Ed Derwinski served at the first Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs when President George H.W. Bush created the department and the cabinet-level position. Photo by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Edward Derwinski, the first cabinet-level Secretary of the Department Veterans Affairs, died Sunday of a rare form of skin cancer. He was 85.
Derwinski had a colorful career before his appointment in 1988 under President George H.W. Bush, who was intent on drastically reforming the agency.
Having grown up on Chicago’s South Side, he graduated high school in 1944 and served in the Army in the Pacific during World War II and later attended Loyola University of Chicago. He was elected to Congress in 1958 and served twelve terms, during which time he was the ranking Republican on the House Post Office and Civil Service Committee.
After a failed reelection bid in 1982, he worked at the State Department as under secretary of state for security assistance; science; and technology, where he helped organize international athletic competitions and oversaw American arms deals. He was appointed to Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs shortly after Bush was elected in 1988.
Though intent on assisting Veterans who had been ill-served by faults in the VA healthcare system, he was a controversial figure who leaves behind something of a mixed legacy.
Derwinski earned the ire of Veterans service organizations across the country when he banned smoking in all VA facilities and suggested opening some VA hospitals in remote areas to non-Veteran patients.
He did, however, approve benefits for many Veterans suffering from non-Hodgkins lymphoma as a result of their exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. This was the first time VA acknowledged the toxicity of Agent Orange and took on the responsibility of caring for Veterans suffering from the residuals of wartime exposure.
Over the next year, Sears has pledged to increase the number of Veterans they hire by ten percent. In 2011 alone, Sears hired 1,363 military members, including Veterans, service members serving in the National Guard and reservists.
The total number of hires in 2011 was up 200 percent from the 2010 hires.
Sears Holding Corporation also has a program manager specifically dedicated to “military talent acquisition.” Christina Dibble is often the first point of contact for Veterans looking for work at Sears.
“I try to be an advocate for veteran job-seekers,” Dibble said. “I do see some who are well-prepared and polished and amazing candidates transitioning out of the military. At the same time, I see candidates who can use additional coaching. But we don’t want to abandon this community or find them unemployable, so I help them translate their résumés.”
Overall, the Sears Holding Corporation has more than 30,000 Veteran employees.
“With so many military members returning home, the support need increases accordingly, especially during the holiday season,” said David Works, a Navy veteran president of human resources at Sears Holdings. “We are committed to providing resources for as many of our returning heroes as possible, in order to empower them and help better their lives.”
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In an effort to reduce the Veteran unemployment rate, the Department of Veterans Affairs is holding a job fair Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
“Now more than ever, America needs the knowledge, skills and abilities of our Veterans, and this generation of heroes is capable of transforming the Nation at a time when we need their leadership and ingenuity,” VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said in a statement announcing the event.
According to VA, there will be an estimated 6,400 job opportunities available in both the private and public sector. The departments of Homeland Security, Defense, Interior, Agriculture, Labor and EPA as well as private companies like Microsoft, Lockheed Martin, Citigroup, Safeway, Washington Metropolitan Area TransitA, Philadelphia Police Department and JP Morgan are some of the potential employers who will be in attendance.
Some companies will be hiring on-the-spot. VA has set aside private rooms where interviews can be conducted.
In addition to learning about job openings, Veterans will have the opportunity to learn skills that will help them adjust to the civilian job market. There will be interactive training sessions and workshops focusing on writing resumes, interviewing for jobs and one-on-one career counseling.
The career fair will be held Jan. 18 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center at 801 Mount Vernon Place, NW in Washington, D.C. from 8 am until 7 pm.
A study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine found that the Department of Veterans Affairs’ medical centers (VAMCs) are screening elderly men with limited life expectancy for prostate cancer at rates that greatly exceed the norm.
The study looked at screenings of over 622,000 men over the age of 70 at 104 VAMCs during 2003. The researchers found that the national average for men over 85 who were given the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening was 45 percent. In stark contrast, the expected screening rate for this group is zero to 20 percent. The researchers did not find any VAMCs which screening rate fell within this zero to 20 percent category.
The U.S. Preventive Services Tasks Force recommends that men over the age of 75 should not receive the PSA screening test because the risks outweigh the benefits. The risks include false positive results and unneeded medical treatments.
However, the researchers found a vast differentiation between the screening rates at individual VAMCS – ranging from 25 percent to 79 percent. Some of this variation was accounted for by regional differences – as VAMCs in the southern US generally had higher screening rates. Additionally, medical centers that employed a higher ratio of nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants also were more likely to have a higher screening rate.
Troublingly, the research found that all men were screened at the same rate – regardless of whether they were healthy and had a long life expectancy or ill and had a limited life expectancy.
The researchers state that the decision as to whether an older male receives a PSA screening should be made on an individual basis.
The researchers recommended that new interventions be implemented at VAMCs to lower the number of unnecessary PSA screenings and to educate patients on the risks and benefits of the test. They noted that one benefit of the national VA medical system is that this system allows for a problem like this to be recognized and resolved.
According to a recent article in The New York Times, returning Veterans face some of their stiffest homecoming challenges behind the wheel and on the road.
Trained on the bomb-ridden roadways of Iraq and Afghanistan to avoid concealed explosives and potential ambushes, many Veterans returning from combat have found it difficult to cope with the less fraught environment on the roads of their own hometowns.
Recent statistics have shown that automobile accidents in which former service members are at fault rise 13 percent following deployments. The accidents are attributed to over-aggressive or over-defensive driving.
“I can’t talk with somebody who is a returned service member without them telling me about driving issues,” Erica Stern, a researcher working with the Pentagon, told The New York Times.
