Man found hanged at local motel

Man found hanged at local motel


By Lynn Proctor Windle, Staff Writer
(Created: Friday, January 25, 2008 6:45 PM CST)

A man was found hanged early Thursday morning at the LaQuinta Inn located in the 1800 block of U.S. 75.

Police are withholding identification of the victim pending notification of relatives.

A witness who described himself as an acquaintance of the victim said he found the body at about 5 a.m.

The witness, Pat Ahrens, owner of a Plano landscape service, said that he met the man whom he identified only as Chris, at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Dallas over the weekend. Both were patients there, he said.

Ahrens said the victim was released from the hospital on Wednesday morning. With no transportation, the victim called Ahrens asking for a ride to his home in Hillsboro. Ahrens said that when he realized he would be unable to drive the man home that evening, he put him up for the night in the motel. Ahrens said the man appeared depressed.

Ahrens said he returned early the next morning to find the man hanging from the second-story balcony outside the building. Athens said he first called a friend and then called 911. Police said no cause of death has been determined and an investigation is ongoing.

Contact Lynn Proctor Windle at lwindle@acnpapers.com.
http://www.courier-gazette.com/articles/2008/01/25/breaking_news/41.txt

First Gulf War POW's push for reparations

Gulf War POWs push for Iraqi reparations

By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jan 25, 2008 14:30:59 EST

U.S. veterans of the 1991 Gulf War who were captured and tortured by Iraqi forces are renewing their efforts to get President Bush to relent and allow them to pursue damages against the Iraqi government that were awarded by a federal court in 2003.

Bush vetoed the 2008 defense authorization bill Dec. 28 over a provision that, in essence, would allow former prisoners of war to sue Iraq for damages for their torture while in captivity. Bush claimed that enacting the provision would, among other things, “allow plaintiffs’ lawyers to tie up billions of dollars in Iraqi funds for reconstruction that our troops in the field depend on to maintain security gains.”

According to a Dec. 28 report in Congressional Quarterly, Bush issued his veto after lawyers for the Iraqi government threatened to withdraw $25 billion worth of assets from U.S. banks if the provision was allowed to become law.

The American POWs were granted damages by a U.S. federal district court in July 2003. But earlier that year, after signing a bill that allowed Americans to collect court-ordered damages from the frozen assets of terrorist states — a list that included Iraq at that time — Bush had confiscated what was then $1.7 billion in Iraqi assets held in private banks. He allowed the payment of two judgments, including one for so-called “human shield” hostages held by Iraq in 1990, but none for the Americans taken prisoner in the 1991 Gulf War.
go here for the rest
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/01/military_gulfwar_pows_080125w/

Bush and Rumsfeld refused to honor these men from the Gulf War. Was it because what was done to them is still being done to those held by them? Or is it because Bush never cared about those he sent to risk their lives or those sent by his father? Why would he refuse to honor these men who suffered at the hands of Saddam?
This is just one of their stories

Time as POW in Iraq haunts veteran

Report of captives revives Racine man's memories
By MEG JONES
mjones@journalsentinel.com
Posted: March 24, 2003
Joseph Small III was watching television Sunday morning in his Racine home when the first reports of American POWs flashed on the news.

He had nightmares, sometimes quite vivid ones, in the years after his release. Often when he was awake, he would get flashbacks. For the most part, Small said, he no longer has flashbacks or nightmares.

But he couldn't help but relive his experience when he saw reports Sunday of the American POWs.

"It brought back the fear I was feeling 12 years ago. I try to keep that experience in a compartment of my brain, and I dust it off every now and then. This did that for me," as he gazed at a television broadcasting war news.

Even though Small, like most soldiers, went through survival training, it didn't prepare him for a group of Iraqi soldiers pointing their guns at him. It didn't prepare him for a truck full of soldiers attempting to run the vehicle he was being transported in off the road so they could kill him. Or beatings from his captors, who tried to break his eardrums.

"The emotions and fear you get cannot be duplicated" in training, Small said.

What helped him get through his ordeal was thinking of images, such as a high school football game, that reminded him of home. Before he was shot down, he had read accounts of soldiers who were imprisoned in World War II and Vietnam. He found strength from their stories.

