Veteran Claims Files Stacked On File Cabinets

Inspector Finds Veteran Claims Files Stacked On File Cabinets In Winston-Salem
7:05 PM, Aug 15, 2012
Written by
Faith Abubey
Written by
Mark Geary

Winston-Salem, NC-- The Veteran's Affairs office in Winston-Salem is scrambling for space after an Inspector General's report found thousand of claims files stored improperly.

The recent report estimates about 37,000 claims folders stored on floors, on top of and filing cabinets. The report states that the problems have been piling up since 2005.

That's when the office took over processing some national veterans benefits claims. The office also caters to an additional 700,000 veterans in North Carolina alone.

Regional Director Cheryl Rawls says they simply ran out of space.

The Inspector's report says the "excessive number of claims folders" has caused concerns about unsafe workplace, "potential to compromise the integrity of the building" and "increased risk of loss or misfiling, as well as unnecessarily exposed to potential water and fire damage."
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General Petraeus's remarks require much reflection by our society

UPDATE August 24, 2012
A comment left on this post had a link (that's it, just a link) and I followed it instead of just deleting it. I am glad I did.
Snopes.com had the link to the original article.

I Wrote This
BEST OF RANGER UP, NEWS, NICK, NICK'S WRITING
AUGUST 5, 2012
BY NICK


Hello America, my name is Nick Palmisciano and I wrote the essay below, not General David Petraeus, “A Marine in Iraq”, General Schwarzkopf, any of the wounded warriors it’s been attributed to, or anyone else.

The order of events went something like this:

1) I was talking over with Tom Amenta, my COO, about how the world has changed over the years relative to military service. We had the Occupy Movement as the backdrop.

2) At the end of our conversation, I sat down and wrote this essay and posted it to Ranger Up.

3) The US Army reposted it on their Facebook page, which was a huge honor for me. It received tens of thousands of likes in a day. They attributed the post to me at the bottom. This was a huge honor for me as I felt I had addressed the feelings of many service members. I write a lot, but I had never touched a chord with our community the way I had with this one.

4)In the next few weeks and months I started receiving spam letters or seeing incorrect blog posts attributing this essay to various people. The Ranger Up fans did such a great job of correcting people that I didn’t get involved.
click the link for the rest of this.

If Nick Palmisciano wrote this powerful piece attributed to someone else, it should be corrected. So please share the update to anyone you shared the original article with.

Here are some more numbers before you read this. As of April 27, 2012, these are the numbers of disabled veterans.

VA Benefits and Health Care Utilization
8.574 million enrolled in the VA system
3.42 million receive Veterans Disability Compensation
1,448,000 OEF OIF Amputees as of 4/1/2012
513,589 Compensated for PTSD

General Petraeus's remarks require much reflection by our society.

Thanks to my fellow veterans:

I remember the day I found out I got into West Point. My mom actually showed up in the hallway of my high school and waited for me to get out of class. She was bawling her eyes out and apologizing that she had opened up my admission letter. She wasn't crying because it had been her dream for me to go there. She was crying because she knew how hard I'd worked to get in, how much I wanted to attend, and how much I wanted to be an infantry officer. I was going to get that opportunity. That same day two of my teachers took me aside and essentially told me The following:

“David, you're a smart guy. You don't have to join the military. You should go to college, instead.”

I could easily write a theme defending WestPoint and the military as I did that day, explaining that USMA is an elite institution, that separate from that it is actually statistically much harder to enlist in the military than it is to get admitted to college, that serving the nation is a challenge that all able-bodied men should at least consider for a host of reasons, but I won't.

What I will say is that when a 16 year-old kid is being told that attending West Point is going to be bad for his future then there is a dangerous disconnect in America, and entirely too many Americans have no idea what kind of burdens our military is bearing.

In World War II, 11.2% of the nation served in four (4) years.
During the Vietnam era, 4.3% served in twelve (12) years.
Since 2001, only 0.45% of our population has served in the Global War on Terror.
These are unbelievable statistics. Overtime, fewer and fewer people have shouldered more and more of the burden and it is only getting worse. Our troops were sent to war in Iraq by a Congress consisting of 10% veterans with only one person having a child in the military. Taxes did not increase to pay for the war. War bonds were not sold. Gas was not regulated. In fact, the average citizen was asked to sacrifice nothing, and has sacrificed nothing unless they have chosen to out of the goodness of their hearts. The only people who have sacrificed are the veterans and their families. The volunteers. The people who swore an oath to defend this nation.

