Senator Nelson takes on fight for Iraq Vet facing deportation

Jacksonville Iraq War Veteran Faces Deportation
11:33 PM, Jun 29, 2011

Written by
Lewis Turner

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Just last year Elisha Dawkins was getting pinned, having just graduated from the FSCJ school of nursing. His plan was to take the boards after he returned from his deployment to Guantanamo Bay.

That plan changed, though, when he was arrested upon his return in April. Immigration officials said there was a problem with Dawkins' passport paperwork. They said he checked the box stating he never applied for a passport before, when in fact he had.

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Jacksonville Iraq War Veteran Faces Deportation

From the New York Times

Iraq Veteran Offered Deal in Passport Violation Case
By SUSANNAH NESMITH
Published: June 28, 2011

MIAMI — The federal government on Tuesday took the unusual step of offering to drop a passport violation prosecution of a Navy petty officer if he completed a term of probation.

Even if he is able to resolve the criminal case, the petty officer, Elisha L. Dawkins, 26, is facing deportation based on an order issued in 1992, when he was 8 years old, his lawyer said.

Petty Officer Dawkins was brought to the United States from the Bahamas as a baby and was raised in Miami believing he was a United States citizen, said his lawyer, Clark Mervis.

In March, while he was on active duty at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Petty Officer Dawkins was indicted on a charge of making a false statement on a 2006 passport application. The statement, according to prosecutors, was that he had never applied for a passport before, when he had actually abandoned an application he filled out the year before.

Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga of Federal District Court noted the unusual nature of the prosecutors’ offer, saying she had seen the government use the pretrial diversion program only twice before in her eight years on the bench.

“I’m almost speechless,” the judge said. “It’s a kinder, gentler day over there. It happens so infrequently.”
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Iraq Veteran Offered Deal in Passport Violation Case

also
Iraq Veteran locked up for not being a citizen

71 year old veteran faced off with SWAT at VA hospital

Flash grenade ends standoff at VA office
A 71-year-old veteran from Creswell is taken to the hospital after a SWAT team defuses a tense confrontation

BY JACK MORAN
The Register-Guard
A Eugene police SWAT team on Wednesday used a percussion grenade to end a standoff with a military veteran who allegedly threatened to shoot a local Veterans Affairs clinic manager and later pointed a shotgun at a federal police officer who works at the facility.

Eugene police took 71-year-old Milan Jackie Boon into custody following the standoff, which ended shortly after noon in the parking lot of the VA clinic at 100 River Ave.

Boon, a Creswell resident, was cited on charges of menacing, pointing a firearm at another person, unlawful use of a firearm and disorderly conduct. He was not jailed, police said.

Though Boon had blood on his face when he was loaded into an ambulance, he did not suffer serious injuries in the incident, police Lt. Doug Mozan said.

According to police and a VA spokeswoman, an employee of the clinic notified police at 11:24 a.m. that an agitated veteran had arrived there a short time earlier.

The man complained about what he perceived as subpar service, then allegedly told the clinic’s operations manager that he would shoot her with a shotgun. Police later recovered the weapon from Boon’s Plymouth minivan, which he had parked in a handicapped spot in the clinic’s front lot.

“He was upset,” VA spokeswoman Sharon Carlson said. “We can’t determine exactly why. When he came in, he stated that the (clinic) staff wasn’t doing anything.”

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Flash grenade ends standoff at VA office

Iraqi Vet Says Tuesday Saved His Life

Iraqi Vet Says Tuesday Saved His Life
A man and a dog named Tuesday brought a message of salvation to Miami
By Christina Hernandez
Tuesday, Jun 28, 2011
A dog can be a man's best friend and for one war veteran, his dog named Tuesday, saved his life.

The pooch had such an impact on Luis Montalvan's life, that he wrote a book about it and brought it to Miami.

Montalvan and his golden retriever with the odd first name have been inseparable for more than two years. Montalvan got the service dog in 2008 after serving two tours in Iraq.

