Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 2-17-09

1. Bid Period For Montrose Property Development Closes.  
2. Shinseki Urged To Ensure A Realistic VA Budget.  
3. Iraq Vet Wants Second Leg Amputated.  
4. Contractors, Guardsman Claim KBR Exposed Them To Carcinogenic Chemicals In Iraq.  
5. VA Suspends Contractor For Failing TO Secure Patient Data.  
6. Recovering Iraq Vet Re-Enters Civilian Life.  
7. Iraq Vet Suffering From PTSD Uses Combat Experience To Train Business Leaders.   
8. Army Video Aids Suicide Prevention Campaign.  
9. Ft Hood Commander Seeks Additional Resources To Combat PTSD.  
10. Family Of Iraq Vet Who Committed Suicide Seeks VA Benefits. 

1.      Bid Period For Montrose Property Development Closes.   The Westchester (NY) Journal News (2/17, Elan) reports, "The period to submit development proposals for the 184-acre Franklin D. Roosevelt campus" of the Veterans Affairs Hudson Valley Healthcare System "in Montrose has closed." A VA "spokesman in Washington wouldn’t comment on how many private developers participated in the bidding process, which ended Feb. 9." But "it is unclear whether the plan for a 75-year lease to a private developer would be pursued under the Obama administration. Many veterans and elected officials have opposed the idea that would leave only 12 acres at Montrose for veterans’ services, saying the property is needed to house and treat aging veterans and those returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan." The Journal News adds that US Rep. John Hall (D-NY) has asked… newly appointed" VA Secretary Eric Shinseki "to look into the long-term lease plan developed under the Bush administration."

2.      Shinseki Urged To Ensure A Realistic VA Budget.   An editorial in the Army Times (2/17) says that as the "Obama administration prepares to unveil its budget in April, new" Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki "should ensure that his team carefully considers the independent budget’s projections about the resources VA will need to care for our nation’s veterans." The Times adds that the VA "must not be allowed to return to the bad budget habits that shortchanged veterans throughout the last two administrations."

3.      Iraq Vet Wants Second Leg Amputated.   The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (2/15, O’Connor) reports, "When Iraq war veteran Derick Hurt lost his right leg in a grenade attack five years ago, he fought with doctors to save his left leg and mangled foot. Now, he wants to lose that leg, too. Hurt believes he’s used the pain in his remaining leg as an excuse for not moving on with his life. He avoided finding a full-time job, lacked goals and spent too many days at his rural home, depressed. … Hurt, 31, met last week with officials at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington to discuss amputating the second leg. If he goes forward with the procedure, Hurt will have gone the longest between injury and amputation of any Iraq or Afghanistan veteran treated at Walter Reed. He believes two prosthetic legs will give him a better life." According to the Post-Dispatch, "The decision to delay an amputation is not unusual, Army officials say. Of the 862 service members who have had a limb amputated since the beginning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, 57 delayed the procedure for months, including 35 who waited a year or more."

4.      Contractors, Guardsman Claim KBR Exposed Them To Carcinogenic Chemicals In Iraq.   The Houston Chronicle (2/15, Olsen, 512K) reports, "Ten contractors and dozens of National Guardsmen — including a dying senior officer — allege that Houston-based KBR knowingly allowed them to be poisoned by cancer-causing chemicals at a Basra water plant where they were making repairs to keep Iraq’s oil fields pumping during the war. Allegations from the workers, six of whom live in or near Houston, are documented in a federal arbitration complaint pending in Houston and a related federal lawsuit filed in December by the guardsmen in Indiana."

5.      VA Suspends Contractor For Failing TO Secure Patient Data.   CNN (2/14, Levine) reports the Department of Veterans Affairs "has suspended a contractor for failing to follow the department’s policies for securing sensitive data about patients, the department said Thursday. A routine inspection revealed that a transcription contractor, with access to information including name, Social Security number and diagnosis, was using computers that did not follow guidelines for protecting the data. ‘VA insists that contractors, as well as our own personnel, adhere to the highest standards for protecting personal information,’ Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki said in a written statement. ‘When we detect a problem, as happened in this case, we will quickly fix it, and we will ensure such problems are not happening elsewhere.’" The unidentified company "was hired to transcribe recordings made by doctors and other health professionals during examinations and surgeries for inclusion in patient records. ‘There is no evidence that any patient information was disclosed as a result of the violation,’ the VA said."

6.      Recovering Iraq Vet Re-Enters Civilian Life.   In continuing coverage, the Contra Costa (CA) Times (2/13, Jordan) reported, "For the past three years," 43-year-old Jay Wilkerson, who was severely injured in Iraq, "has slowly worked to put his life back together." And on Thursday, "after stays in four different hospitals, including" the Veterans Affairs Hospital "in Palo Alto, Wilkerson re-entered civilian life. With the help of the Danville-based Sentinels of Freedom, he became Pleasanton’s newest citizen." The "Sentinels program provides severely injured veterans with a four-year scholarship that includes housing, job training, education and other tools to help them cope with civilian life." The Times noted that a "citywide welcome celebration" for Wilkerson "is planned for March 4."

