San Jose has problems when Reservists deploy

This report shows that while most reservists working for San Jose are cops, which has been known for a long time by some, it also shows how they lose income when they deploy. San Jose tried to make up the difference in pay but as you'll read, they didn't do it right. Some reservists have had to pay back money, putting hardship on top of hardship.

San Jose audit suggests limits on military reservists' pay

By John Woolfolk
jwoolfolk@mercurynews.com
Posted: 07/30/2011

"Reservists have the support of the City Council and don't have the support of the city administration; that's been the case from the very beginning," said Christian, who is still paying off nearly $10,000 in overpayments from his tour in Afghanistan.

When America went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, San Jose did its patriotic part by renewing a policy of subsidizing employee military reservists -- most of them cops -- who were summoned to the battlefield.

But with those conflicts dragging on nearly a decade, a new city audit suggests limits on a program it says is so generous that it creates an incentive for repeated and extended military tours at a time when San Jose is suffering crippling budget shortfalls and staffing cuts. Last month, the city was forced to lay off 66 cops.

The recommendations follow years of criticism of administrative errors in the program, which socked some returning veterans with demands to give back thousands of dollars in overpayments.

Some part-time soldiers question some of the audit's conclusions and say that they bolster a sense among reservists that city administrators want to discourage their military service.

"It's an effort to one way or another force reservists not to serve their country and make it as difficult as they can," said San Jose police Sgt. Brian Christian, a former Marine Corps reservist who served in Afghanistan in 2002 and 2003.

The program pays the difference between reservists' city wages and lower military salaries while continuing health and retirement benefits. Recent changes have reduced the overpayment problems that the Mercury News reported in 2006 and a civil grand jury criticized in a 2007 report. But the audit of the program, extended indefinitely in 2007, recommends slapping a time limit on tours and dropping provisions that render reservists more than "whole" while they're on leave. The city pays reservists' pension contributions while deployed rather than deducting them from their pay, even though they also are earning military retirement, the audit pointed out.
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San Jose audit suggests limits on military reservists pay

San Jose had to lay off cops but this happened all over this country with budget cuts. This left the rest of us wondering if our protection matters as little as taking care of our protectors. After 9-11, almost 10 years ago, all the talk was about how valuable the first responders were to all of us. Firefighters rushing into burning buildings, risking their lives to save others. Cops putting themselves in danger everyday and families wondering if they would get the phone call to change their lives forever. We all talked about the men and women being sent to Afghanistan in response to what Osama ordered. These men and women were all heroes, worthy of our attention, prayers and worth every dime that had to be spent on sending them.

The problems came when our talk was not of equal measure to our actions. They did everything that was expected of them. We just didn't do what was expected of us.

NJ:Military counselors travel the state to prepare families for returning soldiers

Military counselors travel the state to prepare families for returning soldiers
by Judy Peet and Tomas Dinges/The Star-Ledger
Sunday May 17, 2009, 11:02 AM
Each time the baby of a New Jersey Army National Guardsman is born, the department sends a baby blanket. Since last June, when nearly 3,000 New Jersey troops left for a yearlong deployment, the Guard sent out 30 blankets.

These 30 newborns are among scores of Guardsmen's children who have had to spend a year without their father or mother. Now the soldiers are coming home.


Nobody is sure exactly when, but the return of New Jersey's largest deployment since World War II is expected to start shortly after Memorial Day. Unlike other wars in other times, these soldiers will get more legal, financial and psychological support than any returning troops in U.S. history.

What they may not immediately receive, however, is one of the things they dreamed about most: Their child's hug.

Of all the uncertainties associated with returning to civilian life after a year in a combat zone, perhaps the least predictable is how the children will react.

"You give me an age and I'll give you a problem the kids experienced when their father came home," said Randi Cairns, 39, of East Brunswick, who raised four children through her husband's three deployments. "The thing I've learned is: Never underestimate the impact on the children."

For months, military counselors have traveled throughout the state, preparing families for what to expect from the children when their loved ones return from the desert.

