http://www.wwimemorial.org/
The World War I Memorial Foundation
In 2017 the United States will commemorate the centennial of its entry into World War I. Nearly 5 million Americans served during the war, and 116,561 Americans died in defense of democracy overseas. America’s support of its allies in World War I marked the first time in this nation’s history that American soldiers went abroad to defend foreign soil against aggression -- and it marked the true beginning of “the American century.”
Yet while the later conflicts of the 20th century - World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War -- rightfully have national memorials on the Mall, there is no such memorial to “the Great War,” even though more Americans gave their lives in World War I than in Korea or Vietnam.
In 1931 the residents of Washington, DC dedicated a memorial to the 499 residents of the District of Columbia who gave their lives in that war. That memorial now sits neglected and in disrepair, along the Lincoln Reflecting Pool between the World War II and Korean War Memorials. It is often overlooked by residents and visitors to Washington.
On March 6, 2008, Frank Buckles, the last surviving American veteran of World War I, visited the DC War Memorial. He called for restoration of the memorial, and for its rededication as a National and District of Columbia World War I Memorial.
The World War I Memorial Foundation was formed to make Frank Buckles’ dream a reality. The mission of the Foundation is to raise funds for the restoration of the DC War Memorial, and to sponsor and secure legislation for the re-dedication of the site. Legislation has been introduced in Congress, and the Foundation has begun raising funds to establish a true national memorial.
Please help honor America’s veterans of World War I, by writing your Congressman and Senator, contacting your local chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion, and by donating generously to the National World War I Foundation.
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From: David DeJonge
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 3:46 PM
To: Colonel-Dan@SBCGlobal.net
Subject: World War One Memorial proposed for National Mall...
Hi Col. Dan:
My name is David DeJonge and i am the President of the WWI Memorial foundation (DC). I am wondering if you could rally for our cause by alerting as many people as you could about the fight for a memorial on the national mall? Frank Buckles (Americas last WWI veterans) has made it his last fight to bring honor along side of the other great veterans from the wars of the 20th century in our Nations Capitol. We have set up the following website with information about the cause: WWIMEMORIAL.org
Congressmen Ted Poe from TX has introduced a bill (HR 482) to get things started. We are looking for people willing to activate and mobilze to request their congressmen sponsor the bill and sign it into law before Mr. Buckles dies, he turns 108 in one week.
Here is another video on the cause: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZTaeOmzpz0&feature=channel_page
I thank you for your service to our Nation.
Respectfully,
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My father Melvin Lathrop Bailey was lucky he served in the 7th Calvary D Troop from 1914-1916 with my Uncle Gideon at Camp Douglas, Arizona, he went on the Mexican Punitive March after Pancho Villa under the command of WW1 hero General Black Jack Pershing, yes all memorials to the men of the military of the past should be kept and in repair
Monday, January 26, 2009
The World War I Memorial Foundation
PTSD ABUSES CHALLENGE NEW VA LEADERSHIP
Features: PTSD ABUSES CHALLENGE NEW VA LEADERSHIP
Posted on January 26, 2009 by gordonduff
WEEDING OUT "PTSD FAKERS" POLICY A FRAUD?
WITHOUT "GROUND UP" REFORM AT THE VA, VETS WILL KEEP DYING
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By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER
The VA loves tracking its success and patting itself on the back. It also loves stifling open discussion, punishing anyone who speaks up and hiding from Congress and the public what they really do. With our current wars adding to the disaster of aging Vietnam vets who spent decades without proper medical care, the VA, accused by the GAO continually underestimating funding needs, stands ready to hide behind a smoke screen for another administration and continue the "blame game."
The new VA policy with Iraq and Afghanistan War returnees seeking treatment and compensation for PTSD is to aggressively "challenge" patients with accusations of "faking." After literally thousands of suicides by untreated veterans, many waiting months for help that never came and a long history at the VA of purposefully destroying records and discouraging veterans from seeking help, their solution is actually only making things worse.
There are two policies at the VA and two totally different types of employee. One policy helps veterans needing care and directs them to needed services, aids them with records and advises veterans on compensation. This policy exists in the "Alice in Wonderland" world, mostly.
