Veteran Suicide Triple Crisis Counting Congress

Coffman: The twin crisis of veterans' mental health and suicide
Denver Post
By Mike Coffman
Guest Commentary
POSTED:02/06/2016

In April 1991, I returned home from serving as a light armored infantry officer with the U.S. Marine Corps in the first Gulf War. The unit was the first battalion to engage Iraqi forces inside of Kuwait. We did so for three days prior to the main ground attack on Feb. 24, 1991.

Mike Coffman Denver Post

For us, the stress of being on the front lines waiting for combat turned out to be worse than the actual combat phase itself because the Iraqi army had been severely degraded in a punishing bombing campaign that preceded the ground attack.

While preparing to go home after the war ended, I attended an out-briefing by Navy psychologists about some of the psychological challenges that we would likely face. What I remember most was his warning that we had become members of a highly interdependent ground combat team that had been together for months and that after we were separated and alone for the first time, we were likely to experience depression.

Many troops used to the stresses of combat and the interdependent bonds of their fellow soldiers have a difficult time adjusting to civilian life and come home feeling isolated and alone. 

In fact, many find themselves needing help that too often just isn't there.

It is absolutely vital that we as a nation address the twin crisis of veteran suicide and mental health issues.

Today, thousands of servicemen and women and recent military veterans have seen combat. Many have seen their buddies killed or witnessed death up close. Many have also been wounded and had to endure extended and frequently painful and difficult recoveries. These are types of events that can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other types of mental illness.
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I left this comment.

While I applaud you talking about all this, it is troubling to see the "22 a day" used when it is not true. Sorry, but you are on the Committee and should know better. The CDC reports there are more than 40,000 suicides in America. At the same time, states are reporting veterans are committing suicide double the civilian population rate. That means there are over 26,000 veterans ending their lives after risking them for the sake of others. The VA study was an average from 21 states with limited data.

Gulf War veterans have been forgotten about but so have Vietnam veterans. They are the majority of the suicide demographic yet no one is talking about that fact. They are not talking about families like mine even though Vietnam veterans are the ones who came home and fought for all the research done on PTSD. Had Congress asked any of us, we could have helped these young veterans everyone is talking about.

By the way, all the Bills Congress passed did not work. OEF and OIF veteran suicides are triple their peer rate after they had been trained to be "resilient" even though researchers knew it would make the problem worse. All the Bills coming out of Congress are repeats of "doing something" instead of doing the right thing.

Looks more like there is a triple crisis for veterans when members of Congress haven't even taken the time to find out what is true and what is false.

Veterans Deserve Congress Fixing the VA, Not Killing It

Veterans deserve proper respect and to have their needs met by politicians who decided they should go to war but never manage to plan for them to return from it!

Politicians think we're stupid. They think we haven't paid attention all along. While we wait decades for the government to make sure the VA is able to take care of all veterans, they make excuses and pass the blame. Enough is enough!

The first House Veterans Affairs Committee was seated in 1946 and we've been hearing excuses from them ever since. They just keep blaming whomever is Secretary of Veterans Affairs at the time. Who did they blame before President Reagan turned the job into a cabinet position in 1987?

President Reagan, who criticized his predecessor's creation of the Departments of Education and Energy, said today that he wanted to make the Veterans Administration a Cabinet-level department to give veterans ''the recognition they so rightly deserve.''

''There is no better time or better way to salute those valiant men and women than to announce today my decision to support the creation of a Cabinet-level Department of Veterans Affairs,'' Mr. Reagan said. ''This is a personal decision that I have thought about for some time,'' he said. ''Veterans have always had a strong voice in our government. It's time to give them the recognition they so rightly deserve.''

After all these years, the VA created to care for those who serve this whole country, preserve our freedoms, is still suffering from fools who serve on the Committees in the House and Senate all too willing to destroy the department they have jurisdiction over.

Wounded Times has tracked all the reports and proved that none of this is new but politicians just find more excuses to take away from veterans instead of asking what more could they do for them.

Is it that they have not figured out how to take care of our disabled veterans or they don't want to?

The following editorial is more proof they want to just send veterans away into the private, for profit sector waiting lines, lack of doctors and problems the rest of the population deals with everyday. You know, the same folks who can't pay attention to veterans even long enough to show up on Veterans Day for a parade or stop complaining about traffic being tied up!

Our veterans deserve the right to choose their care
By U.S. Rep. David Jolly
Nov 6, 2015

The date is March 28, 1966. Petty Officer Robert Ingram is accompanying a platoon as it dispatched a North Vietnamese battalion in the Quang Nai Province in Vietnam. Then all hell breaks loose.

Suddenly, the surrounding landscape exploded with an intense hail of gun fire from around 100 North Vietnamese soldiers.

The barrage of bullets was devastating. But Ingram crawled back and forth across the dangerous terrain to administer aid to the wounded and recover ammunition from the dead, receiving multiple gunshot wounds in the process until his injuries forced him to return to the right flank of the platoon.

Ingram’s actions saved the lives of many Marines that day.

Nearly 60,000 Americans lost their lives in Vietnam. Today, five times that number may have died awaiting medical care from the Veterans Administration.
read more here

"My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure."
Abraham Lincoln

Devil in Details on VA Reform Bill

The latest hoopla is on the VA Accountability Act of 2015 and appropriately enough on this day. After all, taking a trip back to the future seems to still be capturing attention.

The product is being sold as accountability for VA employees but there seems to be a lot more to this story than the press wants to even explore. First, none of the problems at the VA are new and this "fix" was pushed before. Frankly, it seems more of a political stunt than anything meaningful.

Fire more employees when they have trouble filling jobs in the first place and more funds go to contractors. Oh, forgot, the press won't talk about them either.

The American people seem to want reform

The 1,000-person survey was conducted by the conservative Tarrance Group. More than 90 percent of respondents called for reforming veterans health care, improving accountability among VA employees and expanding medical care options for veterans outside the department.

But they have no idea how long all this has been going on. None of this is new and frankly, during a time when everyone is getting hunchback from looking at their text messages, they know less than they did a decade ago. Ok, well that isn't totally true. It goes back even longer.

In 2003, just as with every year, the House Veterans Affairs Committee, (you know the guys elected with jurisdiction over the VA) held a hearing on several issues. Why not since they've been doing exactly that since 1946 and you see where all that "hearing" left for veterans to deal with.

The word ‘‘crisis’’ is often overused in this town, but clearly VA health care is in crisis, the funding of VA health care, and it is at a crossroads. Last year I, along with my good friend Lane Evans, offered several bills seeking long-term solutions to VA health care funding problems.

Christopher H. Smith gave the opening statement. You can read the whole thing from the above link but this should sum things up nicely for you.

