VA Improves Policy on Gulf War Veterans

What is it about veterans that they think they can take on any problem and solve it? What is it about them that they spend time fighting our battles, facing death, watching the backs of their buddies, only to return home and still feel as if they can still keep doing it? It is exactly what veterans like Paul Sullivan do and this nation will be all the more better for it. He served in uniform and then took on battles to fight with brains and facts to use as weapons against harm being done to his "family" of veterans. That is what this kind of battle is. Great harm is being done to the men and women willing to die for the sake of this country. When we fail to tend to their wounds caused by service to America, we fail all who serve.

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

This is what I use to close off my emails. Paul understands this and he knows that our obligation to our servicemen and women should never end because they will pay the price for our freedom the rest of their lives. No one leaves combat as a civilian untouched by what was asked of them. It is not just the enemy they have to worry about but what was used and what they were exposed to can often do a lot more damage than the enemy ever could. We saw this with Agent Orange and as of today, they are still linking illnesses associated with it. We also see this with what is happening to our Gulf War veterans still waiting for us to live up to being "a grateful nation."

VCS Advocacy in the News: VA Improves Policy on Gulf War Veterans
Written by Mary Susan Littlepage
Tuesday, 02 March 2010 20:43
VA Agrees to Take Second Look at Thousands of Gulf War Veterans' Disability Claims

March 2, 2010 (TruthOut) - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has agreed to re-examine the disability claims for what could turn out to be thousands of veterans of the Gulf War.

The development is the result of intense lobbying by veterans' advocacy group Veterans for Common Sense (VCS).

In response to the group's efforts, as many as 210,000 Gulf War veterans suffer from multi-symptom illnesses, and VA Secretary Eric Shineski said in a special interview with The Associated Press that he promises to review Gulf War veterans' disability claims. The claims may cover suffering from ailments that veterans blame on their war service.

Shineski announced that the department's Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses Task Force has nearly completed a comprehensive report that will redefine how the VA addresses the pain and suffering of ill veterans who deployed during the Gulf War in 1990 and 1991.

"At VA, we advocate for veterans - it is our overarching philosophy and, in time, it will become our culture," Shineski said. "Every day we must challenge our assumptions to serve our nation's veterans."

The mission of the VA's Gulf War Task Force is to identify gaps in services as well as opportunities to better serve veterans of the Gulf War. Of the almost 700,000 service members who deployed to Operation Desert Shield in 1990 and Operation Desert Storm in 1991, there have been 300,000 Gulf War veterans with claims decisions, more than 85 percent were granted service connection for at least one condition, and more than 14 percent were not granted service connection for any condition.

"We must learn from the past and take the opportunity to anticipate the future needs of our veterans," Shineski said. "This new approach is the first step in a still unfolding comprehensive plan of how VA will treat and compensate Veterans of the Gulf War era."

Paul Sullivan, spokesperson for VCS, is a Desert Storm veteran who returned home with headaches, skin problems and chronic respiratory infections linked by doctors at the VA with his exposure to depleted uranium radioactive toxic waste while he was deployed to Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in 1991.
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VA Improves Policy on Gulf War Veterans