Swords to Plowshares

Vietnam Veterans of America Press Release

Contact:
Mokie Porter
301-585-4000, Ext. 146
301-996-0901

(WASHINGTON) – Today, two groups representing thousands of American veterans, Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) and Veterans of Modern Warfare (VMW), announced that they have filed a lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The lawsuit, which was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks to end the unconscionable delays experienced by veterans when applying for disability benefits. VVA and VMW seek immediate action to prevent further irreparable harm to our nation’s veterans.

The lawsuit demands that the VA provide an initial decision on every veteran’s claim for disability benefits within 90 days and resolve appeals within 180 days. Additionally, the veterans groups ask that the Court grant further relief in the form of interim benefits awards in the event that the VA exceeds these minimum standards of constitutionally-guaranteed due process. These interim benefits will provide veterans with a lifeline of support when it is most needed to facilitate reintegration into their lives back home.

“The failure to expedite veterans’ compensation claims creates, at best, the impression that the nation does not respect its veterans,” said John Rowan, National President, Vietnam Veterans of America. “America’s veterans deserve more, and the VA’s failure to fulfill its responsibilities brings dishonor to our nation and can only make the call of military service more challenging.”

The VA acknowledges that it takes an average of at least six months to reach an initial decision on an average benefits claim; the actual delay is closer to a year. Appeals of these initial decisions, which are reversed more than 50 percent of the time, take, on average, more than four years, with some stretching 10 years or more. In contrast, private healthcare plans – which process more than 30 billion claims a year – process claims and related appeals in less than three months.

“As a matter of both policy and practice, the VA subjects veterans to long delays before receiving any of the benefits to which they are entitled,” said Donald Overton, Executive Director, Veterans of Modern Warfare. “Our hope is that this lawsuit will compel the VA to process veterans’ benefits claims more quickly and honor our nation’s commitment to those that have defended and served.”

“All veterans will benefit significantly from the legal action of VVA and VMW,” said Robert Cattanach, Partner, Dorsey & Whitney. “The intervention of VVA and VMW is necessary because under federal law individual veterans are not allowed to access the judicial system. Dorsey & Whitney is committed to helping America’s veterans quickly secure the benefits they have earned from the VA.”

There are approximately 25 million veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces alive today. More than 7 million of those veterans are enrolled in the VA’s healthcare system, and approximately 3.4 million veterans receive benefits. More than 600,000 VA benefits claims are backlogged – this number will only increase as the 1.7 million troops that have served in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to return home.

“A soldier’s transition to civilian life is challenging. The VA’s failure to diagnose PTSD promptly and accurately, and the corresponding delay in the award of benefits, plainly results in veterans being denied this critical lifeline,” said Dr. Charles R. Figley, PTSD expert and author, of Tulane University. “VVA and VMW’s lawsuit will help to reduce this additional and, in many cases, unmanageable stress for veterans.”

According to the VA, the suicide rate among individuals in the VA’s care may be as high as 7.5 times the national average. Delays in awarding benefits to America’s veterans increases the suffering of individuals already struggling with an inability to cope, as the seemingly endless wait for the VA to make a final decision on a claim magnifies the alienation and anxiety that they experience. For example, the inability to provide basic subsistence support significantly impacts a veteran’s ability to maintain economic stability, seek and gain employment, provide and sustain a home, or care for a family. As a consequence, there is a substantial increase in the number of broken families, cases of homelessness and depression caused by the failure to provide disability benefits on a timely basis.

###

Vietnam Veterans of America
Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) is the nation’s only congressionally chartered veterans service organization dedicated to the needs of Vietnam-era veterans families, as well as to the needs of other veterans and their families. VVA’s founding principle is “Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another.” Visit the VVA online at http://www.vva.org/.

Veterans of Modern Warfare
Veterans of Modern Warfare (VMW) is a veterans service organization dedicated to serving our nation’s most recent war veterans. Our purpose is to support veterans and their families by providing education and information about the benefits America’s veterans have earned, assistance in obtaining benefits, advocacy in issues important to our generation, and camaraderie through locally based, national chapters. Visit the VMW online at http://vmwusa.org.

Dorsey & Whitney LLP
Clients have relied on Dorsey & Whitney (www.dorsey.com) since 1912 to protect their interests. With 650 lawyers in 18 locations in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia, Dorsey provides a comprehensive approach to its clients’ legal and business needs. Dorsey represents a number of the world’s most successful Fortune 500 companies.

Dorsey and its individual lawyers have a long history of public service. The firm dedicates substantial resources, on a pro bono basis, to serve the unmet legal needs of disadvantaged individuals and of organizations who cannot afford to pay for legal services.

Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) is the nation’s only congressionally chartered veterans service organization dedicated to the needs of Vietnam-era veterans and their families. VVA’s founding principle is “Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another.”

Army Times: VA document-shredding no shock to vets

Doubts were raised Wednesday about whether the Bush administration can do anything to restore confidence in the Veterans Affairs Department following the discovery last month of almost 500 key benefits claims documents in shredding bins at regional offices.

But the problem, initially discovered by teams of auditors from the VA inspector general’s office, didn’t exactly shock the veterans’ community. Veterans have complained for decades about VA losing or destroying claims documents, making an already complicated process even more difficult to deal with.

Veterans’ advocates attending a roundtable discussion arranged by the House Veterans Affairs Committee said VA’s admission of mishandling documents is a sign of the fundamental problems that veterans have seen for years.

Rick Weidman, executive director for government affairs of Vietnam Veterans of America, said the only real news is that VA now acknowledged the problem.

“Shredding is not the issue,” he said, calling instead for focus on “the integrity of the process.” Read On…

Click here to watch the full round table discussion before the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.

ABC7: Program helps unemployed veterans find jobs
Click here for direct link to video.

There is new hope for a number of homeless and unemployed veterans. They’re getting a brand new start in life, thanks to a program run by veterans. Swords to Plowshares is a program that has been around for 34 years.

“I’m going to die either drunk, addicted, in the street right? And today it’s a whole different ball game,” said Larry Bisakowitz.

Hilo Halo also joined the program about two years ago and today, he attends San Francisco City College. Still, Halo says recovery has been tough.

“I was out of a job, didn’t have a place to stay and place to live. Lost it all,” said Halo.

EarthTimes.org: Formerly Homeless Veterans to Graduate November 20th

Michael Blecker, Swords to Plowshares Executive Director, will be joined by staff, friends and family of graduates to honor the accomplishments of these veterans. “I am pleased to see another group of veterans graduate from the program with the dignity and confidence they need to finally break the cycle of homelessness,” Blecker said.

The graduates of the program, all formerly homeless or chronically homeless veterans, have spent an average of sixteen months overcoming addictions, mental health issues and other serious obstacles. The Transitional Housing Program graduates have acquired the skills and resources needed to secure housing, seek employment and improve the quality of their lives. Of the graduates, five are pursuing higher education, four are working full-time and one graduate has already completed his Certified Nursing Assistant degree. Swords to Plowshares is also helping all graduates transition into permanent or privatized housing.

New York Times: New Veterans Hit Hard by Economic Crisis
By LIZETTE ALVAREZ

After a mortar sent Andrew Spurlock hurtling off a roof in Iraq, ending his Army career in 2006, the seasoned infantryman set aside bitterness over his back injury and began to chart his life in storybook fashion: a new house, a job as a police officer and more children.

“We had a budget and a plan,” said Mr. Spurlock, 29, a father of three, who with his wife, Michelle, hoped to avoid the pitfalls of his transition from Ramadi, Iraq, to Apopka, Fla.

But the move proved treacherous, as it often does for veterans. The job with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office fell through after officials there told Mr. Spurlock that he needed to “decompress” after two combat tours, a judgment that took him by surprise. Scrambling, he settled for a job delivering pizzas.

