At the start of the March 24 episode of "The Amazing Race," host Phil Keoghan read a statement from the network.
"Parts of last Sunday's episode, filmed in Vietnam, were insensitive to a group that is very important to us -- our nation's veterans. We want to apologize to veterans, particularly those who served in Vietnam, as well as to their families and any viewers who were offended by the broadcast. All of us here have the most profound respect for the men and women who fight for our country."
Union: Haley VA has critical nursing shortage
William R. Levesque
Times Staff Writer
Saturday, March 23, 2013
TAMPA — Army Staff Sgt. Alex Dillmann, his spine severely wounded by an explosion in Afghanistan, said his nurses at the James A. Haley VA Medical Center were horribly overworked and short-staffed.
He said his wound dressing wasn't changed often enough nor would he get pain medication promptly. If he soiled himself, Dillmann said, it could take 40 minutes for a nurse to answer a call button.
His wife started doing some of the nurse's work herself out of necessity, the couple said. Finally, Dillmann asked the Army to send him to another hospital. In September 2012, he transferred to a private Atlanta facility.
"Things were just being overlooked," said Dillmann, 27, of Tampa, who is now out of the hospital.
"You feel powerless to do anything about it. I got out. But I know there are soldiers still dealing with the same problems."
Haley, one of the nation's busiest veterans hospitals and one of just five with a polytrauma center for the most critically wounded troops, has a severe nursing shortage that is endangering patients, according to the facility's nursing union, National Nurses United. read more here
Veterans coping with PTSD: an ongoing struggle for couples (with videos)
Cleveland Plain Dealer
By Brian Albrecht
March 25, 2013
At first, Travis Edwards thought he just had a drinking problem. And the drinking problem took care of his sleeping problem.
He later discovered that both were symptoms of the post-traumatic stress disorder that has plagued him since returning from Army peace-keeping duties in Bosnia in 1996.
"I'd have nightmares of stuff that I'd seen or stuff that had happened, and the only way I could go to sleep was to drink myself to sleep," the 38-year-old Cleveland veteran said.
His problems have affected his wife, Sharon, who has struggled to understand his moods and outbursts of anger through their 10 years of marriage.
It's a struggle familiar to other families coping with the ripple effects of a veteran's PTSD. These effects can include nightmares, emotional detachment, isolation and mood swings that experts say can be mitigated through therapy, but never entirely go away.
Sharon said it's "like living with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. You could be with this person who was real nice and sweet one minute, then the next minute they're upset and you don't know where it came from. It could be a word, or something, and he would just change." read more here
If you read this you may think it is about what is going on today, Congress calls for VA head to resign, but you will be surprised to learn that it happened in 2008 over this,
By 2008 another $2.7 million was handed over to a contractor to make phone calls. Yep~phone calls!
570,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan were supposed to be called to find out why they hadn’t gone to the VA.
“The first calls will go to about 17,000 veterans who were sick or injured while serving in the wars. If they don’t have a care manager, the VA says they will be given one.
The next round of calls will target 555,000 veterans from the wars who have been discharged from active duty, but have not reached out to the VA for services. For five years after their discharge from the military, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have access to health care at the VA.
The effort will cost about $2.7 million and will be handled by a government contractor.
The agency has faced complaints that a backlog in claims and bureaucratic hurdles have prevented some recent veterans from getting proper mental and physical care. Earlier this week, two Democratic senators accused the VA’s top mental health official of trying to cover up the number of veteran suicides and said he should resign.” (VA to call Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, Associated Press, April 24, 2008)
That is part of what is in THE WARRIOR SAW, SUICIDES AFTER WAR.
This could have been a fantastic story of a homecoming but the report blew it big time. The words "heart-warming" didn't seem to matter enough to even manage more than six short sentences! We don't even know what the names are, how long he had been gone, or anything else. WOW this is really lousy reporting. Why didn't the reporter just stick the picture up on Facebook and call it a day?
