Category Archives: Veterans Benefits

Water Contamination at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeuene, NC. Answers to Disability Claims/McClatchy News

VA to consolidate Lejeune water claims at Louisville office

By BARBARA BARRETT McClatchy Newspapers
Responding to heightened publicity and an uneven smattering of decisions on claims, the Department of Veterans Affairs will begin training a specialized cadre of workers this week to handle disability claims related to historic water contamination at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C.
The agency will consolidate claims at one office in Louisville, Ky. Eight employees there will focus on culling, researching and adjudicating disability claims related to the contaminated water.
The move is more than bureaucratic; it could prove significant to Marine veterans across the country who are suffering from cancers and other diseases that they think are related to the poisonous chemicals that flowed through Lejeune’s water from the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s.
“Great. Great!” Marine veteran Peter Devereaux of North Andover, Mass., said when he heard about the VA’s decision. “It seems they’re stepping up and trying to take control.”
Devereaux, 48, suffers from a terminal form of male breast cancer. It took him two years to finally earn service-connected disability benefits in August, and all along the way, he said, he had to explain the Lejeune water problems to VA officials.
“It felt like I had to beg,” he said. “You try to be a man. You know, I served my country. The last thing you want to say 20 years later is, ‘I need benefits.”‘
McClatchy Newspapers reported in June that the VA’s decisions on Lejeune-related claims appeared uneven and that they varied for Marines across the country. That led to questions from Congress about whether the VA was doing enough to track cases related to the contamination. Devereaux was among those who testified on the issue.
A million people – civilian workers, Marines and their family members – are thought to have been exposed to the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, and more than 160,000 have registered with the Marine Corps to learn more about the case.
From the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s, water wells at Lejeune were poisoned with trichloroethylene (TCE), tetrachloroethylene (PCE), benzene, vinyl chloride and other volatile organic chemicals. The wells were shuttered in the mid-’80s, but many Marine veterans and their families had no idea of the contamination until Congress required the military to notify them beginning in 2008.
Bradley Flohr, the VA’s assistant director for policy in compensation and pension service, said in an interview that the agency was acting now because it had grown concerned that disability decisions hadn’t been consistent across regional offices.
“Perhaps we’re not getting as consistent decisions as we would like to have,” Flohr said. “We’ve committed to do training for staff dedicated to do these claims.”
The department found about 195 adjudicated disability claims that listed Camp Lejeune’s contaminated water as a cause. Of those, just 32 have been approved.
In September, Thomas J. Pamperin, now the VA’s deputy undersecretary for disability assistance, testified to the House of Representatives that the VA hadn’t found conclusive evidence to link the water to a host of cancers and other diseases. Instead, the VA reviewed claims on a case-by-case basis, which resulted in scattershot decisions.
Now the agency has decided to have one office review all incoming Lejeune claims. So far, about 100 new ones await adjudication, Pamperin said in an interview.
Flohr plans to travel to Louisville this week to educate workers about the exposure, the types of chemicals that were in the water and the associated diseases. He said Louisville was chosen as the central site because it was a high-performing regional office.
“We know for certain benzene is most often associated with leukemias, acute myelocytic leukemia, and others,” Flohr said. “Kidney cancer as well, with TCE and PCE, and liver cancer is associated with vinyl chloride.”
The VA’s move to consolidate Lejeune-related claims comes even as federal scientists in Atlanta continue a years-long project to understand the contamination’s health effects better. Results of water-modeling and other studies from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry are expected in 2013, Flohr said.
The VA already had tried this year to update regional offices about the water contamination – but not always with the most up-to-date information. The agency sent a memo last spring to regional offices, but it referenced a controversial 2009 report from the National Research Council that left out significant contaminants and that epidemiologists have disputed.
Flohr said the letter was updated this past summer to include other contaminants, such as benzene and vinyl chloride.
This fall, the director of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry sent a letter to the Department of the Navy and the Marines warning them that the National Research Council report had flaws, including leaving out certain contaminants, low-balling potential impacts of exposure to the chemicals and not fully appreciating how more scientific study would better explain the health effects of the contamination.
“Let me be perfectly clear; there was undoubtedly a hazard associated with drinking the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune,” wrote Christopher Portier, the director of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the National Center for Environmental Health.
The VA also received a copy of the letter, Flohr said.
In response to congressional inquiries, the agency has begun tagging claims that list Lejeune’s water as a cause; traditionally claims have been tracked by disability, not cause.
APPLYING FOR DISABILITY BENEFITS:
To apply for service-connected disability, a veteran must fill out VA Form 21-526, Veteran’s Application for Compensation and/or Pension. More information is online at http://vabenefits.vba.va.gov/vonapp/main.asp .
In order to have a service connection for a disability, a veteran must show that exposure to the contaminated water “as likely as not” caused the disability. That comes through what’s called a “nexus letter,” which is written by a physician and shows the connection. The veteran also could request a medical opinion from a VA doctor.
To learn more about the Marines’ registry on historic water contamination at Camp Lejeune, go to https://clnr.hqi.usmc.mil/clwater/index.html or call 877-261-9782.
ON THE WEB
Department of Veterans Affairs information on Camp Lejeune water contamination:

http://www4.va.gov/healtheligibility/Library/pubs/CampLejeuneWaterContamination/CampLejeuneWaterContamination.pdf

Department of Veterans Affairs benefits:

http://www.vba.va.gov/VBA

The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten: Camp Lejeune Toxic Water:

http://www.tftptf.com/

Camp Lejeune Historic Drinking Water:

https://clnr.hqi.usmc.mil/clwater/

About Camp Lejeune:

http://www.lejeune.usmc.mil/about/

Better Business Bureau Alert for Veterans

Warning to Veterans!!” Email is a Fake

by bbbconsumeralert under Life, Tips, alert, phishing, scam

Someone pretending to be an attorney with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is sending an email to military veterans “warning” them against using the services of a group called Veterans Affairs Services. BBB Military Line, a complaint resource specialized for the military and their families, has received several inquiries about the email.