Small's oldest son is an Air Force captain whose unit has not been called to the Middle East yet. If his son goes to fight in Iraq like the sons and daughters who are already there, Small said, it's for a just reason. He does not doubt Saddam Hussein would use weapons of mass destruction if he has them.

"I believe in the cause of what we're trying to do, which is to rid the world of a sadistic regime," he said.

Small hopes and prays the American POWs will soon be returned to their families. They will face difficulties, Small knows, and they will need the help of their friends, spouses and parents to cope with the loss of their liberty.

"There's nothing like freedom. Once it's taken from you, you greatly appreciate getting it back," he said.


While a nation held its breath and the families of the prisoners waited for word of their loved ones, Small felt a different kind of fear.

Small, 51, is one of a handful of Americans who know what it's like to be held captive by the Iraqi military.

"They're probably in a state of shock. I can tell you they're terrified," Small said of the American prisoners of war. "I'm sure they're in an extreme state of terror."

Small now pilots DC-9s for Midwest Airlines, but during the Persian Gulf War, he flew OV-10 Bronco reconnaissance planes. His aircraft was shot down in Kuwait on Feb. 25, 1991, the second day of the ground war against Iraq, and Small spent nine days in captivity until he was released along with other captives.

He injured his leg and shoulder when he parachuted out of his stricken plane and landed 50 feet from Iraqi soldiers. They tore his rotator cuff as they wrenched his shoulder. His shoulder still hurts.

Small and the other American POWs were fed contaminated food, beaten, whipped and imprisoned in areas the Iraqi military knew were bombing targets - all violations of the Geneva Convention, designed to protect prisoners of war.

The Geneva Convention protections mean "everything to American and British soldiers. They mean nothing to the Iraqi military," Small said.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/mar03/127995.asp

Still Fighting
Senator Pushes Bush To Release Money To POWs From 1st Gulf War

Nov. 20, 2003

CBS) During the first Gulf War against Iraq in 1991, a number of American soldiers who were captured and became prisoners of war were brutally, brutally tortured by the Iraqis.

Eventually, though, the POWs came home, put the pieces of their lives back together - and largely remained out of the public eye. But today, a different battle is being fought by some of those American POWs, all these years after they returned. Correspondent Mike Wallace reports.

It was back in 1991 that the POWs came home from Iraq to a hero's welcome and were greeted by the then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Colin Powell, and then Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney.

"Your country is opening its arms to greet you," said Cheney.

Many of the POWs had suffered wounds both physical and psychological. Some of them suffer to this day, more than a decade after they were captured and appeared on Iraqi TV.

“They had broken my nose many times. And I was just getting used,” says Col. Cliff Acree. “You just, kind of, get used to it.”

Acree was shot down during the second day of the war. He said his interrogations always began the same way: “They would have these six or eight people just beat you for 10, 15, 20 minutes. Just no questions asked, bring you into the room, and beat you with fists, feet, clubs, whatever.”

“Hearing Cliff talk about it, we never really talked like this before, in such detail,” says Dale Storr, now in the National Guard, who was shot down by Iraqi ground fire. “But it brings back memories. It's almost like I'm back in my cell again.”

Jeff Tice, now retired from the military, was captured after his F-16 was hit by a surface-to-air missile. He was tortured with a device he calls "the Talkman."

“They wrapped a wire around one ear, one underneath my chin, wrapped it around another ear and hooked it up to some electrical device. Asked a question. I wasn't interested in answering,” recalls Tice.

“They would turn on the juice. And what that does is it, it creates a ball of lightning in your mind or in your head. Drives all your muscles simultaneously together and it drives your jaw and everything together. And, of course, I'm chained to a chair. I can't move freely. So everything is jerking into a little ball. And your teeth are being forced together with such force. I'm breaking pieces and parts off.”

Tice’s jaw was dislocated so many times that he says he was lucky to be able to put it back into place.

Jeff Fox, also retired from the military, was shot down over southern Iraq. “Same type of experience where they would beat you and blindfold you, handcuff you, drag you around,” he says.

