Wounded Soldier: Military Wants Part Of Bonus Back

It's a slap for Fox's mother, Susan Wardezak, who met with President Bush in Pittsburgh last May. He thanked her for starting Operation Pittsburgh Pride which has sent approximately 4,000 care packages.

Wounded Soldier: Military Wants Part Of Bonus Back
Reporting
Marty Griffin PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― The U.S. Military is demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments.

To get people to sign up, the military gives enlistment bonuses up to $30,000 in some cases.

Now men and women who have lost arms, legs, eyesight, hearing and can no longer serve are being ordered to pay some of that money back.

One of them is Jordan Fox, a young soldier from the South Hills.

He finds solace in the hundreds of boxes he loads onto a truck in Carnegie. In each box is a care package that will be sent to a man or woman serving in Iraq. It was in his name Operation Pittsburgh Pride was started.

Fox was seriously injured when a roadside bomb blew up his vehicle. He was knocked unconscious. His back was injured and lost all vision in his right eye.

A few months later Fox was sent home. His injuries prohibited him from fulfilling three months of his commitment. A few days ago, he received a letter from the military demanding nearly $3,000 of his signing bonus back.
go here for the rest
http://kdka.com/kdkainvestigators/military.signing.bonuses.2.571660.html

They do this to all of them!

$20 billion missing in Afghanistan and Iraq contracts while we can't afford to take care of the wounded?

$20 Billion in Afghanistan, Iraq Contract Cash Goes to Unidentified Companies
By Spencer Ackerman - November 20, 2007, 12:59PM
Ah, Iraq. The land of milk and honey for a defense contractor. Not that all those contractors have such high profiles. In fact, due to a clever bit of disclosure chicanery, some of them are completely unknown, even to budget watchdogs.

The Center for Public Integrity's brand-new report on Iraq contracting, Windfalls of War II, identifies at least $20 billion in contract money that has gone to non-U.S. companies that it cannot identify:

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004752.php

Not bad enough to get you really angry?

Now that you read the above, how about this?

VA Budget Earns High Praise



WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Disabled American
Veterans (DAV) is commending lawmakers for approving a conference report
that will provide the largest increase in funding for the Department of
Veterans Affairs in its history. DAV now calls on Congress and the
Administration to support this important legislation and enact it by
Veterans Day.

"The Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill
calls for an 18 percent increase over the VA's 2007 funding level," said
DAV Washington Headquarters Executive Director David W. Gorman. "This
increase in veterans health care and other programs is especially welcome
news at a time when our nation is at war."

As approved by a House-Senate negotiating panel, the measure calls for
$43.1 billion in discretionary spending for the Department of Veterans
Affairs, the bulk of which is for veterans health care services. That total
is $6.6 billion above the fiscal year 2007 enacted level and $3.7 billion
above the President's request. Importantly, the funding increase approved
by Congress does not rely on user fees or higher prescription co-payments
that had been part of the President's budget request.
go here for the rest

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&
amp;STORY=/www/story/11-06-2007/0004699276&EDATE=

But as this was good news to the DAV, this happened

DNC: Bush Talks About Veterans Funding in Texas While Threatening to Veto it in DC



WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following release was
issued today by the Democratic National Committee:

Heading into the Veterans Day holiday weekend, President Bush is in
Texas today to visit an Army medical center in San Antonio. While the
President is offering more empty rhetoric about standing with America's
veterans and military families, back home in Washington he is preparing to
veto Democratic efforts to provide more than $3.8 billion for veterans'
employment and re-training programs.

President Bush's veto threat comes as an Associated Press report that
shows the Bush Administration is not doing enough to protect the legal
rights of reservists and members of the National Guard who have lost their
jobs as a result of extended tours in Iraq. According to a new survey of
soldiers returning from the war, one in four reported losing their jobs
while on military leave. Yet government investigators have been "too
willing to accept the employer's explanation for a worker's dismissal."
[AP, 11/8/07] The bill President Bush has threatened to veto also includes
$23.6 million to help homeless veterans, including the "more than 400
veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars" who have turned up homeless
shelters across the country. [New York Times, 11/8/07]


go here for the rest

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=ind_focus.story&STORY=/www/story/11-08-2007/0004701624&EDATE=THU+Nov+08+2007,+05:23+PM

Cost of homeless veterans

GAO report to congress September 27, 2007

VA estimates that about 196,000 veterans nation wide were homeless on a given night in 2006.

