Military Family Caucus has Mullen’s OK

Military Family Caucus has Mullen’s OK

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Nov 4, 2009 14:43:37 EST

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs said both he and his wife fully support the new Congressional Military Family Caucus, a group formed to work on child care, education, health and deployment issues.

Adm. Mike Mullen was the keynote speaker at Wednesday’s inaugural meeting of the caucus — which has 70 members and growing — formed by members of the House of Representatives to identify and try to resolve issues affecting military families.

Mullen said he and his wife, Deborah, will do everything they can for the cause.

“We are extremely grateful for your starting the caucus,” he said. “This is a big deal.”

Mullen endorsed the list of issues gaining attention from the caucus, saying it matches the feedback he has received from his wife and from meeting with military family members around the world. He urged the caucus to also listen to families.
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Military Family Caucus has Mullens OK

Veterans agency to track, assess PTSD treatments

Veterans agency to track, assess PTSD treatments
By Mary Mosquera
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
The Veterans Affairs Department wants to develop a Web-based system for tracking and analyzing clinical data about the treatment that veterans receive for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The VA has said previously that it has expanded care for the large number of soldiers returning from service in Iraq and Afghanistan who suffer from the condition. The department now wants to be able to assess its treatment and outcomes.
VA published a request for proposals from vendors for the PTSD treatment monitoring tool on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site Oct. 28.
The software will run alongside VA’s VistA computerized patient record system and extract data on veterans’ PTSD care, according to the notice. The system will then generate reports for VA healthcare program managers.
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Veterans agency to track, assess PTSD treatments

No excuse for Senator Colburn holding up bill for veterans

The "objection is cost" and he said that? The price was due and payable as soon as the first pair of boots was sent into Afghanistan and then into Iraq. Didn't they think of this when they sent them? After all, wars do not produce only coffins coming back but wounded as well. Keep in mind that there were less doctors and nurses working for the VA with two campaigns going on than there were after the Gulf War. Also keep in mind that there was nothing really being done for any of the wounded for far too long, so there is no excuse Senator Coburn can use now. This money should have been paid in full years ago. To complain now is forget what a huge role he played in all of this in the first place. He should be ashamed he does not understand that while he's complaining about money, they are suffering. They didn't make the congress wait when they were told to go so why the hell should they have to wait until Coburn finds his conscience and understands this is what we owe them now?

Sen. blocking bill: Objection is cost, not vets

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Nov 4, 2009 17:09:49 EST

The senator holding up consideration of an omnibus veterans’ health bill doesn’t hate veterans and their families, but he does hate the idea of creating new benefits without paying for them, his spokesman says.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., is using Senate rules to block a vote on S 1963, a major veterans bill, unless he has the chance to offer amendments to pay for the new benefits it creates, especially stipends, health benefits, counseling and other programs aimed at family caregivers of seriously wounded combat veterans.

Coburn spokesman John Hart said the senator has questions about the new benefit, wondering why, if it is such a good thing for families, it is limited to helping only those of Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans. But the main objection is cost.

“We are at a point in our history when we have to start paying for things,” Hart said.
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Objection is cost, not vets

We've lost our legend:Staff Sgt. Olaf Schmid

We've lost our legend: Tributes for hero bomb expert Staff Sgt Olaf Schmid killed in Afghanistan

By Chris Hughes 3/11/2009

He saved countless lives as he defused 64 Afghan bombs. He died doing the job he loved.. days before he was due home


A crack bomb expert who saved scores of lives as he defused 64 Taliban devices was killed as he tried to dismantle yet another.

Staff Sgt Olaf Schmid, 30, paid the ultimate sacrifice just a week before he was due home on leave.

Yesterday, he was hailed as "a legend" as senior officers paid tribute to the nerveless courage that had prevented casualties on countless occasions.

His CO, Lt Col Robert Thomson of 2 Rifles Battle Group, said: "He saved lives in 2 Rifles time after time and for that he will retain a very special place in every heart of every rifleman in our Battle Group. Superlatives do not do the man justice. Better than the best."
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Tributes for hero bomb expert Staff Sgt Olaf Schmid

UK "Rambo" pulled out bullet and kept on fighting Taliban

Hero Afghanistan soldier: I dug Taliban bullet out of my arm... and carried on fighting
By Rod Chaytor 4/11/2009


His extraordinary heroics sound like something out of a Rambo movie.

When Grenadier Guardsman Lewis Coulbert, 22, was shot in the left arm during a Taliban firefight he refused to quit the battlefield.

Bloodied and in agony, he poked around the wound with his fingers before plucking out the bullet.

He then applied a bandage, resumed his position and started shooting at the insurgents again.

What makes Guardsman Coulbert's actions even more amazing is that it was his first gun battle and tour of duty in Afghanistan.
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I dug Taliban bullet out of my arm
linked from
http://www.icasualties.org/OEF/index.aspx