Second Cherokee warrant issued for missing soldier Gary Chronister

Because I've been looking so much for reports on Eric Hill, the missing Marine, another missing soldier came into my mind. There were reports in November and December about Gary Chronister missing as well. I wanted to see if there were any updates. I was surprised with what came up in the search.

Second Cherokee warrant issued for missing soldier
By Erika Neldner
erikaneldner@ledgernews.com

A second arrest warrant has been issued in Cherokee County for a war veteran who has been missing from Macon since November.

Gary Chronister (Right), 33, is accused of molesting two children last year, police say.

The newest accusation was filed with the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office in late January, said Sgt. Jay Baker, sheriff’s office spokesman.

Chronister knew his alleged victim, however, police would not say how old the child is or what relationship he or she had with Chronister.

Police said the allegations are similar to the first complaint filed against the missing war veteran.

In mid-January, the sheriff’s office issued the first arrest warrant on child molestation charges for Chronister.

The victim’s parents filed a police report in September, which said their daughter claimed that Chronister touched her inappropriately at locations in Cobb and Cherokee counties.

Chronister’s mother reported him missing on Nov. 10. He reportedly has a mental illness that causes memory loss and disorientation, according to recent news reports.

Chronister served in the United States Army in Afghanistan and Iraq. He is 6 feet, 1 inch tall and weighs about 250 pounds. Anyone with any information about his whereabouts should call 911.
http://www.ledgernews.com/weeklynews.html

Is this why the stories about him have dried up? Are people still looking for him?

Army Vet Goes Missing, May Be in Cobb
Web Editor: Josh Roseman
Last Modified: 12/29/2007 10:41:48 AM
An army veteran from Bibb County who has been missing since November 10 may have been seen in Cobb County. His mother is organizing a search in the area.

Gary Chronister, 33, served two tours of duty, both in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was taking medication to help with disorientation and memory loss, but it was believed that he stopped taking it after his disappearance.

Chronister is 6-feet-1-inch tall, weighs 250 pounds, wears glasses, and may have a beard.

Chronister's mother, Sheryl Futrell, said her son left his Bibb County apartment on or around November 10, and has not been seen since. His vehicle was later found on November 19 at an Acworth gas station. He may have been seen this week on Stilesboro Road, near the Stilesboro Biscuits Restaurant, between 11 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

Ms. Futrell and other volunteers organized a search for Chronister on December 22, but were unable to find him. Now Futrell and David Litts, a search organizer, have put together a second search for Chronister. The search will begin on Saturday December 29 at 10 a.m., and searchers will gather first at the Kroger shopping center at the corner of Cobb Parkway and Acworth Due West Road.

Any information regarding Chronister's whereabouts should be directed to local police by calling 911. You can also call Sheryl Brim Futrell at (478) 747-9488.
http://www.11alive.com/news/article_news.aspx?storyid=108718

Bush wanted cuts in VA, Akaka wants more money

Sen. committee asks for changes in VA budget

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Feb 25, 2008 19:44:01 EST

A key Senate committee is asking for a $2.6 billion increase in veterans’ spending over the Bush administration’s budget out of concern the needs of combat veterans are not being met.

The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, chaired by Sen. Daniel K. Akaka, D-Hawaii, is asking for a fiscal 2009 budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs that is $6.6 billion over the fiscal 2008 budget, with $4.6 billion of the additional money going for medical care operations.

Akaka said Congress “has an obligation to our troops returning from combat now” that cannot be met without more money. “Taking care of veterans is a cost of war and our recommendation would fill significant gaps in the president’s request,” Akaka said.

The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee is working on a similar budget proposal that it is expected to unveil Thursday.

Akaka’s committee said in a Feb. 22 letter to the Senate Budget Committee that it rejects cuts proposed by the Bush administration in construction, medical research and auditing. The letter also said the committee opposes an initiative to raise prescription drug fees and to impose enrollment fees for some moderate-income veterans enrolled in the VA health plan who do not have service-connected disabilities.

“These proposals are unacceptable,” Akaka said.
go here for the rest
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/02/military_vabudget_022508/

If Bush thinks cutting back on VA funding is supporting the troops, he is crazy! What kind of a man would do such a terrible thing with so many wounded and many, many more to come?