Mr. Spurlock’s disability claim for his back injury took 18 months to process, a year longer than expected. With little choice, the couple began putting mortgage payments on credit cards. The family debt climbed to $60,000, a chunk of it for medical bills, including for his wife and child. Foreclosure seemed certain.

While few Americans are sheltered from the jolt of the recent economic crisis, the nation’s newest veterans, particularly the wounded, are being hit especially hard. The triple-whammy of injury, unemployment and waiting for disability claims to be processed has forced many veterans into foreclosure, or sent them teetering on its edge, according to veterans’ organizations.

Recently discharged veterans, though, fared worst of all. A 2007 survey for the Veterans Affairs Department of 1,941 combat veterans who left the military mostly in 2005 showed nearly 18 percent were unemployed as of last year. The average national jobless rate in October was 6.5 percent.

A quarter of those who found jobs failed to make a living wage, earning less than $21,840 a year. Read On…

CNN: Gulf War illness is real, new federal report says

An extensive federal report released Monday concludes that roughly one in four of the 697,000 U.S. veterans of the 1990-91 Gulf War suffer from Gulf War illness.

That illness is a condition now identified as the likely consequence of exposure to toxic chemicals, including pesticides and a drug administered to protect troops against nerve gas.

The 452-page report states that “scientific evidence leaves no question that Gulf War illness is a real condition with real causes and serious consequences for affected veterans.”

Click here for full article.

UC Berkeley profiles the welcoming environment and variety of supportive services veterans encounter attending one of the best schools in the nation.

UC Berkeley News: UC Berkeley steps up to welcome and support its student veterans

From Public Affairs 7 November 2008

BERKELEY — As the nation and the campus observe Veterans’ Day on Tuesday, Nov. 11, UC Berkeley’s student veterans, many of whom are back from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, are getting a well-deserved day off from their studies. More than 150 veterans are attending UC Berkeley this fall majoring in everything from engineering and languages to philosophy and peace and conflict studies.

“The number of veterans at UC Berkeley increased this year, and we’re likely to see that number grow,” said Ron Williams, campus coordinator of Re-entry Student and Veterans Programs and Services. The campus offers veterans customized outreach and orientation programs, guidance with financial aid, and a new class that addresses their unique concerns.

“Veterans bring leadership, maturity and life skills that make for highly successful students,” said Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau, who has supported federal legislation to expand educational benefits for returning veterans. “We honor their service by helping them to build a better future for themselves as well as for our nation.”

Click here for video.

Click here for more information on UC Berkeley’s Veterans Services.

ABC News: From a War Zone to Stateside Nightmare, Recruiters Describe Brutal Working Conditions They Say Led to Soldier Suicides
By SARAH NETTER

Staff Sgt. Nils Aron Andersson was a newlywed of just a few hours and had completed his first counseling session when he shot himself atop a parking garage.

Staff Sgt. Patrick Henderson had made plans with his wife and stepson to go fishing the night he hanged himself in his shed.

Now their friends and family members are speaking out against the job they say led the men to kill themselves — recruiting for the Army.

The families have said high-pressure, sometimes abusive tactics used on recruiters combined with lingering combat-related mental health problems drove the soldiers to suicide. There have been four suicides in the Houston Recruiting Battalion alone, including three in the past 18 months.

The allegations have led one senator to call for an investigation into whether the military is covering up a “toxic” work environment.

The Army has launched an internal investigation into the Houston allegations, but spokesmen for the U.S. Army Recruiting Command and the Army itself did not respond to the specific charges raised by the friends and relatives of the recruiters who committed suicide, saying the investigation is a response in itself.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, sent letters in September and October to Army Secretary Pete Geren after reading about three Houston-area suicides in less than two years — Andersson, Henderson and Staff Sgt. Larry Flores Jr. — in a series of articles in the Houston Chronicle.

After news broke of his first letter, Cornyn said his office started getting calls from anonymous recruiters and their family members telling him about the intense, sometimes unbearable pressures placed on recruiters.

“Some have alleged that the senior leaders in the battalion, including members of the chain of command, are interfering with official investigations and also working to cover up serious problems that evidence a toxic command climate and poor unit morale,” Cornyn wrote to Geren in his second letter, dated Oct. 9.

Cornyn went on to reference alleged improper recruiting practices, including “mass punishment” and organizing hazing sessions for recruiters who fail to meet their monthly quotas for new recruits; confrontational “counseling sessions” for these same recruiters, at which they have been personally insulted and threatened with separation from the Army if their performance does not improve.Read on…

Crosscurrents: Homeless Veterans

[On Veterans' Day] we honor the men and women who have served the nation in the military. And there are more veterans every day each month more than 2000 soldiers return to California from Iraq and Afghanistan. Many are finding it difficult to adjust to civilian life. Reporter Anna Sussman reports now on a disturbing trend of homelessness among these new veterans.

Please follow this link for audio.

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. a good place to look at the plight of vets

All across the country this morning there will be Veterans Day parades, fluttering flags and heartfelt speeches. We will tell our servicemen and women how much we appreciate their sacrifice, remind everyone that service to our country is the hallmark of democracy and lament the passing of those who sacrificed their lives.

Someone will play taps.

And James Holmes, who served in the 82nd Airborne from 1975 to 1978, will be waking up in an armchair at a shelter for homeless people.

“I spent the last four nights in a chair, one night on the ground in Golden Gate Park and two nights in a (shelter) bed,” he said.

“I loved her,” Holmes said. “Still do. I was at work when her sister called and said there had been a car wreck. She said she was gone. Dead. I didn’t handle it that well.”

Many vets find that a jolt in their everyday life sends them spinning. Holmes can remember bits of the funeral and odd images from the next few weeks. He also remembers the drinking and the deep depression. He fell back on a familiar coping mechanism.

“I think what the Army did was teach me to survive, alone, with just a little pack on my back,” he said. “Over and over, I just put my stuff on my back and walked away.”

If you’d like to pick a spot to highlight the problem, San Francisco would be an excellent choice. Bobby Rosenthal, a coordinator for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, said there are an estimated 2,000 homeless veterans living in the city. And according to Wanda Heffernon of the local group Swords to Plowshares, that represents between a quarter and a third of the city’s total homeless population. Read On...

San Francisco Chronicle: Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans join the homeless

Ethan Kreutzer joined the Army at the age of 17 and fought with the 19th Airborne in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. When he returned home, he had no money, no education and no civilian job experience. He soon became homeless. He slept in an alley off Haight Street, behind two trash cans.

June Moss drove from Kuwait to Iraq as an Army engineer in a truck convoy. When she returned to the United States, she lost her home, and drove her two young children from hotel to hotel across Northern California.

Sean McKeen, a hardy, broad-shouldered 21-year-old with a wide smile, went to Iraq to clear land mines, and to get money for college. When he returned home, he became homeless in less than a week. He found himself sleeping in a cot in a crowded homeless shelter in San Francisco.

Kreutzer said he’s met several veterans of the war in Iraq on the streets of San Francisco, or sleeping in Golden Gate Park. He also said he met several veterans of the war in Afghanistan, like himself, who were in similar situations.

Kreutzer now lives in a temporary housing facility for veterans on Treasure Island, run by the group Swords to Plowshares. He attends PTSD counseling with other war on terrorism veterans so that he can learn to maintain a job and house. “I was haunted by a lot of issues, a lot of things that I saw over there that were not good things. There are some times when I can wake up in a room and think I’m still there. I still remember what it tastes like, the air over there. I see all the rocks, I see the people,” said Kreutzer.

