Approximately 14,000 Veterans and Survivors Claims in Need of Fiduciary Help?

VA Identifies Additional Beneficiaries in Need of Fiduciary Assistance

New Technologies Aid VA in Identifying 14,000 Beneficiaries Delayed for Fiduciary Appointments Due to Claims Processing Errors
March 24, 2016


WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced today that an information technology system that it deployed in 2014 and enhanced in 2015, the Beneficiary Fiduciary Field System, allowed it to identify claim processing errors affecting approximately 14,000 Veterans and survivors. These Veterans’ and survivors’ claims were initially filed over many years, with some going back as far as 2000. The errors concern cases in which VA had proposed that due to disability or age the beneficiary was unable to manage his or her VA benefits without assistance, but did not complete the action by transferring it within VA for appointment of a fiduciary. These cases represent approximately four percent of such proposals since 2000.

VA’s Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) became aware of a potential problem when it received inquiries about delayed fiduciary appointments from affected beneficiaries or their families. A system-wide review by VBA using the new technology found claim processing errors that had occurred at each of its regional offices and pension management centers across the country. In these cases, one or more of the procedures for controlling and transferring the workload were not followed, resulting in the fiduciary appointment delays.

“We sincerely apologize to these Veterans and their survivors for this regrettable delay,” said VA Deputy Secretary Sloan D. Gibson. “We are taking immediate action to complete these cases, initiate the fiduciary appointment process, and ensure that these errors do not happen again. We must also continue to transform the claim process for beneficiaries needing fiduciary assistance and properly resource our fiduciary program to ensure that beneficiaries have the help they need to effectively use the benefits they earned.”

VBA has set up a dedicated team to immediately review the cases, notify beneficiaries, complete the claim processing steps, and appoint a fiduciary as quickly as possible. Because the law requires VA to check the qualifications of the fiduciaries it appoints, including conducting a face-to-face interview, VA anticipates that it may take as much as six months or more to complete the fiduciary appointment process for these beneficiaries. However, the beneficiaries will continue to receive their monthly benefits as VA works to appoint a fiduciary to assist them.

Additionally, VBA has already modified its systems to better track this workload and plans to remove manual transfer processes that are prone to error through enhancements to its automated claims processing system, the Veterans Benefits Management System.

For more information, Veterans can contact (1-888-407-0144).

Additional Information on VA’s Fiduciary Program:

The VA fiduciary program provides oversight of beneficiaries who, due to injury, disease, or the infirmities of age, are unable to manage their VA benefits. VA’s role is to conduct oversight of beneficiaries to ensure their well-being, and oversee the fiduciaries it appoints to assist beneficiaries with the management of their VA benefits. In 2015, VA protected more than 224,000 beneficiaries, who received over $3 billion in VA benefits. Beneficiaries in the fiduciary program include Veterans, surviving spouses, dependent parents, adult children, and minor children. The number of beneficiaries served by the program has grown by 50 percent since 2011 and VA projects continued growth as it increases its benefit claims production (1.4 million claims in 2015) and the beneficiary population ages.

Faces of Recovery: Veterans with PTSD

Faces of Recovery: Veterans with PTSD
ABC WRLC News
By Amy Lacey
Published: March 23, 2016

“This isn’t new. Over 100,000 Vietnam veterans committed suicide after they came home, and so we’re just continuing a trend that’s been going on far too long, and it’s up to our generation of veterans to say enough is enough,” he says.

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — A new documentary called ‘Thank You for Your Service’ sheds light on challenges military veterans face after years of intense training and war. William Rodriguez lived it.

“I came home and I didn’t want to look at how I had changed, and I didn’t really know how I had changed. All I knew is that other people knew that,” he remembers.

That was three years ago after Rodriguez completed three Middle East deployments over four years with the U.S. Army. Life as he knew it would never be the same because of what he saw, what he heard and what he felt.

“There are as many kinds of war trauma as there are physical injuries,” explains the documentary Producer and Director Tom Donahue. “The diagnosis of post-traumatic stress is a very simplistic way to look at war trauma.”

