Supporting the troops

[Honus]

This is from http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/055258.php:

The 2,600 members of the Minnesota National Guard recently ended a 22-month tour of duty in Iraq, the longest deployment of any ground-combat unit in the Armed Forces. Many of its members returned home, looking forward to using education benefits under the GI bill.

For example, John Hobot, a platoon leader, said, "I would assume, and I would hope, that when I get back from a deployment of 22 months, my senior leadership in Washington, the leadership that extended us in the first place, would take care of us once we got home."

It's not working that way. The Guard troops have been told that in order to be eligible for the education benefits they expect, they had to serve 730 days in Iraq. They served 729...

Some regular posters on this website often point out that the members of our military serving in Iraq volunteered to go over there. Their volunteer status is offered as a justification for treating them in ways that seem unfair.

Does that "justification" apply to the denial of benefits to these Guard troops from Minnesota?

[blindwolf]

This was totally to be expected. The Federal Government hjas a long history of promising big and delivering little to those who put their lives on hold and alot of time on the line for our nation. Case in point; the porr GIs who were used as test robots in the atomic tests in the 40s. The government waited until the 1990s, after the last one had died, to authorize benefits for them. I myself am finally getting a disability hearing from the VA after getting severly injured in 1975 while serving in South East Asia. I filed for benefits in 1975 as soon as I came out of a 43 day long coma, but when I woke up the Government went to sleep for 27 years.

[Jim B.]

A very close friend of mine, is an elderly fellow who served in the USAAF and the USAF and flew bombers in WWII.

In Los Alamos NM in 1945 he was ordered to handle and transport nuclear materials.

For this purpose, he was issued white cotton gloves and nothing more.

The fine vet suffers badly from that experience to this day, and is in much pain. The government never issued an apology, nor any form of recompense.
He is understandably bitter, as he lives with the consequences of that TDY to this day.

[Chas H]

Just another case of the administration supporting the troops.
D'ya think Limbaugh will chime in on this?

[Medmech]

The VA is crap and has been treating Veterans like crap since the day it was born, this is nothing new.

[Medmech]

Originally Posted by Chas H

Just another case of the administration supporting the troops.
D'ya think Limbaugh will chime in on this?

It's a bipartisan problem and IMO will never go away as long as the status quo of elected officials play arm chair General wit other peoples lives.

[Chas H]

Originally Posted by Howitzer

The VA is crap and has been treating Veterans like crap since the day it was born, this is nothing new.

I've been treated quite well by the VA. But, I only rely on the VA for my compensation check and hearing aids.

[Medmech]

Originally Posted by Chas H

I've been treated quite well by the VA. But, I only rely on the VA for my compensation check and hearing aids.

YMMV


I can say that my care has been pretty good but winning the disability battle was a 11 year fight until the DAV represented me and then like magic my claim had merit and attention. They offered a pidley percentage at first but the DAV set them straight on that one.

and its no secret that they are giving returning veterans the same treatment.

American Legion criticizes VA treatment of soldiers wounded in Iraq, Afghanistan
The Buffalo News ^ | 07/19/07 | By Bill Michelmore

Posted on 07/19/2007 9:49:51 AM PDT by SubGeniusX

NIAGARA FALLS — Members of the State American Legion, meeting here for a four-day convention, strongly criticized the treatment of wounded soldiers when they return home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Many young men and women are coming home with multiple disabilities, and they’re not getting the help they need,” James W. Casey, state commander of the American Legion, said Wednesday.
Casey, a Navy veteran from New York City, spoke at a news conference about the Legion’s position on the war on terrorism. The American Legion, as an organization, doesn’t take a position on the war in Iraq, but the troops are a matter of great concern, he said.
“When a war is declared, we go and fight it, and the American Legion backs the men and women fighting over there,” Casey said. “But what we do take issue with is the way they are treated when they come home.”
The substandard conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and other veterans’ care facilities nationwide haunts the more than 1,000 American Legionnaires who are gathered in Niagara Falls for their 89th annual state convention. “It’s not right,” said Paul Einstein of Niagara Falls, an Army Air Forces veteran. “The rehabilitation of our veterans is in very serious trouble, and we want to get the word out that it must not continue.”
Einstein said convention delegates heard a litany of challenges facing troops returning from the battlefields, from loss of limbs to mental-health nightmares.
“I didn’t fully realize the gravity of the situation,” Einstein said after attending one of the committee meetings. “But I came away from there with a feeling that the American Legion is on top of this. Our people are putting pressure on the places where it can help.”
The poor care given the returning veterans is only the beginning of the problem, Casey added.
“There is a critical backlog of 900,000 people waiting to get their benefit claims into the VA,” Casey said, referring to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The department is failing in its responsibility to provide patient care and federal benefits to veterans and their families, Legionnaires agreed.
“The Veterans Administration is operating on a shoestring,” Casey added.
It didn’t help matters when President Bush slashed the claims processing staff by several hundred employees in 2004 and 2005, Legionnaires noted.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has been under heavy fire since the Walter Reed scandal broke in February. The fallout continued to impact Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson, who said Tuesday he would resign by Oct. 1.
The resignation of Nicholson, 70, who has held the job for less than 2 1/2 years, follows those of several other top officials, including Secretary of the Army Francis J. Harvey.
Delegates at the Niagara Falls convention were welcomed by Mayor Vince Anello and Clyde L. Burmaster, a Vietnam veteran and chairman of the Niagara County Legislature. Burmaster and Einstein go back a long way. Burmaster’s father, Dedrich, drove the bus that took young Einstein to school.
Einstein, as chairman of the Niagara County American Legion Convention Corporation, pushed for the gathering to be held here, as did the Niagara Tourism and Convention Corp., which began bidding for it in 2004. The meeting continues through Saturday in the Crowne Plaza Hotel.