Monthly Archives: August 2011

Veterans Benefits

Veteran Veritas Gone Boatin'

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I will be on vacation in Ventura and Santa Cruz, California until September 3rd, 2011.  Thank you for all of your support in the past year.

While, this column is not the Tucson Citizen’s Blue Chip Blog, it has been read consistently and by way of feedback has achieved its original mission, which is advocacy for veterans and the creation of an open dialogue regarding all matters that impact the life of veterans, their families, and our nation.  I have learned as much from the readers as I have offered. That is the clear and present beauty of blogging. Sort of like sitting in a coffee shop mulling over current events.

On a humorous note, one time last Fall, Veteran Veritas had as many readers as the sports blogs. It was Veterans Day and Marine Corps birthday,which helped a bunch.  I was elated. Then my son called and mentioned the reason may have been that the U of A lost that week!

See you in September.  Mike

Veterans Benefits

Veterans For Change Press Release Regarding Agent Orange

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Veterans-For-Change

11901 Samuel Drive

Garden Grove, California 92840

MEDIA RELEASE

 

Written by:        Jim Davis                                                          IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Edited by:         Barbie Perkins-Cooper

Date:                July 31, 2011

Contact:            Jim Davis, Founder & CEO – Veterans for Change – Jdavis92840@sbcglobal.net

714-983-4919

 

Veterans Serving in Korea, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and CONUS Still Denied…Denied…Denied

 

Garden Grove, CA – 08/04/11  – As the founder and CEO of Veterans-For-Change, an advocacy group for Veterans rights, benefits, and treatment, my co-members and I would like to bring to your attention the ever-increasing problems affecting veterans and their families every day.

Among the issues we would like to address are the following:

AO, TCE/PCE, Benzene Contamination (CONUS, Including Alaska, HI, and Canada, Panama Canal):

Every day, thousands of veterans who served in Korea, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and CONUS are denied benefits they are entitled to for exposure to dioxin from Agent Orange and other defoliants. According to the website: http://www.vetshome.com/agent_orange_use_outside_of_viet.htm — “VA has received a listing from the Defense Department of locations outside of Viet Nam where Agent Orange was used or tested over a number of years. The information gives periods of time, locations and chemicals used. It does not contain units involved or individual identifying information. The listings are almost exclusively Army records although there are an extremely limited number of Navy and Air Force records. These listings relate only to chemical efficacy testing and/or operational testing. The records do not refer to the use of Agent Orange or other chemicals in routine base maintenance activities such as spraying along railroad tracks, weed control on rifle ranges, etc. Information on such use does not exist. VA will develop the listing for proof of exposure for claims for disabilities resulting from Agent Orange exposure outside of Viet Nam. VA does have significant information regarding Agent Orange use in Korea along the DMZ. DoD has confirmed that Agent Orange was used from April 1968 up through July 1969 along the DMZ. DoD defoliated the fields of fire between the front line defensive positions and the south barrier fence. The size of the treated area was a strip of lane 151 miles long and up to 350 yards wide from the fence to north of the civilian control line. There is no indication that herbicide was sprayed in the DMZ itself.

In addition to service overseas, we have countless thousands of veterans who served on many military bases stateside who were exposed to TCE, PCE, Benzene and approximately 35-45 more harmful chemicals, never provided safety and use instruction or equipment, and are now just as equally ill.

In both S.E. Asia and CONUS Agent Orange was used as a defoliant. In S.E. Asia, the chemicals were used to protect our troops and prevent the enemy from hiding in the foliage to kill many more of our fighting men and women. (Est. time frame of 1962-1975)

In the CONUS, [Continental United States] these harmful, debilitating herbicides were used to keep surroundings of various military buildings free from unwanted vegetation growth and keeps it clean and neat looking.

On all military bases, on board ships, everywhere mechanical components were cleaned and re-used TCE was the chemical of choice as a degreaser. PCE is the chemical of choice for dry cleaners, again never used with any protective gear.

Veterans who served in Korea and on the DMZ are denied benefits due to erroneous reports about where these chemicals were deployed and that there is no “residual life” of Agent Orange Dioxin which if it were true then why are we in Viet Nam helping the Vietnamese government to clean up the land that was contaminated some 40 years ago?

According to the reliable website, http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/ “October 13, 2009 Secretary Shinseki decided to establish service-connection for Vietnam Veterans with B cell leukemia, such as hairy cell leukemia; Parkinson’s disease; and ischemic heart disease. This is based on an independent study by the Institute of Medicine showing an association with exposure to Agent Orange. Vietnam veterans with these diseases may be eligible for disability compensation and health care benefits.”

