Showing posts with label Vietnam Veterans of America. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vietnam Veterans of America. Show all posts

Saturday, March 18, 2017

President Trump Had Meeting with Veterans Groups

It looks like Politico doesn't read Military Times.....

Trump's 'major meeting' on veterans affairs doesn't happen



Trump meets with veteran leaders, promises VA reforms
Military Times
By: Leo Shane III
March 17, 2017
Along with Got Your 6, the meeting included Student Veterans of America, the Military Order of the Purple Heart and the “big six” veterans groups — American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, PVA, Vietnam Veterans of America and AMVETS.
(Photo Credit: Evan Vucci/AP)
WASHINGTON — President Trump held his first face-to-face meeting with representatives from prominent veterans groups on Friday, a step that community advocates called a productive and critical step in advancing the White House’s promises to veterans.

The hour-long meeting with Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin and senior White House staff covered issues including medical care access for veterans, accountability for VA employees, veterans caregiver programs and the president’s campaign pledges to make veterans services more efficient.

It included top officials from 10 veterans groups and was billed as a listening session for the president, with no policy or legislative proposals presented to the community leaders.

But individuals at the event said Trump was involved in the conversation throughout the meeting, questioning the groups on their priorities and ways the White House can help.
read more here

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Will President Obama Pardon Incarcerated PTSD Veterans Too?

Vietnam group asks Obama to pardon veterans
The Hill
BY KRISTINA WONG
01/18/17
"We hope that President Obama, in the final hours of his Presidency, will do right by his troops by helping bad-paper vets with PTSD," Rowan said. "We cannot wait another four or eight years for an outgoing President to take action to help the most vulnerable veterans in the country."

A veterans service organization is asking President Obama to pardon veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder who received a less-than-honorable discharge after the president commuted the prison sentence for former Army soldier Chelsea Manning.

"As pardons are being issued to people who have been convicted of serious felonies, veterans who served their country in combat wait to be offered the same clemency," said John Rowan, national president of Vietnam Veterans of America.

With four days left in office, the Obama administration announced Tuesday that it was commuting Manning's sentence, in addition to 208 others, and pardoning 64 individuals.
read more here

Saturday, December 3, 2016

Vietnam Veterans of America Take Stand for OEF and OIF Veterans

National Veterans Group appeals for pardons for those with bad discharges
WSAV News 3
By JoAnn Merrigan
Published: December 2, 2016
"Ignorance is no excuse for leaving behind these vets. Americans have a responsibility to learn about the sacrifices that veterans have made through their service and they have a responsibility to ensure that those who are the Guardians of freedom are protected from being forgotten. It’s time we all stand together, forget the partisan arguments and support our veterans.”
Kristofer Goldsmith
The effort to get tens of thousands of Afghanistan and Iraq veterans with less than honorable discharges medical and mental health services from the VA is going national. This week, Vietnam Veterans of America sent letters to President Obama and President Elect Trump calling for all of the vets to be pardoned.

“The founding principles of Vietnam Veterans of America is that never again will one generation of veterans leave behind another,” says Kristofer Goldsmith who is an Iraq veteran who now works for Vietnam Veterans of America. “These Vietnam vets came together and formed this organization not just for themselves but for my generation.”

The letter makes a powerful appeal to President Obama to help those who those who served in war despite how they may have separated from the military. It says that “over the last 15 years of continuous warfare, our country has failed to respond to reports of veterans being inappropriately discharged.” Vietnam Veterans of America is asking people to watch the online documentary Charlie Foxtrot which documents the problems of some who have the less than honorable discharges.
read more here

Saturday, September 3, 2016

National Vietnam Veterans Foundation Shuts Down

Reminder" This is not Vietnam Veterans of America 



Veterans charity that gave less than 2% of revenue to veterans closes its doors for good
CNN
By Drew Griffin and David Fitzpatrick
September 1, 2016

"Tom Burch has resigned from the Foundation and NVVF is shutting down completely, " Kaufman wrote in an email to CNN. "All fundraising has ceased and the only thing being done is the distribution of blankets, personal care kits and related items in the warehouse."
New York (CNN)The National Vietnam Veterans Foundation, a zero-rated charity that was the object of a CNN report in mid-May, has closed its doors for good, according to one of the charity's executives.

In an email to CNN, David Kaufman, the charity's vice president, says the Veterans Foundation "has severed all ties" to the organization's president, Thomas Burch, who along with serving as president of the charity also has a full time job as a government lawyer with the Veterans Affairs agency in Washington.
read more here

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Low Turn Out For PTSD Town Hall?