The email appears to come from, “Michael G. Daugherty, Staff Attorney with the Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of General Counsel (022G2)”. The email header, however, shows that it was sent by Jon Thompson with an email address: jkt6@comcast.net.

COCONUT GROVE, FL - NOVEMBER 11: U.S. Army Specialist, Kenneth Jones, a veteran of the Iraq war and other military veterans salute as taps is played during a ceremony on Veterans Day at the Charlotte Jane Memorial cemetery on November 11, 2010 in Coconut Grove, Florida. The historic cemetery has a number of military veterans buried on the grounds. Veterans Day is a federal holiday honoring military veterans. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

BBB Military Line officials have confirmed with the VA that Michael Daugherty is, in fact, an attorney with the VA Office of General Counsel but did not send the email and that no emails of this nature are being sent by the VA.

It is reasonable to suspect that the email may be an attempt to upload a virus as it contains a Facebook link directly beneath the first paragraph of the message.

BBB advises anyone who receives this email to not click on the link. You should never click on links in emails that are from unknown sources as they may contain viruses. Such viruses are typically designed to steal private information from your computer. Also, the VA advises veterans seeking the assistance of a VA-recognized service organization for purposes of submitting a claim for VA benefits to search at the General Counsel’s accreditation search page.

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Press Release: Grief Counseling;Terry Byron: Dignity Memorial Network & Marana Marine Corps League

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – MEDIA ALERT
Media Contact:
Jim Gibson, 520-241-9859
Dignity Memorial Network Offers 24-Hour Grief Counseling
For Public Impacted by the Shooting in Tucson
TUCSON – (January 10, 2011) – In the wake of the recent shooting of Rep. Giffords’ “Congress on
Your Corner” event, the Dignity Memorial® network of funeral, cremation and cemetery providers is
making its 24-hour Compassion Helpline® available at no charge to anyone who would like to speak
with a counselor regarding this shooting. Members of the community are encouraged to call 1-800-
854-8080 toll-free for free grief counseling. These calls are confidential and will not be reported back
to anyone.
Answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by professionally-trained and licensed counselors, the
Compassion Helpline is designed to provide emotional support and guidance at no charge to those in
need of counsel during times of grief or mourning. The counselors can be called at any time and any
number of times free of charge.
Jim Gibson, market manager of Dignity Memorial locations in the Tucson area, offered condolences to
those touched by this shooting. “Our hearts go out to the families, friends and community members
whose lives have been forever changed by this event,” said Gibson. “It is our hope that, in some way,
our grief management resource can help them better understand and deal with the emotions evoked by
such a difficult experience.”
The Compassion Helpline is normally offered as a family support benefit to Dignity Memorial
customers. The Dignity Memorial network of more than 1,800 funeral, cremation and cemetery service
providers is North America’s most trusted resource for funeral and memorialization services. Dignity
Memorial providers offer an unmatched combination of products and locations serving families with
care, integrity, respect and service excellence. For more information, visit www.dignitymemorial.com.
###

Heroes of the Vietnam Generation

Like the good NCO that I believe I was, I will just step aside and let the officer speak. James Webb is a man of honor and a very fine Senator.
Heroes of the Vietnam Generation

By James Webb

The rapidly disappearing cohort of Americans that endured the Great Depression and then fought World War II is receiving quite a send-off from the leading lights of the so-called 60’s generation. Tom Brokaw has published two oral histories of “The Greatest Generation” that feature ordinary people doing their duty and suggest that such conduct was historically unique.

Chris Matthews of “Hardball” is fond of writing columns praising the Navy service of his father while castigating his own baby boomer generation for its alleged softness and lack of struggle.  William Bennett gave a startling condescending speech at the Naval Academy a few years ago comparing the heroism of the “D-Day Generation” to the drugs-and-sex nihilism of the “Woodstock Generation.” And Steven Spielberg, in promoting his film “Saving Private Ryan,” was careful to justify his portrayals of soldiers in action based on the supposedly unique nature of World War II.

An irony is at work here. Lest we forget, the World War II generation now being lionized also brought us the Vietnam War, a conflict which today’s most conspicuous voices by and large opposed, and in which few of them served. The “best and brightest” of the Vietnam age group once made headlines by castigating their parents for bringing about the war in which they would not fight, which has become the war they refuse to remember.

Pundits back then invented a term for this animus: the “generation gap.” Long, plaintive articles and even books were written examining its manifestations. Campus leaders, who claimed precocious wisdom through the magical process of reading a few controversial books, urged fellow baby boomers not to trust anyone over 30. Their elders who had survived the Depression and fought the largest war in history were looked down upon as shallow, materialistic, and out of touch.

Those of us who grew up, on the other side of the picket line from that era’s counter-culture can’t help but feel a little leery of this sudden gush of appreciation for our elders from the leading lights of the old counter-culture. Then and now, the national conversation has proceeded from the dubious assumption that those who came of age during Vietnam are a unified generation in the same sense as their parents were, and thus are capable of being spoken for through these fickle elites.

In truth, the “Vietnam generation” is a misnomer. Those who came of age during that war are permanently divided by different reactions to a whole range of counter-cultural agendas, and nothing divides them more deeply than the personal ramifications of the war itself. The sizable portion of the Vietnam age group who declined to support the counter-cultural agenda, and especially the men and women who opted to serve in the military during the Vietnam War, are quite different from their peers who for decades have claimed to speak for them. In fact, they are much like the World War II generation itself. For them, Woodstock was a side show, college protestors were spoiled brats who would have benefited from having to work a few jobs in order to pay their tuition, and Vietnam represented not an intellectual exercise in draft avoidance, or protest marches but a battlefield that was just as brutal as those their fathers faced in World War II and Korea.

