There is a challenge we face everyday and it is about "22 veterans committing suicide."

Suicide awareness should be suspended

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 19, 2019


There is a challenge we face everyday and it is about "22 veterans committing suicide." It is not the kind of battle you may think it is. It is the battle to get them to shut the hell up and start doing what will make a difference for our veterans!


I kept thinking that one day people will pay enough attention to all of this that they will actually do something to change what is going on. Years later, I am still waiting for that day when none of this is acceptable to anyone.

We keep reading about all the stunts talking about veterans committing suicide, but no stunts to prove to the that anyone really cares. 

The publicity seekers and fundraisers are poor babies! They suffer doing their 22 pushups, as if that would stop a veteran from not wanting to live one more day. 

We have all the BS coming out of Washington about how important veterans are, and with another election coming up, we're hearing a lot more of it piled onto all the other crap we heard before. Nothing changes for the better because people do not pay enough attention to ever consider how we got here.

If you want to know, then you need to know what was done back in the the 70's, especially if you were not even born back then.

We didn't have reporters telling our stories, or stunts getting mass attention on social media. We didn't have social media or even computers in our homes. Forget cell phones because we were still using phone booths and looking up numbers in phone books!

Yet for our generation, we knew what worked and we stuck with it until some yahoo decided that we did not know anything, if we suffered at all, which, apparently, they ignored until it happened to them.

"Staffing at Vet Centers lagging" was the headline on April 20, 2007 reported by Greg Zoroya for USA Today. Zoroya reported that in 2006, 21,681 veterans visited these centers just from Afghanistan and Iraq wars. According to the VA at the time those numbers went from 8,965 in 2004, to 13,307 in 2005 all the way up to that number.

There were a lot of numbers in this report. Among them was the fact that veterans from all wars were using these centers because of outreach efforts. In 2004 it was 125,737, but by 2006 it was 228,612.

According to the VA, the number of veterans using the Vet Centers jumped. "298,576 Veterans, active duty service members (including Guard and Reservists) and their families received readjustment counseling at VA’s 300 Vet Centers, totaling more than 1.9 million visits in Fiscal Year 2018." 


That shows how important these centers were way back then and still are. Veteran Centers are more welcoming than the VA facilities. Most veterans do not know the centers are part of the VA and find it easier to walk in looking for support.

Back then, we knew what worked because we lived with the reality of all of it. Strange how so many people are talking about the heartbreaking outcomes for far too many families, but too few are talking about what needs to be done.

This was and still is, peer support on steroids. They also helped families, like mine. It was the Vet Center in Boston encouraging my husband to seek help dealing with PTSD at the VA way back in the early 90's and offered support to me as well.

While the VA, and almost everyone else, understood the value of having these centers, apparently the Bush Administration did not. As with most administrations, they have to rely on advisers clewing them in. Like most Presidents, they were ill advised, much like is happening now.

"Last  year, the White House proposed cutting $47 million from the $3.3 billion budget for veterans readjustment benefits. Two congressional committees agreed, but the Republican-controlled Congress didn't pass a final spending bill."

The thing is, back then what worked, did not cost as much as what has failed ever since.

"The Vet Centers are small, storefront operations with a staff of four to five people each. The centers were created in 1979 to help Vietnam War veterans readjust to society. Services included combat stress counseling, marriage therapy, job assistance and medical referrals."

But the VA went above all that to create Mobile Vet Centers and a Vet Call Center.

Vet Center Call Center 1-877-WAR VETS (1.877.927.8387) is an around the clock confidential call center where combat Veterans and their families can call to talk about their military experience or any other issue they are facing in their readjustment to civilian life. The staff is comprised of combat Veterans from several eras as well as family members of combat Veterans. The service is free for combat Veterans and their families so they may find resources they need at their nearest Vet Center.

Now we have higher rates of suicides within the military and in the veteran community. We have families falling apart and being left out of all the "new groups" screaming about suicides while ignoring the fact the majority of the veterans killing themselves. They survived all these years without being made aware they were killing themselves, but now have become the majority of those ending their pain by ending their lives instead of doing whatever it took to heal their lives.

Maybe these celebrities will think of a way to change the conversation to something that may actually help them fight for themselves instead of reminding them how many they think lost their battle today...but I doubt it.