TBI Struggle for Words Frustrates Woodruff

Woodruff interviews U.S. soldiers in Iraq on Jan. 29, 2006, just moments before a roadside bomb went off, ripping into his skull. His head was unprotected, and the explosion almost killed him. Doug Vogt, an ABC cameraman, was also seriously wounded in the blast.

Struggle for Words Frustrates Woodruff
By Christine Dugas,USA Today
Posted: 2008-02-25 15:56:25
Filed Under: Health News
(Feb. 25) -- One year after Bob Woodruff spoke about his brain concussion on an ABC documentary, he is busy flying around the world on assignments and continuing to draw attention to the signature injury of the war in Iraq: traumatic brain injury.

His recovery seems miraculous, considering how the shrapnel from a roadside bomb had ripped into his skull on Jan. 29, 2006. Woodruff, 46, is back at work at ABC news, although he does not have his previous job as a news anchor — at least not yet.

"I don't know if I could do that," he says. "I think it's possible. But one thing that I know for sure is that I'm going to remain as a journalist because I have always loved journalism."

Woodruff now works with a team to produce more in-depth assignments. He can better cope with longer projects because his traumatic brain injury (TBI) caused a language disorder that makes it hard for him to come up with words. And for a journalist, nothing could be more frustrating.

Woodruff continues to improve and often speaks with ease and confidence. But he still occasionally runs into a roadblock in his brain.

In a recent interview at his office, Woodruff described how reading and writing have helped his brain improve. After he got out of the hospital he was not willing to just sit at home, he said, "watching sports on TV all day long with a — what do you call the thing that controls the TV?" He couldn't come up with the term remote control.

Woodruff has a disorder called aphasia. It happens when a stroke or TBI affects the language side of the brain, usually the left side. The National Aphasia Association estimates that 1 million people in the USA have it.
click post title for the rest

Disney Pixie dust deployed to Walter Reed Hospital

Trying Some Disney Attitude to Help Cure Walter ReedBy Steve Vogel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 25, 2008; Page B01

Fifty medical workers -- doctors, nurses, therapists and administrators among them -- sat in a room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center gazing at a slide of Donald Duck on a screen.

The oft-cranky Disney cartoon character, wearing his blue sailor jacket and cap, was in a palpable rage. His webbed feet had lifted off the ground, his beak was gaping, and his white-gloved hands were tightly clutching an old-fashioned two-piece telephone.

"We can clearly see he's frustrated," said Kris Lafferty, a trainer for the Disney Institute who was leading workers at the Northwest Washington hospital last week in a four-hour seminar on customer service. "Why do we think he's frustrated?"

A year after a scandal erupted over the long-term treatment of soldiers at the hospital, the Army has turned to Disney for help. "Service, Disney Style" is newly required for all military and other government employees at Walter Reed.

Lafferty and her fellow Disney trainer, Mike Donnelly, handed out little plastic Goofy and Mickey Mouse figurines as they led Wednesday afternoon's discussion with the workers -- some in uniform, some in scrubs, some in civilian clothes.

Various theories were offered for Donald Duck's ire: He was getting the run-around. He could not get a question answered. He was flummoxed by his antique phone.

The lesson: Poor service equals frustration.

At the tables, heads nodded in agreement. It's a familiar story at Walter Reed, where wounded soldiers and their families often confront a numbing bureaucracy.

The Army is paying Disney $800,000 to help revamp attitudes at the hospital.
click post title for the rest

What kind of a stunt is this and how bad could it have been they had to hire Disney to train them on how to treat people?

"It sounds a little odd, but it's true," said Rear Adm. John Mateczun, commander of a joint task force overseeing military medicine in the Washington region.

So why didn't they just ask the people who run Fisher House how to treat the wounded better?

Col. Patricia D. Horoho, commander of the Walter Reed health-care system, said the goal is to change the culture there. "When you enter the hospital, we want it to be the best experience possible," she said. "Disney fits that.

The goal is to change the culture there? Are they serious? Can they have treated wounded veterans that badly they needed this for real?