200,000 veterans are waiting 6 months or longer for their first appointment with a VA doctor, and that estimate doesn’t count those still waiting to enroll in the system. Many of those waiting are 100 percent disabled and paralyzed veterans.

Earlier this month Chairman Buyer and committee staff visited one medical center in Florida and discovered that over 2,700 veterans are waiting to be scheduled to see a VA audiologist, over 4,000 veterans are waiting to see an eye specialist, and almost 700 are waiting to see a cardiologist. More than half of these veterans were high-priority veterans in categories 1 through 7. All reports indicate that a similar situation exists at a majority of VA medical centers throughout the country. Care delayed, I would respectfully submit, is care denied.

At the same time there remain at least 275,000 homeless veterans who—and that is a VA estimate, the VSO has put the number even higher—who desperately need a helping hand, yet VA is unable to fully fund programs that Congress approved less than 2 years ago.

The VA has closed over 1,500 long-term care beds at a time when World War II and Korean War veterans are most in need of assistance. Despite an increase in the number of veterans who have service-connected mental illnesses such as post-traumatic stress disorder, VA is providing less care overall than it did in previous fiscal years.

VA will be short, $1.9 billion in their health care budget for this fiscal year, and that assumes that the VA will receive the full $23.9 billion for health care approved last year by both the House and the Senate Appropriations Committees.

For some, the Secretary’s decision to cut off enrollment of 164,000 category 8 veterans was a solution.

This is from Dr. Robert Roswell, Under Secretary of the VA

VA is currently experiencing an unprecedented demand for health care services. We had nearly 800,000 new enrollees in fiscal year 2002 alone, and currently we have almost 6.6 million veterans enrolled. We currently project that we will provide care to 4.6 million veterans this year. This represents a 70 percent increase since 1996.

I could go on and on and on but the point is, when members of Congress say they have a plan, read the fine print because as always, the devil is in the details.

Just a taste of what else is out there if you search for it.

Where Does the VA Money Go
USAspending.gov, an information resource provided by the federal government, has reported that from 2000 to 2008, the Department of Veterans Affairs spent $61.2 billion on goods and services from private contractors. The lion’s share of the money that was paid to the VA’s 109,436 contractors went for medicines ($22.4 billion), medical and surgical supplies and equipment ($4.9 billion), hospitals maintenance ($1.8 billion), hospitals supplies ($1.7 billion) and nursing home services ($1.5 billion).

The largest recipients of VA contracts were McKesson Corporation and AmerisourceBergen, both of which specialize in distributing medicines and medical supplies from manufacturers to pharmacies, hospitals and other healthcare outlets. They are followed by notable multinational companies such as General Electric and Siemens and defense contractor Northrop Grumman. The full top 10 list of contractors is as follows:

McKesson Corp. $13,011,839,337
AmerisourceBergen Corp. $9,070,950,608
Northrop Grumman $668,978,924
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. $615,019,658
General Electric $592,068,384
Small Business Consolidated Reporting $509,653,195
Cardinal Health, Inc. $506,536,397
Electronic Data Systems $482,386,445
Siemens AG $457,581,698
UCB SA $414,526,637

Examples of VA contracts: EDS, a leading information technology company founded by Texas entrepreneur and former president candidate Ross Perot, has signed several contracts with VHA to help run its computer systems. The latest contract was part of the VA’s eight-company, $1 billion effort to purchase support for the department’s Veterans Health Information Systems Technology and Architecture.

Another IT giant, Unisys Corp., has held VA contracts to improve patient management, billing and collections capabilities for the VHA. In 2003, the company signed a $139 million deal to provide systems integration and consulting services for Flowcast, a commercial, off-the-shelf software from IDX Systems Corp. Flowcast helps with patient access management, patient financials, document imaging and business intelligence.

VHA also contracts with architecture and engineering firms when it comes time to build new medical facilities. In September 2007, VHA announced that a three-party venture to design the replacement VA hospital for New Orleans. The three companies are NBBJ of Columbus, Ohio, Eskew+Dumez+Ripple of New Orleans and Rozas-Ward Architects, also of New Orleans.

Unisys wins VHA patient management, accounting solutions (by Gail Repsher Emery, Washington Technology)

Sanders Stretched Truth on VA Record

If you read Wounded Times, you may have gagged during the debate too!

Sanders stretched truth on VA record during debate, some vets say
CNN
By Drew Griffin and Curt Devine
October 14, 2015

During the time the House VA committee held 42 separate hearings related to oversight of the VA, the Senate VA committee -- chaired by Sanders -- held about seven hearings on these issues.

(CNN)Sen. Bernie Sanders touted his record on veterans' issues during Tuesday's debate, citing his position as the former chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs when Congress provided billions of extra dollars to boost healthcare for veterans last year.

"We went further in than any time in recent history in improving health care to the men and women of this country who put their lives on the line to defend us," Sanders said Tuesday, referring to $15 billion given to the Department of Veterans Affairs to decrease wait times and reform the troubled agency.

Yet some veterans groups and others criticize Sanders for what they call a lack of oversight of the VA, and for at times coming to its defense in the midst of the scandal that rocked the agency in 2014.
read more here

When Will Politicians Do Their Jobs?

The list shows members of Congress have forgotten what made this nation great.

"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

That was from President Kennedy about sending a rocket to the moon but those words went far beyond that one hard mission. It struck at the core of what made American what we were intended to become.

"Yet the vows of this Nation can only be fulfilled if we in this Nation are first, and, therefore, we intend to be first. In short, our leadership in science and in industry, our hopes for peace and security, our obligations to ourselves as well as others, all require us to make this effort, to solve these mysteries, to solve them for the good of all men, and to become the world's leading space-faring nation."

That investment in the future led to 50 years, 50 giant leaps: How Nasa rocked our world because these inventions and discoveries benefited the entire planet.

"Those who came before us made certain that this country rode the first waves of the industrial revolutions, the first waves of modern invention, and the first wave of nuclear power, and this generation does not intend to founder in the backwash of the coming age of space. We mean to be a part of it--we mean to lead it. For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace. We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding."

That was back when members of Congress thought their job was to change things for the better not destroy destiny by surrendering to hopelessness.

"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."

Thomas A. Edison

For decades we've all heard members of Congress complain about the Department of Veterans Affairs. It seems that's all they want to do. They make these grand speeches about how much they care but the lack of care, lack of fulfilling their responsibility, lack of careful thought and ineptness to plan has produced more decades of needless suffering. They cannot envision a way to take care of those willing to die for this nation? How long do they get to avoid taking responsibility for the offices they hold and the trust placed upon their shoulders as they lead the Committees with jurisdiction over the Department of Veterans Affairs? How many VA Secretaries do they get to blame while it all gets worse?