Montalvan was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and a doctor suggested a four-legged companion might be the perfect prescription.

He said Tuesday is a gift from God - bringing back ambition the former U.S. Army captain lost fighting over seas.

"I needed support and the fact that there were highly trained, loving dogs there to help mitigate these disabilities was a godsend," Montalvan said at a book signing at Books and Books in Coral Gables
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Iraqi Vet Says Tuesday Saved His Life

ORLANDO VA MEDICAL CENTER for 90,000 veterans

ORLANDO VA MEDICAL CENTER: For Those Who Served
June 28, 2011 · By ANN STRAUB

The Orlando VA Medical Center, serving an area of nearly 90,000 veteran patients in Central Florida, is one of seven members of the VISN 8 Healthcare System.

The Orlando VA Medical Center includes the Orlando VA Medical Center, the Community Living Center, the Residential Rehabilitation Program, the Viera Outpatient Clinic, the Daytona Outpatient Clinic, and four Community Based Outpatient Clinics located in Clermont, Kissimmee, Leesburg, and Orange City.

The East Central Florida veteran population is slated for a new hospital to be built in 2012. This much needed facility will make it easier for East Central Florida veterans to access VA’s world-class medical center and relieve the burden of traveling long distances for their inpatient care.

In addition to the main facility in Orlando, the VA offers services in several outpatient clinics in their six county patient service area. These clinics are located in Daytona Beach and Viera.

Community-based outpatient clinics include Clermont, Kissimmee, Leesburg, Orange City, Crossroads Annex and Lake Nona Annex.
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ORLANDO VA MEDICAL CENTER

Titusville police shut down 11 homeless camps with veterans

UPDATE
Homeless raid in Titusville questioned

It's one thing to want to get rid of homeless people but another to have a place for them to go. Where are these people supposed to go? People seem to forget that about a third of the homeless are veterans on top of it and most of them suffered after their service.

Titusville police shut down 11 homeless camps
Sites shut down because of safety concerns
9:30 AM, Jun. 29, 2011

Written by
DAVE BERMAN

"This a veterans' town and this is a veterans' county, and they will not get away with it," Taylor said.

TITUSVILLE -- — Police have cleared out 11 homeless camps throughout the city in a push to remove people who are trespassing on private property.

Titusville Police Department and fire officials say the camps are a safety hazard, and a growing problem in the city, partly resulting from the increased unemployment.

But George Taylor Sr., founder and president of the Titusville-based National Veterans Homeless Support Inc., said he is concerned about the efforts to clear out local homeless camps.
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Titusville police shut down 11 homeless camps

Honor denied some families of fallen troops

Honor denied some families of fallen troops
By Elaine Quijano

(CBS News) INDIANAPOLIS - President Obama has spoken often about the weight he feels every time he signs a letter of condolence to a military family. And, he has said, there are few days when he doesn't sign one.
But you may be surprised to learn what CBS News correspondent Elaine Quijano found out -- not every military family that suffers a loss gets a letter from the commander in chief.

"I miss you Chance, I do," says Gregg Keesling as he touched his son's headstone.

Father's Day marked two years since Gregg and Jannett Keesling's son, 25-year-old Army Specialist Chance Keesling, died.

"We did get a full military burial, with the 21 gun salute and the playing of "Taps," Gregg says.

Keesling was on his second tour in Iraq. His marriage had broken up during his first deployment, and he was struggling with emotional problems this time. But no one knew how much he was suffering.

In June 2009, he recorded a video for his girlfriend's niece. But days later, after a fight with that girlfriend, Keesling shot himself on his post in Iraq.