Some of the POWs endured mock executions, threatened castration, were urinated on, and had to survive on a starvation diet.

The torturers fractured Acree’s skull. “After 16 years in the Marine Corps, you develop a certain hardness. That hardness really helped me in captivity. But the people that treated us so terribly, right early on, made me so angry that it only stiffened my resolve,” he says.

“It only made me resist more. Because, in the back of my mind, I just know, it is so, what they were doing was so completely out, out of any Geneva Accord.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/20/60minutes/main584810.shtml

Capt. Larry "Rat" Slade retired in Norfolk on Thursday after 22 years in the Navy. u.s. navy


Slade spent 43 days as a prisoner of war during the Gulf War, above.



NORFOLK

CAPT. LARRY "RAT" SLADE served 22 years in the Navy, flying in the backseat of a Tomcat fighter over four combat zones, graduating from Top Gun school and winning the naval flight officer of the year award.

But one moment of Slade's career, honored this week at a retirement ceremony, fails to fold neatly into a shadow box with a flag, ribbons and medals.

On Jan. 21, 1991, a cloudy, damp night over Baghdad, an Iraqi anti-aircraft missile blew the tail off his Oceana-based jet at 25,000 feet.

Slade and the pilot, Lt. Devon "Boots" Jones, ejected safely and floated into the enemy's desert a mile apart.

Jones was rescued. Slade was captured.

For the next 43 days, Slade endured interrogation, torture and starvation at the hands of Iraqis. The military code burned in his mind: "I will evade answering further questions to the utmost of my ability."

It still smolders: Did he resist to the utmost of his ability?

"I struggle with that question today," he said.

Slade retired on Thursday as perhaps the final prisoner of war in the active Navy ranks. At a Norfolk Naval Station ceremony, fellow sailors praised Slade, 42, for a no-nonsense career as a top aviator, skilled leader and aggressive advocate for new technology.

According to Slade, who stays in touch with other POWs, his retirement marks the first time in a century the Navy has not had a former POW in its active-duty ranks. A spokesman for the Naval Historical Center said researchers there do not track such information.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-vetscor/1855130/post

New disability pay policy not retroactive-shit out of luck again

New disability pay policy not retroactive
By Tom Philpott, Special to Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, January 26, 2008



Former Army Capt. Hunter Smart of Phenix City, Ala., an injured veteran of the Iraq war, expected to find new severance pay protection in the Wounded Warrior Act section of the new 2008 defense authorization bill.

But when Smart took a close look this week he found a hole in the bill, rather than an extra $35,000.

Smart was pleased to read a few months ago that a provision in the bill would help medically separated veterans. If their disability was incurred in a combat zone, or in combat-related operations, military disability severance pay no longer will have to be recouped by the government before the veteran begins to draw full disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

With this change, Congress is embracing a recommendation of the Veterans’ Disability Benefits Commission. When veterans see their careers shortened by combat-related injuries, it said, they should get to keep both their lump-sum severance pay and full monthly VA disability pay.

But Smart was disappointed to learn this week that the new severance pay protection will apply only to combat-related medical separations after the bill is signed into law. That means VA compensation for Smart will be reduced over time by $35,000 in severance pay he received from the Army when he was separated as unfit last March.

“That this will not be retroactive is shameful,” he said. “It should go back to cover at least all of the Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.”
go here for the rest

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=51916

Republicans in charge prove they don't live up to claim

I'm posting over on Sancho Press at www.sanchopress.com as well as my two blogs. (Yes I know, I'm a glutton for punishment.) Sancho Press is done from the "left" as a way to contradict the claim the Republicans are pro-military while the Democrats are not. We happen to be the ones who want to do the right thing for the sake of the troops and the veterans instead of harming them while claiming "we're on the Right" because they are always wrong when it comes to taking care of them. This comment should prove it once and for all.

