Our names are on that great wall

There are times when I just take in all I read, feeling adding something is not necessary or I am just feeling too hopeless to post my two cents. This is not one of those times. When you read the following, know this was like a conversation I had today with a Vietnam veteran talking about coming home and being treated like a criminal. Actually it was worse than being treated like a criminal because they had an easier time finding work out of jail than a soldier did out of the military. It is also true the VFW wanted nothing to do with them, but none of the other groups wanted them on top of that. Families and friends didn't want to hear anything other than some morbid curiosity questions. We know how bad they had it but we dismiss how bad they still have it after all these years.

Words hurt but actions can help remove the pain careless words create. We had the chance when in the late 80's and 90's monuments went up and the Vietnam veterans were invited to participate in parades. We had the chance but when they had to fight tooth and nail for everything the VA granted them, it seemed society was still trying to take away from them. This happened after the Gulf War when they were greeted with cheers, yellow ribbons on the doors of businesses and ceremonies from coast to coast. We realized more than ever how we mistreated the Vietnam veterans. We were not about to repeat the same mistakes but as for making things up to them, well, let's just say it was not the top priority of this country.

Now we are repeating the same mistakes all over again. We want to do the right things for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans but we seem to be pushing them to the front of the line while Vietnam veterans are pushed back. Why can't we ever manage to get it right once and for all for all our veterans at the same time?

“The real shame isn’t on the VFW wall,” he said. “The real shame is that a veteran has to fight to get medical care that he was rightfully promised.”

‘Our names are on that great wall.’
Kelsey Palmer
Jacksonville Progress

JACKSONVILLE — After 40 years of silence, two Vietnam veterans decided to come clean about their experiences as servicemen both on and off duty and the many struggles they faced after returning home.

Brothers and native Jacksonville citizens Dale and Larry Walker first approached the Progress staff with their story after seeing a letter to the editor in the Sunday, Feb. 14 issue of the newspaper titled “VFW Wall of Shame?”

“This letter suggests that some of the names of soldiers listed on the map of Vietnam in the VFW entrance didn’t fight in the Vietnam War,” Larry said. “I have no way of knowing of names on that wall that didn’t serve, but I know that all of us (Dale, my three other brothers, and I) honorably served the United States in that war, and I’m proud to say our names are all on that great wall.”

Larry, who served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, said the general mistrust of the military during the time the Vietnam War was fought caused a great deal of shame for both him and Dale.
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Our names are on that great wall

For disabled vet, no place like new home

For disabled vet, no place like new home
By Sydney Lupkin
Sunday, February 28, 2010

In his worst nightmares Staff Sgt. Michael Downing never imagined he would become a double-amputee while fighting in Afghanistan. But in his wildest dreams he never thought hundreds of people would pack his Middleboro garage, ask to shake his hand and give him the keys to a brand-new home.

“I’m still in awe of the whole thing,” Downing said, as crowds surrounded him yesterday.

Homes for Our Troops hosted a key ceremony for Downing yesterday to give him the specially adapted home they built with volunteers - too many to count, according to general contractor Dominic Falconeiri.


“Probably more than half the people here I don’t even know,” said a stunned Downing.
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For disabled vet, no place like new home

Vietnam Vet Inspires Crowds

Vietnam Vet Inspires Crowds
contact Lauren Kalberer
Feb 27 2010 11:07PM
KXMBTV Bismarck
So often our soldiers carry their scars with them... whether on the inside or the outside.

This weekend, a Vietnam vet is showing his scars... to help others.

This is Dave Roever...

He is a Navy special forces veteran who was injured in 1969... after a hand grenade blew off next to his head.

Today he travels around the country and the world... to speak to all kinds of audiences... and hopefully inspire them.

He says after his injury, someone helped him... and he forever wants to pass on that gift of hope.

After 14 months in a hospital... He knows how injured soldiers feel... and wants them to know they don't have to feel alone...
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Vietnam Vet Inspires Crowds

Tens of thousands of veterans are falling through Voc Rehab's cracks

Video Wounded Soldiers' Homefront Battle
More than 41,000 U.S. servicemen and women have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. Wyatt Andrews reports that for some of these soldiers job training is tough to come by.

Notebook: Reporting on Disabled Vets
Wyatt Andrews and Jill Rosenbaum Describe How They Found Problems Within in a Key VA Program for Wounded Veterans
(CBS) By Wyatt Andrews, correspondent and Jill Rosenbaum, producer

After eight years of war, you might think the system for delivering benefits to America's most disabled war veterans would be well organized, efficient and as caring as possible. It's not.

