Sons die in fire while mom's in Iraq
'SHE'S DEVASTATED' Father pulls boys, ages 2 and 5, from room as smoke billows out window
January 5, 2010
BY STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporter
If the dreaded news comes, it's supposed to arrive stateside with a knock at the front door and a visit from two somber soldiers.
That tragedy played out in reverse Monday when a Lansing soldier serving in Iraq was told her two small children had perished in a fire while napping at home.
"She's devastated, and she is trying to hold on," said Clint Towers, who is Areah Brown-Towers' father-in-law and grandfather to the two victims -- Joshua, 2, and Jeremiah, 5.
Clint Towers said the American Red Cross was making arrangements Tuesday to bring the grieving mother home -- perhaps as soon as Thursday.
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Sons die in fire while mom in Iraq
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Dover Air Force Base to expand care with Center for Families of fallen
Dover facility will serve families of war dead
By Randall Chase - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jan 5, 2010 12:55:06 EST
DOVER, Del. — The military mortuary at Dover Air Force Base, where U.S. war casualties from overseas are brought home, will open a new facility Wednesday to serve families who travel there to witness the return of their loved ones’ remains.
The Center for Families of the Fallen will be staffed by counselors and support specialists who will assist families awaiting the return of their loved ones to the nation’s largest military mortuary. Families also will be able to meet with casualty assistance officers who are assigned to them.
Officials said the new center will be more convenient both for families and mortuary officials than the space now shared by the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations Center at Dover with the base’s active duty and reserve wings.
“Sadly, as the death toll has grown in Afghanistan and Iraq, we find we need a larger facility,” said Maj. Shannon Mann, a spokeswoman for AFMAO.
read more here
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/01/ap_dover_new_mortuary_010510/
By Randall Chase - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jan 5, 2010 12:55:06 EST
DOVER, Del. — The military mortuary at Dover Air Force Base, where U.S. war casualties from overseas are brought home, will open a new facility Wednesday to serve families who travel there to witness the return of their loved ones’ remains.
The Center for Families of the Fallen will be staffed by counselors and support specialists who will assist families awaiting the return of their loved ones to the nation’s largest military mortuary. Families also will be able to meet with casualty assistance officers who are assigned to them.
Officials said the new center will be more convenient both for families and mortuary officials than the space now shared by the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations Center at Dover with the base’s active duty and reserve wings.
“Sadly, as the death toll has grown in Afghanistan and Iraq, we find we need a larger facility,” said Maj. Shannon Mann, a spokeswoman for AFMAO.
read more here
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/01/ap_dover_new_mortuary_010510/
Landmark CBS Investigation and Veterans for Common Sense
Veterans for Common Sense and Paul Sullivan are proving a point. When people care beyond politics, speak the truth and fight to change things, things change. It is basic common sense. They are fighting for our veterans to receive the care they thought they were promised as anyone working a job would assume.
The rest of us go to work in the civilian world expecting that if we're hurt on the job, workman's comp will take care of our injury as well as the lost income when we cannot work. That's the rest of us and we'd be pretty angry if anyone prevented us from getting it. There would be people lining up in every newspaper office around the country demanding action because it would be simply wrong to not pay when we ended up hurt just doing our jobs. So why isn't this happening when it is men and women serving this country in one of the most dangerous jobs anyone could do?
These men and women agree to risk their lives everyday they are deployed. They agree to do jobs not many others would be willing to do. They are not just sent to another state to fill in gaps in manpower, they are sent into nations around the world and since 2001, they have been sent to a couple of the most dangerous places on earth to provide for what this nation needs.
They don't play politics. They don't get to decide to go into combat or not. They don't get to decide who to fight or how long it goes on. They don't even get to quit when they just don't want to do it anymore unless their enlistment time is up. They also have to leave their families behind when they are deployed for a year or, more often, longer than a year.
What do they ask of the rest of us? The same thing we expect out of our own employers and nothing more.
We hear all the talk about the backlog of claims but we tend to forget that number is a veteran usually along with an entire family waiting for us to do the right thing for them. We show up to send them off and we show up to welcome them home but then we pull a vanishing act as if our job is done and we don't need to care anymore.
The way our veterans are treated is not unique to the world. No nation really lives up to taking care of any of their servicemen and women properly but you'd think since we spend the bulk of the world's defense spending, we'd have at least a higher standard when it came to taking care of them men and women in the military. Why is it that we never think of them this way?
For years we've heard politicians say no amount of money is too much for this nation's defense. We were told that hundreds of billions of dollars had to spent to pay for Iraq and Afghanistan but did we hear the same cry for necessity when it came to talking care of the people we depend the most on? No. When it came to them some politicians were on the floor of congress whining about tight budgets with two wars to pay for.