Up until now I thought the problems at Walter Reed had more to do with being under funded. A lot of the problems came when Walter Reed was on the block to be shut down. As stupid as that was, that was the excuse behind the deplorable conditions there. Now I'm wondering how bad the attitude of the staff was toward the wounded they would need to pay out $800,000 to fix it?

If the DOD really wanted to change attitudes they need to begin with the units these wounded come from first. TBI and PTSD are still regarded as something to be ashamed of. Considering they used a cartoon to try to communicate the seriousness of PTSD while providing absolutely nothing substantial, they really should have hired Disney to provide a better one. If they are serious about changing attitudes then they should seek out the real professionals who have been taking care of the wounded with privately funded places like Fisher House. Needless to remind people that Fisher House wouldn't have to be there if the DOD and the VA had their own acts together to do it right in the first place.

Excuse me if this report makes me furious but considering when I read the title I thought it was about coming out with entertainment for the wounded instead of a training session on how to treat the wounded better. You would have thought they would have already known how to do that.

Justice Department Finds Veterans' Rights Violated in Tennessee

News: Justice Department Finds Veterans' Rights Violated
Posted on February 25, 2008 by editor

Tennessee has failed to care for its veterans and even contributed to some of their deaths

The federal government could be a step closer to suing the state of Tennessee. It all stems from problems at the Tennessee State Veterans Homes.

A NewsChannel 5 investigation first exposed problems at the state-run nursing homes.

And soon after, the U.S. Department of Justice opened its own investigation.

Investigative reporter Jennifer Kraus got a copy of the Justice Department's final report, which was just delivered to Gov. Phil Bredesen. It's filled with examples of how federal inspectors say the state has failed to care for its veterans and even contributed to some of their deaths.

The U.S. Justice Department lays it all out in its 43-page report, and it's not pretty...
go here for the rest
http://www.veteranstoday.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2884

150 Fort Bliss Warrior Transition Wounded to join 4,000 in parade

Parade marks return of Fort Bliss units from Iraq
By Chris Roberts / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 02/25/2008 12:00:00 AM MST

When Mayor John Cook returned from the Vietnam War in early 1970, one of the protesters who greeted his bus pelted him with an egg.

"I just wanted to do a better job," Cook said, explaining why he decided to welcome Fort Bliss soldiers home from overseas with a parade. "The entire El Paso community has really stepped up to the plate and people have said that the (4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division) is symbolic of all the soldiers that have served."

On Wednesday, when thousands of 4-1 Cavalry soldiers march through El Paso's streets during the Welcome Home Heroes Parade, they will be accompanied by 31 riderless horses -- empty boots backward in the stirrups -- representing cavalry soldiers who lost their lives in Iraq. The horses are being provided by the El Paso County Sheriff's Posse, Cook said.

Also being honored are the air defenders of the 3rd Battalion, 43rd Air Defense Artillery, 11th ADA Brigade, who also returned recently from the Middle East.

Most of the cavalry brigade was operating in Iraq's northwestern Nineveh Province. However, some of the soldiers also served in Baghdad. They left in late 2006 and, after 14 months, the last soldiers returned the day before Christmas. Some 150 wounded soldiers in the Fort Bliss Warrior Transition Unit also will participate in the parade.

The 3-43 ADA soldiers recently completed the longest tour of duty for a Patriot missile unit in the Army's history. Some of the air defenders spent 17 months in the Middle


East, including the countries of Kuwait and Qatar. The 3-43 ADA soldiers suffered no loss of life or serious injuries.

Details of the 3-43 ADA's mission have not been available due to the sensitivity of that information, but Patriot batteries generally protect ground assets that include troop concentrations, headquarters, motor pools and ammunition depots. Their deployment was moved up to coincide with President Bush's surge of troops into Baghdad.

About 4,000 soldiers will participate in the parade.

Col. Stephen M. Twitty, 4-1 Cavalry commander and Command Sgt. Maj. Stephan Frennier will lead the cavalry soldiers.
go here for the rest
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_8354981

Thousands of veterans lose health benefits because of paperwork errors

Thousands of veterans lose health benefits because of paperwork errors

Correcting mistakes in discharge documents can be a bureaucratic nightmare

By Lou Michel NEWS STAFF REPORTER



Christopher M. Simmance helped keep the peace as an American soldier in the Middle East, but when he returned home and later suffered a breakdown, he was turned away from the VA hospital because the government didn’t acknowledge his overseas duty.

