Senator Jim Webb wants to stop what began 40 years ago

Tell Senator Webb and the rest of congress that this began when they decided to spray Agent Orange no matter what it would do to the men and women they already sent to risk their lives. Any delay in doing the right thing finally is making them suffer for having served. In case Senator Webb forgot, many of these men had no choice in going but were forced to under the draft. They served with honor. They served with courage. They served as well as the others who went willingly. Now after all these years, there should be on more acceptable excuses for not honoring that at least.

The following was sent from Shelia over at
Agent Orange Quilt of Tears/

Webb: Delay AO Claims, Stop Bigger Raises
by Tom Philpott
http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,215720,00.html?wh=wh
Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), chief architect of the pricey Post-9/11 GI Bill education benefit for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan war era, could become a new champion, for taxpayers, against what he perceives as excess spending on military pay and on a new wave of Agent Orange claims.
Webb, a former Navy secretary and decorated Vietnam War veteran, risked the anger of thousands of veterans from that war when he won Senate approval last week of an amendment to block, at least temporarily, the Department of Veterans Affairs from paying new disability claims on three prominent diseases presumed linked to wartime herbicide exposure.
As many as 86,000 Vietnam veterans with ischemic heart disease, Parkinson's disease or B-cell leukemia are awaiting a final VA regulation to receive disability compensation based on a decision last fall by VA Secretary Eric Shinseki of evidence linking these diseases with exposure to deadly defoliant used during the war. Many more vets could file first-time claims.
VA officials not only have published interim regulations already but, for months, have been encouraging veterans stricken with these diseases, or their surviving spouses, to file new claims or re-file claims as soon as possible because benefits would be paid back to claim filing dates.
click the links for more

VA uses trailer near dumpsters as morgue

"The treatment of these deceased veterans is absolutely despicable," Anderson said in the news release. "To think they would throw a metal box onto the parking lot next to a couple of dumpsters and call that dignified and respectful treatment of the bodies of people who serve our country is sickening. I can't tell you how upset the staff are by all of this."

Submitted photo
National Association of Government Employees’ spokesperson Stephanie Zaiser says the Martinsburg Veterans Affairs Medical Center used this old tractor-trailer, shown at the far left, as a temporary morgue, and that action has outraged VA employees.

VA uses trailer as morgue
Group outraged that remains were housed in ‘dilapidated box’ next to dumpsters

By Jenni Vincent, Journal staff writer
MARTINSBURG - A union representing workers at the Martinsburg Veterans Affairs Medical Center is accusing the facility's administration of using an old tractor-trailer as a temporary morgue during renovations.

That accusation has brought little response from VA officials, who said only that renovation work has been finished and the regular morgue is back in service.

In a news release issued Monday, National Association of Government Employees' spokesperson Stephanie Zaiser said local workers were "outraged" after learning about a makeshift morgue that was in a "dilapidated 40-foot tractor-trailer box outside a warehouse dock."

Evidence of its existence was found at the regular morgue, the news release stated.
go here for more
VA uses trailer as morgue

Count the witnesses to know the need to address PTSD

According to ICasualties.org, the current death count for US forces in Iraq is 4,402 and for Afghanistan, 1,103.

Given the fact a company can be ten more, 5,503 would mean there would have been about 55,030 witnesses.

To get a better understanding of what these witnesses see, look at the number of IED attacks coupled with the numbers of amputations from Vietnam to Afghanistan to Iraq.

Squad - 9 to 10 soldiers. Typically commanded by a sergeant or staff sergeant, a squad or section is the smallest element in the Army structure, and its size is dependent on its function.

Vietnam War
Casualties:
Hostile deaths: 47,359

Non-hostile deaths: 10,797

Total: 58,156 (including men formerly classified as MIA and Mayaguez casualties).

Highest state death rate: West Virginia--84.1. (The national average death rate for males in 1970 was 58.9 per 100,000).

WIA: 303,704 - 153,329 required hospitalization, 50,375 who did not.

Severely disabled: 75,000, 23,214 were classified 100% disabled. 5,283 lost
limbs, 1,081 sustained multiple amputations. Amputation or crippling wounds to the lower extremities were 300% higher than in WWII and 70% higher than in Korea. Multiple amputations occurred at the rate of 18.4% compared to 5.7% in WWII.

How many US Military amputees are there due to the Iraq War?
1,091.