More and more of them are saying it is time to give up on the VA and send veterans into for-profit care centers and some folks agree but they are not seeing what kind of message this sends to veterans. It tells them they are not worthy of the promise made to them so long ago.

With the words, “To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan,” President Lincoln affirmed the government’s obligation to care for those injured during the war and to provide for the families of those who perished on the battlefield.

None of the problems reported are new. None of the wounds are new. The only new is that nothing has improved because members of Congress lack the vision to provide the best care possible to our veterans. They failed to plan for success and veterans have been suffering for it since the first House Committee of Veterans Affairs was seated in 1946. How many more years do they plan on letting veterans suffer instead of giving them the best care they paid for with their service to this nation?
But then again they didn't manage to do much for those still wearing the uniform.

In 2007 Washington Post reporters Dana Priest and Anne Hull covered what was going on over at Walter Reed when most Americans just figured the wounded had the best care in the world. Last year NBC and Dallas Morning News reported on more abuse of wounded in Warrior Transition Units. Congress yawned their response to change it but never once acknowledged how many years it had all gone on without them acting on behalf of the wounded to make sure they were all taken care of appropriately.


And while members of Congress once again try to explain why you should vote for them none of them have ever admitted why they never did anything to actually deserve the first one.

The WTUs were created in the wake of a 2007 scandal over substandard conditions at the old Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The units were set up at military posts across the country to help soldiers focus solely on getting the medical care they needed and either move back to active duty or obtain a discharge from military service.

However, I think we're going to do it, and I think that we must pay what needs to be paid. I don't think we ought to waste any money, but I think we ought to do the job.

Patriotism and Pretence on Memorial Day

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
May 28, 2015

This weekend was one event after another. I told coworkers it was good to be back at work so that I could get some rest with the usual chaos.

I love covering the events and sharing what the press hardly ever shows.

This is from the Lake Nona VA Hospital Dedication.  As you can see, these cameramen blocked the view of the veterans behind them,

but what makes it worse is, none of them showed the whole event and few put anything on air at all.

I have a unique view of crowds behind the camera. I watch their faces, listen to the folks in the crowd almost more than I listen to the speakers. While the news crews were in the way, I was off to the side, standing in the sun in over 90 degree heat, so that I could see the speakers as well as the veterans. After all it was the dedication of their hospital.

We left early due to other appointments plus, I really didn't want to hear the same thing out of the politicians I've been hearing for years.

There is a vast difference between a politician speaking, reading words but clearly lacking the experience behind the words. They stumble over words that should come flowing out while they choke back words to appear to be emotional. Usually these stunts are followed by screwing up something important like a name or an important event in our history.

They read the words and some, if they are good and practiced enough, they glantz at the words written for them but if you pay close attention, it is easy to tell they don't have a clue what the words really mean to members in the crowd.

Then there are the veterans. When they speak, it is from their hearts filled with the experiences behind the words. Sometimes when they stop, choke back, then carry on, you can see it in their eyes and the change in their tone how much those words truly meant to them.

If you took the same speech about fallen servicemembers and had a politician read it right after a veteran did, you'd booo because the difference is that obvious.

I heard a Vietnam veteran talk about not leaving another generation of veterans behind and how they fight for all veterans to make sure they don't ever have to experience what they were put through. Then I heard politicians at another event talk about how they value veterans and want to make sure they are taken care of, but the words were just words. No emotion. No understanding of what it is like to be a veteran, disabled by risking his/her life because some politicians decided they needed to go but never planned for when these veterans returned.

The Lake Nona VA took about 10 years to get to the point where they started taking appointments and even now they are limited. It is supposed to be fully operational by the end of the year. Think about that for a second. All those years and all we heard out of members of Congress is it is all the VA's fault. After all, why would they want to remind anyone that they are responsible for this and everything else the VA does or does not do?

Jeff Miller
U.S. House of Representatives
United States Representative Jeff Miller serves as Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. The Committee on Veterans’ Affairs is responsible for authorization and oversight of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA.) VA is the second largest department in the federal government with over 300,000 employees and a budget of over $150 billion.

Congressman Jeff Miller, Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee has been on that committee since 2001. That is proudly stated on his website.

After taking the oath of office in 2001, Congressman Miller was appointed to the House Armed Services Committee and the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. He quickly established himself within Washington as a strong advocate for veterans' concerns and immediately supported changes to concurrent receipt and policy changes such as a greater co-sharing between the military and veterans' clinics.

Is this all his fault? No, but like all those before him, they simply don't feel the words they say and none of them have ever accepted responsibility for what they left behind. Mainly, veterans in line waiting for the care they were promised time and time again, years after more years. Most of the talking has been during election years.

The groundbreaking for the VA Hospital was in 2008 and every politician showed up to take credit for it even though building it wasn't scheduled to begin until 2010.  Every politician on that stage was involved in this in one way or another, but as with everything else, they seem to forget it was their job to make sure happened.

When politicians gave their speeches at the other events, their words painfully came out to the point where folks stopped listening hoping they'd finish. When veterans spoke the pain came from living what the words meant and folks hoped they'd be able to finish their speech without breaking down.

Hands wiped away tears for them yet when politicians spoke, hands wiped away sweat because the difference between the pretence of patriotism and true patriots was obvious.

Veterans Response To Tampa Bay Jeff Miller Report

Jeff Miller forgets that he has been head of the House Veterans Affairs Committee since 2011.

United States Representative Jeff Miller serves as Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. The Committee on Veterans’ Affairs is responsible for authorization and oversight of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA.) VA is the second largest department in the federal government with over 300,000 employees and a budget of over $150 billion.

But Miller has also been on the Committee since 2001! Yep! So who does he blame? He blames the VA.

After taking the oath of office in 2001, Congressman Miller was appointed to the House Armed Services Committee and the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. He quickly established himself within Washington as a strong advocate for veterans' concerns and immediately supported changes to concurrent receipt and policy changes such as a greater co-sharing between the military and veterans' clinics.

In that video Miller asked for Veterans to give their thoughts,,,,,,Here's some thoughts from veterans right here in Florida. "We're not gonna take it anymore!"

A year after VA scandal, House veterans committee chairman wants more progress
Tampa Bay Times
William R. Levesque
Times Staff Writer
Monday, May 25, 2015

The scandal has lifted Mil­ler's profile as he has become a sought-after quote by journalists reporting on the agency's deficiencies. And Miller, 55, is considering a 2016 Senate run for the seat expected to open as Marco Rubio seeks the presidency.

SEMINOLE — Whenever U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller attends a public event, veterans and Department of Veterans Affairs employees find him for short, intense conversations about one VA issue after another.

