Data shows VA fiscally sound despite mismanagement
By Scott MacFarlane
WSBTV.com
May 29, 2013
WASHINGTON — Despite the scandal over a series of deaths at the Atlanta VA Medical Center, a review by Channel 2 Action News shows the hospital isn't short on cash.
The federal government is being strangled by a budget crisis, except the VA and its medical centers nationwide, including the VA medical center in DeKalb County.
Data provided to Channel 2 Action News sources show the Atlanta region's VA offices got a $100 million funding increase for 2013.
There were similar boosts nationwide, perhaps a necessity with so many new veterans needing treatment, after a decade fighting two wars.
How are they using the money? At least some is being earmarked to reduce the crushing backlog of veterans' claims.
The VA told Channel 2's Scott MacFarlane it's setting aside money for overtime pay and extra claims officers to reduce the waits.
A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs told Channel 2, “Under the leadership of Secretary Eric K. Shinseki, the Department of Veterans Affairs has increased Veterans’ access to earned care and benefits, reduced the number of homeless Veterans by 17 percent, and implemented an aggressive plan that eliminates the decades old compensation claims backlog in 2015.”
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Thursday, May 30, 2013
Obama's speech could help push for Ft. Hood victims
Rep. Rooney: Obama's speech could help push for Ft. Hood victims
FOX News
By Justin Sink
05/24/13
Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) said Friday that President Obama's discussion of the Ft. Hood shooting during his counterterrorism speech on Thursday would buoy efforts to have the Department of Defense reclassify the Fort Hood massacre “workplace violence” rather than terrorism.
"When he put Ft. Hood in the same breath as Boston … he was basically making our case for us," Rooney told Fox News.
Thirteen people were killed and 29 others were wounded in the shooting by Maj. Nidal Hasan, who was allegedly radicalized by al Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. But the victims of the attack have been denied Purple Hearts and certain combat-related benefits because the massacre was determined to be "workplace violence" rather than combat violence.
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FOX News
By Justin Sink
05/24/13
Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) said Friday that President Obama's discussion of the Ft. Hood shooting during his counterterrorism speech on Thursday would buoy efforts to have the Department of Defense reclassify the Fort Hood massacre “workplace violence” rather than terrorism.
"When he put Ft. Hood in the same breath as Boston … he was basically making our case for us," Rooney told Fox News.
Thirteen people were killed and 29 others were wounded in the shooting by Maj. Nidal Hasan, who was allegedly radicalized by al Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. But the victims of the attack have been denied Purple Hearts and certain combat-related benefits because the massacre was determined to be "workplace violence" rather than combat violence.
read more here
WWII Veterans Honor Flight Erupts Cheering Crowd
WWII Vets with Honor Flight spontaneously cheered by travelers at Reagan National Airport
May 23, 2012
On May 23, 2012, World War II veterans on an Honor Flight from South Carolina arrived in Washington DC to visit the WWII Memorial.
As some background, the person holding the newspaper and men by the flags were the small handful of volunteers officially greeting the veterans. The photographer and videographer seen in the video were actually on the flight and came off the plane first. The gate attendant joked when they came out of the jet way that Honor Flights come with their own Paparazzi.
The woman seen escorting the first veteran was the same US Air gate attendant who made the original announcements. What you didn't see was two airport firetrucks did an amazing "water cannon salute" making an arch of water as the jet arrived. The gate attendant told the crowd that such a salute is typically reserved for a pilot returning from their last flight before retiring.
May 23, 2012
On May 23, 2012, World War II veterans on an Honor Flight from South Carolina arrived in Washington DC to visit the WWII Memorial.
As some background, the person holding the newspaper and men by the flags were the small handful of volunteers officially greeting the veterans. The photographer and videographer seen in the video were actually on the flight and came off the plane first. The gate attendant joked when they came out of the jet way that Honor Flights come with their own Paparazzi.
The woman seen escorting the first veteran was the same US Air gate attendant who made the original announcements. What you didn't see was two airport firetrucks did an amazing "water cannon salute" making an arch of water as the jet arrived. The gate attendant told the crowd that such a salute is typically reserved for a pilot returning from their last flight before retiring.
Disposable Soldiers
Disposable Soldiers
Huffington Post
May 29, 2013
As PTSD cases in the military are skyrocketing, so too are discharges for misconduct, where a small infraction could lead to a lifetime loss of much needed benefits. We need to re-evaluate the military discharge system to match current challenges.
Huffington Post
May 29, 2013
As PTSD cases in the military are skyrocketing, so too are discharges for misconduct, where a small infraction could lead to a lifetime loss of much needed benefits. We need to re-evaluate the military discharge system to match current challenges.
The Storyteller, new film on Korean War veteran with PTSD
Actor Christopher Atkins discusses his film 'The Storyteller' and post-war PTSD(Photos)
Examiner
MAY 29, 2013
BY: RENE THURSTON
Fans probably best remember actor Christopher Atkins as a curly-locked boy, running around the beach with a teenage Brooke Shields in the 1980 film "The Blue Lagoon." Or perhaps soap fans remember him in the original run of series "Dallas" as Peter, a college student and camp counselor who has an affair with a much-older Sue Ellen Ewing.
With those images in mind, fans will no doubt have no idea they are looking at that blonde, blue-eyed actor in a loin cloth when they see the character of Walter, an elderly man suffering from the ravages of his time in the Korean War, in Atkins' new film "The Storyteller."
The 52-year-old actor sat down with Riverside Soaps on May 28 to talk about the making of this emotional new film.
Atkins plays Walter, a once-revered children's book writer who regresses to the world of a child after the ravages of the Korean war, and the loss of his wife and youngest daughter to a car accident, leave him reeling from grief and agony.
Walter's remaining daughter, Susan, in a poignant performance by Gabrielle Carteris, is a bitter and lost soul, left to care for her shell-shocked father, now in his 70's. With hope fading for ever reaching her father, Susan makes the decision to put him in a home; however, she is forced through tragedy to experience a miracle that will change her life forever.
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