Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 10-18-08

1. Improper Shredding At VA Facilities Criticized.  
2. Peake Says VAMC Voter Registration Efforts Part Of Coordinated Assistance.  
3. Study Finds Rumors Helped Shape Gulf War Syndrome.
4. Nonprofit Mental Health Effort Spreads To West Virginia.
5. Florida Polytrauma Clinic Opens.  
6. Corpus Cristi Veterans Clinic To Expand.  
7. After Appeal Denial, VA Moves On With Plans For Montana Clinic.  
8. Local Officials Get Preview Of New VA Clinic In Ohio.  
9. County Will Submit Proposals For Veterans Village.  
10. Civil War Veteran Receives Headstone Through VA. 

1.      Improper Shredding At VA Facilities Criticized.   The St. Petersburg Times (10/18, Levesque) reports on the VA’s "unprecedented decision" to temporarily suspend document shredding after the VAIG "found documents improperly marked for destruction in VA offices in St. Louis, Detroit and Waco, Texas." Joe Davis, a spokesman for Veterans of Foreign called the situation "an absolute failure in management." Rick Weidman, executive director of policy and governmental affairs for Vietnam Veterans of America, "said the controversy points to a systemic failure inside the VA to hold employees accountable." KARK-TV Little Rock (10/18) also publishes a brief report on the investigation.
      Stars And Stripes (10/18, Shane) reports that VA Secretary James Peake said, "It is unacceptable that documents important to a veteran’s claim for benefits should be misplaced or destroyed." Peake "promised any employees found improperly disposing of documents would be held accountable and said regional directors will now have to certify that no original copies of key documents are being destroyed in their offices."
      The Marine Corps Times (10/18, Maze) reports that, following the recent shredding ban, "The chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee says he completely understands why many veterans have lost confidence in the Department of Veterans Affairs. ‘I am sure there are good people working there who are trying very hard and have the best of intentions, but they are bunglers,’ said Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif. ‘You lose confidence in these people by watching them.’"

2.      Peake Says VAMC Voter Registration Efforts Part Of Coordinated Assistance.   The Alexandria (LA) Town Talk (10/18) reports, "Get-out-the-vote efforts this year at the Alexandria VA Medical Center (VAMC) provided voter registration information to hundreds of people this campaign season, according to a news release by Tammy Arnold, public affairs officer for the VA Medical Center. … ‘VA has always been committed to helping veterans exercise their right to vote,’ states Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake. ‘This year we established a uniform approach for helping our patients who need assistance to register and to vote.’"

3.      Study Finds Rumors Helped Shape Gulf War Syndrome.   Science News (10/18, Bower) reports on a study in Social Science & Medicine, which found that "out of [soldiers’] shared stories and explanations grew a collective conviction that Gulf War Syndrome existed as a unitary illness with elusive causes. ‘The nature of Gulf War Syndrome in the years after the conflict was keenly shaped by these early rumors, which entangled specific ideas about the illness with feelings of betrayal, distrust and ambiguity,’" the study’s author says. He also notes that, "Current medical consensus holds that Gulf War veterans indeed display unusually high rates of various health problems, but that these conditions don’t constitute a discrete illness or syndrome."

4.      Nonprofit Mental Health Effort Spreads To West Virginia.   The AP (10/18) reports, "A national effort aimed at getting mental health professionals to donate their services to returning veterans is coming to West Virginia. Give an Hour will launch its West Virginia campaign on Tuesday. The nonprofit group works with returning veterans and their families who are suffering the emotional and psychological consequences of war."

5.      Florida Polytrauma Clinic Opens.   WFLA-TV Tampa, FL (10/18, Rojas) reports that the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital’s Polytrauma Transitional Rehabilitation Building and Outpatient Clinics in Tampa "had its grand opening Friday." The facility is "the first building in the country specifically designed for polytrauma transitional rehabilitation, according to hospital officials."
      The AP (10/18, Timmons) reports that "the polytrauma unit at Haley is one of four in the United States designated to treat catastrophically injured and disabled soldiers. The new 33,000-square-foot building provides space for rehabilitation therapy programs, outpatient clinics, primary care and administrative functions."

6.      Corpus Cristi Veterans Clinic To Expand.   The Corpus Christi Caller Times (10/18, Baird) reports, "The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Corpus Christi Outpatient Clinic that serves about 18,000 veterans will be expanded by 2011, officials announced this week. The clinic, now at about 30,000 square feet, will be increased to about 60,000 square feet. The present space also will be renovated to include additional medical services such as orthopedic, physical therapy, nutrition, retinal, podiatry care and social services — which the clinic does not presently offer."

7.      After Appeal Denial, VA Moves On With Plans For Montana Clinic.   The AP (10/17) reported, "Plans to build an $8 million" veterans clinic in Billings "are intact after a protest by an unsuccessful bidder on the project was denied." The US Department of Veterans Affairs had "awarded a construction contract in August to…J.R.A. Development Co. But the clinic’s future was cast in doubt after one of the four unsuccessful bidders protested the way the bid was handled," Joe Underkofler, director of the VA Health Care System in Montana, said. Now, however, he says his agency is "on track to…move in" to the new clinic "by Oct. 1 of next year." Montana’s Missoulian (10/17, Cochran) and the Billings Gazette (10/18, Cochran) ran similar stories.

8.      Local Officials Get Preview Of New VA Clinic In Ohio.   The Coshocton (OH) Tribune (10/17, Gadd) reported, "Local officials, including the Muskingum County Commissioners, got a sneak-peak Thursday of the new Veterans Affairs health clinic, which is poised to open by year’s end." The new clinic "is nearly double the size of the health center devoted to veterans on the Bethesda Hospital campus and more and expanded services will be offered." The Tribune added, "Veterans Service officers from Coshocton, Muskingum and Perry counties were impressed with the new facility."

9.      County Will Submit Proposals For Veterans Village.   The New York Times (10/18, WE2, Marszalek) reports, "With hopes of building a multipurpose village for military veterans, Westchester County officials say they will submit a plan to develop the Veterans Affairs campus in Montrose to the federal government, which will put the county in competition with private developers." This week, "county leaders said they would answer the V.A.’s call for proposals for the 189-acre riverside campus, confirming their commitment to creating the village. It would include housing, medical services and a commercial center with service-oriented businesses like small grocery shops or dry cleaners."

10.    Civil War Veteran Receives Headstone Through VA.   The Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger (10/18, Spoto) reports that the local American Legion recently arranged for a Civil War veterans to receive a "headstone through the U.S. Department of Veterans. James Rich, spokesman for the National Cemetery Administration, said the Department of Veterans Affairs provides about 5,000 headstones and markers for the graves of pre-World War I veterans annually. The majority of those are to replace illegible or broken markers, but some are for burial sites never marked."