NBC 5 Expands PTSD Discussion to Spouses of Sufferers
NBC 5
By Meredith Land
Thursday, May 29, 2014
We are looking at a completely different side to post-traumatic stress disorder.
As a news organization, NBC 5 has reported on PTSD and its effects on service members. Now, we're expanding the discussion by talking with the spouses of PTSD sufferers — courageous women who chose to speak publicly about supporting their husbands after deployment and the affects their spouse's condition has had on their families.
Jeremy Lanning, a psychotherapist in Fort Worth at The LifeWorks Group, is helping women who suffer with what he refers to as "secondary trauma."
"The idea of having group work is you can highlight people's successes," Lanning said.
Lanning connects complete strangers, Like DJ Jacobson and April Cantrell. They bond and share their coping strategies.
"If you talk to any service members or anyone who suffers from PTSD, one of the biggest things for them is that all their behaviors and actions are taken personally," Lanning said.
In these intense group therapy sessions, Lanning gives them a tray of sand and tiny toys. He told them to illustrate their lives.
Cantrell, who has been married for seven years creates hers first.
"I met a fireman and his son. Everything was really good. We got married, had small animals, then he went over to Iraq," Cantrell said.
Jacobson, married 32 years, does the same. Instantly the women, who rarely talk about living with PTSD sufferers relate.
"If we get off the path we are supposed to go, it causes everything to fall apart," Jacobson said.
"Yeah, I am kind of in my own little world here," Cantrell agrees.
Emotions in these sessions run high. Cantrell cries when she describes the journey she and her husband have been on since he return from Iraq.
read more here
Friday, May 30, 2014
This WWII veteran on ultimate wait list
This WWII veteran on ultimate wait list: He gets benefits after 68 years
FOX News
Cristina Corbin
May 29, 2014
The Veterans Administration is under fire for its long waiting lists, but it's unlikely any of America's service members can match the claim by Milton Rackham: It took 68 years before he was given the benefits he earned in battle.
The 89-year-old Rackham, of Belding, Mich., lived for decades without any benefits because the VA told him his records were lost in a fire in Missouri, the World War II veteran and Purple Heart recipient told FoxNews.com.
"They always said, 'we can't help you,'" recalled Rackham, a former engine mechanic with the U.S. Navy who suffered injuries during the war and later struggled to find work.
"It made me feel like I was worthless," he said.
In 2011, Rackham's friend, Myrl Thompson, began writing about Rackham's war stories, and arranged meetings between the veteran and VA officials over the benefits he allegedly never received. Roughly two months ago, Rackham claims he started receiving $822 a month from the VA as well as $7,000 in back-pay.
read more here
Ohio veteran finally applies for benefits at 106
This one explains part of what was going on back in 2008.
FOX News
Cristina Corbin
May 29, 2014
"What drove me crazy was that they had the same information in 2008 and they denied me," he told FoxNews.com. "That’s what blows me out of the water. Ever since 1974, when I first asked for benefits, they've had the same information."
The Veterans Administration is under fire for its long waiting lists, but it's unlikely any of America's service members can match the claim by Milton Rackham: It took 68 years before he was given the benefits he earned in battle.
The 89-year-old Rackham, of Belding, Mich., lived for decades without any benefits because the VA told him his records were lost in a fire in Missouri, the World War II veteran and Purple Heart recipient told FoxNews.com.
"They always said, 'we can't help you,'" recalled Rackham, a former engine mechanic with the U.S. Navy who suffered injuries during the war and later struggled to find work.
"It made me feel like I was worthless," he said.
In 2011, Rackham's friend, Myrl Thompson, began writing about Rackham's war stories, and arranged meetings between the veteran and VA officials over the benefits he allegedly never received. Roughly two months ago, Rackham claims he started receiving $822 a month from the VA as well as $7,000 in back-pay.
read more here
Ohio veteran finally applies for benefits at 106
This one explains part of what was going on back in 2008.
