Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 1-12-09

1. Peake Addresses Winterhaven Homeless Veterans Stand Down.  
2. Senate Confirmation Hearing To Be Held For VA Secretary.  
3. VA Planning To Reopen Enrollment To Priority 8 Vets.  
4. Iraq Vet Thinks Bad Memories Will Plague Others Like Him.  
5. Bath VAMC Counselor Teaches Class On Suicide Prevention.  
6. CBO Report Say Out-Of-Pocket Costs Could Go Up For Some Military Retirees, Vets. 
7. Vet Will Not Face VA Fraud Charges.  
8. Vets, Civilians Exposed To Contaminated Water At Camp Lejeune.  
9. Coalition Warns Against Cutting Number Of Federal Managers.
10.     Task Force Decides To Move Forward On Minnesota Vets Home. 

1.      Peake Addresses Winterhaven Homeless Veterans Stand Down.   The Washington Times (1/11, Ehart, 83K) reports, "Once an addict, always an addict, they say. But Eddie Curtis is trying to turn a new page." Curtis "was one of more than 300 homeless veterans who took part in the Washington D.C. VA Medical Center’s annual health and job fair. The Winterhaven Homeless Veterans Stand Down provided health screenings — some mandatory — as well as job counseling, chaplain services and a generous buffet lunch. ‘Stand down’ is a military term for relaxing from a state of readiness or alert." Curtis, a Vietnam-era veteran, "said he has chronic back pain and requires an artificial lens to see out of his right eye. He is seeking work around town, and has applied for a job with the Compensated Work Therapy program at the medical center." Curtis "earned a bachelor’s degree in social work from Virginia Union University in Richmond upon leaving the military, but then fell into drugs and crime. He used heroin, crack and cocaine. ‘I was in the criminal life for about 27 years,’ he said. ‘I got tired of it. I’m trying to do something else, with the Lord’s help.’ The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is trying to help, too, through the Winterhaven program at its medical centers across the country. VA Secretary James B. Peake, a retired lieutenant general, decorated Vietnam combat veteran and former Army surgeon general, was on hand to oversee the event and help serve the homeless." Peake said, "The wrong thing to do is to try to push [homelessness] under the table. Get it out where you can deal with it. We’re saying, ‘How can we support you, get you out of the cycle?’" Peake "thanked the hundreds of volunteers from the hospital staff and service organizations such as the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, soup kitchens and church groups for manning the fair. Disabled American Veterans was among the groups helping to shuttle the homeless to the medical center in vans."

2.      Senate Confirmation Hearing To Be Held For VA Secretary.   In continuing coverage, CQ Weekly‘s (1/12) "The Week Ahead" column reports that on January 14th, there will be several "Senate committee confirmation hearings" held, including one for Veterans Affairs secretary.

3.      VA Planning To Reopen Enrollment To Priority 8 Vets.   In continuing coverage, George W. Reilly notes in the lead story in Providence (RI) Journal (1/12) "Veterans’ Journal" column that the Department of Veterans Affairs "has announced plans to reopen enrollment in its health care system by July to about 265,000 veterans whose incomes exceed current eligibility limits and who have been denied VA health services since 2003. A $375-million provision was included in the fiscal 2009 VA spending bill to allow the department to bring into the system more so-called Priority 8 veterans," who "typically earn more than $30,000 a year. The financing aims to expand the enrollment of Priority 8 veterans by 10 percent."

4.      Iraq Vet Thinks Bad Memories Will Plague Others Like Him.   The Las Vegas Review Journal (1/12, Geary) profiles Enrique Pineda, who was shot in the neck while serving in Iraq. Pineda’s injury "cost him control of his left arm," but he "considers himself fortunate" because three "of his friends didn’t leave Iraq alive, he said." And, after "spending months of rehabilitation" in the US Department of Veterans Affairs "health system with other injured vets, Pineda is sure other soldiers will spend years battling memories of Iraq and wishing they could forget." Pineda "hopes to work for the VA in the future, helping other veterans get the benefits they earned."
      NYTimes: Purple Heart May Not Be In Order For PTSD, But Good Care Is.   The New York Times (1/12, A22) editorializes, "The Pentagon’s recent decision not to award the Purple Heart to soldiers suffering" from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) "strikes us as reasonable and well considered," but it does not relieve "the military of its duty to fully honor those whose injuries are unseen." PTSD "sufferers surely deserve medical care every bit as diligent and excellent as what their fellow" vets "receive for more visible injuries." But recent "veterans of Iraq or Afghanistan will tell you that the military stigma against mental illness has not abated."
      PTSD Cases Said Not To Be In The Bush Administration’s Medal Budget.   Columnist Dan Rodricks the Baltimore Sun (1/11) wrote, "Anyone who has kept an eye" on the Bush Administration’s "conduct of the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan…would understand why the Pentagon wants nothing to do with Purple Hearts for PTSD." Rodricks argued that the "last thing an administration waging a long, costly and unpopular war wants is for the number of casualties from that war to run into the hundreds of thousands; that’s far more Purple Hearts than budgeted."