The GPD program is one of six housing programs for homeless veterans administered by the Veterans Health Administration, which also undertakes outreach efforts and provides medical treatment for homeless veterans. VA officials told us in fiscal 2007 they spent about $95 million on GPD program to support two basic types of grants-capital grants to pay for the buildings that house homeless veterans and per-diem grants for the day-to-day operational expenses. Capital grants cover up to 65 percent of housing acquisition, construction, or renovation costs. The per-diem grants pay a fixed dollar amount for each day an authorized bed is occupied by an eligible veteran up to the maximum number of beds allowed by the grant-in 2007 the amount cannot exceed $31.30 per person per day.
go here for the rest of this
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d071265t.pdf

There is more there but I'm sure you get the point just from this part alone. We have more homeless veterans now than when this report took a look at the figures. It cost $31.30 a day to pay for a grant to house these homeless veterans but we managed to blow over $20 billion because Bush asked for it and wouldn't answer for it. (Ok there was even more missing but I wouldn't want you to pop a gasket yet.)

New England Journal of Medicine

The veterans were therefore assessed 10 to 20 years after their service in Vietnam. The prevalence of current PTSD was 15 percent among men and 8 percent among women. The lifetime prevalence of PTSD was higher — 30 percent among male veterans and 25 percent among female veterans.
In a best-case scenario, active-duty, Reserve, and National Guard personnel as well as veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom with symptoms of PTSD will take advantage of the many mental health services available through the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. Educational initiatives will be implemented to help veterans and active-duty personnel recognize that the loss of social support or the effect of recent adverse life events may precipitate a return of the symptoms of PTSD. Veterans and active-duty personnel will also be encouraged to monitor their psychological health and to seek treatment if and when it becomes necessary.

Alas, there is also a worst-case scenario that demands immediate attention. Hoge and associates report that concern about possible stigmatization was disproportionately greatest among the soldiers and Marines most in need of mental health care. Owing to such concern, those returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom who reported the greatest number or the most severe symptoms were the least likely to seek treatment for fear that it could harm their careers, cause difficulties with their peers and with unit leadership, and become an embarrassment in that they would be seen as weak.

go here for the rest

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/351/1/75

House Veterans Affairs’ Committee Hearing Examines the Long-Term Costs of the Current Conflicts
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 17, 2007

Kristal DeKleer (202) 225-9756

Washington, D.C. – Bob Filner (D-CA), Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, held a hearing on Wednesday to examine the long-term costs of the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The hearing focused on how the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is addressing and preparing for these added costs, especially in the area of medical care.

“Congress understands that the cost of war includes the cost of the warrior,” said Chairman Filner. “We cannot continue to debate the costs of these current conflicts without beginning to address the long-term health care needs of combat veterans. Any planned military surge, must be accompanied by a preparation for a surge in short and long-term medical care.”

Since 2001, 1.6 million servicemembers have been deployed. According to the Congressional Budget Office, nearly half of those deployed have separated from the active component or have become eligible for VA care as reservists. One-third of these have sought VA medical care since 2002. In 2008, the number of veterans receiving treatment is expected to rise to 5.8 million, and will include an estimated 263,000 veterans of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF).

http://veterans.house.gov/news/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=146

From Veterans For Common Sense

More recently, press reports have focused on a rash of suicides by our troops on active duty. Yet the DOD and VA claim that they have no count on the number of suicides among veterans. This illustrates one of the most effective ways of controlling statistics — simply don't keep track of those likely to be unfavorable or deny that you do so. Similarly, the VA has repeatedly assured the public that it is scrupulously providing for our wounded veterans. Yet the VA has not quantified the true incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among veterans. Why keep track when the figure might bolster the conclusion that the VA health care system is inundated with veterans it lacks the capacity to serve? The VA's responses to recent FOIA requests by Veterans for Common Sense show that only a third — 19,015 out of 53,275 — of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans seen by the VA for treatment or evaluation of PTSD receive at least some level of disability compensation by the VA.

The true health care numbers the VA is facing are staggering: The United States has deployed 1.7 million troops to Iraq and Afghanistan war zones, about 900,000 of whom remain in the military and are not yet eligible for VA benefits. Applying a conservative 20% PTSD rate, the VA can expect approximately 340,000 veteran patients with PTSD, and more than 600,000 mental health patients.