One of the symptoms of PTSD is isolation and withdrawal, according to Amy Fairweather, director of the Iraq Veterans project at Swords to Plowshares. “So that interferes with your ability to get a job. People sit in the dark by themselves,” she said.

Fairweather is seeing large numbers of homeless war on terrorism veterans come through her doors.

“Homelessness can happen very quickly, if they don’t get the help they need. Their mental health will get worse, they will become more depressed,” she said. “We are seeing Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, who are homeless, coming in very quickly. After Vietnam, it generally took about five to 10 years to end up on the streets. We’re seeing people on the streets three months after they come home.” Read on…

This Veterans’ Day In Their Boots aired special webcasts of inspiring stories of veterans including a piece on a recent retreat for women veterans organized, in part, by Tia Christopher, Swords to Plowshares’ Women Veteran Coordinator.

Click here for more stories from In Their Boots

KQED’s Forum w/ Micheal Krasny: Female Soldiers
Tue, Nov 11, 2008 — 9:00 AM
Female Soldiers

Officially, the Pentagon bars female soldiers from direct combat duty. But in Iraq, women have found themselves in the line of fire more than ever before. On Veterans Day, we talk with some female soldiers about their experiences.
Host: Michael Krasny
Guests:
• Linsay A. Rousseau Burnett, former sergeant in the U.S. Army
• Meg McLagan, filmmaker behind “Lioness,” a film about the experiences of female soldiers in Iraq airing Thursday on KQED Television
• Ranie Ruthig, former staff sergeant in the U.S. Army
• Tia Christopher, women’s veteran coordinator for Swords to Plowshares

*Audio Will Up Soon.*

NY Times: Battleground: Female Soldiers in the Line of Fire
By FELICIA R. LEE

After Shannon Morgan returned from serving in Iraq, the memories of killing and carnage continued to haunt her, memories that some told her were unexpected for a female soldier.

Department of Defense policy bars female soldiers from direct ground combat, but for Ms. Morgan, like the four other female soldiers profiled in the documentary “Lioness,” that regulation meant little in the heat of battle. Attached to all-male combat units in the Army and the Marines as part of the Lioness program, the female troops were used to search Muslim women as needed and to defuse the cultural tensions caused by strange men interacting with Iraqi women. But when fighting broke out, the female soldiers fought back.

“We’d been downtown searching houses, and fighting would break out,” Staff Sgt. Ranie Ruthig, a former mechanic with a Lioness team, said in a recent interview. “We’ve had grenades thrown at us, shooting at us with AK-47’s. It’s a fight-or-flight thing. When someone is shooting at you, you don’t say, ‘Stop the war, I’m a girl.’ ”

As Ms. Morgan says toward the end of “Lioness,” which has its broadcast premiere on Wednesday night at 9:30 on Channel 13 in New York, “This is a new thing for people to realize that their daughters are over doing the exact same thing that males are doing now.”

The documentary makes the point that the nature of the Iraq war — fuzzy front lines and guerrilla tactics — has thrust more female soldiers (who represent 14 percent of active-duty enlisted personnel) into enemy fire than ever before. And, like the men, the women sometimes find the return to civilian life difficult, suffering the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and the depression and sleeplessness that come with it. Read on…

Click here for the official website of the “Lioness” documentary.

Article on what it’s like to travel home from Iraq.

Stars and Stripes: After 15 months in Iraq, servicemembers face an arduous process of returning to ‘normal’

ALI AL SALEM AIR BASE, Kuwait — It was midnight and home was within grasp, but after 15 months of grueling battle and fleeting sleep, the soldiers of 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment now faced the airport screening from hell.

After carefully packing their bulging bags with clothes, body armor and trinkets picked up in Iraq, 305 soldiers had to empty everything for security officials who picked through shirts, underwear and socks looking for contraband. The check came between two X-ray scans and two metal detectors, a process that took about three hours.

The soldiers began their trip home at Forward Operating Base Normandy, the dusty outpost in Diyala province where many 2nd Stryker soldiers spent the last months of their tour.

There, they waited for hours next to a darkened airfield, as first sandstorms, then lightning and torrential rain forced flight after flight to be canceled. In an area gripped by a disastrous drought, the timing of the downpour was uncanny.

After two days waiting out the weather outdoors in a leaky tent, the soldiers finally got out on a pre-dawn helicopter ride to Balad, Iraq, where they stayed overnight before hopping onto a quick C-17 flight to Kuwait. Between nerves and constant movement, some soldiers hadn’t slept for two days by the time they arrived at Ali Al Salem Air Base in the wee hours of the morning. Read on…

If you have a problem getting your job back after military service Assistant Secretary of Defense Thomas Hall invites you to call him personally at 703-697-6631 to correct the matter.

CBS 60 Minutes: Reservists’ Rocky Return To Job Market

(CBS) With the Pentagon relying so heavily on the National Guard and Reserve to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan - 650,000 have been called for active duty since 9/11 - the least you’d expect is that after they serve, they get their old civilian jobs back.

There’s a law, called USERRA (Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act), that says their employers have to take them back at the same pay.

But what 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl found is that despite the law, thousands of guards and reservists come home to find themselves demoted or penalized, or out of a job completely.

Watch CBS Videos Online

NY Times: Army and Agency Will Study Rising Suicide Rate Among Soldiers

Conceding it needed outside help in figuring out why the suicide rate among service members was rising, the Army announced plans on Wednesday to collaborate with the National Institute of Mental Health in an ambitious five-year project to identify the causes and risk factors of suicide.

The Army will make thousands of soldiers available to researchers for interviews and will provide access to its many databases, including those with medical, personnel, criminal and deployment histories. Researchers will draw from a cross section of the Army and will include soldiers who have just joined the service or are training for war and those who have returned from war.

Suicides in the Army have been climbing since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In 2007, 115 soldiers killed themselves, a rate of 18.1 per 100,000 people, or 1 percent lower than the civilian rate.

The pace of suicides by soldiers in 2008 could eclipse last year’s. As of August, the number stood at 62 confirmed cases in the Army. An additional 31 deaths appear to be suicides and are under investigation. Read on…

The British government has recently acknowledged that thousands more Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are in the criminal justice system then previously believed. Similar to the United States the British government also has an inadequate screening process for PTSD and other mental heath conditions which often go untreated as a result.

Telegraph.co.uk: Thousands more ex-frontline soldiers in the criminal justice system than previously believed

Elfyn Llwyd told fellow MPs that an estimated 4,000 ex-servicemen were serving community punishments for drug dealing, robbery and sexual offences.

This is in addition to the estimated 8,500 prisoners - one in 10 of the jail population in England and Wales - who probation officers say are in jail after serving the country in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Mr Llwyd said it was a “massive problem”: “At a time when serving soldiers have to make do with inferior kit, failure to act on this problem - and to do so positively and urgently - will be seen as further evidence that this Government has breached the covenant with the armed services in the most obvious and serious way.

“With proper support and counselling I believe that several thousands currently in custody would not be there.“

He said: “The problem is becoming worse and more acute given that servicemen and women now have to spend far longer in conflict zones in Iraq and Afghanistan than previously.

“Times between each deployment are now far shorter and consequently the pressures on them are considerably increased.”

The “majority of ex-soldiers” in a series of cases examined by the National Association of Probation Officers were suffering from post-traumatic stress disorders.

Yet, Mr Llwyd claimed, psychiatric care offered by the Ministry of Defence was limited to three days “rest and relaxation” on a beach in Cyprus, and general questions about whether soldiers had “any problems”. Read on…

Los Angeles Times: Sexual abuse rates of deployed female soldiers detailed in study

One in seven female soldiers who were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan and later sought healthcare for any reason reported being sexually harassed or assaulted during their military service, according to a study by Veterans Affairs researchers.