PTSD:WWII veterans first time claims riseAs you can see, there has never really been a time when all of our veterans were taken care of enough.
Still fighting war stress: VA granting more first-time disability claims to veterans in their 80s than ever before
The Press-Enterprise
By JOE VARGO
April 13, 2008
They beat Hitler, turned back the tide of Japanese imperialism and when the war ended, returned to civilian life to forge careers and raise families while seemingly unfazed by the horrors of combat many witnessed.
As World War II veterans have aged, and reflected on the dreadful experiences of war and carnage, more and more exhibited the symptoms of a malady unheard of when they went off to battle 65 years ago: post traumatic stress disorder.
And now, as they finally seek counseling and medical treatment, the department of Veterans Affairs is receiving -- and granting -- more first-time disability claims to veterans in their 80s than ever before.
Since 2000, the number of World War II veterans collecting disability from stress-related causes has risen 50 percent -- from 16,914 to 24,268 -- despite the deaths of 2 million veterans in that time.
In recent years, Veterans Affairs has established outreach programs to locate and assist aging veterans, set up vet-to-vet self-help groups and doled out disability payments, said Peggy Willoughby, spokeswoman for the VA's National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Willoughby, speaking by telephone from the center's headquarters in White River Junction, Vt., said Veterans Affairs doctors can't identify one overriding reason why World War II servicemen are coming forward now. She said she believes it's a combination of better information, outreach and counseling.
Guys like Gene Davis, of San Jacinto, say it's about time.
"We were done wrong," said Davis, 85, who spent almost a year in a German prison camp in 1944-45. "We didn't get what we deserved. There was no understanding of what was going on."
read more here
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Moment of truth for Congress and VA, flying monkeys
Lately is seems as if Congress is more like the forest in the Wizard of OZ and members more like flying monkeys than watchdogs. After all, they are supposed to be in control of the branches of government they sit in chairs of as members of a committee and subcommittee. You know, the stuff they get paid to do. When they don't, they get to blame everyone else and just hold hearings on who should get blamed instead of themselves.
We've been down this road for so long now it is pathetic how many people are hot under the collar as if it is all some huge shocker that never happened before. Too bad it has never really stopped happening.
For my almost 55 years on this earth, I have been involved in one way or another with disabled veterans. My Dad was 100% and my husband is. I have never, ever seen a time when there were not news reports about one problem or another. Just in the last 7 years since this blog started out of the almost 22,000 posts, most of them are about how we have failed our veterans.
I can assure you that none of this is new and has hardly improved over decades.
During the last two years of the Bush Administration, the Democrats controlled the House and the Senate. In other words, they had control over the committees and subcommittees. Before that, it was Republicans and now we're right back that way again with a divided government.
The one subject that should have never been a political one is our military, past and present yet every veteran I talk to feels like a political football and they pissed off. They hear this politician or that one talk about how bad things are and they lived through the reality of how bad things have been all along. All of a sudden, as election time rolls around again they are suddenly important and that ticks them off.
These are the same men and women willing to die for the sake of someone else and politics never mattered to them when lives were on the line. Imagine how they feel hearing politicians say they wanted to privatize the VA "decades ago" like the just heard John Boehner say. They know in order to do that, get what he wanted out of this, he'd have to destroy the VA first or veterans would never ever allow it to happen. After all, it is bad enough contractors make money off what troops do. This country owes them the best care and not the best private income for businesses.
They are frustrated. No, I take that back. They were frustrated years ago. Now it is more like heartbroken because they are not fools. They know what has been happening and most of them blame congress since no matter who is in charge, they suffered because too many politicians view the VA as welfare. Yes, a welfare program. You know, the kind of thing that no one deserves and no one needs.
So lets toss in a bit more truth about what has really been going on.
v Add these into the backlog since the door was opened to let these men and women in but congress never took that into consideration for staff and claims processors.