Big information at PTSD event, but a small crowd
Cleveland Daily Banner
By LARRY C. BOWERS Banner Staff Writer
August 17, 2016

The speakers also stressed that PTSD is not a recent malady, but was documented 3,000 years before Christ by horrific experiences in war. Smith said there were 159,000 who suffered out of World War I, and 500,000 from World War II. In the second World War the problem was called “shell shocked.”

In spite of the sparse gathering at Tuesday evening’s Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Townhall Meeting at Keith Street Ministries, the array of speakers delivered a wealth of information.

GUEST SPEAKERS WAIT their turn at the podium Tuesday evening at Keith Street Ministries. The speakers at the PTSD townhall meeting included, from left, Bradley County Veterans Officer Larry McDaris, B. Yvonne Hubbard of the Veterans Center in Chattanooga, Centerstone Military Service’s Executive Director Kent Crossley, veteran LaWanda Jenkins and retired Lt. Gen. Hugh Smith.
BANNER PHOTO, LARRY C. BOWERS
The group was led by Tennessee State Council President Barry Rice of the Vietnam Veterans of America, Bradley County Veterans Officer Larry McDaris, retired Lt. Gen. Hugh Smith of Clarksville, Centerstone Military Services Executive Director Kent Crossley, veteran LaWanda Jenkins, and B. Yvonne Hubbard of the Veterans Center in Chattanooga.

Rice, a PTSD survivor, served as the meeting’s moderator. He spoke of his battles with the affliction following combat in Vietnam.

Other than the speakers, there were a few local veteran officials, members of the Edward G. Sharpe Chapter 596 of Vietnam Veterans which organized the meeting, and family members.

Chapter President James Dean said he didn’t understand the low turnout.

“We placed fliers throughout the community, including the Bradley County Justice Center and Cleveland Police Department,” he said.
read more here

Saturday, August 6, 2016

Veterans Charities Waiting for No-Show Donations From McGraw Concert

Veterans still waiting for donations from McGraw show
Press of Atlantic City
Michael Miller
August 5, 2016
Vietnam Veterans of America officer Vincent DePrinzio said the groups would understand if the show didn’t generate a profit for donations.
Scenes from the July 4th Tim McGraw concert on the beach in Wildwood.
Monday July 04, 2016. (Dale Gerhard/Press of Atlantic City)
WILDWOOD — Four veterans groups that partnered with the Celebrate America Weekend featuring Tim McGraw on July 4 said they have not received any donations promised from proceeds of the beach concert.

Promoter Boardwalk Entertainment Co. Inc., of Ocean City, promised to donate proceeds from ticket sales to Wildwood’s American Legion Post 184 and Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 955, and Operation First Response in Virginia and the Michael Strange Foundation in Pennsylvania. Boardwalk Entertainment President Amanda Thomas said she expects to be able to announce the donations next week.

“We’re still going through all our numbers and our books, trying to determine how much the groups will get,” she said.

Thomas said her company offered the groups 10 percent of profits from ticket sales.
read more here

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Vietnam Veterans Saved By The Boss

How Bruce Springsteen Rescued Vietnam Veterans of America—and the Vietnam Veterans Movement
Vietnam Veterans of America Online
BY MARC LEEPSON
March/April 2016
If “it wasn’t for Bruce coming forward,” Muller said, “there would not have been a coherent, national movement on behalf of Vietnam vets.” VVA “became the national group, the only national group, with a [congressional] charter.”

Near the end of his sold-out concert January 29 in Washington, D.C., rock and roll legend Bruce Springsteen told the crowd of more than 18,000 that he had some special guests in the audience, a group of veterans from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Then he recognized another veteran in the house: Bobby Muller.

It was altogether fitting and proper that Springsteen—the hard-rocking, 66-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Fame musician, singer, and songwriter—recognized Muller, the founder and first president of Vietnam Veterans of America. That’s because Springsteen has been a strong supporter of Vietnam veterans and VVA for more than thirty-five years.

“Strong,” in fact, barely describes Springsteen’s commitment to VVA and the men and women who served in the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. That’s because in 1981, three short years after the organization was founded, when VVA was at a financial crisis point and about to go under, Bruce Springsteen stepped in and saved the organization.

“In those early years it was always hand to mouth,” said John Terzano, who ran VVA’s Washington, D.C., office in the early 1980s. “Figuring out how to pay our bills was a constant problem. We had to go months without paying the rent, and had numerous conversations about shutting down. We were in extra dire straits.”