You stand there, deployment after deployment and fight on. You've lost relationships, spent years of your lives in extreme conditions, years apart from kids you'll never get back, and beaten your body in a way that even professional athletes don't understand. Then you come home to a nation that doesn't understand. They don't understand suffering.

They don't understand sacrifice. They don't understand why we fight for them. They don't understand that bad people exist. They look at you like you're a machine - like something is wrong with you. You are the misguided one - not them.

When you get out, you sit in the college classrooms with political science teachers that discount your opinions on Iraq and Afghanistan because YOU WERE THERE and can't understand the macro issues they gathered from books, because of your bias. You watch TV shows where every vet has PTSD and the violent strain at that. Your Congress is debating your benefits, your retirement, and your pay, while they ask you to do more. But the amazing thing about you is that you all know this. You know your country will never pay back what you've given up.

You know that the populace at large will never truly understand or appreciate what you have done for them. Hell, you know that in some circles, you will be thought as less than normal for having worn the uniform.

Just that decision alone makes you part of an elite group. “Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.” -Winston Churchill- Thank you to the 11.2% and 4.3% who have served and thanks to the 0.45% who continue to serve our Nation.

General David Petraeus
West Point Class 1974

'Bands of Brothers' Reality Show Seeks Veterans

'Bands of Brothers' Reality Show Seeks Veterans Who Can Carry a Tune
The new Web-based reality show is casting musically inclined veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and will raise awareness of post-traumatic stress disorder.
By Tim Zatzariny Jr

Steve Holtzman knows the power of music firsthand.

He’s watched his daughter, Julia, blossom from a “shy, retiring girl” to the lead singer in the house band at School of Rock in Cherry Hill, which teaches stagecraft and musicianship to young people.

Holtzman believes music can have a similar impact on military veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“If this is what could happen for a child,” he said of his 12-year-old daughter, “what could happen for an adult who might be feeling down or isolated?”

Working with Lou Faiola, owner of the Cherry Hill School of Rock, Holtzman is producing a Web-based reality show called Bands of Brothers.

The premise: Twelve musically inclined veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan form three rock bands and prepare for a big concert on Veterans Day.
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Body of corpsman killed in Afghanistan is returned to Weatherford

AP Transfer cases containing the remains of Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Clayton R. Beauchamp, left case, and Army Spc. Ethan J. Martin, right case, sit on a loader Thursday, Aug. 9, 2012 at Dover Air Force Base, Del. According to the Department of Defense, Beauchamp, of Weatherford, Texas, died Aug. 7, 2012 when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device in Helmand province, Afghanistan and Martin, 22, of Lewiston, Idaho, died Aug. 7, 2012 in Koragay, Paktia province, Afghanistan of wounds sustained when he encountered enemy small-arms fire. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark) ORG XMIT: DESR107

STAR-TELEGRAM/RON T. ENNIS Base personell and families line the street on Naval Air Station Fort Worth on Wednesday August 15, 2012 to welcome Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Clayton R. Beauchamp, 21, who was killed in Afganistan. (Star-Telegram/Ron T. Ennis)

Body of corpsman killed in Afghanistan is returned to Weatherford
Posted Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2012
BY CHRIS VAUGHN
Star Telegram

FORT WORTH -- Navy corpsman Clayton R. Beauchamp's body returned to his hometown Wednesday, escorted by a long procession of vehicles and motorcycles and saluted along the roads by hundreds of service members, police and firefighters.

Beauchamp, 21, a petty officer third class who was killed by a roadside bomb Aug. 7 while on patrol in Afghanistan, will be buried Saturday at Memory Gardens of the Valley Memorial Park in Weatherford.

The funeral is at 2 p.m. Saturday at North Side Baptist Church in Weatherford.