Women who reported harassment or assault were 2.3 times as likely to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder as those who did not, and were also more likely to suffer from depression or engage in substance abuse. Men who reported harassment or assault were 1.5 times more likely to suffer PTSD or other disorders.

Similar data have been found in other studies of the military, “but these are the first data specifically coming from veterans deployed in those operations, which makes them novel,” said clinical psychologist Amy Street of the National Center for PTSD at the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System.

[In a previous] study of all VA healthcare users in 2003, not just those deployed, the researchers found that 21.5% of females and 1% of males had reported suffering sexual assault or harassment.

American Public Health Association: Substantial Proportion of Female Veterans Report Military Sexual Trauma; Military Sexual Trauma Is Associated with Higher Rates of Mental Health Problem

San Diego, October 28, 2008 – According to preliminary research results from the Department of Veterans Affairs, approximately 15 percent of recently returned female veterans utilizing the VA health care system report experiencing sexual trauma during military service.

The cross-sectional study, presented at the American Public Health Association’s 136th Annual Meeting & Exposition in San Diego, examined health care screening data of over 100,000 veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) who utilized medical care at any Veterans Health Administration facility during a six-year period.

Along with the more than one in seven women, 0.7 percent of males also reported having experienced military sexual trauma (MST). Both males and females reporting MST were more likely to be diagnosed with a mental health condition than patients who did not report MST.

BBC’s exposé on America’s homeless veterans.

BBC World Service: The lost veterans

Click here for direct link to podacst of the the program.

Sergeant Phil Northcutt has been living with his girlfriend Jennifer and their one-year-old son, Kai, in a single room, raised up on stilts over the back yard of a house in Long Beach, California.

It’s little more than a crash pad which belongs to a friend of his.

For the moment though, it’s the nearest thing that Phil has had to a place of his own in three years.

Phil was lucky - he came back from serving with the Marine Corps in Iraq in one piece. His experiences of serving with the US military changed him so much that he couldn’t go back to his old life.

Advocacy groups estimate that Phil is one of at least 1,500 veterans from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan who sleep rough in America’s cities every night. It’s a problem that the authorities seem reluctant to admit to.

Official figures show that 150,000 veterans of various military conflicts are living in shelters or on the streets, although many charities working with the homeless say the true number is double that.

The current conflicts are already swelling this vagrant population - as more soldiers reach their point of discharge from the army.

When the process of eventual withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan begins, it’s likely to put further strain on an overburdened system.

Almost half of these ‘lost veterans’ have drug abuse problems and over a third have serious psychiatric disorders. Many have been to prison.

In 2006, Phil Northcutt was sent to jail for growing marijuana. The only drug which stopped the recurring nightmares of his time in Iraq. He was imprisoned for 11 months.

When the Marine Corps offered him an ‘other than honourable’ discharge, meaning the loss of benefits, he took it.

Andrew Purcell spoke to many of those, like Phil, trying to get back on track. He finds out more about their struggles reintegrating into civilian society, and why they feel abandoned by the US military.

First broadcast Wednesday 29th October 2008

With approximately 1.8 million service members deployed to the Global War on Terrorism, more “veterans’ courts” such as the veterans’ courts in Buffalo, New York and now Tulsa, Oklahoma, are needed to help prevent veterans from cycling through the criminal justice system.

MTV.com: Veterans Fight For An Alternative Justice System That Takes Their Trauma Into Account
Former Marines in Oklahoma help set up a system to provide treatment for vets arrested for drug- and alcohol-related crimes.

TULSA, Oklahoma — The plains of Oklahoma are a far cry from the mountains of Afghanistan and the deserts of Iraq, but that’s where former Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant John “Gunny” Bennett realized the familiarity of home couldn’t erase the scars of war. It’s also where he’s developed an alternative court for combat veterans who get in trouble with the law after they’ve returned.

In his new life working for the Sequoyah County Sheriff’s Department, Bennett was starting to see more and more young veterans, the type of guys he used to order around, getting in trouble for alcohol- and drug-related crimes.

“I would see their tattoos,” he said. “Veterans are proud of their service, and a lot of them get these tattoos, so I would go up to them and ask about their service. I noticed a lot of them are doing what I call self-medicating. They come back from a combat zone, and they are not sure how to handle those feelings or what they are going through, or [how to] stop those dreams they are having. So they start using drugs or drinking alcohol real heavily. Nine times out of 10, that leads to some sort of criminal activity.”

Rep. Bob Filner, Chairman of House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, say’s the committee will hold a hearing mid November on why veterans’ documents, such as applications for disability compensation, education benefits, home loans and pensions for low-income veterans, were found waiting to be shredded at several VA regional offices.

Tampa Bay.Com (St. Petersburg Times): House panel will target VA shredding

A House committee overseeing the Department of Veterans Affairs will hold hearings next month to question VA leaders about documents improperly marked for shredding at agency offices around the nation.

Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, said Friday that he was outraged by revelations that papers crucial to deciding veteran disability and pension claims were being destroyed by VA workers.

“These guys remind me of the Keystone Kops,” Filner said. “This completely shatters confidence in the whole VA system. These documents are matters of life and death for some of these veterans.”

Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Indian Shores, is not on the committee but supports having hearings and suggested the problem might be widespread. Some VA employees could face legal problems, he said. Read on…

The military sending troops with post-traumatic stress disorder and under medication back to Iraq or Afghanistan is something that has been going on for years now. These men and women should be getting comprehensive treatment for their condition. Being sent back to war is an unacceptable course of action with long term consequences to the soldier’s mental health.

Video from ABC World New Tonight: Wounded Troops Back in Battle

ABC NEWS Article: Mentally Unstable Soldiers Redeployed to Iraq

Two weeks before his second deployment to Iraq last September, Army Specialist Michael DeVlieger broke down.

“At first, I thought it was something that everybody experienced,” DeVlieger told ABC’s Bob Woodruff, “and just through time and perseverance I guess it would pass.” It didn’t pass.

After an 11-day hospitalization, DeVlieger was given a diagnosis of major depressive disorder, three psychiatric prescriptions — and deployment orders.

“Eighteen hours after he got out of the hospital, he deployed to Iraq,” DeVlieger’s wife, Christine DeVlieger, recalled. He left for Iraq despite Pentagon policy requiring that service members establish three months of “stability without significant symptoms” before deploying.

“I was a ticking time bomb,” Michael DeVlieger said.

“Psychological trauma is cumulative,” explained Dr. Paul Ragan, a former Navy psychiatrist who is an associate professor of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University. More deployments can mean more mental stress, and for some, more mental illnesses, he said.

Army surveys show that for those soldiers deployed once, the rate of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder is 12 percent. For those deployed three or more times, the rate is 27 percent.

“People who have psychiatric symptoms, actively symptomatic with PTSD or depression, are being sent back to the very situation that caused their PTSD and depression,” Ragan said.

The most recent Army Suicide Event Report showed suicides climbed to the highest number on record last year. Half of those who committed suicide had visited a medical program or clinic within 30 days of death and twenty-seven percent had a history of psychiatric medication.

ABC News looked into a dozen suicides that followed multiple deployments and had showed clear signs of mental distress.

Swords to Plowshares, Iraq Veteran Project Senior Policy Associate Mai-Ling Garcia’s recent presentation at UC San Francisco on the current issues facing post September 11 veterans and their families. Lt. Col. David Rabb also makes a presentation on understanding military culture.

UCTV: Cultural Competency Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans

Who are today’s veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and how does this group’s health needs set them apart from veterans of past wars? Join Mai-Ling Garcia of Swords to Plowshares for the first hour of this program and LTC David Raab, of the Medcal Service Corps, US Army Reserves, who will give the second hour of the presentation.

