Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl captive since 2009 released by Taliban

Freed Soldier Bowe Bergdahl's Idaho Town Plans Celebratory Homecoming
NBC News

HAILEY, Idaho — The news Saturday of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's release from captivity spread quickly in his hometown in southern Idaho, and residents immediately began making plans for a welcome-home celebration.

An annual event called "Bring Bowe Back" scheduled for June 28 was quickly renamed "Bowe is Back."

"It is going to be Bowe's official welcome-home party even if he's not quite home yet," organizer Stefanie O'Neill said Saturday.

Bergdahl, 28, had been held prisoner by the Taliban since June 30, 2009.

In Hailey, a town of 7,000 residents just down the road from upscale Sun Valley, residents have hung yellow ribbons from trees and utility poles and planted a tree in a local park each year since he was held. Signs reading "Bring Bowe Home" were placed in shop windows.
read more here

Who was held accountable for suicide deaths in the military?

Military Suicide Event Report for 2012

National Guards not included.
For 2012, there have been 143 potential not on active-duty suicides 96 Army National Guard and 47 Army Reserve

All services combined suicides for 2012
318, 295 males and 23 females
Attempted Suicides
869, 663 males and 206 females, 829 Active and 32 Reservists

Air Force
Suicides
57, 51 males and 6 females
Attempted Suicides
229, 157 males and 72 females

Army
Suicides
155, 145 males and 10 females 143 were Active and 12 were Reservists
Attempted suicides
365, 283 males and 82 females
Self Harm 173, 106 males and 67 females
Suicidal Ideation 836, 660 males and 176 females


Marine Corps
Suicides
47, 44 males and 3 females 47 were active duty
Attempted Suicides
169, 150 males and 19 females 166 were Active and 2 were Reservists

US Navy 
Suicides
59, 55 males and 4 females 57 were active duty and 2 were Reservists.
Attempted Navy Suicides
106, 73 males and 33 females

In 2010 17.5% went to 18.0% in 2011 went to 22.7% in 2012

World Warrior Shaft

Jon Stewart covers this mess with the VA. World Warrior Shaft

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

Backlog problems Stewart points out that Bush didn't fix them before Obama didn't fix them.


Then Stewart follows all of this up with World Warrior Shaft Terrible Memory Lane

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

Marine gets death penalty for murder of 2nd Class Petty Officer Amanda Snell

Former Marine sentenced to death in murder of Navy woman
Chicago Tribune
By Katherine Skiba
Published: May 31, 2014

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Saying Jorge Torrez had committed “unconscionable crimes,” a federal judge Friday sentenced him to death for strangling a female sailor near the Pentagon in 2009.

Torrez, a Marine at the time of the murder, also stands accused of killing two young girls in Zion, Ill., on Mother’s Day 2005, and prosecutors in Illinois plan to try him for those crimes.

The death sentence, handed down by federal Judge Liam O’Grady in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, was expected after a federal jury voted unanimously April 24 that Torrez should be put to death for killing Amanda Jean Snell, 20.

Torrez, wearing handcuffs shackled to his waist, said little during Friday’s brief court proceeding, but his lawyers said they would file an appeal in the case.

When Torrez was asked by the judge if he wished to make remarks before the sentencing, he said: “There’s nothing I want to say, your honor.”

The defendant, in forest green jail-issued clothing, was led into the courtroom at 1:32 p.m. EDT.

Seven minutes later, Judge Liam O’Grady said Torrez’s crimes supported the jury’s death penalty recommendation.

“I sentence you to death at this time,” O’Grady stated.
read more here

Veteran Graduate with PTSD Service Dog

Army Veteran Graduates, with Service Dog at His Side
WMFE
By: Carmel Delshad
May 30, 2014

Orlando - A man and his four-legged best friend graduated today.

Army Veteran Paul Aragon stands with his service dog, Zoey, after graduating from the Motorcycle Mechanics Institute on Friday.