And despite the fact that most of our soldiers have yet to become veterans, the VA adjudication system is choking on an unprecedented number of claims. It now takes an average of eight to 10 years for a veteran to exhaust all appeals after a VA denial. The backlog at the VA regional offices, where claims are initially decided, has already risen from approximately 325,000 claims in 2002 to more than 600,000 in 2006, and is expected to swell to about 950,000 by 2008. More than 40,000 appeals to the Board of Veterans Appeals are pending, where it now takes an average of almost 1,000 days to decide an appeal. And the delays at the Court of Veterans Appeals are even more protracted: a record backlog of 6,000 appeals — and an average of more than 1,225 days to decide an appeal. These backlogs and delays will inevitably swell as more soldiers return from the wars.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/articleid/8734

Now you can pop a gasket and give Congress a call. When they get back from their Thanksgiving break that is. The wounded veterans can wait for them. The wounded veterans can wait I guess as well until there is new president in the White House who will not see funding the VA as " a kid with a credit card" instead of an obligation. They can just wait, suffer, see their homes lost, get kicked out of their apartments, see their family fall apart, while more of them commit suicide because everyone made them wait. No one wants to remember when the bill is due to take care of them, they didn't make us wait when we asked them to go.

Profiteering on the wounds of veterans

Corporate profiteering against Iraq vets?
Bush's nominee to head the Department of Veterans Affairs is the second to come from a private company that rakes in millions from VA contracts.

By Mark Benjamin

Nov. 20, 2007 WASHINGTON -- President Bush late last month nominated retired Lt. Gen. James Peake to be the next secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs. It is not an inconsequential wartime post: The department is the second-largest government agency after the Defense Department. And the VA faces the awesome responsibility of caring for several generations of veterans, including the crush of American service members back from Iraq and Afghanistan.

On paper, Peake seems qualified. Wounded twice in Vietnam, he retired in 2004 from his post as Army surgeon general, the Army's top medical officer, with 40 years of experience in the field of military medicine.

But Bush plucked Peake directly from a private company that has raked in hundreds of millions of dollars from contracts with the VA -- and Peake himself helped develop proposals for the company to contract with the VA. That has raised questions about conflict of interest, potentially pitting veterans' care against corporate profits. Moreover, if he is confirmed, Peake will be the second head of the VA under the Bush administration to come from that same private contractor, QTC Management Inc.

Observers say QTC Management has performed high-quality work, and its former president, who also headed the VA under Bush, withstood past scrutiny by congressional investigators. But ever since Dick Cheney left Halliburton to become vice president, Bush administration critics have sounded the alarm about war profiteering seeping into the heart of the U.S. government. The changing leadership at the VA represents a little-known turn of the revolving door between contractors and the Bush administration. Veterans' advocates also worry that Peake's nomination suggests the White House may be interested in privatizing veterans' healthcare to an unhealthy degree.

The Veterans Affairs Department runs more than a thousand hospitals and outpatient clinics to care for veterans, including the influx of hundreds of thousands of veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and are now out of the military and want to see a VA doctor.

Those veterans also seek disability checks as remuneration for their service-related ills. Every year the VA hands out over $40 billion in checks to veterans as compensation for everything from missing limbs to post-traumatic stress disorder.
click post title for the rest


Also from Army Times
VA nominee Peake’s hearing set for Dec. 5
By Rick Maze - Staff writerPosted : Tuesday Nov 20, 2007 5:52:55 EST

The Bush administration’s nominee to be the next secretary of veterans’ affairs will appear before a Senate committee Dec. 5 to answer questions about what he will bring to the job if confirmed.
This could be a quick process if retired Lt. Gen. James Peake, a West Point graduate and former Army surgeon general, satisfies the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee that he is prepared to take on the many challenges facing the Department of Veterans Affairs, including a growing backlog of benefits claims, lengthy waits for some appointments and treatment of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, especially for mental health issues.
But Senate aides, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Peake’s nomination could easily become a prolonged fight if his answers are unsatisfying or if his nomination somehow gets tied up in a partisan feud that has delayed action on legislation to improve veterans’ benefits and health care.
The Senate committee, chaired by Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, has been complaining that leaving the VA secretary’s post vacant since Oct. 1 seems to indicate the Bush administration considers veterans’ issues to be unimportant.
The White House formally nominated Peake for the VA post on Thursday, just as Congress was beginning a previously scheduled two-week break. The Dec. 5 hearing will come on the first week back from the break. Congressional leaders hoping to end the legislative session no later than Dec. 21, which does not allow a lot of time for extensive hearings or investigation.
go here for the rest of this
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/military_peake_nomination_071119w/

PTSD veteran says "My life is a nightmare, I was treated better in Iraq than here"

Disability payments held up for some Iraq vets
Jordan Green
News editor

“The VA told me: ‘Hey, you’re screwed up because of the war,’” retired Army Sgt. Quentin Richardson says. “I didn’t come up with that. It should be automatic. I don’t think there should be any debate about whether or not you should receive the benefits. I didn’t debate serving.” (photo by Daniel Bayer)

Quentin Richardson saved the US government $750,000 when he implemented a tracking system to eliminate inefficiencies in the distribution of supplies to detainees at Camp Bucca in southern Iraq. While there, he sacrificed a piece of his sanity when he helped quell a riot of detainees recently relocated from Abu Ghraib, and afterwards carried some of their bodies to the morgue.

