CCR, Fortunate Son…
A round-up of some of the more egregious items of this Veterans’ Day:
– From Sen. Kennedy and former Sen. Cleland (H/T to reader WB):
In recent years, we have called on our brave men and women to defend us once again. Since Sept. 11, 2001, 1.5 million of the nation’s sons and daughters have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, and nearly 94,000 members of the National Guard or Reserve are mobilized on active duty. Our forces have now been on duty in Iraq for 4 1/2 years – longer than our military was engaged in World War II. More than 3,800 have made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq or Afghanistan, and we will honor them for giving what President Lincoln called “the last full measure of devotion.”…
Data just released by the Department of Defense show that, in many cases, employers aren’t keeping faith with our returning troops. In a 2006 survey, 23 percent of returning reservists and National Guard members who could not find a job said that their previous employer refused to rehire them – as required by the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. About 11,000 veterans came home to find that their former employers would not promptly take them back – in direct violation of that 1994 law. Even if they did get their job back, their employers often failed to provide them with full benefits. For example, more than 22,500 reported improper loss of seniority and seniority-related pay and benefits….
Almost half of reservists and National Guardsmen who filed a complaint with the Department of Labor reported being dissatisfied with the handling of their case, and more than one-third reported that the department’s response was not prompt. One veteran’s case has languished at the Labor Department for seven years….
Heckuva job, Mrs. Mitch McConnell.
– Further on the veterans’ front, again from the Globe:
According to a study by some of my colleagues at Harvard Medical School, to be published in next month’s American Journal of Public Health, nearly 1.8 million veterans had no health insurance in 2004, up 290,000 since 2000. An additional 3.8 million members of their households were also uninsured and ineligible for care at hospitals and clinics run by the Veterans Health Administration of the Department of Veterans Affairs. The 2006 data released this year show little change in these numbers.
Many uninsured veterans are barred from VA care because of a 2003 Bush administration order that halted enrollment of most middle-income veterans. Others are unable to obtain VA care because of unaffordable copayments for VA specialty care, waiting lists at some facilities or the lack of VA facilities in their communities. Almost two-thirds of uninsured veterans were employed, and nearly 9 out of 10 had worked within the past year. Most uninsured veterans were in working families. Many earned too little to afford health insurance, but too much to qualify for free care under Medicaid or VA rules. (emphasis mine)
Appalling doesn’t begin to describe this. Especially when you couple it with the fact that one in every four homeless persons in this country is a veteran. Yes, you read that correctly. And it isn’t as though this problem is new — or that recent Iraq vets are being treated better than their predecessors in uniform, either. I agree with Juan Cole, giving to a homeless shelter in your area is a great idea.
– Talk about your stacked decks: nothing like some surprise evidence sprung on you on the day of the hearing. Jeebus, if I pulled a trick like that as a prosecutor in the real world, the judge would publicly dress me down on the record and then potentially throw out my case. The ACLU has more. No wonder so many JAG officers have been disgusted with the Gitmo process and with Constitutional abuses.
– For those who want to do more to support veterans, you can start here. And here. And I’m certain that several of you out there have even more ideas.
Thank you, to all the vets past and present, for your sacrifices (and those of your families) and your service.
Related posts:
- Honor the Day: Get Obama’s Labor Nominees through the Senate
- Health Care Reform: Democrats Can Honor Their Legacy, America’s Will, and Also Win Elections
- What Have We Done? Single Mothers Among New Homeless Vets
- 2,266 Veterans Died in 2008 Because They were Uninsured; Vastly More Than Combat Deaths
- Baucus Health Care Bill: In a Word, Awful
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Zed
Frank Rich gets it right…
“We are a people in clinical depression. Americans know that the ideals that once set our nation apart from the world have been vandalized, and no matter which party they belong to, they do not see a restoration anytime soon.”
One of the great mentors in my life was a Korean veteran. His service defined the rest of his life. I owe a great portion of my character to him.