The second policy is to staff VA facilities with a cult of bitter and corrupt staff who look on veterans as social inferiors, fakers and time wasters. The covert policies implemented by these people, a group with power, seniority and endless malice, is to get veterans "out the door" treated, not treated, it just doesn't matter as long as they leave and, preferably, NEVER COME BACK.
DENIAL AND WASTE LEAD TO PATIENT ABUSE
"Contract nursing staff" and new employees at the VA are given a class called C.A.R.E. meant to remind employees not to abuse or dehumanize patients. Long standing problems of emotional abuse of veterans, especially PTSD sufferers, is not addressed, even in the most superficial manner.
Why would professional licensed RNs who are governened by a strict code of ethics and strong licencing oversight in every state require this kind of class? Could it be that the VA is trolling for substandard employees who are being told, perhaps not openly, but told just the same, that veterans just aren't all that important as patients?
Seeing aging and disabled (including hearing impaired) veterans being lectured or berated for not responding to their name being called "in lightning fashion" is a sight I have seen more times than I can count.
BROKEN AND LOVING IT
The "corporate culture" at the VA has a long and shameful record. Comp and Pension physicals from region to region have had results that have varied to the extent that an illness at one office that qualifies for a 10% disability is 100% at another. Many offices, nobody has ever counted how many, routinely destroy documents but no serious effort has been made to stop this systemwide and decades old process.
When the VA discovered the disparity in findings from office to office, they instituted a policy to LOWER national standards to exemplify the worst areas, not the best. This was done thru a program called "Second Signature Certification" which was quickly eliminated after an uproar in Congress and the rumor of hundreds of suicides among veterans slated to have their pensions eliminated.
THE SCHIZOPHRENIC VA
The VA is headed down that same path with PTSD patients now. With two separate policies, one working to help veterans and another one working to hurt them, the schizopherenic VA is up to its old games again. How do you describe an organization that employs the best doctors and nurses in the world, many of whom take great pride in their dedication to America's veterans but allows these same professionals to work in an environment wrought with institutional corruption.
For years doctors at the VA feared diagnosing veterans with PTSD. For years, counselors were prohibited from helping veterans with records or claims. For decades, most information helping veterans seek treatment or compensation was denied them as VA policy, a policy meant to lower costs through systematic deception and stonewalling.
How does a medical organization address its most serious health problem, PTSD, when "weeding out fakers" in truth, can only result in intimidation and abuse causing real PTSD sufferers to "run for the door" and never return?
WILL A "NEW BROOM" FIX A "BULLDOZER PROBLEM?"
Though many rules have changed, the policies and attitudes have become so engrained in the VA system that they will certainly outlive the veterans they have victimized. With no VA Secretary in recent times willing or able to challenge abuses and some, especially during the last 8 years, entirely dedicated to promoting stumbling blocks to veterans, the belief many of us have that things will change is non-existent.
Secretary Shensiki or rather, General Shenseki, a man of great personal courage, is being confronted with an administrative disaster that supercedes any problem with political appointments or incursions by industry lobbyists. The VA is something almost impossible to describe.
How do we tell General Shensiki that he has taken over one of the largest and most corrupt bureaucracies in the world, one more at home in Stalin's Russia than America?
PTSD ABUSES CHALLENGE NEW VA LEADERSHIP
HR 6798 additional AO cancer bill
HR 6798 additional AO cancer bill
I just received notice that Congressman Kagen is reintroducing the HR 6798 Bill under a different name. It will be the Thomas G. Schubert -- Agent Orange bill. Named for one of our fallen comrades with esophageal cancer.
I hope it will be the same bill with the same language that will cover all GI tract Cancers, Pancreatic Cancers, and Biliary Cancers.
I have no idea when...but obviously the sooner the better for our fellows and our Widows. You can contact DC to find out when the bill will be introduced.
Please be sure and contact all you can in DC to support this sorely needed Thomas G. Schubert -- Agent Orange Cancer bill for our Veterans and their Widows.
In fact, I would contact you congressperson and demand they co-sponsor the bill.
Best,
Kelley
SC installations could see construction boom
SC installations could see construction boom
The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Jan 25, 2009 18:02:38 EST
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Nearly $1 billion worth of construction projects planned at two South Carolina military bases may boost the local jobs market as the region struggles through a sagging economy, officials said.