“We were hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt,” Muller said. “I’m in my [New York] office and I’m preparing to close down the organization [and] I get a call.” On the line: Jon Landau, Bruce Springsteen’s manager. Landau told Muller that Springsteen “was interested in Vietnam vets and you seem like the guy” to talk to. He invited Muller to see Springsteen perform the next night, July 3, 1981, at the Brendan Byrne Arena in the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey. After the show—he was blown away—Muller and Springsteen met and talked.

The upshot: Springsteen gave a benefit concert the next month in Los Angeles. That concert, on August 20, 1981, at the L.A. Memorial Sports Arena, sold out. Afterward, Bruce Springsteen presented VVA a check for $100,000, “a staggering sum of money,” as Muller put it.

read more here

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Incarcerated Veterans Fight For Help From VA

Advocates Say Imprisoned Veterans Should Have Access to VA 
Military.com
by Bryant Jordan
Mar 11, 2016
Members of the Incarcerated Vietnam Veterans of America (IVVA), Chapter 1065, at the Correctional Training Facility (CTF) salute before folding the U.S. flag.
(Photo: Inside CDCR)
Two veterans' service organizations are backing Senate legislation requiring prison officials to give the Veterans Affairs Department reasonable access to a prisoner who has served in the military.

John Rowan, president of the Vietnam Veterans Association, on Tuesday informed Sens. Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Dick Durbin, a Democrat from New York and fellow panel member, of the organization's support for the bill, while Paralyzed Veterans of America on Thursday notified the lawmakers of its support. 

"Because of its long history with veterans and criminal justice issues, [Vietnam Veterans of America] has always believed that VA access to incarcerated veterans is especially needed by those transitioning from incarceration to life beyond prison walls, Rowan wrote in the letter, a copy of which was provided to Military.com.

Carl Blake, associate executive director for Government Relations for PVA, said the group offers its full support to the bill.

"A veteran utilizing resources such as mental health care, substance abuse treatment and education benefits significantly increases the likelihood of successful re-entry into society, he told the Senators in a letter.
read more here

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Paralyzed Veteran New Track Chair Gives Him Freedom

Paralyzed Veteran Receives Early Christmas Present
Navy Vet Says New Track Chair Gives Him Freedom In The Outdoor
Ozark First News
By Grant Sloan
Published 12/10 2015
ADRIAN, Mo.-- A group of veterans in the Ozarks delivered an early Christmas present to one of their own this week.

Members of the Vietnam Veterans of America 913 made the trip to Adrian, Missouri --near Kansas City -- to deliver a track chair to Navy veteran, Nate Beard.

Beard, who was paralyzed from the chest down after a swimming accident, says the gift allows him to enjoy his home away from home.

"I love everything about being outside, the trees, the sun, the sky,” says Beard. “I love it all. Freedom.”

Through benefit shows the Vietnam Veterans 913 normally assists veterans in Stone and Taney Counties, but with help from the College of the Ozarks, they had the opportunity to assist someone outside their own backyard.

Hearing Beard’s reason for wanting the high-tech track made it an easy decision for the organization to help him.

"I just wanted to spend time with my daughter outdoors," says Beard.
read more here

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Utah: 22 Veterans Once Forgotten Remembered

‘They have all of us’ — ‘forgotten’ veterans finally put to rest in Utah cemetery
The Salt Lake Tribune
By KRISTEN MOULTON
First Published Aug 01 2015

Bluffdale • Twenty veterans who died in Utah, forgotten by or estranged from family and friends, are forgotten no more.
(Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune) Jeff Childs of the Patriot Guard Riders reacts as he accepts the flag representing the Army veterans whose remains have never been claimed. Those remains were interred at the Utah state veterans cemetery in Bluffdale on Saturday. Flags were also presented for Navy and Air Force veterans. A total of 22 veterans whose remains are unclaimed.

On Saturday, their cremated remains and those of two other vets were interred at the Utah Veterans Cemetery and Memorial Park in Bluffdale after a military funeral replete with a wreath-laying, rifle volleys, taps and a separate flag-folding and presentation by honor guards of the three military branches.

Some say it's sad these veterans had no one to claim them, said funeral organizer Roger Graves of Cedar City. "I beg to differ. They have all of us. ... Everyone in this chapel today is their family."