First Air: 10/4/2008

Prescription pain killers are routinely being prescribed to service members in massive amounts, some soldiers are prescribed hundreds of pain killer pills per month. Yet when these men and women, who are often combat veterans, become addicted the military prescribes harsh punishments including less than honorable discharges which carry serious implications with regards to veterans’ benefits.

USA Today: Troops reportedly popping more painkillers

Narcotic pain-relief prescriptions for injured U.S. troops have jumped from 30,000 a month to 50,000 since the Iraq war began, raising concerns about the drugs’ potential abuse and addiction, a leading Army pain expert said.

The sharp rise in outpatient prescriptions suggests doctors rely too heavily on narcotics and don’t manage pain with a complex array of treatments, said Army Col. Chester “Trip” Buckenmaier III, director of the Acute Pain Service Management Initiative at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

By 2005, two years into the war, narcotic painkillers were the most abused drug in the military, according to a survey that year of 16,146 service members.

Recently, at least 20 soldiers in an engineer company of 70 to 80 soldiers at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., shared and abused painkillers prescribed for their injuries, according to court testimony.

“The groundwork for this toxic situation was laid out through the continual prescription of highly addictive, commonly overused drugs,” said Capt. Elizabeth Turner, the lawyer for one defendant in the case.

Pain is the most common complaint of nearly 350,000 Iraq- and Afghanistan-era veterans treated by the Department of Veterans Affairs, says Robert Kerns, national program director for pain management. A study of VA health records estimates that nearly half of those patients suffer chronic pain, severe enough in about 30% of those cases to limit daily living.

USA Today: Prescription drug abuse hits Mo. Army unit hard

In 2003 Spc. Jeremy Thompson injured his shoulder, the Army prescribed painkillers and deployed him to Iraq.

During his first tour in Iraq from 2003 to 2004 his shoulder would slip out of place whenever he tried to move something heavy. Once, a medic gave him morphine before placing his foot against Thompson’s shoulder and twisting his arm to pop it back in place, he said.

When he returned to Fort Leonard Wood, he said, doctors recommended physical therapy and continued giving him painkillers until he deployed to Iraq again in 2005, Thompson said in interviews and testimony.

By the time he returned home in 2006, Thompson was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. An MRI also showed he needed shoulder surgery, he said, but that was delayed.

Thompson said he had become physically dependent on the narcotics. He also liked how they made him feel. His first Percocet prescription was for 30 pills a month, and doctors eventually raised that to 240 pills for 30 days.

Thompson knew it was wrong, he said, and asked his squad leader about enrolling in the Army Substance Abuse Program. The sergeant, he said, told him that admitting his dependence would ruin his career.

Thompson had shoulder surgery in January but still had pain, according to medical records provided by his attorney. He kept abusing drugs.

The prosecutions gutted the 509th Engineer Company.

“It took almost half the company,” Staff Sgt. James Gregory testified. Many are combat veterans. Some are married with children. One, Spc. Kenneth White, became addicted to medication after he suffered blast-related wounds, according to his lawyer, Anita Gorecki. A recent seizure delayed his trial, she says.

Thompson, 26, pleaded guilty at a court-martial in May to illegally using and distributing prescription drugs, which he shared with 11 other soldiers. An installation spokeswoman, Tiffany Wood, said six soldiers have been convicted of drug charges and seven await trial.

The Akron Beacon Journal (Ohio.com): New housing serves homeless female veterans

Carisa Dogen is an Army veteran. She’s also homeless, and has slept in parks and scavenged for food in trash cans.

“It’s real tough, especially on nights when it’s cold and rainy,” Dogen, 38, said as she sat inside The Other Place, a homeless shelter. “I got accosted a couple of times by males. Walking the streets and stuff, it’s hard and it’s scary.”

Dogen is among the 7,000 to 8,000 homeless female U.S. military veterans as estimated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. She is among the few who are hoping to benefit from new housing specifically for female veterans, an initiative homeless advocates say falls far short of what is needed.

A 27-unit renovated apartment building for female veterans on the Dayton Veterans Affairs Medical Center campus was completed in August. It is expected to be filled by mid-November.

More women are showing up at the door of Swords to Plowshares, a San Francisco group that provides housing and other services to homeless veterans.

Tia Christopher, the group’s coordinator for women veterans, said a 25-year-old Army veteran who served in Iraq recently came to her for help. The woman was sleeping on a couch in the home of her mother and stepfather.

“There is high risk she’s going to be homeless with a substance-abuse issue, and I can’t get her in anywhere,” Christopher said.

Few Veterans Affairs facilities offer residential mental health treatment specifically for women with post-traumatic stress disorder, said Amy Fairweather, director of the Iraq veterans program for Swords to Plowshares.

“The services are really behind the curve,” she said.

Army Times: VA claims found in piles to be shredded

Department of Veterans Affairs regional offices have been ordered to immediately stop shredding documents after an investigation found some benefits claims and supporting documents among piles of papers waiting to be destroyed.

Claims often include personal records supplied by veterans that are not duplicated in government files and might be difficult to replace, such as certificates for births, deaths and marriage.

Among the records found waiting to be shredded were applications for disability compensation, education benefits, home loans and pensions for low-income veterans, officials said.

VFW National Commander Glen Gardner said the problem could be significant.

“The VA inspector general conducted a routine investigation of Detroit’s mailroom and discovered five documents in the shredder bin, then three pieces are found in St. Louis, two in Waco, and some more in St. Petersburg,” he said. “The question that begs to be asked and answered is how many veterans had their disability and compensation claims disappear down a paper shredder?”

VA released this response - Peake: Lapses “Unacceptable,” Procedures and Accountability Tightened

Retired Rear Adm. Patrick W. Dunne, VA’s Under Secretary for Benefits, immediately directed all of VA’s regional offices to suspend all document shredding while IG and VA officials determine whether the problem is more widespread. Directors of the regional offices will have to certify in writing that no original copies of key documents or records from veterans’ cases under consideration are being destroyed.

Sen. Daniel Akaka, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, commented -
AKAKA RESPONDS TO VA FREEZE ON DOCUMENT SHREDDING

“I support VA’s temporary freeze, but this is not a long-term solution. VA needs an enforced and understood policy which preserves documents relevant to pending claims, without leaving veterans’ personal information open to identity theft. I trust that VA will act quickly, as they should,” said Akaka.

“Some documents must be properly disposed of due to space constraints and privacy issues. Veterans must be able to trust VA to safely keep their records. If they cannot, VA will not be able to do its job, and veterans will not get the benefits they have earned through their service,” said Akaka.

SWEEPING VETERANS’ MENTAL HEALTH BILL NOW LAW
Akaka’s legislation was inspired by first-hand accounts from veterans and their families
October 10, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI), Chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, issued the following statement today regarding enactment of S. 2162, the Veterans Mental Health and Other Care Improvements Act of 2008. S. 2162, introduced by Senator Akaka and cosponsored by a bipartisan group of Senators, makes various improvements to veterans’ mental health and other forms of care. The bill pays tribute to Justin Bailey, an Iraq war veteran who returned from combat only to lose his life to PTSD and an accidental overdose of prescription medications.

“Now that S. 2162 has been enacted, VA can incorporate these provisions to improve its strategy against the injury and enemy of PTSD and other invisible wounds,” said Akaka.

In his floor statement urging passage of S. 2162, Akaka detailed the origins of his legislation: “The legislation did not stem from a lobbyist or an interest group. It came about because of one letter - a letter to me from the parents of Justin Bailey - Mary Kaye and Tony Bailey.