Soldier surprises mom at Bulls game
by WGN Web Desk
There was a heart-warming moment at Saturday night’s Bulls game against the Indiana Pacers.
A mother was escorted to the court during a time-out.
She thought she was about to take a half-court shot.
But, when Benny the Bull removed her blind-fold, she got something better.
Her son, who just returned from being deployed in Iraq, was there to surprise her.
VA Chief of Staff Expected to Retire
Mar 24, 2013
Military.com
by Bryant Jordan
Department of Veterans Affairs Chief of Staff John R. Gingrich is calling it quits.
Gingrich -- criticized by lawmakers and the VA’s Inspector General’s office last year in connection with a pair of Florida resort VA conferences cited for waste and ethics violations -- is leaving on his own terms and retiring, according to sources who spoke to Military.com on condition of anonymity.
Gingrich, a Persian Gulf War veteran who served 30 years in the Army, is expected to leave within the next few weeks and perhaps as soon as one week. However, it’s unclear when the VA plans to formally announce Gingrich’s retirement.
A request for comment from the VA was not returned before the publishing of this article.
Gingrich has reportedly stayed on since the start of the new administration in January at the request of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, who asked him to help out through some of the transitions and prepare for an interim chief of staff.
“[This] will have been done by the end of the month,” Gingrich said in a statement that has not yet been released to the public according to a source who has seen the memo. “I believe we have accomplished much in the past four years and the team is well focused for the future.”
Gingrich decided to retire after discussing it with his wife, according to a source.
Some veterans and VA observers saw Gingrich as more involved in the department’s day-to-day operations than Deputy Secretary W. Scott Gould.
Last year, Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee and Sen. Richard Burr, R-NC, ranking member of its Senate counterpart, demanded Gingrich’s firing after the VA was cited for wasteful spending and ethics violations at two human resources training programs at a Florida resort in 2011. read more here
Jessica Upshaw Dead: Mississippi State Representative's Death Under Investigation
Huffington Post
Posted: 03/24/2013
Mississippi State Rep. Jessica Upshaw (R-Diamondhead) was found dead on Sunday, the Clarion-Ledger reports.
Simpson County Sheriff Kenneth Lewis said Upshaw, who was 53 years old, died from a gunshot wound to the head.
v
“It appeared to be self-inflicted,” Lewis told WLBT-TV. According to the Clarion-Ledger, the investigation of Upshaw's death is in early stages and no details have been released by the coroner. read more here
KEN WAHL ON U.S. MILITARY SUICIDES: WE ALL CAN HELP OUR HOMEGROWN HEROES
by GARY GRAHAM
24 Mar 2013
A few months ago I received news that a friend of mine, a former Navy SEAL and war veteran, had lost his battle with depression and killed himself. I felt shocked, then devastated. Which gave way to guilt--the "why didn’t I see this coming, and what could I have done to prevent it?" kind of thing. And eventually I settled on anger. Not at my buddy Rob, and what he did to himself ... but at The Way It Is.
See, I’m not satisfied to simply cry a few tears, and raise a toast or two, or shake my head and say, "Man, that sucks."
I’m angry that we’re supposed to accept this.
In record numbers, a startling number of these fine voluntary military personnel, after risking life and limb to preserve our freedoms, are choosing to take their own lives. This is a sad twist of malaise that after facing down a committed and deadly enemy, these warriors return to the embrace of their own country, only to succumb to hopeless depression and suicide. The "tragedy of war" some say … you just have to accept this is what happens.
Well, I’m not going to accept this. There’s got to be something we can all do.
I sat down with my friend, fellow actor, Ken Wahl, to discuss this horrible and disturbing trend. The irony is not lost on me that it just happens to be 10 years ago to the day that the Iraq War began – and Ken and I are talking about our returning Vets. And more importantly the tragedy of the fact that the suicide rates of returning Vets is soaring.