September 27, 2009
Two years before that effort was going on, there were 148,000 Vietnam veterans seeking help and filling claims for Agent Orange and PTSD. By 2010 the VA said PTSD claims went up 125% and Disabled Veterans Decry Wrongheaded, Heartless Budget Cuts by January 2011. Ad all this up and you have exactly what Boehner said he wanted. A way to sell off veterans care and privatize it. Guess he didn't figure on so many dying instead of living the best lives possible.
We've been down this road for so long now it is pathetic how many people are hot under the collar as if it is all some huge shocker that never happened before. Too bad it has never really stopped happening.
For my almost 55 years on this earth, I have been involved in one way or another with disabled veterans. My Dad was 100% and my husband is. I have never, ever seen a time when there were not news reports about one problem or another. Just in the last 7 years since this blog started out of the almost 22,000 posts, most of them are about how we have failed our veterans.
I can assure you that none of this is new and has hardly improved over decades.
During the last two years of the Bush Administration, the Democrats controlled the House and the Senate. In other words, they had control over the committees and subcommittees. Before that, it was Republicans and now we're right back that way again with a divided government.
The one subject that should have never been a political one is our military, past and present yet every veteran I talk to feels like a political football and they pissed off. They hear this politician or that one talk about how bad things are and they lived through the reality of how bad things have been all along. All of a sudden, as election time rolls around again they are suddenly important and that ticks them off.
These are the same men and women willing to die for the sake of someone else and politics never mattered to them when lives were on the line. Imagine how they feel hearing politicians say they wanted to privatize the VA "decades ago" like the just heard John Boehner say. They know in order to do that, get what he wanted out of this, he'd have to destroy the VA first or veterans would never ever allow it to happen. After all, it is bad enough contractors make money off what troops do. This country owes them the best care and not the best private income for businesses.
They are frustrated. No, I take that back. They were frustrated years ago. Now it is more like heartbroken because they are not fools. They know what has been happening and most of them blame congress since no matter who is in charge, they suffered because too many politicians view the VA as welfare. Yes, a welfare program. You know, the kind of thing that no one deserves and no one needs.
So lets toss in a bit more truth about what has really been going on.
v Add these into the backlog since the door was opened to let these men and women in but congress never took that into consideration for staff and claims processors.
September 27, 2009
The federal VA provides medical care and benefits to all enrolled veterans, with a range of preventive outpatient and inpatient services offered within its health care system. OEF/OIF veterans receive an additional benefit — five years of free health care in the VA system for any issue related to their deployment. As with other veterans, once enrolled in the system, they’re always in, but for issues not related to deployment or after those five free years, they may face co-payments.
"We typically have wide latitude in what we can determine is deployment related," Roberts added.
"Even if it’s not deployment related, we can take care of your needs."
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, of the 1.7 million who have served in the two theaters of operation, 1.02 million veterans were eligible for VA health care as of April 2009. A total of 454,121 have come to the VA for care, said the VA’s Terry Jemison. Of that number, nearly half are reserves and guard members.
In Pennsylvania, more than 11,380 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans sought treatment statewide in 2008, with 2,154 going to the Lebanon VA, according to the state Department of Veteran’s Affairs Web site.
"We have a large number of guard and reserves, and in many cases, they had to leave their workplace when their unit was called up," Jemison said, explaining some differences with veterans of past wars. "After being separated from active duty, they’ve returned to work and have health insurance from their job and other options.
"They get to the demobilization site, are anxious to get home and aren’t thinking a lot about their federal benefits," he added. "They’re feeling beefy, strong and healthy and don’t have a health issue. It’s one reason we do follow-ups. We try to track them down and remind them."
Aside from ensuring they receive benefits they’re due, the VA wants veterans to enroll to make sure they can quickly access health care for any problems that crop up.
