Veterans Employment Council

White House Creates Council On Veterans Employment

Last night the President signed an Executive Order creating an interagency Council on Veterans Employment to advise the President and Administration on how to set the bar for hiring and employing veterans.

The Council will be chaired by Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki, with Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry serving as the Vice Chair and Chief Operating Officer of the Council.

In statements prior to the signing, all involved gave their reasons for why the initiative is so important to them...>>>>

For Immediate Release November 9, 2009
Executive Order

- - - - -
Employment of Veterans in the Federal Government

By the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 301 of title 3 of the United States Code, I hereby order as follows:..>>>>

On: TBI - PTSD - No Bids & War Profiteering - Obstructionism and the VA

Let me start out with some Good News, but that still have many of us puzzled as to why it took so long to get to the 'Good' and much needed, no answers.

On 'Obstructionism' and the VA, Plus:

I'm saving this cut of the Rachel Maddow show, on the evening of 4.07.09, to show how those we hire to represent us don't.

Not only was Sen. Richard Burr placing a hold on the nomination of Tammy Duckworth an OIF Veteran for the VA, much needed placement of this nominee as two theaters of occupation are still at hand and much has been surfacing as to the incompetent way the Veterans Administration was Administered under the previous Executive Branch, but this also shows how he and his staff conduct their job of representation, they don't.



If trying to get answers from them or just writing them on concerns they tend do as a previous Senator, Sen Dole, did they don't respond. Send an e-mail, regular or fax, no e-mail, et.el, response comes back even acknowledgment of receiving your correspondence, and instead every once in a great while one gets a regular mail response, and these are extremely rare unless an election is coming up than they fly into your mailbox in bulk.

There's another example as well. We found out he had stopped his, no excuse for, hold on Tammy's nomination on the afternoon of the seventh, yet in doing a search after hearing that and into the next day there is no Press Release either publicly or at his Senate website saying the nomination is no longer on hold nor his reasons for that hold, Nothing. We find out in the evening on the Rachel Maddow Show, and she's not hired by us to Represent, her job is Journalism and reporting the facts.

Now the reason for leading off with that cut of last nights show leads into some very recent reports, which add on to the many that have been followed, as we still have our military in two ongoing occupations with soldiers and innocents dying and being maimed daily.

There has been a showing of almost total incompetence that existed under the previous administration and a certain political party that held the power for much of the previous recent past, some of that incompetence has been finally coming into public view these last two plus years. This has been across the board in almost every government agency, but these that follow have more to do with the Military and especially the Veterans Administration. One wonders how much more we'll find out.

Patient Scheduling Debacle Takes Down VA Exec

Dr. Michael Kussman, undersecretary for health at the Veterans Health Administration, has resigned, effective in 30 days, well-placed sources have told me.

Last month, Kussman wrote a memo detailing the near collapse of an eight-year, $167 million effort known as the Replacement Scheduling Application Development Program.

When VA Secretary Eric Shinseki learned of the problems with the program, he told staffers to give him a comprehensive review by Thursday, April 9, and planned a congressional briefing for Friday, according to internal memos.

Now on the heels of the above report comes the announcement from the VA on his upcoming retirement:

Michael J. Kussman, VA Under Secretary for Health, to Retire

April 7, 2009

WASHINGTON – Dr. Michael J. Kussman, the Under Secretary for Health for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), today announced his intention to retire from federal service by May 9, ending a 37-year government career. Dr. Kussman, who attained the rank of brigadier general while in the U.S. Army, has been with VA since 2000.

As Under Secretary for Health since 2007, Dr. Kussman has directed a health care system with an annual budget of approximately $40.2 billion, overseeing the delivery of care to more than 5.6 million Veterans.

Can the problems with the above seemingly wasteful spending and time be attributed all to Dr. Kussman, No, but it can led into the Political Appointee to head the Agency, as any agency, and those they bring along with them to work in the Administration of these Government Agencies, Dr Kussman is taking the political fall.