Based on our research, interviews with veterans and additional resources as advocates for our military, Veterans-For-Change believes exposure to Agent Orange is truly exposure to a deadly chemical, regardless of the location where it was deployed. Please review the website http://thewe.cc/weplanet/asia/vietnam/agent_orange_victims_of-US_herbicide_spraying_vietnam.htm for further details. There have been far too many reports of illness, including cancers, Diabetes, heart disease, and many, many more – all related to service or tour of duty in a combat zone, or in a contaminated zone!

One of the chemicals in the Agent Orange herbicide combination contained contaminating traces of TCDD (dioxin). Dioxin has been shown to cause a variety of illnesses in laboratory animals. http://veteransinfo.tripod.com/Background_on_Agent_Orange.pdf. Studies also suggest that the chemical may be related to a number of cancers and other health effects in humans. http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/health_effects.asp The research data speaks for itself – Agent Orange was and is a deadly, toxic chemical, destroying the health and lives of many Veterans, including those who served in Korea and on the DMZ.

Many of these Veterans are continuously denied as the missions they served on were, and still to this day remain, classified by the DoD even though former President Bush signed executive order 13292 on March 28, 2003 http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2003/pdf/03-7736.pdf directing classified missions beyond 25 years be declassified. Veterans-For-Change, as an advocacy group, has as its mission to broadcast and inform all veterans about their rights concerning Agent Orange, regardless of when and where the military veteran was exposed. You, the legislators of our proud and courageous country owe a debt of gratitude and benefits and care to our veterans. Please take a stand and help us to provide the best care for our veterans. Take action today!

Block TRICARE Rate Increases

Veterans-For-Change joins with USDR and the National Association of Uniformed Services (NAUS) on this issue.

Military retirees and their families have earned the TRICARE benefit through 20 or more years of arduous uniformed service. What they have earned and what they have been promised should not be first in line for budget cuts when there are so many lower priority programs that should be chopped first.

As there have been no Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs) http://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/colasummary.html for military retired pay for the past several years this increase in TRICARE fees will result in reduced military retirement pay.

You can block the Pentagon plan and stop the Pentagon from making a 13 percent increase in TRICARE Prime fees.

President Obama has said: “We have a sacred trust with those who wear the uniform of the United States of America, a commitment that begins with enlistment and must never end.” This statement was published in April, 2009. Isn’t it time for Congress and our Government to make these strong, compelling words come true for our precious Veterans who are finding living with the difficulties, physical and emotional wounds of combat more than they can tolerate?

If our nation rescinds its promises and ignores its obligation to those who have fought to preserve freedom throughout the world, we compromise the right to ask our men and women to serve and defend our national principals. The choice is yours.

Isn’t it time America and the VA treated our soldiers and veterans with the respect, and the benefits so promised.

Veterans-For-Change has been crying out to all 535 members of Congress now for four years as of April 2006, as President Wilson said, a leader’s ears must ring with the voices of the people! Do you hear us?

Veterans and their families are tired of campaign promises and yellow ribbons and endless speeches that mean absolutely nothing. We need politicians on Capitol Hill to take immediate action to truly support all Veterans. It has been said that “Actions speak more than words…perhaps now is the time to truly take action and show our Veterans, we are America. We are proud, and we support and service our Veterans who served so proudly to defend our Nation.

Veterans Benefits

Vietnam Veterans Of America Praise PTSD Settlement

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

VVA Praises Historic Settlement
For Veterans Discharged with PTSD
(Washington, D.C.) – “The National Veterans Legal Services Program and their pro bono co-counsel, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, hit a homerun with a historic class action lawsuit settlement for disabled veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq. As a result, thousands of veterans who were medically discharged because of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) between 2003 and 2008 will finally receive the benefits to which they are legally entitled but had been denied,” said John Rowan, National President of Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA). Rowan also praised Pfizer, the pharmaceutical firm, which provided free legal counseling to veterans who sought to opt into the lawsuit.

The legal action, filed in 2008, charged that the military services violated the law by failing to assign a 50 percent disability rating to more than a thousand troops discharged for PTSD, a rating that entitled the veteran to disability retirement benefits. Among the benefits these men and women will be entitled to lifetime military disability retirement payments retroactive to their date of discharge; lifetime health care for the veteran, his/her spouse and dependent children; and lifetime commissary and military post exchange privileges. The military also agreed to increase the PTSD disability rating of another thousand OIF/OEF veterans who, although they were given disability retirement benefits upon discharge, were wrongfully denied a 50 percent disability rating for PTSD.