Two years before that effort was going on, there were 148,000 Vietnam veterans seeking help and filling claims for Agent Orange and PTSD. By 2010 the VA said PTSD claims went up 125% and Disabled Veterans Decry Wrongheaded, Heartless Budget Cuts by January 2011. Ad all this up and you have exactly what Boehner said he wanted. A way to sell off veterans care and privatize it. Guess he didn't figure on so many dying instead of living the best lives possible.
Cops push disabled Vietnam veteran and get rewarded for it!
They pushed his 300 pound scooter over two miles!
Officers go beyond call of duty for Vietnam veteran
They pushed him in his scooter all the way home
10 News
Preston Phillips
May 28, 2014
SAN DIEGO - Two San Diego police officers are being commended for going above the call of duty.
Over the Memorial Day weekend, they pushed a Vietnam veteran nearly two miles to his home after his power scooter broke down on a busy road.
Both officers work out of the San Diego Police Department's Eastern division office off of Aero Drive in Serra Mesa, and neither one gave what they did Sunday a second thought.
"The least I could do was push him, you know. That's the least I could do. He's sacrificed and given so much to this country," said SDPD Officer Milo Shields.
It was not what Vietnam veteran Gil Larocque was expecting to happen when his power scooter stopped working along busy Clairemont Mesa Boulevard on the day before Memorial Day.
"You wouldn't expect them to do something like that … put you all the way home," said Larocque.
read more here
DAV Blames Congress Too Because They Paid Attention All Along
In VA Scandal Fallout, Disabled American Veterans ‘Outraged’ at Burr,
Blames Congress for Lack of Funding
RollCall
By Steven Dennis
May 25, 2014
Sen. Richard Burr’s statement ripping the leaders of veterans’ groups Friday has sparked a second letter of outrage, this time from Disabled American Veterans, in the latest fallout from the VA scandal.
After the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) torched Burr, R-N.C., Saturday for a “monumental cheap-shot,” DAV National Commander Joseph W. Johnston issued a statement of his own.
Johnston defended his and other groups’ decision not to join the American Legion’s calls for Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to resign, and blamed a lack of funding from Congress for much of the VA’s troubles.
“If Senator Burr believes that calling for the resignation of Secretary Shinseki is the only measure of whether a leader cares about veterans, perhaps he should check with Speaker Boehner, Chairman Miller and numerous Republican Senate colleagues who have not yet done so,” Johnston wrote.
Burr dismissed the criticism in a statement later Sunday, suggesting that groups were more outraged by his letter than they were by the VA scandal.
Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, is one of Burr’s best friends. He said last week he was getting “closer” to calling for Shinseki’s resignation.
The blistering VFW letter and Burr’s original letter are posted here.
As for me and my husband, proud to be life members of the DAV and the Auxiliary
Blames Congress for Lack of Funding
RollCall
By Steven Dennis
May 25, 2014
Sen. Richard Burr’s statement ripping the leaders of veterans’ groups Friday has sparked a second letter of outrage, this time from Disabled American Veterans, in the latest fallout from the VA scandal.
After the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) torched Burr, R-N.C., Saturday for a “monumental cheap-shot,” DAV National Commander Joseph W. Johnston issued a statement of his own.
Johnston defended his and other groups’ decision not to join the American Legion’s calls for Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to resign, and blamed a lack of funding from Congress for much of the VA’s troubles.
“If Senator Burr believes that calling for the resignation of Secretary Shinseki is the only measure of whether a leader cares about veterans, perhaps he should check with Speaker Boehner, Chairman Miller and numerous Republican Senate colleagues who have not yet done so,” Johnston wrote.
Burr dismissed the criticism in a statement later Sunday, suggesting that groups were more outraged by his letter than they were by the VA scandal.
Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, is one of Burr’s best friends. He said last week he was getting “closer” to calling for Shinseki’s resignation.
The blistering VFW letter and Burr’s original letter are posted here.