One of the many problems that keep coming up has been the obstruction of fully diagnosing what the returning soldiers and veterans of the two occupations, OIF and OEF, have been experiencing, or actually misdiagnosing to save on the benefits due them and the government cost of their care and support. This is nothing new it's happened since at least Korea and especially to our brothers of Vietnam right up to the present. But it once again, as during and after 'Nam, been very blatant.

"I am under a lot of pressure to not diagnose PTSD"

A secret recording reveals the Army may be pushing its medical staff not to diagnose post-traumatic stress disorder. The Army and Senate have ignored the implications.

Editor's note: Last June, during a medical appointment, a patient named "Sgt. X" recorded an Army psychologist at Fort Carson, Colo., saying that he was under pressure not to diagnose combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. Listen to a segment of the tape here:

UpDate to above Salon report 4.09.09:

Tale of the secret Army tape

After a soldier taped a psychologist saying he'd been pressured not to diagnose PTSD, the Army launched an investigation. Read the details of how the Army declared itself innocent.

Editor's note: Read about Sgt. X's tape -- and listen to a segment of it -- in the first story in this series, "I Am Under a Lot of Pressure to Not Diagnose PTSD." Read a summary of the Army's internal investigation, in which it determined that it was not exerting such pressure, here.

Hidden Wounds 1 in 3 injured troops suffer traumatic brain injury



Now the report above, with this Video, isn't long so I won't do a blockquote as it has a number of links embedded within for further study. But I will place those links here. Like this one TBI in the Military, and this one on the three million civilians who suffer from TBI in the U.S.. They have a link to Hines VA Hospital in Chicago and what they offer in care with high-tech devices. In the video they talk with Brian Sweeney who wrote of his experiences with TBI in Every 21 Seconds

Many Combat Vets Suffer Severe Headaches Upon Return

Almost all of those who had mild brain injury, blast exposure are affected, study says

Headaches have become a common complaint among soldiers who suffered mild head trauma while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.

These headaches tend to be debilitating, mirroring migraines in intensity, according to research released Monday that is to be presented next month at the American Academy of Neurology's annual meeting in Seattle.

About 15 percent of soldiers deployed to Iraq experience mild traumatic brain injury (TBI), according to background information from the researchers, who are based at Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash.

But not much has been known about the headaches that can occur as a result.

And this on the continuing discovery of the Blatant War Profiteering, especially from the wide open no bid contracts dished out by the previous administration, and rubber stamped by those in Congress under the same political banner, to their friends and supporters:

Safety team warns of 'catastrophic' wiring in Iraq

A military team sent to evaluate electrical problems at U.S. facilities in Iraq determined there was a high risk that flawed wiring could cause further "catastrophic results" namely, the electrocutions of U.S. soldiers.

Now into just a few things good to report on. Some followed In Their Boots last year. It's an online series of extremely important video reports that aired weekly on a number of issues facing the soldiers and their families as they returned from these wars. It ran every week and some, like myself, passed on that weeks show in posts. They have now started the second year, with a new site look and a new format, instead of weekly the shows are now every month with showings in different cities around the country.

You can visit the site to view last years shows as well as the first one for this second season "Broken Promises"

Or view the "Broken Promises" here:


They've sent out an e-alert for this months documentary to be shown in Huston Texas area on April 22 called "Fractured Minds" with a message that it should be widely available on the 24th of April. I missed the debut show last month until after it showed, but I believe you can catch this months on their site on the 22nd but it will take to the 24th to be able to link to or embed anywhere.

This is the Trailer for "Fractured Minds"


There also seems to be some real good news for a 'Gold Star Mom' Nadia McCaffrey and her sons, Patrick McCaffrey who was killed in the Iraq War, Wife and Child's hard work on a memorial to her son to help the returning OIF and OEF veterans readjust back to society and help them with any problems some may have.

Nadia's dream was the Veterans Village, which has been growing slowly but surely over these years since her sons death in Iraq. You can visit the link to find out more.

