Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) has indicated that the subcommittee which she chairs (the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee on Contracting Oversight) has served subpoenas to the former officials who ran Arlington National Cemetery to testify before the subcommittee regarding the poor oversight of the cemetery recently exposed. (See our previous post regarding gravesite problems at the cemetery here.)
The officials who have been subpoenaed are John C. Metzler, the cemetery’s former superintendent, and Thurman Higginbotham, who was the second-in-command. The two have not spoken in public since hundreds of errors involving unmarked or mismarked graves were discovered last month. Sen. McCaskill indicated that there may be thousands more errors than the initial 200-plus identified by the internal Army investigation last month, as the Army’s report only covered a small portion of the more than 600 acres and 300,000 graves in the cemetery.
Indeed, The Washington Post recently reported that there are problems in both highly popular and relatively unknown areas of the cemetery. Its investigation found more than 60 discrepancies on “Justice Hill” – which is the final resting place for eight Supreme Court justices – and also 3 rows of missing graves in one of the least-known sections that is devoted to former slaves, including black Civil War soldiers.
Congress is investigating to determine who in the chain of command is ultimately responsible for the years of mismanagement, which includes $5 million provided for computer upgrades that was apparently wasted. The Washington Post found that some of the problems may be due to an allegedly long-standing personal feud between Metzler and Higginbotham, including reports of discrimination.
For more information, see:
On July 26, the White House released a Presidential Proclamation declaring July 27, 2010 National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day. It has been 60 years since the start of the Korean War, and it was on July 26, 1953 that the war ended with the signing of the Military Armistice Agreement at Panmunjom. The President, and all of us at Bergmann & Moore, salute and honor the Veterans of this conflict.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/presidential-proclamation-national-korean-war-veterans-armistice-day
The recent amendment to VA’s regulation governing entitlement to service connection for PTSD eases the veteran’s burden to establish that an in-service stressor occurred, but only based on a certification by a psychiatrist or psychologist either employed by VA or examining veterans under a contract with VA. Through an amendment introduced by Congressman Steven LaTourette, the House Appropriations Committee has approved legislation that would permit such certifications to also be made by mental health providers at an academic medical facility, such as a university hospital. The full House will likely vote on the legislation soon, which, if approved, would then be sent to the Senate for its consideration. Click here http://www.news-herald.com/articles/2010/07/23/news/doc4c49ddc3a23e7253893956.txt and here http://latourette.house.gov/NewsRoom.aspx?FormMode=Detail&ID=174 for more information.
Despite dealing with a staggering budget deficit, California’s governor and legislators admirably want to continue funding outreach efforts to inform the state’s veterans of the benefits and services available to them. However, the state’s counties lack the money to hire the veterans service officers that would be necessary to respond to the increased demand the outreach would create. See the story here: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/07/22/2906562/california-plans-bigger-outreach.html
The Bronx Veterans Affairs hospital began a new program on July 20th that uses volunteers to teach veterans how to play musical instruments. The goal of the program is to channel the power of music to assist in the healing process.
New York National Guard Major Bob Coulombe of Chappaqua, New York, started the program by soliciting old instruments for refurbishment after he heard that there were volunteers eager to teach veterans how to play. The hospital collected a wide variety of instruments, from harps to guitars to trombones, for a total of 32 instruments
The program has already garnered positive reviews from participating veterans. Eugene Parrotta, a veteran of the Vietnam Era who suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder, has attested that music, “releases the tension and, man, there’s a lot of tension.”
To learn more about the program, click here.
You may find the following information useful as you work towards receiving benefits from VA:
West Virginia Department of Veterans’ Affairs
1-800-827-1000.
TDD: 1-800-829-4833
Regional Office(s):
Huntington Regional Office
640 Fourth Avenue
Huntington, WV 25701
West Virginia has a number of services available to veterans, including:
- Homeless Veterans Initiative
Contact the West Virginia Department of Veterans’ Affairs to find out what they can do for you!
The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources may also be able to help you as you go through your claims process. Find important services such as cash aid, food stamps, or energy assistance here.