Few who served during Vietnam ever complained of a generation gap. The men who fought World War II were their heroes and role models. They honored their father’s service by emulating it, and largely agreed with their father’s wisdom in attempting to stop Communism’s reach in Southeast Asia.

The most accurate poll of their attitudes (Harris, 1980) showed that 91 percent were glad they’d served their country,74 percent enjoyed their time in the service, and 89 percent agreed with the statement that “our troops were asked to fight in a war which our political leaders in Washington would not let them win.” And most importantly, the castigation they received upon returning home was not from the World War II generation, but from the very elites in their age group who supposedly spoke for them.

Nine million men served in the military during Vietnam War, three million of whom went to the Vietnam Theater. Contrary to popular mythology, two-thirds of these were volunteers, and 73 percent of those who died were volunteers. While some attention has been paid recently to the plight of our prisoners of war, most of whom were pilots; there has been little recognition of how brutal the war was for those who fought it on the ground.

Dropped onto the enemy’s terrain 12,000 miles away from home, America’s citizen-soldiers performed with a tenacity and quality that may never be truly understood. Those who believe the war was fought incompletely on a tactical level should consider Hanoi’s recent admission that 1.4 million of its soldiers died on the battlefield, compared to 58,000 total U.S. dead.

***Those who believe that it was a “dirty little war” where the bombs did all the work might contemplate that is was the most costly war the U.S. Marine Corps has ever fought – five times as many dead as World War I, three times as many dead as in Korea, and more total killed and wounded than in all of World War II.***

Significantly, these sacrifices were being made at a time the United States was deeply divided over our effort in Vietnam. The baby-boom generation had cracked apart along class lines as America’s young men were making difficult, life-or-death choices about serving. The better academic institutions became focal points for vitriolic protest against the war, with few of their graduates going into the military.  Harvard College, which had lost 691 alumni in World War II, lost a total of 12 men in Vietnam from the classes of 1962 through 1972 combined. Those classes at Princeton lost six, at MIT two. The media turned ever more hostile. And frequently the reward for a young man’s having gone through the trauma of combat was to be greeted by his peers with studied indifference to outright hostility.

What is a hero? My heroes are the young men who faced the issues of war and possible death, and then weighed those concerns against obligations to their country. Citizen-soldiers who interrupted their personal and professional lives at their most formative stage, in the timeless phrase of the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery, “not for fame of reward, not for place or for rank, but in simple obedience to duty, as they understood it.”  Who suffered loneliness, disease, and wounds with an often-contagious elan.  And who deserve a far better place in history than that now offered them by the so-called spokesman of our so-called generation.

Mr. Brokaw, Mr. Matthews, Mr. Bennett, Mr. Spielberg, meet my Marines.  1969 was an odd year to be in Vietnam.  Second only to 1968 in terms of American casualties, it was the year made famous by Hamburger Hill, as well as the gut-wrenching Life cover story showing pictures of 242 Americans who had been killed in one average week of fighting.  Back home, it was the year of Woodstock, and of numerous anti-war rallies that culminated in the Moratorium March on Washington.  The My Lai massacre hit the papers and was seized upon by the anti-war movement as the emblematic moment of the war.  Lyndon Johnson left Washington in utter humiliation.

Richard Nixon entered the scene, destined for an even worse fate.  In the An Hoa Basin southwest of Danang, the Fifth Marine Regiment was in its third year of continuous combat operations.  Combat is an unpredictable and inexact environment, but we were well led.  As a rifle platoon and company commander, I served under a succession of three regimental commanders who had cut their teeth in World War II, and four different battalion commanders, three of whom had seen combat in Korea.  The company commanders were typically captains on their second combat tour in Vietnam, or young first lieutenants like myself who were given companies after many months of “bush time” as platoon commanders in the Basin’s tough and unforgiving environs.

The Basin was one of the most heavily contested areas in Vietnam, its torn, cratered earth offering every sort of wartime possibility.  In the mountains just to the west, not far from the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the North Vietnamese Army operated an infantry division from an area called Base Area 112. In the valleys of the Basin, main-force Viet Cong battalions whose ranks were 80 percent North Vietnamese Army regulars moved against the Americans every day. Local Viet Cong units sniped and harassed.  Ridgelines and paddy dikes were laced with sophisticated booby traps of every size, from a hand grenade to a 250-pound bomb. The villages sat in the rice paddies and tree lines like individual fortresses, crisscrossed with the trenches and spider holes, their homes sporting bunkers capable of surviving direct hits from large-caliber artillery shells. The Viet Cong infrastructure was intricate and permeating.  Except for the old and the very young, villagers who did not side with the Communists had either been killed or driven out to the government controlled enclaves near Danang.

In the rifle companies, we spent the endless months patrolling ridgelines and villages and mountains, far away from any notion of tents, barbed wire, hot food, or electricity.  Luxuries were limited to what would fit inside one’s pack, which after a few “humps” usually boiled down to letter-writing material, towel, soap, toothbrush, poncho liner, and a small transistor radio.

We moved through the boiling heat with 60 pounds of weapons and gear, causing a typical Marine to drop 20 percent of his body weight while in the bush.  When we stopped we dug chest-deep fighting holes and slit trenches for toilets. We slept on the ground under makeshift poncho hootches, and when it rained we usually took our hootches down because wet ponchos shined under illumination flares, making great targets. Sleep itself was fitful, never more than an hour or two at a stretch for months at a time as we mixed daytime patrolling with night-time ambushes, listening posts, foxhole duty, and radio watches.  Ringworm, hookworm, malaria, and dysentery were common, as was trench foot when the monsoons came. Respite was rotating back to the mud-filled regimental combat base at An Hoa for four or five days, where rocket and mortar attacks were frequent and our troops manned defensive bunkers at night, which makes it kind of hard to get excited about tales of Woodstock, or camping at the Vineyard during summer break.