Fort Jackson could see a dozen projects valued at some $800 million over the next few years as the base continues to expand with two new military missions that have moved there, The State newspaper of Columbia reported.
“This new construction will bring jobs and capital expenditures to our community at a most welcome time,” said Ike McLeese, president of the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce.
Among the top project items are four facilities set to open in 2010: $11 million for a chaplains’ school, $24 million for a drill sergeants’ school, $24 million for lodging facility and $30 million for a dining site.
Meanwhile, the military is also spending about $170 million at Shaw Air Force Base. The Sumter installation is preparing for the arrival of the 3rd Army headquarters in the fall of 2011.
Economic leaders said the spending will add jobs and investment to the community, and it’s coming at a critical time — South Carolina’s 8.4 percent jobless rate tied California in November as the nation’s third worst. A state government study found the annual economic impact of Fort Jackson is $2.6 billion, and $1.1 billion for Shaw.
Still, with the rapid growth at both sites, communities are trying to curb encroaching businesses and housing developments which could restrict future expansion and hamper base operations.
“The partnering of the business community, military and state and local governments will be critical to the effective execution of a long-range strategy that will benefit all for many years to come,” said George Patrick III, executive coordinator of the S.C. Military Base Task Force.
Much of the development is related to the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission that assigned a larger military presence to the South Carolina bases.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Kelley's thoughts on Army Korean DMZ Vets from 1967-71
Jan 28, 2009
Korean DMZ and other places herbicide victims
I have been asked what to do to include these men in the herbicide issues that VA continually denies in any AO Equity Bill.
There seems to be a group of about 180 men that are fighting for their benefits. Most of you may recall the fight I had over Tennessean David Hill a Korean DMZ Veteran and the despicable refusal of VA to include him for his looming death because of the time on a calendar when common sense and the medical and environmental facts presented would have sufficed for his award of compensations in any other court in this land. It is still simply mind boggling that his state and congressional district politicians did not fight for him but they did not. Including if VA used the same dates for civilians on the DMZ as congress has then David would have fallen in those inclusive calendar dates by years. Yet, still this despicable federal agency denied his death as service connected based on lies by VA and DOD.
As below:
TITLE 38 > PART II > CHAPTER 18 > SUBCHAPTER III > § 1821
§ 1821. Benefits for children of certain Korea service veterans born with spina bifida
(a) Benefits Authorized.— The Secretary may provide to any child of a veteran of covered service in Korea who is suffering from spina bifida the health care, vocational training and rehabilitation, and monetary allowance required to be paid to a child of a Vietnam veteran who is suffering from spina bifida under subchapter I of this chapter as if such child of a veteran of covered service in Korea were a child of a Vietnam veteran who is suffering from spina bifida under such subchapter.
(b) Spina Bifida Conditions Covered.— This section applies with respect to all forms and manifestations of spina bifida, except spina bifida occulta.
(c) Veteran of Covered Service in Korea.— For purposes of this section, a veteran of covered service in Korea is any individual, without regard to the characterization of that individual’s service, who—
(1) served in the active military, naval, or air service in or near the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ), as determined by the Secretary in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, during the period beginning on September 1, 1967, and ending on August 31, 1971; and
(2) is determined by the Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, to have been exposed to a herbicide agent during such service in or near the Korean demilitarized zone.
(d) Herbicide Agent.— For purposes of this section, the term “herbicide agent” means a chemical in a herbicide used in support of United States and allied military operations in or near the Korean demilitarized zone, as determined by the Secretary in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, during the period beginning on September 1, 1967, and ending on August 31, 1971.
Now for Korean Veterans who served on or near the DMZ the inclusive dates are only from April 1968 to July 1969 of which VA enforces with a vengeance regardless of any half life data.
Clearly you can see the total lack of reason and logic here in these inclusive dates.
However, I am quite sure that someone in Congress, VA, DOD, or the media folks that refuse to report on these injustices can and will make sense of impossibility and it will be explained away. Also the Board of Veterans Appeals with their infinite wisdom I know for sure will have an answer for what is biologically implausible.