Purdue University program taking a bite on suicides into poisoned apple

Battlemind is the poisoned apple

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
July 31, 2019

Purdue University is planning a conference on suicides tied to military life. The problem is, the seem to think that a program that failed miserably is a good place to start!

I have been slamming this Battlemind BS since 2008

Battlemind started almost a year ago and has done, nothing! Since then soldiers are still being discharge under "pre-existing" conditions, TBI is still getting confused with PTSD, they are still committing suicides and yes, homicides, and still being told they have to wait to have their wounded minds tended to. For all the "steps" taken to address the problem, it looks like they are still in training shoes learning to take baby steps, when they need a great pair of rocket roller blades! Give me a break!

This is a great example as to why this program should have been left to rot...

This comment was left on my blog for a post I did on 1st Sgt. Jeff McCkinney. Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The tragic story of 1st Sgt. Jeff McKinney": Hello. I read your article about the 1st Sgt. that recently committed suicide. I wanted to tell you my story. My husband was in the 278th TN National Guard and he committed suicide on May 16, 2008. Here is my story:http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/video/blog/2008/11/military_sees_rise_in_troop_su.htmlSincerely,Tracy Eiswert

Please, help me spread the word about veteran suicides! Send this link to everyone you know. P.S. The VA has denied all my appeals for a 100% rating................

This is what I wrote afterwards. 

Well, I watched the video in horror. At first as I listened to Tracy, I started to cry because she said, "no one told her" about PTSD. That's been the problem since Vietnam. People like me are hard to find. Let's face it, there is nothing glamorous or Google worthy when it comes to PTSD or trauma for that matter. Most of the people that need to know about all of this, need to know it well in advance of it coming into their family, but considering two thirds of the American people do not know what PTSD means, they are not about to go looking for information on it. I know what I know because my life depended on it when I met my husband 26 years ago.

Tracy's story was just one more reminder I didn't need that no matter how many hours I spend doing this, no matter how many videos, Power Points or posts I do, it does no good if people like Tracy have no idea what's available to help. Most of the emails I get come in the middle of the night from a veteran or a spouse after finding me by accident, either by a post or because of one of my videos. Yet if they were searching for sexy videos or comedies, they'd find what they were looking for right away. No matter what you Google, you can find it, but what you can't find is the miracle you're looking for when a life is on the line.

Let's face it, when it comes to PTSD, the government, as others have put it in the past, suck at what they do.

Watching the video on PBS I am even more convinced that Battle Mind is not only bad, it's dangerous. There is a Chaplain talking to a bunch of soldiers talking about getting angry, nightmares and flashbacks. His advice, based on Battle Mind, is to wait 90 days. Imagine that? After all, all the experts I've read over the last 26 years all seem to agree that if the symptoms of PTSD do not begin to fade in 30 days, they need to seek help. It appears the VA is 60 days too late along with everything else. (Is there any wonder why they won't hire me to work for them anymore?)

James Peak is also in this video. He denies that the rise in suicides is tied to combat. Isn't that remarkable considering that the news accounts of some of these suicidal veterans all have one thing in common. They all experienced combat and ended up with flashbacks, nightmares, along with all the other symptoms of PTSD but when Peak tries to tie it into nothing more than relationship problems and financial ones setting off depression, it's easy to hide it. Simply because PTSD ends up setting off depression and relationship problems and financial problems as well.

Battle Mind does not work and gives bogus advice. If it worked you'd see the number of attempted suicides and successful ones go down instead of up every year. Peak also denied that the redeployments increased the risk even though the report was released by the Army a couple of years ago, stating categorically that the risk of PTSD increased by 50% for each redeployment. At least there is a VA psychiatrist in this video saying that it has increased the risk.

As bad as we are treating the regular military, we are even worse at treating the National Guards men and women. They come home and are expected to just get back to normal life when there is nothing normal about life in combat for any of them.

The question is, how can people like me be paid attention to by the people in charge? It's impossible. Letters sent to congress go unanswered or they answer with a form letter. Even service organizations that are sent my videos ignore them. It's all backed up by research, news reports and living with it everyday plus doing the outreach work and listening to them very carefully. Some service organizations are using them and they are helping, which is a good thing, but how many accidental finds are out there searching for help right now?

