May 19, 2014
The White House announced today that Marine veteran Cpl. William "Kyle" Carpenter will receive the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions in Marjah, Helmand province, Afghanistan.
Carpenter will receive the medal from President Barack Obama, June 19, 2014. He will be the eighth living recipient of the Medal of Honor for actions in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Marine Cpl. Kyle Carpenter Just Getting Started!
Friday, May 23, 2014
Senate and House Shirking Responsibility to Veterans
When it comes to what is happening to our veterans, it seems as if everyone is suddenly upset. Why? It has all been going on for years and we've been upset before. Right now all fingers are pointing at President Obama. Honestly, they always do no matter how many of them sit in the chair, they get the blame. People forget that the Senate and the House are all responsible for what goes on. Why? Easier to blame one than so many.
The Senate and House have the power over the Armed Services and the Veterans Affairs but when things happen, they forget they had let it all happen because they didn't do their jobs. Why be on a committee and not pay attention? Isn't that why we have committees in the first place? No one person can pay attention to everything.
They have jobs to do but somehow have been left off the hook for what they have allowed to happen all these years. Do reporters even know what they are supposed to be doing?
Senate Veterans Affairs Committee
House Veterans Affairs Committee
Subcommittee on Veterans Oversight and Investigations (O and I)
UPDATE
It is astonishing to be constantly reminded of how dumb we've been. How could we be so easily deluded into thinking there is accountability in our country?
Sure, we try to raise our kids to do the right thing. We try to do the right thing on our jobs. We're even nice to drivers acting like jerks. For the most part we're all trying to be the best person we can be. Maybe that is why we assume our elected officials are doing what we elected them to do but they don't. We end up shocked over the messes they let this country get into and they try to blame everyone else but themselves.
Veterans have always had to fight for benefits and compensation. Nothing new there. They have had to wait for appointments and yes, all too often, end up having to wait far too long. They have had to endure hardships and heartaches. This is far from recent news. All of it has been going on since we started to send the troops to fight wars.
The Senate and House have been shirking their duties to the troops and veterans and we let them do it.
We didn't hold any of them accountable since WWI! Every two years we elected members of the House to represent us. Every six years we elect members of the Senate to do the same. Every four years we elect a President or put one back into office.
The President is easy to blame because we figure he appoints cabinet members to head departments like the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs. When these two mess up, we fail to notice that the Senate and the House are supposed to be checking what they do and not wait for something to go so horribly wrong lives are lost.
The House seems to care more about Benghazi with 13 hearings and over 50 briefings than they care about military and veterans suicides. Seems there have been a lot more lives lost by members of our military, current and past. The House committees are headed by Republicans and the Senate Committees are headed by Democrats, so it isn't about one doing the right thing since we've been down this road for far too long. They all play games.
Nothing will change until we decide that we can no more forget that our responsibility does not end after an election. It starts. It is up to us to make sure they do the right thing and as soon as we start to read reports on what goes wrong, we need to make sure reporters actually find out who knew what when, what they did about it and if they didn't know, hold them accountable for not doing their jobs checking up on the people they pay to do jobs.
Enough is enough! Too many died because no one did what they were elected to do!
The Senate and House have the power over the Armed Services and the Veterans Affairs but when things happen, they forget they had let it all happen because they didn't do their jobs. Why be on a committee and not pay attention? Isn't that why we have committees in the first place? No one person can pay attention to everything.
They have jobs to do but somehow have been left off the hook for what they have allowed to happen all these years. Do reporters even know what they are supposed to be doing?
Senate Armed Services Committee
Committee History
The Senate Committees on Military Affairs; on the Militia; and Naval Affairs were established on December 10, 1816. The Committee on the Militia was merged with the Committee on Military Affairs in 1858 to form the Military Affairs and Militia Committee. However, in 1872 the Committee dropped "Militia" from its name. The Military Affairs and Naval Affairs Committees existed until 1947 when they were combined by the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 into a new standing committee, the current Committee on Armed Services.
Committee Jurisdiction
As specified in Rule XXV, 1(c)(1) of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee on Armed Services' has the following jurisdiction:
1. Aeronautical and space activities peculiar to or primarily associated with the development of weapons systems or military operations.
2. Common defense.
3. Department of Defense, the Department of the Army, the Department of the Navy, and the Department of the Air Force, generally.
4. Maintenance and operation of the Panama Canal, including administration, sanitation, and government of the Canal Zone.