Donahue began investigating what he calls a military mental health crisis after learning more U.S. troops died by suicide than in combat in 2012. Two hundred interviews later, including those with defense officials, counselors and those suffering, Donahue brought their story to Richmond’s Byrd Theater in February.
read more here

Fort Hood: Col. Andrew Poznick Found Dead Near Carlisle Barracks

Former Fort Hood combat commander found dead near Carlisle Barracks, Pa
Killeen Daily Herald
Jacob Brooks
Herald Staff Writer
March 23, 2016

Spc. Jared Forsyth | U.S. Army

Col. Andrew Poznick

Lt. Col. Andrew Poznick speaks to his troops with 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, in Basrah, Iraq, on July 29, 2011. Poznick was commander of the battalion. On Sunday, March 20, 2016, Poznick was found dead at his residence near Carlisle Barracks, Pa.

A former Fort Hood battalion commander who led 1st Cavalry Division troopers in Iraq during the final months of the Iraq War has died, an Army official confirmed Wednesday.

Col. Andrew Poznick was found dead Sunday at his off-post residence near Carlisle Barracks, Pa., where he was scheduled to soon join the faculty at the Army War College, said Carol Kerr, a spokeswoman for the graduate school that focuses on strategy for its military and civilian students.

“He was going to join the faculty this summer,” said Kerr, adding Poznick was currently pursuing a doctorate at Temple University in Philadelphia as part of an elite Army education program.
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Barber Going To Jail After Clipping VA Funds

Ninety-Six man convicted of trying to defraud Veterans Affairs 
ABC News 4 
BY SAM TYSON 
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23RD 2016

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCIV) — A 48-year-old man from the town of Ninety-Six was sentenced in federal court this week for conspiring to defraud Veterans Affairs.

Charles B. Harris was sentenced to 20 months in prison and ordered him to pay $45,000 in restitution.

Prosecutors showed during the trial that from 2011 to 2014, Harris owned and operated the Greenwood Barber College, a school that was approved by the VA to teach veterans how to be barbers. Harris was supposed to certify student attendance and progress.

In December 2013, the Department of Veterans Affairs received a complaint that Harris was conspiring with various veterans in stealing government funds, prosecutors said.
read more here

VA Commemoration of the Vietnam War

VA to Commemorate 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War
Exemplifies a MyVA priority to Improve the Veteran Experience While Thanking

Vietnam Veterans and Their Families

WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) today announced it will conduct hundreds of events in VA facilities across the nation on Mar. 29 to recognize, honor and thank U.S. Vietnam Veterans and their families for their service and sacrifices as part of the national Vietnam War Commemoration.

VA Secretary Robert McDonald will host a wreath-laying ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial – “The Wall” to initiate VA’s contribution to the Commemoration. He will be joined by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. “We are proud to partner with the Department of Defense in this endeavor. Secretary Carter’s Vietnam War Commemoration staff has greatly assisted us in planning this humble tribute to our Vietnam Veterans and their families.”

VA, along with more than 9,000 organizations across the country, has joined with the Department of Defense as a Commemorative Partner to help Americans honor our nation’s Vietnam Veterans.

Authorized by Congress, established under the Secretary of Defense, and launched by the President in May 2012, the Vietnam War Commemoration recognizes all men and women who served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces from November 1, 1955 to May 15, 1975. Nine million Americans, approximately 7 million living today, served during that period, and the Commemoration makes no distinction between Veterans who served in-county, in-theater, or were stationed elsewhere during those 20 years. All answered the call of duty.

“This Commemoration has special significance for those of us at VA because of our honored mission to serve those who have “borne the battle,” said McDonald. “It’s also an opportunity to remember our VA colleagues who served in this generation of Veterans, to extend our heartfelt appreciation to them and to their families who shared the burden of their loved one’s service.”

More than 329 VA medical centers, regional benefit offices and national cemeteries will host events, many in partnership with local Veteran service organizations and volunteers.

By presidential proclamation issued on May 25, 2012, the Commemoration extends from its inaugural event on Memorial Day 2012 through Veterans Day 2025.

Commemorative Partners – local, state and national organizations, businesses, corporations and governmental agencies – have committed to publicly thank and honor Vietnam Veterans and their families on behalf of the nation and have pledged to host a minimum of two events annually.
To learn more click here Vietnam War Commemoration

Veteran Died After Setting Himself on Fire at VA Clinic

Distraught veteran sets himself on fire with gasoline outside VA facility after losing wife and job
RAW Story
Sarah K. Burris SARAH K. BURRIS
14 APR 2016

Dashcam footage has just been released from the suicide of Navy veteran Charles Ingram III who, on March 19, doused himself with gallons of gasoline and set himself on fire outside of the Veterans Affairs clinic in Northfield, New Jersey.

