Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 1-2-09

1. American Legion National Commander Notes Challenges Shinseki Inherits.  
2. Army Probes Incidents Of Violent Crime Committed By Combat Veterans.  
3. Romanian Soldier Blinded In Ira Treated At Palo Alto VA Center.
4. Veterans Concerned By Reports Of Infection Threat At York Medical Center.  
5. Army Blood Bank Donates Unused Blood To DeBakey VA Medical Center.  
6. Updated Traumatic Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance Policy Noted.  
7. VFW Urges Congress To Stop Funding TVC.  
8. $1.8 Million Shreveport Shelter Will Have 50 Beds For Veterans.  
9. Opelousas Leasing New Office To The VA For $1 A Year.
10.  VA Plans For Bay Area Cemetery Noted. 

1.      American Legion National Commander Notes Challenges Shinseki Inherits.   The Washington Time‘s "Sgt. Shaft" (1/1) "joins the American Legion’s national commander in expressing congratulations and a desire to work with President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs in the upcoming administration. ‘Gen. Eric Shinseki has made a career of serving this country,’ said American Legion National Commander David K. Rehbein." Rehbein "added that Gen. Shinseki will face great challenges. ‘Eliminating the backlog that veterans face to use the health care system that was created for them must be a top priority,’ he said. ‘VA must also ensure that veterans understand and can easily access the benefits for which they are entitled under the new GI Bill. Funding must remain a priority, even during tough economic times. Congress must remember that if not for America’s veterans, there would not be a U.S. economy to worry about. We hope that Gen. Shinseki’s Pentagon experience will enhance the integration under way for DoD and VA to share its information technologies and provide for a seamless transition.’"

2.      Army Probes Incidents Of Violent Crime Committed By Combat Veterans.   The New York Times (1/2, A1, Alvarez, Frosch), in a front-page article titled, "A Focus On Violence By G.I.’s Back From War," reports from Fort Carson, Colorado: "For the past several years, as this Army installation in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains became a busy way station for soldiers cycling in and out of Iraq, the number of servicemen implicated in violent crimes has raised alarm. Nine current or former members of Fort Carson’s Fourth Brigade Combat Team have killed someone or were charged with killings in the last three years after returning from Iraq. Five of the slayings took place last year alone. In addition, charges of domestic violence, rape and sexual assault have risen sharply." The Times adds, "Prodded by Senator Ken Salazar, Democrat of Colorado, the base commander began an investigation of the soldiers accused of homicide. An Army task force is reviewing their recruitment, medical and service records, as well as their personal histories, to determine if the military could have done something to prevent the violence. … Now the secretary of the Army, Peter Geren, says he is considering conducting an Army-wide review of all soldiers ‘involved in violent crimes since returning’ from Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a letter sent to Mr. Salazar in December. Mr. Geren wrote that the Fort Carson task force had yet to find a specific factor underlying the killings, but that the inquiry was continuing." According to the Times, "Focusing attention on soldiers charged with killings is a shift for the military, which since the start of the war in Iraq has largely deflected any suggestion that combat could be a factor in violent behavior among some returning service members."

3.      Romanian Soldier Blinded In Ira Treated At Palo Alto VA Center.   The Oakland Tribune (1/2, Pal) reports, "Marius Iovi doesn’t remember a thing from the day he was blinded and severely burned by a bomb in Iraq. More than a year later and thousands of miles away at the Western Blind Rehabilitation Center in Palo Alto, the 27-year-old Romanian corporal can only share what his fellow soldiers told him. … With help from the San Ramon-based Sentinels of Freedom, Iovi is adapting to a new life in California – a life he hopes to make permanent by becoming a U.S. citizen. It is the first time the Sentinels are helping a coalition soldier, says the group’s co-founder, Mike Conklin. It is also the first time the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System’s rehab center is extending its services to an ally soldier. … Founded in 2003, the Sentinels welcome back severely injured veterans by providing job training, a place to

live and other perks as they learn to cope with their injuries and re-enter the civilian world."

4.      Veterans Concerned By Reports Of Infection Threat At York Medical Center.   WSMV-TV News 4 Nashville (1/2, Lambert) reports, "A Pulaski man is concerned about the lack of information the York Veterans Medical Center is giving about an investigation into problems with colonoscopy equipment used during surgeries. He’s especially worried because he recently had a procedure done at the center. After avoiding it for years, Joe Wiggins finally had a colonoscopy done 18 months ago at the York Veterans Administration Hospital in Murfreesboro. … He said he had no problems or complications and was pleased overall with the care he received. Wiggins said he was bothered to learn that a month ago, York discovered ‘a potential infection threat’ to Veterans from ‘specific colonoscopy equipment used.’ He said he would have liked to hear the news from VA. Wiggins hasn’t received a phone call or a letter from York Medical Center, and, apparently, neither has anyone else. In an e-mail from the VA’s spokesman, the hospital said, ‘Any affected veterans will be notified and screened should the result of the clinical review identify a risk.’ The spokesman is not giving any specifics as to a timeframe when these problems may have occurred or how many patients might be affected. The hospital said it has known about a potential problem since Dec. 1. A clinical review is in process, and it’s unknown how long it will take to complete."