5. Military research and development.
6. National security aspects of nuclear energy.
7. Naval petroleum reserves, except those in Alaska.
8. Pay, promotion, retirement, and other benefits and privileges of members of the Armed Forces, including overseas education of civilian and military dependents.
9. Selective service system.
10. Strategic and critical materials necessary for the common defense.
The Senate has also given the committee the authority to study and review, on a comprehensive basis, matters relating to the common defense policy of the United States, and report thereon from time to time.
Senate Armed Services Sub Committee
Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities
Responsibilities: Policies and programs to counter emerging threats including the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, and illegal drugs; homeland defense; technology base programs; special operations programs; and emerging operational concepts.
Special additional areas: Foreign Military Sales; technology export policies; Department of Defense (DOD) and Department of Energy (DOE) nonproliferation programs, including the Nunn-Lugar program; and nontraditional military operations, including peacekeeping and peace enforcement, low-intensity conflict, strategic communications and information operations, and building partner capacity.
Oversight of budget accounts: Technology base RDT and E; operational test and evaluation; RDT and E and procurement supporting special operations; counterdrug programs; RDT and E supporting low-intensity conflict, peacekeeping operations, and information warfare; combating terrorism; chemical and biological warfare defense; chemical demilitarization; train and equip programs; and DOD and DOE nonproliferation programs.
Oversight of DOD offices: Assistant Secretary of Defense (Homeland Defense); Assistant Secretary of Defense (Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict); and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.
Oversight of DOD commands and agencies: Special Operations Command; Northern Command; Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; Defense Threat Reduction Agency; and Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
Subcommittee on Personnel
Responsibilities: Military and DOD civilian personnel policies; end strengths for military personnel; military personnel compensation and benefits; military health care; and military nominations.
Special additional areas: Professional Military Education; DOD schools; DOD child care and family assistance; Civil-military programs; POW/MIA issues; Armed Forces Retirement Home; Morale, Welfare and Recreation; and military commissaries and exchanges.
Oversight of budget accounts: Military personnel; military retirement; Defense Health Program; DOD Medicare-Eligible Retiree Health Care Fund; and operation and maintenance for certain education and civil-military programs.
Oversight of DOD offices: Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness); Assistant Secretary of Defense (Reserve Affairs); Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs); and Defense Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Office.
Oversight of DOD agencies: TRICARE Management Activity; Defense Commissary Agency; and Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.
Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support
Responsibilities: Military readiness including training, logistics, and maintenance; military construction; housing construction and privatization; contracting and acquisition policy; business and financial management; base realignment and closure; and defense environmental programs.
Special additional areas: Conventional ammunition procurement; RDT and E infrastructure policies and programs; National Defense Stockpile; defense industrial and technology base policies; facility and housing maintenance and repair; land and property management; information technology management policy; and industrial operations, including depots, shipyards, arsenals, and ammunition plants.
Oversight of budget accounts: Operations and maintenance; conventional ammunition procurement; military construction and family housing; base realignment and closure; working capital funds; the National Defense Stockpile Transaction Fund; and RDT and E support programs.
Oversight of DoD offices: Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics); Department of Defense Deputy Chief Management Officer; and the Chief Management Officers of the military departments.
Oversight of DOD agencies and commands: Defense Logistics Agency; Defense Finance and Accounting Service; Defense Investigative Service; Defense Contract Audit Agency; DOD Inspector General; and Joint Forces Command joint training and doctrine activities.
Senate Veterans Affairs Committee
House Veterans Affairs Committee
Subcommittee on Veterans Oversight and Investigations (O and I)
Welcome to the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, which has oversight and investigative jurisdiction over veterans’ matters generally and such other matters as may be referred to the Subcommittee by the Chairman of the full Committee. The Subcommittee provides oversight on programs and operations of the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as those of other federal agencies that pertain to veterans. In carrying out its responsibilities, the Subcommittee conducts hearings, site visits, and investigations nationwide. The Subcommittee’s legislative jurisdiction is over such bills or resolutions as may be referred to it by the Chairman of the full Committee.
UPDATE
It is astonishing to be constantly reminded of how dumb we've been. How could we be so easily deluded into thinking there is accountability in our country?
Sure, we try to raise our kids to do the right thing. We try to do the right thing on our jobs. We're even nice to drivers acting like jerks. For the most part we're all trying to be the best person we can be. Maybe that is why we assume our elected officials are doing what we elected them to do but they don't. We end up shocked over the messes they let this country get into and they try to blame everyone else but themselves.