As for me and my husband, proud to be life members of the DAV and the Auxiliary
The full DAV statement:
DAV is outraged that North Carolina’s Senator Richard Burr chose the eve of Memorial Day weekend – a sacred time to remember and honor those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our nation — to attack the patriotism of leaders of most of the nation’s leading veterans service organizations.
Last week at a hearing of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, DAV and other veteran service organizations offered comprehensive testimony on the underlying causes of the waiting list problems afflicting VA health care facilities that are currently under investigation. In addition to demanding full accountability for anyone found to have violated VA rules, regulations or laws, we provided detailed analysis and forward-looking recommendations to address the root cause of waiting lists: lack of access and capacity to treat all veterans seeking care.
Although Senator Burr attended much of that hearing, apparently all he wanted to hear were calls for the VA Secretary to resign. Senator Burr may be enamored with the idea that all of VA’s problems and challenges can be overcome by replacing one Secretary, but the plain facts and simple logic indicate otherwise. If Senator Burr believes that calling for the resignation of Secretary Shinseki is the only measure of whether a leader cares about veterans, perhaps he should check with Speaker Boehner, Chairman Miller and numerous Republican Senate colleagues who have not yet done so.
Regrettably, Senator Burr shows no interest in pursuing serious policy solutions, preferring instead to launch cheap political attacks on the integrity of leaders of veterans organizations that do not agree with him, all of whom served honorably to defend this nation and then devoted all or most of their lives to serving their fellow veterans.
In spite of Senator Burr’s attacks, we will continue to call for an open and comprehensive investigation in Phoenix and at any other VA facility where wrongdoings are alleged. While Senator Burr challenges our integrity, we will continue to demand full accountability for all who violated the public trust, regardless of who or where they are, including criminal prosecution if warranted. While Senator Burr ignores VA’s real challenges, we will continue to call for an independent review not just of VA’s wait list and scheduling problems, but the access and capacity deficits that created them.
History clearly shows that unless VA receives sufficient resources to hire enough doctors and nurses, and has enough physical space to treat veterans, waiting list problems will continue. Over the past decade, DAV – along with many of our veteran service organization partners – have pointed out that the VA has received more than $17 billion less than was needed, a figure that is primarily derived from VA’s own internal analysis. Although these facts have been clear to successive Administrations and Congresses – including Senator Burr – none took the actions necessary to provide VA the resources it requires.
Rather than be distracted by Senator Burr’s hollow insults, we will continue to reach out to thoughtful Republicans and Democrats in the Senate and House, as well as the President and leaders in VA, to join with us in taking an honest look at all the facts, to discuss with us all possible remedies and reforms and to work with us to implement solutions that truly honor the heroism of the men and women we remember this Memorial Day weekend.
Fort Hood Soldier in Intensive Care after beating in Washington
Soldier in intensive care after attack outside restaurant
KIROTV
By Monique Ming Laven
May 29, 2014
TACOMA, Wash. — "He doesn't look like my son right now," said Lisa Senecal while in tears from her son's bedside. Specialist Korry McClanahan, 25, is motionless in bed, his head wrapped in gauze. Until late Friday night, he spent almost every day working out. Now his family doesn't know if he'll ever move again.
McClanahan got to Joint Base Lewis-McChord from Fort Hood, Texas, a few weeks ago. On Friday he and another soldier went to Steel Creek American Whiskey Co. in downtown Tacoma to play pool. At about midnight they went outside to smoke.
The other soldier says a group of six men, speaking in Russian, approached them and started picking a fight. The soldier says he and McClanahan wanted no part of it and tried to walk away.
The group followed and "bum rushed" them. He says McClanahan was punched in the face. He was knocked out. When he fell, his head slammed into the ground.
The soldier says the men piled into a black Infiniti G35, model year 2005 or 2006. They sped off. He called 911. And McClanahan has not spoken since.