*[new] You'd think they would care (0.00 / 0)
I did a huge post yesterday on how many veterans there are in the Senate and House. You'd think these people would really care about all of this going on when they are supposed to be watching out for their "brothers" but they are more interested in their connections to the money instead. The only ones standing up for the veterans and the troops are Democrats and even they are not doing a good enough job.
Vietnam Veterans in the Senate
"#" in front of the name indicates a combat veteran

#Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI)1
U.S. Army 1943-47

Robert Bennett (R-UT)1
National Guard 1957-61

Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)2
Army Reserves 1968-74

#Thomas Carper (D-DEL)3
U.S. Navy 1968-1973
Navy Reserve 1973-1991

Thad Cochran (R-MS)2
U.S. Navy 1959-61

Larry Craig (R-ID)3
National Guard 1970-72

Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT)4
Army Reserve 1969-75

Michael Enzi (R-WY)4
Air National Guard 1967-73

Lindsey Graham (R-SC)5
· U.S. Air Force 1983-1989
National Guard 1989-1994

#Chuck Hagel (R-NE)6
U.S. Army 1967-68

Tom Harkins (D-IA)5
U.S. Navy 1962-67
Navy Reserve 1968-74

James M. Inhofe (R-OK)7
U.S. Army 1954-56

#Daniel Inouye (D-HI)6
Medal Of Honor
U.S. Army 1943-47

Johnny Isakson (R-GA)8
National Guard 1966-1972

Tim Johnson (D-SD)7
U.S. Army 1969-

Edward Kennedy (D-MA)8
U.S. Army 1951-53

#John Robert Kerry (D-MA)9
U.S. Navy 1966-1970

Herb Kohl (D-WI)10
Army Reserve 1958-64

#Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)11
Army 1942-1946

Richard Lugar (R-IN)9
U.S. Navy 1957-60

#John R. McCain (R-AZ)10
U.S. Navy 1958-81
*POW Vietnam 1967-73

Bill Nelson (D-FL)12
U.S. Army 1968-1970

Jack Reed (D-RI)13
U.S. Army 1967-1969

Pat Roberts (R-KS)11
U.S. Marine Corps (1958-62)

Jeff Sessions (R-AL)12
Army Reserves 1973-86

Arlen Specter (R-PA)13
U.S. Air Force 1951-53

#Ted Stevens (R-AK)14
Army Air Corps 1943-46

#John R. Warner (R-VA)15
U.S. Navy 1945-46
Marine Corps 1950-52
Marine Corps Reserves 1952-1964

#Jim Webb (D-VA)14
U.S. Marine Corps 1964-1972
Ass't Sec. of Defense 1984-1987
Secretary of the Navy 1987-1988

Most of the combat veterans in the Senate are Democrats 6 against 4 Republicans and they have 15 veterans to 14 Democrats in the Senate

Vietnam Veterans in the House
"#" in front of the name indicates a combat veteran.

Todd Akin (R-02 Missouri)1
U.S. Army

#Joe Baca (D-43 CA)1
U.S. Army 1966-1968

Spencer Bachus (R-06 AL)2
National Guard 1969-1971

James Barrett (R-03 S.C.)3
Army 1983-1987

Michael Bilirakis (R )4
Air Force 1951-1955

Sanford D. Bishop (D-02 GA)2
U.S. Army 1971

John Boehner (R-08 OH)5
U.S. Navy 1968

#Leonard L. Boswell (D-03 IA)3
U.S. Army 1956-1976

#Allen Boyd, Jr. (D-02 FL)4
U.S. Army 1969-1971

Henry Brown (R-1 SC)6
National Guard 1953-1962

Vern Buchanan (R-13 FL)7
Air National Guard 1970-1976

Dan Burton (R-05 IN)8
U.S. Army 1956-1957
Army Reserves 1957-1962

G.K. Butterfield (D-1 NC)5
Army Reserves 1957-1962
Army 1968-1970

Stephen E. Buyer (R-04 IN)9
U.S. Army 1984-1987, 1990
Army Reserve 1980-1984, 1987-Present

Christopher Carney (D-10PA)6
Naval Reserves 1995 - Present

Howard Coble (R-06 NC)10
Coast Guard 1952-1956, 1977-1978
Coast Guard Reserve 1960-1981