"Veterans are all brothers and sisters," said Ogden resident Dennis Howland, president of the Northern Utah chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America. "They belong to us."
Who was interred
The “forgotten” veterans whose remains were buried were:
David Reubin Beveridge » Navy

Adrien Robert Boileau » Army, 1956-58

Paul S. Bronson Jr. » Army, 1942-45 and 1946-58

Danny Rae Brownlee » U.S. Navy, peacetime

Woodrow Isaac Burton » Army, 1968-70

David Earl Conley » Army

John Bredley Davenport » Navy, 1963-65

Louis William Dettling » Navy, 1944-45

Robert Leroy Ele, Army » 1972-74

Joseph William Hedgbeth » Army 1946-49

Gerhart Jansen » Merchant Marine, 1943

John Mills Jeffers » Navy, 1961-64 and 1964-74

John M. Jones » Army, 1968-71 and 1974-77

Keri K. Kuehn » Army, 1972-73

Melvin Moore » Navy, 1960-62

Robert Muir » Army, 1939-60

Larry Eugene Peterson » Air Force, 1957-60

James Saxton » Navy 1958-60

Arent T. Sjursen III » Air Force, 1961-62

James Weiss » Navy, 1959-60

read more about them here

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Woman Charged Defrauding Vietnam Veterans

Woman charged in scam 
Suspect accused in fraud of veteran and vet organization
Durant Democrat.com
By Matt Swearengin
January 24. 2015

A Caddo woman is facing felony charges dealing with defrauding a veteran and using a computer to obtain money from an organization for veterans. Sixty-two-year-old Deborah Sue Lemmones was charged Friday with exploitation of an elderly person or disabled adult and computer fraud. 

Lemmones came under investigation after Richard Chase, a Marine Corps Vietnam veteran who is now deceased, spoke to the Bryan County District Attorney’s Office about a woman he said had been defrauding veterans. Before his death on July 26, 2014, Chase was active with the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 986 in Durant.

He contacted authorities after learning of several incidents where Lemmones had allegedly convinced veterans to loan her large sums of money. Chase also had spoken with the Democrat about the allegations and he had prepared an article he planned to release after the suspect was charged.

Chase said one of the victims suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other health problems. He said there was another victim in a nursing home and that individual later died, and also a victim in Madill.

District Attorney Investigator David Cathey then investigated allegations that Lemmones had financially exploited several disabled veterans in southern Oklahoma.
Local Vietnam Veterans of America Treasurer Paul Blake told Cathey he had identified 20 electronic withdrawals from February 2012 until December 2013 from the VVA bank account at First United Bank, and according to the affidavit, each of the transactions, totaling $7,953.11, was used to pay the phone bill of Walter Lemmones.
“Lemmones believed it was OK to have the VVA pay her phone bill even though she had been ousted from the organization for quite some time because she was still using the phone to help veterans,” Cathey wrote in his affidavit. read more here

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Coburn was right, Congress failed veterans

UPDATE
Since Congress has been passing bills under "preventing suicides" even though they went up among the veterans population, it is a good time to reflect on exactly what that means to veterans and their families.
The claim of at least 22 veterans a day committing suicide equals 56,210 for the last 7 years. Again, that is an average with some states reporting suicides in their veterans population double the civilian rate.
This is why no one with the national attention should be allowed to just say whatever they want, whenever they want playing politics while pretending they are trying to do some good. We're tired of excuses, empty promises and speeches.


We failed veterans. Plain, simple and contrary to what the talking heads on TV say, the Clay Hunt Suicide prevention bill would not do much to make any of this right.

Tom Coburn gave a speech that, while not well delivered, was mostly right. Veterans lost hope and we have failed them. This speech was slammed by Rachel Maddow last night much to my horror. I could just see veterans cringing, listening to her words and wondering when the hell someone like her will actually know what she is talking about while they are waiting for things to change.

"They are searching for an answer that we have failed to give them." said Coburn.

"They are searching for the support, the nurturing and the love need to be there."

Rachel Maddow asked if anyone had an idea what Coburn was talking about. I wondered why she didn't.

"Nobody else has an objection at all." said Maddow.

I doubt she did much research to know exactly how many people do not hold the same outrage as she does. Many of us are outraged the Congress would dare write one more bill without a basic understanding of the reason for the suicides any more than they dare to even contemplate why everything else has failed.

"The relief of death" Maddow had trouble with comes from when a veteran decides that he will surrender his life after fighting for it, most of the time for decades, only to lose hope.