I also believe that most in the scientific community know that spina bifida is not the only resultant paternal dioxin birth defect but refuse to speak out due to federal DOD grants and such. Some actual practicing doctors have spoken out but congress only hears what it wants to hear. For this organ systemic toxic chemical to be a single specific birth defect target it would be a remarkable, unique in all of biology itself, toxic chemical indeed.
Oh and let us not forget that for civilian contractor workers that worked on or near the Korean DMZ their inclusive dates by congress are also from September 1, 1967, and ending on August 31, 1971. Simply amazing how military fatigues can double as environmental protection clothing as to not to be exposed.
I can only recommend to the Korean group the following:
· Gather your evidence of any value that shows when the first dates of spraying or dispensing of pellet form dioxin commenced.
· Gather you evidence of any value that shows the latest dates of spraying or dispensing of pellet form dioxin.
· This should include any evidence of the South Korean Army dispensing. (There is no doubt that our DOD would use that as a lie to congress saying they did not dispense anymore after a certain date or start before a certain date knowing full well the South Korean Army did indeed. But they would just not happen to mention that little detail.
· Gather as much information as you can on the known and published half life of dioxin, TCDD such as located at: http://www.epa.gov/safewater/dwh/t-soc/dioxin.html (1 to 3 years on the soil, in the soil up to 8 years, in the ground water up to 50 years before half life occurs)
· Organize your data in to chronology and common sense form and elect or appoint two or three good knowledgeable (knows all the subject matter) speakers to go to DC.
· Contact Congressman Filner and Senator Akaka’s offices for a set up appointment for at least one hour if you think it will take that amount of time to present your facts and evidence. Their time is on a schedule so it must be a concise briefing and to the point with evidence.
· Have your evidence not only on hand-out clear easy to follow form but also on CD to submit to the staff.
· Include all your evidence on the CD including .pdf files, evidence, statements of facts, sworn to statements of as many of the men that you can get and scan them in as to what they witnessed and the time line.
· Give examples of that during the briefing.
· Have all of your men contact their state and district politicians and inform them what you are doing and the injustice and demand support for the efforts.
Then sit back and wait…you have done about all you can do.
It is obvious VA is not going to rectify this horrible treatment of our Korean DMZ veterans and totally illogical stand on the issue so it must be the congress that recognizes the horrible treatment by VA and then remedies it with a bill or included in the equity bill.
Now I am convinced it was used prior to the dates given by the accounts of some of your men but I have no proof.
Obviously the dates are messed up and the lack of including any half life time period on a toxic chemical that is not degradable by the environment at all makes no sense except to DOD and VA and the board of veterans appeals.
I also found in 'just sort of convenient' that when they announced the dates for the Korean DMZ Veterans and admitted exposures DOD then gave approval for the finance center to destroy the pay records of these fellows so they would have no evidence of hazard duty pay for serving on the DMZ. Many folks do not realize it but we had men killed up there by small arms by the North Korean Army and nothing was done. I even wonder if DOD/VA considered that death as service connected.
Wishing the best of luck in your fight but that is the best I can recommend.
Kelley
and this other mess
This article was redone at the request of the original author and he did not send me a link to the original piece so the best I can do it so remove his writing
Mike,
I object to you posting my blog essay without permission and with no attribution. You have provided no link to the original, nor provided any clue that you did not write the piece. That is called plagiarism and is against the law.
I would appreciate it if you do not do that again, and post a clarifying piece indicating where the post came from and who wrote it.
I write a blog and there are things on that blog I want people to see. If you post my whole post then they won't see what I want them to see.
ATTN: Army Korean DMZ Vets from 1967-71
Here is that paragraph:
TITLE 38 > PART II > CHAPTER 18 > SUBCHAPTER III > § 1821
§ 1821. Benefits for children of certain Korea service veterans born with spina bifida
(a) Benefits Authorized.— The Secretary may provide to any child of a veteran of covered service in Korea who is suffering from spina bifida the health care, vocational training and rehabilitation, and monetary allowance required to be paid to a child of a Vietnam veteran who is suffering from spina bifida under subchapter I of this chapter as if such child of a veteran of covered service in Korea were a child of a Vietnam veteran who is suffering from spina bifida under such subchapter.
(b) Spina Bifida Conditions Covered.— This section applies with respect to all forms and manifestations of spina bifida, except spina bifida occulta.
