Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 6-29-09

What’s Inside Today’s Local News for Veterans

1. Lawmaker Calls On Shinseki To Cut Down Unprocessed Claims Backlog.  
2. Shinseki Urges Americans To Volunteer For Vets.  
3. Shinseki, Sebelius Announce Program For Older Americans, Disabled Vets.  
4. VA Probes National Guard Troops’ Exposure To Hexavelent Chromium In Iraq.  
5. VA Begins Long-Term Study Of Iraq, Afghanistan Vets.  
6. Schools In Wisconsin, Colorado Sign Up For Yellow Ribbon Program.  
7. VA Helping Provide Service Dogs To Wounded Veterans.  
8. Iraq Vet Credited With Changing Way USMC Supports Its Wounded.  
9. Pilots Volunteer To Assist Wounded Vets.  
10. Website Offers Assistance To Employers Looking To Hire Vets.

     1.      Lawmaker Calls On Shinseki To Cut Down Unprocessed Claims Backlog.   In continuing coverage, a blog for New York’s The Batavian (6/27, Owens), an online publication, reported, "The backlog of unprocessed disability claims" at the Department of Veterans Affairs "now exceeds one million and the pile grows daily. Veterans are waiting months to have benefits administered," but US Rep. Chris Lee(R-NY) "is taking up" their cause, writing in a letter to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki that the backlog "needs to be addressed before the problem is just too large to solve."

2.      Shinseki Urges Americans To Volunteer For Vets.   In continuing coverage, the second item in the St. George (UT) Spectrum‘s (6/27) "Veterans’ Focus" column said that as part of the Obama Administration’s "’United We Serve’ summer service campaign," Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki "urges Americans to volunteer to support" US veterans. He "said the VA has a long tradition of volunteering, with more than 80,000 people volunteering more than $11 million of service to the VA last year."

3.      Shinseki, Sebelius Announce Program For Older Americans, Disabled Vets.   In continuing coverage, the fourth story in the St. George (UT) Spectrum‘s (6/27) "Veterans’ Focus" column noted that Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius "have announced landmark collaboration between the two agencies to help the families of older Americans and veterans with disabilities of all ages care for their loved ones in the community." The Spectrum said the name of the collaboration is the "’Veteran Directed Home & Community Based Service’ program."

4.      VA Probes National Guard Troops’ Exposure To Hexavelent Chromium In Iraq.   The AP (6/28, Cohen) reports, "Larry Roberta’s every breath is a painful reminder of his time in Iraq. He can’t walk a block without gasping for air. His chest hurts, his migraines sometimes persist for days and he needs pills to help him sleep. James Gentry came home with rashes, ear troubles and a shortness of breath. Later, things got much worse: He developed lung cancer, which spread to his spine, ribs and one of his thighs; he must often use a cane, and no longer rides his beloved Harley. David Moore’s postwar life turned into a harrowing medical mystery: nosebleeds and labored breathing that made it impossible to work, much less speak. His desperate search for answers ended last year when he died of lung disease at age 42. What these three men – one sick, one dying, one dead – had in common is they were National Guard soldiers on the same stretch of wind-swept desert in Iraq during the early months of the war in 2003. These soldiers and hundreds of other Guard members from Indiana, Oregon and West Virginia were protecting workers hired by a subsidiary of the giant contractor, KBR Inc., to rebuild an Iraqi water treatment plant. The area, as it turned out, was contaminated with hexavalent chromium, a potent, sometimes deadly chemical linked to cancer and other devastating diseases. … Among the issues now rippling from the courthouse to Capitol Hill are whether the chemical made people sick, when KBR knew it was there and how the company responded. But the debate is more than about this one case; it has raised broader questions about private contractors and health risks in war zones." The AP goes on to report, "Earlier this year, several

members of Congress asked Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to investigate potential burn pit hazards. He replied that his agency is conducting a health study of 30,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and noted the VA ‘has learned important lessons from previous military conflicts’ as it deals with environmental exposure questions. Some veterans advocates say the military is more attuned to health risks than it was in Vietnam and the Gulf War, but still falls short."

5.      VA Begins Long-Term Study Of Iraq, Afghanistan Vets.   In continuing coverage, the third story in the St. George (UT) Spectrum’s (6/27) "Veterans’ Focus" column noted that the Department of Veterans Affairs "has initiated a long-term study of 60,000 veterans who served in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. The ‘National Health Study for a New Generation of US Veterans’ will compare 30,000" vets "who served in Iraq and Afghanistan to 30,000 who did not. The study will compare the deployed and non-deployed veterans in terms of chronic medical conditions, traumatic brain injury," post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) "and other psychological conditions, general health perceptions, and other lifestyle choices and actions that follow their military service."
      US Military Using Virtual Therapy To Vets Suffering From PTSD.   Stars And Stripes (6/29, Ziezulewicz) says the US military "is turning to the virtual world to treat traumatized veterans of the Iraq war, giving troops a high-tech way to confront and overcome mental war wounds." Virtual Iraq, "a joint venture of the Air Force, Navy and Army, along with the University of Southern California and Virtually Better Inc.," uses "electronically re-created Iraqi environs that look like a video game, as well as the sounds and smells of deployment, to help those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder revisit the events that affected them so profoundly." There "are about 40 Virtual Iraq systems in Defense Department and Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics, according to Navy Cmdr. Russell Shilling, who helped create the system and is now the senior scientific adviser for psychological health at the Defense Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury."

