Pentagon nominees wait while political games go on

Two wars are not enough to take the Pentagon seriously enough to get politics out of the way. The national security threat is not enough to get politics out of the way. What's it going to take for all of our elected to do the right thing for the men and women serving it? Gee, what if they finally lived up to the words they always manage to say but never seem able to do? "Support the troops" means giving them what they need to do the jobs they are sent to do with the best this country has to offer. Their lives should matter enough that the conscience of the elected would never allow this to happen. Stop playing games and give the nominees an up or down vote now because the troops are waiting for real leadership in Washington.

Levin urges end to hold on Pentagon nominees

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Feb 5, 2010 15:01:55 EST

Two months of unexplained delay on four top Pentagon nominations is long enough, the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman said Thursday.

At issue are nominations to fill vacancies for the Pentagon’s top personnel official, someone to oversee defense acquisition reform, and two key Air Force posts — the service undersecretary and assistant secretary for installations.

The armed services committee unanimously approved the Obama administration’s picks for the jobs Dec. 2, but final confirmation by the Senate has been postponed because an anonymous senator has put a hold on the nominations.

“We have service members willing to risk their lives in defense of the nation,” Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the armed services committee chairman, said Thursday. “The least we can do as a Senate is to confirm nominees to the critical positions to lead the Defense Department. If anybody has a problem with these nominees, would they please come to the floor and tell us? We have heard nothing.”
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Levin urges end to hold on Pentagon nominees

Sexual Trauma Vets wrongly charged for free care, IG finds

Vets wrongly charged for free care, IG finds

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Feb 5, 2010 10:06:47 EST

Veterans seeking treatment for sexual trauma suffered in the military may have been improperly charged copayments by the Veterans Affairs Department, according to a new report from the VA Inspector General.

The report, issued Thursday, has resulted in a change in billing practices and a promise that anyone charged for mental health counseling or treatment for physical health conditions could get their money back.

Free counseling and treatment, mental or physical, is available for male or female veterans for sexual trauma that occurred while on active duty or during National Guard and reserve duties. Unlike disability-related health issues, which veterans often must prove are service-connected, veterans seeking treatment for injury, illness or psychological conditions relating to sexual trauma do not have to provide any documentation or evidence that they reported the incident that caused the trauma.

Any veteran can receive the care; they don’t even have to be eligible for veterans benefits or be enrolled in the veterans health care system.

More than 65,000 patients were treated by the VA for sexual trauma in fiscal 2009, according to the report.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/02/military_veterans_sexualassault_020410w/

Lost souls bunkered down in suburban homes

Iraq war means a new batallion of lost souls bunkered down in suburban homes
Paul Toohey From: Herald Sun February 06, 2010 12:00AM

ANGUS Sim draws deep breaths. He warns, as he tells his story, that he is becoming worked up.

He looks like most modern young warriors, built strongly and emblazoned with heavy ink. He shifts between tears and rage.

For Sim, the quiet streets of Sunbury, in Melbourne's northern outskirts, may as well be filled with hidden home-made bombs, snipers and trucks being prepared for suicide bomb missions.

Sim, 24, returned from Iraq in June 2005 after serving with the Brisbane-based infantry battalion, 6RAR.

He was involved in four incidents that would separately, and cumulatively, damage him profoundly.

His energy has nowhere to evaporate. Time bomb or loose cannon, take your pick.

Sim doesn't like people much. "I got back to Sunbury after Iraq," he said. "I had a girlfriend and I broke up with her. It turned nasty. I got called a 'psycho from Iraq' and this sort of stuff. People don't understand. But the Australian people need to understand."
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lost souls bunkered down in suburban homes

Vets face blizzard of red tape, group says

The problems veterans face coming home are not new. None of them should ever be forced to fight for what they've already paid for. They paid in full the day they took their oath to serve this country.

If you have never been in a VA hospital, never had anyone you know serving or had served, then you are missing out on some of the finest people in this country. There is something outstanding about all of them (except for the very few fakes thinking they could take what they never earned.) The key word is "earned" and that is the part we seem to have the hardest time getting thru to them.

Most are reluctant to ask the government for help. They want to stand on their own two feet and are determined to do it on their own. Others, want nothing to do with the government after risking their lives for it and seeing what happens with the lack of everything they need to carry out the missions. What they want and what they need usually end up totally out of whack.

When they do decide to seek help at their VA for physical wounds, invisible wounds, benefits they were promised, then discover they have to fight for them on top of everything else, it leaves a bitter taste in their mouths and they wonder what their service was really worth.

Why should they have to wait or fight again? This is a question that has been asked since the beginning of this nation.

History - VA History

VA History

The United States has the most comprehensive system of assistance for veterans of any nation in the world. This benefits system traces its roots back to 1636, when the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony were at war with the Pequot Indians. The Pilgrims passed a law which stated that disabled soldiers would be supported by the colony.