The other point is that the local communities aren't paying attention either. If they think they have budget problems now, wait until they see family after family have to bury another National Guards man or woman because they didn't get the help they needed. Wait until yet another church holds a funeral for one that took their own life because the church refused to get involved in a family falling apart and a combat veteran suffered.

Service groups across the country are falling all over themselves trying to increase membership to stay active and pay their bills, but do they think of getting active when it comes to what the new generation of veterans need? Hell no! That would be too beneficial to their communities. I know. I've tried to get them to pay attention and have been ignored. It's not that I don't know people with the power to change all of this, they just won't listen.

Go to the link below and watch the video on what happened to Tracy's husband and know that everyday there are 18 more of them. We are losing over 6,000 a year to suicide and that number is expect to go up because the VA yet again is late but the veterans, well they were expected to show up on time to be sent into combat or they had to go to jail. Nice. Isn't it?

There are a lot of posts up on this program along with Comprehensive Soldier Fitness...another loser sold to every member of the military. On that one, I predicted in 2009 that suicides would increase..and they did. 

Both programs ended up with producing more suicides because they only became aware of bullshit instead of hearing the truth about what PTSD is and how they can heal.

If you are wondering how it is that I figured all this out way back then, but they are still living in denial, so am I. They are supposed to be the experts. All I do is pay attention like it really matters!

‘What IF We Ended Military and Veterans Suicide?’

Purdue University
Jeanne Norberg
July 29, 2019

The term “battlemind” initially was used by military to talk about the inner strength needed to face adversity, fear and hardship during combat. The application of the term then was broadened to take in psychological resiliency both during and after deployment.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The nation is grappling with service members and veterans who find it hard to cope with coming home. It affects their families and communities as well.

To address this challenge, the Military and Family Research Institute at Purdue University is hosting the 10th annual summit of "Battlemind to Home" on campus Oct. 8. Registration is open now, and early-bird pricing runs through Aug. 7. The “What IF We Ended Military and Veterans Suicide?” event is part of Purdue’s Ideas Festival, the centerpiece of the university’s Giant Leaps sesquicentennial campaign, which is a series of events that connect world-renowned speakers and Purdue expertise in a conversation on the most critical problems facing the world. One of the Ideas Festival’s themes is health, longevity and quality of life.

Legal, mental health and community leaders at the Battlemind summit will learn and share strategies to ease the transition from the battlefront to the home front for military personnel, veterans and their families. Previously held in Indianapolis attracting 340 attendees, this year the conference will take place 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Purdue Memorial Union's ballrooms. It is expected to draw participants from more than 100 organizations in Indiana and nearby states.

The opening addresses will be delivered by Conrad Washington, the deputy director of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Center for Faith and Opportunity Initiative, who will talk about available programs and resources. In the afternoon Oz Sanchez, a former Marine and Navy Seal will address the conference. Injured in car-motorcycle accident, Sanchez is now a five-time world champion in the sport of handcycling under the Paralympic umbrella. The emcee will be Indiana Supreme Court Justice Steven David, whose 28 years of active duty and reserve military service included two post 9-11 deployments and three commands.
read it here

Hi Matthew,
I was reading about the upcoming Battlemind event and cringed. First, I applaud the spiritual aspect of helping them heal, however, modeling anything after the failure of Battlemind is a losing battle.

After extensive research on Battlemind, when it was introduced, I came to the conclusion it would do more harm than good. It turned out, I was right as evidence has shown.

That was followed by an equally repulsive attempt called “Comprehensive Soldier Fitness” which was also slammed by me in 2009. It also looks like I was right on that one too.

I have been doing this work for 37 years as if my life depended on it. That is because it does. I am married to a Vietnam veteran with PTSD.

Please, reexamine the “cure” before it is too late to discover it was a poisoned apple.

What are veterans really worth to the candidates?

Next President needs to prove what veterans are worth

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
July 9, 2019

Veterans, if your Mom told you that you were special...Mom knows best. You actually are! Surprised? You shouldn't be. The budget of the federal government prove it.

The two of the biggest departments this nation has are the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs. 

The DOD budget was $1.3 Trillion.  The VA budget request for 2020 is $220.2 billion. Yet when it comes to size of both departments, you get the idea that you are even more special. Current military members are less than 1% of the population. Less than 10% of our citizens are veterans, and less than half of you use the VA.