Anger, joy, fear, neediness, resentment, relief, indifference, temper, passivity, laughter, tears.

Pick an emotion, experts say, and a Guard child somewhere in New Jersey will likely feel it over the next few months.

From the toddler who has no idea who that man in the uniform is to the 16-year-old who took on extra responsibility and may not want to give it up, Guard spouses are in for a bumpy ride that may take months to smooth out, experts say.

"We normally think of a joyous reunion, but that may not be the case, especially after the initial 'thank goodness' wears off," said Rutgers psychology professor Maurice J. Elias. "Kids will frankly be almost as destabilized when a parent returns home as when the parent leaves."

Unlike regular military, the "civilian soldiers" of the National Guard do not have the support of living on a military base, where every parent understands the sacrifice of active duty and every child's friend is another soldier's child, experts said.

The Guard families live in urban areas and suburbia, where -- despite supportive neighbors -- they are often the only family on the block or in school whose parent was called away by military service. Adding to the burden is the fact that, for two out of three New Jersey Guardsmen who served in Iraq this past year, it was their first tour of duty.
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New Jersey Army National Guardsman

For National Guard families, a difficult year on the homefront

For National Guard families, a difficult year on the homefront
by Judy Peet/The Star-Ledger
Saturday February 21, 2009, 7:32 PM
Since Christmas, Khadeja Bynum has been robbed at gunpoint and rear-ended by a stolen car, and she suffered a death in the family, but it was the shower head that took her over the edge.

"The plumber said he had to rip a hole in the outside of the house to fix the shower. Can that be right? How am I supposed to know if that's right? This was not my role in the family. I don't want it to be my role in the family," Bynum, a 40-year-old Newark schoolteacher, said with a haunted look.

"Listen, I know it's a little thing, but there have been too many little things. What I really, really want is my husband back."

The long wait is coming to an end for the families of nearly 3,000 New Jersey Army National Guard members who went to Iraq last year in the state's largest deployment since World War II. Military counselors have begun to prepare spouses for what to expect when their loved ones return from the desert.

The message? If you think it's tough now, just wait until the soldiers come marching home.
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http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/02/for_national_guard_families_a.html

Sixteen Indiana National Guard soldiers sue over chemical exposure in Iraq

Ind. soldiers sue over chemical exposure in Iraq
The Associated Press
By CHARLES WILSON – 20 hours ago

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Sixteen Indiana National Guard soldiers sued the big defense contractor KBR Inc. on Wednesday, saying its employees knowingly allowed them to be exposed to a toxic chemical in Iraq five years ago.

The federal suit filed in U.S. District Court alleges the soldiers from a Tell City-based unit were exposed to a carcinogen while protecting an Iraqi water pumping plant shortly after the U.S. invasion in 2003.

The 23-page complaint claims that Houston-based KBR knew at least as early as May 2003 that the plant was contaminated with sodium dichromate, a known carcinogen, but concealed the danger from civilian workers and 139 soldiers from the Indiana Guard's 1st Battalion, 152nd Infantry.

"It's not right, what they done," said Mark McManaway, a 55-year-old truck driver from Cannelton who has since retired from the Guard. McManaway, the main plaintiff in the lawsuit, has suffered nosebleeds and rashes he believes are due to the chemical exposure.

The chemical, used to remove pipe corrosion, is especially dangerous because it contains hexavalent chromium, which is known to cause birth defects and cancer, particularly lung cancer, the lawsuit said. The cancer can take years to develop.

Some of the soldiers who served at the site now have respiratory system tumors associated with hexavalent chromium exposure, the lawsuit states.

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Text of Biden's speech to National Guard in Baltimore

Text of Biden's speech to National Guard in Baltimore
The News Journal - Wilmington,DE,USA
September 22, 2008


Thank you, General Umbarger. It’s also good to see my friends General Frank Vavala, and General Hugh Broomall.

I come here today with a profound respect for the Guard.

I’m here as a citizen, who knows that our nation depends on the service of those who are civilians in peace, soldiers in war – not only to defend us abroad, but aid us when disaster strikes here at home.