Women Soldiers on Front Line from today’s Cincinnati Enquirer
dakine01 @ 5
I participated in a women’s Veteran’s Day event at the local VA hospital a couple years ago… women from as far back as WWII were there… what a kick! what a bunch of characters!
a lot of courage in that room.
I volunteer with and donate to the Las Vegas location of U.S. Vets. Great organization. We have an estimated 4,000 homeless veterans here in the valley. I love to help these cats. My Pop is a disabled WWII veteran, left a leg behind on Sicily in 1944.
I emailed the vets in my family and told them what a great job they did and are doing. Among the two of the earliest members of Vietnam vets against the war.
I guess people are waiting for Don Ipus to tell them about the veterans problems since according to his fans(sic) nothing happens for vets without him.
The way that the 1600 Crew has treated my brothers and sister Veterans is beyond disgusting. Every single time that their was a fork in the road of public policy, one way going on the side of Vets and the other on the side of their rich cronies the 1600 Crew has taken the side of their cronies. Even in their hiring of shadow, mercenary armies like Blackwater.
Think the folks who work there as “independant contractors” will have any recourse for treatment? Think that wasn’t a deliberate play in the “privatization” scheme of CheBushRumCo? Pay’em huge amounts now, and should they come back penniless in 20 years and suffering from PTSD, who cares? Yeah, I know it’s hard to get worked up about those men, but they are human and will likely suffer the same mental health issues as a PFC who returns from combat… a fat paycheck does not make them immune from human problems in the future. But the malevolent and cynical use of the Blackwaters of Privatization have made it so that there will be no legal basis for such people to make a claim. So be it, but it does not speak well of our Republic once again. And what of the Blackwater vets who did a tour or two in the military and then went to Blackwater? How do they get treatment? Future VA administrators and administrations will claim that they incurred their problems as mercenaries, and are thus ineligible for anything.
The uses of that part of our “National Treasure” that has a pulse, a mind and conscience and wears the title “Veteran” has been easily the most-abused by these war-mongering Chickenhawks and sadly many of the abused cast their ballots for these “men”, believing, as abused spouses do, that they would get taken care of if they showed them their love at the ballot box, and that the Chickenhawks had the best interest of the Republic and each of them and their families at heart.
Christy – your Juan Cole link goes to an article about Kurds in Iraq. I think this link may be the one you want.
shooogarp @ 4
Same here, my Father!
Bay State Librul @ 3
And some of is fear it won’t get any better no matter who is elected. We won’t get that leadership. :-(
Hoooo-ah!!
Manly Man.
OT – Milineryman, sorry I missed your question.
Garnet’s still running, election next November. No primary candidate so far, thank goodness!
And now, back to your scheduled topic…
Can attest to the need for our troops for better care — but as we’ve noted before, not just housing and jobs and health care. They need mental health care, too; imagine the depression and feelings of doubt and sagging self-esteem after fighting hard for your country, only to get treated like crap by the institutions for which you fought.
We can and must do better; they fought in our names if not at our own orders. We owe it to them.
…from the last thread…
I just watched This Week (delayed on the west coast) and the answer is no, Mukasey did not come up.
If this post isn’t enough, go read Digby’s latest on saying farewell to our privacy. When will today’s heroes stand up in Congress? Do we even have any? Maybe li’l Debbie will get to the bottom of it for us? (snark)
Wrt to the Gitmo fiasco:
Am I remembering correctly (just in the last few weeks?months) news stories dribbling out about X number of prisoners being released to X countries? It makes you wonder what the *total* number of people are who the WH is letting go… almost under the radar. Is any organization keeping up with the remaining number of detainees and the number who are being released?
As the designated non Vet in two generations in my family… just the dependent wife for 12 years….the WWII vets are not getting the services they need to the point that my Republican retired two tours in Vietnam Gunny Sgt Marine cousin is whining and talking a new tune.
There are only X amount of VA dollars and Y amount of resources allocated. BTW from my understanding this is the first military conflict that congress has NOT included national guard & reserves into Champus coverage equal to active duty.
Just exactly why?
