VA Claims:Prove it or suffer on your own

Reading something like this is infuriating but even more so when you think about the number of times we've read about phony heroes managing to get claims approved even though they have never been in the combat they claimed to have been in, or the other fakers never in the military at all. Yet when you have a veteran of so many combat missions and wars, what is happening to him is so beyond wrong, there are no words.

How many years does it take to serve before whatever health issues they have are considered to have occurred during service at least even if not caused by it? We assume if they become ill while serving, their medical needs would be tended to even if not caused by a combat wound. We assume wrongly. There are thousands of veterans suffering from Agent Orange, Gulf War Syndrome, toxic exposures in Iraq and Afghanistan as the list grows longer and longer. The fact is, if these men and women did not deploy, did not enter into these combat situations, they would not have been exposed to that which may in fact kill them as sure as the enemy tried to.

This is wrong but this is not unusual. The question is, if you worked for a company as a civilian and later found out they jeopardized your health by what they did, you would sue to make sure your needs were taken care of and your family provided for because you could no longer do it for them. You would sue to make sure it did not happen to someone else. In the case when your employer happens to be the military, you can't sue and you must through yourself at the mercy of the people reviewing your case while they have a set of rules they have to go by. Don't we owe them at least what is equal to workman's comp?

The order of the ill: What doesn't kill you
Government waits for proof - sometimes for decades - before caring for sick veterans
Health care » The VA requires former service members to prove an illness was caused by military service.
By Matthew D. LaPlante

The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated: 01/15/2010 02:32:05 PM MST

Editor's note: First in a three-part series.



In Vietnam, Jim Ogden flew through clouds of Agent Orange. In Desert Storm, he hovered past burning oil fields. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, he worked near a thick black plume of burning plastic, metals, chemicals and medical waste.

Along the way he took injection after injection and swallowed pill after pill. He breathed in herbicides and pesticides. And he never questioned whether all of those drugs, toxins and poisons might someday do him harm.

Not until he lost his eyesight.

Now the former Marine and master helicopter mechanic can't help but wonder what, if anything, was to blame.

The diagnoses were terrifyingly specific; the causes were maddeningly unclear. No one could tell Ogden what had gone wrong. But in between medical appointments, unable to do many of the activities he had planned for his retirement, the 67-year-old man had a lot of time for speculation.

Perhaps it was the Agent Orange, a toxic defoliant used by the U.S. military to destroy enemy jungle hideaways in Vietnam, linked to more than a dozen diseases and suspected of contributing to dozens more. Or maybe it was the bromide pills he took during his first trip to Kuwait in the early 1990s. The tablets were supposed to help increase survival during a chemical weapons attack, but are suspected of contributing to a slew of conditions known as Gulf War Illness.

Or possibly it was the putrid fumes and thick black smoke that wafted over the largest U.S. military base in Iraq from a 10-acre trash heap that was set ablaze in 2003 and, in subsequent years, burned all manner of toxic garbage. Some veterans and their families believe the Balad Air Base burn pit -- and similar operations scattered throughout Iraq and Afghanistan -- are to blame for numerous respiratory, neurological and cancerous conditions.

"It could be any of that or it could be nothing at all," Ogden conceded. "I don't think there is anyone out there who has the answers."

Because he can't prove that his illness is connected to his service, Ogden doesn't qualify for VA care. "We're fortunate that we have other means," said his wife, Kathy. "But we've tried to find someone from the VA who might be interested in looking at him, just to see if there's anything they can learn about him that could help other people. No one is interested."

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http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_14182249

Humanitarian mission to Haiti can be healing for battle scared

What we have been witnessing reported coming out of Haiti has been horrifying at times when you see people desperate for food and water as well as medical attention, taking to the streets with machetes. As bad as those images are, the people are also showing great compassion for others even with their own pain to carry.

We've seen this when they lost members of their own families but still manage to climb onto the rubble piles using their bare hands to save someone else. They carry the bodies of strangers to the streets and cover them out of respect. Hundreds of thousands of people lost everything but retained their compassion.

Strangers from other nations rush in supplies, search and rescue teams, hanging onto hope they will reach yet one more in time to save their lives. People donated from around the world simply because they felt compassion.

And then we have the military, returned from combat, now deploying on humanitarian missions.

82nd Airborne troops headed to Haiti for quake aid
Thu Jan 14, 8:55 am ET
WASHINGTON – More U.S. forces are getting under way as the military ramps up its mission to help earthquake victims in Haiti.

An advance group of a little over 100 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division will leave Fort Bragg in North Carolina Thursday. The Army says the group will find locations to set up tents and other essentials in preparation for the arrival of another several hundred from the division on Friday.

The soldiers come on top of some 2,200 Marines also on their way as the military prepares to help with security, search and rescue and the delivery of humanitarian supplies.