7.      Iraq Vet Suffering From PTSD Uses Combat Experience To Train Business Leaders.   The Delaware County Daily News (2/15, Luce) reports, "Through the combination of his faith and his training, Staff Sgt. Robert Wilson has been able to overcome his harrowing experiences in Iraq and utilize them to train America’s business leaders. ‘I’ve always wanted to be a consultant,’ said Wilson. In the military, you have many different people from many different backgrounds and cultures, but we have to work together. We have to get it done.’ The survivor of more than 195 combat missions between 2004 and 2005 in Bayji, Iraq, Wilson served with the 1st Battalion, 111th Infantry Division of the Pennsylvania National Guards in the gunner’s turret of a Humvee. … Afflicted with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder because of the ordeals he faced while in Iraq, Wilson said he was able to use his benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to pay for training to become a consultant with the Reading-based Resource Associates Corp. Calling his consulting company Victory Solutions and Dynamics, Wilson said he plans on using his training in military leadership to help inspire business leaders."

8.      Army Video Aids Suicide Prevention Campaign.   The Daily Press – Newport News, VA (2/15, Lessig) reports on "Beyond the Front," a "combination feature film and computer game that will serve as a role-playing exercise for every Army soldier in the next 30 days. The Army has received 14,000 copies of the video for use during a month-long stand-down aimed at suicide prevention. The stand-down begins today. Suicides in the Army reached a 27-year high last year, and January provided more chilling news: If the number of suspected suicides is confirmed, self-inflicted deaths will have eclipsed combat deaths across all U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan last month. On Wednesday, two high-ranking U.S. senators called on Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to convene a meeting on the subject. … The simulated exercise isn’t a cure-all for a fighting force stretched thin, but it will let soldiers practice making tough decisions, said Sharon Sloane, president and CEO of WILL Interactive, the Maryland-based company that produced the project in cooperation with the military."

9.      Ft Hood Commander Seeks Additional Resources To Combat PTSD.   The Temple (TX) Daily Telegram (2/15, Kirk) reports, "Since taking over as Fort Hood’s commanding general last summer, Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch has preached to almost anyone who will listen the need to fund a behavioral health facility to help treat these men and women [suffering from PTSD]. ‘I’ve cried more in the last two years than I have my entire adult life,’ Lynch recently told state lawmakers during a luncheon at Club Hood. Lynch said more than 500 soldiers on Fort Hood have been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury, and they are trying to heal enough to return to duty or find employment. The numbers are actually much higher. According to Lynch’s own 2009-2011 Campaign Plan, 1,637 mental health referrals were made in fiscal year 2006, and the number increased to 4,592 in 2007. There were about 4,500 referrals again in 2008."

10.    Family Of Iraq Vet Who Committed Suicide Seeks VA Benefits.   The Times Herald-Record Middletown, NY (2/15, Israel) reports, "Martin Polignone of Central Valley was not the man anyone knew after he came home from fighting in Iraq. When he looked inside himself, he saw someone possessed by demons even those who loved him couldn’t see. He saw himself as a soldier – a machine gunner in Kirkuk – who burst into a home to find a father and his 5-year-old boy pointing guns at him. Marty Polignone – father, son and husband – had to kill that little boy and his father. Marty Polignone looked inside himself and saw brains splattered on an Iraqi street. Marty Polignone looked inside himself and pictured a 16-year-old girl lying dead, shot by his buddy, his sergeant, himself the father of a little girl. Marty Polignone looked inside himself until he could look no more. One winter night about a year ago – three years after he came home from Iraq – he shot himself dead. He was 24. Marty Polignone and his family are the hidden casualties of the Iraq war. He’s one of at least five veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom from Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties who have killed themselves, either during active duty or after they’ve returned, according to estimates of local veterans organizations. This tally is even more staggering because it represents almost a third of the local veterans – 18 – who have been killed during the war. The number of suicides might be even higher since Polignone’s family is the only one so far that wants to speak out publicly. They hope what they’ve learned can spare at least one other soldier and his family unbearable pain." Marty Polignone’s family "believes he was suffering from PTSD, the condition that afflicts his sergeant, Dustin Hurst, who says simply, ‘You had to kill women and children. That (stuff) (screws) you up.’ ‘What we’re saying is, he died from a disability,’ says Tony Zippo, director of veterans services for Orange County. Yet Polignone didn’t seek help soon enough to be diagnosed with the disorder. This is why the Polignone family, with Zippo’s help, has asked the Veterans Administration to diagnose Polignone with PTSD to qualify the family for benefits."