TheOtherWA @ 15
thanks for letting me know… now i don’t have to listen for myself. i appreciate you sparing me that pain. *g*
Gnome de Plume @ 16
my bold.
thursday (mukasey vote) did not give me reason to hope we have any in congress. guess it’s up to us.
selise
Always happy to help out a fellow firepup. :)
I am a 100% disabled vet from Vietnam-but was not medically retired until 1980. I would just like to note that the state of Texas, in the election last week, passed an amendment to the state constitution requiring that the state pro rate property taxes(no state income tax, so property taxes are quite high) for disabled veterans, 100% disabled vets will pay no property taxes what so ever. I also get totally free license plates every year-a savings of over $100. and with my disabled american veteran lic plate, I can park at any parking meter for however long I want, and never get a ticket. Texas treats disabled vets far better than any other state. I lived in Michigan until 2003, and they give no breaks at all to any vets. Also, any disabled vet living in Texas who wants to buy a house, gets a fixed rate 30 year mortgage for a lot less than the current rate. I got a 4.5% rate in 2004, the current disabled vets who are moving to my local area, are still getting that same rate, and this comes with no money for a down payment. One of my kids,who lives in LA, and who has just returned from Iraq(wounded, but alive) is moving to Texas, not because of his being wounded, but because his employer refused to give him back his job-he has found a new job here, with a much more understanding employer. Question; All of the states are now saying how much they love the troops(I will never get used to this, a troop is both a Cav unit, and a member of that Cav unit, not every soldier is a “troop” but I have given up correcting people) but when push comes to shove, what do the states really do to help and assist those vets that they exclaim over? Is it guilt from the Vietnam years-I was followed around O’Hare in 1970 by people who cursed and yelled at me(it was Jan and I was wearing a summer uniform and was sunburned so it was pretty obvious where I was coming from, and no one intervened, not even the cops.) So I guess that along with gwb and most of the congress, all they need to do is say how much they all care for the “troops”. They don’t actually have to do anything, just talk. BTW, the commission on the VA has finished its report and given it to the prez, I’ll make all of you a bet that there have been no stories about this at all. I found out thru my DAV(disabled american veterans) magazine, and local DAV chapter newsletter. Did you know that one of the recommendations was to raise the VA disability pay by 25%? Every veterans organization is lobbying the congress to pass that, but with spineless dems and crooked reps, and a prez like gwb, what are the chances that anything that the Dole/Shalayla commission recommended will ever be acted on. Just one more report that will gather dust.
Trich, I had no idea Texas did that much for vets. That’s wonderful. But yes, for the Bush admin at the national level it’s mostly talk, very little action.
My father was a WWII vet, and dealing with the VA in the 80’s was no picnic. It sounds so much worse now. Pathetic.
O/t -
More cheney nastiness looking for a place to happen:
Want to bet the interrogators aren’t using torture to fabricate evidence wrt Iran?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq…..36,00.html
Bush didn’t even bother to show up at Arlington…what a jerk.
Here’s yet another example of what the Iraq vets are facing. Price of PTSD.
This story will piss you off just as much as all the others.
LS @ 25
Hey, he needs his downtime at his mansion in Crawford. Besides, he visited with wounded vets on Friday in San Antonio, so he kept up appearances. Right?
/snark
I want to send all those politicians who voted to attack Iraq, and refuse to admit that it was a stupid vote, to Iraq.
When you have time, go to Youtube and begin watching the series, “The Power of Nightmares”…holy shizzola…it lays out the whole Neocon history to a T, including all of their lies used to debunk the CIA and create fantasy threat scenarios that take us to war…it also documents the rise of the jihadist movement(s)….
BTW, Ayman Zawahiri speaks perfect English.
It is an outstanding piece of work. Somewhere in this documentary lies the key to getting rid of this cancer in our government.
Interesting piece of trivia; Reagan dedicated the 22nd shuttle flight of “Columbia” (the one that later blew up over TX during W’s reign) to the Afghanistan freedom fighters….ummmm…that would have been Bin Laden at the time.