Veterans have always had to fight for benefits and compensation. Nothing new there. They have had to wait for appointments and yes, all too often, end up having to wait far too long. They have had to endure hardships and heartaches. This is far from recent news. All of it has been going on since we started to send the troops to fight wars.
The Senate and House have been shirking their duties to the troops and veterans and we let them do it.
We didn't hold any of them accountable since WWI! Every two years we elected members of the House to represent us. Every six years we elect members of the Senate to do the same. Every four years we elect a President or put one back into office.
The President is easy to blame because we figure he appoints cabinet members to head departments like the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs. When these two mess up, we fail to notice that the Senate and the House are supposed to be checking what they do and not wait for something to go so horribly wrong lives are lost.
The House seems to care more about Benghazi with 13 hearings and over 50 briefings than they care about military and veterans suicides. Seems there have been a lot more lives lost by members of our military, current and past. The House committees are headed by Republicans and the Senate Committees are headed by Democrats, so it isn't about one doing the right thing since we've been down this road for far too long. They all play games.
Nothing will change until we decide that we can no more forget that our responsibility does not end after an election. It starts. It is up to us to make sure they do the right thing and as soon as we start to read reports on what goes wrong, we need to make sure reporters actually find out who knew what when, what they did about it and if they didn't know, hold them accountable for not doing their jobs checking up on the people they pay to do jobs.
Enough is enough! Too many died because no one did what they were elected to do!
Veterans Run 600 Miles for PTSD
Marine one of 10 runners traveling more than 600 miles to help veterans
News Advance
Steve Hardy
Posted: Thursday, May 22, 2014
A Marine from Madison Heights is one of 10 runners intent on trekking 684 miles to raise money — and awareness — for veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries.
The team began in Atlanta and reached Lynchburg on Thursday afternoon en route their final destination of Washington D.C.
By running in shifts, they plan to reach the capital in time for Memorial Day, completing the entire journey in just a week.
Gunnery Sgt. Troy Campbell is from Madison Heights but is stationed in Atlanta, home of the Shepherd Center. The private center researches PTSD and traumatic brain injuries and provides care to veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He wanted to help the Shepherd Center since October, when he met a veteran, the man’s wife and their three children. The vet was about to have committed suicide, but received life-saving treatment for his PTSD.
read more here
News Advance
Steve Hardy
Posted: Thursday, May 22, 2014
Jill Nance
Marine Troy Campbell from Madison Heights runs Thursday afternoon with a group comprised mostly of Marines who are running from Atlanta to Washington DC. The group is raising money for veterans suffering with brain injuries and PTSD.
A Marine from Madison Heights is one of 10 runners intent on trekking 684 miles to raise money — and awareness — for veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries.
The team began in Atlanta and reached Lynchburg on Thursday afternoon en route their final destination of Washington D.C.
By running in shifts, they plan to reach the capital in time for Memorial Day, completing the entire journey in just a week.
Gunnery Sgt. Troy Campbell is from Madison Heights but is stationed in Atlanta, home of the Shepherd Center. The private center researches PTSD and traumatic brain injuries and provides care to veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He wanted to help the Shepherd Center since October, when he met a veteran, the man’s wife and their three children. The vet was about to have committed suicide, but received life-saving treatment for his PTSD.
read more here
Blue Angels Missing Man Formation Remembers 1st Lt. Travis Manion
Veterans turn out to see Blue Angels at Annapolis
The Capital
By Tim Pratt
Annapolis, Md
Published: May 22, 2014
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Standing near the end of the Naval Academy Bridge on Wednesday afternoon, 71-year-old Bill Sykes peered intently at the sky as the Blue Angels roared above Annapolis.
A Navy veteran who worked on planes years ago in Pensacola, Fla., Sykes said he has seen the high-performance flight group 30 or 40 times.
With the Blue Angels’ return to Annapolis, he and his family spent the afternoon watching the jets fly up and down the Severn River, crossing over surrounding neighborhoods and soaring high into the clouds.
“I just like them seeing them fly,” Sykes said, a USS Constellation hat atop his head and dark sunglasses covering his eyes.
Sykes was one of a number of veterans drawn to the area around the Naval Academy Bridge and World War II Memorial on Route 450 for the Blue Angels performance.