The casket was flown from Dover, Del., to Naval Air Station Fort Worth on Wednesday morning and was transferred by a Navy honor guard to a hearse.
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Korean War MIA laid to rest after Chosin Reservoir battle

Marine Cpl. Clarence Huff laid to rest 62 years after his combat death in Korean War
Published: Thursday, August 16, 2012
By Brian Albrecht
RITTMAN, Ohio

Clarence "Bud" Huff Jr.'s story didn't end when he was killed 62 years ago on a frozen hilltop in Korea.

The 20-year-old Marine corporal who grew up in Hinckley was laid to rest in his latest and last grave Wednesday at the Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery in Rittman.

Huff was one of the 15,000 Marines suddenly surrounded by 120,000 Chinese troops at the Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War.

For 17 days the Marines battled their way out of the mountains. Huff's company was sent to hold a hilltop to cover the retreat. By the time the company was relieved, only 20 were still able to fight.

Huff may have been among several Marines buried at the base of that hill. Fifty-seven other Ohio Marines died in a battle that cost more than 4,000 Marine casualties and 25,000-plus Chinese troops.
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No one knows how many veterans are behind bars

Veterans Behind Bars
Swords to Plowshares
author: Megan Klein Zottarelli
date: August 15, 2012

NBC Bay Area – More Iraq War veterans are landing in jail but most counties don’t track soldier inmates.

Even the organization Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America told the Investigative Unit that it doesn’t have current data on veteran populations in prisons and jails because many local and state agencies don’t keep track of that information.

Suicides among soldiers and military veterans have reached epidemic proportions, with 154 suicides for active-duty troops in the first 155 days of 2012, according to the Pentagon.

The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit has uncovered another growing problem among soldiers returning from war — the number of those returning soldiers ending up behind bars. Experts say about one-third of returning military veterans battle mental illness and addiction. Many of them receive little help from the military, leaving them to fight their demons alone.

“I wanted to eat a bullet every single day,” said Marine infantryman and war veteran Anthony Hernandez of San Jose.

Every day since returning home from the Iraq War two years ago Hernandez fought the urge to kill himself. He says it was a battle more challenging than the two tours he spent dodging bullets in some of the hottest battlegrounds of Iraq.

“I had a really tough time,” Hernandez told Investigative Reporter Stephen Stock. “I didn’t feel normal. I was always hyper-vigilant, I was always on guard. I felt threatened by my own community. I couldn’t sleep.”

The Marine said he returned with a host of problems including post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, anxiety, depression, and alcohol addiction. Hernandez said his marriage fell apart and ended in divorce. All because, he said, he couldn’t cope with civilian life.

“It was extremely difficult,” he said. “I isolated a lot. I ruined pretty much every relationship that I had. I didn’t feel comfortable with anybody except my fellow Marines. I had extremely tough time.”

Hernandez said his demons led him to stab his new girlfriend’s father multiple times during an argument and that a combat flashback caused him to snap. He ended up serving 21 months in a local jail on attempted murder charges.

Hernandez is one of a growing number of veterans now finding themselves behind bars. Lawyers, judges and veterans advocates say mental health disorders common among veterans can lead them into the criminal justice system.

“I think people would be surprised to know how many veterans there are in their local jails,” said Duncan MacVicar, a Vietnam War veteran himself and a current veterans rights advocate who works with former service members in the criminal justice system.
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Dozens of Memphis police officers treated for PTSD

Dozens of Memphis police officers treated for PTSD
Posted: Aug 13, 2012
By Jamel Major
MEMPHIS, TN
(WMC-TV)

Dozens of Memphis Police officers are being treated for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder due to the things they encounter on the job.

"A lot of officers have high divorce rates because of the demanding jobs and also the fact that they encounter a lot of violent scenes, it's equivalent to being in a military combat zone," said Memphis Police Association President Michael Williams.

That is the reason Williams is recommending the Memphis Police Department puts a program in place with everything necessary to identify and evaluate officers with PTSD.

"Diagnosis, treatment, reinstitution, or reintroduction in the workforce," said Williams.

PTSD is a mental health condition triggered by a terrifying or traumatic event. Williams says a number of Memphis cops have been diagnosed with the disorder.
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PTSD could be a reason for the increase in suicides?

This was really, really big news, about 30 years ago!