Mike Conway (R-11 TX)11
U.S. Army 1970-1972

John Conyers (D-14 MI)7
National Guard 1948-1950
U.S. Army 1950-1954
Army Reserve 1954-1957

Robert E. Cramer, Jr. (D-05 AL)8
U.S. Army 1972
Army Reserves 1976-1978

Geoff Davis (R-04 KY)12
U.S. Army 1980 -1987

Thomas M. Davis (R-11 VA)13
U.S. Army 1971-1972
Army Reserves 1972-1979

Nathan Deal (R-09 GA)14
U.S. Army 1966-1968

Peter A. DeFazio (D-04 OR)9
U.S. Air Force 1967-1971

William D. Delahunt (D-10 MA)10
Coast Guard Reserve 1963-1971

John D. Dingell (D-16 MI)11
U.S. Army 1945-1946

John F. Duncan, Jr. (R-02 TN)15
Army Reserve 1970-1987

Bob Etheridge (D-02 NC)12
U.S. Army 1965-1967

Terry Everett (R-02 AL)16
U.S. Air Force 1955-1959

#Rodney P. Frelinghuysen (R-11 NJ)17
U.S. Army 1969-1971

#Wayne T. Gilchrest (R-01 MD)18
U.S. Marines 1964-1968

Louie Gohmert (R-01 TX)19
U.S. Army 1977-1982

Charles A. Gonzales (D-20 TX)13
National Guard 1969-1975

Virgil H. Goode, Jr. (R-05 VA)20
National Guard 1969-1975

Bart Gordon (D-6 TN)14
US Army Reserve 1971-72

Phil Hare (D-17IL)15
Army Reserves 1969-1975

Ralph M. Hall (R-04 TX)21
U.S. Navy 1942-1945

Doc Hastings (R-04 WA)22
Army Reserves 1964-1969

Maurice Hinchey (D-22 NY)16
U.S. Navy 1956-59

David L. Hobson (R-07 OH)23
National Guard 1958-1963

#Duncan Hunter (R-52 CA)24
U.S. Army 1969-1971

Darrell Issa (R-49 CA)25
Army 1970-1972, 1976-1980

William J. Jefferson (D-02 LA)17
U.S. Army 1969-1978

#Sam Johnson (R-03 TX)26
U.S. Air Force 1951-1979 (POW)

Walter B. Jones, Jr. (R-03 NC)27
National Guard 1967-1971

Paul E. Kanjorski (D-11 PA)18
U.S. Army 1960-1961

Peter King (R-03 NY)28
National Guard 1968-1973

# Mark Kirk (R-10 IL)29
Navy Reserve 1989-present

#John Kline (R-02 MN)30
USMC 1969-1994

Joseph Knollenberg (R-09 MI)31
Army 1955-1957

Ron Lewis (R-02 KY)32
U.S. Navy 1973

John Linder (R-7 GA)33
US Air Force 1967-69

Edward J. Markey (D-07 MA)19
Army Reserves 1968-1973

#James Marshall (D-3 GA)20
U.S. Army 1968-1970

Jim McDermott (D-07 WA)21
U.S. Navy 1968-1970

Gary Miller (R-42 CA)34
Army 1967-1968

Alan Mollohan (D-01 WV)22
U.S. Army 1970
Army Reserves 1970-1983

Dennis Moore (D-03 KS)23
U.S. Army 1970
Army Reserves 1970-1972

Patrick Murphy (D-08PA)24
Army 1999-2004

#John Murtha (D-12 PA)25
U.S. Marines 1952-1955, 1966-1967
Marines Reserve 1967-1990