5.      Army Blood Bank Donates Unused Blood To DeBakey VA Medical Center.   The North Channel Sentinel (1/2) reports, "The Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center recently began collaborating with the Robertson Blood Center, a U.S. Army Blood Bank located at the Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center in Ft. Hood, to save taxpayer money and maximize the use of a valuable and perishable resource. … The Robertson Blood Center provides blood not immediately needed by the U.S. Army, to the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center. ‘This partnership between the U.S. Army and the DeBakey VA not only saves a tremendous amount of money and prevents waste of a precious resource; but more importantly, our joint commitment helps save the lives of our nation’s heroes,’ said Michael M. Ittmann, M.D., Ph.D., Pathology and Laboratory Medicine chief."

6.      Updated Traumatic Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance Policy Noted.   In a letter to the Washington Time‘s "Sgt. Shaft" (1/1), a veteran writes, "I had three years Regular Army, five years Army Reserve and 12 years Army National Guard. In 2004, I was activated for 27 months with the Guard as the battalion personnel sergeant for my unit’s rear detachment while the unit was deployed to Iraq and for demobilization when it returned. Eighteen months into my active-duty tour, I was in a severe motor-vehicle accident three miles from my duty station while on the way to work. I don’t understand why all branches of service — active, Reserve and Guard — pay for Traumatic Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (TSGLI) but it only pays if you are injured in a combat zone. … I am considered totally disabled. I could go on, but the point is, according to the TSGLI schedule, I would have qualified for $75,000 to $100,000 in benefits except that I was not injured in a combat zone. Not that I am concerned about the $1-a-month premium, but it is hugely hypocritical to make us pay premiums for benefits for which we do not qualify unless we are in a particular duty-status location.

Thousands of soldiers are injured traumatically outside combat zones with the same injuries that qualify soldiers inside combat zones. Maybe it should be renamed CTSGLI (Combat Traumatic SGLI)." "Sgt. Shaft" responds, "My sources tell me that you might have been misinformed. Since 2005, TSGLI has no longer been just for combat injuries. … If your accident happened before the effective date of this updating legislation (Dec. 1, 2005), you’re out of luck; the Army applied the law that was in effect when you were injured."

7.      VFW Urges Congress To Stop Funding TVC.   The Washington Time‘s "Sgt. Shaft" (1/1) says he "joins the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States in calling on Congress to stop appropriating federal funding for the National Veterans Business Development Corp., better known as the Veterans Corp., or TVC. Congress created TVC in 1999 to provide military veterans with the resources and guidance necessary to start small businesses, but an investigative report released by the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship revealed that TVC failed to achieve its goals. According to the bipartisan report, TVC failed to establish and maintain veterans business-resource centers, didn’t become self-sufficient as required; and the use of federal funding for executive compensation and questionable expenditures was deemed unacceptable. … The VFW wants TVC’s funding redirected to expand veteran-specific programs within the Small Business Administration and for the federal government to incorporate TVC business centers into its Veterans’ Business Outreach Center network. The Small Business Administration, unlike TVC, is subject to congressional oversight and accountability, and with 1,500 small-business-development centers across the country, it is more capable of reaching out and working with veterans."

8.      $1.8 Million Shreveport Shelter Will Have 50 Beds For Veterans.   KSLA-TV Shreveport, LA (1/2) reports, "A $1.8 million shelter is in the works for Shreveport’s homeless vets. The Department of Veterans Affairs says the shelter will have more than 50 beds for military veterans and will help get veterans off the streets and into permanent housing. Funds for the shelter are being provided through a grant from the department. … The shelter is expected to open by mid-summer."

9.      Opelousas Leasing New Office To The VA For $1 A Year.   The AP (1/2) reports, "The Louisiana veteran’s affairs office for St. Landry Parish will soon have a new home. The current space for the office is considered too small. But new space is being donated by the City of Opelousas. Volunteers with the St. Landry Veteran’s Committee spent this week helping to refurbish the former Opelousas Community Development Office as the new home for the St. Landry office of the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs. Opelousas Mayor Donald Cravins Sr. said the city will lease the facility to the Department of Veterans Affairs for $1 per year. ‘We are just glad we can help,’ said Cravins."

10.    VA Plans For Bay Area Cemetery Noted.   The Alameda Sun (1/2, Evanosky) reports, "The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) plans to build a 53-acre columbarium at Alameda Point. In its materials the VA prefers to use the plural, columbaria, because the niches to hold the deceased veterans’ cremated remains will be in a series of self-standing outdoor units, rather than inside a single building. The units at the VA’s columbaria at Alameda Point would contain niches low enough for visitors to touch. … At the Dec. 18 meeting aboard USS Hornet, National Cemetery Administration representative Don Rinker pointed out the need for a new veterans’ cemetery in the Bay Area. ‘The NCA is here to provide burial space for veterans and their eligible family members,’ Rinker said. ‘We maintain national cemeteries as national shrines, sacred to the honor and memory of the veterans interred or memorialized there.’ The columbaria at Alameda Point would serve over 322,000 veterans, he said, pointing out that the two nearest national cemeteries in San Francisco and San Bruno are closed to burials. Two other cemeteries are outside the Bay Area: one in Dixon, the other in Santa Nella in the San Joaquin Valley."