It happened after his Memorial Day speech at the Bay Pines Veterans Cemetery, where a short line of people waited to get a minute with the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs committee.

This is life for one of the VA's biggest Capitol Hill critics, who told the Tampa Bay Times on Monday he remains frustrated by the slow pace of reform at an agency hit in the past year by the worst scandal in its history.

"The VA did not get into the situation that exists today overnight," Miller said. "And it's not going to be resolved in a year's time. It is going to take an entire culture change within the department. There has to be transparency and accountability."

And too often, he said, those two qualities are still lacking.

The Pensacola Republican has been in the forefront of debate since the VA scandal erupted in April 2014 when a doctor at a Phoenix VA hospital said that 40 veterans there had died after delays in care and that the hospital kept a secret patient waiting list to hide its shortcomings. What followed was a series of revelations about the VA's widespread tactic of manipulating hospital performance measures nationally, its retaliation against whistle-blowers and patients lost in VA red tape.
read more here

There is absolutely nothing that has happened at the VA that should have surprised Miller since all the reports have come out repeatedly since 2001....actually even before that, but admitting that would assume members of Congress have a conscience.

Rachel Maddow Turned VA SNAFU Into Full Blown FUBAR

Last night while waiting to fall asleep I was channel surfing when I came across the Rachel Maddow Show as she was talking about the VA. (go there to watch video before you finish reading this)

Seems Rachel is suddenly aware of what we've been talking about forever!

I actually thought I was dreaming when the graphics popped up with the same one I used last week on this very subject.
Veterans Message to Congress We're Not Disposable

Part of me thought it was great someone with a huge (ok, well, at least bigger than mine) audience getting paid to talk about all of the crap that has been going on, was actually doing it, until it dawned on me members of her staff must read Wounded Times because this crossed the line of simply being ironic.

Maddow had a chance to do the right thing on this but, as part of the MSNBC agenda, she had to get political saying that the group, Concerned Veterans For America were behind this.

Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) is a 501(c)(4) non-profit which seems to be funded almost entirely by the Koch brothers donor network.[1] CVA advocates for reductions in federal spending and free market policies, focusing its campaigns on themes related to veterans.

The group's CEO, Pete Hegseth, was the former executive director of the pro-Iraq War Vets for Freedom[2] and as of June 2014 was finance chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota.[3] Hegseth appears to have attended at least one Koch network summit meeting.

An investigation by ProPublica found that Concerned Veterans for America submits its IRS filings under the name Vets for Economic Freedom Trust. Those documents list former Koch Industries managing director Wayne Gable as a trustee.[4]

The problem is, maybe the same folks were part of this all along but as John Boehner put it, he's been pushing to privatize the VA for "decades" yet this group only goes back a couple of years.

Nice try on Maddow's part but she turned snafu into full blown fubar!

VA threatened by conservative privatization push
Rachel Maddow shows how right wing groups have worked to create a political environment where the previously radical idea of privatizing veterans' health care can be presented as a viable alternative to the VA.

So just as wrong as Maddow was on the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention Act needing to be passed, even though it was simply a repeat of all the other bills Congress has pushed out like the result of a heavy duty laxative, moaning and groaning about needing to do something to get their name on a bill as if they actually did something worthwhile, she failed to see how long it has all been going on.

What is worse is she had a chance to show that aside from the wasted time, needless suffering and money flushed down the drain, there were lives involved in all of this.

Veterans suffered while Congress got to screw around and screw up long enough to convince folks the boogymen to blame were heads of the VA and not take the time to look at who was really behind all of it. (Oh, by the way, in case Maddow's staffers are reading this again, that would Congress.) The only way to privatize the VA is to destroy it and they just didn't care how many veterans were destroyed in the process.

As usual, Maddow showed up with some good information but managed to just keep her eyes closed to the biggest picture of all. Veterans suffered a lot longer than just going back to when Reagan turned the head of the VA into a cabinet position. (Yep, I caught that reference too!)

Veterans Message To Congress, We're Not Disposable!

Members of Congress hope that no one noticed they were responsible for how veterans were treated in this country. Any wonder why they feel like they do?

Legislation Within the Jurisdiction of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs

Veterans' measures generally.
Pensions of all the wars of the U.S., general and special.
Life insurance issued by the government on account of service in the Armed Forces.
Compensation, vocational rehabilitation, and education of veterans.
Veterans' hospitals, medical care, and treatment of veterans.
Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief.
Readjustment of servicemen to civilian life.
National Cemeteries.
Complete Jurisdiction of the Committee

The Department of Veterans Affairs

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was established March 15, 1989, with Cabinet rank, succeeding the Veterans Administration and assuming responsibility for providing federal benefits to veterans and their dependents. Led by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, VA is the second largest of the 14 Cabinet departments and operates nationwide programs of health care assistance services and national cemeteries.

1930

The Veterans Administration was created by Executive Order S.398, signed by President Herbert Hoover on July 21, 1930. At that time, there were 54 hospitals, 4.7 million living veterans, and 31,600 employees.

1946
House Veterans Affairs Committee

The Committee on Veterans' Affairs of the House of Representatives was authorized by enactment of Public Law 601, 79th Congress, which was entitled "Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946." Section 121(a) of this Act provides: "there shall be elected by the House at the commencement of each Congress the following standing committees": Nineteen Committees are listed and No. 18 quotes: "Committee on Veterans' Affairs, to consist of 27 Members." This Act has since been amended so that there are now 22 Standing Committees in the House of Representatives. The number of Members (Representatives) authorized to serve on each Committee has been changed from time to time. There are currently 29 members of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

VA History in Brief

WWII

On Feb. 1, 1946, Bradley reported that the VA was operating 97 hospitals with a total bed capacity of 82,241 patients. Hospital construction then in progress projected another 13,594 beds. Money was available for another 12,706 beds with the construction of 25 more hospitals and additions to 11 others. But because of the demobilization, the total number of veterans would jump to more than 15 million within a few months. The existing VA hospitals were soon filled to capacity, and there were waiting lists for admission at practically all hospitals. In addition, there were 26,057 nonservice-connected cases on the hospital waiting list.

Until more VA hospitals could be opened, the Navy and Army both made beds available. To handle the dramatic increase in veterans claims, VA Central Office staff was increased in two years from 16,966 to 22,008. In the same period, field staff, charged with providing medical care, education benefits, disability payments, home loans and other benefits, rose from 54,689 employees to 96,047.