In return, the US Department of Veterans Affairs at first insisted that the former National Guard Army sergeant return $17,000 in separation pay received from earlier military service in the Marine Corps before he received disability benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder.

"My life is a nightmare," said the 45-year-old Greensboro veteran, who has not been able to find employment since he returned from Iraq in October 2005. "I was treated better in Iraq than here. I start my day by going to the cabinet to get medication, and I've never been on antidepressants before."

Richardson reenlisted with the National Guard in November 2001, almost a decade after receiving an honorable discharge following the fulfillment of his commitment to the Marine Corps. He deployed as a detainee supply sergeant with the 105th Military Police Battalion in October 2004 to Camp Bucca at Umm Qasr, a port city near the border of Kuwait.

"I decided after 9-11 that I should serve," Richardson said. "I honestly would not have done that if I knew I would have to repay that separation pay, if I knew the battle that I would have to fight with the VA. I left one battleground to return to another."

National advocates say they are seeing a rising number of cases involving Iraq war veterans who incur PTSD and other disabilities after reenlisting, only to find they are unable to receive immediate benefits until they return separation pay.
click post title for the rest

Another soldier arrested for PTSD help while AWOL

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?

Soldier arrested at VA hospital for being AWOL

By Jeffrey McMurray - Associated Press Writer
Posted : Monday Nov 19, 2007 18:53:05 EST

LEXINGTON, Ky. — A Kentucky soldier facing his second tour of duty in Iraq said in a jailhouse interview Monday that he was seeking mental help at a veterans hospital when police showed up in the middle of the night to arrest him.

Justin Faulkner, 22, of Stanton, Ky., is accused of being absent without leave, even though he insists his superior officers at Fort Campbell knew about his mental problems but refused to provide adequate treatment.

Instead, he checked into a VA hospital Thursday in Lexington, and doctors there told him they wanted to keep him until Monday for observation. He wouldn’t make it that long as police showed up at the hospital shortly after 2 a.m. Saturday to take him to jail.

“It’s humiliating, degrading,” Faulkner said in an interview with The Associated Press Monday afternoon, just minutes before his release from the Fayette County Detention Center. “It’s made me lose respect for the military. To come and arrest me at the VA, it wasn’t like I was trying to hide, trying to run. I was getting help. I am being punished for getting help.”

Faulkner, who concluded a one-year tour of duty in Iraq in February 2006, was due to head back there Monday to join the rest of his unit. He was released from jail on the condition he report back to Fort Campbell Tuesday.

He said he would but insisted the Army would be “foolish” to send him back considering the post-traumatic symptoms he has been experiencing since realizing a few weeks ago that a return trip to Iraq was likely.

“I kept getting these flashbacks, these recurring scenes from when I was over there the first time,” Faulkner said. “I get these anxiety attacks at night, and sometimes during the day, I daze off. I can’t get it out of my head. It wasn’t until I was told I had to go back to Iraq, something just clicked in my head — it was like reliving your worst nightmare.”
click post title for the rest

First they are told to keep quiet. Then they are told to get help. Then they are denied the help they need, given meds to help them sleep and calm their nerves. The DOD tells them that they already had the problems when they enlisted. Then the VA makes them wait to be seen, makes them wait for help, makes them wait for claims to be approved. What the hell is this government doing to them?

I've gotten to the point where I don't have a clue what the hell to tell them anymore.

I got an email from a vet who is facing being homeless because he has PTSD and is losing everything while his claim is tied up. I got an email from another vet telling me there is no help in the part of the country he lives in because the closets place is not only too far away, it doesn't have room for him.