“Justin Bailey was a war veteran who survived Iraq only to die while receiving care from VA for PTSD and substance use disorder. A week after his death last year, Justin’s parents were naturally heartbroken by the death of their only son, but even more than that, they were concerned that other veterans might share his fate if VA mental health care did not improve,” said Akaka. The Bailey family has worked actively to improve veterans’ mental health, testifying before the Veterans’ Affairs Committee and supporting S. 2162.

S. 2162’s improvements to veterans’ mental health care include:

* Setting a standard minimum level of care for substance use disorder, and creating innovative enhancements to treatment
* Improving treatment to veterans with multiple disorders, such as PTSD and substance use disorder
* Mandating a review of VA’s residential mental health care facilities, to ensure that they are adequately staffed
Creating a research program on PTSD and substance use disorder, in cooperation with the National Center for PTSD
* Enabling VA to provide mental health services to veterans’ families, and setting up a program to aid the families of returning servicemembers

S. 2162 also makes significant improvements in other areas of veterans’ health care:

Rural Veterans: More than doubles the beneficiary travel mileage reimbursement (from 11 to 28.5 cents per mile) eligible veterans can receive for travel to receive VA care, permanently sets the deductible to $3 each way for such travel, creates a pilot program on the use of peers to enhance outreach to rural veterans, and encourages coordination between VA and rural community-based resources.

Emergency Care for Veterans: Corrects current procedures used by VA to reimburse community hospitals for emergency care provided to eligible veterans.

VA Epilepsy Centers of Excellence: In recognition of the link between traumatic brain injury, a signature wound of the current conflicts, and epilepsy, establishes up to six VA Epilepsy Centers of Excellence focused on research, education, and clinical care for epilepsy.

Veterans’ Pain Care: Requires a pain care program, including care for acute pain, for all VA inpatient facilities for long-term mental health and substance abuse care and to prevent long-term chronic pain disability, expands VA health care staff education on pain assessment and treatment, and increases VA research on pain care.

Veterans’ Caregivers: Extends authority for VA to provide institutional and non-institutional long-term care and caregiver assistance services.

Medical Construction: Authorizes a series of major medical facility construction projects and outpatient clinic leases.

Homelessness: Creates targeted programs to assist low-income veterans, and increases funding capacity for the successful VA Grant and Per Diem program, which assists community-based organizations that serve homeless veterans.

Rehabilitating Veterans: Expands a program to help formerly incarcerated veterans reintegrate into society through employment counseling and other services.

S. 2162, introduced by Chairman Akaka, was reported by the Senate Committee, then passed the full Senate unanimously before being amended and passed in the House, then passed again in the Senate. President Bush signed the bill into law on October 10, 2008.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a non-partisan organization dedicated to the Troops and Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, recently released their 2008 Congressional Report Card.

Based on the legislative priorities outlined in IAVA’s Legislative Agenda, IAVA Action has selected 22 key votes on veterans’ issues in the 110th Congress (9 votes in the Senate and 13 votes in the House). The votes cover the entire range of issues facing new veterans, including veterans’ health care, the new GI Bill, mental health, and support for homeless veterans. The significance of each individual vote is described in the “Vote Description” section of the report card. You can download the full Report Card here. [PDF Link]

Scores are based on how often legislators took the pro-veteran position and voted with IAVA Action. For every vote in line with IAVA Action and in support of veterans, the lawmaker receives one point. Those who vote against the position of IAVA Action, or those who fail to vote, do not receive a point.

In addition, because the fight for the new GI Bill was of such historic importance, we wanted to recognize those who had gone above and beyond voting in the bill’s favor. Any Senator or Representative who signed on to be a cosponsor of the Post-9/11 GI Bill (Senate bill 22, and House bill 5740) receives two additional points.

Below are the grades received by California members of the House of Representative.
Note: Both California Senators, Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein received grades of A+

For direct link to California section of PDF report click here.

So how did your representative score?

This disquieting article is about Staff Sergeant Travis Twiggs, a decorated and outstanding Marine who loved this country and who after multiple combat tours suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The article tells the story of his and his family’s constant struggle to deal with the effects of PTSD and the all to common narrative of military/veterans’ suicide. Every American should know his story.

The New Yorker: The Last Tour, A decorated marine’s war within.

When the Twiggs brothers got to the Grand Canyon, on May 12th, Willard called his girlfriend, a married woman in Louisiana, on Travis’s cell phone. She had to see the canyon someday, he said. “It will make the hair on your arms stand up. It’s that beautiful.” A few minutes later, driving east along the South Rim past a spot called Twin Overlooks, Travis made a hard left and drove his car, a Toyota Corolla with Virginia plates, straight toward the edge of the canyon. There is no guardrail at Twin Overlooks, and the canyon at that point is nearly five thousand feet deep. The Corolla jumped the curb, but it did not take the plunge. It got hung up in a small fir tree, clinging to the Kaibab limestone just below the rim.

“I don’t think there was much field research done,” Ken Phillips, a National Park Service ranger, told me. He showed me a spot two miles west of Twin Overlooks where a man and a woman had driven into the gorge successfully. There was a longer straightaway for gaining speed, and a clearer path to the big drop. Double suicides are rare, and it isn’t always possible to tell if both parties were willing participants. In the case of the couple, Phillips said, witnesses got a good look at their faces as they swerved, and said that both looked determined. It turned out that they were on the run from serious criminal charges.

Travis and Willard Twiggs were not in trouble with the law. Willard, thirty-eight, was a former maritime-logistics specialist in New Orleans. He had been working construction, intermittently, since Hurricane Katrina. Travis, thirty-six, was a Marine Corps staff sergeant stationed in Quantico, Virginia. He was a decorated combat veteran with one tour of duty in Afghanistan and four tours in Iraq. In January, 2008, he had created a minor stir by writing, in the Marine Corps Gazette, an article about his struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder. Publicly acknowledging emotional problems has never been a smart career move in the military, particularly in the Marine Corps. But Twiggs, who was known for his grit and his charm, gave his piece, titled “PTSD: The War Within,” an upbeat ending, emphasizing his recovery, and he soon found himself working with a new unit, the Wounded Warrior Regiment, spreading the word about the treatment and prevention of P.T.S.D. In late April, in that capacity, he met President Bush at the White House. Rather than simply shake the President’s hand, Twiggs bear-hugged him, proclaiming, “Sir, I’ve served over there many times—and I would serve for you anytime.”

Three weeks later, he tried to drive into the Grand Canyon. Witnesses said that the brothers behaved oddly after the crash. They tried to reverse the Toyota out of the tree branches where it was wedged but could gain no traction. They did not want anyone to call for help. One seemed interested only in finding his cigarettes. They put on backpacks, said they were going to continue with their plans, and set off on foot before park rangers arrived. The witnesses said they assumed that by “plans” the two men meant hiking into the canyon, but Ken Phillips believes that the Twiggs brothers just went across the road and waited in the scrubby piñon-juniper forest there while the rangers cleared the wreck.

Beyond the tow truck and the rangers directing traffic, they would have seen the afternoon’s shadows crawling across the canyon’s far walls, picking out the huge, hallucinatory, floridly named formations—Vishnu Temple, Wotans Throne, Ottoman Amphitheatre. It is a landscape suited to an apocalyptic frame of mind. An hour after the last rangers left, while dusk was falling, the Twiggs brothers approached two tourists, who had stopped their rental car to admire the view. A .38 revolver was displayed. The Twiggs brothers got into the car and drove away. Now they were in trouble with the law. Read on…

The House of Representatives has passed The Veterans’ Mental Health and Other Care Improvements Act of 2008 and The Veterans’ Benefits Improvements Act of 2008. These bills will help veterans prevent foreclosure, access the health care they need and receive earned disability benefits in a timely Fashion. House VA Committee Chairman, Rep. Bob Filner, expects senate passage and urges president to sign bills into law.

