Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 10-12-09

What’s Inside Today’s Local News for Veterans

1. After Review, VA Restarts Some IT Projects. 
2. Editorial Compares Shinseki With McChrystal, MacArthur. 
3. Shinseki’s Example Commended To Obama As He Weighs Afghan Troop Levels. 
4. Marine’s Claiming Cancer Tie To Chemical Weapons Focuses Puerto Rico Dispute. 
5. Women WWII Veterans Fly To Washington. 
6. Returning Veterans Have Growing Numbers Of Brain Injuries. 
7. Fort Hood Brain Clinic Scores Success In Treating Traumatic Injuries. 
8. Air Force’s Wounded Warrior Program Profiled.
9. Veterans Face Issues Fitting Into College Life. 
10. VA Program Taking "Whole New Approach" To Treating Returning Vets. 

1.      After Review, VA Restarts Some IT Projects.  InformationWeek (10/9, Hoover) reports Veterans Affairs CIO Roger Baker "credits a new project management accountability system with facilitating decision making at the federal agency. The Department of Veterans Affairs has restarted a number of IT projects that were temporarily halted this year after falling far behind schedule or over budget." In July, VA announced that Baker and Secretary Eric Shinseki "had paused 45 IT projects that were more than a year behind schedule or more than 50% over budget, putting them on hold pending review."
      iHealthBeat (10/9) reports Baker said the agency "has adopted a new system to improve the management of health IT initiatives and other technology projects." Baker "touted VA’s new Project Management Accountability System in response to a recent inspector general report finding that the agency failed to effectively manage several IT projects." Baker said that the new PMAS model would set strict deadlines for health IT projects and improve coordination between contractors and project managers. 

2.      Editorial Compares Shinseki With McChrystal, MacArthur.  A Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger editorial (10/9), which criticizes Gen. Stanley McChrystal for his speech on Afghanistan policy in London, claims that many Republicans are supporting McChrystal "to make political points." After noting GOP support for Gen. Douglas MacArthur when he clashed with President Harry Truman during the Korean War, the paper continues, "Today, however, they prefer to cite Gen. Eric Shinseki, whom Democrats praised when he complained the Bush Pentagon had sent too few troops to Iraq — a judgment later proved correct. But there’s a sharp difference between the MacArthur and Shinseki episodes. Shinseki only voiced criticism when called to testify before Congress. He didn’t voluntarily dispute administration policy or breach the chain-of-command; he was compelled to tell the truth. MacArthur went out of his way to publicly oppose Truman without informing his Pentagon superiors or the White House. It’s also worth noting that Republicans, while now defending McChrystal, were quick to criticize Shinseki, who shortly after was forced to retire." 

3.      Shinseki’s Example Commended To Obama As He Weighs Afghan Troop Levels.  Columnist Fikret Ertan in Turkey’s English-language Sunday’s Zaman (10/10) writes that as President Obama reviews the recommendations for Afghanistan troop strength from General Stanley McChrystal, he "should remember Iraq and Gen, Shinseki’s thoughts," when the then-Army Chief of Staff and "an able and prudent general" testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee that far greater numbers of military would be needed to handle the post-war occupation of Iraq. 
 

4.      Marine’s Claiming Cancer Tie To Chemical Weapons Focuses Puerto Rico Dispute.  A widely-distributed AP story (10/10, Melia), picked up by more than 1,700 media outlets including the New York Times and Washington Post, reports on Hermogenes Marrero, a 57-year-old former Marine sergeant terminally ill with cancer that he believes was caused by former duty guarding Cold War-era chemical weapons stored on Puerto Rico. The AP says that "By coming forward to support similar claims by island residents, he has become the public face of a new and bitter battle over Vieques, the Navy bombing range-turned-tourist destination off the U.S. territory’s east coast." Whether the Vieques bombing range exposed area residents to harmful toxic chemicals has been disputed in dueling studies from Puerto Rican health authorities and the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which cleared the facility in 2003 but is now conducting a new review at the request of NJ9 Rep. Steve Rothman (D). Marrero is also "a key witness in a lawsuit seeking billions of dollars in compensation for illnesses that past and current Vieques residents have linked to the bombing range, where the U.S. and its allies trained for conflicts from Vietnam to Iraq." The government has denied any connection with the illnesses and weapons practice at the range, which closed in 2003. The AP notes that Marrero "has a 2006 report from a Department of Veterans Affairs doctor in Washington who linked his symptoms to exposure to ‘noxious substances’" at his duty station in Puerto Rico, "but he said a review board has denied his requests to formally acknowledge the connection." VA press secretary Katie Roberts "declined to address Marrero’s record specifically." 