The footage shows police in a frantic rush to put the fire out but it was to no avail. Ingram was burned on 100 percent of his body and rushed to Temple University Hospital burn unit. He died nine hours later, according to My9NJ.com.
read more here

I am not posting the picture because I do not see the point of doing it when the story itself is so heartbreaking.


UPDATE
Services announced for man who set himself on fire in Northfield
Press of Atlantic City
March 26, 2016

Funeral services have been announced for the Egg Harbor Township man who set himself on fire last weekend outside a Northfield VA clinic.

Charles R. Ingram III, 51, died last Saturday after he poured gasoline on himself and set himself ablaze at the Department of Veterans Affairs facility on New Road. He was taken by helicopter from the scene to Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, where he passed.

Ingram served in the Navy from 1985 to 1992, according to his obituary. His public death renewed attention to problems in the VA health care system, local veterans advocates said.
read more here





Man who set himself on fire at Northfield veterans' clinic has died 
Press of Atlantic City 
MICHELLE BRUNETTI POST, Staff Writer March 23, 2016

Ingram used gasoline as an accelerant and set himself on fire at the clinic at 1901 New Road. He was evacuated by helicopter from the Northfield Community School to Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia just before 2 p.m., police said.

Michael Ein / Staff Photographer A woman who identified herself as the mother-in-law of Egg Harbor Township Veteran Charles R. Ingram III, 51, lays flowers at the memorial adjacent to the Veterans Affairs Clinic in Northfield, Wednesday March 23, 2016. Ingram died Saturday after setting himself on fire outside the clinic.

An Egg Harbor Township veteran who died after setting himself on fire Saturday outside a Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in Northfield has drawn attention to problems in the VA system. Charles R. Ingram III, 51, was airlifted to the Temple Burn Center in Philadelphia on Saturday, where he died later that night, Northfield police said. No note of explanation was left at the scene or at Ingram’s home, said Northfield acting Police Chief Paul Newman.

In July 2014, Navy veteran Kevin Keller, 52, shot himself in front of a closed VA clinic in Wytheville, Virgnia. He left a note blaming the VA for leaving him in terrible pain after weaning him off prescription painkillers, according to a Sept. 7, 2014, story in the Roanoke Times. read more here

"Decorated" Vietnam Veteran Faces Charges Under Stolen Valor

Feds charge Davenport man over medals, Stolen Valor 
Quad City Times
Barb Ickes
Updated 8 hrs ago

Following additional inquiries to the Army and Navy by a Times reporter, a military investigation of Brooks' service record commenced. Results indicated Brooks earned no Silver Stars, nor was he awarded any Purple Hearts.

A decorated Davenport Vietnam veteran is not as decorated as he has claimed, according to federal officials, and he now is facing a charge related to Stolen Valor.

One year ago, Bob Brooks told the Quad-City Times that his war record has been questioned for decades, even by his fellow veterans in Vietnam Veterans Quad-Cities Chapter 299. Although he long has been an active member of the chapter, Brooks was asked last year to resign from the group's Honor Guard and to step down from his role as a delegate to the national convention of Vietnam Veterans.

Brooks did not return phone calls seeking comment.

In a recent letter to members of Chapter 299, president Bill Albracht wrote, "This all came about after the conclusion of an ongoing investigation in reference to Brooks claiming numerous valor awards and military decorations that he never earned nor received. Although he did serve with distinction in Vietnam, he was never awarded the claimed 3 Silver Stars, 5 Purple Hearts."
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Suspect in Murder-Suicide Sought Help

Brother: Gunman in murder-suicide near J'town battled PTSD
WAVE3 News
By Joey Brown, Digital Content Manager
Wednesday, March 23rd 2016

Brad Hettinger's obituary shows him in a military uniform and identifies him as Captain Brad Louis Hettinger. It states that he had served as captain of the 8-229th ARB Task Force Apache Flying Tigers overseas.

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - The brother of a man who shot and killed his wife and two young children, and then torched their house before taking his own life on Sunday says in a written statement about the tragedy that Brad Hettinger had been battling post-traumatic stress disorder.