Some sat in chairs and relaxed, their children and grandchildren snapping photos and covering their ears. Others talked with family members and made friends with fellow onlookers.
Among the veterans at the war memorial was Francis Horner, who served with the Army in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969. While Horner spent much of the last 40 years living in Glen Burnie, he recently moved to Annapolis and decided to take in the Blue Angels show for the first time.
“I’ve been waiting to see this for years,” Horner said.
read more here
The Capital
By Tim Pratt
Annapolis, Md
Published: May 22, 2014
The U.S. Navy's Blue Angels perform a missing man formation at the U.S. Naval Academy as an aerial salute to honor the memory of 1st Lt. Travis Manion, who was killed in action in Iraq on April 29, 2007.
KATHRYN E. MACDONALD/U.S. NAVY
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Standing near the end of the Naval Academy Bridge on Wednesday afternoon, 71-year-old Bill Sykes peered intently at the sky as the Blue Angels roared above Annapolis.
A Navy veteran who worked on planes years ago in Pensacola, Fla., Sykes said he has seen the high-performance flight group 30 or 40 times.
With the Blue Angels’ return to Annapolis, he and his family spent the afternoon watching the jets fly up and down the Severn River, crossing over surrounding neighborhoods and soaring high into the clouds.
“I just like them seeing them fly,” Sykes said, a USS Constellation hat atop his head and dark sunglasses covering his eyes.
Sykes was one of a number of veterans drawn to the area around the Naval Academy Bridge and World War II Memorial on Route 450 for the Blue Angels performance.
Some sat in chairs and relaxed, their children and grandchildren snapping photos and covering their ears. Others talked with family members and made friends with fellow onlookers.
Among the veterans at the war memorial was Francis Horner, who served with the Army in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969. While Horner spent much of the last 40 years living in Glen Burnie, he recently moved to Annapolis and decided to take in the Blue Angels show for the first time.
“I’ve been waiting to see this for years,” Horner said.
read more here
Thursday, May 22, 2014
VA troubles history in the making, of mistakes
There seems to be a very strong call for heads to roll from the VA. I keep wondering when someone will actually take a lesson from history.
What about mental health care? You say the VA is predicting fewer in-patient mental-health cases.
Where did all of this come from? It came from a Newsweek article back in 2007. Shortchanging Veterans’ Health Care By Eve Conant Filed: 2/26/07
Nicholson was replaced by Peake
On ALS this was his advice
"The Department of VA predicts it will need to treat 5.8 million patients next year, including 263,000 Iraq and Afghanistan vets returning with serious injuries requiring expensive care. Murray and her Democratic colleagues believe the Bush budget will force new costs--such as increased prescription copayments and new enrollment fees--onto veterans themselves."
The VA, last year, was underprojecting how many men and women would come into the VA system from Iraq and Afghanistan. They expected 45,000 and ended up with over 100,000. Now they are projecting 263,000 Iraq and Afghan vets next year. But we're hearing from independent sources that the figure will be over 300,000. Without being a budget or numbers guru, you can realize that 1.5 million men and women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan and are coming home with everything from minor injuries to cases of TBI [traumatic brain injury], lost arms and limbs, and PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder]. You know the number is going to be high. But they seem to want us to believe that the number is going to be lower. Which means we don't fund VA adequately.
What Nicholson is trying to do is to discourage men and women going into the VA in order to keep numbers down and say to the country: this doesn't cost that much. This is a budget gimmick they have tried to throw at us, not as a way of helping veterans or keeping their promise to veterans in a time of war, but as a way of balancing the budget on backs of veterans.This question really tops things off
What about mental health care? You say the VA is predicting fewer in-patient mental-health cases.
I'm very worried. The number of mental health-care patients that the VA is projecting in the budget is less than what we currently have today. I was in Iraq a year and a half ago and I was told by Commander Casey [Army General George Casey Jr., who recently stepped down as the highest-ranking military official in Iraq] that this war is going to create a high number of patients who need mental health care because it's what he called a 24/7 war. There is no front line to go back from, no place to get away from the intensity of IEDs [improvised explosive devices] going off next to you.…The VA itself has issued statements saying they do not have enough clinicians to see the people who need mental health care. There is no one within the lower echelons of the VA who predicts a lower number of mental-health patients; the only people predicting this are the president and secretary Nicholson. My perspective is they are doing it so they don't have to ask for money and show what the cost of this war is.