5.      Women WWII Veterans Fly To Washington.  The Long Island edition of Newsday (10/10, Evans) reports that about 50 female World War II veterans will be flown to Washington this weekend "to see Washington’s war monuments by a group dedicated to honor them while there is still time." The women "are among the 400,000 women whose World War II service as pilots, mechanics, nurses and in other roles challenged anti-female traditions in the armed forces and throughout society." 

6.      Returning Veterans Have Growing Numbers Of Brain Injuries.  The Mesa, Arizona-based East Valley Tribune (10/10, Bowser, 53K) reports, "Today, veterans are returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) with traumatic brain injuries at an alarming rate, regional VA medical officials report. The phenomenon is linked to the use of improvised explosives in the two war zones, and the repercussions are felt by veterans who are returning home in need of care long after the blasts." A local VA Medical Center, Phoenix’s Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center and its southwest clinic in Mesa "recently received the designation of a trauma center," which will bring four additional medical staff to treat 14,500 local veterans with traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. The center adds that
this year it has seen "more than a 19 percent spike in veterans receiving mental health treatment." 

7.      Fort Hood Brain Clinic Scores Success In Treating Traumatic Injuries.  The Temple (TX) Daily Telegram (10/11, Clark, 19K) reports, "More soldiers are recovering from traumatic brain injury treatment than reports would have most people think, a Fort Hood doctor said. Maj. Alan Hopewell, officer in charge of the Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic at the Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Hospital, said the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center is reporting that Army-wide 90 percent of soldiers are returning to duty after treatment and therapy." Fort Hood’s Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic treats almost 10,000 patients annually, and Hopewell says that the "large majority are getting well and able to return to duty." 

8.      Air Force’s Wounded Warrior Program Profiled.  The Air Force Times (10/10, Tan) profiles the Air Force’s Wounded Warrior Program, a "a fast-growing program to help airmen sort through all nonmedical issues facing them — benefits, entitlements, employment and relocation are examples — as they transition back to duty or into civilian life." Established in 2005, the program thus far "has served about 540 airmen, 95 percent of them wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan. Six remain in uniform, 439 have separated and the others are still in the medical evaluation process." Headquartered at Randolph Air Base in Texas, the program plans to add case managers to have one for every 40 airmen in the program. Program head Lt. Col. David Bringhurst says that at least 340 of the 540 airmen enrolled have post-traumatic stress disorder or another mental health-related primary diagnosis. 

 9.      Veterans Face Issues Fitting Into College Life.  NPR‘s "Weekend Edition" (10/10, Brown) reports that, as over 100,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans are expected to enter college this year under the new G.I Bill, veteran advocates are seeking additional help in easing re-entry into civilian academic life. One Afghan combat veteran now a veteran’s advocate at UMass Amherst notes difficulties relating to other students or avoiding feelings of isolation. Vietnam veteran Jack Mordente, an counselor at Southeastern Connecticut University, notes that the growing numbers of veterans on campus "can have some real issues," including post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and alcohol abuse, and, "while student vets can get therapy at a Veterans Affairs medical center, Mordente says few make use of that resource." He’s active with the National Organization of Veteran Program Administrators, which is pushing for renewed federal funding for on-campus veteran support services. Judy Gagnon, who runs a military resource drop-in center at UMass that’s seen as a model for other schools, "says she still worries about veterans falling through the cracks, especially when it comes to mental health care." 

10.    VA Program Taking "Whole New Approach" To Treating Returning Vets.  On its website, WCCO-TV Minneapolis, MN (10/9) said, "Returning Minnesota National Guardsmen have very different problems from some of the veterans before them because instead of returning to a military base, they are placed back into civilian society." However, a "new program at the Veterans Administration recognizes those differences and takes a whole new approach to reach and treat them." The program’s "philosophy is something the VA learned from previous wars, particularly Vietnam. Now, vets are approached at re-integration events, with the VA coming to them." The program "creates a point person for each veteran, trying to create a face for the agency, and a comfort level for care."