6.      Schools In Wisconsin, Colorado Sign Up For Yellow Ribbon Program.   The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (6/29, Perez, 235K) reports, "Some Iraq and Afghanistan war-era veterans returning to college this fall will get a better deal on tuition under the new GI Bill." And "not only does the program cover the cost of public institutions, but 31 private institutions in Wisconsin have signed up to help make tuition affordable and in some cases, free," under a provision in the bill called the Yellow Ribbon program, which allows "higher-priced private colleges" to "voluntarily share in the additional cost to attend their schools." The Journal Sentinel adds, "Roughly one-fifth of veterans enrolled in college attend private schools, said Keith Wilson, education service director" for the US Department of Veterans Affairs.
      The Boulder (CO) Daily Camera (6/29, Anas) reports, "The University of Colorado and Boulder’s Buddhist-inspired Naropa University are among the 700 schools nationwide voluntarily partnering" with the VA "to offer scholarships to veterans. The reformed, post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistant Act covers public in-state tuition for undergraduate veterans," but "schools enrolled in the VA’s ‘Yellow Ribbon Program’ provide more tuition dollars for students with higher costs, such as veterans enrolled at private colleges or in graduate programs. Under the program, the government will pay up to the highest in-state tuition and then match what the schools contribute." The Camera notes that the VA "will publish a final list of schools participating in the program

 on Tuesday."
      VA Urged To Consider Bringing DISA In On Cloud Computing Idea.   In a related story, Bob Brewin, writing in his "What’s Brewin’" blog for NextGov (6/26), says that a recent "hearing of the House Veterans Affairs Economic Opportunity Subcommittee on the post-9/11 GI bill, Mark Krause," a VA "program manager who works" at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic (SPAWAR), "said he is eyeing the use of cloud computing to host a spiffy new claims processing system for education benefit claims." Brewin added, "Call me a cynic (another term for realist), but I wonder how good a deal VA will get from SPAWAR on cloud computing." Brewin then suggested that perhaps "VA/SPAWAR should talk" to the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) "about using its cloud computing environment to host the claims processing system."

7.      VA Helping Provide Service Dogs To Wounded Veterans.   The AP (6/28) says a new Department of Veterans Affairs program "adopts dogs from animal shelters, trains them and matches them with wounded warriors home from Iraq and Afghanistan to help with their recovery." According to the AP, VA hospitals "nationwide are integrating service dogs into treatment plans for disabled vets, said Will Baldwin, a vocational rehabilitation counselor for the VA in Denver. The program was formed after Freedom Service Dogs, a Denver-based nonprofit, recently partnered with the VA."

8.      Iraq Vet Credited With Changing Way USMC Supports Its Wounded.   The Washington Post (6/29, A15, Vogel, 652K) profiles 42-year-old Iraq veteran Tim Maxwell, who "is credited with changing how" the US Marine Corps "supports its wounded. His advocacy for central billeting for Marines recovering from injuries led two years ago to the creation of the Marine Corps Wounded Warrior Regiment, headquartered at Marine Corps Base Quantico." And on Friday, "at his retirement ceremony at the National Museum of the Marine Corps at Quantico, Maxwell was saluted for his achievements by a crowd of 200 people, among them Gen. James F. Amos, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps." The Post notes that the Wounded Warrior Regiment "includes wounded warrior battalions at Camp Lejeune and Camp Pendleton."

9.      Pilots Volunteer To Assist Wounded Vets.   In continuing coverage, the sixth item in the St. George (UT) Spectrum’s (6/27) "Veterans’ Focus" column said the "Veterans Airlift Command provides air transportation for medical and other compassionate purposes to wounded warriors and their families through a network of volunteer aircraft owners and pilots." According to the Spectrum, the "program has about 1,000 volunteer pilots who have flown more than 720,000 miles."

10.    Website Offers Assistance To Employers Looking To Hire Vets.   In continuing coverage, the last story in the St. George (UT) Spectrum’s (6/27) "Veterans’ Focus" column noted, "Employers wanting to hire a veteran can go to the Department of Labor’s ‘America’s Heroes at Work’" website, "which contains resources to help employers recruit, hire, and retain qualified veteran employees affected by PTSD or TBI. For more information, go to www.americasheroesatwork.gov/index.html."