Dana Cushing as a Marine served two tours of duty in Iraq and a third in east Africa, but when she returned home, she found herself labeled a “conscientious objector” and also was denied medical care by the government.

Simmance is one local veteran among roughly 2,000 across the country trying to get corrected incomplete or inadequate discharge papers. Cushing only recently got hers corrected after trying for a year. The result is that many now face a bureaucratic nightmare that prevents them from getting the health benefits they are entitled to receive.


The Army alone has a backlog of 1,890 veterans seeking corrections on their discharge papers, and some have been waiting for three years, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. Many other veterans probably have faulty discharge papers but don’t know it because they have not sought benefits.

Efforts are being made to speed up the corrections on faulty discharge papers, Army officials said.

But it can’t come quick enough for Simmance, the City of Tonawanda Army veteran who ended up broke and homeless late last year after he suffered service-related psychological problems and was unable to get help because of his faulty discharge paper.
go here for the rest
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfFEB08/nf022508-3.htm

Sadly it's still happening. During Vietnam, they had the excuse of typed errors. My husband came home in 1971 with a Bronze Star Award. It had an error in his social security number. There were several documents he was given with the wrong number typed in. Most of the time they were not important documents but other times they were very important. Because his MOS had him listed as a clerk, his claim depended on the Bronze Star Award. With the wrong number on it and showing up as standing out on his DD214, it came into being questioned. While we were fighting the VA to have his claim approved, we lost our tax refunds and he felt as if he had a knife in his back because the VA doctor told him he needed the VA to treat him at the same time they were making him pay for it. Our private health insurance company would no longer cover mental health with private doctors because the VA doctor linked it to Vietnam. Once the award and orders were corrected, his claim was approved soon after.

The problem is that between the time he received it and the time they fixed it, he went through hell. I lost count how many people reminded us that once his claim was approved, we would get back the money they received along with retroactive pay, but they didn't tell us how to pay our bills while all of this was going on. This is also one of the biggest reasons I try to support the homeless veterans shelters as much as possible. He almost ended up homeless and I almost ended up living back home with my Mom with our daughter. Yes, it got that bad. We managed to make three forbearance agreements with the mortgage company in the six years we fought them. That saved our house from foreclosure.

If you have someone in the military right now, make sure they have all their paper work and keep it in a safe place. Make sure all the forms have the right social security number on it and if it doesn't make sure they fix it and hand back a corrected form. With computers, it shouldn't be that hard to do. Make sure they hang onto every document they are given and toss nothing out. You cannot trust that the DOD will keep every record and have them all right. There is human error. Don't go through what Vietnam veterans did. You cannot assume it will all work out fine.

DoD: Hot line calls rise 40 percent every year

DoD: Hot line calls rise 40 percent every year

By Gregg Zoroya - USA Today
Posted : Monday Feb 25, 2008 15:13:19 EST

Rows of hot line operators with muted voices mask the desperation of incoming calls on a recent afternoon: a soldier back from Iraq with a drinking problem and a broken marriage; an Army recruiter in the throes of depression; a Marine in Iraq eager to reach his wife after the birth of his son.

This warren of cubicles in a suburban Philadelphia office building — with two other call centers in Arlington, Va., and St. Petersburg, Fla. — are the Pentagon’s front line for fighting the strain of war.

A few years ago, Military OneSource consultants found a temporary home for a 15-foot pet boa constrictor while its owner, an Army National Guard soldier, went to Iraq. In 2005, U.S. military doctors at a combat hospital in Iraq used the hot line to find a translator who could help treat, by telephone conference call, a wounded Nepalese soldier.

But the calls that send consultants to the “serenity room” here to chill out, or to take a walk around the building, are pleas for help from war-weary troops or their relatives.

