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?
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Fort Detrick to clean up contaminated Area B
Rep. John Hall Accomplishments - 2006-2010 on Scribd
Rep. John Hall Accomplishments - 2006-2010
John Hall has been a great veterans advocate and veterans will miss the strong voice he has been for us during his past 4 years in Congress, we need more representatives like he has been not fewer, he will be missed.
Deadline for Retroactive Stop Loss Special Pay Extended
{ http://vato21stcentury.blogspot.com/2010/12/deadline-for-stop-loss-special-pay.html }
Deadline for Retroactive Stop Loss Special Pay Extended
Washington - December 22, 2010 - The deadline for eligible service members, veterans and their beneficiaries to apply for Retroactive Stop Loss Special Pay (RSLSP) has been extended to March 4, 2011, allowing personnel more time to apply for the benefits they've earned under the program guidelines.
The deadline extension is included in the continuing resolution signed by President Obama today, providing funding for federal government operations through March 4, 2011.
"There was a surge of applicants as we approached our earlier deadline, but there may still be more out there who have yet to apply," said Lernes Hebert, director, Officer and Enlisted Personnel Management. "We are pleased that this extension was included in the continuing resolution which will give those remaining the opportunity to apply as we continue to work through the current applications."
The RSLSP was established to compensate for the hardships military members encountered when their service was involuntarily extended under Stop Loss Authority between Sept. 11, 2001, and Sept. 30, 2009. Eligible members or their beneficiaries may submit a claim to their respective military service in order to receive the benefit of $500 for each full or partial month served in a Stop Loss status.
When RSLSP began on Oct. 21, 2009, the services estimated 145,000 service members, veterans and beneficiaries were eligible for this benefit. Because the majority of those eligible had separated from the military, the services have engaged in extensive and persistent outreach efforts over the past 14 months. Outreach efforts including direct mail, engaging military and veteran service organizations, social networks and media outlets, will continue through March 4, 2011.
To apply for more information, or to gather more information on RSLSP, including submission requirements and service-specific links, go to Stop Loss.
http://vato21stcentury.blogspot.com/2010/12/deadline-for-stop-loss-special-pay.html
VA to consolidate Lejeune water claims at Louisville office
Posted on Mon, Dec. 20, 2010
VA to consolidate Lejeune water claims at Louisville office
By BARBARA BARRETT McClatchy Newspapers
Responding to heightened publicity and an uneven smattering of decisions on claims, the Department of Veterans Affairs will begin training a specialized cadre of workers this week to handle disability claims related to historic water contamination at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C.
The agency will consolidate claims at one office in Louisville, Ky. Eight employees there will focus on culling, researching and adjudicating disability claims related to the contaminated water.
The move is more than bureaucratic; it could prove significant to Marine veterans across the country who are suffering from cancers and other diseases that they think are related to the poisonous chemicals that flowed through Lejeune's water from the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s.
"Great. Great!" Marine veteran Peter Devereaux of North Andover, Mass., said when he heard about the VA's decision. "It seems they're steppin g up and trying to take control."
Devereaux, 48, suffers from a terminal form of male breast cancer. It took him two years to finally earn service-connected disability benefits in August, and all along the way, he said, he had to explain the Lejeune water problems to VA officials.
"It felt like I had to beg," he said. "You try to be a man. You know, I served my country. The last thing you want to say 20 years later is, 'I need benefits."'
McClatchy Newspapers reported in June that the VA's decisions on Lejeune-related claims appeared uneven and that they varied for Marines across the country. That led to questions from Congress about whether the VA was doing enough to track cases related to the contamination. Devereaux was among those who testi fied on the issue.
A million people - civilian workers, Marines and their family members - are thought to have been exposed to the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, and more than 160,000 have registered with the Marine Corps to learn more about the case.
From the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s, water wells at Lejeune were poisoned with trichloroethylene (TCE), tetrachloroethylene (PCE), benzene, vinyl chloride and other volatile organic chemicals. The wells were shuttered in the mid-'80s, but many Marine veterans and their families had no idea of the contamination until Congress required the military to notify them beginning in 2008.
Bradley Flohr, the VA's assistant director for policy in compensation and pension service, said in an interview that the agency was acting now because it had grown concerned that disability decisions hadn't been consistent across regional offices.
"Perhaps we're not getting as consistent decisions as we would like to have," Flohr said. "We've committed to do training for staff dedicated to do these claims."
The department found about 195 adjudicated disability claims that listed Camp Lejeune's contaminated water as a cause. Of those, just 32 have been approved.
In September, Thomas J. Pamperin, now the VA's deputy undersecretary for disability assistance, testified to the House of Representatives that the VA hadn't found conclusive evidence to link the water to a host of cancers and other diseases. Instead, the VA reviewed claims on a case-by-case basis, which resulted in scattershot d ecisions.
Now the agency has decided to have one office review all incoming Lejeune claims. So far, about 100 new ones await adjudication, Pamperin said in an interview.
Flohr plans to travel to Louisville this week to educate workers about the exposure, the types of chemicals that were in the water and the associated diseases. He said Louisville was chosen as the central site because it was a high-performing regional office.
"We know for certain benzene is most often associated with leukemias, acute myelocytic leukemia, and others," Flohr said. "Kidney cancer as well, with TCE and PCE, and liver cancer is associated with vinyl chloride."