Korea

The Korean War, creating new veterans on top of the millions who came home from World War II, brought additional workloads to the VA. The number of VA hospitals between 1942 and 1950 had increased from 97 to 151. As of November 30, 1952, the VA had a workforce of some 164,000 employees working at the Central Office and its 541 hospitals, regional offices and other field stations. A daily average of 128,000 veterans received medical and domiciliary care. Each year 2.5 million veterans received outpatient and dental care at VA facilities. Each month 2.5 million veterans and dependents received $125 million in compensation and pensions.

Vietnam

Congress at first limited benefits for the Vietnam War to veterans whose service occurred between Aug. 5, 1964, and May 7, 1975. Congress later expanded the period to Feb. 28, 1961, for veterans who served in country. During this period, more than 6 million Vietnam-era veterans were separated from military service. A major difference of Vietnam-era veterans from those of earlier wars was the larger percentage of disabled. Advances in airlift and medical treatment meant that many wounded and injured personnel survived who would have died in earlier wars. By 1972 there were 308,000 veterans with disabilities connected to military service.

Secretary of Veterans Affairs

President Reagan signed legislation in 1988 to elevate VA to Cabinet status and, on March 15, 1989, the Veterans Administration became the Department of Veterans Affairs. Edward J. Derwinski, VA administrator at the time, was appointed the first Secretary of Veterans Affairs. As reorganized, the department included three main elements: the Veterans Health Services and Research Administration, which was renamed the Veterans Health Administration; the Veterans Benefits Administration; and the National Cemetery System.

Gulf War

The Persian Gulf War, which began in August 1990 as Operation Desert Shield and became Operation Desert Storm in January 1991, created a new climate in U.S. society favorable to military personnel and veterans benefits. As of July 1, 1992, there were 664,000 Persian Gulf War veterans, not including Reservists called up for active duty. Of these, 88,000, or 13.2 percent, were women.

The Rise (and Fall) of the VA Backlog, TIME, By Brandon Friedman, June 03, 2013

On the January afternoon Eric Shinseki took over as the nation’s seventh VA secretary, he inherited a mess.

To his immediate front, the former Army chief of staff faced a paper mountain of 391,127 separate disability claims—filed by veterans from every conflict since World War II. Nearly a quarter of the claims (more than 85,000) had been languishing in the system for more than six months.

Expanding eligibility for veterans affected by PTSD and Agent Orange more than doubled the claims backlog.

As if the paper weren’t problem enough, Shinseki and his staff soon learned that thousands of Vietnam War veterans—many with whom he likely served—had been barred from claiming disability benefits for conditions related to their exposure to the toxic defoliant Agent Orange.

The gravity of this situation in early 2009—with one war ending and another still raging—was not lost on the new boss. Compounding his problem, however, was the fact that he had little to work with in terms of a technological solution. VA was paper-bound, its IT system antiquated—and it had been this way for years.

Everyone knew this.

Everyone but members of Congress since all they've done for decades is blame the VA when they were supposed to be responsible for taking care of veterans. After all, they control all the funding, make the rules and pass all the bills.

This is from New York Times

Veterans Affairs Faces Surge of Disability Claims, By JAMES DAO Published: July 12, 2009

Veterans advocates say the actual backlog is nearing one million, if minor claims, educational programs and appeals of denied claims are factored in. They point to the discovery last year of benefits applications in disposal bins at several department offices as evidence of shoddy handling of claims. And they assert that they routinely see frustratingly long delays on what seem like straightforward claims.

One group, Veterans for Common Sense, has obtained records showing that some veterans are calling suicide hotlines to talk about their delayed disability claims. The group has called on the department to replace Veterans Benefits Administration leaders.

“We’re not saying vets are threatening to commit suicide over the claims issues,” said Paul Sullivan, executive director of the group. “We’re saying V.A.’s claim situation is so bad that it is exacerbating veterans’ already difficult situations.”

Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, has emerged as one of the most prevalent disability claims, after ailments like back pain and knee injuries. Not only are many new veterans receiving a diagnosis of the disorder, but an increasing number of Vietnam veterans are also reporting symptoms for the first time, officials and advocates said.

Ok, so while Congress has managed to forget what they were supposed to do, veterans remembered. They have a message for politicians, WE'RE NOT DISPOSABLE!

This dumpster was supplied by Pro-Demo

Mickey Grosman

Veterans keep having to help other veterans out of where Congress

keeps sending them.

Veterans have more news coming for members of Congress

Check back tomorrow!

UPDATE, here's the video

Congress No Longer Ashamed of What They Did to Veterans

Congress Pushing VA to Disaster
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
April 5, 2015

When I had more time and wasn't working a full time job plus doing this work, I wrote on Veterans Today. I was looking up a quote from John Boehner on privatizing the VA when I rediscovered a post I did way back in 2011. "Fix The VA Don't Break It"

It started with this.

"One of the biggest problems tracking reports across the country is that there are days when I get hit with more news than I can stand. It makes my head hurt to think of how far we’ve come, then get whacked with one bad news report after another."

Privatizing VA still appeals to Boehner reported by the Columbus Dispatch May 24, 2014. He said the idea seems to still be a good one. So how is it that the reporters didn't ask him what that really meant?

Decades? He has been pushing to privatize the VA for decades? Did it ever dawn on him that in the process of his goals it would mean that millions of disabled veterans would suffer? They have been pushing the VA to disaster all this time and hoped no one would notice.

The post I wrote ended with this.

"These problems are easy to ignore if they remain local issues but when you look at what is going on across the country, it is clear there is a huge problem. The VA has an obligation to provide care to our veterans no matter where they live. Fixing the VA is about taking care of all veterans now or tomorrow people wanting to privatize the VA will win and veterans will lose."

Here we are and the evidence is in that the Congress has been screwing veterans for decades and are no longer ashamed to admit it.

After all, the Congress is responsible for what happens. They pass all the bills and fund them. They also have an obligation to be the watchdogs over all the departments including the VA.

Legislation Within the Jurisdiction of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs


Veterans' measures generally.

Pensions of all the wars of the U.S., general and special.

Life insurance issued by the government on account of service in the Armed Forces.

Compensation, vocational rehabilitation, and education of veterans.

Veterans' hospitals, medical care, and treatment of veterans.

Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief.

Readjustment of servicemen to civilian life.

National Cemeteries.

How long have they had to get this right? Since 1946!

If they wanted to really take care of our veterans, they would have done it decades ago!

Sarah Palin Needs Military History Lesson, Quick!

This generation? Is she kidding? Palin repeated the same old line of this generation being different from others.

ALL OF THEM SERVED AND ALL OF THEM WERE NOT TAKEN CARE OF.

Among the number of those committing suicide as Palin stated to be "23" they are not even close but the majority of those veterans are over 50 Gulf War veterans, Vietnam veterans who pushed for everything done on PTSD, and Korean veterans as well as WWII veterans. Palin also didn't even bother to mention that the Congress is responsible for passing laws, rules and funding the VA along with holding people accountable.