My Grandmother taught me it was wrong to hate. But I sure don’t like chickenhawks.
LS @ 30
And Saddam was Rumsfeld’s guy.
Christy: Further to your stacked deck reference and link, here’s a bit more background and context.
The Canadian, Khadr, has been at GITMO since he was 16, but was originally taken at 15. He and others, including family members, were in a firefight with US troops when we invaded Afghanistan. Eventually, air support for the US troops arrived and several bombs were dropped on the building where Khadr and others were holed up, supposedly killing all of them but him.
Khadr then allegedly was able to toss out a grenade and that killed a US medic, Speer. Khadr confessed to throwing the grenade during his GITMO interrogation. Just what led up to his confession, http://www.mindfully.org/Refor…..4aug06.htm
depends on who and what you believe.
There have been allegations against Khadr for things he did as a 10 yo (attending camps while in the custody of his father). Khadr’s family have ties with al-Qaeda that go back to the days when al-Qaeda was on the “right side” of the “other” Afghan war.
So with that context, the only known proof that was tendered that Khadr threw the grenade was his confession. Khadr was represented originally by Colby Vokey, who had been forced out of his position heading the Marine Corps’ defense lawyers for the Western United States and who has been a frequent and vocal critique of the GITMO proceedings. http://www.npr.org/templates/s…..d=15783244
It was Vokey’s paralegal who exposed alleged bragging of detainee mistreatment at GITMO and who, after a horrible excuse for an “investigation” (one which didn’t involve talking to any detainees) was herself threatened with court martial.
So to set the stage for what happened in Khadr’s case when the information about an exculpatory eyewitness emerged, here’s a bit more. For three years a prosecution team has been working on the case against Khadr. Back this spring, while Vokey was representing Khadr, Vokey pushed very hard to have Canadian lawyers able to meet with Khadr.
At the very end of May, those lawyers were given permission to speak with Khadr, but Vokey was also told that HE was off the case. Apparently Khadr (who had no way of knowing how aggressive Vokey had been on his behalf) had become very upset and was refusing to meet with his military appointed JAG lawyer. Vokey said he understood Khadr’s decision, after what he had been through and especially a distrust of someone in uniform.
However, the tribunal rules requied a JAG lawyer. So while Vokey was removed (supposedly to accomodate Khadr’s request that he not have a military lawyer) after working on the case for 2 years, another JAG officer was appointed to the case.
So what you had last week was a JAG lawyer who the defendant did not trust and who had only been on the case for 6 months. Canadian lawyers who supposedly Khadr did trust more, but who were not being allowed to meet with Khadr or participate in the proceedings. The prosectuion was trying to press the case forward and had all their witnesses flown in and ready to go.
In the midst of that, the prosecution drops its, “oh by the way, there’s this exculpatory eyewitness who has been in the files for five years” and more than that, they tried to press the tribunal to proceed without giving anyone any time to interview the eyewitness or bring them to the proceedings, claiming that it would be a real bummer and all, bc golly, they had their witnesses there and everything and were ready to go.
Stacked?
That’s one word.
My Veterans Day essay.
I hate this goddam, fucking war.
Ed*ard Teller @ 34
I dislike intensely the folks (Republicans) who started the Iraq War. And the chicken hawk Democractic Bush enablers of this occupation.
Perhaps we should designate the day we started bombing Iraq as “Chicken Hawk Day”.
AP – Vice President Dick Cheney paid tribute Sunday to veterans of the Iraq war, honoring them for keeping the United States democratic and free and hoping “they will return in victory.”
“People write in the comments about losing hope and not knowing what to do.” egregious
egregious, I hope you don’t mind my quoting you from an earlier post…
This loss of hope as well as a disillusionment with governnment is consistent with the current zeitgeist and is archetypal. As Rick Tarnas points out:
“There is a tendency…to experience a subtle but pervasive darkening of the collective consciousness, sometimes as a diffuse and difficult-to-diagnose social malaise, at other times as a direct response to deeply discouraging or tragic events. Reflecting the complex in its most intense form, such eras are frequently marked by collective experiences of tragic loss, the defeat of ideals and aspirations, the death of a dream, which are accompanied by a sense of profound sorrow.”