We had been told while training that Marine officers in the rifle companies had an 85 percent probability of being killed or wounded, and the experience of “Dying Delta,” as our company was known, bore that out.  Of the officers in the bush when I arrived, our company commander was wounded, the weapons platoon commander wounded, the first platoon commander was killed, the second platoon commander was wounded twice, and I, commanding the third platoons fared no better.  Two of my original three-squad leaders were killed, and the third shot in the stomach.  My platoon sergeant was severely wounded, as was my right guide. By the time I left my platoon, I had gone through six radio operators, five of them casualties.

These figures were hardly unique; in fact, they were typical.  Many other units; for instance, those who fought the hill battles around Khe Sanh, or were with the famed Walking Dead of the Ninth Marine Regiment, or were in the battle of Hue City or at Dai Do, had it far worse.

When I remember those days and the very young men who spent them with me, I am continually amazed, for these were mostly recent civilians barely out of high school, called up from the cities and the farms to do their year in hell and then return.  Visions haunt me every day, not of the nightmares of war but of the steady consistency with which my Marines faced their responsibilities, and of how uncomplaining most of them were in the face of constant danger.  The salty, battle-hardened 20-year-olds teaching green 19-year-olds the intricate lessons of the hostile battlefield.  The unerring skill of the young squad leaders as we moved through unfamiliar villages and   weed-choked trails in the black of night. The quick certainty when a fellow Marine was wounded and needed help. Their willingness to risk their lives to save other Marines in peril.  To this day it stuns me that their own countrymen have so completely missed the story of their service, lost in the bitter confusion of the war itself.

Like every military unit throughout history we had occasional laggards, cowards, and complainers. But in the aggregate, these Marines were the finest people I have ever been around.  It has been my privilege to keep up with many of them over the years since we all came home.  One finds in them very little bitterness about the war in which they fought.  The most common regret, almost to a man, is that they were not able to do more for each other and for the people they came to help.

It would be redundant to say that I would trust my life to these men.  Because I already have, in more ways than I can ever recount.  I am alive today because of their quiet, unaffected heroism.  Such valor epitomizes the conduct of Americans at war from the first days of our existence.  That the boomer elites can canonize this sort of conduct in our fathers’ generation while ignoring it in our own is more than simple oversight. It is a conscious, continuing travesty.

With Vietnam Vets The Beat Goes On

Many thanks to Steve Lopez of the Los Angeles Times, CalVets and my Army pal Bill Howard for forwarding this story. It needs to be read by the very wide audience of veterans. At times this blog is but a hitching post for information that wants to come to town.  I am sure the authors appreciate the accolades.

At Veteran Veritas we are, “E Pluribus Unum.”

By Steve Lopez

Los Angeles Times

More than 40 years ago, while the Vietnam War was raging, the Los Angeles son of a world-famous critic of the war got a draft notice. Steve Peck managed to get a temporary deferment because he was in college. But after graduation, it was time to report to the Marines for duty.

Peck’s mother told Steve she could probably arrange for him to skip out and stay with family in Sweden, but he wasn’t very politically aware and wasn’t opposed to serving. “I certainly didn’t want to use my father,” said Peck, even if his famous Oscar-winning dad might have been able to get him out of military service.

So Stephen Peck, the son of actor Gregory, went to Vietnam in 1969 with the 1st Marine Division. Lt. Peck completed his tour in 1970, went to film school at USC and became a documentary filmmaker. Not until 1990, though, did he realize what he wanted to do with his life.

That was the year Peck made two films about war and its aftermath, and on the speaking tours to veterans groups that followed, he realized he was talking to the kind of people he wanted to work for. So for the last 20 years, Peck has devoted himself to helping vets transition to civilian life.

“In the film business you have to sell yourself, and I wasn’t very good at that. I’m good at helping other people,” said Peck, who in August became president of U.S. VETS, an L.A.-based nonprofit that serves 2,500 vets a day in nine states, with a big focus on rescuing homeless vets from the streets.

I went to see Peck last week in Long Beach, where 545 formerly homeless vets live and get job training, addiction treatment and other services from U.S. VETS. Peck said the demand for services nationwide is bound to grow dramatically, given thousands of multiple deployments to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and there’s no way the Department of Veterans Affairs will be able to answer the need.

That’s unacceptable, if you ask me, but it gets worse. ProPublica and NPR reported recently that the military is refusing to diagnose and treat traumatic brain injury because of the high cost of treatment.

It would be nice if those who led the charge to war were as militant about treating injured soldiers as they were about delivering tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans. But Washington is crawling with cowards and hypocrites, which makes the work of nonprofits like U.S. VETS all the more important.

Peck says an estimated 20% of all vets will suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, but only 40% of those afflicted will seek help. Crunch those numbers, and it means roughly 250,000 vets who served in Iraq and Afghanistan will go untreated. And that will translate into thousands of fractured families, lost jobs and more homelessness.

So Peck and his staff have come up with a new program to help stem the tide. Beginning in January, they’ll be going to college campuses and into the streets in search of vets who need help but either don’t know it or don’t know where to turn. U.S. VETS is building a network of contacts on local college campuses, where several thousand vets in Greater L.A. are taking advantage of the new G.I. bill.

U.S. VETS will use outreach workers and a clinical psychologist and make use of its partnership with the Long Beach VA Medical Center’s medical and psychiatric teams. Adam Renteria, one of the outreach workers, is the perfect example of whom U.S. VETS wants to go after. Renteria survived the invasion of Baghdad in 2003 but came home shell-shocked.