A two-month CBS News investigation of the Department of Veteran's Affairs' (VA) most important benefit program helping disabled vets return to work, a benefit most vets call "Voc Rehab," revealed a program which is beset with contracting and staffing problems -- which often throws needless roadblocks in front of eligible veterans, and which either tolerates or can't prevent wrongful benefit denials for some of the nation's most deserving former warriors.

And because Voc Rehab benefits are only available to disabled veterans, many of whom have already waited years, but finally received a VA disability rating, a wrongful denial coming from Voc Rehab causes an added level of bitterness and sense of betrayal.

The VA does provide Voc Rehab services and training to tens of thousands of veterans every year, but has also consistently been criticized by federal watchdogs and Congress for not tracking the program's true failure rate. The last GAO report on this point, from January of 2009, said Voc Rehab was only successful in its mission 68 percent of the time. And while generally, rehabilitation and training services are difficult to provide to veterans with medical problems or increasingly PTSD -- and are not expected to approach a 100 percent success rate-- the 68 percent figure, given the war-caused spike in applications, means that tens of thousands of veterans are falling through Voc Rehab's cracks. (Source: GAO Report: VA Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment, pages 2, 25)

• Two time Army veteran Jeremy Smith (he joined, left and rejoined after 9/11) is a former Army medic whose spinal cord was injured by a grenade in Afghanistan, as Jeremy raced to treat his fellow soldiers under fire. Jeremy, who is wheelchair bound, says he was turned away by a VA benefits counselor, who falsely claimed Jeremy wasn't disabled enough to qualify.

• Former Marine Sergeant Kenny Lyon's rescue from a battlefield in Iraq and subsequent recovery from the loss of much of his left leg was the subject of a profile on "60 Minutes." Kenny says on his first day of classes at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania last year, a VA counselor called to deny the Voc Rehab tuition benefits Kenny long thought had been approved. On his first day of class, in other words, he was being asked to turn around and find another college.

• Former Army Lt. Greg Modica was wrongly told by his Voc Rehab counselor the VA would not allow disabled vets to attend flight school. After Greg presented notes of this conversation to the office of Arkansas Rep. Mike Ross (D), the congressman demanded an accounting. Within days, the VA's Little Rock office quickly changed gears, approved Greg for flight school and transferred his case file to a higher level counselor. But during that first conversation, the Little Rock counselor, who is white, told Greg, who is African American, that while flight school was out of the question, Greg could always take his plea for help to Oprah.

• Former Marine Cpl. Brandon Frazier is a veteran of the sustained 2004 Marine assault in Fallujah. Brandon has enough hearing loss and PTSD to meet Voc Rehab's disability requirements, but was falsely told by a VA counselor that Voc Rehab benefits do not cover college level pre law. They do. And since the time of Brandon's improper denial, he's borrowed $40,000 to pay for college himself.

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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/26/eveningnews/main6248242.shtml

PTSD:When you fear dreaming

eric s blog

PTSD:When you fear dreaming
by
Chaplain Kathie


Most people can't wait for the end of the day when they hop into bed to get some much needed rest. After a long day of dealing with doing everything necessary to survive along with family, friends, coworkers and total strangers with attitude problems, it is a safe place where we can all focus on ourselves drifting off to sleep. Clean sheets, cool to the touch, perfect pillows to rest our heads on, cuddly PJs and all is ready to allow our dreams to take us away.

Our minds take us to where we want to be in life. We are free to say what we wanted to say to the jerk after we ended up hurt. We can even envision karma taking revenge for our sake. All is well with the world.

There are others fearing the end of the day when they have to yet again reawaken what haunts them.

A Nightmare on Elm Street - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1984 American horror film directed and written by Wes Craven

Freddie, on his best day, couldn't scar the crap out of anyone as much as living after combat can. Even for the toughest, self-centered gung-ho type, they cannot escape all of it. They have just managed to convince themselves that all that matters is them in this world. For the rest, there are nightmares on every street.

Going to sleep is not something they want to face because they know how the night will end once more. They will fall asleep sooner or later but then comes the war all over again. Images so real they can feel as if they just entered into a portal. They can hear the sounds all over again in stereo, just as when it happened for real. They can feel heat on their skin. They can smell it. They can taste it. Their hearts race. Their muscles tighten on the adrenaline rush. They know when the nightmare comes, the time travel begins and the ghosts that sleep during the day have awakened.