Where did all of this come from? It came from a Newsweek article back in 2007. Shortchanging Veterans’ Health Care By Eve Conant Filed: 2/26/07
Nicholson was replaced by Peake
VA, more promises, more waiting for fix to come
VA secretary pledges to cut 5 weeks off wait
By Hope Yen
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Feb 7, 2008 13:04:06 EST
Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake pledged Thursday to trim more than five weeks off the time it now takes to get the first check to a war veteran who files a disability claim.
In his first appearance before Congress since becoming secretary, Peake also sought to assure lawmakers that President Bush’s proposed 2009 VA budget of $91 billion would be sufficient to meet the growing demands of veterans of a protracted Iraq war. The proposal is a 3.7 percent increase from the previous year, but several lawmakers have criticized it as inadequate after factoring in inflation.
Peake wants to reduce wait times from roughly 180 days to 145 days by the start of next year. He cited aggressive efforts to hire staff, noting the VA will have 3,100 new staff by 2009. VA also is working to get greater online access to Pentagon medical information that he said will allow staff to process claims faster and move toward a system of electronic filing of claims.
Peake promised to “virtually eliminate” the current list of 69,000 veterans who have waited more than 30 days for an appointment to get VA medical care. Such long waits runs counter to department policy, and a group of Iraq war veterans have filed a lawsuit alleging undue delays. He said VA plans to open 64 new community-based outpatient clinics this year and 51 next year to improve access to health care in rural areas.
“We will take all measures necessary to provide them with timely benefits and services, to give them complete information about the benefits they have earned through their courageous service, and to implement streamlined processes free of bureaucratic red tape,” Peake said in testimony prepared for a House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing Thursday.
On ALS this was his advice
Mikolajcik urged Peake to grant all veterans with the disease, also called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a service-connected disability. Currently only Gulf War veterans are covered, Mikolajcik said. "My comrades in arms don't get the same benefits, and it's not fair," he said.
For unknown reasons, veterans have a 60 percent higher chance of developing ALS.
The retired general described the meeting as "very personable." "Now we just wait and pray," he said.
Too bad Veterans suffering is just another headline
Shirley MacLaine had a great line in Steel Magnolias, "I'm not crazy, I've just been in a bad mood for 40 years." but in my case, it has just been a little over 30. Unless what happens to veterans when they come home is personal to you, you'd have no way of knowing what has been going on or for how long. That is just the way it is with everything. Sure people care about veterans but when you consider that Memorial Day is this weekend and more people are planning shopping trips and cookouts, not many remember the sacrifices made we are supposed to be taking time to honor and remember.
For all the years of crap veterans have had to face because they were sent to fight this nations battles, most would do it all again. That is just the way they are. They risked their lives for the sake of virtual strangers one minute and then considered them family the next second. Memorial Day for them is more than just another day in a long weekend. Veterans Day is more than November 11 when we are supposed to remember them because they are remembering everyday what it is like to do what they did for other 92%. Currently serving are less than 1% and veterans, well they are less than 7% of the population.
For all the troubles they go through, you may think that the whole of almost 22 million veterans are in the VA system but the kicker is, there are less than 4 million receiving compensation according the latest report. Yep, we can't even take care of a fraction of our veterans without a big hoopla going on while reporters compete for the grandest headline and end up failing wretchedly to tell the real story.
Imagine the headline if they actually did some fact checking on how long all of this has been going on!
If you read Wounded Times you know their stories and you know that there is no reason any of this is still going on. As for me, the longer this goes on the more I am sure I was crazy to think all it would take was for the American people to be aware of the problems so they could make sure we did the right thing for our veterans. PTSD and suicides, TBI and sexual trauma, homeless veterans, you name it, has all been going on for far too long. We get excuses. We get all kinds of speeches but no accountability and the one sitting in the chair gets the blame because no one really cares to demand answers and the truth.
The current administration has had 5 years and the past was 8 years following 8 years and 4 years following 8 years. None of them fixed anything!
For all the years of crap veterans have had to face because they were sent to fight this nations battles, most would do it all again. That is just the way they are. They risked their lives for the sake of virtual strangers one minute and then considered them family the next second. Memorial Day for them is more than just another day in a long weekend. Veterans Day is more than November 11 when we are supposed to remember them because they are remembering everyday what it is like to do what they did for other 92%. Currently serving are less than 1% and veterans, well they are less than 7% of the population.