Yep, ain't happened in generations.

Sounds like a painful speech Palin should have had Tina Fey read. Wouldn't have been a lot less draining on the ears. Oh by the way, the front of the line has been older veterans waiting even longer for everything she talked about for the newer generation.


Sarah Palin forgot that "he who sent them" was George Bush and he didn't have plans or any intention of getting the VA ready for the growing needs of our veterans. Again, history can't be changed and we know what the history of congress is when it comes to our veterans.

Palin also said that Afghanistan is the longest war. Not true either.

But the official start of the U.S. military involvement in Vietnam, set by the Defense Department in 1998, is Nov. 1, 1955, when the Military Assistance and Advisory Group was established in Saigon. The official end of the Vietnam War for the Department of Veterans Affairs’ purposes is May 7, 1975. Matching that with the DoD start date would make the Vietnam War 19 years, six months long.

Vietnam Memorial Wall
The first American soldier killed in the Vietnam War was Air Force T-Sgt. Richard B. Fitzgibbon Jr. He is listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having a casualty date of June 8, 1956.

The last American soldier killed in the Vietnam War was Kelton Rena Turner, an 18-year old Marine. He was killed in action on May 15, 1975, two weeks after the evacuation of Saigon, in what became known as the Mayaguez incident.
Others list Gary L. Hall, Joseph N. Hargrove and Danny G. Marshall as the last to die in Vietnam. These three US Marines Corps veterans were mistakenly left behind on Koh Tang Island during the Mayaguez incident. They were last seen together but unfortunately to date, their fate is unknown. They are located on panel 1W, lines 130 - 131.

Congress has had since 1946 to get the veterans in this country taken care of so the sum of all these years is, as many veterans claim, "delay, deny and wait til they die" and politicians just keep making speeches like the one Sarah Palin made.

The Committee on Veterans' Affairs of the House of Representatives was authorized by enactment of Public Law 601, 79th Congress, which was entitled "Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946." Section 121(a) of this Act provides: "there shall be elected by the House at the commencement of each Congress the following standing committees": Nineteen Committees are listed and No. 18 quotes: "Committee on Veterans' Affairs, to consist of 27 Members." This Act has since been amended so that there are now 22 Standing Committees in the House of Representatives. The number of Members (Representatives) authorized to serve on each Committee has been changed from time to time. There are currently 29 members of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

UPDATE From Washington Post
Sarah Palin’s inaccurate claim about suicides of veterans of the ‘war on terror’

There also were “significant limitations” in using death certificates, researchers noted. This is mainly due to the inclusion of people who were incorrectly identified as veterans on death certificates.

An updated report with data from at least 44 states is scheduled to be released this summer. The VA, CDC and Department of Defense also are working on a larger study that is expected to be the most comprehensive review of veteran suicides rates and trends.

While researchers and advocates need to know as much information as possible many things stand out and honestly, freak us out!

First, they will never really know the true count. Too many variables. Was it an accidental overdose or on purpose? Was it a true single vehicle accident or on purpose? Was the individual a member of the military or just a claim made on the form or omitted from it?

One more factor we don't talk about is that PTSD comes with a huge array of health issue from heart failure due to the stress associated with it and an ever growing list of illnesses set of by PTSD.

Ok, so not one more, add in TBI. Some still haven't figured out the two are not the same. PTSD strikes after the event caused shock and TBI happens during it when the bombs blow up and a brain is mushed around in a scull. Some suicides should be tied to TBI as well.

Whatever the finding, the conclusion is, there are far more suicides now when more is being done and that is inexcusable, but what makes all this worse is, no one really mentions that nothing about what combat does is new.

These are the numbers of Vietnam veterans who committed suicide when no one was paying attention.

According to a study by Tim A. Bullman and Han K. Yang in the Federal Practitioner 12 (3) : 9-13 (March 1995), “…no more than 20,000 Vietnam Veterans died of suicide from the time of discharge through the end of 1993″. However there are others that claim that many more veterans have died of suicide since the Vietnam War. In Chuck Deans’ book, Nam Vet., printed in 1990 by Multnomah Press, Portland, Oregon, 97226, the author states that “Fifty-eight thousand plus died in the Vietnam War. Over 150,000 have committed suicide since the war ended.” According to this book, Chuck Dean is a Vietnam Veteran who served in the 173rd Airborne, arriving in Vietnam in 1965. At the time the book was written, Mr. Dean was the executive director of Point Man International, a Seattle based, non-profit support organization dedicated to healing the war wounds of Vietnam Veterans.

But hey why bother remembering Vietnam veterans? After all, they are the ones who pushed for all the research into what was happening to them, just like all generations before them and they knew, for sure, all generations coming after them.

Baldwin Sat on Report Others Pretended They Didn't Know Years Ago

"Sen. Baldwin had Tomah VA report for months" was the headline on the use of opiates as if it was anything new. None of this is new but it seems as if some bloggers have just discovered this issue. The story was linked on a report Town Hall.com had up Sunday but as you can see, it is far from new and it appears that there have been many politicians just sitting on what they knew, since nothing was done about any of it.

"In September, the Center for Investigative Reporting revealed that VA prescriptions for four opiates - hydrocodone, oxycodone, methadone and morphine - surged 270 percent from 2001 to 2012. That far outpaced the increase in the number of VA patients and contributed to a fatal overdose rate that the agency's researchers put at nearly double the national average."

That was reported in 2013 by Aaron Glantz, Center for Investigative Reporting. The kicker was that also in the same report was the stunning admission of doctors writing prescriptions for these drugs without seeing the patient. Glantz followed that report up with another testimony told this part of what was going on.

"There are multiple instances when I have been coerced or even ordered to write for Schedule II narcotics when it was against my medical judgment," said Dr. Pamela Gray, a physician who formerly worked at the VA hospital in Hampton, Va. Primary care doctors who don't want to prescribe large amounts of opiates may resign, do as they are told or be terminated, Gray said. Gray was fired.

Dr. Robert Jesse gave testimony to the House Veterans Affairs Committee

Hearing on 10/10/2013: Between Peril and Promise: Facing the Dangers of VA’s Skyrocketing Use of Prescription Painkillers to Treat Veterans

"We also know that the long-term use of opioids is associated with significant risks, particularly in vulnerable individuals, such as Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and family stress – all common in Veterans returning from the battlefield, and in Veterans with addiction disorders. Chronic pain in Veterans is often accompanied by co-morbid mental health conditions (up to 50 percent in some cohorts) caused by the psychological trauma of war, as well as neurological disorders, such as TBI caused by blast and concussion injuries. In fact, one study documented that more that 40 percent of Veterans admitted to a polytrauma unit in VHA suffered all three conditions together – chronic pain, PTSD, and post-concussive syndrome."