This particular era began with the 2004 reelection of Bush, but it will end as all cyclical archetypal cycles do. For myself, it helps to know the nature of the archetypal forces that are operative at any moment in history. But for those who are not prone to think in terms of archetypal forces, Bernie Sanders advises us to think long term, i.e., the gains of the civil rights movement took years, the Vietnam war also took years to bring to an end.
So, if anyone who feels discouraged lately, here’s a link to an interview with Bernie Sanders, speaking on the Iraq War, the current congress, the Mukasey nomination:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/110507J.shtml
Joe Lieberman. What are you doing on this day? What are you thinking about? You old war horse.
Is Joe Lieberman’s 20 year old son serving in Iraq?
Jo Fish @ 9
And in addition, they’ll be part of our communities, and their problems will be problems for all of us. That doesn’t disappear, no matter how scummy their employer and the arrangements that led to their hiring.
Incompetent as they are, in a lot of ways Bush Co have been running government like a business — inflating the bottom line by avoiding paying as many expenses as possible, and ignoring the fact that all of those costs are inevitably paid by government, in one way or another.
Mary, not to mention that the Canadian government refuses to go to bat for him. In many other situations, he would be considered at worst a child soldier, and once removed from the situation, entitled to protection and treatment.
Oh, and nice to see your name again.
Our county has a multi-year initiative to end homelessness (dedicating part of property taxes to low-income housing and various other programs.) It’s off to a good start, though the economy and the returning veterans are going to severely test it.
A representative of one of our nonprofit groups was thinking that “ending homelessness” is kind of an unwieldy term. I think that if we want to build this into a movement, perhaps “universal housing” is a better term (like universal healthcare.) Everyone should have a right to housing, starting with our veterans.
peony @ 38
Hey, I like this guy! thanks.
don’t know if this is posted yet but c and l has the clip with this quote, I haven’t seen the clip yet but I had to come here and post this, it’s INCREDIBLE;
going to download and listen now
http://www.crooksandliars.com/…..-identity/
Some big hope here. Democratic Rep. Tom Udallhas decided to take on the winner of the Republican Primary to fill Pete Demon-icki’s vacated Senate seat in New Mexico. He still has to defeat the Mayor of Albuquerque in the Primary…but he seems to be leading in informal polls before he announced 70%-30% over the more conservative Mayor.
Then on to take on the winner of the Heather Wilson-Steve Pearce Republican primary. Early surveys suggest that Udall could win that race by 15-20%.
All three have decided to vacate their Congressional seats to run. Udall has consistantly won in a heavily Democratic district. Sometimes he has run unopposed. He thus has amassed a massive war-chest (@$800,000) over a decade of easy victories.
Conversely, Wilson barely scraped by in her 2006 Congressional race, winning by a meer handcounted 850 votes (0.4% of the total cast). Her campaign was in debt at the end of that election and she has struggled in fundraising. Stevan Pearce won more handily against a self-financed budget run against an unendorsed Democratic candidate. He also has about $60,000 in debt, according to the FEC.
Pearce is, by most measures, even more extreme than Heather Wilson.
But his Congressional seat is, at least, superficially, not as at risk as Wilsons. But without any support from Rahm Emmanuel and the DCCC the Democrat, Al Kissling, pulled 40% of the vote…and forced Pearce to actually spend his banked war-chest. Thus neither Pearse nor Wilson look like they will be able to contribute much to the campaign of their legacy. They will need it for their own Primary and General Election runs.
So it looks as if the Democrats could win both a Senate seat, as well as one, perhaps two additional Congressional seats in New Mexico.