It looks and sounds like any other graduation---proud parents beam with joy as camera flashes flicker throughout the room. But the leader in the procession of graduates is holding a leash.

Army Veteran Paul Aragon walked through the Orlando Motorcycle Mechanics Institute graduation ceremony with his service dog, Zoey.

Aragon was diagnosed with PTSD in 2009. He says Zoey played an integral part in getting him through school- and helping him assimilate back into civilian life.
read more here

Congress Collective Amnesia on Veterans Affairs

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
May 31, 2012

Congress is suffering from collective amnesia regarding the plight of our veterans.

Fits of social amnesia after difficult or trying periods can sometimes cover up the past, and fading memories can actually make mythologies transcend by keeping them "impervious to challenge"

Veterans are with us forever but politicians come and go. As you will read, when heads of the VA have gone, nothing really changed. Sure money was spent but it was never enough to cover the number of veterans politicians were creating by starting wars. With WWII it seemed as if they got their act together and veterans were held in such high regard, they didn't even try to mess with them, or at least that is what they wanted us to think. They did it with Korea and Vietnam just as they did it with the Gulf War. They repeated it with Afghanistan and Iraq. Praise the veterans during election time then shove them into the ditch right afterwards.

It is just another round of politicians pretending to care because of the latest scandal but there have been oh so many more.

Anthony Principi Secretary of Veterans Affairs from 2001-2005 stepped up to complain about VA problems and offered his thoughts on how to fix it.

As a former secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, I am deeply troubled by reports involving the falsification of records to conceal waiting times for veterans at VA hospitals—with at least 40 of them dying while awaiting treatment. A preliminary review by the VA inspector general, released Wednesday, found that at least 1,700 veterans waiting for care at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs medical facility were not even on a wait list.

He replace Hershel W. Gober, acting Secretary of Department of Veterans Affairs from 2000-2001, replaced Togo West (1998-2000) and this is facinating since part of the article on Wiki contains a flashback military sexual assault survivors will find interesting.

West held several posts in the administration of Jimmy Carter: General Counsel of the Navy (1977–1979), Special Assistant to the Secretary and to the Deputy Secretary of Defense (1979), and General Counsel of the Department of Defense (1980–1981). As the Secretary of the Army, West weighed in on the Aberdeen scandal, prompting stricter enforcement and investigation into the Army's sexual harassment policies.

President Clinton's appointment to head the VA was Jesse Brown, a disabled Vietnam veteran. The number of veterans receiving healthcare benefits went from 2 million in 1993 to over 3.7 million in 2000. The budget went from $36 billion to $48 billion for 2001. Sexual trauma counselors in Vet Centers was a new division in National Center for PTSD.

While I hate to slam Jon Stewart on his reporting on the records the VA and DOD were supposed to be getting together, that also started under President Clinton. "The Government Computer Based Patient Record Framework Program originated as a joint VA and Department of Defense (DOD) response to satisfy a 1997 presidential directive to create a comprehensive, lifelong medical record for all service personnel." They also started "Virtual VA" as a way of providing a paperless way to file claims.

Here is another flashback U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims

In the mid-1980s, 75 million U.S. citizens—one-third of the population of the United States—were eligible for some form of veterans' benefits. Then, as in the early 2000s, war veterans and their dependents and survivors could apply to one of the 58 regional offices of the veterans administration (VA) for disability, loan eligibility, education, and other benefits. In an average year in the 1980s, nearly 800,000 disability claims were filed, about half of which were granted by the regional offices. Before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims was created, people whose claims were turned down had limited recourse, which did not include review by a court of law. If a regional office of the VA denied a claim, the claimant could appeal that decision within the VA to the BVA. If the BVA denied the appeal—which it did in about 75 percent of cases—the claimant had just one remaining option: to reopen the claim on the basis of new and material evidence and begin the process over again.