The time to do the right thing was before they were sent. All of the wounded should have been planned for ahead of time and not when it was too late to save so many. To lose more after combat than we do during it is simply wrong and we didn't have to see so many die by their own hand but the DOD and the VA were not prepared to take care of all of them. We need to make sure this never happens again.
The other factor is as the newly wounded were waiting in line for help, the older wounded were getting into the same line and no one planned for them either. This all got worse very, very fast but until we get things right, it will keep getting worse at the same time we ask more and more out of the servicemen and women. Taking care of them is not just common sense, it's common decency.
The rest of us go to work in the civilian world expecting that if we're hurt on the job, workman's comp will take care of our injury as well as the lost income when we cannot work. That's the rest of us and we'd be pretty angry if anyone prevented us from getting it. There would be people lining up in every newspaper office around the country demanding action because it would be simply wrong to not pay when we ended up hurt just doing our jobs. So why isn't this happening when it is men and women serving this country in one of the most dangerous jobs anyone could do?
These men and women agree to risk their lives everyday they are deployed. They agree to do jobs not many others would be willing to do. They are not just sent to another state to fill in gaps in manpower, they are sent into nations around the world and since 2001, they have been sent to a couple of the most dangerous places on earth to provide for what this nation needs.
They don't play politics. They don't get to decide to go into combat or not. They don't get to decide who to fight or how long it goes on. They don't even get to quit when they just don't want to do it anymore unless their enlistment time is up. They also have to leave their families behind when they are deployed for a year or, more often, longer than a year.
What do they ask of the rest of us? The same thing we expect out of our own employers and nothing more.
We hear all the talk about the backlog of claims but we tend to forget that number is a veteran usually along with an entire family waiting for us to do the right thing for them. We show up to send them off and we show up to welcome them home but then we pull a vanishing act as if our job is done and we don't need to care anymore.
The way our veterans are treated is not unique to the world. No nation really lives up to taking care of any of their servicemen and women properly but you'd think since we spend the bulk of the world's defense spending, we'd have at least a higher standard when it came to taking care of them men and women in the military. Why is it that we never think of them this way?
For years we've heard politicians say no amount of money is too much for this nation's defense. We were told that hundreds of billions of dollars had to spent to pay for Iraq and Afghanistan but did we hear the same cry for necessity when it came to talking care of the people we depend the most on? No. When it came to them some politicians were on the floor of congress whining about tight budgets with two wars to pay for.
The time to do the right thing was before they were sent. All of the wounded should have been planned for ahead of time and not when it was too late to save so many. To lose more after combat than we do during it is simply wrong and we didn't have to see so many die by their own hand but the DOD and the VA were not prepared to take care of all of them. We need to make sure this never happens again.
The other factor is as the newly wounded were waiting in line for help, the older wounded were getting into the same line and no one planned for them either. This all got worse very, very fast but until we get things right, it will keep getting worse at the same time we ask more and more out of the servicemen and women. Taking care of them is not just common sense, it's common decency.
Landmark CBS Investigation
The landmark news segment by reporter Byron Pitts and Producer David Schneider at "60 Minutes" revealed many new pieces of information because it was the first-ever major investigation into VBA.
* CBS reported the fact that more than 400,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have already filed disability claims against VBA. This information was obtained by VCS using the Freedom of Information Act.
* CBS embarrassed VBA into admitting VBA's disability claim form is an insane 23 pages long. We want to know when VBA will use a shorter, veteran-friendly form.
* CBS mentioned that VBA will be issuing new claim processing rules for PTSD. This an effort initiated and led by VCS since 2007 worth an estimated $5 billion for our disabled veterans.
VBA didn't dispute any of the facts presented by VCS and broadcast by CBS. Top on the list is the fact VBA has one million backlogged claims. Our lawsuit uncovered the long and outrageous waits veterans endure - six months for an initial decision and four years for an appealed decision.
Your Turn to Act
Now, today, it is your turn to call local newspapers, TV stations, and your local Congressman and demand immediate reform at VBA. We also need more investigations into VBA. For example, VBA illegally shredded veterans' claims, VBA improperly backdated computer records, and VBA paid top leaders huge cash bonuses while the claim backlog grew larger and veterans waited longer.
VBA urgently needs pro-veteran leaders, a pro-veteran culture, streamlined rules, and VBA claims staff to help veterans in every Veterans Health Administration medical facility.
VA could have saved, in 2004, about $1.4 billion over 5 years
Most people assume since the men and women veterans in this country, served this one country, their care as veterans would be the same regardless of where they live. It is appalling when they find out this assumption is totally wrong.
If you live in an area of the country, like Boston, there are many facilities to go to including clinics, but if you live in the Orlando area, the only place to go is the VA Clinic in Winter Park. If you need to have surgery along with many other procedures, you have to travel to Tampa. There is a hospital being built in Lake Nona. The ground breaking was in October of 2008 but the hospital won't be open until 2012. (If you're guessing it was because it was an election year, you guessed right.) If you live in rural area of the country, then your services are even harder to get to.