During the day when the ghosts wake up from a nap, they are able to come out of the flashback with other people and things going on around them. While the flashbacks operate under the same controls, they are not alone as they are in their dreams and not as vulnerable to being attacked.

Alone in the night in their dreams, they see their friends and hear their screams. They hear the screams of strangers and of their enemies. They can hear the gunfire, smell the power and see the blood. What is happening in their dreams is often more violent than what they experienced because in their dreams, they are the target of death.

We can give them all the pills available to help them to go to sleep but their minds fight against them knowing full well what cannot be controlled when the ghosts take over. Their bodies want to surrender seeking rest but in order to obtain it, the price their minds pay is a high one.

As bad as it is for the veteran back in the "normal" world of their communities and homes, there are others still facing the same horrors of combat 24-7. They are the untold numbers of troops redeployed with PTSD and an arsenal of medications to help them sleep, help them wake up and help them function as a machine. These PTSD forces do not rest for the entire deployment. They are on constant high alert and dread the night. Exhaustion takes over and it all begins again.

No one knows how many die in their sleep attributed to "natural causes" but occur because of un-natural revenge of PTSD. There have been no studies counting the number of PTSD medicated dying in their sleep but there have been many reports of them surfacing when families talk about the loss. While physicians have disclosed a connection between heart related problems and PTSD, the connection has not been fully investigated.

Once home, they then have to cope with the flashbacks, nightmares and prospect of being redeployed. They have to cope with the way they act out their fight against what haunts them as their families fall apart, they pull away from them at the same time they need them and they do whatever they can to hide what they cannot control.

For Vietnam veterans, the few who escaped full blown PTSD, they still run from ghosts of their past. For others they are still waiting for the day when they "get over it" and they try everything possible to obtain it.

The end of nightmares come when the veteran is in control as a person. This takes great effort but with the right kind of help, they can lessen the brute force of the nightmare. They can heal during the day and in doing so, they can put Freddie back into the horror movie category instead of the living hell he awakens. Giving them medication only but not addressing the cause of PTSD weakens them and short changes them. The practice of medicating the warrior without healing their spirit has to end. Without addressing the fact PTSD is an attack against the emotions, they will not heal, they will not deal, they will just find it all masked.


This will keep coming back until they are helped to heal.

CREW lawsuit:VA Underreported Number of PTSD Cases

Why should this be addressed? Because behind the news, advocates know we are already at the point of no return. We talk about the numbers of OIF and OEF veterans in the hundreds of thousands, fast approaching the million mark but that is nothing new. We've been warning about this since the first set of boots hit Afghanistan sand and then began to scream even louder when they were being sent to Iraq. Troops were enlisted. The contractors were drying the ink on their contracts. Congress was approving war funds. Everyone was gearing up except the support system to take care of the warriors themselves. Less doctors and nurses were working for the VA than after the Gulf War. Was this anyway for a "grateful nation" that "supports the troops" to run a war?

CREW Files Lawsuit, Alleges the VA Underreported Number of PTSD Cases
Friday 26 February 2010

by: Mary Susan Littlepage, t r u t h o u t Report

The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a lawsuit against the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) after the VA admitted to destroying documents responding to CREW's May 2008 Freedom of Information (FOIA) request. CREW's FOIA request called for documents related to the VA's policy of underdiagnosing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
CREW learned of the underdiagnosing of PTSD after learning of an email in which VA employee Norma Perez discussed the policy. According to CREW, the VA has resisted providing any documents; it stated that the VA claimed it had produced everything it had, even though it hasn't turned over the Perez email or any other records referring to the email.

Therefore, CREW has argued that the VA's search for documents has been inadequate, and the VA has argued that it destroyed in 2008 many emails and backup tapes, which included the Perez email. The VA has contended that it cannot produce any emails before December 9, 2008.

Anne Weismann, CREW's chief counsel, said, "There appears to be - and I don't know this for certain - a growing recognition on the part of the VA that there has been an under-diagnosis [of PTSD] and there seems to be a growing a recognition that they have a problem with high suicide rates. Obviously recognizing there is a problem is the first step toward curing it, but that's why the actions of the VA here in destroying emails is so disturbing."

The military has agreed to expedite these reviews in response to a class action lawsuit filed by seven combat veterans, who allege that the military illegally denied benefits to those discharged because of PTSD over a six-year period that ended October 14, 2008. "It is clear from these news reports that during the period 2002 to 2008 - a period covered by CREW's FOIA request - there was a widespread under-diagnosis of PTSD among U.S. military service personnel affecting thousands of discharged veterans," the brief stated.