If you are in need of medical treatment, please don’t wait. Although an average VA claim may take up to one year to be decided, your health comes first. In fact, receiving regular treatment for your service-connected disability may actually help you to win your claim!
Find a VA Medical Center or clinic near you here for any chronic or emergency medical attention you may need.
West Virginia boasts one of the highest per capita rates of veterans in the country—1 in 9 citizens served in the military. But many of these veterans face significant problems in accessing adequate health care due to seclusion in rural towns. The Clarksburg VA came up with a nifty solution: the Mobile Health Care Clinic.
This traveling clinic, open three days a week, tours 19 north-central counties in West Virginia to bring veterans their much-needed health care. It started up in July 2009 and has treated more than 1,000 veterans since then. Many of these patients hadn’t seen a doctor in more than 10 years, and gave reasons such as lack of transportation, no insurance, or because they hadn’t signed up to receive their VA health benefits. Despite its large percentage of veterans, only about 35% of them have registered with the VA.
The clinicmobile is a 42-foot truck fitted up with two exam rooms and a nursing triage station. Its health care staff offers vaccinations, blood work, prescriptions, mental health screening, diabetes screening, and basic primary-care services. In addition to nurses and a doctor, the health care team sports an enrollment officer who has signed up about 500 veterans to receive their VA benefits.
The Mobile Health Care Clinic was started up by the Clarksburg VA, with funding from the federal government for two years. West Virginia joins a list of three areas for which the VA has chosen mobile clinics as an appropriate response to spread-out and rural populations—Maine, Washington, and one additional mobile clinic servicing the bordering parts of Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming.
For veterans in West Virginia who would like to know when the Mobile Health Care Clinic will be traveling through, call (304) 844-7463. The health care team has been treating patients on a walk-in-basis but is starting to work from a schedule so that patients can make appointments.
Two mobile applications of interest to veterans on-the-go have recently been created. First, VA has created a mobile site, http://m.va.gov. It is designed to provide information on the VA – such as news releases, facility locations, suicide prevention awareness, and a gravesite locator – in a format that is easy to navigate on a mobile device.
Additionally, the DoD has created an iPhone application that helps military personnel and veterans handle stressful circumstances using breathing exercises. The App, called iBreathe, will be available free to the general public in the iTunes Store after January 2011. Researchers are working on a version that will be compatible with the Android platform, as well.
This past week Medal of Honor recipient Vernon Baker died at the age of 90. He received the Medal of Honor for his valor and heroism fighting behind enemy lines in Italy during World War 2. Mr. Baker, an African American, joined the Army in mid-1941, a few months before Pearl Harbor. At the time Army units were segregated. Despite this treatment, however, Lt Baker focused on the mission with great determination. As he has said, speaking of his unit, “we had a job to do and we did it.” Vernon Baker was one of seven African-American soldiers to receive the Medal of Honor for heroic service in World War II, and was the only living recipient. To read Lt. Baker’s full story, including a link to his Medal of Honor citation, please see: www.militarytimes.com/news/2010/07/ap_military_moh_baker_071410/.
VA has been experimenting with expedited claims processes for a few years now, and the Wichita, KS Regional Office will be the new location for a pilot program.
VA hopes that by 2015, no Veteran waits longer than 125 days to have a claim decided. The Wichita RO will be trying out a new strategy: conducting on-the-spot claim reviews.
Veterans often don’t submit the necessary evidence and paperwork in the beginning, leading to constant letters between VA administrators and claimants that unnecessarily lengthen the process. The pilot program will help Veterans submit all the evidence needed at the time the application is filed so that decisions can be reached within a few days. If extra evidence is needed, like a VA exam, the Wichita RO has a goal of deciding such claims in 75 days.
The VA will conduct ongoing reviews of the new walk-in program to see if it should continue, be changed, or (hopefully) expanded to other ROs. If the program is successful, it could cut months off the wait time of many Veterans.
Kansas Veterans who would like to try out the walk-in claims program can call the VA at 1-800-827-1000 to schedule an appointment. To participate, veterans must personally attend a clinic before the appointment to learn about the process and what they’ll need to bring. For more information, visit the Wichita website and take a glance at the details.