"They don't know what the long term affect is going to be," said his mother. She says her son has not responded to any commands. He has opened his eyes but does not seem to comprehend or react to anything.
read more here
KIROTV
By Monique Ming Laven
May 29, 2014
TACOMA, Wash. — "He doesn't look like my son right now," said Lisa Senecal while in tears from her son's bedside. Specialist Korry McClanahan, 25, is motionless in bed, his head wrapped in gauze. Until late Friday night, he spent almost every day working out. Now his family doesn't know if he'll ever move again.
McClanahan got to Joint Base Lewis-McChord from Fort Hood, Texas, a few weeks ago. On Friday he and another soldier went to Steel Creek American Whiskey Co. in downtown Tacoma to play pool. At about midnight they went outside to smoke.
The other soldier says a group of six men, speaking in Russian, approached them and started picking a fight. The soldier says he and McClanahan wanted no part of it and tried to walk away.
The group followed and "bum rushed" them. He says McClanahan was punched in the face. He was knocked out. When he fell, his head slammed into the ground.
The soldier says the men piled into a black Infiniti G35, model year 2005 or 2006. They sped off. He called 911. And McClanahan has not spoken since.
"They don't know what the long term affect is going to be," said his mother. She says her son has not responded to any commands. He has opened his eyes but does not seem to comprehend or react to anything.
read more here
When will Congress hold themselves accountable for veterans?
When will they take responsibility? Here's an update. Looks like never.
Calls for Eric Shinseki’s resignation grow among Republicans, Democrats In rapid succession, House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-Calif.), Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) -- a leading GOP voice on military and foreign affairs -- and Sens. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and John Walsh (D-Mont.) called on Shinseki to step down just hours after the Department of Veterans Affairs Inspector General released a report confirming some allegations that have rocked the beleaguered department in recent weeks.
When I read the following article, I had to leave this comment. I don't know if they will approve it or not, but after 30 years of tracking all of this, no one seems to have the answer for it.
The problem is members of Congress have never taken responsibility for their lack of attention on the VA and the DOD. With so many committees and subcommittees, you'd think they would have fixed all the issues veterans have faced for decades but they didn't. They hold hearings on the results listening to veterans and families falling apart but didn't hold hearings on who caused the problems in the first place. They don't hold hearings on what has worked and what other solutions have been created by the public.When It Comes to America's Veterans' Crisis, "Thank You For Your Service" Is Not Enough
Boehner said he's been pushing to privatize the VA for "decades" but the only way that can be done is to destroy the VA instead of fix it. We've read the results of decades of neglect. When will Congress hold themselves accountable?
Huffington Post
by Congressman Jim McDermott, Sebastian Junger and Karl Marlantes
Posted: 05/28/2014
Historian David W. Blight has written that the first Memorial Day took place in Charleston, South Carolina. On May 1, 1865, a crowd of African-Americans -- recently freed from slavery -- honored the Union soldiers entombed in the rocky ground of the Charleston Race Course.
Twenty-nine days later, William Tecumseh Sherman concluded his farewell order from the United States Army with the words, "Your general now bids you farewell, with the full belief that, as in war you have been good soldiers, so in peace you will make good citizens."
On this Memorial Day 2014, we must acknowledge, not as a member of Congress, a veteran of the Vietnam War and a journalist-filmmaker, but as one nation indivisible, that Sherman's hope for American soldiers is not being realized today.
According to current Veterans Administration estimates, 22 American veterans take their lives every single day.
High rates of unemployment, homelessness, alcoholism, substance abuse and post-traumatic stress are decimating our community of veterans. With the wars of the past 13 years in Iraq and Afghanistan coming to a close, we are seeing too many casualties among American soldiers in this transition to peace.
In light of this crisis, we need a new kind of Memorial Day.
read more here
Three tour Iraq veteran wanted to "prevent American Spring"
Troubled Iraq vet found on city bus loaded with guns
New York Post
By Kirstan Conley and Joe Tacopino
May 29, 2014
A troubled Iraq war veteran who believed he was trying to protect Americans from a bloody civil war was busted after riding a Brooklyn bus while carrying a 12-gauge shotgun, machete and an array of ammo, law-enforcement sources said.
