Press giving Congress CYA

Republicans think the press is "liberal" and Democrats think FOX runs the flow of news. The younger generation gets most of their news from Facebook and Jon Stewart. Veterans think it is all a bunch of hogwash! It really baffles them when people get paid for being either lazy or stupid. As of today, they don't have a clue which one it is but for them, it isn't about politics. It is about politicians.

The New York Times has this headline: Senior Veterans Affairs Officials to Step Down They didn't seem bothered by the fact they also reported on another VA official forced to step down.

In 2007 The New York Times headline was V.A. Chief to Step Down, Citing Return to Private Life yet no where in the report did they manage to cover what his time in office meant to veterans.

This is from Associated Press

His resignation comes amid intense political and public scrutiny of the Pentagon and VA after reports of shoddy outpatient care of injured troops and veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and elsewhere.

It also ends a beleaguered two-year tenure in which Nicholson repeatedly fought off calls for his resignation over the VA's unexpected $1.3 billion shortfall in 2005 that put healthcare at risk; last summer's theft of 26.5 million veterans' personal data in what was the government's largest security breach; and, more recently, the award of $3.8 million in bonuses to senior officials who were responsible for the agency's budget problems.

Walter Reed is a Pentagon-run facility, but charges of poor treatment relating to poor coordination quickly extended to the VA's vast network of 1,400 hospitals and clinics. The VA also has a backlog of disability payments to injured veterans, with overwhelming delays of 177 days that Nicholson has called unacceptable.

"Secretary Nicholson's resignation should be welcome news for all veterans," said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "The VA under Secretary Nicholson has been woefully unprepared for the influx of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, consistently underestimating the number of new veterans who would seek care, and failing to spend the money Congress allotted to treat mental health issues."

His departure comes at a critical time. Nicholson most recently headed a presidential task force charged with making immediate improvements to healthcare in which he pledged to take "personal responsibility."

Both Congress and a presidential commission chaired by Bob Dole, former Republican senator from Kansas, and Donna Shalala, former Health and Human Services secretary, are planning to push sweeping changes in how care is administered.

It ended with this

"The fact is, veterans have been right to be disappointed in Jim Nicholson's leadership at VA," said Senator Barack Obama, an Illinois Democrat, a member of the Veterans Affairs Committee, and a 2008 presidential candidate. "It is clear that Secretary Nicholson is leaving the VA worse off than he found it.

Given all that reporters "cover" the last thing we should allow is for them to be doing a massive CYA for members of congress. We've been down his road far too many times already.

Frankly veterans deserved a lot more. Now it seems as if every politician is pulling the "I had nothing to do with it" Sgt. Schultz excuse and the press just gives them more publicity.

President Obama urges Americans to support war vets

Just to give you some kind of idea how many "troops" that will become veterans, read this from the DOD and see what the numbers were in 2007.

From the Department of Defense
Executive Summary
2007 Demographics Report i
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This Demographics Report, which was prepared for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD),presents a synthesis of demographic information describing members and families in the military community in fiscal year 20071. Active Duty Service branches include DoD’s Army,Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force; and the Reserve Components include DoD’s Army National Guard, Army Reserve, Navy Reserve, Marine Corps Reserve, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Coast Guard Reserve.

Overview of Military Personnel
The total number of military personnel is over 3.5 million strong, including Active Duty military personnel (1,365,571);
DHS’s Active Duty Coast Guard members (40,650);
DoD Ready Reserve and DHS Coast Guard Reserve members (1,088,587); and
DoD appropriated and nonappropriated-fund civilian personnel (804,770).
DoD’s Active Duty and DHS’s Coast Guard
Active Duty members comprise the largest portion of the military force (40.0%), supplemented by Ready Reserve members (31.0%) and DoD civilian personnel (22.9%).

Active Duty: Member and Family Highlights
Service Branches. The Army has the largest number of Active Duty members (517,783)
followed by the Navy (332,269), the Air Force (329,094) and the Marine Corps (186,425). There are also 40,650 Active Duty members of the DHS’s Coast Guard. At a total of 1,406,221 DoD Active Duty and DHS Coast Guard Service members, the military force of 2007 is 31.9 percent smaller than it was in 1990 (when there were 2,065,597 Active Duty members). In the past seventeen years, the number of DoD Active Duty members in each Service branch has declined by as little as 5.1 percent in the Marine Corps to as much as 42.1 percent in the Navy. The Active Duty decline from 1990 to 2007 in the Army, Air Force, and Coast Guard is 28.9 percent,38.0 percent, and 12.0 percent, respectively.