As a veteran, can I say how much I despise having any association whatsoever with the ludicrously “honorably-discharged” Preznit
wit?Waccamaw @ 17 –
One of the reasons they never wanted to release names was so no one could know who they took to GITMO and abused and they could, as they have done successfully in the el-Masri case, just adopt a pretense of ignorance if dumped people began showing up with tales of orange jumpsuits and abuse.
But this story http://www.npr.org/templates/s…..d=12344597
references 420 as the released to that time (summer, 2007) but it probably isn’t as accurate as it seems.
This story mentions that, despite our gov’s best efforts to only release surreptitiously to those who will imprison or disappear the released detainees, about 4/5ths are turned loose and there is no US Gov effort to track them despite the allegations that they were the worst of the worst.
http://www.commondreams.org/he…..216-01.htm
reprinting an AP article.
And GITMO is being expanded. Plus we supposedly have about 25,000 in detention facilities in Afghanistan and Iraq, many held for well over a year with no charges, no recourse, no reliable listing of who we have and where, so that families are just like those during the Pinochet regime, showing up with pictures and tears but not knowing if their fathers/sons/brothers/etc. are being held, intentionally “disappeared” but alive, dead, etc.
A documentary http://www.vanityfair.com/poli…..raib200702 (story) http://www.theprisoner.us/2007……html#more (from website) that was an odd spinoff of another documentary – Gunner Palace, describes a little about the Iraq detentions.
Nice to see you too Fern.
We really do need to be having serious discussions about how to approach these kinds of situations – very young kids are being conscripted to fight more and more and even here in the States the recruiters are out to tempt the 17 and 18 yos, which seems very young to me to be put in charges of decisions about whether or not to wipe out villages or bomb homes in residential areas.
I don’t believe you can take those who have been captured participating in battle, even children, and just turn them loose (unless, of course, the battle they were participating in was in their own country, their own homes, against us as an invader/occupier and we are leaving – in which case they aren’t too likely to be any kind of a continuing threat.
We do have the same problems here with gangs and drug crime and we have a criminal justice system that, while not perfect, is a big step up from the GWOT approach. And if we are going to take POWs, we should act with a brain and a soul re: how we handle them; not with hood and an array of pain and terror producing tools that break bodies and minds.
Ed*ard Teller @ 34
Thank you for all you do to honor the Veterans 365 days a year.
Almost half of reservists and National Guardsmen who filed a complaint with the Department of Labor reported being dissatisfied with the handling of their case
“Support the troops” or favor the corporations — what a surprise from this assministration.
I hope all the loyalist Rethug veterans returning home take note of how they are ‘honored’ in practice — and that ‘government is the problem’, ‘god, gays and abortions’ obession isn’t working so well for you anymore.
So it looks as if the Democrats could win both a Senate seat, as well as one, perhaps two additional Congressional seats in New Mexico.
Great! And that will make…no fucking difference on any important issue as we have witnessed from the gutless Dem congressional “leaders” in the past year.
Just a friendly reminder from the mods that changing screen names is frowned upon at FDL and may result in being banned from this site.
tw3k @ 44
tw3k, you’re welcome. I forgot to mention, Bernie also talks about alternative energy, wind and solar, that these new industries are exploding in the EU…we’re still talking about coal. :-( I don’t give a s### about us being the #1 military, but I am sad that the US is lagging on being in the vanguard of new technological innovation, i.e., stem cell research, alternative energy, and of course, human rights.
As a Viet Nam vet and an employee of the VA during the 80’s and 90’s I found that the VA health care system had become a system for, by, of bureaucrats. Veterans are only the fuel that powers the system, giving the bureaucrats a reason to continue their little turf wars and what we called empire building. Actual health care, should a vet be fortunate enough to get any, is excellent in most cases but like the health insurance companies the bureaucrats continue to find reasons to deny health care to vets.
We have a homeless program in St Petersburg, FL called The Refuge. It’s a movement started by Rev Bruce Wright and he’s been in a constant battle with the city because the downtown merchants want the homeless gone. Bad for business, they say. The local anti-war folks, St Pete for Peace and Food Not Bombs, are big supporters of Bruce and his efforts. It’s simply a battle between the people and the government. Like Gandhi said, “First they laugh at you, then they ignore you, then they fight you, then you win.” We’re at the “fight you” stage now. Hope springs eternal.