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VA Underreported Number of PTSD Cases

Sen. Jim Bunning prevented unemployment extension for over a million laid off workers

Jobless benefits start ending on Sunday
By Tami Luhby, senior writer
February 26, 2010: 3:55 PM ET


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Depending on extended unemployment benefits to see you through the Great Recession?

You'd better not: The Senate failed to push back the Feb. 28 deadline to apply for this safety net.


Starting Monday, the jobless will no longer be able to apply for federal unemployment benefits or the COBRA health insurance subsidy.

Federal unemployment benefits kick in after the basic state-funded 26 weeks of coverage expire. During the downturn, Congress has approved up to an additional 73 weeks, which it funds.

These federal benefit weeks are divided into tiers, and the jobless must apply each time they move into a new tier.

Because the Senate did not act, the jobless will now stop getting checks once they run out of their state benefits or current tier of federal benefits.

That could be devastating to the unemployed who were counting on that income. In total, more than one million people could stop getting checks next month, with nearly 5 million running out of benefits by June, according to the National Unemployment Law Project.

Lawmakers repeatedly tried to approve a 30-day extension this week, but each time, Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., prevented the $10 billion measure from passing, saying it needs to be paid for first.
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http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/26/news/economy/unemployment_insurance/?hpt=T2

DOD to allow Facebook and Twitter access to troops

DoD opens access to social media sites

By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Feb 26, 2010 14:54:36 EST

All users of unclassified computers in the .mil domain now will be allowed to access social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter — subject to local control if bandwidth demand or Web integrity become issues.

The announcement reverses a nearly three-year ban on access to bandwidth-heavy sites such as MySpace, and the Marine Corps’ August ban on access to social network sites, the Pentagon said Friday.

The open-access policy will rely largely on the responsible use by troops, much as they practice operational security in other means of communication, such as telephone conversations and letters. It is also a reflection of “increased security measures” the Defense Department has taken, said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/02/military_socialmedia_022610w/

Special Ed teacher killed in school parking lot

Teacher shot, killed in Tacoma; suspect slain

TACOMA -- A teacher was shot and killed at Birney Elementary School early Friday by a man who police said was "infatuated with her," and the suspect was later killed in a shootout with police.

The suspect was arrested a week ago for violating an order to keep away from the teacher. He made bail Monday.

Witnesses said the teacher was shot during a confrontation in the school parking lot at 1202 S. 76th Street about 7:30 a.m., which was before students arrived for the day.

The victim's father, who arrived at the school after the shooting, identified her as 30-year-old Jennifer Paulson.

"We want you to know she was a very kind, merciful loving person," Ken Paulson said. "That's probably why she was a special-ed teacher because she loved so much.
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http://www.seattlepi.com/local/415930_teacher26.html
linked from RawStory

VA Announces $41 Million in Construction Contracts for San Antonio

VA Announces $41 Million in Construction Contracts for San Antonio
State-of-Art "Polytrauma Center" Funded

WASHINGTON (Feb. 26, 2010) - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
announced the award of two contracts totaling $41.5 million to create a
"polytrauma center" that cares for the most severely injured Veterans
and to improve the existing wards at the Audie L. Murphy VA Medical
Center.

"A top priority for VA is providing greater access to VA's health care
system and higher quality of care for the nation's Veterans," Secretary
of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki said. "America's Veterans have
earned the very best that this nation as to offer."

One contract announced by Secretary Shinseki provides $37.2 million to
Robins and Morton of Birmingham, Ala. The contract calls for
construction of a three-story, 84,000-square foot "polytrauma center."
It would include physical medicine, rehabilitation services, prosthetics
service and research.

"Polytrauma" refers to health care for Veterans who have more than one
severe, life-threatening medical problem. Many of VA's polytrauma
patients are recent combat Veterans injured by roadside bombs and other
explosives in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A second contract, valued at $4.3 million, went to Strategic
Perspectives Development of San Antonio. It provides for upgrades and
expansion to ward 4-A, including electrical work, utilities, fire alarm
and fire protection systems, telephone and data systems, and asbestos
abatement.

Last year, VA spent more than $7.8 billion in Texas on behalf of the
state's 1.7 million Veterans. VA operates 11 major medical centers in
the state, more than 40 outpatient clinics, 14 Vet Centers and six
national cemeteries.