House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Press Release:

Washington, D.C. – On Wednesday, September 24, 2008, Bob Filner (D-CA), Chairman of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, announced that the House of Representatives passed comprehensive legislation to provide improved health care services and increased benefits for our Nation’s veterans. Chairman Filner (D-CA) thanked his Republican and Democratic colleagues for their contributions to the comprehensive legislative package. He also thanked his Senate counterparts for their dedication to working together to craft legislation that will address the important and timely needs of veterans…

The following bills were considered and approved by the House of Representatives:
S. 2162, as amended – The Veterans’ Mental Health and Other Care Improvements Act of 2008 (Introduced by Senator Akaka)

Provisions of the bill include (but are not limited to):

• Expanding treatment for substance use disorders and mental health care;

• Conducting research into co-morbid PTSD and substance use disorders through the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder;

• Providing mental health care, including counseling, for families, of veterans;

• Providing reimbursement for a veteran for the costs of emergency treatment received in a non-VA facility;

• Establishing a pilot program to allow a highly rural veteran to receive non-VA health care;

• Designating at least four VA health care facilities as epilepsy centers of excellence;

• Mandating the VA to centralize third party billing functions at consolidated centers;

• Eliminating a rule prohibiting VA from conducting widespread testing for HIV infection;

• Expanding health care benefits provided to the children of Vietnam and Korean war veterans born with spina bifida;

• Developing and implementing a comprehensive policy on pain care management;

• Expanding referral and counseling services for certain at-risk and transitional veterans;

• Providing support services for very low-income veteran families residing in permanent housing; and,

• Authorizing major medical facility projects for 2009.

Congressman Patrick Murphy (D-PA) offered the following statement in support of S. 2162: “As someone who served in the company of heroes, it is unconscionable that so many of my fellow veterans seek shelter night after night. I am proud that we have begun the important task of making sure that the brave Americans who once faced down our enemies don’t have to face another night out on the street.”

S. 3023, as amended – The Veterans’ Benefits Improvements Act of 2008 Provisions of the bill include (but are not limited to):

• Directing the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to modernize the disability benefits claims processing system of the VA to ensure the accurate and timely delivery of compensation to veterans and their families and survivors;

• Establishing an Office of Survivors Assistance within the VA;

• Allowing temporary disability ratings for certain veterans;

• Addressing employee training for those responsible for processing claims by redeveloping the
certification exam and requiring an evaluation of the training and quality assurance program;

• Decreasing the equity requirement to refinance a home loan;

• Extending two pilot programs that offer adjustable rate loans;

• Reforming the USERRA (Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act) complaint process and ensuring that equitable relief is available to all USERRA victims when appropriate;

• Increasing the number of veterans that can participate in the independent living program;

• Updating housing construction and design guidelines to take into account any new or unique disabilities for veterans in need of specially adaptive housing;

• Providing assistance to the United States Paralympic Program for veterans and members of the Armed Services;

• Extending Servicemember Civil Relief Act protections to help service members with deployment orders to more easily terminate or suspend cell phone contracts without fee or penalty; and,

• Repealing the sunset provision for the Advisory Committee on Minority Veterans.

Chairman Filner stated, “There are nearly 24 million veterans in this country, more than 2.7 million of whom receive disability compensation benefits from the VA. S. 3023 would comprehensively modernize the VBA claims processing system and arm it with the up-to-date tools and paradigms it needs to process claims using integrated information technology and platforms, while improving accountability, timeliness, and quality of adjudicated claims. I want to thank Mr. Hall for his leadership in tackling the central issues that have led to the unmanageable claims backlog and the lack of accountability within the VA. Veterans can now have hope that the VA will finally stand for Veterans Advocate, instead of Veterans Adversary!”

Army Times: VA change to increase compensation for TBI

In the first of what could become many revisions in its disability ratings, the Veterans Affairs Department announced Tuesday that it is changing how it evaluates traumatic brain injuries, a move that could increase disability compensation for thousands of veterans who have been injured by roadside bombs or other explosions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The changes, which could take effect within 30 days, apply only to new disability claims. But in some cases, veterans already given a disability rating could ask to be reevaluated. Any increase in benefits resulting from the change would not be retroactive for those already rated, VA officials said.

The new regulation describes traumatic brain injury, commonly called TBI, as an injury that has immediate effects, such as loss of consciousness, amnesia, and other neurological symptoms. The problems could be temporary, but also may cause prolonged effects such as physical or mental impairment or emotional and behavior problems.

A disability rating would be determined by evaluating physical, emotional and cognitive behavior, with ratings based on the cumulative result of the evaluations. Physical problems could include pain, hearing loss and speech problems. Cognitive behavior would include decision making, judgment and social interaction.

Click here for VA Press Release on the changes.

Click here for the entire regulation as published. [PDF Link]

UC Berkley is offering a class to returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans which offers support and guidance in order to ensure a successful transition from combat to college.

The San Francisco Chronicle: Cal offers class to help war vets feel at home

“It’s a lot different here,” said former Marine Mike Ergo, 27, on a recent Friday morning.

Class was about to start. The weekly course, Veterans in Higher Education, unique in the UC system, is part of a campaign Cal is waging on many fronts to make vets feel at home on a campus with a long history of anti-war activism.

“It’s about making the transition,” said instructor Ron Williams, campus coordinator of Re-entry Student and Veterans Programs and Services.

The class, which has 22 students, explores strategies for academic success, including time management, developing relationships with mentors, and ways to study and prepare for tests. It also looks at concerns raised by previous veterans at Cal and connects new vets to campus and community resources.

There are 77 known veterans beginning their studies this year at Cal, where 151 vets were enrolled last spring. The majority arrive as transfer students, with majors ranging from engineering to philosophy, and all have a cross-campus team at their disposal to help with such things as admissions, financial aid and psychological counseling.

Cal’s veteran-friendly programs reflect Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Troops to College initiative, designed to draw former members of the military to California’s public universities and colleges. A vastly more generous federal GI Bill, which will take effect in August and provide many veterans with full tuition and living expenses, is likely to attract a new influx of vets to higher education.

At Cal, the academic challenges can be particularly daunting.

“I’ve learned more in a week here than a semester’s worth at community college,” Bryan Garcia, 27, told the class. Read on…

Mike Ergo, local Iraq veteran and former client of Swords to Plowshares, was interviewed about his struggles living with PTSD and what it takes to overcome the often intrusive memories of war. Mike Ergo is also actively involved in the local Bay Area chapter of vets4vets, a peer support groups for veterans.

ABC7 News: Bay Area vet overcomes PTSD

“They took us back in there to go through the whole city and clear it from top to bottom, going house to house to rid the city of the insurgency that had taken route there,” said Sgt. Mike Ergo from the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve.

The 25-year-old served two tours of duty in Iraq. Ergo enlisted right after high school in Walnut Creek. He’s a real life American hero, but paid a severe price.

He is calm as he describes the war in Fallujah that took such an emotional toll on him. He came back with post traumatic stress disorder. It was the massive “D Day” November invasion in 2004 to retake Fallujah from thousands of insurgents.

“I remember I took a step and a half and fell on my face. I thought I tripped on a sack of potatoes. As it turns out it was part of a man who had been killed, an insurgent. So right off the bat, I was faced with the prospect of death and seeing it all around me,” said Sgt. Ergo.

Follow this link to watch the entire report.

As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue, veterans of these wars also continue come home to an overwhelmed Veterans Administration and an economy in turmoil. Compounding the problem is the gridlock over critical legislation needed to support the troops when they come home. Legislation that will likely be put on hold as Congress adjourns for the year.

Army Times: Congress may abandon vets’ legislation

Congress appears to be on the verge of abandoning major veterans’ issues in a rush to leave town to run for re-election, charges the legislative director of one of the nation’s largest veterans’ organizations.