The 2009 United States Military Casualty Statistics report, published by the Congressional Research Service, states the amputee population in the US Military forces due to Operation Iraq Freedom (OIF) consists of 1,091 servicemembers. This number represents 85% of the total servicemember amputations occurred between 2001 and 2009. More than 50% of the amputations were caused by improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

How many IED attacks have occurred in Afghanistan?
18,319.

According to an article posted on The Washington Post website, from 2004 to February 2010 about 18,319 IED attacks took place in Afghanistan. Such attacks are on the rise in the country since 2008, while, in the same year, Iraq IED attacks started to decrease. Solely between January and February 2010, 721 attacks have already occurred.

The real issue we need to focus on, is not just the deaths in combat, but the numbers of the wounded that needs to be counted when trying to figure out how many veterans will end up needing help for PTSD.

The most common question when veterans are evaluated for disability, addresses anyone they knew killed in action. Too often witnessing wounds are ignored. Imagine seeing someone you were in a vehicle with one moment, having their leg or arm blown off the next. Imagine trying to pull them out of a burning vehicle. Then imagine you were not in the vehicle with them but in the one behind them escaping the blast or in the vehicle in front of them that just missed the bomb. Instead of 10 witnesses, there are twenty, thirty, forty more. Each one having to live with that memory etched in their mind and then, then having to face the fact it could have been them or very well could be them the next time. Then imagine going home, making it back to family and friends, parties and celebrations, while you remember what you just left.

Civilian psychologists use either one out of five or one out of three susceptible to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after traumatic events. There is a clear indication that despite the military's best efforts in preventing PTSD, they are running about the same averages as the rest of the population. Unlike the rest of the population, they are supposed to be "trained" to prevent PTSD and be "resilient" enough to "get over it" instead of being trained to recover from it after the fact.

The attitude of the military has been one of train them to do anything and they will do it when ordered to. This was translated when the troops were under orders to not kill themselves. Yes, that actually happened several times out of frustration because no matter how much money was invested in coming up with programs, the suicide and attempted suicide rate went up instead of down. They should have focused on healing after as soon as possible instead of preventing the inevitable human chain reaction.

If PTSD is already digging into them the added stress of repeated redeployments, which the Army study had shown to increase the risk of PTSD by 50%, not only prolongs the damage done, it adds to it during a time when they could have been healing and recovering. Mild PTSD can often be almost fully reversed but the longer it is allowed to fester the less the chance of reversing it becomes. Vietnam veterans proved this because for far too many, help was not available, the wound was allowed to cut deeper into them as the reality of life back home added to their stressors at the same time they were wondering what the hell was happening to them.

Talk about resilient! These men and women ended up going on to get educations, jobs, start families and take over almost every service organization in the country, but managed to run a lot of companies. All of this without help from the communities they lived in simply because no one had a clue or cared to even learn. Yes, they committed suicide, ended up homeless, some had serial marriages and a long list if failed career moves. Yet at the same time many ended up still wanting to give back and went to work in law enforcement and firefighter jobs. When you consider how long they went from combat to care, it is amazing so many of them are still able to heal even a fraction of their pain, but they are. Many of them have found peace with the fact they will be on medication and in therapy the rest of their lives to remain stabilized but they are living lives again. They don't like the odds of the alternative suffering in silence, too proud to ask for help.


Add into the above how many had to kill in combat. How many will be among the one to have their futures challenged by their past and how many will be suffering instead of healing? How many will become statistics of suffering we study ten or twenty years from now? The best indication of this is the numbers we already have. We know what Vietnam produced and we still see many suffering instead of healing, families still trying to come to grips with what came home with their own veteran, just as we are seeing today in Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families after multiple tours of duty and very little support. The National Guards and Reservists forces receive even less support from their communities detached from what they went through and uninterested to learn out of fear they may learn what they do not want to know.

All of this indicates that while the military attempts to produce super Soldiers and Marines untouched, they have failed at the task to provide the best case scenario for the survivors. The numbers we're seeing now are only the beginning because as the operations in Iraq wind down and Afghanistan gears up, the veterans of each will increase as will the price they pay for the "success" of the campaigns. The numbers from Vietnam will be trumped by today's wars. The question is, "Will the survivors win or lose the peace?"

No letup in Marine attempted suicides

No letup in Marine attempted suicides

By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Marines are trying to kill themselves at a record pace this year despite a 2009 program aimed at stemming the problem, according to Marine Corps data.
Eighty-nine Marines tried to commit suicide through May, most commonly by overdose or lacerations, according to statistics and the Marine Corps suicide prevention program officer, Navy Cmdr. Aaron Werbel. At that rate, there could be more than 210 attempted suicides this year.