Stern is working with the Defense Department, exploring the problems facing returning Veterans with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as they take to the roads at home.
These issues stem from Veterans reflexively applying the driving techniques learned in combat zones. They often perceiving threats when none are present – a possible symptom of PTSD or TBI.
Therapeutic treatments for Veterans struggling with their driving are still in the early stages of development, as this is a relatively recent phenomenon. Ongoing government-funded studies and surveys hope to develop simple and effective treatment in the near future.
The Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims issued a ruling clarifying VA's regulations for accrued benefits claims.: Photo by Flickr user s_falkow.
The Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (Court) started off the new year by interpreting the law and regulations concerning an attempt to reopen a VA claim for accrued benefits.
What are Accrued Benefits?
If a Veteran dies while their claim is still pending before the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Veteran’s spouse (or another family member, as allowed by the law) can apply for accrued benefits, or money owed to a Veteran by the VA that was unpaid at the time of the Veteran’s death. See 38 U.S.C. § 5121 (c).
The law clearly indicates that an initial claim for accrued benefits must be filed within a year of the Veteran’s death. Until last Thursday, the regulations were less clear about reopening a previously-denied accrued benefits claim.
In Quattlebaum v. Shinseki, the Court clarified whether that year deadline also applied to attempts to reopen an accrued benefits claim.
Is an Accrued Benefits Claim fundamentally Different From a Disability Claim?
When a Veteran wants to reopen a closed disability claim (when the year appeals period has expired), they must submit new and material evidence in order to reopen the claim. See 38 U.S.C. § 5108; 38 C.F.R. § 3.156. According to VA’s argument in Quattlebaum, accrued benefits claims were fundamentally different from other VA claims.
VA argued that because the law, and in turn the regulations, impose a time limit on filing the initial accrued benefits claim, it is not possible to reopen a denied accrued benefits claim more than a year after the Veteran’s death.
VA further argued that because an accrued benefits claim is based on the evidence ‘in the file at the time of death,’ such evidence could not then also be considered the ‘new and material’ evidence required to reopen a claim. This argument would guarantee that all finally denied accrued benefits claims could never be reopened, but would require a survivor to file for a revision of the denial based on clear and unmistakable error (CUE).
Court Disputes VA’s Interpretation
The Court disagreed with VA’s reading of the law stating, “On its face, section 5121 in no way indicates a preclusion of reopening accrued benefits claims. Similarly, section 5108 on its face allows the reopening of any previously disallowed claim. Read together, an accrued benefits claim must be filed within one year after the veteran’s date of death . . . and an accrued benefits claim can be reopened upon the presenting of new and material evidence.”
This ruling makes it clear that when it comes to reopening a denied claim, there is no difference between one for accrued benefits and any disability claim a Veteran files.
While the Court did state that finding new and material evidence on an accrued benefits claim could be difficult, it also admitted that there have been instances when documents were in the VA’s possession, but weren’t considered when the Veteran’s claim was originally decided, thus making them new and material.
It is important to remember that the Court ruling does not affect the initial year filing deadline. In order for an accrued benefits claim to even be considered, the beneficiary must file within this time period.
You can find the full decision at :
http://www.veteranslawlibrary.com/files/CAVC_cases/2012/Quattlebaum_09-3557.pdf
Fifteen World War II Veterans from the Southeast are set to receive the National Order of the Legion of Honor, the highest French military award, on Thursday. The medal is the French equivalent to the Medal of Honor.
The American Veterans are receiving the Legion of Honor to recognize their courage as they helped liberate France during the Nazi occupation as well as an expression of gratitude on behalf of the French people.
Pascal Le Deunff, the French Consul-General in Atlanta, is scheduled to award the medals in a ceremony at the city’s French Consulate.
In 2011, the National Guard honor guard presented at 136,300 military funerals, up 10 percent from the year before.
One reason for the increase is because, as World War II Veterans are increasing in age, the number of deaths has also increased. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that 850 World War II Veterans die each day.
Another reason for the increase this past year was that families of Veterans were able to easily find out about the services the honor guard provides and have been making requests for their presence at funerals.
Each state’s honor guard is made up of employees and volunteers. Many are spread out and often have to attend multiple services in a day.
“We don’t want any veteran to do without these honors,” said Don Roy, director of the New York Honor Guard. “They’ve all earned it and deserved it.”
Although the main goal of the anti-war group, Iraq Veterans Against the War was achieved with the December 18th withdrawal of all U.S. military personnel from Iraq, it is by no means the end of that organization. Indeed, as a recent story on NPR relates, the end of the war in Iraq has provided the organization an opportunity to reassess its impact and set new goals.
Michael Hoffman, who returned from Iraq disaffected, yet unwilling to desert his former comrades in arms, was pleased to discover Iraq Veterans Against the War, where he “found [his] first sense of pride of coming home from Iraq.”
He added, “Up ’til that point, I thought I was like the black sheep of the military – coming home and feeling against the war. And then I realized that there’s thousands upon thousands of soldiers who feel the exact same way when they come home.”
However, now that the war has ended, the group’s focus will shift away from campaigning for the full withdrawal of troops fromIraq and now center on ensuring that the legacy of the conflict is not forgotten and that its returning Veterans receive the full benefits they are due.
As Michael Hoffman, another Veteran of the war in Iraq told NPR, “Some of us are going to remain politically active. Some of us are going to move on to completely different things. But we need to be there for the next generation of veterans, to help them and teach them the lessons we learned in opposing our war, but also be there for them so they don’t fall apart.”