More than a half dozen U.S. military ships also are expected to help, with the largest, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, also arriving Thursday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100114/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_us_haiti_troops

22nd MEU Marines Depart Camp Lejeune for Haiti Relief Operations
22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit Public Affairs
Story by Master Sgt. Keith Milks
Date: 01.15.2010
Posted: 01.15.2010 10:31

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. -- Less than six weeks after returning home from a seven month deployment to the European and Central Command areas of operation, the Marines and sailors of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit found themselves once again bidding farewell to family and friends.

On Jan. 13, less than a day after a devestating earthquake ravaged the Caribbean island nation of Haiti, the 22nd MEU was ordered to prepare for deployment to head to Haiti to support President Barack Obama's pledge of assisting the Haitian people. By the 15th, the embarkation of personnel, vehicles and equipment was in full swing.

According to Capt. Clark Carpenter, spokesman for the 22nd MEU, the Marines expect the deployment to last at least 30 days, but emphasized that the Marines will remain in Haiti until such time as their service is no longer needed.
read more here
http://www.dvidshub.net/?script=news/news_show.php&id=43928

There are others deploying as well after having been involved with some of the worst conditions man can inflict on man, they are deploying with their hearts filled and heavy.

When you talk to any serviceman or woman trying to heal after combat, they will say how healing it was to try and help someone else. Their level of compassion so great, that even with their own pain they find healing by doing something for someone else.

The suffering in Haiti will grieve their hearts and trouble their minds but after they will know they made a difference in the lives of Haitians, other humans in need of help.

When you consider the motivating factor they have to serve this country, that sense of defending and helping will be fed as they work to restore services necessary for survival and in turn, feed that within them necessary to restore the inner peace of doing for someone else. As they help strangers, they will be helping themselves to heal.

Ancient Greek Tales of War Evoke Modern Catharses

Ancient Greek Tales of War Evoke Modern Catharses
By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15, 2010 – After 2,500 years of retirement, a former general has been hired as a military consultant to help troops cope with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Sophocles, an ancient Greek general and 5th century B.C. dramatist who penned tales of war and the lives of those affected by it, now speaks from the grave, as a modern interpretation of his works is read at military facilities and hospitals before audiences with ties to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Theater of War,” a brainchild of director Bryan Doerries that intends to bridge the past and present, represents what military officials describe as one of the more innovative public health efforts to amplify the dialogue about a psychological injury borne by an estimated 20 percent of troops returning from combat.

“I think the military naturally distrust film quite a bit, but I think theater is pure,” Doerries, the son of two psychologist parents, said this week in an interview at Walter Reed Army Medical Center here during a performance’s intermission. “I think there’s something about the felt emotion in the presence of others that changes your relationship to material like this, so that all of a sudden you’re not coming at it from your head. You’re coming at it from your heart.”

The two-part performance staged within an auditorium on the hospital grounds was minimalist fare: it featured only a long table with four microphones and chairs for the performers. Enter stage right, three graduates of the venerable Julliard School, and prominent actor Isiah Whitlock Jr., who is best known for his performance as Sen. Clay Davis on HBO’s gritty urban drama “The Wire.”

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Ancient Greek Tales of War Evoke Modern Catharses

Blind side of the military

Blind side of the military
by
Chaplain Kathie

(Sandra Bullock) Leigh Anne Tuohy saw a huge teenager walking down the street, alone, cold, clearly heading nowhere. (Quinton Aaron) Michael Oher was a giant. Leigh Anne managed to see that he was also gentle and in need of some TLC. She saw past his size and saw him with her heart. The family took him into their home and he became a part of the family.

Oher was strong and showed great courage in this true story of a real life. He could have taken out anyone on the football field with ease but it took Leigh Anne to get him to see past the fact he was not trying to hurt anyone as much as he was trying to defend his new family of football players just as he wanted to take care of his new real family in the Tuohy house. Then he shined.

Oher's life had been hard with a life in poverty, surrounded by drugs and violence, yet Oher maintained his compassion no matter what came into his life. This is a movie leaders in the military should see so that maybe once and for all, they would understand the men and women they command.

Synopsis
Taken in by a well-to-do family and offered a second chance at life, a homeless teen grows to become the star athlete projected to be the first pick at the NFL draft in this sports-themed comedy drama inspired by author Michael Lewis' best-seller The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game. Michael Oher was living on the streets when he was welcomed into the home of a conservative suburban family, but over time he matured into a talented athlete. As the NFL draft approaches, fans and sports radio personalities alike speculate that Oher will be the hottest pick of the year. Sandra Bullock stars in a film written and directed by John Lee Hancock (The Rookie, The Alamo). - Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
http://www.moviefone.com/movie/the-blind-side/37685/synopsis

Bravery and courageous acts are not defused by compassion. They are fed by it. Tuohy had to point out to Oher that his team was his family and he had to watch their backs the same way he watched their backs. He didn't want to harm but he strongly wanted to defend. This is what the men and women in the military have within them. They have a strong desire to defend their country and their buddies in battle and beyond.