The Continental Congress of 1776 encouraged enlistments during the Revolutionary War by providing pensions for soldiers who were disabled. Direct medical and hospital care given to veterans in the early days of the Republic was provided by the individual States and communities. In 1811, the first domiciliary and medical facility for veterans was authorized by the Federal Government. In the 19th century, the Nation's veterans assistance program was expanded to include benefits and pensions not only for veterans, but also their widows and dependents.

After the Civil War, many State veterans homes were established. Since domiciliary care was available at all State veterans homes, incidental medical and hospital treatment was provided for all injuries and diseases, whether or not of service origin. Indigent and disabled veterans of the Civil War, Indian Wars, Spanish-American War, and Mexican Border period as well as discharged regular members f the Armed Forces were cared for at these homes.

Congress established a new system of veterans benefits when the United States entered World War I in 1917. Included were programs for disability compensation, insurance for servicepersons and veterans, and vocational rehabilitation for the disabled. By the 1920s, the various benefits were administered by three different Federal agencies: the Veterans Bureau, the Bureau of Pensions of the Interior Department, and the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers.

The establishment of the Veterans Administration came in 1930 when Congress authorized the President to "consolidate and coordinate Government activities affecting war veterans." The three component agencies became bureaus within the Veterans Administration. Brigadier General Frank T. Hines, who directed the Veterans Bureau for seven years, was named as the first Administrator of Veterans Affairs, a job he held until 1945.

The VA health care system has grown from 54 hospitals in 1930, to include 171 medical centers; more than 350 outpatient, community, and outreach clinics; 126 nursing home care units; and 35 domiciliaries. VA health care facilities provide a broad spectrum of medical, surgical, and rehabilitative care. The responsibilities and benefits programs of the Veterans Administration grew enormously during the following six decades. World War II resulted in not only a vast increase in the veteran population, but also in large number of new benefits enacted by the Congress for veterans of the war. The World War II GI Bill, signed into law on June 22, 1944, is said to have had more impact on the American way of life than any law since the Homestead Act more than a century ago. Further educational assistance acts were passed for the benefit of veterans of the Korean Conflict, the Vietnam Era, Persian Gulf War, and the All-Volunteer Force.

read more here
http://www4.va.gov/about_va/vahistory.asp

When you think about how long this nation has had to get it right, taking care of our veterans should have been perfected by now.

Vets face blizzard of red tape, group says

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Feb 5, 2010 6:28:04 EST

Combat veterans returning to the U.S. often find themselves facing a new, complex and frustrating enemy: red tape.

That is the assessment of a new report released Friday by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Here are some examples of the problems faced by veterans:

• Drew Brown, an Iraq veteran who returned from a 2004 deployment struggling with anxiety and depression, says he asked the military five times over 16 months for mental health counseling before he got a call back. When he tried to get help from the Veterans Affairs Department, he says he was told it would take three weeks to schedule an appointment — which could only be at a far-off location between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m, requiring the former Army sergeant first class to take time off work.

• Air Force veteran Aimee Sherrod, medically retired in 2005 as a result of post-traumatic stress related to a mortar attack on her unit on her second day in Iraq in 2003, received a 10 percent disability rating that she accepted because she thought she would get better. But when she got worse in 2008 during a pregnancy, she discovered that a VA hospital would not admit her as an inpatient because they weren’t prepared for maternity care. Instead, they told her to drop out of school and relax.

• Navy veteran Richard Sanchez, a veteran of Operations Enduring Freedom, Noble Eagle and Iraqi Freedom, left the service in 2006 on disability with a recommendation for back surgery for treatment of injuries suffered when heavy equipment fell on him. It took three years for VA to schedule the surgery, about the same amount of time he has been struggling with a disability claim related to post-traumatic stress.

• Army veteran Matthew Hamilton, who did two tours in Iraq, is one of about 1,500 student veterans still waiting to receive their fall GI Bill payments. “My claim has been with the VA over 200 days,” said the graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “They have acknowledged they have all the information needed by cannot give me a reason why it has not been processed,” he said, calling it a “nightmare.”
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Vets face blizzard of red tape, group says

Chicago police officers capture 'faces of poverty'

Chicago police officers capture 'faces of poverty'
Thursday, February 04, 2010

Theresa Gutierrez
News Team February 4, 2010 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- Some Chicago police officers doubling as photographers have captured images of poverty in the city while they are on the job. Their work is on display in a new exhibit.

Fourteen Chicago police officers took 28 photographs depicting poverty and the rarely captured lives of Chicago's homeless population. They are also students in Adler's master in police psychology program.

Lt. Patty Casey came up with the idea for the class project.

"It's difficult knowing sometimes that or feeling you don't make a difference and that's why we're trying to do this so that we can make a difference and bring it to the public's attention," said Lt. Casey.

Adler school instructor Frank Gruba McCallister says the class aims to make police officers more sensitive and compassionate to their surroundings.
read more here
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=7258624