In July 1999 the court issued a decision which held that the veterans affairs department (VA) did not have a duty to assist veterans in developing their claims unless those claims were "well-grounded." In response Congress passed the Veterans Claims Assistance Act (VCAA) of 2000 (Pub.L. 106-475, Nov. 9, 2000, 114 Stat. 2096). Signed into law by President bill clinton in November 2000, the act eliminated the "well-grounded" language and stated that the VA was required to provide assistance in developing claims unless there was no reasonable possibility that VA aid would help the veteran's claim.

The Bush Administration walked into a VA claim backlog.

All this didn't happen overnight. Gregg Carlstrom reported for Federal Times that "Poor planning by agency leaders and underfunding by Congress created these debilitating backlogs that may take years to resolve, according to federal officials, legislators and watchdog groups. At the start of the Bush administration in 2001, VA had more than 400,000 pending claims for disability ratings, which determine a service-disabled veteran’s employability and disability benefits. The department made progress reducing that number: By 2003, the backlog was down to around 250,000."

Too bad Principi didn't have many thoughts when he had the job. Nicholson took over his chair and got blamed for most of what he walked into before he ended up letting things get even worse.

Jim Nicholson 2005-2007 Resigned

VA chief Jim Nicholson resigned in 2007. Most of us have seen few changes since he left office. This is the mess we were in back then. Nicholson walked into what Principi left behind.

"Within months of taking office at the VA, Nicholson had to deal with a $1 billion shortfall at the agency, requiring the administration to appeal to Congress for emergency spending.

Republicans blamed the shortfall on unexpected health care demands from veterans. But Democrats said it was an example of what they said was the administration's inadequate planning for the war in Iraq.

Nicholson came under harsh criticism in Congress after it was revealed in May 2006 that VA computer files with personal data, including Social Security numbers, for 26.5 million veterans and military troops, were missing."

"As a veteran, I am outraged. Frankly I'm mad as hell," Nicholson said, pledging strong action against those responsible. "I can't explain the lapses of judgment on the behalf of my people. We will stay focused on these problems until we get them fixed."

Why did people want him to resign?

Nicholson Underestimated Funding for Veterans' Health Care by at Least One Billion Dollars. "House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) and Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson, who had both argued that the department could get through this year without additional cash, held a joint news conference to announce "immediate action" to fill a fiscal 2005 shortfall of at least $1 billion, and another shortfall of at least $1.5 billion in the House-passed appropriation for VA health care in fiscal 2006. Nicholson told lawmakers Tuesday that the administration had vastly underestimated the number of service personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who would seek VA medical treatment." (Washington Post, 6/30/05)

Nicholson Repeatedly and Incorrectly Assured Congress that VA had Adequate Funds for Veterans' Health Care. An April 5 letter written by Nicholson to the Senate stated: "I can assure you that VA does not need emergency supplemental funds in FY2005 to continue to provide timely, quality service that is always our goal." (Washington Post, 6/24/05)

American Legion Commander: ‘I Blame Bush And Congress’ For Veterans Cuts President Bush spoke to the American Legion today, claiming that “support of our veterans has been a high priority in my administration,” and that one of his priorities is “making sure that our veterans have got good, decent, quality healthcare.”

President Bush should save his rhetoric. In an interview with National Public Radio, even American Legion National Commander Paul Morin, a regular political ally of the White House, pointed out that Bush has consistently skimped on veterans funding. “We are not pleased with the budget for the military and for the VA hospitals for our veterans,” Morin said. “I blame the President and Congress for insufficient funding of the VA health care system.”

And this from the GAO

For fiscal year 2005, Congress appropriated $31.5 billion for all of VA's medical programs, and VA provided medical care to about 5 million veterans. During fiscal year 2005, the President requested a $975 million supplemental request for that fiscal year and a $1.977 billion amendment to the President's budget request for fiscal year 2006. In congressional testimonies in the summer of 2005, VA stated that its actuarial model understated growth in patient workload and services and the resources required to provide these services.