But as bad as all this is, the reports of troops being medicated while still in the military have been going on longer.

Investigation needed Ambien and military use

Links to medications suspected with non-combat deaths

240,000 Veterans Claims Still Backlogged

Veterans advocates: Stop the VA 'hamster wheel' disability appeals process
Stars and Stripes
By Heath Druzin
Published: January 22, 2015

"Veterans groups and advocates lined up to blast the VA appeals system at Thursday’s hearing in front of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs subcommittee on disability assistance and memorial affairs."

The effort to clear a massive backlog of veteran disability claims is hurting efforts to address a similar backlog in appeals of denied claims, say advocates demanding reforms to an onerous “hampster wheel” system that leaves veterans languishing for years.

A congressional subcommittee hearing Thursday focused on the appeals process, noting that the Department of Veterans Affairs has about 350,000 pending appeals of denied service-connected disability claims.

“I am aware that the [VA] chose to prioritize certain initial claims in recent years, but I must say that when veterans in my district share that they waited six, eight, 10 years to resolve a meritorious appeal of a service-connected disability claim, I just find that alarming and unacceptable,” Rep. Ralph Abraham, R-La., said.

Veterans wait an average 3½ years to get an initial decision and often years longer for the VA to finalize that decision. There are almost 510,000 original disability claims pending, with more than 240,000 deemed “backlogged” — meaning the veteran has been awaiting a decision for at least 125 days.
read more here

VA Construction "Fubar on Steroids"

‘FUBAR on steroids’: Congressmen blast VA about construction debacles 
Stars and Stripes
By Heath Druzin
Published: January 21, 2015

“This is a FUBAR on steroids if I’ve ever seen one. …I feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone when I listen to this,” Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.) said, using a military slang acronym that includes an obscenity. “I’m not sure the VA should ever build a hospital.”

Sloan Gibson, Deputy Veterans Affairs Secretary, at a June 4, 2014 event in Washington, D.C.

OLIVIER DOULIERY/MCT FILE PHOTO

In the latest black eye for the Department of Veterans Affairs, congressmen grilled officials Wednesday over construction mismanagement that has cost the department hundreds of millions of dollars in overruns and delayed major projects by years.

“It’s long past time for these projects, marred by bureaucratic ineptitude, to be complete,” House Committee on Veterans Affairs Chairman Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) said during a hearing on VA construction problems.

The hearing was prompted by several recent flaps over major projects, including a new VA medical center in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colo., where a contractor walked off the project after major delays and hundreds of millions in cost overruns. A recent Government Accountability Office report found that, on average, the largest VA projects were three years late and $376 million over budget.

Speaking in front of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson said the department is overhauling the way they do construction and that “veterans and taxpayers are right to expect more and they deserve much better from their VA.”
read more here

Homeless Veterans Called Help Hotline to Talk to Machines?

Hotline to Help Homeless Veterans Falls Short
Inspector General Says A Quarter of Calls Go to Answering Machine
Wall Street Journal
By BEN KESLING
Dec. 4, 2014

A Department of Veterans Affairs hotline established to help homeless veterans missed thousands of opportunities to help at-risk vets last year, the agency’s inspector general said.

The VA’s National Call Center for Homeless Veterans, launched in mid-2012, didn’t consistently ensure that veterans who called the hotline received access to support services, according to findings released Wednesday.

“This is a huge national problem, our veterans deserve to have the phone answered when they call for help,” Rep. Jackie Walorski (R., Ind.), a member of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, said in an interview Thursday.

Ms. Walorski said this isn’t a one-off issue at the VA, but shows the depth of problems that face VA Secretary Robert McDonald , who has been at the helm since the end of July. “I think it’s symptomatic and we have a long way to go,” Ms. Walorski said.

Of the nearly 80,000 calls made to the hotline in fiscal-year 2013, more than 21,000 went to an answering machine because counselors weren’t available, and 13,000 calls weren’t returned because messages were inaudible or callers didn’t leave contact information, the inspector general said. And none of the more than 50,000 referrals made by the call center were monitored or followed up for quality control.
read more here

Congress blaming the VA is like horse blaming the ground

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
November 22, 2014

You should get some Imodium before reading this. It has got to be the biggest load of crap I've ever heard! It comes from MedPageToday titled "Senate to VA: Save Our Suicidal Veterans" as if Congress had absolutely nothing to do with the processions of needlessly filled coffins for the last 40 years. Doesn't everyone get it is the job of our elected officials to actually earn their pay and benefits?

For Congress to blame the VA it is like a horse blaming the ground for the mess it left behind.

The list of members of the House and the Senate sitting on the Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Committees are responsible for all of this clusterfuck!

Sorry but I read a long time ago that profanity was a great stress relief and in the words of Ouiser Boudreaux "I'm not crazy, I've just been in a very bad mood for the last 40 years!" but in my case, it has just been 30+ years.

One More Hearing

On Wednesday, the Committee on Veterans Affairs questioned directors of mental health and suicide prevention services at the VA about efforts to improve the quality and timeliness of mental health care.

During the hearing, senators criticized the VA for long wait times, limited access to mental health resources, and poor tracking of returning soldiers, particularly those diagnosed with a mental health condition.

Burr said VA officials had earlier told the Senate of its efforts to provide evidence-based care, but Burr said a review of VA outcomes raised serious questions about the validity of such care.

He cited an American Legion survey of around 3,100 veterans, the majority of whom felt that their symptoms were either not improving or worsening after psychotherapy or medication that was prescribe by the VA.

"If more than half of our nation's veterans don't think they're getting better, I believe the focus on whether evidence-based treatment is provided might be misguided."

They can have all the hearings they want but that in no way, shape or form, indicates they are actually listening or even understanding what people have been telling them for decades.

This was followed by even more bullshit!

More Problems Than Solutions

Kudler described a joint suicide data repository developed by the VA and the Department of Defense to track patterns of suicide among veterans and service members. He said that data could be used to identify and replicate the most effective suicide prevention programs.

Ritchie added, "If you come from working at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo Bay or the detainment facilities in Bagram you don't necessarily get a whole lot of pats on the back, and we need to recognize that type of service as well."

Vincent Vanata, a retired master sergeant with the U.S. Marine Corps and Combat Stress Recover Program participant with the Wounded Warrior Project from Cody, Wyo., said the VA's problem is a lack of outreach. "From my perspective the VA is not engaging with these returning veterans and letting them know what's available," he said.