5.      Bath VAMC Counselor Teaches Class On Suicide Prevention.   The Elmira (NY) Star-Gazette (1/10, Richards) said Karen Aikman, suicide prevention coordinator at the Bath Veterans Affairs Medical Center, "had an attentive audience Thursday night at her Operation Save suicide prevention training class at the Veterans of Foreign Wars" post "in Elmira. ‘What’s really important to keep in mind is, because we’re dealing with people, it’s not a cookbook,’ Aikman said as she acquainted about a dozen people with the signs that someone might be considering suicide and how to help them."

6.      CBO Report Say Out-Of-Pocket Costs Could Go Up For Some Military Retirees, Vets.   In the second story in his "Veterans’ Journal" column in the Providence (RI) Journal (1/12), George W. Reilly notes a new report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) "shows that some military retirees and veterans could face higher out-of-pocket costs" if the Obama Administration and Congress "take bold moves to reform the nation’s health system and to make federal health programs more efficient. Among 115 options presented, though not endorsed, in the CBO report," some "would tighten access to VA hospitals and clinics or raise VA health fees for veterans with no service-connected conditions. Another suggests the VA health system remove millions of current vets who have no service-related injuries or ailments."

7.      Vet Will Not Face VA Fraud Charges.   The San Antonio (TX) Express-News (1/10, MacCormack) said 38-year-old "Army veteran Brian Culp, who last month was convicted of embellishing his military record with false honors, will not face additional felony charges over allegations he bilked" the Department of Veterans Affairs "for $11,000 in falsely claimed benefits. A decision not to prosecute was made this week" by the US attorney’s office "in San Antonio after a review of the case." Investigators at the VA’s Office of Inspector General, "who presented the case to prosecutors, declined to comment Thursday on the decision not to prosecute Culp."

8.      Vets, Civilians Exposed To Contaminated Water At Camp Lejeune.   The Jacksonville (FL) Sun (1/11, Cox) reported, "Over four decades, an estimated 500,000 citizens and soldiers were exposed to drinking water tainted by chemicals used at a dry-cleaning establishment near" Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. The "government has known about the water pollution for more than a quarter-century," but those "impacted by the contamination have only become aware of Lejeune’s problems during the past couple of years, usually from media reports or word of mouth. The delay has triggered bitter congressional testimony and calls for reform. Pressure from lawmakers," in combination with legislation signed by President George W. Bush, has "led to beefed-up efforts to notify veterans, their families and former civilian workers of Lejeune’s former water troubles." But "health and military officials face an enormous task," because they "have to track down the people who could have been affected."

9.      Coalition Warns Against Cutting Number Of Federal Managers.   In its "Vantage Point" column, CQ Weekly (1/12, Zeller) reports, "Last month, a coalition of five associations representing civil service managers wrote to John D. Podesta, the co-chairman" of the President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, "to warn him against Obama’s pledge in September to ‘thin the ranks of Washington middle managers,’ freeing up resources both for deficit reduction and for increasing the number of front-line workers." The associations "include managers at every federal agency," and to those managers, Obama’s pledge "sounds eerily similar to the ‘National Performance Review’ run by Vice President Al Gore in the mid-1990s, when agencies were pressured to cut managers." President Bill Clinton wound up cutting "377,000 civil service jobs and sliced the management ranks by 18 percent," and the "effects were devastating, says Bill Bransford, who drafted the letter to Podesta and is general counsel of the Senior Executives Association." Those "cutbacks, Bransford wrote in the letter, ‘had a direct impact on the increasing backlog’ of applications for benefits at the…Veterans Affairs Department."

10.    Task Force Decides To Move Forward On Minnesota Vets Home.   The Bemidji (MN) Pioneer (1/11, Swenson) reported, "Pre-design work for a Minnesota veterans home in Bemidji will proceed, as well as legislation that the state locate the home in Bemidji, a task force decided Saturday." The US government "ultimately decides where veterans homes will be located, and will pay for 65 percent of the costs, but first the state of Minnesota must give its approval to move the application along." There is a "mid-April deadline for submitting applications this year" to the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Once "accepted, it may take four or five years for the proposal to percolate up the department’s priority list."