There were a record 164 attempted suicides in 2009.

With 21 confirmed or suspected suicides by Marines this year, the Corps is on track to near last year's record number of 52, Werbel says. The Marine Corps suicide rate in 2009 was 24-per-100,000, the highest in the military, Marine records show. The latest demographically adjusted suicide rate among civilians in 2006 was 20 per 100,000, federal records show.

The Marines introduced a training program for sergeants and corporals last year aimed at suicide education and urging them to become more knowledgeable about the lives of their younger Marines.
read more here
No letup in Marine attempted suicides

Mom faces bank robber at Wendy's drive-through

One minute she was trying to figure out what to order and the next minute, she was trying to figure out how to stay alive and keep her kids safe.

Wounded mother, Jacksonville police give accounts of Wendy's shooting
Officers didn’t see hostages in the car, resulting in injury.
By Jim Schoettler
Joann Cooper told the hurried gunman she’d obey his demand for her car if she could leave with her two kids.

Standing in the drive-through of the Baymeadows Road Wendy’s, bank robber Jeremiah Mathis reached inside the car’s open window and unlocked the driver’s door. Mathis then raised his gun and told Cooper he would kill her if she didn’t get out. Mathis pushed his way inside and Cooper began wrestling with him over the gun. She told him he wasn’t going to kill anyone.
read more here

Jacksonville police give accounts of Wendys shooting

He struggled with demons — and lost

He struggled with demons — and lost
By Rubén Rosario



Duy Ngo, the veteran Minneapolis cop who apparently killed himself Monday, left a message on my cell phone May 28.

"This is Duy Ngo, officer Ngo,'' the message started.

I remember distinctly the "officer" mention.

He called me after I dropped off my contact information and a copy of a story that week in the New York Times on a national study of police-on-police shootings. I left it on the doorstep of his immaculately manicured Mendota Heights home when no one answered the bell. I remember the American flag planted near the mailbox, flapping in the wind.

Not knowing he had remained on the police force, I reached out to him because there was no other cop in the Twin Cities or Minnesota who could provide the proper insight or perspective about the results of this study.

"This is my cell phone," Ngo said on the message I still have. "Feel free to call me, and I'll see what I can do for you."

That was the last time I heard from or about Ngo. He never returned my calls before I wrote my piece. Then came Monday's shocking development.

Seven years ago, Ngo, then an undercover Minneapolis cop assigned to the scandalized and now-defunct Metro Gang Strike Force, was wounded by a robbery suspect he was chasing one wintry night. The still-unknown suspect fired a shot from a .40-caliber weapon that struck Ngo on the side of his bulletproof vest.
read more here
He struggled with demons and lost

Minneapolis police officer Duy Ngo's death: Some wounds never heal
Some wounds never heal

Minneapolis police officer Duy Ngo had always said the lawsuit he filed against a fellow officer who shot him six times was not about the money but about justice. He got the money — $4.5 million in a record settlement with the city — but more elusive were justice and the ability to make it through a day without pain.

On Monday, Ngo was found dead at his home in Mendota Heights. He was 37.

16-year-old boy accused of shooting Sanford cop

16-year-old boy accused of shooting Sanford cop
A police detective said the suspect 'didn't care of the seriousness of the crime.'
By Walter Pacheco, Orlando Sentinel

7:49 a.m. EDT, June 8, 2010
A 16-year-old is at a juvenile detention center in Seminole County after officers arrested him this morning for allegedly shooting a Sanford police officer last week.

Officers arrested the suspect in the Pine Hills neighborhood of Orange County at 1 a.m.

Investigators said tips led them to a home on Mercy Drive, where he had been staying with his two sisters.

Detectives said more than a dozen U.S. Marshals, Orlando police and Orange County deputies surrounded the home before arresting the suspect.

The Orlando Sentinel is not identifying the suspect because he is a minor.

He faces charges of attempted murder of a law-enforcement officer in the shooting of Sanford Officer Brandon Worrall. He is being held without bond at the Seminole Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Sanford.