“VVA echoes the sentiments expressed by Bart Stichman, co-director of NVLSP, who calls the settlement ‘a happy ending to a sad chapter of military mistreatment of those who served our country in time of war,'” Rowan said. “Too often, government is the adversary of, rather than an advocate for, those who have been wounded or injured while serving in uniform. VVA will continue to fight, in Congress, in the courts, and in meetings with the leadership of the Department of Veterans Affairs, to ensure that all veterans receive the benefits to which they are entitled by virtue of their service to our nation.

“Anyone who has served in a combat zone cannot but be affected by the experience,” Rowan said. “Often, these experiences mar them, or haunt them, for life. It is our obligation as a nation to do what we can to make them as whole as possible. Shame on us when we fail to do so.”
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.”

 
©2006-2010, Vietnam Veterans of America. All Rights Reserved. | Report Website Errors Here

 

Veterans Benefits

Budget Smudget And Other Freakonomics

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What astounds me the most about this budget process is how vacant the media is in the education arena. There are tremendous opportunities for, “The American People,” a phrase we hear 1000 times a day, and “the next generation,” which we hear another 200o times., to provide some insight and content about the actual budget process, wherein one would discover that there is so little wiggle room in discretionary spending that it makes most of this theater look like sandbox play. End the wars and the budget is balanced. Amen.
The “Other America,” has indeed been watching and listening, and we hold the media as culpable as the duopoly of ideational cotton candy.
As the saying goes the news today is, “coverage not content.”
Caterpillar Corp. has about 98,000 employees, with only 40,000 or so in the United States. Why? Lets answer that in front of the  “American people.” You will then get closer to the revenue problem that cannot possibly be handled with political wrangling. I honestly think Newt Gingrich was right on when he made his faupa  in front of fellow GOP members, by stating, “they are too engaged in social engineering.” That is the sponsoring thought my friends, and the cat is out of the bag. With the likes of the Carlyle Group buying up water rights around the nation and the sale/leaseback of public buildings to foreign investors,  the  budget debates are the grandest red herring in our democratic history. We are selling off our water and wind energy to Communist nations in the middle of the night, and no one seems to care or know.
This bullpucky about “The President has no plan,” is repeated in rote like it is some religious prayer. Presidents do not have their OWN plan. Never have. That happens to be our system of governing. Yet people suck it up on a Monday and by Thursday the entire nation are moo-cows repeating Rush Bimbaugh with ditto head phrases that even trick their own brains into thinking they are thinking.
As a long time non-partisan registered voter, I recall the wonderful ” Swiftboat” days where anything that came from the mouth of a veteran with a piss cutter on was gospel truth. Did you know that 3 of those men had to retract their stories,(that were paid for btw), because they were too stupid to realize the VA was listening? So, if there was no valor on that particular day for John Kerry, ( I do not like him btw), then they would have to turn in their  own medals and give up their disability pensions. No news story ever followed.
The drum beat from the media  was deafening as it is now, but nearly absent of accuracy and self correction. Remember the siren cries about Kerry not signing an SRF-180 form? You would have thought it was an act of sedition. It is only a damn request for records. He is a friggin Senator. They just send him his records. Period!  Bimbaugh made it sound like the man would not take an oath and the whole nation fell for it.  And we used to think only the Russians and Pravda were skilled at brainwashing.
The other doozy, sorry for the long analogies, but they are now current, is the blasting over the air waves about the Overseas ballots not being post marked in 2004. We must have heard that 100 times a week. Ladies and gentleman, mail from troops who are deployed has not been postmarked via the USPS since World War l. It comes through the Armed Forces network. Yet the nation fell for it and the media did nothing to correct, educate, or adhere to any standard of accuracy in reporting.
Now, today, this hour, we are witnessing the advent and implementation of the Supreme Court. Citizens United decision. Corporations can sponsor and say just about anything they want, with total impunity and not an ounce of rebuking from our once sacred Fourth Estate that has now been co-opted by pretty face journalism.
Add to that, the Supreme Court decision about “Stolen Valor,” the simple upshot that it is not unconstitutional to lie, and you have the ground work for unraveling a nation and inserting your private agenda. That is what Newt meant by social engineering.
I believe Satan just landed at LAX and is traveling America on bus tours.