"An unrealistic assumption, errors in estimation, and insufficient data were key factors in VA's budget formulation process that contributed to the requests for additional funding. According to VA, an unrealistic assumption about the speed with which VA could implement a policy to reduce nursing home patient workload in VA-operated nursing homes for fiscal year 2005 led to a need for additional funds. VA officials told us that errors in estimating the effect of a nursing home policy to reduce workload in all three of its nursing home settings--VA-operated nursing homes, community nursing homes, and state veterans' nursing homes--accounted for a request for additional funding for fiscal year 2006. VA officials said that the error resulted from calculations being made in haste during the OMB appeal process. Finally, VA officials told us that insufficient data on certain activities contributed to the requests for additional funds for both years. For example, inadequate data on veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan resulted in an underestimate in the initial funding request.

In other words the GAO found they did not plan for the return of wounded and disabled veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Joe Galloway wrote a great piece on what all of this meant. In "At long last sire, have you left no sense of decency?" in a piece on McClatchy

Nicholson, on White House orders, blocked four congressional attempts to streamline the VA's handling of a disgraceful six-month backlog in veterans benefit claims — a backlog that's only grown worse in subsequent years.

With its eyes on maintaining public support for Bush's war in Iraq, and not on those it sent to fight it, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's Pentagon pressured the Army and Marines to discharge their wounded as fast as possible with the lowest possible disability ratings.

As a result, those who had borne the battle were abandoned to the dysfunctional VA healthcare system, in which it takes six months just to get into the system and a month or more to get a doctor's appointment.

The Bush administration grossly underestimated the flood of post-traumatic stress disorder cases coming home from combat and, when confronted with the reality of more than 320,000 new veterans suffering from PTSD, major depression and TBI, it did little or nothing to expedite their care. In fact, of the 84,000 new veterans diagnosed with PTSD, only half, or 42,000 have managed to get their disability claims approved by the VA.

Some veterans committed suicide while they awaited medical and financial help, itself evidence of the abject and disgraceful failure of the system, and the nation and the administration of George W. Bush. The VA responded by understating the numbers of veterans' suicides and then covering it up. Only after a veterans group sued it did the VA establish a suicide hotline. A heckuva job.

President Bush proposed a half-percent increase in the VA budget for fiscal 2006 after his own appointees at the agency told Congress that they needed a 13 percent increase to meet — barely — the urgent needs for medical and mental health care for the wounded coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2007, Bush threatened to veto a bill to boost VA spending by 10 percent, or $3.2 billion. He said that was too expensive and countered with an offer of 2 percent. After Congress passed the bill almost unanimously, Republicans included, The Decider decided to swallow it and signed the bill.

James Peake 2007-2009 walked into this.

The VA's backlog is between 400,000 and 600,000 claims, with delays of 177 days. Nicholson in May pledged to cut that time to 145 days, but he has made little headway with thousands of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan returning home.

VA staff charged $2.6 billion to their government credit cards
Investigators Review VA Credit Charges
By HOPE YEN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Veterans Affairs employees last year racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in government credit-card bills at casino and luxury hotels, movie theaters and high-end retailers such as Sharper Image and Franklin Covey — and government auditors are investigating, citing past spending abuses.

All told, VA staff charged $2.6 billion to their government credit cards.

The Associated Press, through a Freedom of Information request, obtained the VA list of 3.1 million purchases made in the 2007 budget year. The list offers a detailed look into the everyday spending at the government's second largest department.

So yet again we have yet another head of the VA saying they "regret" but no one in congress seems to be able to admit the same thing even though they are in charge or who has been in charge all along. Had they fixed any of this before then Veterans for Common Sense would not have had to file a lawsuit because veterans were committing suicide and the VA was covering it up in 2008!

Veterans Suffering Decades "But Why"

This is what the Senate was "focused on" in 2007.

"The Army report indicates that suicides among soldiers has reached a 26-year high, with as many as 101 suicides during 2006, compared with 88 during 2005, 67 in 2004 and 79 in 2003."