“Nobody will hire a vet because of that stare in their eye,” said Renteria, who had it so bad, he couldn’t hold minimum-wage jobs. He thought the enemy might be up there behind the windows of tall buildings or on rooftops, and he flinched at the sound of a car’s backfire.

“I couldn’t handle it. I went stir crazy for about three years trying to figure out where I was. I had sleepless nights, the shakes, the whole bit,” said Renteria, who ended up living in his car.

Like a lot of vets, he figured he could handle his problems on his own.

“You don’t know you need help, you don’t know where to turn for help and there’s that stigma” associated with mental disorders, said Renteria. Not to mention a prevalent feeling among vets that the VA will tangle you in red tape and dispute war-related stress.

Renteria had another reason for not seeking help.

“I saw quite a few of my buddies get injured, get blown up, and you always figure they need the services most. You don’t want to take away any part of that pie because it takes away from them.”

As a student at Cal State Long Beach, Renteria helped establish a veterans club on campus, got a degree in history in May and was hired by U.S. VETS in August.

“This is the perfect marriage,” he said. “To help my battle buddies come home. And it’s therapy for me too.”

Peck said that when he returned from Vietnam, there was no diagnosis called post-traumatic stress disorder. If you were a loner or acted out, you were just a crazy vet.

Making those documentaries about war was probably his own form of therapy, Peck said, and it got him back to where he needed to be.

If you’d like to know more about his program, go to http://www.usvetsinc.org.

Special plea for Vietnam Veteran and his Dog

A special plea for a Vietnam Veteran and his Dog

In October 2010, Valley Dogs received a very special request from a homeless Vietnam Veteran who had hit some very hard times.  He lost his job, wife, and home, all within months of each other.  He has been a handyman for 35 years, but has been having difficulty finding work.  So he did all the odd jobs he could, and was living out of his truck.  He made dozens of calls to rescues pleading if anyone could temporarily watch his dog, Libby, a 3 year old yellow lab, until he got back on his feet.  Libby is his life, and is all he has left, but he felt he needed to do what was best for her.  We were all drawn to his love and dedication towards Libby, and his putting her needs before his own.  Valley Dogs stepped up, and found a temporary home for Libby.  Gary tearfully said his goodbyes to Libby, and promised her would come back for her.

The VA assisted Gary in getting an apartment in November, and he was ecstatic to get Libby back.  Unfortunately, two weeks later, while walking across the street, Gary got hit by a drunk driver.  His right leg was shattered, and about 5 inches of his leg had to be replaced with a metal rod.  He pleaded with Michael, the president of Valley Dogs, to take Libby in again temporarily, until he could care for her again.  We could not turn our back on Gary, and took Libby in again.

A few weeks later, Gary called Michael from the hospital inquiring on Libby.  Michael told him that she was moved from a boarding facility to a foster home.  Gary burst into tears.  He thought that we permanently placed Libby in another home.  He had no family here, and had not had one visitor in the hospital for 3 weeks.  As Michael reassured Gary that Libby was still his dog, Gary kept repeating “she’s all I have left, I have nothing”.  The only clothes he had at the hospital were all cut up, and he only had one shoe after the accident.  Michael put out a plea to the rescue asking how we could help Gary.  We collected clothes and shoes, brought meals to the hospital, and were able to bring Libby to the hospital on Christmas.  Libby was so excited to see her dad in the hospital that she nearly knocked over the tray table to get to him.  It was a very special moment.

Gary was expected to be in the rehab facility for at least another two weeks, but the insurance from the drunk driver ran out, and he was prematurely released.  He has no in-home care, and can barely navigate around his apartment due to his impaired leg.  He didn’t even have a ride home from the hospital.  Two of our volunteers transported him home.

Valley Dogs volunteers have been preparing meals, helping him pay his bills, and Libby’s foster mom has been bringing her over for visits, until he can care for her again.  We’re working with Gary to identify resources for him, but as a dog rescue, this really isn’t our forte, and we’re just hitting a lot of red tape everywhere we go.  He doesn’t belong at home alone in his condition, but he is slipping through the system for being too young, not permanently disabled, or not having insurance.

Gary is a very proud person.  There is nothing more he wants than to be self sufficient again, and back to work.  He is facing at least a six month recovery period.

Gary also needs to be getting physical therapy for his leg (he is currently limited to 15 sessions), but the PT van will only pick him up in the parking lot, and they will not come to his door to get him.  He can’t get his own shoes and socks on, let a lone walk out of his door.

We have received overwhelming support from amazing organizations like Madison Street Veterans Association, Furnishing Hope, and Guardian Angels Catholic Community in providing clothes, household items, furniture, and food. We’re doing whatever we can to help care for him, but it is not enough.   We are collecting donations to contribute to his meals, getting him in-home care aide, physical therapy, and helping pay for his rent which is $166/mo.  Any amount would be most appreciated, and we would be happy to provide you with a receipt.

If you are outraged by how this injured veteran has been treated by the system, please consider making a difference in his life by making a donation.  We refuse to believe that this is all that can be done for Gary.  Please help us make that a reality.

www.valleydogs.org

Veterans Helping Each Other Is The Way Home

Thanks Alexis for taking the time to conduct these interviews. The ongoing need for peer support amongst combat veterans will continue to need its siren call around the nation. We have a ton of men and women coming home after multiple tours of duty; some as many as five tours. We have never experienced this phenomena in the 230 years of United States Military history. The transitioning home is so critical to the veterans future decisions that it may well be more of a defining event than the war itself, as it relates to job, family and friends. You and your editor would do well Alexis to continue a series in the Roundup to track this society wide need to be there for these warriors.

The Roundup has been a tremendous asset in the past for spreading the word about the Veterans Program at the Merritt Center. Keep up the good work.