Right now there are 2 Republicans and 24 Democrats who want to become the next President. It seems that everyone is talking about what is either strong or wrong, but no one is talking about what matters to your lives. We are just hearing the same old crap on what they will do for you, but no apologies on what they already did to you.

Let's get honest and shove politics out of the way because as we already know, it is both parties messing up. Congress has had since 1946 to get it right for your sake...and they all failed.

For the 26 some odd...and changing, they want to become the next Commander-in-Chief but all of them should be "chef" considering the strange brew they have been cooking up for veterans while calling it good medicine.

Members of Congress have been telling the American people how bad our healthcare system is...and it is bad. These same folks are telling veterans sending them into this mess is "good for them" and they should be grateful. As to "what" they should be grateful for...no one has an answer.

This is easy, or it should be. Disabled veterans became disabled serving this county. They were promised that their wounds would be treated and they would not have to worry about surviving after they pre-paid for their healthcare with their service.

Now, you'd think that would come with a square deal and it would be delivered. You'd also have to imagine that the folks leading this country are grateful enough to make sure our veterans and current military members were actually honored. Then again, if you do, then you haven't been paying attention to the facts.

The percentage of veterans living in this country is lower than in 1999 when the VA said that 20 veterans a day were committing suicide. They released the the first report in 2012. Back then, the general public had no idea but veterans knew all about it. (In 2000, my husband's nephew was one of them.)

Seven years after the first report, everyone is talking about veterans killing themselves but no one is talking about how it has gotten worse for them to stay alive.

Sure we have the usual problems that have been going on for as long as I've been alive (a very long time) but it got worse with the wrong people advising Trump. 

Fact, he wanted to cut the "unemployable" percentage from senior veterans disability checks because they were too old to work anyway. While the largest percentage of veterans in this country are over the age of 50...they are also the majority of the known veterans committing suicide. Did anyone think about what hearing this did to them?

I can tell you there was a major freak out when veterans thought the one thing they could depend on was that "permanent and total" actually meant that.

Then we have what is going on with the military. Their suicides have gone up too. According to the DOD, suicides hit the largest number in ten years! The other fact is that it has averaged about 500 a year since 2012.

Military families are subjected to not only living on contaminated bases, 126 at last count by the DOD. Military housing has also been harming them because someone thought it was a good thing for them to be handed over to for profit businesses.

Yes, even more horror for those who had been prepared to face the enemy...but did not think they would have to face all this.

When you hear all the people running for the office make them actually answer questions without running away from what they've already done to you! Stop letting them get away with treating you as if you are just like everyone else they can just make a speech to and then get your vote.

MAKE THEM EARN IT!

Why didn't FOX discover Trump's disdain for military before he became Commander-in-Chief?

Republicans missing out on facts watching FOX

Just stunned and checked FOX earlier today to see if they had this story. They did not early this morning. Then again, it seems that they are not reporting on a lot of things. 

Do they understand that most in the GOP are for the troops and our veterans and deserve to know what is going on with both of those groups?

Well, just one more example of the hoodwinking of patriotic folks who are giving up on the GOP and FOX. No need to wonder why so many of them are switching to Independent~

When candidate Trump went after members of the military, that was not enough for people to wake up and understand what they were approving of.

When POTUS Trump went after the VA and tried to cut benefits for millions of senior veterans, that was not enough for people to wake up to what they had approved of.

When POTUS took money out of the military budget for the wall he wanted to build, even as hundreds of military families were subjected to living in squalor in their homes, that was not enough to wake up people.

The list of offenses committed is so long that it would take days...or weeks, to put together. What did it for me last night was hearing that POTUS had such disdain for the military, he threatened to cut off child support for one of his daughters if she joined it! 

It was not just about if she went to work, but he had to make sure he mentioned military service above any other job!

Does anyone still approve of supporting him? Why didn't FOX tell us any of this?


TIFFANY TRUMP CHILD SUPPORT PAYMENTS WOULD HAVE BEEN STOPPED BY DONALD IF SHE JOINED THE MILITARY: PRENUP 
NEWSWEEK
BY JESSICA KWONG
6/4/19

President Donald Trump's newly revealed prenuptial agreement with his second wife Marla Maples contains rules regarding their daughter Tiffany Trump — specifically on circumstances under which his child support payments for her would end early.