Whatever is necessary--you just cannot have these guys killing themselves, and a rate of over twenty a day? That’s beyond my comprehension. They’re trained to kill … but not themselves! Nobody is trained to kill themselves. And if these guys are feeling that … hopelessness … ’it doesn’t matter what I did, my life is meaningless, no one gives a shit’… And when people sit around and stew in that, it grows. And then it gets to the point that it is so burdensome, that the only way out is to eat a bullet. And it rips me to shreds thinking of these guys offing themselves. We gotta do whatever we can to stop that.
read more here
VA Backlog of claims is not new
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
March 25, 2013
Am I happy with the backlog of claims? No because I know what it is like when they have to wait for the VA to get to them and have their claims approved. I know because it took the VA six years to approve my husband's claim. Six years? Yes. Six years of waiting, fighting, suffering and doubting they would ever honor his claim. What made it worse was when he came home he had the same attitude his Dad did. The VA is for guys that can't work and had their legs blown off." So for years, he refused to even consider filing a claim. Every time the mail came from the VA with another letter telling us his claim was denied was like a knife in his back. Hope was slipping away with each bill we couldn't pay and one of them was for his treatment at the VA because he had received care for a "non-service connected" illness. The non-service connected illness was PTSD caused by his service to this country in a war zone.
Even with all of this, while most are slamming the VA for the backlog of claims, I will not.
The headlines for the last couple of years have all been about the backlog but there is so much more to this than the press will talk about and that is a great injustice to all of our veterans.
This quote is at the bottom of my emails.
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, is directly proportional to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated"
-- George Washington
Are they living up to it? No but listen to Veterans Affairs Secretary Shinseki then read the rest of the story CNN didn't talk about.
March 24th, 2013
Secy. Shinseki to CNN: "No veteran should have to wait for claims as they are today. We have a fix for this, we're open for business, and we will end the backlog in 2015."
Veterans in the last four years, Candy, have joined us in unprecedented numbers. There are 800 more veterans enrolled today than were enrolled four years ago in health care. 940,000 more veterans enrolled for benefits than there were four years ago. So, the fact is that veterans are coming to us, and they are being enrolled. We produce a million claims decisions each year going out the door and have for the last three years. And so, when we talk about an inventory of claims today, of about 875,000 claims, of which about 600,000 are backlogged. Just the amount of work we put out the door indicates that this is not a static number. There are going to be a few who are complex enough to go longer than we’d like, but there is a lot of work being done. read more here
When my husband's claim was filed, George H.W. Bush was President and Anthony Principi was Secretary of Veterans Affairs. It was 1993. Bill Clinton took over as Commander-in-Chief and Jesse Brown took over as head of Veterans Affairs. He was replaced by Hershel Gober until 1998 and he was replaced by Togo West when the letter finally came saying my husband's claim had been approved for 50% and we would receive a pro-rated check going back to when he filed the claim in 1993. By the time he finally received 100% disability, George W. Bush had replaced Clinton and Anthony Principi was back as Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Three Presidents since he filed his claim but Richard Nixon was President when he was sent to Vietnam. Gerald Ford was in the chair as Vietnam veterans came home vilified and ignored, told to get over it as they tried to do that and it was not until Jimmy Ford had come and gone and Ronald Reagan came into office in 1981 that true research had begun on PTSD.
The National Center for PTSD was created in 1989 within the Department of Veterans Affairs in response to a Congressional mandate (PL 98-528) to address the needs of Veterans and other trauma survivors with PTSD. The Center was developed with the ultimate purpose to improve the well-being, status, and understanding of Veterans in American society. The mandate called for a center of excellence that would set the agenda for research and education on PTSD without direct responsibility for patient care. Convinced that no single VA site could adequately serve this unique mission, VA established the Center as a consortium of five divisions. The Center currently consists of seven VA academic centers of excellence across the U.S., with headquarters in White River Junction, VT. Other divisions are located in Boston, MA; West Haven, CT; Palo Alto, CA; and Honolulu, HI.