PTSD could be a reason for the increase in suicides among U.S. troops
GRAYSON COUNTY, TX

Suicides are increasing among American Troops. Statistics show there is now an average of nearly one a day. According to the Pentagon, In 2012 more active duty troops were lost to suicide than to combat in Afghanistan.

Studies show Post-tramitic stress to be one of the reasons the suicide rate is going up among U.S. Troops. Some local veterans say they think it is a main factor. So now they are reaching out to help those who suffer from PTSD before it is too late.

Bob Hillerby was a combat photographer in the Vietnam War. Doc Blevins was an Airborne Combat Medic in Iraq and Afghanistan.They may have fought in two different wars, but they are both fighting the same battle, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

"Once you have been in combat the war never ends," Hillerby said.

They say adjusting to civilian life is an ongoing fight. Hillerby and Blevins say they have vivid nightmares and flashbacks and sometimes feel withdrawn.

"I couldn't get close even to my own family," Hillerby said.

"With me it was mostly just hyper-vigilance. Didn't like to go to Walmart. Too many people to watch because I didn't have my guys with me," Blevins said.
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TRICARE SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT FALLS SHORT

TRICARE SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT FALLS SHORT, EXPERTS SAY
NEXTGov
By Bob Brewin


By sending troops diagnosed with drug and alcohol addiction to 20-day treatment programs at civilian rehabilitation centers, the Defense Department is taking a Band-Aid approach to dealing with a problem of epidemic proportions, psychiatrists, former combat commanders and treatment experts on the front lines of veteran care told Nextgov.

Such a short stint at an inpatient facility can only begin to chip away at addiction and will do little to help troops cope with the combat experiences that many of them have tried to suppress with alcohol or drugs, experts said.

Combat veterans rarely talk about the experiences that sit at the core of post-traumatic stress disorder and are reluctant to share them in a civilian setting with patients who have no military service, let alone combat experience, said Jack Downing, president of We Soldier On, a Leeds, Mass.-based shelter and rehabilitation center for homeless veterans.

The facility provides beds and housing for 295 veterans, including a 39-unit apartment complex in nearby Pittsfield it developed and then sold to veterans.

Residents’ service spans generations, from a 92-year old WW II veteran to Vietnam veterans and about 35 who served in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Downing said the preponderance of his residents arrive addicted to alcohol and drugs, some of which have been prescribed by the Military Heath System or the Veterans Affairs Department. Recovery, he said, begins with addiction treatment and then moves on to dealing with the effects of war.
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How PTSD and Addiction Can Be Safely Treated Together
By MAIA SZALAVITZ
TIME
August 15, 2012
The vast majority of people with addiction have suffered significant previous trauma, and many people who struggle with addiction suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) simultaneously. But the treatment of these patients has posed a conundrum: experts have believed that PTSD treatment should not begin until the addicted person achieves lasting abstinence, because of the risk that PTSD treatment may trigger relapse, yet addicted people with untreated PTSD are rarely able to abstain for long.

Now, a new study suggests that there may be no need to wait. Researchers found that using exposure therapy — the gold-standard treatment for PTSD, which involves exposure to memories and reminders of patients’ past trauma — can successfully reduce symptoms of PTSD, even when people with addiction continue to use drugs. And, although exposure therapy requires patients to face some of their worst fears, it does not increase their drug use or prompt them to drop out of treatment more than ordinary addiction therapy, the study found.

“The exciting thing in my view is that [the study] supports people with drug and alcohol problems having access to other forms of psychological interventions, rather than being fobbed off and told to sort out their alcohol or drug problem first,” says Michael Farrell, director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Center at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, where the research was conducted.
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Active-duty suicide numbers decline in June

Active-duty suicide numbers decline in June
Staff report
Army Times
Posted : Friday Jul 13, 2012

As many as 11 active-duty soldiers are believed to have committed suicide in June, five fewer than in the previous month, the Army announced Friday.

Of those, one has been confirmed as suicide and the other 10 are still under investigation.

Among the 11 soldiers who died, two were women.

So far this year, 89 active-duty soldiers are believed to have killed themselves.

Also in June, 12 reserve component soldiers who were not on active duty are believed to have committed suicide. Ten of the soldiers were in the Army National Guard; two were in the Army Reserve.

All 12 deaths remain under investigation.
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