Obama to Visit Walter Reed

With John McCain now blatantly trying to claim credit for the new GI Bill, Obama needs to outline what he will do for Veterans, not just on the first day of his administration if he wins, but what he will build to take care of them for the next twenty years--like, hospitals, counseling centers and service centers.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is scheduled to pay a solemn visit to wounded Iraq veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington on Saturday, Politico has learned.

The visit will be Obama’s third.

Obama’s staff is keeping his trip low key. It is not on his public schedule, and his campaign would not confirm it. A pool of reporters will go with him, but will not accompany him inside.

Obama will be in Washington to speak to the annual conference of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. His opponent for president, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), will also address the group.

McCain occasionally visits soldiers at Walter Reed on weekends when he is in Washington, most recently May 31.

McCain’s visits are usually unannounced to the press, and sometimes he shows up without even giving the hospital notice. He tells friends it gives him a sense of peace and feeds his soul.

As usual, McCain is probably sincere in his appreciation, not so sincere when it comes to actually doing anything to help Veterans.

Not only has he refused to support the 21st Century GI Bill, which the Veterans of Foreign Wars endorsed last June, he has consistently voted against increasing funding for the Veterans’ Administration, which oversees all medical care for veterans:

– Voted AGAINST an amendment providing $20 billion to the VA’s medical facilities. [5/4/06]

– Voted AGAINST providing $430 million to the VA for outpatient care “and treatment for veterans,” one of only 13 senators to do so. [4/26/06]

– Voted AGAINST increasing VA funding by $1.5 billion by closing corporate loopholes. [3/14/06]

– Voted AGAINST increasing VA funding by $1.8 billion by ending “abusive tax loopholes.” [3/10/04]

Typical straight talk express to oblivion--tell enough hazy, patriotic, loving stories, cozy up to the media, and hide from your voting record. And McCain couldn't even bother to show up and vote for legislation he's already flip-flopped on. That's the John McCain way of screwing Veterans. And Obama needs to point this out, every single day.

--WS

"the severest case of PTSD she'd seen in her life..."

Photo: Travis and Willard Twiggs

Marine with PTSD kills brother, self:

Last month, Marine Staff Sgt. Travis N. "T-Bo" Twiggs went to the White House with a group of Iraq war veterans called the Wounded Warriors Regiment and met President George W. Bush. Twiggs had been through four tours in Iraq, one in Afghanistan and months of therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder in which he said he was on up to 12 different medications.

"He said, `Sir, I've served over there many times, and I would serve for you any time,' and he grabbed the president and gave him a big hug," said Kellee Twiggs, his widow. About two weeks later, Travis Twiggs went absent without leave from his job in Quantico, Virginia. He and his brother drove to the Grand Canyon, where their car was found hanging in a tree in what appeared to be a failed attempt to drive into the chasm. The brothers carjacked a vehicle at the park Monday.

Two days later they were at a southwestern Arizona border checkpoint, and took off when they were asked to pull into a secondary inspection area, Border Patrol spokesman Michael Bernacke said. Eighty miles (130 kilometers) later, the car was on the Tohono O'odham reservation, its tires wrecked by spike strips.

As tribal police and Border Patrol agents closed in, Twiggs, 36, apparently fatally shot his 38-year-old brother, Willard J. "Will" Twiggs, then killed himself. Pinal County Sheriff's spokesman Mike Minter said no motive has been established. But Kellee Twiggs said the decorated Marine would still be alive if the military had given him enough help.

[SNIP]

Travis Twiggs, who enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1993 and held the combat action ribbon, wrote about his efforts to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder in the January issue of the Marine Corps Gazette.

The symptoms would disappear when he began each tour, he said, but came back stronger than ever when he came home.

He wrote that his life began to "spiral downward" after the tour in which two Marines from his platoon died.

"I cannot describe what a leader feels when he does not bring everyone home," he wrote. "To make matters even worse, I arrived at the welcome home site only to find that those two Marines' families were waiting to greet me as well. I remember thinking, 'Why are they here?"'

Weeks later, Twiggs "saw a physician's assistant who said that was the severest case of PTSD she'd seen in her life," his widow said.

He began receiving treatment, but the Marine wrote that he mixed his medications with alcohol and that his symptoms did not go away until he started his final tour in Iraq.

When he came home, "All of my symptoms were back, and now I was in the process of destroying my family," he wrote. "My only regrets are how I let my command down after they had put so much trust in me and how I let my family down by pushing them away."

Kellee Twiggs said her husband was "very, very different, angry, agitated, isolated and so forth," upon his return. "He was just doing crazy things."

She said her husband was treated in the psychiatric ward of Bethesda Naval Medical Center and then sent to a Veterans Administration facility for four months.

Most recently, Travis Twiggs was assigned to the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory at Quantico, a job he said helped him "get my life back on track."