The 1993 prenup, obtained and reported by Vanity Fair on Tuesday, established that Donald Trump would halt $100,000 child support payments for Tiffany Trump when she turned 21 years old, or earlier if she joined the military, the Peace Corps., or landed a full-time job.

"The way it was drawn up is ironclad and shows how wary he was," divorce lawyer Raoul Felder, who has represented Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani, told the magazine after reading the prenup. "He was leaving nothing to chance."

The prenup was a reflection of Trump's fierce desire to guard his money at a time when he faced bankruptcy from three Atlantic City casinos and debt.

Trump negotiated to pay Maples just $1 million if they divorced within five years, and an additional $1 million to purchase a house. Maples reportedly had requested $25 million.

Maples gave birth to Tiffany Trump in October 1993 and wanted to marry soon after. Besides that, Donald Trump warmed up to the idea of marrying Maples because his conservative parents were not happy he had a daughter out of wedlock, and the marriage could calm investors as he prepared to go public with his casinos to pay his debts.

Donald Trump and Maples eventually settled the prenup at $14 million. Maples tried to negotiate better terms but was forced to cave, 24 hours before thousands of guests were set to arrive at their wedding.
read more here

Electronic health records from VA and DOD not working still?

VA, DoD Electronic Health Records Still Aren't Compatible, and Lawmakers Are Angry

Military.com
By Richard Sisk
1 May 2019

"For 10 years we've heard the same assurances" that the electronic health records problem will be solved," Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Kentucky, said. "It's incredible that we can't get this fixed."

Maj. Catherine Anderson, chief nurse for the 915th Forward Surgical Team, uses MC4, an electronic healthcare record system developed by the military, at the Medical Treatment Facility at Contingency Operating Base Basra., December 31, 2009. (U.S. Army/Pfc. J.P. Lawrence)

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan was grilled by lawmakers Wednesday on the lengthy and costly effort to develop compatible electronic records systems between the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

"I don't ever recall being as outraged about an issue than I am about the electronic health record program," Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, told Shanahan at a House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the DoD's proposed fiscal 2020 budget.

She said a hearing last month with DoD and VA health program managers on the progress of meshing the records "was terrible."

"I can't believe that these program managers think that it is acceptable to wait another four years for a program to be implemented when we've spent billions of dollars and worked on it for over a decade," Granger said.
read more here

"Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" or worth billions?

Why can't veterans trust members of congress?

No need to think too hard on this one. Considering there was a time when no member of Congress really wanted to serve on the Veterans Affairs Committee before it was turned into a money maker for anyone who can profit off their suffering, it is everyone's game now.

To think, these con-artists actually think they can get away with subjecting veterans to deplorable conditions by failing to fix the problems at the VA just for the sake of their rich buddies and fat retirement funds. 

Why else would they be pushing to turn your care over to for profit companies instead of making sure you got the best care possible at the VA?

Read this story from NPR back in 2016 and see what he was up to back then...like this,

SIEGEL: Ten billion dollars put into Veterans Choice, and there are now more vets waiting for care than before. What do you do now? What's next? What happens?

MILLER: We continue to work with the department, with the secretary, with the veterans service organizations that are out there. I believe that many folks now accept the fact that Choice is going to be here. I think it's going to take some time. I mean, nobody expected this to be resolved overnight. You can go back and check the transcripts of most of the interviews, and nobody thought that it was going to be resolved immediately.

Hell, people like Jeff Miller could have saved a lot of lives and caused a lot less heartache had he not been more focused on his own retirement while he served as head of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. Now we know why!

The Congressman Who Turned the VA into a Lobbying Free-For-All

POLITICO
By JASPER CRAVEN
April 04, 2019

Jeff Miller helped open up the VA to private contractors. Now he’s out of office and lobbying for those businesses.

The Indian Treaty Room is a grand two-story meeting space in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House, with French and Italian marble wall panels, a pattern of stars on the ceiling and the image of a compass worked into the tiled floor. Over the years, it has hosted signing ceremonies for historic foreign policy pacts such as the Bretton Woods agreement and the United Nations Charter.

On Nov. 16, 2017, it hosted a different kind of gathering: an intimate meeting called by the White House to discuss the future of the Department of Veterans Affairs. In the 10 months since Donald Trump had taken office, his administration had been pushing a bold and controversial agenda to privatize more of the VA’s services.