If they don't actually understand what the fuck has been happening any more than they get how long it has been going on, then they need to decline the invitation to sit in the chair!

The problem is not lack of outreach. It is lack of getting what they needed to be prepared for the increase in wounded/disabled when troops were sent into Afghanistan and Iraq while there was already a waiting line at the VA of Gulf War Veterans, Vietnam Veterans, Korean War Veterans, WWII Veterans and remaining WWI Veterans! You know, the veterans sent into combat without the VA being ready for them either.

How do I know about the long lines? I saw it first hand with my Dad, a 100% disabled veteran and my husband another 100% disabled veteran. In other words, I spent my life witnessing what veterans had to go through to have their claims approved as well as really great care once they did from fantastic employees for the most part. Most of the time I was scratching my head wondering why all veterans didn't get what they needed or why things weren't ready for them when they needed it. My Dad had to go to the DAV for help with his claim in the 70's and so did my husband in the 90's. We had to fight for 6 years before it was approved making sure we met all the deadlines.

The House Veterans Affairs Committee put their behinds in the chair in 1946.

Legislation Within the Jurisdiction of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
Veterans' measures generally.
Pensions of all the wars of the U.S., general and special.
Life insurance issued by the government on account of service in the Armed Forces.
Compensation, vocational rehabilitation, and education of veterans.
Veterans' hospitals, medical care, and treatment of veterans.
Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief.
Readjustment of servicemen to civilian life.
National Cemeteries.
Complete Jurisdiction of the Committee

The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee has been holding hearings as well as the House.

The Veterans' Affairs committee was created in 1970 to transfer responsibilities for veterans from the Finance and Labor committees to a single panel. From 1947 to 1970, matters relating to veterans compensation and veterans generally were referred to the Committee on Finance, while matters relating to the vocational rehabilitation, education, medical care, civil relief, and civilian readjustment of veterans were referred to the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare.

To this day there have been members of Congress using the term of "public welfare" as a way of cutting the VA budgets and not having to acknowledge that in the case of veterans, they paid for it when they signed over the blank check up to and including their lives.

They got away with it because we have reporters with the national media more interested in the headline than the history behind it. I don't talk to them anymore when they call to make their lives easier. They never understand there is a long history of politicians getting away with pretending they care when the results prove they don't have the slightest interest in fixing anything.

Veterans groups have a totally different conversation going on than the public does because we don't rely on the press to tell us anything. We live it! We lament over funerals while they play political games pitting one group against another. Veterans risked their lives for each other no matter what party they belonged to so if one of them has been betrayed, they all feel it.

Civilians talk about celebrity news and reality TV shows. We talk about heroes and the reality of living as a veteran every day of the year while they turn Veterans Day into a pre-Christmas sales day. They don't understand that they actually sold out veterans a long time ago.

Unless they know someone in the military they can't even show up for the parade unless it happens to be covered on TV like in New York.

"That they receive the recognition and support they so richly deserve on this 95th anniversary of the Veterans Day Parade."

The VA has had problems for decades but no one in any of the congresses fixed the problems. They just spent money without knowing what was needed, what would work and then turned around awarding money to repeat the same mistakes. Year after year, family members sat in front of them telling their heartbreaking stories and year after year, they were followed by more and more families telling the same stories over and over again. Nothing has been fixed.

We have less than 4 million veterans compensated for disabilities yet more deserve it. They don't for help simply because they have heard all the horror stories and battles they have to fight to get what they earned fighting for the country while in their uniforms. First the DOD failed them then the VA was blamed for failing but the fault belonged to members of congress with the responsibility to ensure both lived up to their promises.

Watch the parade. Hear the words. Hear them talking about the new groups as if they were the only generation fighting for what they need. Millions a year collected to do what the DOD and the VA have been delivering for decades to all veterans and other groups fighting for all veterans equally because they know how long all of this have been going on. Veterans didn't fight for themselves in combat and they fight for each other afterwards.

While the OEF and OIF veterans get the attention of the press, older veterans have suffered longer waiting for the same care and attention the new veterans receive. Why? Why the hell should one group matter while other groups don't anymore?

Who decided to forget about Gulf War Veterans? Who decided to forget about Vietnam Veterans? Who decided to forget about Korean War, WWII and the lesser publicized battles fought by the men and women who came before?

Most of the established groups have been fighting for decades while they told members of congress exactly what was going on yet over and over again members of congress decided they had other placers to be so they walked out of the hearings that got them attention. Watch CSPAN videos and you'll see empty chairs.

We see them get up and leave. We see empty chairs at our tables when our veterans get up and leave their lives before they had to. We see the tears, trembling bodies and screams in the night. We see the hope vanish from their days as one day gets harder than easier. When one day it is harder to stay alive here than it was to fight the battles on foreign lands.

If you think losing more after combat than during it is a new thing, then think again because the majority of the veteran suicides are 50 and over.

We didn't get it right for them and we won't get it right for the newer veterans getting the attention today because Congress didn't get it right yesterday.

Congress Still Not Doing Their Jobs for Veterans and It Shows

REPEAT AFTER ME
THE JOB OF CONGRESS IS TO KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS! They have committees in the House and subcommittees. They also have them in the Senate. For them to not know what has been going on means they WERE NOT DOING THEIR JOBS~

VA didn't track vacant medical jobs until this year
AZ Central
The Republic
Paul Giblin
November 16, 2014

The Department of Veterans Affairs' record-keeping processes were in such disarray in recent years that the agency didn't track its number of unfilled medical positions until June of this year, according to VA officials.

The VA's lax record-keeping occurred against a backdrop of year-over-year funding increases while VA administrators created secret lists of patients who languished for months waiting for medical appointments.

The disclosure came in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by The Arizona Republic seeking the number of medical vacancies nationally and at the three VA hospitals in Arizona.

Four months after the newspaper requested vacancy statistics dating back to 2010, Veterans Health Administration FOIA Officer Barbara Swailes responded that the information was unavailable.

"The VHA Central Office did not start collecting vacancy information until June 2014," she wrote in a letter earlier this month. The newspaper requested the information in July.

The VA started collecting the data only after a wide-ranging scandal involving the VA became the focus of national attention following congressional hearings and media coverage by The Republic and other news outlets.

Earlier this month, the VA released to The Republic records showing that on a national basis, the number of unfilled medical positions hit 31,006 on July 15, 2014. In Arizona, it was 997.

U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., said she was unaware of the number until told by The Republic on Friday.

"Oh, my God. Thirty-one thousand vacant positions?" she said. "OK, now we know why they were so behind in treating people, right? They didn't have any staff. That is huge. That's huge."

U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, had a similar reaction.
read more here

THEY GET PAID TO KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON AND FIX IT!