“There’s a lot of stress [for] a lot of service members who are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Amy DiMalanta, 34, who answers calls. “They’re having a lot of issues they’re facing at home like reintegration [with their family] or just the stress of, ‘Am I going to go back [to war]?’” she said. “A lot of them emphasize that they have a hard time sleeping ... having nightmares or they’re thinking that, ‘Oh, I’m still in Iraq,’ or ‘I’m thinking I’m going to hear a bomb go off.’”
go here for the rest
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02/gns_250208_hotline/

Buried under backlogs

Buried under backlogs
By GREGG CARLSTROM
February 25, 2008
More than 400,000 veterans are awaiting decisions on disability claims they filed with the Veterans Affairs Department, and roughly one-quarter of those have waited more than half a year.
Social Security Administration staffs are grappling with more than 600,000 disability claims.
Regional service centers at the Homeland Security Department’s Citizenship and Immigration Services are buried under more than 1 million citizenship applications.
And the Food and Drug Administration is more than a decade from inspecting every foreign pharmaceutical plant it is obliged by law to inspect.
Poor planning by agency leaders and underfunding by Congress created these debilitating backlogs that may take years to resolve, according to federal officials, legislators and watchdog groups.
At the start of the Bush administration in 2001, VA had more than 400,000 pending claims for disability ratings, which determine a service-disabled veteran’s employability and disability benefits. The department made progress reducing that number: By 2003, the backlog was down to around 250,000.
But then the nation went to war.
“VA was kind of cruising right along with a certain volume of claims until the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Then the volume of claims increased,” said Belinda Finn, VA’s assistant inspector general for auditing. “We still had the same processes for handling a lower workload, and the system just hasn’t been able to handle the increase in claims.”
And so the backlog started creeping up. By 2008, VA once again has more than 400,000 pending claims for a disability rating. About 25 percent of those are officially considered backlogged, meaning they have been pending longer than six months.
“The number of claims that we receive each year has been going up pretty steadily,” said Michael Walcoff, VA’s associate deputy undersecretary for field operations. “In 2000, we got 578,000 claims, and last year got 838,000. That’s a pretty significant increase, and certainly some of that can be attributed to the soldiers coming back from [the wars].”
go here for the rest
http://federaltimes.com/index.php?S=3387368

It's a great article but he's only half right on the backlog of claims numbers.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

VA claim backlog at 816,211 but IT cut back? WTF
Vets' groups urge IT budget boost for benefits processingBy Bob Brewin bbrewin@govexec.com February 13, 2008 Veterans' services organizations have urged Congress to provide a sharp increase in the information technology budget of the agency that handles their compensation and pension claims.The fiscal 2009 IT budget request for the Veterans Benefits Administration is about 18 percent less than the fiscal 2008 proposal. The overall IT budget for the Veterans Affairs Department, VBA's parent agency, jumped 18 percent in President Bush's latest request.VBA's pending compensation and claims backlog stood at 816,211 as of January 2008, up 188,781 since 2004, said Kerry Baker, associate legislative director of the Disabled Veterans of America, during a Wednesday hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.

Franklin PA Countians seek to help veterans

Franklin Countians seek to help veterans
By VICKY TAYLOR Staff writer

Fred Bucci, retired Army, folds the flag with his son Staff Sgt. Michael Bucci at the group of local veterans are looking for a few good men -- and women, businesses and organizations -- to help them start and run an outreach program for area soldiers and their families.

The Franklin County Military Outreach Program will be designed to help military members, their spouse, children and parents.

"It will be the first of its kind in our area," said Fred Bucci, one of the veteran organizers.

The goal is to support military members and their families in any situation they may face, according to Bucci and fellow organizers Gary J. Stopyra and Bobby Rideout.

"Our organization needs to be so diverse that it's infrastructure can handle any situation that arises, whether it is just to answer a simple question, help a returning wounded soldier with their Veterans Association paperwork or provide moral, financial or any other kind of support for any crisis our military families face," Bucci said.

Bucci knows how difficult it can be for family members when a soldier is wounded or he and his family face personal crisis.

In 2003, the Bucci's son, Michael, was evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center because of a blood-borne disease he contracted during his initial tour in Iraq. In 2006, Michael lost a son who lived only two weeks following a complicated birth.

"At no point was there anyone from the Army to assist us through these most trying times," Bucci said. "I want to make sure that never happens to another of our military families."
go here for the rest
http://www.publicopiniononline.com/localnews/ci_8355069

This needs to happen all over the country. We have a nation filled with advocates just waiting for someone to ask us to help. Put the word out and we'll be there.