"It's a little disheartening, you know," Sanford police Chief Brian Tooley said at a news conference this morning. "You got 16-year-old kids out there shooting a police officer."
go here for more
16 year-old boy accused of shooting Sanford cop

VA Has $80 Million Available for Private Sector Innovations

VA Announces Industry Innovation Competition
$80 Million Available for Private Sector Innovations

WASHINGTON (June 7, 2010) - Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K.
Shinseki announced today the opening of the Industry Innovation
Competition by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the most recent
effort under the VA Innovation Initiative. With this competition, VA
seeks the best ideas from the private sector to address the department's
most important challenges.

"At VA, we are continually looking for new ways to improve the care and
services we deliver," said Secretary Shinseki. "Engaging the private
sector to tap its expertise and find ways to leverage private-sector
innovations, we can improve the quality, access and transparency in
service to our Nation's Veterans."

The VA Innovation Initiative (VAi2) is a department-wide program that
brings the most promising innovations to VA's most important challenges
by involving employees and the private sector in the creation of
visionary solutions in service to Veterans.

"Innovation is more than simply a collection of ideas," said Jared
Cohon, president of Carnegie Mellon University. "It requires close
collaboration between academia, industry and government to produce
solutions that make a meaningful impact on society. VAi2's programs
bring about exactly that kind of fruitful collaboration."

"Creativity in the private sector generates a wealth of technology
capability that can help drive VA forward," said Dr. Peter Levin, senior
advisor to the secretary and VA's chief technology officer. "By
targeting innovations that are nearing commercialization, the Industry
Innovation Competition provides a bridge between creative ideas in the
private sector and real-world deployments that improve the services we
deliver."

Public and private companies, entrepreneurs, universities and
non-profits are encouraged to participate in the competition, which
targets advancements in:

* Innovative Housing Technology to Address Veteran Homelessness:
Eliminating Veteran homelessness is a top VA priority. New design and
construction techniques, materials and building technology can enable VA
to use existing buildings and unused space to rapidly create highly
functional, energy efficient and affordable housing.

* Telehealth: VA is a leader in telehealth implementation and
currently serves many thousands of Veterans with solutions such as home
health monitoring. Potential applications for telehealth solutions are
broad and varied and department officials are interested in pursuing
integrated solutions that improve their ability to provide the right
treatment at the right place and at the right time.

* New Models of Dialysis and Renal Disease Prevention: VA
currently provides dialysis for more than 10,000 Veterans annually, at
both VA and community-based medical facilities. Alternative treatment
strategies and dialysis technology can extend and improve our ability to
provide quality care in a patient-preferred setting.

* Improvement of Polytrauma Care: VA provides comprehensive,
inter-disciplinary rehabilitation care to Veterans and returning Service
members with multiple injuries, or polytrauma. Solutions in areas such
as the application of dynamic treatment algorithms, home monitoring of
diverse and complex symptoms and assistive technologies can help the
broad advancement of polytrauma care.

* Reduction of Adverse Drug Events: The development and deployment
of strategies to prevent patient harm from adverse drug events is an
on-going priority at VA. Tools that can integrate with VA records and
systems and provide an increased ability to continuously monitor for
at-risk situations can enhance dramatically the quality and safety of
care provided by VA.

* Integrated Business Accelerator: A wide array of services and
benefits are available to assist Veterans, and Service Disabled Veterans
in particular, in starting and sustaining new businesses. However, an
integrated, long-term approach that assists Veterans in accessing
existing resources and provides services that aid in the launch and
maintenance of startup businesses can help insure the long-term success
of Veteran-owned businesses.

VAi2 identifies, funds, tests and deploys new efforts that significantly
improve the access, quality, performance and cost of VA services. For
more about VAi2 please visit www.va.gov/vai2 .
Please go to
www.FedBizOpps.gov to learn more about
federal opportunities for businesses.

Reporters wrong on Vietnam-Afghanistan length

Today there was news Afghanistan has now replaced the Vietnam War as being the longest. That is news to Vietnam Veterans since they started to die in 1956 and did not stop dying there until 1975. Last time I used my math skills that would mean Vietnam lasted 19 years and Afghanistan has not even begun it's tenth year. That would take place in October when the first troops were sent. There is one distinction that Afghanistan has in fact earned and that is the most underreported on in recent times. Especially when you consider there are now 24 hour news stations ignoring it.