Why would anyone be surprised considering at the same time this came out?

Department of Defense to Armed Forces:It's your fault "The military, however, has changed the terms and given many thousands of enlisted men and women a new diagnosis: "personality disorder." While the government would be obliged to care for veterans suffering from combat-related trauma, a personality disorder – defined as an ingrained, maladaptive way of orienting oneself to the world – predates a soldier's tour of duty (read: preexisting condition). This absolves Uncle Sam of any responsibility for the person's mental suffering."

But as you can see, they were not even close to being ready for any of them.

"The real problem is that the Veterans Administration is unable to handle the growing number of current and former service members needing assistance. Hancock learned that when he tried to get help for his illness from the VA. Amazingly, he was put on a waiting list for the post-traumatic stress disorder program at the Temple Veterans Administration Hospital. The VA says between 12 percent and 20 percent of Iraq war veterans suffer from the disorder, although a study cited by a Department of Defense task force puts that number at 38 percent for Army soldiers and 31 percent for Marines. Alarmingly, the study found that 49 percent of its respondents in the National Guard reported problems."

But veterans were fighting back. Not just for themselves, but all veterans.

FORT WAYNE-More than a decade ago, U.S. Army veteran John Evans was trying to alert the nation to a serious healthcare crisis when it came to treating military men who had served their nation admirably in times of war. He largely was ignored. Now with recent startling and embarrassing revelations about conditions and treatment at once-highly regarded military healthcare facilities such as Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., Evans finally is being vindicated by many who once tried to ignore him-including some politicians. But, rather than retiring from the fight, Evans is planning to step up his battle to find justice for veterans. That includes organizing a public protest for Sept. 5 through Sept. 7 in front of the Federal Building, 1300 S. Harrison St.-right here in Fort Wayne, where it all began.

In 1994, Evans, a decorated Vietnam War veteran who said he had been declared 100 percent disabled due to Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, woke up to find his world had collapsed around him. His veteran's benefits mysteriously had disappeared leaving him unable to pay his bills and his bank account had been closed. After frantically calling the Veterans Administration and the bank, Evans discovered that he mistakenly had been declared dead by the Social Security Administration, which had confused him with his son, John Patrick Logan, who had passed away. According to Evans, it was two months before he received a letter informing him that he had been-mistakenly-declared dead. During that time, stress began to mount until he suffered a severe heart attack.

And more money got spent as if there were no other studies after Vietnam veterans came home and pushed for all of them.

The Department of Veterans Affairs awarded a $6.5 million contract to evaluate its mental health services to Altarum Institute and The Rand/University of Pittsburgh Health Institute. The two institutes will look at Veterans Health Administration services throughout the country, concentrating on services to veterans with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major-depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and substance-abuse issues. The group will conduct surveys, review medical charts and interview patients to determine what works well and what could be done better — including making sure veterans have timely access to care. VHA officials say 36 percent of the 1.5 million veterans enrolled in the VA health system have at least one mental health issue. Demands upon the mental health care system have increased greatly as troops have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan, overwhelming the administrative system used to process claims as well as the medical staff that provides care.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

And then there was this too

In fiscal year 2006, the reports show, some of the VA's specialized PTSD units spent a fraction of what the average unit did. Five medical centers — in California, Iowa, Louisiana, Tennessee and Wisconsin — spent about $100,000 on their PTSD clinical teams, less than one-fifth the national average.

The documents also show that while the VA's treatment for PTSD is generally effective, nearly a third of the agency's inpatient and other intensive PTSD units failed to meet at least one of the quality goals monitored by a VA health-research organization. The VA medical center in Lexington, Ky., failed to meet four of six quality goals, according to the internal reports.

A top VA mental-health official dismissed the reports' significance, saying veterans receive adequate care, either in specialized PTSD units or from general mental-health providers. In addition, he said, some of the spending differences aren't as extreme as the documents indicate, and the department is working to increase its resources for mental health treatment.

