Gulf war veteran and family living in a U-Haul van after hacker stole disability benefits from online account Dallas Morning News David Tarrant, Enterprise writer June 7, 2018
DENTON — Jeff Slaughter needs answers fast after his monthly disability check didn't show up in his bank account earlier this month. The disabled Persian Gulf War veteran said he was told by Department of Veterans Affairs officials late last month that his account was hacked.
Slaughter had been staying at a La Quinta Inn off Interstate 35 in Denton, waiting for new veteran housing to open in Houston. But after his account was hacked, his money ran out. Today, he's living out of a U-haul van in the hotel parking lot with his wife, son and two dogs. Hotel management lent him a fan, but it was still a rough night.
"We didn't get much sleep — hardly any," Slaughter said, standing outside the white van.
A VA spokeswoman said that its eBenefits program, which handles compensation for the nation's disabled veterans, has not been hacked. Instead, individual eBenefits accounts — which 4 million disabled veterans use to get benefit payments — have been fraudulently accessed. Jessica Jacobsen, a VA spokeswoman, said about 2,300 of 7.1 million eBenefits accounts have been compromised since August 2015. read more here
Veterans are also "overrepresented" in the report, she said.
"Veterans made up about 18% of adult suicides but represent about 8.5% of the US adult population," Schuchat said, noting that not all veterans who died by suicide were recent veterans. Still, the researchers found a 10% higher risk of suicide among people who had served in the military. Middle-age adults had the highest increase. "This is a very important population right now in terms of national statistics," Schuchat said, noting the high rates of drug overdose in this group as well as "deaths of despair" described in social science literature.
What they do not know is, large groups of veterans were not considered "veteran" on their Death Certificates.
If they did not have an "honorable" discharge, they would have been counted as a suicide, but not as a veteran. If they live outside of the US, they do not appear to have even been considered as worthy of mentioning. Last but not least is the simple fact that the "22" everyone keeps talking about was from limited data from just 21 states! But they got away with reducing the lives of veterans down to an easy number to remember. Gee, and they make it seem like they really care. If they did not even care enough to read the reports, how much could they have cared about the veterans they love to talk about? After all, the largest group are over the age of 50 but they ignored them too! (Yes, that was in the report too.) Oh, almost forgot that military suicides are forgotten about too and they are a reported average of 500 a year.
This shows that while veterans can go to the VA, the majority seek private healthcare.
VA Utilization
Approximately 62 percent (1,218,857) of all separated OEF/OIF/OND Veterans have used VA health care since October 1, 2001. Between July 1, 2014 and June 30, 2015, a total of 738,212 of these Veterans accessed VA health care.Aug 23, 2017
The total of veterans using the VA services is "More than nine million veterans are served each year by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Health care facilities are made up of 1,061 outpatient sites and 170 VA Medical Centers. May 2, 2018" Why is it important to know this? Because if a veteran is not going to the VA, uses private healthcare providers, the reporting gets too complicated to actually understand what is going on.
Read a news report of a veteran dying, waiting for the VA and right away, we're driven to jump to the conclusion it was the fault of the VA, instead of knowing there is more to the story.
Since most veterans do not go to the VA, they deal with the same problems and rules the rest of us do. If nothing is wrong, we do not go to the doctor. We may go for a checkup, but a lot of us do not have a primary care doctor. No doctor, we go to the emergency rooms. Wait to be seen, deal with how to pay for it, then we are told to make an appointment for a followup with a doctor. We wait while looking for one who is taking new patients. Then find one who takes our insurance. Wait for the appointment and for the OK from the insurance company. We wait in the office, the see the doctor, get test done. Wait for results. Then we are told we need to see a specialist. Yep, search and wait all over again. Wait for the appointment, then go to meet the doctor, then wait for another appointment to get what we need done. Yep, more waiting. OK, so if you happen to be a veteran, who has been dealing with all of that, guess what happens at the VA? Since they do not have a clue who you are, you need to prove you are a veteran, and they need to get your records. You do not have to have a disability rating to be seen as long as you want to pay for it, have insurance that will pay for it, or, you guessed it, wait while your claim is going through all the channels to be approved. Then if you have something like cancer and your civilian doctor thinks it was because you were in Vietnam, it may be very bad news and you need to get into treatment right away. Yes, you get in line. Not fair but that is the way it is. For veterans, you cannot assume that being a veteran automatically gets you into the VA as soon as you need them. That does not work in the civilian world and it does not work in the VA either. Thank Congress for that since it has been their jobs since 1946 to make sure the VA was able to take care of all our veterans, especially the ones wounded or disabled because Congress sent them into combat. TIP 1 Go to the VA and get into the system before something goes wrong and you need them fast. TIP 2 Go to the DAV, the VFW or any of the other service organizations out there helping all veterans and if you can, kick in a couple of bucks to keep their lights on. They know all the rules and what you should be getting depending on what you did for the country and what you need because you did. TIP 3 Do not blame the VA for everything the press keeps telling you because a lot of the times, you may think you are seeing a VA employee but it turns out, you are seeing a contractor...in other words, your care was already outsourced to a for profit group getting paid a lot more than a VA doctor! Here is a contractor talking about what his company does! He does it for active duty and the VA. VA Handbook
Bomb-sniffing dog, handler reunited after service in Iraq BY TRIBUNE MEDIA WIRE JUNE 7, 2018
MONROE TOWNSHIP, Pa. - A dog that served our country in Iraq for most of his life now gets to retire with his owner.
Troy Sutton of Lumberton, North Carolina, has been in Iraq off and on since 2011 with his Dutch shepherd Ali. The two were nearly inseparable for about five years while they worked together in Iraq as an explosive detection team.
But when Ali was forced to retire in December due to old age, Sutton was worried they would never see each other again. That's until a dog rescue in Herndon stepped in.
"He was my life over there because he took care of me," Sutton told WNEP.
Sutton lives near Wilmington, North Carolina, and served in the United States Army for 24 years. He works for American K-9 Detection Services and works with dogs to sniff out bombs in Iraq. read more here
CRAZY CHASE: Soldier steals armored vehicle from National Guard base, police say
But this should have been,
Yabut is a first lieutenant assigned as the company commander of the 276th Engineer Battalion and has more than 11 years of service. He deployed to Afghanistan from 2008 to 2009 with the Illinois National Guard, according to the Guard.