"Every day is a better day now," he wrote in the Marine Corps Gazette. "... Looking back, I don't believe anyone is to blame for my craziness, but I do think we can do better."

Twiggs urged others suffering from similar problems to seek help. "PTSD is not a weakness. It is a normal reaction to a very violent situation," he wrote.

Kellee Twiggs said she cannot understand why her husband was not sent to a specialized PTSD clinic in New Jersey.

"They let him out. He was OK for a while and then it all started over again," she said.

We Need Action to Go With That Outrage

This is a continuing series of posts that follow up the lawsuit against the Veterans Administration and highlights what happened yesterday before a Congressional Committee.

That's all well and good--now follow it up with something that forces these people to act and that holds them accountable for their massive fuck-up:

...Committee Chairman Bob Filner lashed out at the man in charge, Secretary James Peake, accusing the V.A. of "criminal negligence," reports CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian.
"What we see is a pattern -- deny, deny, cover up, cover up," Filner said.

Filner's colleagues quickly followed, piling anger on top of disbelief.

With his embattled Director of Mental Health Dr. Ira Katz at his side, Secretary Peake presented a detailed series of charts and graphs generally backing CBS News suicide data.

"I've never had a concern with their overall numbers," Katz told the committee.

"We're as far from hiding information from the public as anyone I know," Peake said.

But several lawmakers weren't buying it, citing a Feb. 13 e-mail titled "Not for CBS News" where Katz appears to be trying to keep attempted suicide numbers quiet.

These bastards have to go. Replace them with people who care and who will work hard to fix this problem.

The Fight on the Homefront

Tim Sanders is home from the war, but he is still fighting. Now he is fighting for himself, and his foe is the system that promises to stand up for those who stand up for us.

Walking up and down the sidewalk near the Colmery-O'Neil VA Medical Center, Tim Sanders looks like a model for the "Army Strong" ad campaign.

Except, that is, for the placard he is holding high proclaiming, "Vets are losing their benefits."

Sanders, an imposing 6-foot-3 inches tall, isn't the picture of health he appears to be. After tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, he is considered 50 percent disabled by the Department of Veterans Affairs. He suffers physical, emotional and now bureaucratic problems.

For starters, he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. He also has back and knee problems from paratrooper duty.

"The transition from combat veteran to civilian was very difficult for me," he said.

Now 32, he is entitled to care at the VA medical center and normally receives a VA check for $730 each month. This month his check was reduced to $196. He can't pay his rent or other bills.

The VA asserted he owed money for medical expenses he incurred in 2006. The VA began retrieving the money from his monthly allotment. But Sanders insists he doesn't owe the money and believes the error is being corrected, thanks to the efforts of a Veterans of Foreign Wars representative who went to bat for him.

Sanders still hasn't seen the missing money, but even if it arrives soon, he is on a mission to bring public attention to what he considers the VA's insensitivity to the needs of veterans like himself.

So, he continues picketing at S.W. 21st and Gage as a matter of principle.

"I believe our government is being a tyrant. I'm proud of my country. I'm not proud of my government," he said.

Because of the toll that his service has taken on his body, some days he can only picket for two hours, but he makes sure that he is out for those two hours, waving to friendly motorists and holding his sign. "I've had it," he said. "I've been passive. I'm not going to be passive anymore."

I have a long track record of being pissed off over the hosing our veterans have been getting. I have watched in horror as the VA, rebuilt from the ashes to become a model system, has been destroyed by underfunding and the stresses of treating the veterans of two wars that have ground on for over five years.

If it were up to me, all veterans would have their benefits approved provisionally and vetted later, since over 90% are eventually approved anyway. I would also cease and desist in collection efforts. If a Veteran who receives a monthly stipend is found to be in arrears, if the veteran is not at fault and did not commit fraud, the balance should be written off. No veteran should ever open an envelope expecting to see seven hundred bucks and instead see less than two. That's just wrong - no one can live on that, and it is callous to expect it. If overpayments absolutely must be recouped, and the veteran is going to be getting benefits the rest of his or her life, for Christ's sake, take twenty bucks a month! We can tighten a hell of a lot of other belts before we get down to the point we take VA benefits from people who served in combat because some 702 somewhere made a clerical error.

Veterans Issues in the Debates

Not really a post, more of an observation.

I'd like to see ALL the candidates admit that we are going to have to find billions of dollars to refit, refurbish, and retrain our troops. I'd like to hear specific examples of how they're going to expand health coverage for active duty, reserve and National Guard troops. As the Vietnam Veterans begin to retire and need more health care, there will be a crush over the next decade or so as Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan begin to use the VA system and the active duty system more and more.

Retirees already have to wait in line on post to get their promised coverage. What's it going to be like when there are more and more of them, competing with families and troops in need?

Just a thought.