I am a graduate of this program and have been honored to serve as one of their mentors for the past six years.  We had no idea that the wars would continue so long after the proclamation of, “Mission Accomplished.” There is much work to do, and I am sure Betty Merritt loves having you in her platoon of volunteers.

The beauty of this program is that it works and it is free!

The first weekend in December we traveled to the Merritt Center with the Pulitzer Prize winning author Phil Caputo, former Marine Platoon commander during the landing at DaNang, Vietnam in 1965. His book, “Rumor of War,” has been the gold standard for Vietnam war novels for 25 years. He too was stunned to discover that this program is free to the veteran. Yet not without cost to the Merritt Center. It costs about $500.00 per veteran to complete the four weekends spanning six months.

So. if the well healed readers of the Tucson Citizen feel so inclined to support this life saving cause please let your philanthropic heart guide you.

I am also available for any questions you may have about the program. Our concern with privacy is tantamount.  Mike Brewer/United States Marine Corps/760-550-8083

Payson Roundup Article (www.payson.com)
By: Alexis Bechman
December 30, 2010
Vets reach out for help, some violently
It took 42 years for an event to trigger Vietnam veteran Samuel’s post traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD). Like most vets, he didn’t talk about his experiences with anyone, but after a
co-worker attempted suicide at work, Samuel, who asked to remain anonymous, fell
unexpectedly into a deep depression.
The day he killed a group of Vietnamese came rushing back.
He reached out for help.
Unfortunately, Iraq War veteran Christopher Steward reached for a gun when the trauma of
his combat service overwhelmed him.
On Dec. 10, Steward lashed out violently, threatening to kill himself. It took a five-hour
standoff with Payson police negotiators to get Steward to come out of his home peacefully.
Tragically, Steward’s gripping story hints at the struggle of a number of veterans returning
from the nation’s longest war —which has left lasting and inexplicable wounds on some of its
survivors. These wounds are often brushed off by society, as veterans deal with their
emotions in secret.
Rim Country combat veterans have limited options. Fortunately, Merritt Center founder Betty
Merritt holds free retreats for returning combat veterans on her Star Valley property.
“When is this town going to wake up?” asked Merritt after she heard about Steward, who
threatened his girlfriend, fired two shots in an apparent suicide attempt and then holed up in
his home with his teenage son.
Most veterans looking for help have to drive to Prescott or Phoenix. Often, combat veterans
returning from Iraq or Afghanistan don’t even know where to get help, Merritt said. A group of
veterans told her they didn’t know what services were available to them or how to access
those services.
A breakdown in the system can be costly.
In February 2009, a standoff with a Gulf War veteran almost ended fatally.
Michael Gene Robinson fired several shots at police in his front yard, allegedly believing they
were Iraqis. After rattling his yard with bullets for nine hours, Robinson surrendered as well.
According to reports, nearly 30 percent of returning Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) veterans
are enrolled in Veteran Affairs health care, primarily for post traumatic stress disorder.
“Recent military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan represent the most sustained ground
combat operations involving American forces since the Vietnam era,” according to the
American Medical Association.
“The majority of military personnel experience high intensity guerrilla warfare and the chronic
threat of roadside bombs and improvised explosive devices.”
Veterans of all wars report symptoms in addition to depression and alcohol use.
Merritt said there is a way to deal with PTSD that doesn’t
involve covering it up with substances or denial.
At her center, vets go through a four-weekend program that
gives them the tools to reintegrate back into civilian life.
Samuel
Samuel thought he had stuffed all his bad memories away —
the day he killed Vietnamese, the day he watched fellow
soldiers get hurt — he locked it all away.
But in February, those issues resurfaced when a co-worker tried to kill himself.
As he watched, all Samuel could think about was the mission — to save this person. As
people frantically yelled around him, Samuel felt responsible for saving his life.
Although the person survived, Samuel walked away feeling wasted.
Samuel recognized his PTSD had returned and had engulfed his life.
“I always knew something was there, but I went on living,” he said.
“Having that experience — the retraumatization — it brought back issues from Vietnam, it
brought back the nightmares.”
Photo by Andy Towle
Merritt Center founder Betty Merritt.
Samuel’s personal life turned upside down. Although he didn’t want to strike out violently,
inside he felt ripped in half. The remorse and regret he had carried for 42 years now
overwhelmed him.
While in Vietnam, Samuel did what he had been trained to do — kill.
However, after returning from war, Samuel felt shame for what he had done.
“Killing other people doesn’t fit with our belief system,” Merritt said. “And when we do
something outside of our morals, we feel guilt.”
Merritt said she strives to help veterans returning from war deal with that guilt instead of
carrying it around for decades.
“Things got blocked inside and I never really dealt with it,” Samuel said.
“I never want that to happen again,” Merritt said. “I want them to have a chance to not carry it
all those years. Here, they learn techniques to deal with it.”
Samuel said after visiting with Merritt, he is learning to release blocked energy from the war,
although he has a long way to go.
When Samuel heard about Steward, he said he was not surprised.
“A lot of people have this fear and paranoia,” he said.
Most vets are afraid of confronting their fears, Merritt said.
Flipping the switch
Vets who do not get help risk being triggered by something that throws them back into
combat mode.
When this happens, combat techniques learned in war emerge. For some vets, this means
reaching for a gun.
Although we don’t know what was going on inside Steward’s head Dec. 10 when he grabbed
his gun and fired off two shots, officers say it nearly killed him.
Payson Police Det. Sgt. Dean Faust said the whole incident allegedly started after Steward
had an argument with his live-in girlfriend.
Steward went upstairs to an office, busted up a door, threw things around and fired one shot
from his handgun.
When this didn’t get his girlfriend’s attention, he went into the front yard and fired another
shot.
Both shots were apparent suicide attempts.
Steward’s girlfriend fled the home and called police. Steward and his son stayed inside,
ignoring police orders to come out.
Instead of firing at the home or busting through the front door, police surrounded the home
and Faust went to work trying to figure out Steward’s history. Knowing a person’s history
helps Faust talk with the person and focus on the real issue.
Faust learned from family and friends that Steward was dealing with issues from the Iraq
War and suffered from PTSD.
After two hours of silence, Steward finally started talking with Faust. Steward downplayed the
situation, asking Faust why the police had not knocked on his front door.
After another hour, Steward agreed to come out.
Memories still fresh
Iraqi War veterans like Steward are dealing with fresh memories.
Although they have been home, they haven’t found a way to integrate back into society.
When drugs and alcohol no longer cover the pain, some turn to suicide as a way out.
Merritt said veterans attending her program often say they don’t want to feel anything; they
want to disappear.
They know they are no longer in combat, but they don’t know where they fit. They aren’t the
same person they were when they left and they aren’t on the mission, so who are they?
At the Merritt Center, vets are encouraged to embrace their shame and create a new mission
for their lives.
“The veterans from combat come with several needs: to recognize and understand the
trauma they experienced and the resulting reactive behavior patterns created and to know
they can learn ways to adjust, release and transform the patterns that disrupt their civilian life
functions,” she said.
Most vets who complete the program feel ready to move on, although they still carry those
memories with them.
Merritt said if people know a veteran who is suffering, they should reach out to them.
“There is help,” she said. “Here, we teach them basic training for life.”
For more information about the Merritt Center, call (928) 474-4268.
The next men’s program for returning combat veterans starts Jan. 14 with the women’s
program starting Feb. 25.