The Trump administration’s ambitions are well documented. But what has not been publicly revealed until now is the extent to which the VA—a sprawling agency with a $180 billion (FY2017) annual budget that includes the nation’s single largest health care system, a network of cemeteries and a massive bureaucracy that administers the GI Bill and disability compensation for wounded veterans—has become a massive feeding trough for the lobbying industry.

The VA’s then secretary, David Shulkin, was at the previously undisclosed meeting, along with a contingent of conservative thinkers on veterans policy, including current and former members of Concerned Veterans for America, known as CVA, an advocacy network largely backed by conservative donors Charles and David Koch. Also present were “Fox & Friends” host Pete Hegseth, a former CVA executive repeatedly floated to be Trump’s pick for VA secretary, and David Urban, a right-leaning CNN commentator who served as a senior adviser on the Trump campaign.

According to emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the group drafted a strategy to “echo/amplify” Trump’s “priorities/initiatives” for accelerating the privatization process. According to three people who were there, the participants discussed how best to respond to expected resistance from traditional veterans advocates, who historically have opposed privatizing key agency services. Representatives from “the Big Six” major veterans organizations, including the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, were not invited.

But it was the presence of the most powerful lobbyist for the companies now trying to get a piece of the VA’s budget—a tan, affable Floridian named Jeff Miller—that would have raised the most eyebrows, had his attendance been known at the time.

As the head of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Miller helped write the very privatization legislation that opened the door to his lobbying operation. As an early Trump backer and a name repeatedly floated as a potential VA secretary, Miller personally shaped the president’s policy; he drafted the Trump campaign’s 10-point veterans policy paper, largely based on proposals he was unable to pass in his time on the Hill. (Moran said Miller also has communicated directly with Trump “on occasion” since joining McDermott.)
read more here

VA pushes slogan instead of solution on suicides

VA suicide high priority claim equals enduring slogan

This is the headline from NWA News

Boozman Seeks VA Improvements to Reduce Veteran Suicides

And this is what the article boils down to.

“The VA has indicated that suicide prevention is its highest clinical priority and, with the alarming number of suicides in the veteran community, it absolutely must be. Congress is appropriating resources and the VA is turning that into action, but the numbers continue to trend in the wrong direction. This is why it is vital that we have metrics to measure the effectiveness of the VA’s mental health and suicide prevention programs. This bill will help Congress and the VA isolate meaningful suicide prevention programs so we can ensure resources are focused on efforts that save lives.”

This was in the article too.

The GAO released a report in 2018 entitled Improvements Needed in Suicide Prevention Media Outreach Campaign Oversight and Evaluation. The GAO reveals in the report that the VA had failed to establish targets to evaluate the efficacy of its campaigns, that leadership turnover led to a dramatic decline in media outreach activities and that the VA spent a fraction of its budget for suicide prevention media outreach during the last fiscal year. 

This is what it was like back in 2008
Retired Vice Adm. Dennis McGinn:

Veterans with PTSD, he noted, have “much greater loss of employment and earnings” than those with physical disabilities.
McGinn recommended separate criteria on the rating schedule for PTSD, as well as a way to compensate unemployable veterans for lost quality of life, not just their inability to work.
So-called “individual unemployability” veterans may have formal VA disability ratings of less than 100 percent, but are still rated fully disabled because of their inability to work. The commission found that almost half of the 223,000 IU veterans have primary diagnoses of PTSD or other mental disorders.

The problem is that if a veteran has physical disabilities that lead to a 100 percent disability rating, he can still work and keep his full compensation. But a veteran who has a 100 percent disability for a mental disorder tries to work, he loses his compensation. 

And yet, they are still trying to take that away when a veteran reaches retirement age...not thinking about what the reduction actually means to them suddenly losing their 100% and all that goes with it. Guess they didn't figure on the fact these veterans stopped paying into Social Security BECAUSE THEY WERE TOO DISABLED TO WORK in the first place...plus actually believed permanent and total meant something they never had to worry about again.

While in the same year, the GAO found that there was no accountability for claims processors, we kept seeing the same every year after year, and doctors were accused of trying to blame the veteran as if PTSD was a matter of greedy and looking for a free ride the rest of their lives...like when Norma Perez had to apologize for telling counselors to start making fewer diagnosis's of PTSD...and some still do.