Christopher Palumbo, 27, who served three tours in Iraq, was charged with larceny and weapons possession after terrified bus passengers saw the high-powered weaponry slipping from his bag on a bus in Bay Ridge on Tuesday, sources said.
The former Marine said that he was protecting people and trying to prevent the “bloodshed” from an “American Spring,” sources said. Palumbo’s mother said he was deeply affected by serving overseas.
read more here
New York Post
By Kirstan Conley and Joe Tacopino
May 29, 2014
A troubled Iraq war veteran who believed he was trying to protect Americans from a bloody civil war was busted after riding a Brooklyn bus while carrying a 12-gauge shotgun, machete and an array of ammo, law-enforcement sources said.
Christopher Palumbo, 27, who served three tours in Iraq, was charged with larceny and weapons possession after terrified bus passengers saw the high-powered weaponry slipping from his bag on a bus in Bay Ridge on Tuesday, sources said.
The former Marine said that he was protecting people and trying to prevent the “bloodshed” from an “American Spring,” sources said. Palumbo’s mother said he was deeply affected by serving overseas.
read more here
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
What the hell did talking heads do about the VA all these years?
Give me a break and veterans too! No one is telling the truth or blaming who needs to be blamed for what has been happening to veterans for decades! This is all political bullshit. Take a look over the last few days on Wounded Times to read what reporters have been uncovering for years. When you hear people talk about how bad it is now, there is a reason for it. Obama has had since 2009 to fix this and Bush had 8 years and Clinton had 8 years and Bush had 4 years and Reagan had 8 years but the kicker is, the Congress is the one responsible for all of it! Holding hearings, oversight and paying for all of it so don't let them even start to pretend it isn't their fault.
Crisis in VA? Think it is new?
If you do then you've trusted the wrong people to tell you the wrong information so you won't blame Congress.
VA in crisis again, Tuesday, December 25, 2007 in when that report came out.
29 Patients at Marion VA died because of substandard and questionable care. Dallas VA closes psych unit after 4th suicide of year. 500,000 Rocky Mountain Veterans get shafted Hospital cutbacks spark outrage among veterans.
But they also blamed VA staff too A mixture of fear and distrust has replaced the pride and pleasure of serving veterans that employees of the Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial Veterans Affairs Medical Center once had, according to at least one former VA employee. "It's toxic. That's how I would say it. People who have been there for 20 years are getting notices of 30 days," said James Bernasconi.
This is from 2009
A 2004 GAO report stated that though VA had implemented policies and procedures that required medical centers to purchase medical products and services through VA’s contract programs, a VA IG report found that the medical centers continued to make many less cost efficient purchases from local suppliers. The VA IG estimated that, with improved procurement practices at medical centers, VA could have saved, in 2004, about $1.4 billion over 5 years.
Check the facts the next time someone opens their mouth now and ask them where their outrage has been all these years and what they did about it.
Here's one more
Less than three months after Obama took office, this piece of news came out.
Crisis in VA? Think it is new?
If you do then you've trusted the wrong people to tell you the wrong information so you won't blame Congress.
Executive director Hal Dulle of the state veterans commission says too many veterans have to wait too long to be accepted in the Veterans Administration system and then have to wait too long to get the medical help they need.
He says, his office works to get veterans to file for their benefits but the VA lacks the personnel to handle the paperwork efficiently. Dulle says the system isn't broken. He says it just doesn't have enough people to handle the increased number of veterans applying for services. The heavy burden is caused by an influx of Gulf war veterans seeking benefits at the same time many Vietnam veterans have decided after 40 years of not being involved...to sign up.
