Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News

From the VA:

1.      Shinseki Honors Beilke By Renaming Minnesota Clinic. The St. Cloud (MN) Times (9/12) says Secretary Shinseki, in honor of US Army Master Sgt. Max J. Beilke — the last combat troop to depart from South Vietnam, renamed and rededicated the Veterans Affairs Community-Based Outpatient Clinic in Alexandria on Sunday. The Pipestone native “was employed as a civilian at the Pentagon when he was killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in 2001.”
     KFGO Radio Fargo, ND (9/11) explains on its website that Beilke was working as Deputy Chief of the Army’s retirement services when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon.
     In a report filed ahead of the renaming event, the AP (9/11) notes that Sen. Amy Klobuchar, among others, plan to join Shinseki as speakers. Shinseki knew Beilke “from their work at the Pentagon, and he escorted Beilke’s widow at his burial in Arlington National Cemetery,” adds the AP. A report filed Saturday by the St. Cloud (MN) Times (9/11, Calloway) adds few, if any, new details.
     KSTP-TV Minneapolis (9/11, 8:44 a.m. CT) reported, “Sen. Amy Klobuchar and the US Secretary Of Veteran Affairs will be in Alexandria today to name the VA clinic there in honor of Max Beilke, a Minnesota native who was killed on September 11 at the Pentagon.”
     KIMT-TV Rochester, MN (9/11, 6:04 p.m. CT) reported, “The Veterans Affairs clinic in Alexandria is being rededicated as the Max J. Beilke community-based outpatient clinic. He died when a hijacked plane hit the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Beilke graduated from Alexandria High School in 1950. He served 22 years on active duty in the US Army and was working as a civilian army employee at the Pentagon.”

 2.      Company Protests VA’s T4 Contract. The Washington Post (9/13, Censer, 605K) says that while the “Department of Veterans Affairs has not made any contract awards for its $12 billion, five-year technology and telecommunications program,” Vetrepreneur, a” service-disabled, veteran-owned small business based in Herndon,” has “already filed a protest, arguing that the solicitation does not favor veteran-owned businesses enough. Vetrepreneur…filed the protest late last month with the Government Accountability Office, according to Ralph White, managing associate general counsel at the GAO.” According to the Post, VA “said it is preparing a response that it will submit to the GAO.”
     NextGov (9/10, Brewin), which noted that the contract in question is the Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology (T4) procurement, reported, “In July, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki told the National Veterans Small Business Conference that seven of the 15 prime contractors on T4 would be reserved for veteran-owned small businesses, including four for service-disabled veteran owners.”

 3.      Work Being Done On Second State Veterans Cemetery In Arkansas. KTHV-TV Little Rock, AR (9/12, 10:05 p.m. CT) broadcast, “Work is underway right now on a second state veterans cemetery” in Birdeye, Arkansas. The Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs “reports the first 40 acres should be ready for graves by November of next year.” KLRT-TV Little Rock, AR (9/12, 9:26 p.m. CT), WJKT-TV Jackson, TN (9/12, 9:05 p.m. CT), and WPTY-TV Memphis, TN (9/12, 5:04 p.m. CT) aired similar reports, while the AP (9/13) publishes a similar story.

 4.      Kentucky Officials Dedicate Cemetery. The Portsmouth (KY) Daily Times (9/12, Piatt) reports, “Gov. Steve Beshear and other state officials participated Friday in the dedication of a new state veterans cemetery in Greenup County — a ceremony that at times was so moved by emotion that the crowd of about 300 attending were obviously caught up in it.” The Daily Times adds that the new state cemetery “will serve not only Kentucky, but veterans and their families from southeastern Ohio and western West Virginia as well.”

 5.      Officials, Volunteers Gather To Hand Out Military Surplus Clothing And Goods. The Wenatchee (WA) World (9/11, Steigmeyer) reports, “Dozens of Veterans Affairs officials and volunteers gathered at the Wenatchee National Guard Armory on Friday to hand out about 68,000 pounds — $368,000 worth — of military surplus clothing and other goods to military families. A mobile health clinic was on hand, as well as representatives of several organizations that provide aid and benefits to veterans.”

