Valor Act abused by some, victims left paying the price

Fixing the Valor Act for Victims 
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
June 9, 2018

There are many things that get to me. The most obvious one is PTSD in our veterans, especially Vietnam veterans. I got into this work 36 years ago because I fell in love with my Vietnam veteran husband. They have been forgotten about in all the "efforts" everyone seems to be talking about.

There is another topic that gets to me, and that is domestic violence.

I was a victim of domestic violence. As a kid with a Korean War veteran Dad, who was a violent alcoholic until I was 13 and he stopped drinking. For me it was what he was doing to my oldest brother and my Mom and the constant threat of it happening. So, I am a survivor of that. 

I was a victim of my ex-husband, not a veteran, deciding one night, I needed to die. As soon as the police took him away, I was, yet again, a survivor of domestic abuse.

There is a report out of Massachusetts about a Vietnam veteran who is accused of domestic violence. Vietnam service may keep veteran from facing assault charges on the Boston Globe

SUZANNE KREITER/GLOBE STAFF

Louise Guy hugged her dog Blue. Guy’s ex-boyfriend is accused of assaulting her.

"Accused of slamming his girlfriend’s head into the floor and nearly strangling one of her golden retrievers, Warren R. Broughton faced charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and animal cruelty in a New Bedford courtroom."

There is no excuse for this. While justice should be measured with military service, justice must also factor in the victims.

It looks like Judge McGovern thought it was more important to honor the veteran's service than hold him accountable for what he was charged for doing to his girlfriend.

“Well, thank you for your service to the United States of America,” Judge James McGovern told him.

One more case of politicians writing Bills without really understanding what the hell they are doing.

The Valor Act’s author, state Senator Michael F. Rush, said in a statement in January that he would change the law to prevent such applications.

“Domestic abuse and assault is unacceptable, inexcusable, and intolerable by any individual, especially by a veteran,” Rush said then.

But his bill, which passed the Senate in May, did not end eligibility for those accused of domestic violence. Nor did it provide any way of tracking defendants who had already invoked the Valor Act in court.

The article points out that veterans do not want anyone to receive a "get out of jail free" pass. The Veterans Courts are great at holding veterans accountable. They make sure veterans get the help they need, support from a mentor to get through the program, and if they do not do it, they go to jail.

Too many times we have seen people take advantage of poorly written laws. This is one of those times. Read the rest of the article and see how many have abused this effort to do the right thing for our veterans, and left victims paying for it.

Disabled veteran left homeless after being hacked

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

What CDC does not know about veteran suicides

Veterans overrepresented in report, underrepresented in reporting
Combat PTSD
Kathie Costos
June 8, 2018

CNN had the report from the CDC on suicides in America and within the report, there was this,

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. 

California did not have it on Death Certificates until they passed legislation last year. Illinois was not tracking them.

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.

What the press misses about veterans healthcare!

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

Iraq veteran and K9 reunite

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