For all the troubles they go through, you may think that the whole of almost 22 million veterans are in the VA system but the kicker is, there are less than 4 million receiving compensation according the latest report. Yep, we can't even take care of a fraction of our veterans without a big hoopla going on while reporters compete for the grandest headline and end up failing wretchedly to tell the real story.
Imagine the headline if they actually did some fact checking on how long all of this has been going on!
Veteran: "You're gonna get crushed" by VA health care bureaucracy
CBS News
By STEPHEN SMITH
May 22, 2014
When Marine Sgt. Michael Jeffords returned from Vietnam in 1966, he went to a Veterans Affairs hospital because he was having hearing problems after an IED exploded near him during combat. He says he had to wait a month before they would see him, then he had to jump through bureaucratic hoops just to prove his condition was authentic.
"I had to prove where I was, when it happened and how the incident occurred," Jeffords said from his Janesville, Wisconsin home. "It's kind of a frustrating experience because you think the government should know all this stuff."
Jeffords, now 71, said that the VA health care he has received over the years has generally been good - but the system designed to administer that care leaves veterans feeling disrespected and demoralized. He said the current allegations of treatment delays, preventable deaths and falsified records at VA hospitals nationwide doesn't surprise him.
"When you get between the gears of a big bureaucracy, you're gonna get crushed unless you're strong enough to get through it," he said.
Jeffords' sentiments were echoed by other veterans who spoke to CBS News this week. A few had complaints about VA medical care. Most were critical of the VA's administrative failures. None was surprised by the current reports of misconduct and treatment delays.
read more here
If you read Wounded Times you know their stories and you know that there is no reason any of this is still going on. As for me, the longer this goes on the more I am sure I was crazy to think all it would take was for the American people to be aware of the problems so they could make sure we did the right thing for our veterans. PTSD and suicides, TBI and sexual trauma, homeless veterans, you name it, has all been going on for far too long. We get excuses. We get all kinds of speeches but no accountability and the one sitting in the chair gets the blame because no one really cares to demand answers and the truth.
The current administration has had 5 years and the past was 8 years following 8 years and 4 years following 8 years. None of them fixed anything!
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Why wasn't the press on suicide watch?
Widow of U.S. Soldier: VA Turned Away Husband Before His Suicide
FOX News
Just after news broke that President Obama summoned VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to the White House, Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson Jr. brought us the heartbreaking story of Army Staff Sgt. Kevin Hartbarger. His widow, Barbra Hartbarger, explained that her husband tragically took his own life in Aug. 2012 after a long bout with depression.
Hartbarger had been treated from 2004 until his death by VA doctors, but Barbra said he kept getting referred to new psychiatrists and called the VA a "pill dispensary."
"No one doctor ever actually followed him completely. It would not be unusual to see two or three different psychiatrists each year. So every time he went in he would need to retell his story of what he was experiencing with that new doctor. And they would change medications randomly, so there was no continuity in his care," she recalled.
read more here
FOX News
Just after news broke that President Obama summoned VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to the White House, Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson Jr. brought us the heartbreaking story of Army Staff Sgt. Kevin Hartbarger. His widow, Barbra Hartbarger, explained that her husband tragically took his own life in Aug. 2012 after a long bout with depression.
Hartbarger had been treated from 2004 until his death by VA doctors, but Barbra said he kept getting referred to new psychiatrists and called the VA a "pill dispensary."
"No one doctor ever actually followed him completely. It would not be unusual to see two or three different psychiatrists each year. So every time he went in he would need to retell his story of what he was experiencing with that new doctor. And they would change medications randomly, so there was no continuity in his care," she recalled.
read more here
I wondered why the press wasn't on suicide watch in 2007 when they should have been. After all, it isn't as if any of these reports were secret. Every death on this post came from reports too many ignored. There are plenty of them, far too many of them, but as you just read, each one is too many for their families but not too many for the military and the VA to actually change what they do.