Veterans With Pre-Existing Conditions Are Mounting: VVA Sues

Ten years of war and steady supply of soldiers we did supply, us ready, willing and able Americans.

The recruiters met their quotas, the boys and girls signed up with zest, and cashed their inducement checks to feed the family. They put themselves in harms way with all of their developmental quirks they could still shoot straight and kill without prejudice. Many have medals and ribbons for a job well done. And now we inform them that at one time in their life they may not have been perfect human beings and were not shiny enough to join the ranks of the true disabled, the Senators sons.  If this isn’t all being driven by closet actuarials and bean counters than my mother did not birth me. Shame on you, whoever you Deciders are and wherever you are. This is what is called your,”Death Panels.” The death of the souls of warriors. And the DOD is wondering why the rise in suicides? A mirror is the answer.

By MARK SPENCER, mspencer@courant.com The Hartford Courant

After a year serving in Iraq as a reconnaissance scout for the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division, Sgt. Chuck Luther was sent home in 2007 with a diagnosis of personality disorder and discharged.

He had been under almost constant attack and survived frequent blasts from roadside bombs and mortars.

“We lived out there with the bad guys,” Luther said Wednesday.

Despite his service, he did not qualify for benefits because the military considers personality disorder a pre-existing condition. Luther, 36 at the time, married and the father of three, was left with no income, no health insurance and a debilitating mental health condition.

Vietnam Veterans of America and its local chapter in Hartford filed a federal Freedom of Information lawsuit Wednesday seeking information from the Department of Defense on why about 26,000 service members have been classified as having personality disorder and discharged since 2001.

The veterans groups, represented by a Yale University law school legal clinic, are concerned that many of those discharged may have post-traumatic stress disorder and therefore be eligible for benefits.

Luther eventually received a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury from a veterans hospital, although the Army still refuses to accept it, sticking with their original diagnosis.

Thomas Berger, executive director of VVA’s Veterans Health Council, said the military has “misused and misapplied” the personality disorder diagnosis in an effort to save money. The health care and disability compensation costs for the 26,000 discharged veterans would be about $12.5 billion, he said.

“It’s outrageous,” said Berger, a Vietnam veteran. “It’s reminiscent of what they did to my generation with Agent Orange and PTSD.”

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New Haven, seeks information that advocates say is necessary to determine the scope of the problem, according to the Veterans Legal Services Clinic of the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale.

Advocates point to a dramatic drop in personality disorder discharges after 2007, when Congressional investigators said the diagnosis was being misused to reduce health care and disability compensation costs. About 22,600 service members were discharged with personality disorder from 2001 to 2007, but fewer than 4,000 have been discharged with the diagnosis since then, according Congressional testimony and advocacy groups.

Melissa Ader, a law student intern at Yale involved in the case, said the drop shows many of the earlier diagnoses were inaccurate.

“If DoD truly believes that all personality disorder discharges were lawful, why does it refuse to provide records responsive to VVA’s Freedom of Information Act request?” Ader said in a statement. “We hope that this lawsuit will allow the public to assess for itself whether DoD has treated veterans unjustly.”

Personality disorder begins in adolescence or early adulthood and can have symptoms similar to PTSD, Berger said. While discharges for personality disorder have decreased since 2007, more service members are being discharged for adjustment or readjustment disorder, making them ineligible for benefits as well, Berger said.

If their lawsuit is successful, advocates hope they will get the kind of information that will help them persuade Congress to impose stricter guidelines on the military and review previous discharges.

Luther, who lives with his family in Killeen, Texas, just outside Fort Hood, said the Veterans Administration has determined that he is 90 percent disabled. He has a hard time holding job and spends much of his time trying to help other veterans through an organization he founded called Disposable Warriors.

“That’s what we are,” he said.

For more information on the lawsuit, go to http://www.vva.org/ppd.html.

A Holiday Story For The Troops

Okay, I know, Christmas is over and the Malls are jammed with forgetfulness.  Like me forgetting to open emails from pals like this one who sends really good stories. What a wonderful nation we have of big hearted folks who just never make the news.  Well they are making my news today.

Here is some good news…..