It isn't the first time Coburn blocked a bill about suicides. He did it to the Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Act back in 2007. Eventually it was passed and signed into law by President Bush in 2008.

This is what was happening around then.

In 2007 parents were telling members of congress about their on experience with a veteran committing suicide.
Mike and Kim Bowman are on the first of six panels of witnesses who were scheduled to testify at the hearing, which will focus on suicide prevention and treatment within the VA health care system.

Two authors of books about post-traumatic stress disorder also will testify, as will veterans’ advocates from Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, Vietnam Veterans of America, the American Legion and Disabled Veterans of America. After the testimony from other panelists, including officials from the VA’s Veterans Health Administration and inspector general’s office, the authors and veterans service organizations’ representatives will return to share their reflections on that testimony.

According to the committee, the Veterans Health Administration estimates there are about 1,000 suicides per year among veterans receiving care through VHA, and as many as 5,000 suicides per year among all living veterans.


According to the Veterans Affairs Department, there were at least 283 suicides among veterans who left the military between the start of the war in Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001, and the end of 2005.

The Army said its suicide rate in 2006 rose to 17.3 per 100,000 troops, the highest in 26 years of record-keeping. In October, two recently returned Marines one from New Jersey, the other from Bucks County committed suicide.

In response, CONTACT, a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week crisis hotline, is establishing an outreach program specifically for returning veterans and their families. The "It's About Hope" program is a first in 31 years for CONTACT and could be one of the first in the state.

They also had this bill passed and signed in 2008
Library of Congress Summary

The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.

TitleI - Substance Use Disorders and Mental Health Care
Section101 -
Enacts this title in tribute to Justin Bailey, who, after returning to the United States from service in Operation Iraqi Freedom, died in a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) domiciliary facility while receiving care for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and a substance use disorder.
Section103 -
Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to ensure the provision of the following services and treatment to each veteran enrolled in the VA health care system and in need of services and treatment for a substance use disorder:
(1) screening for substance use disorder in all settings, including primary care;
(2) short-term motivational counseling;
(3) marital and family counseling;
(4) intensive outpatient or residential care;
(5) relapse prevention;
(6) ongoing aftercare and outpatient counseling;
(7) opiate substitution therapy;
(8) pharmacological treatments to reduce cravings for drugs and alcohol;
(9) detoxification and stabilization;
(10) coordination with groups providing peer-to-peer counseling; and
(11) such other services as considered appropriate by the Secretary. Requires the Secretary to ensure that amounts available for such care are allocated to ensure a full continuum of such care, treatment, or services to all veterans without regard to the location of their residences.
Section104 -
Requires the Secretary to ensure that treatment for a substance use disorder and a comorbid mental health disorder is provided concurrently through a health professional with training and expertise in the treatment of both disorders, by separate services for each disorder, or by a team of experienced clinicians.
Section105 -
Directs the Secretary to conduct a two-year pilot program on the feasibility and advisability of providing veterans who seek treatment for substance use disorders access to a computer-based self-assessment, education, and treatment program through a secure Internet website operated by the Secretary. Makes eligible for such program volunteer veterans who have served in Operations Enduring Freedom or Iraqi Freedom. Requires a program report from the Secretary to Congress. Authorizes appropriations.
Section106 -
Requires the Secretary to conduct a: (1) review of all Veterans Health Administration (VHA) residential mental health care facilities; and (2) follow-up review, within two years after the first review, to evaluate any improvements made or problems remaining with respect to such facilities. Requires a report from the Secretary to the veterans' committees after the initial review.
Section107 -
Directs the Secretary to conduct a three-year pilot program on the provision of the following services to veterans of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, particularly to those who served as a member of the National Guard or Reserve:
(1) peer outreach;
(2) peer support provided by licensed providers or veterans with personal experience with mental illness;
(3) readjustment counseling; and
(4) other mental health services.
Requires:
(1) the Secretary to conduct training programs for veterans and clinicians providing such services;
(2) annual reports to the Secretary from entities participating in the program; and
(3) the Secretary to design and implement a strategy for evaluating the program.

You can read the rest from the link above.

I don't want to bore you with more details especially if you have not read Wounded Times before but since all of this has been tracked from news sources and government reports, the rest of us have seen enough to have come to some conclusions a long time ago. The first one is that reporters on the local level know more about the reality veterans and families live with everyday than national reporters too busy to do any basic research on what is going on. That congress is not interested in what works best and actually doing the right thing as much as they are getting their name on a bill while failing to comprehend the simple fact their name on a bill that produced more suicides will not be forgotten.

