Judge Rules Phoenix Veterans Affairs' Health Care Director Firing Was Right

Judge Upholds Firing of Phoenix VA Boss
Courthouse News
By JAMIE ROSS
December 26, 2014

DENVER (CN) - The director of the Phoenix Veterans Administration was properly fired for taking gifts from a lobbyist - not because of allegations of delays in healthcare for veterans, a federal judge ruled.

Merit Systems Protection Board Chief Administrative Judge Stephen Mish upheld the firing of Sharon Helman, who was director of the Phoenix Veterans Affairs' Health Care System until she was removed on Nov. 24.

Mish upheld that VA's findings that Helman had accepted an $11,000 weeklong vacation to Disneyland, multiple airline tickets, tickets (and parking fees) for a Beyoncé concert, entry fees for foot races and other gifts from a lobbyist.

Helman claimed that she was singled out, and her privacy invaded, after long delays for medical services in the VA hospital system made national news.

Mish found that though the medical delays may well have cause the VA to turn its attention to her, that's not why she was fired.

The gifts ranged from an $11,000 trip to Disneyland for six of her family members, $729.50 for five tickets and parking to a Beyoncé concert, and a number of roundtrip airline tickets for Helman to travel to Vancouver, Portland, and El Paso.
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Marine's new mission, save Mom's home

Marine's Mission: A Christmas Miracle to Help Mom Save Her Home
They're so close to raising enough to save this woman's Chicago Heights home. You can still help.
New Lenox Patch
By Lauren Traut (Patch Staff)
December 25, 2014

"After years of witnessing her give of herself and her home, it seemed only natural that he try to save the place where so many had found refuge."

Christopher Mann had no idea his mom was in such dire straits.

For months, she kept to herself the struggle to save her house in Chicago Heights. She consulted financial planners, attempted to lower payments, take out loans—”she tried everything,” Mann told Patch—to manage the seemingly insurmountable $24,000 needed to hold onto her home.

And the trouble mounted as Mann, a lance corporal in the U.S. Marines, served his country in Afghanistan.

When he returned from his deployment, she finally looped in her son. And the two became a team.

“I didn’t have $25,000 just laying around,” Mann said. “If I did, i would have just solved the problem on my own, taken care of it.”

Mann grew up watching his mother putting others’ needs before her own. For more than a decade, she took abused and neglected children into her foster care.
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Three Soldier Siblings Stationed Together at Fort Hood

Sibling Soldiers Spend Holidays Together After Nearly A Decade Apart
KWTX News
By: Nick Delgado
Dec 25, 2014

"The three Dallas area natives have been on multiple deployments overseas, which was another factor that contributed to their time apart over the years. But this Christmas turned out to be different for the trio, as they finally got stationed on the same post - Fort Hood."

FORT HOOD (December 25, 2014) The military life sometimes includes spending the holidays away from loved ones.

Three Fort Hood soldiers had that experience as each of them spent nearly the last 10 years serving in the Army.

"It sucks without the time together but between all deployments it's definitely hard to get together," said Sgt. Christopher Rodgers.

"But it's a good learning experience. You learn responsibility and its a good growing environment."

Rodgers and his younger sister, Sarah McCoy enlisted in the military right after their brother, Jason.
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Veterans suffer from national attention or empathy?

Empathy isn't the problem. Considering they don't care enough in the first place to learn anything. How many times have we seen the general public all upset over a news report as if they never heard anything like it before? They can remember who was a guest on their favorite reality TV show while ignoring the reality veterans live with everyday. Top that off with they totally ignore older veterans while veterans over 50 are the majority of the backlog of claims and suicides.

Veterans face a national lack of empathy
The Hill
By Adin Dobkin, contributor
December 26, 2014

Veterans from combat operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and countless other one-off endeavors around the globe face a crisis of empathy once they return to the United States. While this crisis is not without historical precedent, current factors in the composition and operations faced by our armed forces make the transition back to civilian life all the more difficult. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) run rampant and although medical research has leapt forward since previous major combat operations, proper diagnosis and treatment leaves much to be desired. The solution lies as much with society as it does with the individual and his or her medical team. In order to properly support the veteran community, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Department of Defense and outside organizations must take an integrated approach that looks outside the box and treads into issues sometimes less palatable to government agencies.

Approximately one in five veterans deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq suffers from TBI and/or PTSD. While PTSD has been described in a variety of ways throughout combat history, the underlying condition remains the same. On the other hand, TBI has evolved with the course of battlefield medicine. Both are threats to the veteran community.

The fact of the matter is that while a volunteer-based military has created an unmatched, highly trained force, it has also become one that is obviously self-segregated. No longer does a national culture surrounding military service exist. An appreciation for service helps to ensure that realistic cultural empathy exists between the veterans community and the larger U.S. one. For disorders such as PTSD, this empathy plays a key role in working towards eventual reintegration. It is perhaps the single-most important factor towards long-term recovery, yet also the one most difficult to cultivate.
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OEF OIF Veteran Police Officer "too large of risk" because of PTSD?

Second veteran sues Rutherford over police job; alleges PTSD discrimination
New Jersey.com
THE RECORD
BY PETER J. SAMPSON
STAFF WRITER
DECEMBER 25, 2014

RUTHERFORD — A U.S. Army veteran is suing the borough, its mayor and its six council members, claiming he was wrongly denied appointment to the police force because of concerns by officials that his post-traumatic stress disorder poses “too large a risk.”

John Robbins, a decorated war veteran who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, is the second veteran to sue the borough this year. He contends the job offer that was extended to him was unlawfully revoked as part of a pattern and practice of discrimination against veterans, who enjoy a preference in hiring under state law.

Robbins, a Rutherford resident who served 8½ years in the military, is classified as a disabled veteran by the state’s Civil Service Commission. He was ranked second on a 2012 civil service list, and after completing a series of interviews and a background investigation, he was notified by the borough that he would be hired as a police officer.

But despite passing the physical and psychological examinations, Robbins was passed over Nov. 27, 2012, when the council voted to approve candidates ranked fifth, 10th and 11th, his lawsuit claims.
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