But once the paperwork is processed and the veteran is in the system----there's a lack of doctors. Dulle says part of that problem is that the VA has limited funds...and in a competitive world, the VA has trouble paying enough to keep the specialists the veterans want to see from going into private practice.
VA in crisis again, Tuesday, December 25, 2007 in when that report came out.
A Redmond veteran says he was refused medical treatment at the Bend VA Clinic, red-flagged and now can't get the treatment he needs for advanced cancer.These are some from 2008
Now he's pleading with officials to fix the system, while they say he was a disturbance.
Pill bottles in the dozens line the bedside 52-year-old Jeffery Severns sleeps in in his Redmond living room.
The veteran was a combat nurse all over the world and served in Operation Desert Storm.
But cancer has spread into his shoulder, tailbone, spine, ribs and gall bladder.
Last spring, it was his throat that hurt him the most, so he went to the VA Clinic in Bend without an appointment and begged to be seen, but it didn't happen.
"Since [my vocal cords] were paralyzed, there was too much air going in and out," Severns explained Thursday. "I couldn't speak, so I would have to take in huge amounts of air to take in a few words. So they thought I was weird. They thought because I was anxious, because I thought I was going to die, they thought I was a threat."
Severns says he was red-flagged, a process the Department of Veterans Affairs uses when someone is disruptive, threatening or violent.
He says the Bend clinic refused him service, so he got a ride to Portland's VA Medical Center. He says doctors there were ready to help - until they looked at his file and saw the red flag.
He says he was escorted right out of the building and continues to be banned from the Bend office.
29 Patients at Marion VA died because of substandard and questionable care. Dallas VA closes psych unit after 4th suicide of year. 500,000 Rocky Mountain Veterans get shafted Hospital cutbacks spark outrage among veterans.
The planned Aurora medical center would treat 500,000 in the Rocky Mountain region.
But they also blamed VA staff too A mixture of fear and distrust has replaced the pride and pleasure of serving veterans that employees of the Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial Veterans Affairs Medical Center once had, according to at least one former VA employee. "It's toxic. That's how I would say it. People who have been there for 20 years are getting notices of 30 days," said James Bernasconi.
This is from 2009
A 2004 GAO report stated that though VA had implemented policies and procedures that required medical centers to purchase medical products and services through VA’s contract programs, a VA IG report found that the medical centers continued to make many less cost efficient purchases from local suppliers. The VA IG estimated that, with improved procurement practices at medical centers, VA could have saved, in 2004, about $1.4 billion over 5 years.
Check the facts the next time someone opens their mouth now and ask them where their outrage has been all these years and what they did about it.
Here's one more
Less than three months after Obama took office, this piece of news came out.
A new report about Veterans Affairs Department employees squirreling away tens of thousands of unopened letters related to benefits claims is sparking fresh concerns that veterans and their survivors are being cheated out of money.
VA officials acknowledge further credibility problems based on a new report of a previously undisclosed 2007 incident in which workers at a Detroit regional office turned in 16,000 pieces of unprocessed mail and 717 documents turned up in New York in December during amnesty periods in which workers were promised no one would be penalized.
“Veterans have lost trust in VA,” Michael Walcoff, VA’s under secretary for benefits, said at a hearing Tuesday. “That loss of trust is understandable, and winning back that trust will not be easy.”
Unprocessed and unopened mail was just one problem in VA claims processing mentioned by Belinda Finn, VA’s assistant inspector general for auditing, in testimony before the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee.
Fort Riley Soldier's Body Found in Apartment
Great Bend Post
May 27, 2014
JUNCTION CITY, Kan. (AP) — Police in Junction City are investigating the death of a Fort Riley soldier in an off-post apartment.
The serviceman was identified Tuesday as 26-year-old Shawn Michael Thomas. Police responding to a report of a shooting Monday found Thomas dead of a single gunshot wound.
Investigators said in a news release that Thomas was assigned to E Company of 3rd Battalion, 1st Aviation Regiment.
check here for updates
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