Women comprise 195,991 or 14.4 percent of the DoD Active Duty force. The percent
of women in the Active Duty population is greater in 2007 than it was in 1990 (from 11.5% of officers and 10.9% of enlisted in 1990, to 15.2% of officers and 14.2% of enlisted members in 2007). Overall, the number and ratio of female officers (33,567) to female enlisted (162,424) is one female officer for every 4.8 female enlisted members. This ratio varies across the military Services with the Air Force retaining one female officer for every 4.4 female enlisted personnel, the Army retaining one female officer for every 4.6 female enlisted personnel, the Navy retaining
one female officer for every 5.4 female enlisted personnel, and the Marine Corps retaining one female officer for every 9.3 female enlisted personnel.

Women comprise 146,914 or 17.6 percent of the Selected Reserve force. The
percent of women in the Selected Reserve has continuously increased over the past seventeen years (from 14.4% of officers and 12.8% of enlisted in 1990, to 18.0% of officers and 17.5% of enlisted in 2007). Overall, the ratio of female officers (22,395) to female enlisted (124,519) is one female officer for every 5.6 female enlisted members. This ratio varies widely across the Selected Reserve with the Air Force Reserve having one female officer for every 3.1 female enlisted personnel, the Coast Guard Reserve having one female officer for every 3.3 female enlisted personnel, the Army Reserve having one female officer for every 4.2 female enlisted
personnel, the Navy Reserve having one female officer for every 4.6 female enlisted personnel, the Air National Guard having one female officer for every 7.3 female enlisted personnel, the Marine Corps Reserve having one female officer for every 8.4 female enlisted personnel, and the Army National Guard having one female officer for every 10.3 female enlisted personnel.


Age. Almost one fourth (23.8%) of Active Duty officers are 41 years of age or older, with the next largest age group being 26 to 30 year-olds (21.3%), followed by 36 to 40 year-olds (20.4%), 31 to 35 year-olds (20.2%), and those 25 years old or younger (14.2%). More than one half (52.5%) of Active Duty enlisted personnel are 25 years old or younger, with the next largest age group being 26 to 30 year-olds (20.1%), followed by 31 to 35 year-olds (12.1%), 36 to 40 year-olds (9.7%) and those 41 years old or older (5.6%). Overall, the average age of the Active Duty force is 28.3. The average age for Active Duty officers is 34.6, and the average age for enlisted personnel is 27.1.

Geographic Location. While the Active Duty population is located throughout the world, the three primary areas in which Active Duty members are assigned are the United States and its territories (85.3%), Europe (6.3%) and East Asia (5.7%). The ten states with the highest Active Duty military populations are California (149,586), Virginia (132,286), Texas (123,577), North Carolina (96,797), Georgia (70,012), Florida (59,543), Washington (58,693), Hawaii (43,505), Kentucky (39,041), and South Carolina (38,979).



When the uniforms come off and the battles are supposed to be over for them, they find the new battles they have to fight for their lives are with the government itself. Again, a reminder that Veterans for Common Sense issued a report stating the backlog of VA Claims is close to 900,000. We've talk about what this means to them and their families while they fight to have their claims approved. What we don't talk often enough about is the fact the American people are oblivious to most of this. It's not that they don't care but it is the media has not taken the time to focus on them. When you have MTV doing more hard hitting stories on their lives and what combat has done to them, we have a serious problem in this country. CNN, MSNBC and FOX have 24 hours to fill, 7 days a week. The rest of the national stations have daily broadcasts they need to fill but none of them are focusing on our veterans.

It's one of the biggest reasons why the communities these men and women come home, especially the National Guards and Reservists, no one has a clue what it's like for them.

Obama urges Americans to support war vets

The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Mar 26, 2009 13:46:21 EDT

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says when it comes to making sure returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan have the support they need, government can’t do the job alone.

He says communities and churches need to reach out to veterans and celebrate their return, and that businesses need to make jobs available to them.

Obama noted that, in many cases, veterans returning from Vietnam weren’t treated well. He called that “inexcusable.”

Obama repeated his support for increased funding for veterans programs, and the treatment of health problems such as post-traumatic stress.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/03/ap_obamavetsupport_032609/