Now they are getting arrested for going for treatment for wounds they wouldn't have if they did not serve this country? They are being sent back into combat with 70% PTSD? Veterans can't even work at 70%! Yet the military sees nothing wrong with sending them back over and over again WITH MACHINE GUNS AND BOMBS!kc

VOTE VETS VOW TO HOLD CONGRESS ACCOUNTABLE

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Vow Accountability for Failure to Override Bush Veto on Veterans Spending
By VoteVets.org Press Release
PUBLISHED: November 16, 2007

IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN VETERANS VOW ACCOUNTABILITY FOR FAILURE TO OVERRIDE BUSH VETO ON VETERANS SPENDING

WASHINGTON - The largest political group of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans today reacted angrily to news that the House of Representatives failed to get the 2/3 vote needed to override President Bush's veto of spending for military veterans.

"It is unconscionable, with estimates of problems veterans face getting worse every day that so many in Congress would fail to stand up to this President on behalf of our nation's veterans," said Jon Soltz, Iraq War veteran and Chairman of VoteVets.org.
click post title for the rest

Senator Bernie Sanders: PTSD program for returning GIs to be expanded

Sanders: PTSD program for returning GIs to be expanded
November 19, 2007
BURLINGTON, Vt. --A Vermont program aimed at helping returning GIs get help to address brain injuries and post traumatic stress disorder got a boost Monday, with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders announcing new federal funding that will enhance it and begin sowing the seeds for similar programs in other states.

more stories like thisA Department of Defense appropriations bill signed by President Bush contains $3 million for expanding the Vermont National Guard Outreach program and another $3 million for other states to reach out to troops returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The program, which began about a year ago, also reaches out to soldiers back from Army Reserve units or active duty soldiers who have returned to civilian life.

The goal is simple, but the problem isn't.

"This is a hugely important issue, because we are seeing a staggering number of people coming home with PTSD and traumatic brain injury," said Sanders, I-Vt. "It is terribly important that these people get the help they need and in order to do that, we need to do this effectively."

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffering from PTSD jumped by 70 percent over the last year.

The Pentagon says 38 percent of soldiers and 31 percent of U.S. Marines report having psychological concerns after deployment.
click post title for the rest

Veteran Suicides, PTSD, and Election 08': DOES AMERICA CARE?

This video is over on the right side of the blog. When you watch it, understand something. We may be very interested in all of this and that's why you read this blog and why I do it. The rest of the country still doesn't get it.

Ty Ziegel update

Last night I finally had the chance to watch all of the program CNN did on our wounded warriors. At the end of the program they said Ty and his new wife were getting divorced.

As sad as Ty's story is, the fight he had to get what he wouldn't need if he didn't get wounded serving, the fact his brother is serving in the Marines as well, there is this love story coming to an end.

We know the divorce rate, especially with PTSD veterans is high, but we never stop to think about the added stress of having to fight the government to obtain what these veterans should have received without any delays at all.

To ask them to come home with no income for at least six months while they wait for a claim to work to the top of the pile, or worse, be turned down, is a disgrace. It's added stress on an already stressed out veteran and the family standing by their side.

They come back home more in this war that in others. The survival rate is 7 wounded for every 1 killed. They are surviving what would have killed them during the Vietnam war. Why is it that we can be so interested in saving their lives and so disinterested in what happens to them, what kind of life they will have or what kind of lives their families will have? It makes no sense at all to not take care of the ones saved. This should never be an issue whenever this country decides to commit men and women to a military action that will risk their lives and wound them. This should be one of the first things planed for and if things don't go as they should, this should be the first emergency supplemental funding request made. Why are they always last on the to do list?

The "Promise" the Silver Star and PTSD

The "Promise" the Silver Star and PTSD
by testvet6778
Mon Nov 19, 2007 at 09:20:01 AM PST
There are a lot of stories of PTSD out here and many of them affect me. This one touched me in a way none other has, and that speaks volumes to the writer Barbara Barrett of McClatchy News she is based in Washington DC it is a multi part story written over a week.

Her telling of the Sergeant at the heart of it, SFC Chad Stephens takes you from the deployment to the hell he is living with daily, today. Dealing with visits to parents of soldiers that were killed under his command, and the torment he has to deal with now. It is heart wrenching.

testvet6778's diary :: ::
I can NOT begin to do this story any justice you have to read it for yourselves. It will take a long time but you should read all the parts of it, it takes you thru the deployment, to Iraq, the battles in Iraq, the deaths of his men, his visits to their families, and how it effects his own family.

How the day he is awarded the Silver Star for heroism, the Armys second highest award, his own father dies a Korean war veteran.

It deals with how he drives more than 100 miles away to a Veterans center far from his home so no one will know he is seeking mental health help, how he ignores all the advice to go to AA meetings, fails to get prescriptions filled for anxiety drugs to help him deal with the nightmares, etc.

click post title for the rest