Monday, December 1, 2014

Vietnam Veterans of America PTSD Suicide Town Hall

Town Hall to address veteran PTSD, suicide
KNOX News
News Sentinel staff
Dec 1, 2014

They fought overseas on behalf of their country.

Now, back home, there’s another battle to take on: suicide and PTSD.

On Tuesday, the Tennessee State Council of the Vietnam Veterans of America will sponsor a “PTSD and Suicide Prevention Town Hall Meeting” for all veterans, active-duty military members and their families.

From 6-9 p.m. at Washington Pike United Methodist Church, representatives from various agencies will summarize the history of PTSD and its causes; talk about symptoms and treatment options; share resources for those with PTSD, including VA benefits; and answer questions.

Actress/model Jennifer O’Neill will speak about the Hillenglade Horses Healing Heroes programs, and veterans who have PTSD but “fought and are winning their battles” will offer testimonials, said Barry Rice, president of the council.

Rice said statistics show 22 veterans a day — 8,030 year — complete suicide, which doesn’t take into account the number who attempt it. More than 70 percent, he said, were 50 or older. But the number of male veterans younger than 30 who commit suicide has jumped 44 percent, he said.
read more here

Vietnam Veteran Chuck Hagel Did Right Thing for PTSD Veterans

Vietnam-era soldiers eligible for discharge upgrades
Army Times
By Jim Tice
Staff writer
December 1, 2014
The secretary of the Army has ordered liberal consideration be given to Vietnam-era soldiers who received downgraded discharges even though they may have been suffering from post-traumatic stress.
(Photo: Sgt. 1st Class James K.F. Dung/Army)

Vietnam-era soldiers who faced punitive discharges because they suffered from post-traumatic stress are to be given liberal consideration to requests for discharge upgrades.

Secretary of the Army John McHugh issued this directive to the Army Review Boards Agency, the service's highest level of administrative review for personnel actions.

McHugh's Nov. 3 directive was prompted by an earlier order from Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel which acknowledged that thousands of soldiers may have been kicked out of service because of behavior problems related to post-traumatic stress.

Upgraded discharges for soldiers who received a less than honorable discharge could lead to the award of previously denied benefits, such as disability pay, separation pay and GI Bill eligibility.

The ARBA is comprised of several boards for considering the claims of soldiers and former soldiers who appeal the filing of unfavorable information in their personnel records.

PTSD was not recognized as a potential behavior altering medical condition until 1980, which means that disability claims and discharge upgrades based on claims of the condition routinely were denied by government agencies, to include the Army review boards.

Hagel's September instruction to the services followed by several months a federal court class action suit filed by a group veterans and the Vietnam Veterans of America that claims the military systematically denied discharge upgrade applications based on claims of PTSD.

The suit estimated that about one-third of the 250,000 other-than-honorable discharges issued to Vietnam era veterans may have been PTSD-related.
read more here

Sunday, November 23, 2014

“If it’s happening here, it’s happening all over the country” to Veterans

Togus VA system probed over allegations of shortcuts, omissions
An October memo by a federal watchdog agency outlines allegations that, if proven, would link Maine for the first time to issues similar to those at veterans hospitals nationwide.
BY MICHAEL SHEPHERD
STAFF WRITER
November 22, 2014

TOGUS — Allegations that officials at the VA Maine Healthcare System took shortcuts and withheld information from patient files in an effort to meet national benchmarks have prompted a federal probe of services there.

While it’s not clear what impact that has on the nearly 10,000 veterans who receive treatment statewide for issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, a veterans benefits lawyer said if the claim that information was omitted from patient files is true, it would be “absolutely huge.”
GAMING THE SYSTEM?

Omissions in patient files may be the most serious allegation that drew the inspector general’s office in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to the Togus campus for an inspection of mental health services last month.

In the short term, those alleged omissions would mean that veterans may have gone without care. Long term, incomplete records could leave veterans unable to prove they’re eligible for benefits providing needed counseling. Lilly, though, said he told the inspector general’s office he had not seen evidence of “an instruction to omit things” as a strategy at Togus, and he has no proof that claims were affected.

Still, Joseph Moore, a lawyer at Bergmann and Moore, a Maryland firm handling veterans’ benefits appeals claims, said if substantiated, that claim “is absolutely huge” and would mean that “administrators got treatment providers to lie, to the obvious and direct detriment of the veterans they were treating.”