Soloman P. Ortiz (D-27 TX)26
U.S. Army 1960-1962

William Pascrell, Jr. (D-08 NJ)27
U.S. Army 1961
Army Reserves 1962-1967

Ron Paul (R-14 TX)35
U.S. Air Force 1963-1965
National Guard 1965-1968

#Steve Pearce (R-2 NM)36
U.S. Air Force 1970-1976

Collin C. Peterson (D-07 MN)28
National Guard 1963-1969

John E. Peterson (R-05 PA)37
U.S. Army 1957
Army Reserves 1958-1963

#Joseph R. Pitts (R-16 PA)38
U.S. Air Force 1963-1969

Ted Poe (R-2 TX)39
Air Force Reserve 1970-1976

Jim Ramstad (R-03 MN)40
Army Reserves 1968-1974

#Charles B. Rangel (D-15 NY)29
U.S. Army 1948-1952

Ralph Regula (R-16 OH)41
U.S. Navy 1944-1946

#Silvestre Reyes (D-16 TX)30
U.S. Army 1966-1968

Thomas Reynolds (R-26 NY)42
National Guard 1970-1976

Harold Rogers (R-05 KY)43
National Guard 1957-1964

Mike Rogers (R-8 MI)44
US Army 1985-89

Bobby Rush (D-01 IL)31
U.S. Army 1963-1968

John Salazar (D-03 CO)32
U.S. Army 1973-1976

Robert C. Scott (D-03 VA)33
Army Reserves 1970-1974
National Guard 1974-1976

Jose E. Serrano (D-16 NY)34
U.S. Army 1964-1966

Joe Sestak(D-07PA)35
U.S. Navy [Admiral] 1970-2006

John Shadegg (R-03AZ)45
National Guard 1969-1975

John Shimkus (R-19 IL)46
U.S. Army 1980-1984
Army Reserves 1987-Present

#Vic Snyder (D-02 AR)36
U.S. Marines 1967-1969

John M. Spratt, Jr. (D-05 SC)37
U.S. Army 1969-1971

Fortney P. Stark (D-13 CA)38
U.S. Air Force 1955-1957

Cliff Stearns (R-06 FL)47
U.S. Air Force 1963-1967

John S. Tanner (D-08 TN)39
U.S. Navy 1968-1972
National Guard 1974-Present

Gene Taylor (D-04 MS)40
Coast Guard Reserve 1971-1984

#Mike Thompson (D-01 CA)41
U.S. Army 1969-1972

Edolphus Towns (D-10 NY)42
U.S. Army 1956-1958

Tim Walz (D-01MI)43
National Guard 1981-2005

Dave Weldon (R-15 FL)48
U.S. Army 1981-1987
Army Reserves 1987-1992

Ed Whitfield (R-01 KY)49
Army Reserve 1967-1970

Roger F. Wicker (R-01 MS)50
U.S. Air Force 1976-1980
Air Force Reserve 1980-Present

Heather A. Wilson (R-01 NM)51
U.S. Air Force 1978-1989
*Only woman veteran in Congress.

Joe Wilson (R-2 SC)52
National Guard 1972-2003

Frank R. Wolf (R-10 VA)53
U.S. Army 1962-1963
Army Reserves 1963-1967

C.W. Bill Young (R-10 FL)54
National Guard 1948-1957

Don Young (R-All AK)55
U.S. Army 1955-1957

9 Democrat combat veterans and 8 Republican combat veterans
while the Republicans have 55 in the House, Democrats have 43.

On the surface this would seem like the Republicans saying of how most in the military are Republicans, this does not seem to support the saying that they are the ones who care more about the troops or the veterans. In other words the men and women who serve, as they did, are shit out of luck when they get into power. The problems with the VA happened and spiraled out of control while they were in charge and addressing the problems instead of ignoring it, happened when the Democrats gained control. All in all, the numbers don't lie.

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation."

- George Washington

This list must have been done before the election in 2006 because there are several changes that are not here. Congressman Tester is not on the list along with a few others. I used it because most of the problems happened while these people were in charge.

Veterans in rural areas of nation suffer needlessly

Kagen testifies on plan to help rural veterans obtain care
Families also could qualify for counseling
Green Bay Press Gazette

By ELLYN FERGUSON

Press-Gazette Washington bureau
WASHINGTON — Rural veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder should get federal help to pay for private care if Veterans Affairs facilities are too far away, U.S. Rep. Steve Kagen testified Thursday.
Under his proposal, veterans who live 30 or more miles from a VA medical facility would have the option of getting more readily accessible care for problems such as combat stress and drug and alcohol abuse. Families also would be able to use federal vouchers for mental health counseling if a health professional concluded it would help in a veteran’s treatment.
Read the full article at greenbaypressgazette.com

All across American, there are empty buildings, Mom and Pop type shops in towns, along with wounded veterans needing to be cared for. The excuse is that the VA hospitals and clinics were built for "need" and they are in the cities with higher populations.

