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Another slap at vets?
Posted January 30th, 2008 by Dave MazzarellaThere have been no shortage of stories lately about vets receiving less than good treatment after returning from the war zones. They included accounts of horrid conditions at a recuperation ward at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and of slow assistance being offered to soldiers with mental trauma.
Now comes a report that Army officials had instructed Veterans Affairs reps to stop assisting GIs with paperwork to prove disability. This was said to have happened in upstate New York, affecting soldiers in Fort Drum who were applying for disability benefits. The report, in a broadcast by National Public Radio, infuriated a specialist at the fort, who wrote me: "I was appalled when I found this, and I want to let as many people know as possible about what has happened, and is possibly still happening to our fellow soldiers."
The NPR report said a team of Army auditors had passed on the instruction to the VA officials, and intimated they had done so because the Army had noted that soldiers from Fort Drum were getting higher disability ratings with the help of Veterans Affairs representatives than GIs from other bases.
After I inquired, today I received a "fact sheet" from the Pentagon public affairs office. It said the percentage of Fort Drum soldiers receiving disability retirement was within a point or two of the Army's Physical Disability Agency average, and about midrange compared to other Army bases.
It also cited a passage in the NPR report that quoted a VA official as saying he didn't think VA reps were qualified to help GIs fill out disability paperwork. (But the NPR account quoted a spokesperson for the Army surgeon general who said the VA was doing nothing wrong in helping the soldiers -- and the fact remains that such help was being provided.)
Still fuzzy is whether the Army auditing team initiated the instruction to stop helping the soldiers. NPR quotes two persons as saying it had. A Pentagon spokesman says the no-assistance rule appears to have been a "conversation between VA staff members."
Either way, the soldiers are not getting help completing complicated disability documentation, so, whoever's behind the cutoff, you can chalk this up to another example of shoddy treatment for the veterans.
A slap in the face
This is not the first time for veterans returning from wartime service. We have often been forgotten, treated unfairly, not provided any support, and backstabbed by those who sent us in the first place. Perhaps it is time for the face slappers in the pentagon: civilian and brass who are behind this fiasco to receive a dose of their own medicine. What I mean is this. The only way they are going to stop is by being given reprimand, lose their position, get the shaft themselves, or it can get back to someone who is close to them, and what I mean is this. It can be a family member or inlaw who is already serving, or who will serve our country sometime in the future. I can think of an example. There are U.S. military veterans from all eras: WWII-Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom, and Noble Eagle who have passed through the gates at the Villages at Cabrillo: Long Beach, California where a VA Representative was told not to provide assistance to veterans who are or may be interested in Section 8 Housing. By word of mouth it came from U.S. Veterans Initiative Clinical Staff and Property Management from Cantwell-Anderson to the Veterans Representative on the site.
Another Slap At Vets
I have filed two successful claims for disability in the last year from exposure to Agent orange in Vietnam. I did not file with the VA directly. I am a lifetime DAV member and the DAV reps handled all the paperwork and are representing me including filling out the forms and forwarding them to the VA in Philadelphia. I also understand that the VFW, AMVETS, AMERICAN LEGION and other veteran organizations provide the same service. In fact when I go to the VA in Phila I do not go to the VA section. I go directly to the DAV office to talk to the DAV rep and submit my paperwork through them. I believe that the veteran organizations do a better job than the VA representing the veterans.
To all veterans, "WELCOME HOME"
tet1968