Even so, Moore and others cautioned that issues alleged at Togus are similar to VA problems nationwide, including a shortage of health professionals that the federal department’s new secretary, Robert McDonald, wants to fix.

“If it’s happening here, it’s happening all over the country,” said John Wallace, of Limestone, an Army veteran and the president of Vietnam Veterans of America in Maine.
read more here

Monday, May 5, 2014

Veterans Groups "1 in 3 women are raped during military service"

Vets Claim Nearly 1 in 3 Women Are Raped During Military Service
Courthouse News
By RYAN ABBOTT
May 5, 2014

WASHINGTON (CN) - The Department of Veterans Affairs refuses to respond to a rulemaking petition addressing the alarming numbers of rape and sexual assaults in the U.S. military, two veterans' groups claim in court.

The Service Women's Action Network and Vietnam Veterans of America filed a petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, claiming that Veterans Affairs (VA) constructively denied their petition seeking to ease the administrative burdens of rape victims looking for benefits.

"Widespread rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment plague the military, threatening the strength of the armed forces, undermining national security, and destroying the lives of survivors and their families," the petition states.

"Nearly one in every three women is raped during her service and more than half experience unwanted sexual contact."

The petition continues: "Moreover, of the 26,000 service members who reported unwanted sexual contact in 2011-12, fifty-two percent were men. These assaults often result in devastating, long-term psychological injuries, most notably Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder ('PTSD'). Sexual violence correlates with PTSD more highly than any other trauma, including combat."
read more here

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Vietnam Veterans of America: Coast Guard wrongfully discharged hundreds

Veterans group: Coast Guard wrongly discharged members
The Associated Press
By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN
Published: February 27, 2014

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The U.S. Coast Guard routinely violates its procedures and regulations intended to protect service members from erroneous discharges for personality or adjustment disorders, a veterans group and Yale Law School students alleged Thursday.

Vietnam Veterans of America released a report based on an analysis by the students who looked at a random sample of 265 discharges for the disorders over a 12-year period ending Sept. 30, 2012. Of those, the students found 255 failed to comply with Coast Guard regulations in some way.

The violations can lead to veterans being denied benefits and stigma in finding work, the report says.

"We are disappointed to see that so many members of our Coast Guard have been illegally discharged and denied their rights," said Tom Berger, executive director of VVA's Veterans Health Council. "We are hopeful that this report will spark action to correct this injustice."

Jordan St. John, deputy chief of public affairs for the Coast Guard, said the Coast Guard hadn't seen the report and couldn't comment.
read more here

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Veterans Charities Helping All Generations

Veterans Charities Helping All Generations
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
November 24, 2013

There are many groups I belong to but my heart is devoted to Point Man International Ministries for several reasons. The first is Point Man has been leading the way on healing veterans as well as their families for almost 30 years.
"Since 1984, when Seattle Police Officer and Vietnam Veteran Bill Landreth noticed he was arresting the same people each night, he discovered most were Vietnam vets like himself that just never seemed to have quite made it home. He began to meet with them in coffee shops and on a regular basis for fellowship and prayer. Soon, Point Man Ministries was conceived and became a staple of the Seattle area. Bills untimely death soon after put the future of Point Man in jeopardy.

However, Chuck Dean, publisher of a Veterans self help newspaper, Reveille, had a vision for the ministry and developed it into a system of small groups across the USA for the purpose of mutual support and fellowship. These groups are known as Outposts. Worldwide there are hundreds of Outposts and Homefront groups serving the families of veterans.

PMIM is run by veterans from all conflicts, nationalities and backgrounds. Although, the primary focus of Point Man has always been to offer spiritual healing from PTSD, Point Man today is involved in group meetings, publishing, hospital visits, conferences, supplying speakers for churches and veteran groups, welcome home projects and community support.

Just about any where there are Vets there is a Point Man presence. All services offered by Point Man are free of charge."
Point Man
"It isn't about who got a parade! When I came home from Vietnam, my cousin, a WWII Vet invited me to a VFW meeting and I was all but ignored because I was not in a "real" war and so how could I have any kind of problem? All these guys stuck to each other like glue and pretty much ignored the "new" Vets. And you all remember how it felt. I see the same "new guys" 35 years later with the same baloney coming out of their mouths. How in the world can you say you support the troops and then ignore them when they get home?

Seems to me that no matter how many are killed, the survivors have an obligation to each other and to our posterity to insure the "new guys" don't go through the same stuff our dads, grandfathers and ourselves had to endure...