1/25/2007 JUSTIN BAILEY 27 CALIFORNIA OVERDOSE Iraq war veteran Justin Bailey checked himself in to the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center just after Thanksgiving.Among the first wave of Marines sent into battle, the young rifleman had been diagnosed since his return with posttraumatic stress disorder and a groin injury. Now, Bailey acknowledged to his family and a friend, he needed immediate treatment for his addiction to prescription and street drugs."We were so happy," said his stepmother, Mary Kaye Bailey, 41. "We were putting all of our faith into those doctors."On Jan. 25, Justin Bailey got prescriptions filled for five medications, including a two-week supply of the potent painkiller methadone, according to his medical records. A day later, he was found dead of an apparent overdose in his room at a VA rehabilitation center on the hospital grounds. He was 27.Timothy Bowman FORRESTON, Ill. — A year ago on Thanksgiving morning, in the corrugated metal pole barn that housed his family's electrical business, Timothy Bowman put a handgun to his head and pulled the trigger. He had been home from the Iraq war for eight months. Once a fun-loving, life-of-the-party type, Bowman had slipped into an abyss, tormented by things he'd been ordered to do in war. "I'm OK. I can deal with it," he would say whenever his father, Mike, urged him to get counseling. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is facing a wave of returning veterans such as Bowman who are struggling with memories of a war where it's hard to distinguish innocent civilians from enemy fighters and where the threat of suicide attacks and roadside bombs haunts the most routine mission. Since 2001, about 1.4 million Americans have served in Iraq, Afghanistan or other locations in the war on terror.
Matthew Ladd Goes to Federal Court in Battle for PTSD Justice
PTSD suit against West Palm Beach goes to federal court
Palm Beach Post
By Jane Musgrave
Staff Writer
May 21, 2014
WEST PALM BEACH — Having convinced one jury that the city of West Palm Beach violated his rights when it fired him because it suspected he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, an Army veteran is now taking his case to federal court.
Making many of the same claims that swayed a Palm Beach County Circuit Court jury in August that the city should pay him $880,000, Matthew Ladd on Wednesday sued West Palm Beach in U.S. District Court.
read more here
Ex-West Palm cop fights firing over PTSD allegations
Matthew Ladd still has not received the money the jury awarded him. Late Friday, a Palm Beach County jury agreed, ordering West Palm Beach to pay the 28-year-old Army veteran $880,000 for firing him on the basis of rumors that he had post-traumatic stress disorder.
Matthew Ladd won lawsuit for PTSD still waiting for justice
Judge refuses to order West Palm police to reinstate veteran who has PTSD
Palm Beach Post
By Jane Musgrave
Staff Writer
May 21, 2014
WEST PALM BEACH — Having convinced one jury that the city of West Palm Beach violated his rights when it fired him because it suspected he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, an Army veteran is now taking his case to federal court.
Making many of the same claims that swayed a Palm Beach County Circuit Court jury in August that the city should pay him $880,000, Matthew Ladd on Wednesday sued West Palm Beach in U.S. District Court.
read more here
Ex-West Palm cop fights firing over PTSD allegations
Matthew Ladd still has not received the money the jury awarded him. Late Friday, a Palm Beach County jury agreed, ordering West Palm Beach to pay the 28-year-old Army veteran $880,000 for firing him on the basis of rumors that he had post-traumatic stress disorder.
Matthew Ladd won lawsuit for PTSD still waiting for justice
Judge refuses to order West Palm police to reinstate veteran who has PTSD
Bad Paper Discharges New Video
His Purple Heart 'Didn't Mean S***'
Huffington Post
Jordan Melograna
Content Director, Brave New Films
Posted: 05/21/2014
How often have we heard of employees being injured on the job and their bosses trying to squirm out of paying for benefits? We've seen it with coal miners and NFL players, but what if the job was defending our country, and the boss was the U.S. military?
That's what happened to Marine Corps veteran Josh Christmon, the subject of Brave New Films' newest video, "Bad Paper":
Josh earned a Purple Heart for his service in Iraq, where a close encounter with a roadside explosion nearly killed him. He suffered back problems and leg injuries, but maybe worse than all that were the nightmares, the depression, and the disconnection from his family -- classic signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Josh's bad dreams followed him back home. Alcohol seemed as good a way to forget as any, so one night he went out for drinks. He was also offered a joint. Josh took two puffs. A week later he failed a random drug test at work. Days after that he was less than honorably discharged from the Marine Corps, losing all his veterans benefits, including his medical care.
This kind of zero-tolerance policy has invaded every corner of American society. We see it in our schools, where kids are arrested for behavior that used to send them to the principal's office.
We see it in our harsh response to our nation's broken immigration system, labeling those who seek jobs and opportunities as hardened criminals. The worst of all zero-tolerance policies, our nation's long-running "war on drugs," hasn't made a dent in our drug-addiction rates but has sent our incarceration rates soaring past every other nation on Earth.