If you don’t have a homeless shelter to support in your area, start one.
On this 89th anniversary of Armistice Day, allow me to welcome all our vets home. And to those who didn’t make it home, Rest In Peace. We are struggling to ensure that your numbers are not increased by the whims of greedy white men.
I’m not going to insult any vet by saying “Thank you for your service” because that has become a meaningless buzz phrase used by the chickenhawks among us. I’ve had them say it to me while looking me in the eyes and I could feel the knife going into my back at the same time.
“I will believe that violence will overcome violence when you can convince me that darkness will overcome darkness.” M K Gandhi
Peace, brothers and sisters.
Mary @ 48 -
Thank you so much for your very thoughtful and helpful answer!
peony @ 54
Yes, I like his thoughts on alternative energies making good points about wind, solar and the role of lobbies in the current legislation. Kinda funny, over on dKos, with the “clean coal” ad at the top of the page.
Need more and better people like Sanders.
Waccamaw @ 56
Yeah, this was the first I’ve heard of Khadr. I’m so disgusted I’m speechless for now :/
Redshift @43, I like your idea of “universal housing.” I think it will resonate with the people, given the sub prime mortgage crisis also. I read somewhere that 1.7 (I think that was the number) million people will lose their homes in ‘08.
Rather than bailing out Wall Street, I think the borrowers should have their loans renegotiated so they can keep their homes. Countrywide is starting to do this at any rate.
I work at a VA and the policy that came down a year ago- is 2 years of free care for OEF/OIF vets- not enough, I know, but hopefully, that will change. We also provide inpatient, outpatient, and residential programs for PTSD. We have reach out programs for homeless vets. We need more money, but are hiring more mental health people now.
Lynnerkat @ 60
Here in San Antonio we are preparing to break ground on an addition to our local VA hospital for all PTSD patients. As a 100% disabled vet I get all my medical treatment from the VA, as does my wife.(who never served in the military, but who has lots of medical problems) Our local VA clinic and hospital do an excellent job within their budget constraints. I am hopeful that is will be difficult to impossible for gwb to veto the VA bill, but if he does, the number of vets communicating with their representatives should make it impossible for congress to not override any veto. Since Vietnam people have been claiming that a large portion of the homeless are veterans. I have 2 objections to this. 1-how did the census come up with that number(26%)(did they go around and ask each homeless person if he was a vet?) and 2-did anyone bother to check the records to find out if those who claimed to be vets actually were vets. There are some real vets who actually do check out the stories of people who claim to be vets. I read an article about them last year in one of my Veterans magazines. According to that article, of all they people who have claimed either to be just a vet trying to get benefits, or those who claim hero medals, less than 10% of those were actually veterans. The rest have been found to be frauds, people who just wanted to get money, or fame, for nothing. That is why I believe that the actual number of homeless veterans is much lower than the 26% given. Here in SA the DAV has an outreach program-I volunteer my services as a driver-we go to the homeless and try to find vets who have fallen thru the cracks. After 2 years of doing this, we have found only 10 who actually proved to be veterans. Sa is the 7th largest city in the US, plus is doesn’t get really cold, so there are several hundred homeless here. That we have only found 10 over the last 2 years-we had almost 250 people who claimed to be veterans, one who was about 30 actually claimed to be a Vietnam vet, many claimed to be vets from both Gulf War I & II, but again, they did not check out. We have also found a large number of people working in minimum wage jobs, who claimed to be vets(usually they claim to be SEAL’s or Marine Force Recon or Army Rangers or Special Forces, they never claim to have just been in supply or a truck driver, its always a glamor job, never a support job.) So, if you meet someone who claims to have been a hero, take it with a grain of salt. In my experience, the real hero’s don’t want to talk about what happened to them, or what they did. Those who boast are usually the chicken hawks, the keyboard commandos, or the yello elephants.