His father Gregg says, "I think his last words to Jannett were "I think my day's not going to go very well.'"
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Honor denied some families of fallen troops

Veterans Charity Fraud

When I see men standing around in intersections wearing their uniforms, holding a bucket in one hand and flags in the other, I get really angry now. People see Disabled Veterans Foundation and think about the DAV. The Disabled American Veterans do not solicit donations in intersections. They don't dress up and they do not pay people to collect money. I asked a few of the men standing near where I live and they said they were not veterans. The website claims the men collecting are veterans on the video they have up. If you see someone collecting on your street, they are not part of the DAV but this is not the only problem out there as the American public deals with having their hearts tugged and wanting to do something for our veterans. Read this and you'll be angry too.

Veterans Charity Fraud: Despite Widespread Outrage, Groups Continue To Abuse Public Trust
Marcus Baram
Marcus@huffingtonpost.com

For hundreds of thousands of veterans returning home from the battlefronts in Iraq and Afghanistan, making it home alive is just the first challenge.

An estimated 25 percent of returning U.S. service members will experience combat-related problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), depression or anxiety disorders. More veterans are committing suicide than are dying in combat overseas -- 1,000 former soldiers receiving care from the Department of Veterans Affairs attempt suicide every month. About 50,000 veterans are experiencing chronic homelessness, according to nonprofit housing group HELP USA. And the unemployment rate for 18 to 24-year-old veterans is 21 percent, much higher than the 16.6 percent rate for non-veterans of the same age.

Though the VA has come a long way from the 1970s, when many Vietnam veterans failed to reintegrate into society and became homeless and addicted to drugs, the department still has problems. The VA bureaucracy is notoriously difficult to navigate, and veterans are left to figure out on their own what benefits they are eligible for. As a result, many fall through the cracks -- more than 720,000 veterans do not take advantage of VA benefits for which they are eligible.

To fill in the gap, veterans charities are a crucial resource -- providing financial assistance and job training, funding medical research and rehabilitative services, and helping veterans obtain government benefits. Every year, Americans give millions of dollars to such groups, expecting that the money will assist those who've served their country.

But as a group, veterans charities are prone to abuse, profiteering and outright fraud, say philanthropy watchdogs. Almost half of the 39 veterans charities rated by the American Institute of Philanthropy in its April/May 2011 report received F grades, largely because they devoted only a small ratio of their expenses to charitable programs, in part due to excessive fundraising expenses. Some of these groups defend their spending by arguing that reliance on such ratios is misleading, claiming that new nonprofits may have to spend over 50 percent of their revenue on outreach, education and fundraising for a while. But charities that spend up to 90 percent of their donations on overhead have been widely condemned and were the subject of congressional hearings in 2007.
Veterans Charity Fraud

Veterans Die Facing Mountains of Red Tape For a Reason

by
Chaplain Kathie

While the following is a very good article, I find it stunning that what was left out is the biggest part of the reason they are waiting longer. Money. If you read news reports, you only get part of what has been going on. You have to talk to the VA employees to get to the bottom of what they see everyday. First, the situation of not being able to replace claims processors when older workers retire or leave. Yes, there is a hiring freeze even with the VA.

At a Disabled American Veterans Auxiliary conference in Lake Mary last week, the situation was presented loud and clear by one of the speakers. It takes two years to train a claims agent, so they are already behind on having people able to process claims. When you take into account that there were not enough new hires to handle the flood of veterans entering because of Agent Orange and PTSD rules being changed, it made a bad situation turn into a crisis.

Then there is the issue of the Suicide Prevention Hotline getting so many calls but no one seems to be asking why there are more veterans in crisis while the government has been spending so much money on PTSD. Why do they ever have to find it so impossible to survive combat that suicide is even a thought in their mind? We've been at this since the 70's and should have been a lot closer to making sure they are getting appropriate care instead of better than nothing.

Medications are not the answer but the DOD and the VA seem to approach "treatment" with a bottle of pills. Therapy needs to be developed for the individual. Some do well in group therapy while others need one to one. When they start talking about what's going on inside of them, what they feel and think, then they start to heal. Medications can take "feeling" away from them, basically numbing them. Their help cannot end with pills.