The problem is, the veterans come from these tiny towns, entering into the National Guard, Reserves and military units. They did not make the nation wait for a more convenient time for them to deploy. They went when and were the nation said they were needed to go. So why can't the government do the same for them?

They are no less wounded than others living in the "right area" where care is not too far away from them. They are no less worthy of having their wounds treated than someone living in cities. They are however more neglected than other veterans. In a time when the government is talking about building hospitals and clinics, that they should have been doing six years ago, there is suffering going on right now.

Veterans from across the country have to wait to be diagnosed, wait to be seen, wait to be treated and receive the added burden of having their claims tied up for months, or in most cases years. In the time between a wound being received, a claim filed and compensation granted, there is usually no income for them. They are no longer paid by the Department of Defense and their wounds are no longer treated by them either. They are not approved by the VA for compensation until their claim has been processed. Would you want to have to wait for your disability check because you can't work? Does your mortgage company want to wait or your landlord? Food bills, heat and electricity, gas for transportation do not wait either.

The very least that can be done right now is to use some of the already empty buildings for clinics and veteran's centers. Get them staffed by veterans who are aware of the unique problems veterans have. Stop excusing what has not been done and replace it with what can be done today, not just years from now.

VA Red Flag turned away veteran with tumor

Sick Redmond veteran says he's getting run-around

Jan 24, 2008 10:35 PM EST

VA denies 'red-flagging' means care is denied

By Nina Mehlhaf, KTVZ.COM

A Redmond veteran says he was refused medical treatment at the Bend VA Clinic, red-flagged and now can't get the treatment he needs for advanced cancer.

Now he's pleading with officials to fix the system, while they say he was a disturbance.

Pill bottles in the dozens line the bedside 52-year-old Jeffery Severns sleeps in in his Redmond living room.

The veteran was a combat nurse all over the world and served in Operation Desert Storm.

But cancer has spread into his shoulder, tailbone, spine, ribs and gall bladder.

Last spring, it was his throat that hurt him the most, so he went to the VA Clinic in Bend without an appointment and begged to be seen, but it didn't happen.

"Since [my vocal cords] were paralyzed, there was too much air going in and out," Severns explained Thursday. "I couldn't speak, so I would have to take in huge amounts of air to take in a few words. So they thought I was weird. They thought because I was anxious, because I thought I was going to die, they thought I was a threat."

Severns says he was red-flagged, a process the Department of Veterans Affairs uses when someone is disruptive, threatening or violent.

He says the Bend clinic refused him service, so he got a ride to Portland's VA Medical Center. He says doctors there were ready to help - until they looked at his file and saw the red flag.

He says he was escorted right out of the building and continues to be banned from the Bend office.

It wasn't until a private doctor at a Washington hospital scanned him and found what was wrong. He had a tumor the size of his heart, wrapped around his aorta.
go here for the rest
http://www.ktvz.com/Global/story.asp?S=7771848

Speechless, simply speechless.

Waterboarding caused PTSD in Navy veteran

VA says disability claim rare
Veteran Arthur McCants III says interrogation training caused post-traumatic stress disorder
Friday, January 25, 2008
By GEORGE WERNETH
Staff Reporter
A claim by an Eight Mile man that he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder -- the result of being "waterboarded" during a Navy survival course in 1975 -- is a rare one, according to a Department of Veterans Affairs official in Washington, D.C.

"It's the first case I've encountered personally involving waterboarding," said Arnold Russo, director of the VA's Appeals Management Center. He acknowledged, however, that he had heard of a couple of such cases.

Russo -- whose office had rejected the claim by 60-year-old Arthur McCants III -- said he has been with the VA for 19 years.
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PTSD veterans get ready for shaft again

More must be done for PTSD vets, panel says

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Jan 24, 2008 17:23:00 EST

The head of a commission that spent 2½ years studying veterans’ disability benefits says the government needs to do more for those suffering post-traumatic stress disorder.