But oh well, why should President Obama remember what has been going on all along?

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Barack Obama (D-IL) and Christopher Bond (R-MO) sent the following letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, requesting a full accounting of service members’ psychological injuries, including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), since October 2001.

The senators also requested a detailed report on how the military monitors other psychological injuries. Recent media accounts indicate that the number of service members seeking care for PTSD from the Veterans Administration (VA) increased 70% over a 12-month period, or an increase of some 20,000 cases. In addition, reports of the total number of cases of PTSD treatment at the VA since 2001 – 50,000 cases – far exceed the number of wounded documented by the Pentagon.

In the letter, Obama and Bond request information including the total number of PTSD among active duty service members; the total number of other reported psychological injuries; the procedures and referral mechanisms for service members to seek counseling while in combat; the number of mental health staff deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan; the number of mental health staff for each major mobilization and demobilization site; the incentives in place to attract additional behavioral health specialists; and the total annual expenditure on mental health care for active duty service members.

In 2008 it was taking up to 4 years for a claim to be approved after appeals. but worse than that was my husband's claim took 6 years from 1993-1999. Not much changed but again, it is still bad.

But this very well may be what has veterans furious about today because nothing has changed after all these years.

GAO finding: No accountability for claims processors
GAO faults training for VA claims processors
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday May 28, 2008 6:18:36 EDT

Although the Veterans Affairs Department has added thousands of staff to help process disability claims, a new study finds those new employees face no consequences if they don’t attend mandatory training.

And because the caseload is so heavy, instructors aren’t always available to provide on-the-job training for new employees.

The Veterans Benefits Administration “is taking steps to strategically plan its training, but does not adequately evaluate its training and may be falling short in some areas of training design and implementation,” the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Tuesday.

Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, asked GAO to find out what training is provided and whether it is uniform; how well it is implemented and evaluated; and how it compares with performance management practices in the private sector.

The questions came after veterans testified that the disability compensation system is Byzantine in complexity, and that it takes months — sometimes years — to make it through the process.

From September 2007 to May 2008, GAO looked at four VBA regional offices, in Atlanta; Baltimore; Milwaukee; and Portland, Ore.

VA officials said it takes at least two years to properly train disability claims employees, and they must complete 80 hours of training a year. New employees have three weeks of intense classroom training before they begin several months of on-the-job training at their home offices.

But “because the agency has no policy outlining consequences for individual staff who do not complete their 80 hours of training per year, individual staff are not held accountable for meeting their annual training requirement,” the GAO found. “And, at present, VBA central office lacks the ability to track training completed by individual staff members.”

In 2007, VBA conducted 67 centralized training sessions for 1,458 new claims processors, compared with 27 sessions for 678 new employees in 2006.

VBA’s online training tool, the Training and Performance Support System, was found to be out of date, too theoretical, and lacking in real-life examples. Employees at one office did not know what the system was.

GAO also found that more experienced staff members felt training was not helpful because it was redundant or was not specific to the work they do, and some said the training is adapted directly from training for new employees. They also said they did not have time to spend 80 hours a year in training because their caseloads are too heavy.

“A number of staff from one regional office noted that instructors were unable to spend time teaching because of their heavy workloads and because instructors’ training preparation hours do not count toward the 80-hour training requirement,” the GAO said. “Staff at another regional office told us that, due to workload pressures, staff may rush through training and may not get as much out of it as they should.”

Another crisis and another job lost but the truth is, far too many lives have been lost as well. Congress just keeps letting history repeat.

Fort Hood Identifies another non-combat death

Ft. Hood officials identify soldier found deceased in barracks
KYLE News
Michael Wesp
Online Editor
Thursday, May 29, 2014

FT. HOOD, TEXAS — Fort Hood officials have identified a soldier who was recently found unresponsive in his barracks room on Tuesday.