The VA's move to consolidate Lejeune-relat ed claims comes even as federal scientists in Atlanta continue a years-long project to understand the contamination's health effects better. Results of water-modeling and other studies from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry are expected in 2013, Flohr said.
The VA already had tried this year to update regional offices about the water contamination - but not always with the most up-to-date information. The agency sent a memo last spring to regional offices, but it referenced a controversial 2009 report from the National Research Council that left out significant contaminants and that epidemiologists have disputed.
Flohr said the letter was updated this past summer to include other contaminants, such as benzene and vinyl chloride.
This fall, the direct or of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry sent a letter to the Department of the Navy and the Marines warning them that the National Research Council report had flaws, including leaving out certain contaminants, low-balling potential impacts of exposure to the chemicals and not fully appreciating how more scientific study would better explain the health effects of the contamination.
"Let me be perfectly clear; there was undoubtedly a hazard associated with drinking the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune," wrote Christopher Portier, the director of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the National Center for Environmental Health.
The VA also received a copy of the letter, Flohr said.
In response to congressional inquiries, the agency has begun tagging claims that list Lejeune's water as a cause; traditionally claims have been tracked by disability, not cause.
APPLYING FOR DISABILITY BENEFITS:
To apply for service-connected disability, a veteran must fill out VA Form 21-526, Veteran's Application for Compensation and/or Pension. More information is online at http://vabenefits.vba.va.gov/vonapp/main.asp.
In order to have a service connection for a disability, a veteran must show that exposure to the contaminated water "as likely as not" caused the disability. That comes through what's called a "nexus letter," which is written by a physician and shows the connection. The veteran also could request a medical opinion from a VA doctor.
To learn more about the Marines' registry on historic water contamination at Camp Lejeune, go to https://clnr.hqi.usmc.mil/clwater/index.html or call 877-261-9782.
ON THE WEB
Department of Veterans Affairs information on Camp Lejeune water contamination:
http://www4.va.gov/healtheligibility/Library/pubs/CampLejeuneWaterContamination/CampLejeuneWaterContamination.pdf
Department of Veterans Affairs benefits:
http://www.vba.va.gov/VBA
The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten: Camp Lejeune Toxic Water:
< span style="font-size:14.0pt;">http://www.tftptf.com/
Camp Lejeune Historic Drinking Water:
https://clnr.hqi.usmc.mil/clwater/
About Camp Lejeune:
http://www.lejeune.usmc.mil/about/
"Keep on, Keepin' on"
Dan Cedusky, Champaign IL "Colonel Dan"
See my web site at:
http://www.angelfire.com/il2/VeteranIssues/
VA to consolidate Lejeune water claims at Louisville office
Monday, December 20, 2010
Defense Department Wrongfully Discharges Nearly 26,000 Veterans, Refuses to Release Records
Defense Department Wrongfully Discharges Nearly 26,000 Veterans, Refuses to Release Records
Washington, D.C.--The Defense Department's (DoD) failure to comply with the law in releasing records that show it has blocked disabled veterans from receiving disability compensation and other benefits, earned as a result of service to our nation has prompted Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) and VVA Chapter 120 in Hartford, Connecticut, to file a federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit.
The complaint, filed today at the U.S. District Court in New Haven by the Veterans Legal Services Clinic of the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School, charges that, since the beginning of the Global War on Terrorism, DoD has systematically discharged nearly 26,000 veterans, wrongfully classified as suffering from Personality Disorder, a characterization that renders the service member ineligible for receiving rightful benefits. Personality Disorder is a disability that begins in adolescence or early adulthood and can present with symptoms which may mimic Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
"DoD's Personality Disorder designation prevents thousands of wounded veterans from accessing service-connected disability compensation or health care," said VVA National President John Rowan.
In 2007, the Veterans Affairs Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives charged DoD with deliberately misusing personality disorder diagnoses in order to reduce to the cost of health care and disability compensation by at least $12.5 billion. Since then, DoD has dramatically decreased the number of soldiers it has discharged on the basis of Personality Disorder. After discharging an average of 3,750 service members per year for Personality Disorder between 2001 and 2007, DoD has discharged only 960 service members in 2008; 1,426 in 2009; and 650 to date in 2010. However, rather than repairing the harm it has caused to the veterans it misdiagnosed, DoD is refusing to admit that veterans were inappropriately discharged with Personality Disorder before 2008.
"While DoD protects its reputation and its pocketbook, veterans with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury continue to be denied the benefits and medical care they are due," said Dr. Thomas Berger, Executive Director of VVA's Veterans Health Council. Since 2007, VVA has publically criticized DoD's systematic misuse of Personality Disorder discharges, in correspondence to DoD Secretary Gates and in testimony before the House Veterans Affairs Committee, with the intent of curbing the wrongful discharge practice and assisting those wrongfully discharged veterans in receiving the benefits to which they are entitled.
"If DoD truly believes that all Personality Disorder discharges were lawful, why does it refuse to provide records responsive to VVA's Freedom of Information Act request?" asked Melissa Ader, a law student intern in the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School, which is counsel in the case. "We hope that this lawsuit will allow the public to assess for itself whether DoD has treated veterans unjustly."
For more information visit: http://www.vva.org/ppd.html
Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) is the nation's only congressionally chartered veterans service organization dedicated to the needs of Vietnam-era veterans and their families. VVA's founding principle is “Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another.”
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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.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Bobsledder Chose War to Repay the Army
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.Sphere: Related Content
Friday, December 10, 2010
Local veterans in need of Christmas
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