Joseph Violante, legislative chief for 1.3-million-member Disabled American Veterans, said partisan disagreements kept Congress from passing major veterans’ health and benefits bills last year, and the situation appears to be repeating this year.

With congressional leaders talking about wrapping up the legislative session by Sept. 26 and not returning to work until January, Violante said he wished he had more confidence important legislation would pass.

“They keep saying they are working on something, but time is running out, and all we see are problems,” Violante said Tuesday in an interview. “They cannot seem to do much of anything these days.” Read on…

John Koopman, journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle and veteran himself, has spent considerable time writing about what soldiers and Marines face in Iraq. He has been continuously covering the Iraq War since the initial 2003 invasion when he was embed with 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines. Recently, he attended Swords to Plowshares 1st Annual Veterans’ Job Fair where numerous veterans explained just how difficult it is to find employment.

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. job fair helps Iraq, Afghanistan vets

Sean Scharf, a Marine veteran of two tours in Iraq, is looking for a job.

He might want to be a police officer. But he also wants to study engineering. He’s worked security. He’s worked for a junkyard and a home improvement store. Before that, he drove an armored vehicle and fought insurgents in Iraq’s Anbar province, back when it was really rough.

Right now, he’s a little unfocused, which is not uncommon for military veterans who are trying to make a transition back into the civilian workforce. That’s why he spent time Tuesday at a job fair for veterans, put on by the group Swords to Plowshares.

“When I first got out of the Marines, I went back to my old job to see if I could get work there again,” he said. “Their attitude was like, ‘Oh, you’re just back from the military? Are you messed up from Agent Orange or anything?’

“A lot of people aren’t familiar with veterans or their issues. All they know is what they got from movies about the war in Vietnam.”

Scharf was one of about 100 veterans who showed up at San Francisco’s War Memorial building, across the street from City Hall, to attend the first-ever job fair sponsored by the nonprofit organization that deals with veterans’ issues, working primarily with veterans who are homeless, or have drug or alcohol problems.

Dave Lopez, director of training and employment services for Swords, said there’s a great need for employment programs for veterans, considering the multitudes who are getting discharges after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, or generally in the “Global War on Terror,” also known as “GWOT.”

“Because of the kind of work that Swords does, we felt it was time to step up to the plate,” Lopez said. “We went around and asked a bunch of employers to come here to talk to the vets, and no one said no.” Read on…

Vic Lee, of ABC7 News San Francisco, attended yesterday’s 1st Annual Swords to Plowshares veterans job fair and had this to report.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — There was a big turnout of veterans at a job fair in San Francisco which was specifically for them. Many say they served their country honorably, but the job market hasn’t treated them honorably.

“I was a battlefield medic in the military but none of that means a whole lot,” says Jerry Ramos, Iraq Veteran.

Ramos joined the Navy when he was only 17. Now he’s 24. He’s served two tours in Iraq and says it’s difficult getting real job.

“Actually, with the economy and the recession, I honestly would say yes,” says Ramos.

Ramos dropped in to the job fair held by the veterans group Swords to Plowshares. About three dozen employers were hiring…

View the full report here.

Washington Post: Soldiers’ Suicide Rate On Pace to Set Record

Suicides among active-duty soldiers this year are on pace to exceed both last year’s all-time record and, for the first time since the Vietnam War, the rate among the general U.S. population, Army officials said yesterday.

Ninety-three active-duty soldiers had killed themselves through the end of August, the latest data show. A third of those cases are under investigation by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner’s Office. In 2007, 115 soldiers committed suicide.

Failed relationships, legal and financial troubles, and the high stress of wartime operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are the leading factors linked to the suicides, Army officials said.

The officials voiced concern that an array of Army programs aimed at suicide prevention has not checked a years-long rise in the suicide rate. Read on…

Journalist Joshua Kors has been at the forefront of chronicling the injustices veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are facing. In his articles about Specialist Jonathan Town, here and here, Kors was one of the first to investigate the fact that some Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have been discharged due to what is labeled a personality disorder which is deemed by the Veterans Administration to be a pre-existing condition and therefore bars that individual from receiving full veterans’ benefits.

Recently, Kors attended the trial regarding the lawsuit brought by veterans’ organizations against the VA for its systemic bureaucratic failures which hurt the very people VA was created to help. In what is a well researched article Kors describes the ridicules barriers in place which limit a veteran’s access to benefits and services, the firing of Dr. Murphy after she dared to shed light on the failure of VA to implement the mental health plan VA routinely touted as proof of VA’s foresight, the attempted cover-up of the staggering number of veterans suicides, veterans’ lack of legal representation and the manipulation of claims processing times in order to make it appears claims are processed faster than they are in reality.

Be sure to read the article in its entirety.

The Nation: How the VA abandons Our Vets

Sgt. Juan Jimenez had one of the most dangerous jobs in Iraq, ushering top Administration officials through the war-torn streets of Baghdad. He returned home with two Purple Hearts and shrapnel lodged in his right arm. Today he is gravely ill.

What Jimenez didn’t realize is that before he could receive benefits for his wounds, he’d have to prove that those wounds came from war. Three and a half years later, the sergeant is still making his case. The Department of Veterans Affairs isn’t convinced. And it won’t give him his benefits until it is.

The VA requires all veterans to prove their wounds are “service-connected” before it writes them a check. Jimenez thought that hurdle was merely a formality. The Army sergeant had been struck by two roadside bombs. The first sliced into his arms; six months later, a second bomb sprayed scrap metal into his face, knocking him unconscious and leaving him brain damaged. He began having seizures and suffering from memory loss. The blast left a persistent ringing in his right ear. The stress sparked nightmares, flashbacks and acid-reflux disease.

“I’m a different person now,” Jimenez says glumly. “I come home; I lock myself in my room. I don’t really talk to anyone. I used to be fun.” Now, he says, he can’t even have a bowl of cereal. It gives him heartburn for days. “That second bomb, it killed me–it just left my body.” Sick, suicidal, the sergeant sought help from the VA.

The VA’s diagnosis: too much caffeine. “They said I was drinking too much Red Bull. That’s what was causing my problems.” Read on…

Urgent Message From the Disabled American Veterans

Congressional Adjournment Nears
Urge Congress to Act on Vital Veterans’ Measures

Adjournment of the 110th Congress will occur momentarily, probably within the month of September. With elections looming, all of those who hold office want to leave Washington as soon as they can to run for reelection. In a Presidential election year, more time on the campaign trail becomes especially critical. While everyone in Congress seems to be talking about how important veterans are to the nation, and detailing what a debt we owe all of them, they are braced to leave town without enacting numerous health care bills that would actually help veterans who are sick, wounded, and even permanently disabled.

The veterans’ bills that have not been passed cover a wide range of topics, from women’s health to PTSD and homelessness and many others. All these bills have been subjected to Congressional hearings and some of them multiple hearings - but virtually nothing has been passed by both houses and sent to the President for approval. If Congress fails to act, these bills will die. It is unconscionable in an election year that Members of the House and Senate would leap into the campaign season from the darkened halls of Congress to brag about their accomplishments for veterans, their thankfulness to veterans and their loyalty to veterans - while leaving all this legislative work in the dust bin.

Now is the time for Congress to act. Congress should not adjourn before finishing its work on behalf of veterans. All Members of the House and Senate need to know where you stand: you stand with veterans, and you want your Member of Congress and your Senators to act.

A suggested letter has been prepared for your consideration. Please use it or use your own words to urge your Members of the House and Senate to stand up for veterans before they stand for reelection this year.

As always, thank you for your support.

Click here to send your elected officials a letter asking they act on pending veterans legislation.

The current