Under the new rules a veteran need show only that he or she served in a war and performed a job during which events could have happened that could cause the disorder.
"... for years, many veterans with PTSD who have tried to seek benefits -- veterans of today's wars and earlier wars -- have often found themselves stymied. They've been required to produce evidence proving that a specific event caused their PTSD. And that practice has kept the vast majority of those with PTSD who served in non-combat roles, but who still waged war, from getting the care they need," Obama said.
"Well, I don't think our troops on the battlefield should have to take notes to keep for a claims application. And I've met enough veterans to know that you don't have to engage in a firefight to endure the trauma of war. So we're changing the way things are done."
The price was estimated to be $5 billion.
So the VA had Vietnam veterans, joining Gulf War veterans, joining Afghanistan veterans, joining Iraq veterans standing in line for what their service to this country caused. That is how we ended up in this massive backlog but again, it wasn't the first time claims waiting had reached the close to a million mark.
Veterans Benefits Administration and the Board of Veterans Appeals at VA, was 803,000 on Jan. 5, 2009. The backlog hit 915,000 on May 4, 2009, a staggering 14-percent increase in four months."
Are we living up to what George Washington said? No but as you can see, we haven't done that in a very, very long time. It would serve veterans better if reporters actually addressed what has been going on all these years so that we don't keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again.
How do average people do better than "professionals"? Because they work harder? Work longer hours? Sure, but this kind of work needs something more than that. To be this dedicated, you have to be this connected to what you are doing. For these groups, it is all about being part of the smallest group in this country. The military minority. Veterans are 7% of the population even though the burden for the security of the other 93% depended on them getting the job done, they are usually not thought of until November when Veterans Day rolls around or in May when thousands of them travel to Washington DC to honor the memory of the lives lost doing the jobs only they understand, Memorial Day.
Fake Warriors Project and Guardian of Valor will make sure that members of the 93% don't try to sneak into the military minority to gain for free what most of them never even ask for.
They get uncomfortable with too much attention but they grieve when their wounded are not cared for or about. They don't want to be worshiped but they don't want to be forgotten when they need jobs, help to heal of just someone to listen to them when they need to talk. 43% of the veterans needing help for PTSD do not seek it. We're working on that and trying to get them to understand that help from the VA is not a handout. They earned it with their service. They already paid for it well in advance. The fakers, well, they will never understand what being that unselfish really is.
Hunt for bogus war heroes uncovers thousands of hoaxers
By Bill Briggs
NBC News contributor
During the past decade, some 4,000 men have been exposed while posing as combat warriors to fool women, scam federal benefits and reap undeserved praise. But the latest fake veteran to be uncloaked and convicted will carry an unofficial military rank to prison: “Captain Obvious.”
Danny Crane, 32, earned that colorful moniker from the man — an actual wounded veteran — who used his two basement computers and a loose, national network of fellow amateur sleuths to unravel Crane’s lies and ultimately hand him to federal prosecutors. Crane, who lived in the Tampa area, was sentenced March 14 to one year and one day in federal prison.
“His uniform was all wrong. The discharge papers he posted online were wrong. His mannerisms were wrong. The only thing he had right were his tattoos. He was Captain Obvious,” said retired Army Staff Sgt. Fred Campbell, one of 10 veterans who operate a nonprofit, virtual detective agency called Guardian of Valor.
“But in our world, the Danny Crane case is not unusual,” said Mary Schantag, a Marine widow who lives in Missouri and operates the Fake Warriors Project. Since launching that veteran-vetting venture on a shoe-string budget in 1998, Schantag said her nonprofit group — along with partners at similar sites — has revealed more than 4,000 hoaxers who falsely claimed military service or battlefield glory. It’s unclear how many of those 4,000 frauds later were prosecuted. A VA spokesman said such cases are not tracked by the agency. read more here