I think the worst thing out of all of this is, we keep hearing how it is a top priority for the VA...as well as the DOD, but the evidence is showing it has become a top priority to use the slogan instead of find solutions.

We also knew that female veterans were lacking in the care they were supposed to be receiving from the VA...and while they did some outreach to OEF and OIF veterans, they forgot about the veterans from previous wars...not just ignoring them, but pushing them to the back of the line for claims and services...and still do.

There was also a huge effort beginning on educating members of law enforcement about PTSD. Give what we've seen among officers and firefighters, they still have not learned what they needed to know...and still do.

We knew that veterans in rural areas of the country were lacking in services....and still are.

THIS CRAP IS FUBAR

Veterans love their country but now you may understand why they fear the government

Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 16, 2019


Erosion: The gradual destruction or diminution of something. The Latin version means to "wear or gnaw away." No one ever thought that this would be happening to the debt this nation owes our veterans, but some members of Congress are not even ashamed it is happening. 

They are actually pushing to do even more gnawing away of benefits disabled veterans fought for.

Veterans risked their lives for this country. They became disabled doing it. They were promised to be taken care of. Then they had to fight the government to have their claims approved. All too often, it took years of suffering medically and financially.

Once their compensation was granted with a "total and permanent" rating of 100%, they though this was a guarantee that they would never have to worry about again.

For the last few years, they have been discovering that word "permanent" was subject to change. 

Some want to say that cutting the "unemployable" percentages from ratings makes sense because senior disabled veterans were retired like everyone else. What they do not want to acknowledge is the fact that once the disabled veterans stopped working because of their disability, they stopped paying into the system.

Social Security benefits are based on how much they paid into the system. That means most of our disabled veterans, especially Vietnam veterans, will not be able to survive. If you think that the rate of senior veteran suicides is high now, this will push even more over the cliff.

What most people do not know is how far the rating goes.

A veteran with 100% disability receives $3,057.13 per month. If they are married, it is $3,227.58. For the rest of the breakdown, go to the VA chart.

If they cut the unemployable and reduce the claim, to 90%, that reduces the amount down to $1,833.62. At 80% it is $1,631.69. At 70% it is down to $1,403.71. 

How can they pay their mortgages and rents with that huge drop in compensation? They will not be able to.

We cannot make plans for our "golden age" when we do not know what Congress will pull next. We cannot depend on the VA when it is being sold piece by piece to private "providers" accountable to no one, being pushed into the healthcare system members of Congress keep trying to kill off.

THIS CRAP IS FUBAR

But, this gets even worse.

Losing that 100% rating, will also cause the loss of most of their medical coverage not tied to their claim, and for their spouses and kids. 

It will cost them college benefits and their kids. Not that they even have that working the way it should.

They lose real estate tax breaks from their states as well as reduced fees from their cities and towns.

Discounts offered from businesses to disabled veterans will end because they are no longer 100% disabled.

This is why veterans and families like mine are freaking out. 

Yet again, the Congressional Budget Office, the CBO, has put out another report that this benefit should be cut to save money. They were not even ashamed to admit it December 13, 2018.

"End VA’s Individual Unemployability Payments to Disabled Veterans at the Full Retirement Age for Social Security"

And if you think I'm kidding on the Vietnam veterans part, here you go!

"VA's regulations require that IU benefits be based on a veteran's inability to maintain substantially gainful employment because of the severity of a service-connected disability and not because of age, voluntary withdrawal from work, or other factors. About 48 percent of veterans receiving the IU supplement were 67 or older in September 2017, up from about 40 percent in September 2010. That rise is attributed largely to the aging of Vietnam War veterans."

And then there is this part.

Option
This option consists of two alternatives, both beginning in January 2020. Under the first alternative, VA would stop making IU payments to veterans age 67 or older (the full retirement age for Social Security benefits for those born after 1959). That restriction would apply to both current and prospective recipients. Therefore, at age 67, VA disability payments would revert to the amount associated with the rated disability level.

Under the second alternative, veterans who begin receiving the IU supplement after January 2020 would no longer receive those payments once they reach age 67. In addition, no new applicants who are age 67 or older would be eligible for IU benefits after that date. Unlike under the first alternative, veterans who are already receiving IU payments and are age 67 or older after the effective date of the option would continue to collect the IU supplement.