(c) Veteran of Covered Service in Korea.— For purposes of this section, a veteran of covered service in Korea is any individual, without regard to the characterization of that individual’s service, who—
(1) served in the active military, naval, or air service in or near the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ), as determined by the Secretary in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, during the period beginning on September 1, 1967, and ending on August 31, 1971; and
(2) is determined by the Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, to have been exposed to a herbicide agent during such service in or near the Korean demilitarized zone.
(d) Herbicide Agent.— For purposes of this section, the term “herbicide agent” means a chemical in a herbicide used in support of United States and allied military operations in or near the Korean demilitarized zone, as determined by the Secretary in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, during the period beginning on September 1, 1967, and ending on August 31, 1971.
Now, if they pay Spina Bifida benefits for the children of Veterans who served in or near the Korean DMZ from 9/1/1967 to 8/31/1971, then why are straight up AO benefits limited to those who served only from April, 1968 to July, 1969?
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I object to the 67-71 only dates as all know that the Agent Orange once it has been sprayed and disseminated into an area has a half life of 20-30 years, kids in Vietnam are still getting sick from the dioxins we spread there more than 40 years ago, I would think any veterans who served on or in the DMZ and drank water and ate vegetables from the fields around Freedom Village would be at risk for dioxin exposure from 1971 thru at least 1981 the contamination did not stop the last day they spread it, it is in the aquifer and soil and continues to reek havoc for years after use.
I received this e mail from the veterans group who wrote the article and if they had sent me a link to the original piece I would post the link, I publish news that pertains to veterans, I make no money off this blog and is for helping other veterans, I am sorry other veterans resent a one stop blog for news about veterans and active duty military items that are posted to benefit all, I could understand the anger if I was making money or asking for donations but because I educate, I am not sorry not one of the news agencies have ever objected tomy posting their articles or video's they provide since what I am doing is trying to help other veterans, not make any money for myself
General Shinseki as new VA Secretary
I take the occasion to use my blog to post my own thoughts occasionally, normally they are just tidbits to news articles, but this appointment and confirmation screams for me to speak out a little more, I have worked tirelessly as a advocate on behalf of veterans of the Cold War Experiments and not just the ones I was used in Edgewood Arsenal Chemical Weapons and Drugs but I work on behalf of the Nuclear test veterans, the men of SHAD/112 and the ones of the biological experiments at Fort Detrick known as Operation WhiteCoat.
I have another blog dedicated to just information about them Military experiment veterans 1941-now it is my opinion that all of these veterans have been used and are now being ignored by the government, DOD is sitting on evidence that could help these veterans or their widows, and the Veterans Administration does not do enough to help them, they produce many reports, books, and manuals but when it comes to the claims process, all of a sudden the VA gets amnesia, and a wall goes up.
In my personal case I received a letter from the Director of Compensation and Pension, then Renee Szybala in October 2005, the letter was sent to myself and a courtesy copy was sent to then Senate VA Chairman Larry Craig, it plainly stated that my records showed that I arrived at Edgewood Arsenal on 25 June 1974 and that during inprocessing I became ill and was returned to Fort Lewis, Washington on 10 July 1974.
There is one problem with her letter, whomever gave her that information lied to her, my records plainly show that yes I did arrive on 25 June 1974, that a note to Dr Fredrick Siddell showed that due to a "bad trip from LSD on 13/14 June 1974 caused by someone slipping the acid into my coke without my knowledge caused me to lose comprehension and act irrationally and I ended up in a lockdown cell at Madigan Army Hospital and that due to my sensitivity to psycho-chemicals (hallucenegencis) I would be a great subject for ALL medical tests and was classified as a Level A test subject. I was taken ill and was sent to Aberdeen Proving Grounds Hospital on 7 July and was returned to Edgewood Arsenal on 10 July. I was then used in various tests and had a lot of days off, I was in DC on the day President Nixon resigned on 9 August 1974, I could have hardly been sent back to Fort Lewis on 10 July if MS Szybala's letter was accurate, could I?
My record also shows that I our processed from Edgewood Arsenal on 22 August 1974 after I refused to participate in a mustard agent experiment. I left Edgewood about a week before the entire group was supposed to leave at the end of the 60 day TDY period.