The enemy our troops face, much like during the Vietnam war, have shown very little compassion for their own people. Their lust for blood and revenge has placed their own innocent countrymen, women and children into insignificant collateral damage categories. Blowing up as many as possible no matter who is paying the price, is not what noble people do no matter how much they want to justify doing it. Compassion allows are troops to hold back on what revenge would have them do. With the numbers of troops in and out of Iraq as well as Afghanistan, very few instances have been reported of them snapping or going on a shooting rampage. Why? Is it just the rules of engagement preventing them from turning into machines?

In those moments when they have to decide to allow rage to control them or their humanity, most rely on their humanity. Does this stop them from being courageous? No because it takes a lot more courage to stop shooting than to run out of bullets hitting every human in the area.

Does the military understand what PTSD is or why it strikes some instead of others? No and it looks as if they are no closer to understanding this. They train men to kill and they train women to use the same weapons just in case they are faced with an enemy attack but they are not trained to fully engage the enemy as the men are. This is a huge problem with urban warfare unfolding in the streets of Iraq as well as the villages of Afghanistan. There are no safe jobs to have, no safe zones out of harms way and no one to really put trust in among the locals. In the process of training them to kill, they fail to notice they are not able to train them to stop being human or to stop being the person they were since birth.

Qualities we want most in people in civilian life is within them, naturally at different levels just as each one of a group will have different levels of compassion, mercy, love and patience, they come into the military with their own levels of each. This level and the experiences they encounter predict who will be wounded and who will walk away with limited "cuts" to their soul. This is also predicted by the number of times the events strike them. It is why the Army had issued a warning years ago stating clearly the re-deployments increase the risk of PTSD, much like the last straw broke the camels back, it is a matter of one too many times piled on many other times. Sooner or later the cuts on top of cuts penetrate too deeply.

In a perfect world, they would all be able to talk to someone after a firefight or after a bomb blew up, just as civilians have the ability to talk to someone after traumatic events shattering their peaceful life. This is not a perfect world and few people are available to deployed forces. As it is, there are Chaplains untrained to address PTSD, crisis management or intervention, with even fewer trauma trained mental health professionals deployed to respond. The responders that are trained are vital to heading off more damage.

When a soldier or Marine is severely, physically wounded, the mental wound is assumed and they receive help by doctors and nurses right away. They receive it from other patients. They receive it from their families. It is assumed they will need help to "get over it" and deal with the wound they will carry for the rest of their lives, but when the body is whole there is the assumption of wholeness of the person because no one wants to see with their hearts as easily as they see with their eyes.

For some people this wound is as obvious as any flesh wound. There are clear signs of it in their actions, facial movements, eye movements and reactions. Some will develop twitches. Some become hostile when they had shown no signs of hostility within them before. Some will stop acting as if they care about anyone including themselves. The list of the aftermath of trauma grows as it is allowed to fester infecting more and more of the person they always used to be. The sooner they receive intervention, the lesser the damage PTSD can do to them and the people in their lives.

Oher had someone to care about him, see past the obvious, intervene in his life changing the path he was on and then changing the way he thought about things. He was a person of strength and compassion with courage to do what was necessary to defend. We have this in the men and women serving in the military but they have been on the commanders blind side for far too long. Instead of feeding the compassion and courage that caused them to enter into the military in the first place, they have been trying to beat it out of them acting as if compassion has no place in combat. To the contrary it has every reason to be in combat or there would be no rules of engagement at all.

The compassion has to be placed as an emotion of honor and then the military can use it just as Tuohy used it to get Oher to defend his family in a football game. Feeding the notion of being killing machines does no good when innocents are killed or when a friend dies in front of their eyes. Using the compassion to defend their friends and their country as well as the people they were sent to fight for, will honor that and them. Understanding that will also end the stigma of being wounded by what they were willing to do.

Malabar woman begs for return of jewelry holding husband's ashes

Malabar woman begs for return of jewelry holding husband's ashes
BY SARA CAMODECA • FLORIDA TODAY • January 14, 2010
MALABAR — Lynda Burton doesn't care about getting back the flat-screen TV, PlayStation, laptop or other things thieves helped themselves to last week.

It's the two necklace charms containing the ashes of her late husband that she really wants.

"It's just the idea that some creep has this and doesn't know what they have," Burton said. "The whole thing is, I want those charms back."

Agent Randy Holliday of the Brevard County Sheriff's Office described the South Brevard break-in as a crime of opportunity.

"Once every two to three weeks, we get a random burglary in that area," he said.

Burton is hoping that her plea -- and the description of her beloved charms, which each housed a tiny screw at the bottom -- might be enough to tip someone off. Ted Burton was a disabled Vietnam veteran who died suddenly in December 2006 at age 59.

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Woman begs for return of jewelry holding husbands ashes