Then there are other programs going on from sports, to horses and dogs. There is a growing list of programs available for a reason. There is not a one-size-fits-all for everyone. The bottom of the list that should be at the top is getting the families involved in the care of our veterans. Too many family members have little or no knowledge of what PTSD is, what they can do to help or what help is available for them in the form of support.

It is not that the VA is broken but the media does not seem interested in what is the reason for all of this still happening after so much time and money has gone into helping veterans heal.

Veterans Die Facing Mountains of Red Tape
By Lena Groeger
June 29, 2011

When Clay Hunt returned home to Texas after two combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, the struggle didn’t end. Tormented by flashbacks and post-traumatic stress, he sought medical help from the Department of Veteran Affairs – but faced a pile of paperwork. While waiting for help, he turned his energy towards helping his fellow veterans, raising money for the wounded and appearing in public service announcements for veterans struggling, like him, with the psychological trauma of war.

Hunt took his own life on March 31, 2011. His disability checks arrived five weeks later.

Tragically, Clay’s story is not unique. Every day, 18 veterans of the nation’s armed forces become casualties by their own hands. One thousand more attempt to take their own lives every month. The numbers are as grim for active duty and reserve soldiers: The Army just reported 27 suspected suicides for the month of May, higher than any other month this year.

“Those numbers are just the tip of the iceberg,” Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, tells Danger Room. “This is a problem that’s clearly out of control.”

As Obama promises a drawdown of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq is coming to a close, the number of soldiers returning home is only rising. But after fighting for their country, these veterans are forced to fight a health care system that is not sufficiently able to help them. Last month the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals berated the Department of Veteran Affairs for delays in treating veterans who have the combat-related mental injuries that put them at an increased risk of suicide.

“The VA’s unchecked incompetence has gone on long enough; no more veterans should be compelled to agonize or perish while the government fails to perform its obligations,” the judges wrote in the majority ruling.

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Veterans Die Facing Mountains of Red Tape

No-conscience lawmakers going after military retirement pay?

Lawmakers flirt with retired-pay overhaul
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jun 28, 2011 13:12:39 EDT
Two cuts in military retired pay are under discussion as part of negotiations between Congress and the White House over the size of the U.S. national debt, but getting an agreement is proving difficult.

One cut is small, involving how annual cost-of-living adjustments are calculated. It could apply to military and federal civilian retirees, disabled veterans and survivors. The net effect would be annual adjustments that average one-quarter of a percentage point below what they would be under the current formula.

The second retired-pay option involves a complete overhaul of the benefit, replacing the 20-year model, which pays immediate benefits, with a new plan that could provide some retirement benefits for as few as five years of service — with the actual payments not starting until at least age 60 for any service members who do not retire on a full military disability.

As it stands, this proposal would apply only to future troops, not current retirees or anyone already in uniform.

The talks come as the U.S. has run out of borrowing power after reaching its current $14.3 trillion debt limit. The Treasury Department has warned the U.S. will run out of cash reserves to pay bills Aug. 2, which has become the deadline for reaching an agreement.
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Lawmakers flirt with retired-pay overhaul

Marine/firefighter John Slivinski left behind a lot of questions

Fireman suspended for posing topless on charity calendar commits suicide
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 10:51 PM on 27th June 2011

A fire-fighter who was disciplined for posing shirtless on a charity calendar has committed suicide, it was announced today.

Tragic: Philadelphia firefighter John Slivinski, at right, is photographed by Katherine Kostreva at Logan Circle. Colleagues are baffled after his suicide on Saturday

John Slivinski was found dead at his Lawndale, Philadelphia home on Saturday, with Police and colleagues saying the cause was suicide.

It is not known why he took his own life.

In April the 31-year-old former Marine was suspended from the city's prestigious 'Rescue One' unit after posing topless for a national fund-raising calendar.


Read more: Fireman suspended for posing topless on charity calendar commits suicide