL factory, where tests have found high concentrations of DU in dust samples from places such as shelves and light fittings. He has three auto-immune disorders: Crohn's disease, a chronic inflammation of the bowel, total alopecia, and cerebral vasculitis, an immune system-related narrowing of blood vessels in the brain.

'The new tests suggest I inhaled about 4,000 particles of DU,' Donnelly says. 'I used to come to work in the morning and see the chimney blowing its smoke in a thick black plume. Most of us had no idea that the plant was using uranium at all. After all, the sign outside said National Lead. The Army Corps removed all that soil, but they never looked at the dust at all. The effect on my life has been devastating, but how many others are already dead?' One is his late boss and friend Tom Murphy - who, like Donnelly, developed Crohn's and died of it at 61.

Ann Carusone lived in a house behind the plant from the time of her birth in 1966 until 1993. 'When I tested positive, my reaction was sheer disbelief,' she says. She has endured years of a chronic lung disease, sarcoidosis, an inflammation of the lymph nodes usually found in much older people, as well as a blood disorder that produced petecchiae - dots of blood beneath her skin, similar to those seen in some of those exposed to radiation at Hiroshima. In her twenties she had a pre-cancerous ovarian cyst that when removed was the size of a grapefruit.

'I knew many people from round here who died young, in their twenties and thirties,' she says. 'We used to play out in the creek that flowed out of the plant site. The water was sluggish, a weird yellow-green colour. We'd splash about in it. Now we know it was laden with depleted uranium.'

'It's very striking how many people in this small group have immune disorders like Tom Donnelly's,' says Carpenter. 'I can say with great confidence that people who inhaled DU are at greater risk of lung cancer, as well as leukaemia, other cancers and genetic damage of the type that causes birth defects. Previous responses by official bodies could be said to amount to a cover-up. People have been told that there's no problem, and that's very clearly not true.'

Yesterday NL failed to return calls requesting comment.

Deadly residue

Depleted uranium (DU) is the residue left in massive quantities when bomb-grade uranium is refined to make reactor fuel and nuclear weapons.

The densest naturally occurring metal, it is used to make armour-penetrating shells, standard armament for some of the West's most widely deployed military aircraft and vehicles, such as Bradley armoured cars, Abrams tanks, and Jaguar A10 fighter planes.

Less intensely radioactive than bomb-grade uranium, DU emits alpha particles, known to cause cancers.

DU weapons that strike their targets produce clouds of tiny uranium oxide particles, which lodge in the lungs and other soft tissues such as the brain and bone marrow.

DU shells were widely used in the 1991 Gulf war; in Bosnia and Kosovo; and are being used now in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Fort Jackson's New National Cemetary to benefit South Carolina veterans and families

.Courtesy of the Charlotte Observor


National veterans' cemetery to open in S.C. next year
By SUSANNE M. SCHAFER
Associated Press Writer
Related Content
http://www.cem.va.gov

FORT JACKSON, S.C. --Retired soldier George Goldsmith is so fond of the 600 acres of twisted underbrush and towering pines on this Army training base, he plans to stay here for all eternity.

But when Goldsmith, 68, is laid to rest at the national veterans' cemetery at Fort Jackson, the weeds and much of the forest will probably be gone.

Goldsmith is one of many military veterans eager to see the cemetery open here by next year. He wore an Army uniform for nearly 40 years, and now he's helping local, state and federal officials develop the cemetery site into a serene, resting place for veterans.

"It is going to be a setting that is very appealing, a place that is going to be very comfortable," said the retired two-star general, predicting it will be transformed into hallowed ground where people may "have some personal time with God."

The site will be the first of six national cemeteries to open across the country under legislation signed by President Bush in 2003.

Under organizers' sped-up time line, a 10-acre portion of the cemetery will be ready for casket burials by the end of 2008 - even as other portions are under construction.

"I think that when we finish, we are going to have something that we are proud of and the veterans deserve that," said Goldsmith, who served in the Army Reserves and also heads the Chamber of Commerce's military affairs committee in Columbia, which is located just five miles from Fort Jackson.

The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates some 977 World War II veterans are dying daily and pressure has been building to provide burial sites, says Bruce Burko of the National Cemetery Administration.

"Our number one priority is to open up the Fort Jackson cemetery as fast as possible," Burko said.

During a visit to the site, Burko explained that most veterans' cemeteries are built start-to-finish over four to five years, with burials taking place only after the entire site is completed.

Under the Fort Jackson plan, an initial 10-acre portion of the site "will be wrapped in, and it won't even be noticeable that one part was started earlier than the rest," Burko said.

Sweeping his arm across the horizon, Burko predicted an imposing entryway will lead to a park-like setting of wide grassy spaces, in time filled with the traditional small marble headstones.

Given the Colonial-era history of South Carolina and its conservative, red brick architecture, the formal entry buildings and other administrative buildings will probably take on a similar style, Burko said.

The other national cemeteries are planned for Sarasota and Jacksonville, Fla.; Birmingham, Ala.; Philadelphia; and Bakersfield, Calif., Burko said.

Most of Fort Jackson's sprawling 53,000 acres is used for basic training, firing ranges and military schools. The cemetery will be fenced and visitors won't be able to get onto the training areas, Burko said. A benefit for visitors is nearby Interstates 26 and 77, allowing easy access.

Scott Nahrwold, Fort Jackson's top civilian in charge of the day-to-day operations at the Army's largest training base, said he is one of many officials getting at least a phone call a week from curious veterans.

Nahrwold said he was touched by one veteran, who called and said his wife had died and his own health was failing.

"He wanted to make sure his wife could be buried, but then re-interred" when he passes away, so at some point they could share a grave at the site, Nahrwold said.

While private cemetery space may be purchased in advanced, it is not possible to reserve a grave site at a national cemetery. Graves are accorded to eligible veterans and their dependents on an "as-needed" basis, Burko said.

Two national cemeteries already located in South Carolina are filling up rapidly. A new state veterans' cemetery is expected to be open within several months - but it is only 65 acres.

The site on Fort Jackson will be almost ten times that size - complete with shelters for internment ceremonies, administration and visitors' buildings, an area for assembling funeral corteges.

The cemetery will be built in 10-year stages, with a potential for about 5,000 burials each year. It is being planned to accept burials for 300 years.

I make no profit on this blog and the information is used for educational purposes of other veterans that read this blog.

Since I am 100% disabled you can imagine that I am glad to hear this, Fort Jackson is less than a 10 minute drive from our home, I will actually be able to go out and see the site before I die, which is more than most veterans get to do. By the time a veteran gets to a national cemetary they are usually deceased, I have seen the one at Beufort and it appear to be a Civil War Cemetary and I think it almost full if it's not full, but still it is about a 2 hour drive from home, not easily accessible for the family. But then again I don't want anyone coming every day, but there is something special about being buried with other veterans, some "hero's" most like me, just an average "regular joe". I served during the Vietnam Era and Desert Storm but like most soldiers I was there is about all that can be said for my service, I did it. My parents are buried at Riverside National Cemetary by March AFB, it's a serene place.

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