We're so interested in the most severe penalties that we are blind to context. In this case, zero tolerance threw away a brave Marine. As Josh puts it in the video, his Purple Heart "didn't mean shit."
read more here
Huffington Post
Jordan Melograna
Content Director, Brave New Films
Posted: 05/21/2014
How often have we heard of employees being injured on the job and their bosses trying to squirm out of paying for benefits? We've seen it with coal miners and NFL players, but what if the job was defending our country, and the boss was the U.S. military?
That's what happened to Marine Corps veteran Josh Christmon, the subject of Brave New Films' newest video, "Bad Paper":
Josh earned a Purple Heart for his service in Iraq, where a close encounter with a roadside explosion nearly killed him. He suffered back problems and leg injuries, but maybe worse than all that were the nightmares, the depression, and the disconnection from his family -- classic signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Josh's bad dreams followed him back home. Alcohol seemed as good a way to forget as any, so one night he went out for drinks. He was also offered a joint. Josh took two puffs. A week later he failed a random drug test at work. Days after that he was less than honorably discharged from the Marine Corps, losing all his veterans benefits, including his medical care.
This kind of zero-tolerance policy has invaded every corner of American society. We see it in our schools, where kids are arrested for behavior that used to send them to the principal's office.
We see it in our harsh response to our nation's broken immigration system, labeling those who seek jobs and opportunities as hardened criminals. The worst of all zero-tolerance policies, our nation's long-running "war on drugs," hasn't made a dent in our drug-addiction rates but has sent our incarceration rates soaring past every other nation on Earth.
We're so interested in the most severe penalties that we are blind to context. In this case, zero tolerance threw away a brave Marine. As Josh puts it in the video, his Purple Heart "didn't mean shit."
read more here
The number of U.S. soldiers forced out of the Army because of crimes or misconduct has soared in the past several years as the military emerges from more than 10 years of war that put a greater focus on battle competence than on character.
Data obtained by The Associated Press show that the number of officers who left the Army due to misconduct more than tripled in the past three years. The number of enlisted soldiers forced out for drugs, alcohol, crimes and other misconduct shot up from about 5,600 in 2007, as the Iraq war peaked, to more than 11,000 last year.
Florida VA Kicks Out PTSD Veterans with Service Dogs
Florida VA boots disorderly vets with PTSD
Florida Watchdog
By William Patrick
May 21, 2014
SHUT IT OFF: A security guard tells Rory Dobis, founder of Paws 4 Boots, to stop filming during a confrontation at a Viera, Fla. Veterans Affairs facility.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Several combat veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder were denied access to a Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic in Viera because their service dogs apparently didn’t have the proper paperwork.
The vets were rebuffed by security officers. But when they refused to leave the situation nearly spiraled out of control.
Rory Dobis, founder of Paws 4 Boots, told Watchdog.org that he was attempting to assist several veterans in acclimating their dogs to the VA facility where they regularly come to receive physical and mental health treatment.
“I was trying to take one or two of my service dogs inside and make sure they were behaving properly so that my veterans would know that it’s OK,” he said.
Dobis, who also suffers from PTSD and is a former U.S. Army military police dog trainer, said he takes his dog in all the time.
When he was rebuffed — even after asserting what he said are his rights under the American Disabilities Act — a confrontation ensued. The longer he stayed, the more security personnel arrived.
read more here
Florida Watchdog
By William Patrick
May 21, 2014
SHUT IT OFF: A security guard tells Rory Dobis, founder of Paws 4 Boots, to stop filming during a confrontation at a Viera, Fla. Veterans Affairs facility.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Several combat veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder were denied access to a Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic in Viera because their service dogs apparently didn’t have the proper paperwork.
The vets were rebuffed by security officers. But when they refused to leave the situation nearly spiraled out of control.
Rory Dobis, founder of Paws 4 Boots, told Watchdog.org that he was attempting to assist several veterans in acclimating their dogs to the VA facility where they regularly come to receive physical and mental health treatment.
“I was trying to take one or two of my service dogs inside and make sure they were behaving properly so that my veterans would know that it’s OK,” he said.
Dobis, who also suffers from PTSD and is a former U.S. Army military police dog trainer, said he takes his dog in all the time.
When he was rebuffed — even after asserting what he said are his rights under the American Disabilities Act — a confrontation ensued. The longer he stayed, the more security personnel arrived.
read more here
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)