Sickened veterans, families, Congress wait on VA to release findings on Agent Orange exposure
WFLA Mews
By: Steve Andrews
Updated: May 18, 2018
HOLIDAY, FLA(WFLA) - For years, the family of Lonnie Kilpatrick suspected Agent Orange sickened not only Lonnie, but his children and grandchildren too.
While stationed in Guam, the Navy veteran, who died earlier this month, was exposed to the toxic herbicide, which the military used throughout the Vietnam war to wipe out jungle vegetation the enemy was hiding in.
"I know my kids they have, this thing that's caused by Agent Orange," Lonnie said in an interview in April. "I got a granddaughter that's already had brain surgery."
"They say it can be passed down for three generations," he added.
Betty Medkeci, the executive director of Birth Defect Research for Children, Inc. thinks its too early to say whether the grandchildren of veterans exposed to Agent Orange are experiencing health issues. It is her contention that neither the Department of Veterans Affairs nor private industry really wants to go there.
"We don't know, but we're not going to find out unless we do the research," Ms. Medkeci said.
Congress is still waiting to hear from the Department of Veterans Affairs whether birth defects and other health concerns showing up in the children and grandchildren of veterans are tied to the toxic defoliant.
In 2016, Congress passed legislation directing the V.A. to partner with the National Academy of Medicine "to assess the scientific research regarding descendants of individuals and veterans with toxic exposure," but Medkeci said the department failed to follow through on the directive.
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Lost key ring
PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
May 20, 2018
You are ready to go on a journey. You gather up everything you need. Ready to head out the door, you discover your keys are not where you thought they were. Frantically, you search the clothes you had on the day before. You look all over, and then as your heart begins to race, you look again.
When you do not find them, you start to wonder if you left them someplace else. Well, considering you got back home with them, they have to be where you are, but must be hiding.
Sooner or later, you decide it is best to retrace your steps. Best place for that to start is at the beginning...in your car.
You soon discover your keys are still in the ignition.
It is the same as with your life. All too often, we forget to turn the key and turn our imagination on.
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11 New International Version (NIV)
If you spent your time risking your life for others, that desire had to have come from somewhere. Right? After all, it is not "normal" for humans to rush toward danger instead of running from it. It is not what the majority of the other humans do. It is what the people we call heroes do.
Thinking about what it takes to do that, you should also understand that other than courage and a fast thinking brain, you are also equipped with what it takes to heal from doing it.
This weeks empowerment message comes from OEF-OIF veteran helicopter pilot Bob Roebuck served seven full tours. He spent time showing me around to see the huge vehicles at Spikes Tactical earlier this week.
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Harry kept the beard and yes, wore his uniform!
Markle becomes a princess automatically by marrying Harry. As she was not born a royal, her title as princess becomes her husband's name so she'll formally be known as Her Royal Highness Princess Harry of Wales.
NBC News
WINDSOR, England — America has a new princess.
Los Angeles native Meghan Markle joined hands with Britain’s Prince Harry Saturday as they pledged to “honor and protect” each other in marriage after a 15-month romance. They later kissed on the steps outside the chapel.
You may think this is new, and will make it better for our disabled veterans,
VA inks $10 billion contract with Cerner for new electronic health record
Stars and Stripes
By NIKKI WENTLING
Published: May 17, 2018
WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs signed a multibillion-dollar contract on Thursday to replace its antiquated electronic health record system – an action that comes as a relief to veterans and lawmakers who worried it was indefinitely stalled after former VA Secretary David Shulkin was fired in March.
The contract with Kansas City, Mo.-based Cerner Corp. sets a cost ceiling of $10 billion for the next 10 years. In a statement Thursday, acting VA Secretary Robert Wilkie described it as “one of the largest [information technology] contracts in the federal government.”
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but it is not new!
In February of 2008 this was the "new" news.
VBA's pending compensation and claims backlog stood at 816,211 as of January 2008, up 188,781 since 2004, said Kerry Baker, associate legislative director of the Disabled Veterans of America
Carl Blake, national legislative director for the Paralyzed Veterans of America, said VBA needed $121 million in its fiscal 2009 budget for its information technology. According to VA budget documents, VBA requested an IT budget of $109.6 million for its compensation and benefits programs, down $23.8 million from $133.4 million in 2008. VA requested an overall 2009 IT budget of $2.53 billion in 2009, up from $2.15 billion in fiscal 2008, with the largest portion earmarked for the Veterans Health Administration.
Then again, soon after this report, out came yet another one about VA claims being shredded and "tens of thousands of claims" were unopened. By May of 2009, the claim backlog was at 915,000
Oh, but then again, even all that was not new.
Since 1995, the number of veterans enrolled in the VA has risen from approximately 2.9 million to more than 5 million.
The inspector general for the Veterans Affairs Department says that agency managers were aware of serious problems with a $70 million project to replace its hospital appointment system several years before the VA dropped the program.
The VA announced the project in 2000 after complaints from veterans about long waits to make appointments. It was halted this year.
The inspector general says that managers didn't take timely and appropriate action to address problems, even as millions more were put into the program.
As always, this could keep going and going, but now you have a better idea of what all the money spent has produced! Do veterans matter or not? Are they more important than the businesses making money off their pain?
After all, the American people do not want to see veterans suffer, so they never look at who is prolonging their agony instead of making their lives better.
Charges: Army veteran shot 2 in downtown encounter
KTVA News
Thursday, May 17th 2018
Police say an Army veteran, accused of shooting and wounding two people in Anchorage Wednesday, claimed that he opened fire when one of them approached him with a hammer in an ongoing dispute.
Rusty Tuuaga, 34, was taken into custody on charges including attempted murder after the shooting, which left a man with life-threatening injuries and a woman with non-life-threatening injuries. Police said overnight that the incident appeared to be drug-related.
U.S. Army Alaska officials said Thursday that Tuuaga had left the Army last week on May 6, as a specialist with Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson’s 725th Support Battalion.
A charging document in the case, written by Assistant District Attorney Arne Soldwedel, said the wounded man said Tuuaga’s first name “several times” when police reached the 600 block of East 5th Avenue shortly after 8:45 p.m. The victims were taken to separate Anchorage hospitals with torso wounds, with the man arriving in critical condition.
Surveillance video from the shooting showed the victims getting out of a Jeep Grand Cherokee, then approaching a sport-utility vehicle they had blocked in; one of them had “an item that may have been a hammer” in his hand.
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