So to all you "NEW GUYS", Welcome Home. Thank you for a job well done. Your sacrifice is deeply appreciated here. We support you regardless of when or where you served; we understand what you've been through and what you're dealing with now. Continue through the site and get connected! Dana Morgan (President of PMIM)"

If you faced the horrors of war and wondered where God was, He was right there within the men and women who cared. He was in you. He is there now in the people of Point Man Ministries, waiting for you to remember you are loved.

We take care of the spiritual healing of all veterans and their families but what we don't do is raise funds. It seems as if every conversation we get into turns into being about helping and less about financial support for us. It doesn't cost a lot of money to show compassion, offer advice, lend an ear, say a prayer or comfort someone. It is offered for free.

Veterans and family members have the option of calling me, emailing or if they are local, meet face to face. While I have traveled to many states doing presentations, I am a lot more comfortable behind the camera covering veterans events right here in Central Florida. I am Florida State Coordinator and always looking for people to start Out Post for Veterans and Home Fronts for family members. If you are interested in leading a small group, please call me at 407-754-7526.

These events are wonderful but covering them has me talking to veterans from all generations and the one thing they all have in common is the issue of some charities taking care of all veterans while others do not. Point Man is for all generations and so is Vietnam Veterans of America
"Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another." Congressional Charter 1986

These are some the charities taking care of all veterans, no matter what war, no matter where they are, they are treated equally the way it should be. These are some of the other major groups.

American Legion
The U.S. Congress charters The American Legion. September 16, 1919

Disabled American Veterans
92 YEARS OF SERVICE We are dedicated to a single purpose: Empowering veterans to lead high-quality lives with respect and dignity. Congressional Charter June 17, 1932


Veterans of Foreign Wars
The VFW traces its roots back to 1899 when veterans of the Spanish-American War (1898) and the Philippine Insurrection (1899-1902) founded local organizations to secure rights and benefits for their service: Many arrived home wounded or sick. There was no medical care or veterans' pension for them,and they were left to care for themselves.
Congressional Charter 1936

Here is a list of other Congressional Charter Veterans Charities

If you are planning on donating to a charity make sure you know what they are doing with your money and if they take care of all generations or not. It is up to you where your heart leads you but as we enter into the "season of giving" remember these charities need help all year long because veterans are veterans 365 days a year, not just one.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Vietnam Veterans of America convention pitch in for Florida homeless veterans

Vietnam vets at Jacksonville convention step up for their homeless post-9/11 brethren
Jacksonville.com
By Matt Soergel
Posted: August 16, 2013

Vietnam vets in town for their annual convention kicked in money, a few dollars at a time, to help out a Jacksonville center for homeless post-9/11 veterans.

Donating was an easy decision for Robert Stewart, an Army vet from the city of Oregon, Ohio.

“Every veteran here, in the blink of an eye, can be homeless,” he said. “And we don’t leave our own — we take care of our own.”

Friday conventioneers gave a giant-sized check for $4,000 to Five Star Veterans Center, a transitional center that now has 20 once-homeless vets living there.

That amount will grow as the Vietnam Veterans of America convention continues at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront.

“I’ll walk out of here and someone will give me five bucks or 10 or 20,” said Nancy Switzer of Rochester, N.Y., who helped organize the fundraising through her group, Associates of Vietnam Veterans of America.

Five Star’s been struggling for money since the scandal in March that torpedoed its major contributor, Allied Veterans of the World.

An investigation into racketeering and money-laundering at gaming centers owned by Allied Vets led to 57 arrests and the resignation of the state’s lieutenant governor.
read more here

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Kenneth Berez, leader of Vietnam Veterans of America, passed away

Kenneth Berez, leader of Vietnam Veterans of America
Washington Post
Published: February 15

Kenneth Berez, 64, a Vietnam veteran who worked for many years with the Vietnam Veterans of America and a related foundation, died Jan. 29 at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda.

He had bladder cancer, his wife, Jenny Schnaier, said.

Mr. Berez served in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division in Vietnam. He was severely wounded in 1969 during a Viet Cong ambush and spent two years recovering.

He began volunteering with Vietnam Veterans of America in 1979 and became a full-time employee of the support and advocacy group a year later. He worked on membership initiatives and headed the group’s educational efforts.

He developed an educational program for schools and worked on a program to provide prosthetic limbs to Vietnamese and Cambodian victims of land mines. From 1996 to 1998, he worked for the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation.
read more here