That's the biggest problem of all. When they are in the military, they are assigned to various bases and they receive the same kind of care no matter where they are from. All of them are treated equally until they leave the military. Then it does depend on where they live. Their claims are processed depending on where they live with some parts of the country harder to have claims approved and the rating decisions are different. Some parts of the country are more able to treat PTSD than others are just as some are better equipped to take care of serious illnesses better than others. Then you have to add in the communities as well. When the VA can't take care of all the needs of the veterans, most of the time they rely on the facilities in the area to take care of what is needed. Some communities are better than others.
Just as this report points out, some VA's do their own thing when it comes to being able to make purchases, leaving some of us scratching our heads wondering why they are not all the same no matter where they happen to be.
If you live in an area of the country, like Boston, there are many facilities to go to including clinics, but if you live in the Orlando area, the only place to go is the VA Clinic in Winter Park. If you need to have surgery along with many other procedures, you have to travel to Tampa. There is a hospital being built in Lake Nona. The ground breaking was in October of 2008 but the hospital won't be open until 2012. (If you're guessing it was because it was an election year, you guessed right.) If you live in rural area of the country, then your services are even harder to get to.
That's the biggest problem of all. When they are in the military, they are assigned to various bases and they receive the same kind of care no matter where they are from. All of them are treated equally until they leave the military. Then it does depend on where they live. Their claims are processed depending on where they live with some parts of the country harder to have claims approved and the rating decisions are different. Some parts of the country are more able to treat PTSD than others are just as some are better equipped to take care of serious illnesses better than others. Then you have to add in the communities as well. When the VA can't take care of all the needs of the veterans, most of the time they rely on the facilities in the area to take care of what is needed. Some communities are better than others.
Just as this report points out, some VA's do their own thing when it comes to being able to make purchases, leaving some of us scratching our heads wondering why they are not all the same no matter where they happen to be.
Clear Need for Procurement Reform at VA
House Committee Taking Steps to Fight Fraud, Abuse and Waste
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 16, 2009
Washington, D.C. – On Wednesday, December 16, 2009, the House Veterans’ Affairs Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, led by Chairman Harry Mitchell (D-AZ), conducted a hearing to examine the processes and needs of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) acquisition system and procurement structure. The Subcommittee reviewed recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) and VA Inspector General (IG) reports that detail unfairness and inefficiency in VA contracting.
“We all know that the acquisition system within the Department of Veterans Affairs has failed to develop a process that is both transparent and fiscally responsible,” said Chairman Mitchell. “Our hearing will hopefully determine the extent of the reform needed in order to ensure that the acquisition process within the VA is one that is fair, fiscally responsible, and effective. And, most importantly, serves veterans.”
Reports indicate that VA does not consistently acquire the best available price at a detriment to the taxpayers and veterans for several reasons. Most notably, most medical centers have negotiated and purchased medical healthcare services through contracts that individual VA medical centers have negotiated. This erodes the federal government’s leverage of its tremendous buying power. A 2004 GAO report stated that though VA had implemented policies and procedures that required medical centers to purchase medical products and services through VA’s contract programs, a VA IG report found that the medical centers continued to make many less cost efficient purchases from local suppliers. The VA IG estimated that, with improved procurement practices at medical centers, VA could have saved, in 2004, about $1.4 billion over 5 years.
read more here
Clear Need for Procurement Reform at VA
Man taken into custody after threats at VA Hospital
Man threatening himself, others, taken into custody
By CHRIS LEONARD
Staff Writer
WOOSTER -- A man outside of a mental health clinic who threatened suicide and said he would shoot police officers if he saw them was arrested without incident Monday morning.
Police officers were called to the 120 block of Walnut Street after receiving a call at 8:44 a.m. from the Veterans Affairs Mental Health Clinic in Mansfield notifying them there was a male outside its Wooster office threatening to commit suicide with a gun.
"He made a comment if he saw any police officers, he would shoot them," Chief Steve Glick said.
read more here
http://www.the-daily-record.com/news/article/4741439
By CHRIS LEONARD
Staff Writer
WOOSTER -- A man outside of a mental health clinic who threatened suicide and said he would shoot police officers if he saw them was arrested without incident Monday morning.
Police officers were called to the 120 block of Walnut Street after receiving a call at 8:44 a.m. from the Veterans Affairs Mental Health Clinic in Mansfield notifying them there was a male outside its Wooster office threatening to commit suicide with a gun.
"He made a comment if he saw any police officers, he would shoot them," Chief Steve Glick said.
read more here
http://www.the-daily-record.com/news/article/4741439
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