What concerns me is not that the VA is willing to lie to me a veteran, but that they are willing to lie to a sitting United States Senator. If they are lying to Senators who will they not lie to?
I am not asking for DOD or the VA to disclose any classified information, I am asking that they recognize the research previously done on the long term health effects of low level exposures there are a few that show definitive links to many medical issues, like all bosy systems are affected by the exposures one is the National Institute of Health Toxicity of the Organophosphate Chemical Warfare Agents GA, GB, and VX: Implications for Public Protection and then there is this longer study based on German Soldiers that worked on the WW2 Chemical weapons program and were followed and treated by this Doctor Kalr Heinz Lohs who wrote this study Delayed Toxic Effects of Chemical Warfare Agents
from page 40:
A psychiatric delayed-effect syndrome was found as a result of systematic investigations
on former members of CW production and testing stations for the Wehrmacht. In
terms of frequency, two groups of symptoms can be distinguished–each consisting of
four separate symptoms or signs.
(1) The great majority of persons examined showed:
(a) persistently lowered vitality accompanied by marked diminution in drive;
(b) defective autonomic regulation leading to cephalalgia, gastrointestinal and
cardiovascular symptoms, and premature decline in libido and potency;
(c) intolerance symptoms (alcohol, nicotine, medicines);
(d) impression of premature aging.
(2) Further, one or more symptoms of the second group were found:
(a) depressive or subdepressive disorders of vital functions;
(b) cerebral vegetative (syncopal) attacks;
(c) slight or moderate amnestic and demential defects;
(d) slight organoneurological defects (predominantly microsymptoms and singular
signs of extrapyramidal character).
Our results are a contribution to the general question of psychopathological delayed
and permanent lesions caused by industrial poisoning. On the basis of our studies of
the etiologically different manifestations of toxication, the possibility of a relatively
uniform–though equally unspecific–cerebro-organic delayed effect syndrome is conceivable
I have the above medical problems 1 A defective autonomic regulation leading to cephalalgia, gastrointestinal and
cardiovascular symptoms, and premature decline in libido and potency;
1D, 2 A, B, C and D I might understand a coincidence if I had one or two of the above problems, but almost the entire list? I ask for the "benefit of the doubt" that the VA states it gives the veterans in areas where it is questionable if the medical problems are related to military service.
Since the DOD is sitting on the evidence that the veterans need to "prove without a doubt" links to the exposures and their current medical problems without disclosing classified data, then I and the other "test veterans" or "Medical volunteers" or "med vols" as they have been called at various times.
There is also the question of consent and informed consent, they are not the same, and it is without a doubt that the men used in the Cold War experiments did not have or give "informed consent". You need all of the facts to give "informed consent" and the Army was not forthcoming with all pertinent information. No one really knew the long term health effects and there was no money budgeted to do follow up health care on the veterans.
Now we have extremely high death and disability rates and it is ridiculous to assume that the experiments have nothing to do with this, the last health study paid for by DOD involving the Edgewood Arsenal volunteers was not to determine our helth problems, rather it was a way to tell Gulf War One veterans that they could not blame Sarin exposure for their current health problems, yet the study planly states they could not find enough of the test vets to make a determination yet they ignored the fact that 40% of the test vets were assumed deceased in FY2000, these were men aged 45-65. Of the 4022 men of the 7120 original volunteers, 54% of the 4022 survivors reported being disabled, yet the report does not explain why or the causes.
This report also completely ignored mustard agents which were also released at Kamisayah Iraq on March 19, 1991 when the Army destroyed the Iraqi ammunition dump. The ammo bunkers contained both Sarin and mustard filled missiles and Mustard agents, why only survey Sarin problems? Because DOD knows that mustard agents have many known expensive medical problems related to them, so they wrote the parameters for the March 2003 Sarin report to be very limited and not expose the known liabilities.
It is time for a VA Secretary that is willing to look at the evidence and make the known medical problems for these veterans, both the Cold War test veterans and the Gulf War One veterans Presumpive conditions and stop the BS of the DOD and the decades of useless studies that ignore already known medical prblems from people exposed to chemical weapons at low level exposures, as the above studies show.