The statement, issued just after noon on Wednesday, reads in its entirety as follows:

"We as a family are devastated and deeply shaken by the events that have transpired. Brad Hettinger was an honorable, respectable, family centered man who believed strongly in his religious values, who served his country with valor, and who provided a nurturing and caring environment for his family. Before the events of March 20, Brad was actively seeking help for complications associated with PTSD while simultaneously attending marriage counseling with his wife. We ask the greater Louisville community to direct some of your prayers and thoughts toward the Gayheart and Hettinger families during this most grievous of times."
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Vietnam Veterans Saved By The Boss

How Bruce Springsteen Rescued Vietnam Veterans of America—and the Vietnam Veterans Movement
Vietnam Veterans of America Online
BY MARC LEEPSON
March/April 2016

If “it wasn’t for Bruce coming forward,” Muller said, “there would not have been a coherent, national movement on behalf of Vietnam vets.” VVA “became the national group, the only national group, with a [congressional] charter.”

Near the end of his sold-out concert January 29 in Washington, D.C., rock and roll legend Bruce Springsteen told the crowd of more than 18,000 that he had some special guests in the audience, a group of veterans from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Then he recognized another veteran in the house: Bobby Muller.

It was altogether fitting and proper that Springsteen—the hard-rocking, 66-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Fame musician, singer, and songwriter—recognized Muller, the founder and first president of Vietnam Veterans of America. That’s because Springsteen has been a strong supporter of Vietnam veterans and VVA for more than thirty-five years.

“Strong,” in fact, barely describes Springsteen’s commitment to VVA and the men and women who served in the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. That’s because in 1981, three short years after the organization was founded, when VVA was at a financial crisis point and about to go under, Bruce Springsteen stepped in and saved the organization.

“In those early years it was always hand to mouth,” said John Terzano, who ran VVA’s Washington, D.C., office in the early 1980s. “Figuring out how to pay our bills was a constant problem. We had to go months without paying the rent, and had numerous conversations about shutting down. We were in extra dire straits.”

“We were hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt,” Muller said. “I’m in my [New York] office and I’m preparing to close down the organization [and] I get a call.” On the line: Jon Landau, Bruce Springsteen’s manager. Landau told Muller that Springsteen “was interested in Vietnam vets and you seem like the guy” to talk to. He invited Muller to see Springsteen perform the next night, July 3, 1981, at the Brendan Byrne Arena in the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey. After the show—he was blown away—Muller and Springsteen met and talked.

The upshot: Springsteen gave a benefit concert the next month in Los Angeles. That concert, on August 20, 1981, at the L.A. Memorial Sports Arena, sold out. Afterward, Bruce Springsteen presented VVA a check for $100,000, “a staggering sum of money,” as Muller put it.
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National Puppy Day Honors Hero Dogs

Heroic dogs that saved their owner’s lives from fires, suicide and more as we celebrate National Puppy Day 
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS 
BY NICOLE BITETTE 
Wednesday, March 23, 2016

MIDDLEBRANCH VETERINARY Service dog Figo, who threw himself into the path of an oncoming mini-bus to shield his blind owner, has come out of surgery and is on the mend.

Dog is every owner's best friend.

It is commonly known that dogs are incredibly loyal and have instincts to help others. The pets are present in more than 43 million U.S. households — and for good reason.

Pooches have come to the aid of their owner's on countless occasions and are known to help those suffering from depression, anxiety, PTSD and many other illnesses.

On National Puppy Day, here's a look at just a few of the many dogs that saved their owner's lives:
read about them here

Our dog Harry was a rescue but to tell the truth, I think what he gave us back in return meant he was an angel in disguise. He protected the house and then rested on a huge chair in the living room along with perfectly placed pillows or he'd rearrange them himself. What else would you expect considering he was Rhodesian Ridgeback-Rottweiler-Hound?

On Monday we had to put Harry to rest. Something happened to either his spinal cord or a disc. The vet wasn't sure and couldn't tell unless he had an operation but with no guarantee he would be as active, we couldn't put him through it. Both rear legs were paralyzed. He turned 5 this month.

Harry was my husband's brother and my baby. I know that sounds strange but while I was at work, he kept my husband company until Momma came home and then he freaked out as if I had been gone for days.

If you can't understand how much dogs mean to a family, then you probably never had one as part of your's.

This is what Harry did every time he heard a fire engine, almost as if he knew they were putting their lives in danger.
Love your dog and cherish all the time you have with them. If you lose them, then grieve for the loss and if someone acts as if they should have meant nothing to you, feel sorry for them because they missed all the love you received from the dog they just didn't understand.