I’m here as a Senator, who has traveled to conflict zones all around the world – Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq -- and disaster areas across America and seen the heroic work our young men and women in arms do to protect our citizens, protect our interests and to demonstrate not only the example of our force… but also the force of our example.

I’m here today as the father of a Guardsman. My son Beau is proud to wear the uniform, and proud to answer the call to serve.

And I’m here as the Democratic candidate for Vice President, knowing that you have served with great distinction time and again.

You have never let us down… but too often, your government has not given you all you’ve needed.

Issues affecting the Guard sit at the core of our two great national challenges – national security and economic security. Barack and I know that we need to strengthen both. That means supporting your missions at home and abroad, and making sure you return to strong secure jobs and a sound economy.

Yesterday, you heard John McCain claim that behind the positions Barack Obama takes “lies the ambition to be president.”

Let me just say this: after the last eight years, the last thing we need is more of the politics of division.

No one party has a monopoly on virtue or good ideas.

We can question each other’s judgments. That’s what elections are all about.

But we have to stop questioning each other’s motives and each other’s patriotism.

Whether we’re Democrats, Republicans or Independents, we all share a profound desire to do right by America.

We all put country first.

When John and I send our sons to war, they don’t wear a Republican flag or a Democratic flag. They wear an American flag.

Our only differences are on how best to protect our national interests, and serve our military.

And we do have differences.

Let’s begin where we are right now, right this minute.

We depend on you as never before.

More than half – 52% -- of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom veterans are Guard or Reserve.
That has never happened before.

You have new and increased responsibility, but in my view – we haven’t given you the command and equipment in support of those new responsibilities.

But you never complain. You always step up.

It’s time for a change.

Change begins with giving the Guard a seat at the table. That table in the Pentagon where the Joint Chiefs sit.

General McKinley, I not only want to see your fourth star – I want to see you sitting there with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mullen.

Your men and women are serving and dying. Your voice needs to be heard.

When it comes to equipment -- to train on, to deploy with, and to have available at home for war or natural disasters – we have not provided what you need.

And that’s wrong.

Ninety percent of units have serious equipment shortages.

Collectively, over $100 billion worth of equipment has been left in Iraq.

And we’ve seen the consequences of that.

Simply put, the states have been left with the tab to make up for this equipment shortage.

Since September 11th, 2001, more than half a million reservists have been mobilized and deployed for homeland security missions and combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Every National Guard combat brigade has deployed at least once. Specialty units like military police, special forces, and medical units have deployed multiple times.

In Iraq and Afghanistan 870 members of the guard and reserve have given their lives.

6,785 have been wounded.

Of all serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have some 900 returning amputees, many of them Guardsmen.
And many who come home bear less visible – but nonetheless deep -- scars.

Roughly 320,000 -- nearly 20% -- may have experienced traumatic brain injury.

About 300,000 – nearly 19% -- meet the criteria for either PTSD or depression.

In 2006, the most recently recorded year, we saw 113 Iraq and Afghanistan-era veterans lost to the enemy of suicide.

That’s a record number, and more than twice the suicide rate for civilians of the same age.

And multiple deployments have added to the financial and marital tension for many of your Guardsmen.

Reports show 11,000 guardsmen and women lost their jobs upon returning home – a clear violation of the law. That must stop.

Barack and I are going to set this straight.

And we have very different ideas on how do it than John McCain and Sarah Palin.

It starts with a guarantee that every returning veteran has the best health care available. We’re been fighting for this as Senators, and we’ll guarantee it as President and Vice President.

Shift the burden to the government: no more requiring a soldier to prove that their traumatic brain injuries are combat related.

Spend the money and hire the personnel to eliminate waiting time for the VA to decide on a disability claim.

Guarantee that any returning veteran needing a prosthesis will have the most up-to-date, state-of-the-art, for the his or her life.

And zero tolerance for veteran homelessness.

You know Barack is on the Veterans Affairs committee in the Senate. I watched him work with Republicans to pass a major law – with short term fixes and long term solutions – to end the shameful care we were giving our veterans at Walter Reed.