According to the Fort Hood Public Affairs Office, Sgt. Gene Robert Brandes, Jr., 28, of Oakridge, New Jersey, was the soldier found deceased earlier this week. Brandes entered the military in August 2006 as a Patriot Launching Station enhanced operator/maintainer. He was assigned to 4th Battalion, 5th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 69th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, Fort Hood, since April 2014.
read more here

Fort Hood Decorated Major Died of Gunshot Wound

Decorated Fort Hood Officer Who Died Of Gunshot Wound Identified
KWTX.Com
FORT HOOD (May 29, 2014)

Fort Hood Thursday identified an officer who died earlier this month of a gunshot wound in Harker Heights as Maj. James D. Mullin, 40.

No further details of the shooting were released.

Mullin, of Harker Heights, joined the Army as an armor officer in January 1997 and had been assigned since November 2013 to the 1st Cavalry Division’s Headquarters Company, 3rd Brigade Combat Team.

Mullin, who deployed to Afghanistan from February 2004 to April 2005 and again from February 2012 to July 2012 was the recipient of two Bronze Stars.
read more here

Shinseki leaving solves nothing

How many times does this have to happen before Congress takes responsibility for what they got paid to do but refused to do? If they actually believe veterans have no clue what has been going on for decades then members of congress deserve what they get when veterans expose the decades of suffering they have had to go through.

How many more crisis reports do we have to get all upset about before veterans, all veterans, matter enough to fix the VA?

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki resigns
Stars and Stripes
By Jon Harper and Travis J. Tritten
Published: May 30, 2014


WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Friday accepted the resignation of Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki.

The move comes two days after the inspector general found VA officials throughout the system had been aware of records falsified to hide long delays before veterans could receive care.

Earlier Friday, Shinseki said senior leadership at the Phoenix VA will be fired and executive pay bonuses frozen as punishment for systemic scheduling abuses in the nationwide health care system.

The moves were among a series of initiatives, also including the removal of wait times in employee evaluations and support of legislation that removes administrative roadblocks to firing executives, unveiled by Shinseki during a rare public appearance amid increasing calls for his resignation.

Congress has called for firings and bold moves by VA leadership. On Friday, Shinseki offered an apology for what he called a “systemic totally unacceptable lack of integrity” in his department.

“I can’t explain the lack of integrity among some of the leaders of our health care facilities. This is something I rarely encountered in 38 years in uniform,” Shinseki said. “So, I will not defend it because it is indefensible. But I can take responsibility for it, and I do.”
read more here

Shinseki had support of many vet groups until end
BY KEVIN FREKING
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — He's one of them — a disabled veteran who lost part of his right foot to a mine in Vietnam, a soldier who riled his superiors in the Bush years by telling Congress the U.S. needed more troops in Iraq than the administration wanted.

That bond is why veterans groups overwhelmingly endorsed Eric Shinseki as Veterans Affairs secretary in 2009. And it's part of the reason many continued to support him until his resignation Friday in the firestorm surrounding lengthy waits for veterans to get care at VA hospitals and reports that employees had tried to cover them up.

"I extend an apology to the people whom I care most deeply about — that's the veterans of this great country — to their families and loved ones," Shinseki told advocates for homeless veterans Friday before giving President Barack Obama his resignation.

Support for Shinseki among vets groups was not universal. The American Legion led the call for his resignation.

"It is not the solution, yet it is a beginning," National Commander Daniel M. Dellinger said.

By all accounts, the VA is difficult to manage. Consider the numbers: 9 million veterans get health care from the VA and nearly 4 million receive compensation for injuries and illnesses incurred from their service. The department runs 150 hospitals and more than 800 outpatient clinics.

Shinseki, 71, served longer than any other VA secretary since 1989, when the agency became a cabinet-level department. President George W. Bush had three VA secretaries and one acting secretary during two terms. Shinseki's longevity gave him ownership of — and responsibility for — for the VA's myriad problems, many exacerbated by the needs of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
read more here