We Read GAO Reports Because We Have the Time

New GAO Report on Veterans with TBI:

Brain screenings for vets may be flawed
Review of VA centers reveals problems with patient follow-up

updated 2 hours, 54 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Thousands of Iraq war veterans who could have suffered traumatic brain injury may be getting unnecessary or inadequate health care because Veterans Affairs officials have yet to determine whether their initial screening tests are reliable, investigators say.

A draft report by the Government Accountability Office, obtained this week by The Associated Press, highlights the Bush administration's continuing difficulties in treating traumatic brain injury, a leading problem among soldiers struck by roadside bombs in the Iraq war. It also comes as a provocative military study this week found that symptoms of memory loss and irritability that have been tied to brain injury might be more accurately attributed to post-traumatic stress and depression.

The GAO review of nine VA medical centers found that months after former VA Secretary Jim Nicholson in April promoted new screenings for brain injury and pledged personal responsibility in seeing them through, the department was still struggling to determine how to best gauge the clinical accuracy of its screenings.

If you're following this story, so are we. Due to outages and outrages and adages and whatnot, we're trying to stay afloat in these Interesting Times.

Go Read This Now

A quick hit, just to get the word out:

Town by town across the country, headlines have been telling similar stories. Lakewood, Wash.: “Family Blames Iraq After Son Kills Wife.” Pierre, S.D.: “Soldier Charged With Murder Testifies About Postwar Stress.” Colorado Springs: “Iraq War Vets Suspected in Two Slayings, Crime Ring.”

Individually, these are stories of local crimes, gut-wrenching postscripts to the war for the military men, their victims and their communities. Taken together, they paint the patchwork picture of a quiet phenomenon, tracing a cross-country trail of death and heartbreak.

The New York Times found 121 cases in which veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan committed a killing in this country, or were charged with one, after their return from war. In many of those cases, combat trauma and the stress of deployment — along with alcohol abuse, family discord and other attendant problems — appear to have set the stage for a tragedy that was part destruction, part self-destruction.

Three-quarters of these veterans were still in the military at the time of the killing. More than half the killings involved guns, and the rest were stabbings, beatings, strangulations and bathtub drownings. Twenty-five offenders faced murder, manslaughter or homicide charges for fatal car crashes resulting from drunken, reckless or suicidal driving.

About a third of the victims were spouses, girlfriends, children or other relatives, among them 2-year-old Krisiauna Calaira Lewis, whose 20-year-old father slammed her against a wall when he was recuperating in Texas from a bombing near Falluja that blew off his foot and shook up his brain.

Unbelievable.

We are not doing enough to care for these men and women as they return home from war.

Next time you see a politician--ask them why. And don't take their cute little stock answers in stride.

I would very much like to see future debates put the question to the candidates--what are you doing about the Veterans?

Wounded Vets Still Caught in Limbo While Congress Wrings Their Hands

A few weeks ago, the blogosphere went ballistic when the story about wounded veterans being ordered to repay enlistment/reenlistment/retention bonuses when they are injured or wounded and unable to complete their enlistment contract got picked up briefly by the M$M.

Congress immediately set about paying bipartisan lip service to the problem, with Senator Jeff Sessions (R, AL) and Congressman Jason Altmire (D, PA) both penning legislation to rectify the injustice. On Friday the Senate bill passed, and the House version is expected to pass today, but meek efforts at best have been made to work out compromise legislation before Congress heads out of town for three weeks for the holiday recess. Congress is planning on wrapping up all pending legislation by late Wednesday or early Thursday.

Aides to both Sessions and Altmire have said no direct talks to work out compromise legislation have taken place, in fact, Altmire aides said that they hope the Senate will pass the Altmire version without changes.

The main difference in the two bills involves retroactive payments to anyone who did not get their full bonus since 12 September 2001 when a combat injury was the reason for separation or discharge. The Senate bill, S 2400, the Wounded Warrior Bonus Equity Act, has the retroactive provision, and the House version, HR 3793, the Veterans Guaranteed Bonus Act, does not allow for any retroactive payment of bonuses.

Currently, the Pentagon leaves decisions about bonuses to the individual branches of service, “DoD does not preclude the services from paying out unpaid portions of bonuses when the service member is separated for no fault of their own,” said Pentagon spokesman Army Lt. Colonel Jonathan Withington. Withington said that unpaid “portions are paid out in full in the event of a death” and that members separated for disability “would receive a lump-sum payment of their unearned portions of any bonus.”

Sessions maintains that he is not convinced the services are following those guidelines and that is why the bonus guarantees should be set in law and should provide retroactive coverage.

I agree with Sessions on this one - his bill is the one that gives coverage to the wounded veterans that we went nuts about. Not covering the veterans who were the reason behind the legislation seems like locking the barn door after the horse has escaped, dontcha think?