I use to be able to write an e mail to Secretary Principiin 2002 and until he left, he wasavailable to veterans, since then Secretaries Nicholson and Peake have not made e mail addresses available to veterans and even when they went to VA hospitals they did their best to ignore veterans, and refused to speak with them why?
Secretary Shinseki can improve veterans feelings about the VA by just being accessible, he is not a god, he works for us America's veterans at the behest of the President of the United States, he is our chief advocate and I hope he shows this to us.Sphere: Related Content
Veterans advocates pin hopes on new VA leadership
Veterans advocates pin hopes on new VA leadership
08:41 PM PST on Tuesday, January 20, 2009
By MARK MUCKENFUSS
The Press-Enterprise
Veterans advocates are looking for sweeping changes in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs if President Barack Obama's pick for taking control of that agency is confirmed as expected.
Retired Army Gen. Eric K. Shinseki is probably best known for being one of the few voices to contradict then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's assessment of the troop levels necessary for success in the Iraq War. At the time, Shinseki was Army chief of staff.
Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, is the chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. Filner spoke out about problems with integrating the VA's computers with those of the Department of Defense, saying they fit a pattern of VA officials downplaying such problems and failing to share the information with Congress. He said he believes Shinseki needs to carry out a wholesale shakeup of the VA.
Bob Filner
"The confidence in the VA has been really undermined," Filner said, citing cases in the past several years that have involved document-shredding, backdating of statistics and suppression of issues such as the military suicide rates. "Shinseki's job is to rebuild that. He has a reputation for doing that, for being very loyal to his troops."
Filner also wants the efficiency of the system to improve.
"There are over 800,000 claims that are backlogged," he said. "This is an insult to the vets. We've got to cut through that."
Filner said he hopes mental health care, especially as it relates to post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, will improve under the new leadership.
'do what's right'
"As many veterans from Vietnam have committed suicide as died in the war," Filner said. "And we're heading for the same thing with this war. This is our fault as a nation and we've got to treat it. I don't care what it costs."
Russell Terry operates Iraq War Veterans in Yucaipa, an organization that assists veterans in navigating the VA system.
"I had breakfast this morning with four Vietnam veterans and we're all hoping that since (Shinseki) is military he'll want to do what's right," Terry said. "I'm going to wait three or four months and see what his platform is. Is he going to bring in some new blood in D.C.? That's what we're hoping for."
In Santa Barbara, Bob Handy helps run Veterans United for Truth. The group helped bring a lawsuit against the VA last year calling for wholesale changes in its administration and operation.
Up to the job
"I think he's going to properly live up to his reputation for caring for his troops," Handy said of Shinseki. "I'd like to see him focus on adequate and timely care for vets with post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and the high rate of veteran suicides."
One of the things revealed in the court proceedings last year was an internal VA e-mail from Dr. Ira Katz, the VA's mental health director, which seemed to direct the recipients to suppress information about rising veteran suicide rates.
"I think people like Katz should have to go," Handy said.
But he doesn't think veterans seeking care can expect immediate changes.
"I would think probably no earlier than six to eight months and probably more like a year before he can do something that will have drastic changes in the way the VA system works," he said.
Filner said such changes take leadership and he thinks Shinseki is up to the job.
"If he has the resources and becomes a visible advocate, that's the main thing," he said. "You have to be charismatic among your employees and the public. Shinseki can do that."
Reach Mark Muckenfuss at 951-368-9595 or mmuckenfuss@PE.com
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I am surprised to be able to use my "hometown paper" as a source on my blog, I grew up in Riverside. We moved there in 1963 from Lansing Michigan after my dad retired from Oldsmobile after he had been hurt by a car coming off the line, he was 63 at the time. He had been at GM since 1926 so he was eligible to retire and due to his injury he was able to file for Social Security Disability, a new program back then. I went to school from 3rd grade thru graduation from High School and even after the Army, I went to the City College there, so, it's home to me. My parents are all buried there my father out on Arlington Avenue near Norco and my mom and my step father at Riverside National. I still have family that lives in Riverside and when I get homesick I turn on the national news and they seem to be on there constantly, shootings, fires, crooked judges and lawyers ripping off the elderly, cops beating illegal immigrants, etc. It seems as if there is never a dull moment there. It is a large City and County.
