Seriously bad reporting on this about Blue Water Vietnam veterans

Seriously bad reporting on this about Blue Water Vietnam veterans and Agent Orange

Lawmakers are urging Veterans Affairs officials to move ahead with some elderly “blue water” veterans’ disability benefits claims now instead of waiting until next year, saying in some cases the assistance cannot afford another delay.

Meanwhile, a group of advocates upset over the decision to hold off on paying those claims for another five months has filed a lawsuit in federal court demanding quicker action on the cases.

At issue is a decision earlier this month by VA officials to delay processing of claims from “blue water” Vietnam veterans — former sailors who served in ships off the coast of the country during the war — until January, as outlined under legislation passed by Congress earlier this summer.
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Now you know what is behind all of this...you know more than the reporter did.

Lowcountry widow of Vietnam veteran says benefits needed now
ABC 4 News
by Brodie Hart
August 14th 2019

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Lawmakers are pushing to expedite a new law that extends disability benefits to Vietnam Veterans exposed to the chemical Agent Orange.

"Quite frankly some of our veterans don’t have time to wait they need help today," said Representative Joe Cunningham. Cunningham is on the Veterans Affairs Committee and says he helped push a new bill through Congress in June.

The bill extends disability benefits to veterans known as Blue Water Navy Veterans who served offshore in the Vietnam War, but it doesn't go into effect until January 2019. Those benefits were previously extended to veterans who fought on the ground in Vietnam.
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That was not my typo for a change. Congress approved it but the VA is the one delaying it.

Six year old girl wants to know why plastic soldiers are not women too...and so do a lot of other people

update Girl’s message for equality received in a big way: Green Army women figurines are on the way

BMC Toys, one of three companies to receive letters from young Vivian Lord — and the only to respond — has begun producing women figurines to be included in the iconic toy set that dates back to the 1930s.

Missing in action: Classic green Army men still have no women figurines, and this 6-year-old is not having it

Military Times
By: J.D. Simkins
August 14, 2019

Young Vivian Lord of Arkansas recently acquired a set of the instantly recognizable plastic green Army men figurines, iconic toys the 6-year-old had been pining after for weeks.

Imel's concept sketches of plastic army women. (BMC Toys)

Excitedly, the little girl from Little Rock sifted through the combat-ready green men, each figure contorted into one of an array of well-known fighting positions, but she couldn’t find what she was looking for.

None of the figures looked like her.

Unsatisfied, Vivian decided to take it up directly with various toy makers, penning letters to three different companies in an effort to add a little enlightenment to some antiquated business practices.

After opening her letter with a quick statement about her budding soccer career, Vivian gets right to the point, calling to the attention of toy makers the scarcity of women figurines, as well as the poorly received pink — still all men — versions some companies produced.
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Civilian shot at Andersen Air Force Base

Intruder Shot, Security Forces Member Stabbed During Incident at Andersen Air Force Base

Stars and Stripes
By Matthew M. Burke
15 Aug 2019

A Defense Department civilian security forces member was stabbed Thursday morning at Andersen Air Force Base while attempting to apprehend an intruder fleeing from Guam police.

Information on the unnamed security forces member's condition was not immediately available. Air Force officials said the intruder -- who was also not named -- was shot during the incident.

The fugitive was treated at a civilian hospital, Air Force officials said Thursday in a statement. Information on his condition was not available.

The incident began at approximately 7:35 p.m. Wednesday when a civilian attempted to enter the base's main gate while fleeing from Guam Police, Air Force officials wrote on Andersen's Facebook page several hours after the incident began. The intruder crashed his vehicle into emergency defensive barriers deployed by members of the 36th Security Forces Squadron following a high-speed chase. He then fled on foot.
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Ex-Army Ranger killed by police after wife found murdered

Wife’s body found after police kill estranged husband, a former Army Ranger

The Associated Press
By: Margaret Stafford and Heather Hollingsworth
August 14, 2019

In this photo provided by the Johnson County, Kansas Sheriff's Office, Charles Pearson is pictured in a booking photo dated Oct. 8, 2018. (Johnson County, Kansas Sheriff's Office via AP)

The body of 49-year-old Sylvia Ussery-Pearson was found Tuesday night in northwest Arkansas' Benton County, police said during a news conference in Overland Park, Kansas, where she was from. The discovery was made hours after 51-year-old Charles Pearson, a 21-year veteran Army Ranger who had completed two combat tours in Iraq, walked into a Country Inn and Suites and told the general manager that he killed his wife.

Pearson said he was armed and heading to the nearby Legends Outlet shopping district.

Police in Kansas City, Kansas, said that when law enforcement confronted Pearson at a nearby intersection, he fired several shots at officers, who returned fire and killed him.
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Female veterans are 25% more likely to commit suicide

Why women veterans are 25% more likely than civilian women to commit suicide

Military Times
By: Kate Henricks Thomas and Kyleanne Hunter
August 14, 2019

"We missed the sense of unit cohesion and good-natured support we’d so often enjoyed on active duty, and struggled to find that same sense of community in our civilian lives." Kyleanne Hunter

The Women in Military Service to America Memorial, the only national museum honoring military women, celebrated its 15th anniversary on Oct. 20, 2012. (Veterans Affairs)

After four years on active duty, Amy left the Army and moved back to her hometown.

However, she struggled to find her tribe. At work, she was told her handshake was a bit too firm and lectured about how her direct communication style made her coworkers uncomfortable. At her local VFW bar, the men stopped talking to stare at her, and her attempts to connect were met with awkward silences. A few other attempts to connect with the veteran communities she saw advertised at the VA and Facebook left her feeling similarly displaced.

“In both civilian settings and veteran settings, I was ‘weird,’” she recalls.

She explored some of the newer veteran service organizations (VSOs), but most failed to include child care or weren’t kid-friendly. Amy was a single parent, so she mentally crossed those options off her list too. She stayed lonely, and slowly sank into a deep depression.

The very word “veteran” calls to mind the image of a man — particularly a male combat veteran. However, there are more than 2 million women veterans in the United States today, and women veterans are the nation’s fastest-growing veteran population. Unfortunately, this unique population, many of whom have deployed during the past 18 years, rarely benefit from the traditional trappings of the hero returned home.

Kyleanne Hunter was a Cobra pilot and is a decorated combat veteran. I served as military police. We spent our 20s in the Corps, and it quickly became both our family and identity. We each deployed overseas and generally loved our time in service. However, transitioning to civilian life was another matter entirely. We were high performing, but — despite appearing “successful” and “normal” on the outside — we each felt a nagging sense of displacement and not belonging. read it here

corrected must have been a typo in the original report from  Military Times

First female combat veteran running for President reporting for duty...in National Guard

Gabbard takes presidential campaign break for Army National Guard training

By: The Associated Press
  August 13, 2019

Gabbard is the first female combat veteran to run for U.S. president. She was elected to Congress in 2012.

HONOLULU — Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii is taking two weeks off from her 2020 Democratic presidential campaign to participate in Army National Guard training.

Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard speaks at the Presidential Gun Sense Forum, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2019, in Des Moines, Iowa. (Charlie Neibergall/AP)

Gabbard announced the two-week break in a statement Monday. She will return to the campaign trail on Aug. 25.

Gabbard is a major in the Army National Guard who has served in the military for more than 16 years and deployed to Iraq in 2004 and Kuwait in 2008.
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