6.      Vets Court To Begin Operations In Los Angeles. The KTTV-TV Los Angeles, CA (9/12) website noted that on Monday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Tynan will “start hearing criminal cases against military veterans charged with nonviolent felonies. The pilot program is meant to give a second chance to veterans who may have gotten into trouble in part due to conditions related to their service, such as post-traumatic stress syndrome, brain injuries and other mental conditions, the Daily Breeze reported.” KTTV said some defendants in the court “may be referred to Veterans Affairs, which runs outpatient and clinical care facilities in Long Beach, Lancaster and West Los Angeles.”

 7.      Veteran Fights VA Over Disabled Status Due To Burn Pit Wounds. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (9/12, O’Connor) reports that Iraq veteran Tim Wymore, “one of several hundred veterans across the country who have filed lawsuits contending that dangerous toxins from open-air burn pits operated on US military installations in Iraq and Afghanistan made them sick,” is now fighting the Department of Veterans Affairs due to the fact that the VA “has yet to declare Wymore permanently disabled.” Wymore said he has three lesions on his brain and one on his eye. The Post-Dispatch adds that “as a result, his family is not eligible for many benefits. Those include medical insurance for his wife and college costs for their three sons. Also, Wymore worries that should he die, the VA will not pay a survivor’s benefit to his wife unless she can prove his death is directly related to his military service, a challenge he doesn’t want to put her through.” The Post-Dispatch also reports that the Wymores “continue to fight” for those benefits and medical care for Tim while the “VA said in a statement Friday that it was continuing to review the case.”

 8.      MilCon-VA “Among The Most Likely” Appropriations Bills To Clear Congress. CQ Weekly (9/13, Oliveri) reports, “Of the 12 annual appropriations bills, the measure that funds the Department of Veterans Affairs” and “military construction projects seems among the most likely to clear by the end of the regular session. If it does not, it is likely to end up in an omnibus package sent to the president in a lame-duck session.” CQ goes on to say the House and Senate versions of the bill, “which are virtual mirror images of each other, would increase funding” for VA, “in part to help pay for new medical claims from thousands of Vietnam War veterans found to have been sickened by the defoliant Agent Orange.”

9.      Houston Study Links PTSD To Dementia. Lawyers and Settlements (9/11, Turner) reports that a study “conducted by the VA Medical Center in Houston, the study examined approximately 10,500 veterans aged 65 and older who visited VA (Veterans Affairs) medical centers between 1997 and 1999. Researchers found that veterans who suffered post-traumatic stress disorder were twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia.” Lawyers and Settlements adds that the “study found that dementia occurred in 11.1 percent of patients who had post-traumatic stress disorder with no combat injury and in 7.2 percent of patients who had post-traumatic stress disorder and suffered combat injury. In patients with no post-traumatic stress disorder, 4.5 percent without combat injuries developed dementia and 5.9 percent with combat injuries developed dementia.” Lawyers and Settlements also reports that “researchers conclude the study by noting that veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder should be screened more closely for dementia.”

 10.    VA Hospital Operating Program For Women Vets With Military-Related Traumas. The Casper (WY) Tribune (9/13, Phagan-Hansel, 25K) reports, “With more than 4,000 women veterans in Wyoming, and an increasing need to meet that demographic nationwide,” the Veterans Affairs hospital in Sheridan, Wyoming, has started a Cognitive Process Therapy program that has led to “life-changing” experiences “for women with some of the most serious military-related traumas. ‘We’re trying to lay the groundwork for the women coming home from Afghanistan today,’ said Judy Myers, the Sheridan VA’s women’s veterans program manager.” According to the Tribune, the program is part of a national VA effort to “reach a rapidly expanding population” of female veterans.