Testifying Thursday before the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee about a proposal for a comprehensive treatment, rehabilitation and benefits plan for veterans with PTSD and other mental disorders, the chairman of the Veterans’ Disability Benefits Committee said current benefits could be described as “just paying people with PTSD to go away.”

Retired Army Lt. Gen. James Terry Scott, whose 13-member commission issued its final report late last year, said the government needs a holistic approach that links disability benefits, treatment and vocational training, with an evaluation every two or three years of a veteran’s disability to see if treatment is working.
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http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/01/military_ptsd_080124w/

If they want to know if treatment is working, then that's fine, that is, if their intent is to come up with better treatment, but if it's to try to just get them out of the system, scream!

The newer veterans have a hard enough time with the wound as it is. Between the backlog of claims and appointments lower than needed, what more stress do you think they can endure? For the older veterans, especially Vietnam veterans, you need to know that because of the newer veterans coming into the system and all the problems, the Vietnam veterans are being pushed back to make room. For a veteran who has spent years in treatment on a monthly basis, now being forced to accept once every three months, this is the wrong thing to do to them. It only exacerbates the problem.

What they really need to do is focus on getting the Veterans centers and clinics up and running to get them all into treatment. There have already been cases over the last 30 years where veterans with mild PTSD have recovered enough to go back to work, but that happens when they are treated early. If they are not getting treatment at all, then they are getting worse. PTSD gets worse without treatment so you'd think they would stop screwing around and invest their time into finding out how to get them into treatment instead of trying to figure out how to get them out of it.

They are killing themselves everyday!

Fort Campbell to be first to get such facilities from DoD funding

The DOD and the VA need to get centers open and running across the country now. They need to do what is being done at Fort Campbell. More, they should use the empty buildings across the country and put in Vet's centers to take care of all of them until they have these buildings ready for them. Don't make them wait until we are ready to help them. They didn't make us wait when we sent them to get wounded.

New post clinics to fight dual threat: PTSD, TBI
Fort Campbell to be first to get such facilities from DoD funding
By JAKE LOWARY
The Leaf-Chronicle
Fort Campbell has found itself at the forefront of a different kind of fight — to keep soldiers healthy.

Post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury have vaulted to utmost importance with military officials as more and more soldiers return from deployments with noticeable symptoms of the conditions.
Soldiers with the 101st Airborne Division are no exception, said Maj. Michael McGhee, M.D., chief of neuropsychological services at Fort Campbell.

For that reason, two separate clinics are being built on post to help treat soldiers who have suffered such injuries.

Condition details
About 20 to 25 percent of soldiers who have returned from combat have shown signs of PTSD, McGhee said, noting "a significant problem has been recognized."

"They are clearly having PTSD problems" he said.
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Barack Obama Hosts Roundtable Discussion with South Carolina Veterans

Obama noted that his commitment to veterans is grounded in his experience being raised in part by his grandfather, who served during World War II.

“I will never forget that everyone who wears the uniform deserves the opportunities that my grandfather got – to have a Commander-in-Chief who is accountable, and to have a grateful nation that helps you live the American Dream that you have defended,” Obama said.

January 24, 2008
Barack Obama Hosts Roundtable Discussion with South Carolina Veterans
Filed under: '08 Candidates SC Visits, Barach Obama, Press Release — schotline @ 3:33 pm
Tags: Barack Obama, Discussion, Hosts Roundtable, South Carolina, Veterans

Conversation Focuses on Importance of Judgment and Keeping our Sacred Trust with America’s Veterans
BEAUFORT, SC - Today in Beaufort, South Carolina, U.S. Senator Barack Obama hosted a roundtable discussion with South Carolina veterans about the need for a President that has the judgment to secure our nation and is willing to be held accountable for keeping our sacred trust with those who serve. Senator Obama detailed his comprehensive plan to give all of our veterans the care and support they have earned.
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I do not endorse any candidate yet.