Here’s a ‘today’ Yule story that occurred 3 weeks ago ~ AND NOW, in time for the holidays, I bring you the best Christmas story you never heard.

It started last Christmas, when Bennett and Vivian Levin were overwhelmed by sadness while listening to radio reports of injured American troops. “We have to let them know we care,” Vivian told Bennett. So they organized a trip to bring soldiers from Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Bethesda Naval Hospital to the annual Army-Navy football game in Philly, on Dec. 3.

The cool part is, they created their own train line to do it. Yes, there are people in this country who actually own real trains. Bennett Levin – native Philly guy, self-made millionaire and irascible former L&I commish – is one of them.

He has three luxury rail cars. Think mahogany paneling, plush seating and white-linen dining areas. He also has two locomotives, which he stores at his Juniata Park train yard. One car, the elegant Pennsylvania , carried John F. Kennedy to the Army-Navy game in 1961 and ’62. Later, it carried his brother Bobby’s body to D. C. for burial. “That’s a lot of history for one car,” says Bennett.

He and Vivian wanted to revive a tradition that endured from 1936 to 1975, during which trains carried Army-Navy spectators from around the country directly to the stadium where the annual game is played. The Levin’s could think of no better passengers to reinstate the ceremonial ride than the wounded men and women recovering at Walter Reed in D. C. and Bethesda , in Maryland . “We wanted to give them a first-class experience,” says Bennett. “Gourmet meals on board, private transportation from the train to the stadium, perfect seats – real hero treatment.”

Through the Army War College Foundation, of which he is a trustee, Bennett met with Walter Reed’s commanding general, who loved the idea. But Bennett had some ground rules first, all designed to keep the focus on the troops alone:

No press on the trip, lest the soldiers’ day of pampering devolve into a media circus.

No politicians either, because, says Bennett, “I didn’t want some idiot making this trip into a campaign photo op”

And no Pentagon suits on board, otherwise the soldiers would be too busy saluting superiors to relax.

The general agreed to the conditions, and Bennett realized he had a problem on his hands. “I had to actually make this thing happen,” he laughs.

Over the next months, he recruited owners of 15 other sumptuous rail cars from around the country – these people tend to know each other – into lending their vehicles for the day. The name of their temporary train? The Liberty Limited.

Amtrak volunteered to transport the cars to D. C. – where they’d be coupled together for the round-trip ride to Philly – then back to their owners later.

Conrail offered to service the Liberty while it was in Philly. And SEPTA drivers would bus the disabled soldiers 200 yards from the train to Lincoln Financial Field, for the game.

A benefactor from the War College ponied up 100 seats to the game – on the 50-yard line – and lunch in a hospitality suite.

And corporate donors filled, for free and without asking for publicity, goodie bags for attendees:

From Woolrich, stadium blankets. From Wal-Mart, digital cameras. From Nikon, field glasses. From GEAR, down jackets.

There was booty not just for the soldiers, but for their guests, too, since each was allowed to bring a friend or family member.

The Marines, though, declined the offer. “They voted not to take guests with them, so they could take more Marines,” says Levin, choking up at the memory.

Bennett’s an emotional guy, so he was worried about how he’d react to meeting the 88 troops and guests at D. C.’s Union Station, where the trip originated. Some GIs were missing limbs. Others were wheelchair-bound or accompanied by medical personnel for the day. “They made it easy to be with them,” he says. “They were all smiles on the ride to Philly. Not an ounce of self-pity from any of them. They’re so full of life and determination.”

At the stadium, the troops reveled in the game, recalls Bennett. Not even Army’s lopsided loss to Navy could deflate the group’s rollicking mood.

Afterward, it was back to the train and yet another gourmet meal – heroes get hungry, says Levin – before returning to Walter Reed and Bethesda . “The day was spectacular,” says Levin. “It was all about these kids. It was awesome to be part of it.”

The most poignant moment for the Levin’s was when 11 Marines hugged them goodbye, then sang them the Marine Hymn on the platform at Union Station.

“One of the guys was blind, but he said, ‘I can’t see you, but man, you must be  beautiful!’ ” says Bennett. “I got a lump so big in my throat, I couldn’t even answer him.”

It’s been three weeks, but the Levin’s and their guests are still feeling the day’s love. “My Christmas came early,” says Levin, who is Jewish and who loves the Christmas season. “I can’t describe the feeling in the air.” Maybe it was hope.

As one guest wrote in a thank-you note to Bennett and Vivian, “The fond memories generated last Saturday will sustain us all – whatever the future may bring.”

God bless the Levin’s.

And bless the troops, every one.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/train.asp

Miniature Trains To Showcase at VA Hosptital/ Dan Marries KOLD

Dan Marries is just tops in my book. He is always doing stuff for vets. Thanks Dan for the story

Miniature trains sure to dazzle

Posted: Dec 27, 2010 8:40 PM PST Monday, December 27, 2010 11:40 PM EST Updated: Dec 27, 2010 8:40 PM PST Monday, December 27, 2010 11:40 PM EST

Source: Tucson Garden Railway Society Source: Tucson Garden Railway Society

Click image to enlarge

Posted by Dan Marries – email

TUCSON, AZ (KOLD) – All aboard! There’s something special about trains especially miniature locomotives. Just ask Willis Fagg, VP of the Tucson Garden Railway Society, “most little kids like trains and some people never grow up,” he says with a chuckle.

Tucson Garden Railway Society is holding its annual holiday-themed model train show Tuesday  through Thursday at the VA Medical Center on South Sixth Avenue.

The event, open to the public, features replicas spanning more than 100 years of railroad history, “we’ve got a lot of different scenery modules, from Indian villages to Mexican villages, and a town module with trolleys and we’ll be running steam and diesel engines,” explains Fagg.

The show runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, and 9 a.m. to noon Thursday in the VA’s auditorium.