Wounded Marine Fights VA For Care

Casey Owens said he thinks President Bush owes him an apology after he lost both legs and didn't get the help he needed to heal. I know a lot of people that will respond with the usual, calling him "Bush basher" instead of considering this Marine served the nation, all parts of this nation, would have died for this nation, even for the people who couldn't possibly care less about him.

See, that's the real problem here. I'm surrounded by people like that in every part of my life. They never want to hear the truth.

I addressed an email one of my friends sent slamming President Obama. When I pointed out the difference between the two Presidents, the amount of money budgeted and the progress being made to help our veterans, she said I was "Bush bashing" and that I was wrong about Bush cutting VA funding.

Personally I like her so I didn't want to argue. I figured the point would have been lost because she didn't even know what the facts she looked up meant. She said the VA budget was increased in 2008 but didn't notice that was at the end of his term and also after the Democrats took control over the House and the Senate, thus controlling the committees and sub committees. Here are some other facts they like to avoid.

There were less doctors and nurses working for the VA than there were after the Gulf War but we had two military campaigns producing more wounded everyday.

That Nicholson returned money to congress unspent at the same time suicide alarm bells were screaming to be addressed across the country, but nothing was being done for the troops or our veterans.

That the Republicans in Congress, including their hero McCain, making a point to keep voting against veterans because they doubt their supporters have the ability to look up their voting records or take the time to listen to debates carried by CSPAN. McCain's record on veterans is abysmal. He was against the GI Bill saying it was too generous but when it came time to vote, he was someplace else. He was happy though when President Bush, also against the GI Bill, congratulated McCain on its passing. Top that off with McCain campaigned on solving the overflow of the VA by getting rid of veterans not meeting his standards of being combat veterans. He wanted all non-combat wounded veterans to have cards so they could get private care and stop using the VA. What a guy! That was his answer after he voted against them and kept saying there was not enough money in the budget to fully fund the VA.

They have a history of doing this then claiming they are the veterans best buddies when it comes time to get their votes.

This is not about Bush bashing or Republican bashing, but about truth. That's something that used to matter in this country when people cared enough to find out and the media felt the obligation to inform instead of perform. The troops and our veterans ended up paying the price. The Democrats are no angels in this but they are far better at taking care of the men and women we send while the Republicans are more about spending their time and money on taking care of the contractors instead. I get angry with Democrats in congress because when the troops needed them to really stand up for them, they refused to take to the airwaves across this country and demand something be done. I kept waiting for that to happen after hearing their passionate speeches on the floor of the congress, but they never arrived. The only one coming close was John Edwards when he was talking about homeless veterans.

President Obama, the one some love to hate no matter what he does for the troops or our veterans, paid attention all along. He wanted to be on the Veterans Affairs Committee, when John McCain was not. (Wonder why that is if they were so important to him? Did anyone ask him?) Obama managed to pay attention to the PTSD rates and the fact so many were taking their own lives. He paid attention so much so that he went to the Montana National Guard to take a look at their program. I knew about it because this is what I do all day long everyday so I've investigated most of the program out there. Obama was running his campaign and had a lot of other things to take care of but quietly he took a serious look at their program and promised to support it. Had he not cared, he wouldn't have had a clue how good it was. This was at the same time McCain was telling veterans that PTSD was not that big of a deal, more media hype and his wife Cindy said that McCain didn't have PTSD because of his strength and training. Wonder how well that went off with the four generals that came out publicly admitting they needed help to heal too?

But the game goes on and the Right go after the Left and visa versa with the troops and our veterans stuck in the middle, waiting for help. Did any of these people stop to think that the troops didn't make us wait when we said they should go? So why should they and their families suffer for lack of care just because they got wounded doing what we asked them to do, sent them to do and paid for them to do? Can we finally, once and for all stop the political game at least when it comes to taking care of them and be honest?

Wounded Marine Fights VA For Care
"Shrugged Off" by Veterans Administration After Failed Surgeries, Wounded Vet Forced to Seek Help on His Own
(CBS) Casey Owens wasn't expected to live after he lost both legs in Iraq. But he made it out of a military vehicle alive and to Bethesda Naval Hospital where CBS News national security correspondent David Martin first met him in October of 2004.

"I don't remember anything, but I know that it was a mine," Owens said.

Everyone would agree the U.S. government owes Casey Owens the best possible medical care. No one who hears his story could say he got it.

"I don't know why I'm just depressed, crying a lot and feeling down, just feeling hopeless," Owens said.

He said that to the latest doctor he turned to in his desperate search for the help he was not getting from the Veterans Administration.

"Dealing with the VA and being held up and not getting the care that I feel I wanted or treatments that I see fit," Owens said. "That's a very discouraging thing for me because I did my part and their part is to help heal us and they failed me."

All he ever wanted to be was a Marine. Even after he was wounded he donned his dress blues for President Bush's second inaugural. But the amputation on his right leg kept failing and the VA told him he would need a fourth operation to repair the stump.

"What they offered me was the same surgery that had failed three times before," Owens said.

Each surgery meant more of his right leg had to be amputated.

"I didn't have much more of my leg to give," Owens said.

He wanted a different procedure.

"So I did research on my own and found the doctor which took six months of approval to get," Owens recalled.

His mother says he spent six months with a raw stump just.

"He was in excruciating pain," said Janna Dunkle, Owens' mother. "He's sitting, laying on a bed, watching TV or staring at walls."

Finally he got the operation and, he says, a personal apology from President Bush for the delay. He was up on two legs but still searching for treatment of the wound you can't see: the brain injury.
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Wounded Marine Fights VA For Care