THE FIRST KNOWN CASUALTY


Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth, Mass. is listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having a casualty date of June 8, 1956.
His name is listed on the Wall with that of his son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, who has a casualty date of Sept. 7, 1965.
http://thewall-usa.com/information.asp

The Vietnam War, which lasted longer than any other military conflict in American history, grew out of the U.S. government’s Cold War-era policy to prevent the spread of communism at home and abroad. The United States began sending financial aid and military advisors to South Vietnam in the 1950s, hoping to thwart a takeover by the communist North Vietnamese, led by Ho Chi Minh. As troop levels and casualties escalated throughout the 1960s, the war became increasingly unpopular at home, inciting large-scale protests, profoundly affecting popular culture and fomenting mutual distrust between the public and its leaders. The United States began withdrawing its troops in 1973, and in 1975 the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to North Vietnamese forces. More than 58,000 American soldiers had perished.
http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war

Yet since the official start of the Vietnam war was 1964 and the offical end was 1975, it is easy to get that wrong.


UPDATE 6-09-10
Looks like someone else agrees. This was posted yesterday on CNN Blog

Can Afghanistan be compared to the Vietnam war?
Post by: CNN's Tim Lister
Much has been made in recent media reports about the conflict in Afghanistan surpassing the length of the Vietnam War, becoming the United States’ longest war. Some would dispute that, and few would suggest the two wars are comparable.

But the Afghan War can’t really be compared to the conflict in Vietnam, which claimed some 58,000 American lives and involved more conventional warfare, including pitched battles for major cities, as well as guerrilla combat. The Tet offensive in 1968 involved some 80,000 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers in a series of coordinated attacks on cities in South Vietnam.

Whether or not Afghanistan is now the longest war that America has fought is a contentious issue. The Department of Defense officially lists deaths in Vietnam beginning November 1, 1955 as related to the war; that’s the date when the Military Assistance Advisory Group began in Vietnam. Others insist that 1964 represents the year when the United States rapidly escalated its military presence in Southeast Asia, and moved from a support role to front-line engagement.

The start of the Vietnam War is also dated from the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964, something that diplomat Richard Holbrooke has rejected.

read more here

Can Afghanistan be compared to the Vietnam war

But there is so much more of the history of Vietnam that has been forgotten.

United States in Vietnam 1945-1975
Comprehensive Timelines with Quotes and Analysis
Seeds of Conflict
America Committs 1961-1964

Looking at the totals of Vietnam, we need to remember that as some want to try to make headlines suggesting Afghanistan lasted longer than Vietnam, when they do, they end up dismissing the lives lost and the wounded who would never be the same. Imagine being one of the veterans sent into Vietnam watching friends die and then read according to the media, it was all forgotten.

Reason (Cause of Casualty)
Number of Records
Gun, Small Arms Fire 18,518
Multiple Fragmentary Wounds 8,456
Air Loss, Crash on Land 7,992
Other Explosive Devices 7,450
Artillery, Rocket or Mortar 4,914
Other Accident 1,371
Misadventure 1,326
Drowned, Suffocated 1,207
Vehicle Loss, Crash 1,187
Accidental Homicide 944
Accidental Self Destruction 842
Other Causes 754
Air Loss, Crash in Sea 577
Burns 530
Illness, Disease 482
Suicide 382
Heart Attack 273
Intentional Homicide 234
Malaria 118
Bomb Explosion 52
Stroke 42
Hepatitis 22
Unknown, Not Reported 520
Total 58,193

According to media reports, that would mean all the deaths before 1964 and after 1973 did not happen.

Year of Death or Declaration of Death Number of Records
1956-1960 9
1961 16
1962 52
1963 118
1964 206
1965 1,863
1966 6,143
1967 11,153
1968 16,592
1969 11,616
1970 6,081
1971 2,357
1972 641
1973 168
1974 178
1975 161
1976 77
1977 96
1978 447
1979 148
1980 26
1981-1990 34
1991-1998 11
Total 58,193

Florida restaurant shooting leaves 4 women dead, 3 wounded

Florida restaurant shooting leaves 4 dead, 3 wounded
By Divina Mims, CNN
June 7, 2010 12:09 p.m. EDT
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Police: Shooting likely stemmed from domestic dispute
All 7 victims were women
Shooter killed himself a short distance away

(CNN) -- A gunman fatally shot four women and wounded three others in a metropolitan Miami restaurant Sunday night, before turning the gun on himself, police said.

Mark Overton, the police chief of Hialeah -- where the shooting took place -- said the incident most likely stemmed from a domestic dispute.
read more here
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/06/07/florida.shooting/index.html?hpt=T2