Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 11-24-08

What’s Inside

1.Golden Age Games Help Vets With Age-Specific Illnesses.  
2.Sec. Peake Announces Mileage Reimbursement Increase.  
3.New York VA Regional Office Leaders Removed.  
4.Local Veterans Share Transition Experiences.  
5.Research Shows Killing Is "Predictive" Of PTSD In Veterans.  
6.Military Spouse’s Letter Attracts "Dismay."  
7.Sec. Gates Issues Policies Based On 08 Authorization Act.  
8."Gulf War Vets Vindicated."  
9.Tomah Hospital Opens New Clinic To Encourage Veterans To Obtain Counseling.  
10.Filipino Veterans Seek US Benefits. 

1.      Golden Age Games Help Vets With Age-Specific Illnesses.   The Lufkin (TX) Daily News (11/23, Wade) profiles retired Air Force veteran Joan Lance, a Golden Age Games participant. The Daily News notes that the Games are co-sponsored by the VA, and "are especially beneficial to veterans dealing with age-specific illnesses."

2.      Sec. Peake Announces Mileage Reimbursement Increase.   The Alexandria (LA) Town Talk (11/23) reports that the VA "announced today that eligible veterans will see an increase in the mileage reimbursement they receive for travel to VA facilities for medical care. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake announced today that he will use his authority to raise the mileage reimbursement from the 28.5 cents per mile to 41.5 cents per mile for all eligible veterans." Peake said, "We owe it to our veterans to give them the best care possible."

3.      New York VA Regional Office Leaders Removed.   Newsday (11/24, Evans) reports the US Department of Veterans Affairs "has reassigned the director of its New York regional office after finding that employees there misdated hundreds of claims to make it appear they were being processed on time. Without referring by name to the New York director, Patricia Amberg-Blyskal, VA spokeswoman Alison Aikele said last week that the director and five other top managers were ousted after investigators discovered a pattern of deception in the handling of claims at the regional headquarters" in Manhattan. VA investigators "also found that the New York office has ignored ‘significant amounts’ of its mail, officials said." The "shake-up…came as veterans organizations and members of Congress have criticized the federal agency for mishandling, losing or destroying the benefits claims of veterans."

4.      Local Veterans Share Transition Experiences.   The AP (11/23, Garcia) reports on a veterans panel at California’s Truckee Meadows Community College, where five veterans "shared how they’ve adapted and in some cases not adapted from military to civilian life." The program counselor for the college’s Veterans Upward Bound program also "spoke of veterans of different generations and how their reaction when they come home is the same, though she said the intensity is higher for veterans today" because their experiences are "fresher."

5.      Research Shows Killing Is "Predictive" Of PTSD In Veterans.   The Marine Corps Times (11/23, Kennedy) reports, "New research presented at the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies shows post-traumatic stress disorder rates are higher in service members who have had to kill someone." The study by University of California researchers "found that killing is ‘strongly predictive of PTSD.’" Of the veterans interviewed, "if a person had killed someone, they were 3½ times more likely to have symptoms of PTSD than someone who hadn’t killed."

6.      Military Spouse’s Letter Attracts "Dismay."   Stars and Stripes (11/23, Barnes) reports, "Some readers expressed dismay about a comment by Ann, a military spouse whose experiences were recounted in Spouse Calls on Oct. 18," in which she wrote, "We forget that the Army takes our loved ones and turns them into mass murderers, with no conscience or hope. … They become a large ball of anger and hate that only sleeps, eats, and does what it is told." One reader, a veteran, said, "A large portion of service people who bring high levels of stress into combat will absolutely come out with greater stress." He said "a VA Rep or counselors" are often necessary to help veterans and their families cope with the stresses or PTSD which can follow service.

7,      Sec. Gates Issues Policies Based On 08 Authorization Act.   The Army Times (11/23, Kennedy) reports, "Defense Secretary Robert Gates has issued a policy stating that the military will follow a new law requiring that service members being medically retired for post-traumatic stress disorder be rated at least 50 percent disabled, a provision of the 2008 Defense Authorization Act. But the Pentagon is ignoring another provision of the Act that requires a review board to be set up for medical evaluation cases, and has even added some pain to service members who feel they have been wronged: Decisions by the board, whenever it is formed, will not be retroactive."

8.      “Gulf War Vets Vindicated."   A Palm Beach Post (11/23, Moffett) op-ed argues that "the government’s first response" to veterans’ disability claims "is always to suggest that some veterans just weren’t tough enough or had underlying psychological problems. For the government, a diagnosis of battle fatigue or battlefield stress was preferable to admissions of culpability or ignorance." But a recent study found that "Gulf War syndrome is a ‘real condition,’ and roughly one in four of the 697,000 veterans from that war suffers lifelong neurological damage from it," and they must now receive care. Moffett calls the VA "one more expensive, tragic mess the Obama administration soon will inherit," and says, "We like to think that we honor our veterans for their service, but the national definition of honor doesn’t include repairing the damage they bring home."

9.      Tomah Hospital Opens New Clinic To Encourage Veterans To Obtain Counseling.   The La Crosse (WI) Tribune (11/23, Hubbuch) reports that "with waves of troops coming back from combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Department of Veterans is trying to make the most of lessons learned with Vietnam vets," particularly the need to encourage counseling earlier, before issues can grow out of control. As part of that effort, "in September, the Tomah VA Hospital opened a new clinic in La Crosse, focused on mental health. ‘We’ve got to do everything possible to get those people in so they don’t sit on that trauma," Tomah’s mental health coordinator said.

10.    Filipino Veterans Seek US Benefits.   The AP (11/23) reports that Filipinos veterans of WWII "have long sought US veterans benefits, citing a promise to them by wartime US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. US veterans get as much as $11,000 to $22,000 annually, depending on their disability status and number of dependents. But a 1946 US law declared that the more than 250,000 Filipino soldiers who fought under the American flag were not in active service for the US military during the war, denying them any benefits." The AP outlines the history of the debate, noting that while "both houses of the US Congress passed bills to provide some benefits" this year, the bills differ, and "it is unclear if the two houses will agree on a single bill to present to the president for approval."