He strengthened programs to help homeless veterans… he fought for fair treatment of veterans’ claims and forced the VA to fix disparities… he helped ensure that all service members returning from Iraq are properly screened for Traumatic Brain Injuries… and he demanded a major national research effort into the readjustment needs of returning veterans.

He will see to it that all veterans – all veterans – have access to the VA system.

Military families need help coping with deployments. We’ll expand, Family Medical Leave to include reserve families facing mobilization.

We’ll add resources to help military families during deployments, such as more staff for Family Readiness Groups.

Because when soldiers go to war, their families go too.

John McCain says we’re a nation at war.

He’s wrong, we’re a military at war.

The only ones making the real sacrifice are those deployed, and their families back home.

Second, we’re going to restore your readiness.

That starts with increasing the end strength of the active military.

We’re going to increase our end strength by 65,000 for the Army, and 27,000 for the Marines.

Increasing the size of the active force means they can carry a heavier burden, allowing our Guard to have fewer deployments and more predictable deployments, with more time between them.

To cut down on equipment shortages, Barack Obama and I will end the trend of cannibalizing soldiers and machines from units back home for missions abroad.

We’ll consult with governors of the 50 states, so we know what the needs of their Guard units are – both for their combat missions overseas, and their domestic missions at home.

Remember in 2006, when it was reported that the Department of Defense was making plans to cut National Guard force structure and strength?

Barack Obama and I were two of the 75 Senators to send a letter to the Secretary of Defense strongly opposing those plans.

John McCain didn’t sign.

We believe we shouldn’t be cutting back on the Guard at the very time we’re asking you to do more.

Third, we’re going to make sure that you have opportunity when you come home.

We’ll start by putting the federal government on your side.

The Department of Defense, Department of Labor, Department of Justice – they have an obligation, each of them, to guarantee that laws designed to protect returning veterans are enforced.

A recent survey found that 44% of employers would not hire a reservist – even though that’s illegal discrimination – for fear that that employee might be called up.

The Department of Defense currently has no plan to ensure that businesses comply with re-employment laws for our Guard and Reserves. And the Labor Department and Justice Department have failed to vigorously enforce the laws which protect you, the men and women who have volunteered to protect us.

Seventy percent of Guardsmen work for small businesses, and DOD has no outreach program to small business.

You shouldn’t have to sacrifice your job in order to serve your country.

But your country owes you more than putting you back in the place you were before you left.

It owes you greater opportunity, because of lost opportunity.

And it all starts with education.

That is why Barack and I were supporters from the start of Jim Webb’s GI Bill – which allows National Guard and Reserve members to earn educational benefits based on their total cumulative active duty… instead of their single longest tour, the way they do in existing Title 10 programs.

Because we think that a Guardsman who serves three tours of 6 months should be credited for a year and a half of service, and not half a year.

John McCain is a friend, a patriot, and a hero.

But John and I have some fundamental disagreements as it relates to the Guard, and the interests of veterans.

John McCain voted against billions of dollars in additional funding for veterans’ health care – against $2 million for TBI research… against $500 million for mental health issues… against $400 million for inpatient and outpatient care.
John wants to ration veterans’ health care to those with combat injuries, which would mean that millions fewer veterans would have access to VA medical care.
And while Barack and I supported Senator Jim Webb’s bipartisan bill to update the GI Bill from the get-go, John initially opposed it because he thought it was too generous.

John’s version treated the Guard as second class citizens when it came to educational benefits.

Those are the facts. But don’t take it from me. Ask Disabled American Veterans, which represents millions of vets. They keep track of these things… John voted with DAV 20 percent of the time.

Barack Obama – 80 percent of the time.

Or ask the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. They keep track, too. They give letter grades, and they gave John McCain a “D”. Barack got at B+.

So as much as I admire John, I disagree with him.

Being a veteran isn’t the same as being there for veterans.

click link for more but you get the point. It's all been reported here. Biden didn't get anything wrong in his speech but he left out a few things like families on food stamps and ending up homeless because someone was deployed in the Guard instead of making their usual paycheck.