Thank God they are no longer running Congress and did not push their through but what about the next time? Why should we have to worry about this one thing we were supposed to be able to trust from our government?

Here are a few thoughts I can actually publish other than the ones I am thinking: 

How about making permanent actually mean that? 
How about never subjecting our disabled veterans to these nightmarish threats ever again? 
How about actually making sure the veterans who have 100% rating right now, no matter how the VA has decided to break it up--down--all around, and make it a flat 100% they never have to worry about again?

As for when to reduce the ratings, start when you guys in Congress reduce the tax cuts you gave the wealthy first. You always manage to find the money for them...but not for our disabled veterans!

Those who serve...paying beyond what is acceptable

Supreme Court rejects appeal over military burn pits

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 14, 2019

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is rejecting appeals from military veterans who claim they suffer health problems because of open burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The justices on Monday left in place a federal appeals court ruling that more than 60 lawsuits over the burn pits could not go forward.

The lawsuits said military contractor KBR dumped tires, batteries, medical waste and other materials into open burn pits. The suits claimed the resulting smoke caused neurological problems, cancers and other health issues in more than 800 servicemembers. The complaints said at least 12 servicemembers died. #ExposedAndBetrayed
read more here

Commandant tells Coast Guard families: ‘You have not, and will not, be forgotten’

By STARS AND STRIPES
Published: January 14, 2019

Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Karl Schultz drew attention to ongoing missions around the globe and expressed his support for Coast Guard families as the service prepared for about 41,000 members to go without paychecks on Tuesday as part of the ongoing partial government shutdown.

A Coast Guard Cutter Munro crewmember embraces his children after the cutter returned home to Alameda, Calif., Dec. 24, 2018. MATTHEW MASASCHI/U.S. COAST GUARD

"While our Coast Guard workforce is deployed, there are loved ones at home reviewing family finances, researching how to get support, and weighing childcare options—they are holding down the fort," Schultz wrote on Sunday. "Please know that we are doing everything we can to support and advocate for you while your loved one stands the watch. You have not, and will not, be forgotten."
read more here

And then there is the latest news that the Congress is once again thinking about the term permanent and totally disabled should be followed up with "just kidding." They managed to cut the taxes on their wealthy friends, but now they want to cut the budgets of the disabled veterans who cannot afford to lose their compensation. Gee, wonder how much the heads of all the corporations get for their compensation after that sweetheart deal?

In other words folks...mostly cutting Vietnam veterans off at the knees!

Background

In 2017, 4.5 million veterans with medical conditions or injuries that were incurred or that worsened during active-duty service received disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The amount of compensation such veterans receive depends on the severity of their disabilities (which are rated between zero and 100 percent in increments of 10), the number of their dependents, and other factors—but not on their income or civilian employment history.

In addition, VA may increase certain veterans' disability compensation to the 100 percent level, even though VA has not rated their service-connected disabilities at that level. To receive the supplement, termed an Individual Unemployability (IU) payment, disabled veterans must apply for the benefit and meet two criteria. First, veterans generally must be rated between 60 percent and 90 percent disabled. Second, VA must determine that veterans' disabilities prevent them from maintaining substantially gainful employment—for instance, if their employment earnings would keep them below the poverty threshold for one person. In 2017, for veterans who received the supplement, it boosted their monthly VA disability payment by an average of about $1,200. In September 2017, about 380,000 veterans received IU payments. Of those veterans, the Congressional Budget Office estimates, about 180,000 were age 67 or older. That age group has been the largest driver of growth in the program.

VA's regulations require that IU benefits be based on a veteran's inability to maintain substantially gainful employment because of the severity of a service-connected disability and not because of age, voluntary withdrawal from work, or other factors. About 48 percent of veterans receiving the IU supplement were 67 or older in September 2017, up from about 40 percent in September 2010. That rise is attributed largely to the aging of Vietnam War veterans.

But the tax cuts for the wealthy they managed to make permanent!

House passes GOP bill to make new tax cuts permanent

• Republicans have sped legislation through the House to expand their massive new tax law, capping their session for the year as they rush out of town to face voters in the November elections.
• The new bill would make permanent the individual and small-business tax cuts in the law.
• It's the second tax-cut proposal that Republican leaders have pushed in less than a year.