Well it looks like that dream may be speeding up and taking on the direction intended all along:

Veterans project heads in new direction

New leaders focus in on Washington

Coulthard, 64, a Vietnam veteran who has made a name for himself by securing government dollars for veteran housing for the past two decades, is optimistic about turning the Oak Ridge property into "Valley Forge Village," a 400-unit retreat for veterans and their families where they may stay as long as they wish in a self-sustaining common interest community that offers training and reintegration strategies.

He, along with Oak Ridge property owner Jim Jauss, and Nadia McCaffrey, the mother of Patrick McCaffrey, who was killed in the Iraq War, are slated for a visit to Washington April 19-21.

Any Vets in the DC area, especially OIF and OEF Veterans, may want to contact Jimmie Coulthard or Nadia McCaffery to give a hand with the Pols and the Administration, Stimulate this Dream!!

Soldiers Get Shafted, Again and........................!!

I was trying to write something more about this report I just read, but after these last eight previous years my rage keeps me from thinking straight in trying to add words to the total apathy, arrogance, and incompetence found in this country and it's elected representatives.

But I want you to meet Melissa Sterry, a Gulf War I National Guard Veteran, from New Haven Connecticut, and read the cuts I placed below also visiting the Hartford Advocate and read the rest, not only about Ms. Sterry but as to the rest of the Veterans of Connecticut, and what the state reps have to say.

Cut and Run
The Rell administration quietly kills a program to track the health of sick war veterans

Melissa Sterry's job was to clean them and ready them for storage. She'd climb inside the tanks and with a simple dust pan and broom, sweep out the Iraqi sand and the rubbish left behind by the tank operators.

Sterry was sweeping up something else too, something too small to see: dust from depleted uranium, a radioactive substance the military uses to make ammunition armor-piercing and bunker-busting. For months, Sterry cleaned these tanks without protective gear, kicking depleted uranium airborne and into her lungs.

Today, Sterry is a medical train wreck. The 46-year-old Gulf War veteran takes 11 kinds of medication — some daily and others as needed for pain — and suffers from chronic headaches, upper respiratory disease, bronchitis and a host of other ailments.

Like most Gulf War vets, the federal Veterans Administration refuses to test Sterry for exposure to depleted uranium or other chemical toxins she was exposed to in the Middle East.

So Sterry turned to the state government, and in 2005 helped Connecticut become the first state in the nation to craft a law to test returning combat troops for exposure to battlefield health hazards, including depleted uranium.

But the state has turned its back on Sterry and the more than 30,000 Connecticut troops who have deployed to combat zones in the Middle East and the Balkans since 1990. The Advocate has learned that Gov. Jodi Rell, through her budget office, quietly killed funding for the veterans health registry without telling the lawmakers who sponsored the program, nor the veterans whom it would serve.

If the registry isn't restored, hundreds of Connecticut-based troops could go undiagnosed and uncatalogued. The state has sent 16,000 troops to war since Sept. 11, 2001 and another 75 National Guardsmen and women shipped off to the southwest Asia last week, their second deployment to the war zone.

"People really don't care about veterans," Sterry says. "They really don't give a shit about us. People want to trot out veterans on photo-ops. They want to go put wreaths on gravestones. But real human beings with real life problems? No, we don't care."

Who is Gov. Jodi Rell, According to Wikipedia.

Mary Jodi Rell (born June 16, 1946) is a Republican politician who became the 72nd Governor of the U.S. state of Connecticut on July 1, 2004. She had been the Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut until Governor John G. Rowland resigned during a corruption investigation. Rell is Connecticut's second female Governor, after Ella T. Grasso.

To Sterry, cutting help for vets to balance the books is just plain heartless.

"We understand care and maintenance of our military vehicles, but we don't understand we need to do the same for our troops," Sterry says. "Do you want to change the oil in the engine or do you want to replace the engine when it seizes up? These actions are just a reflection of, We'll just change the engine when it seizes up."

Rell's press office was asked to explain why they cut funds for the registry and to respond to reactions like those of Sterry that denying health screening to combat troops is cold-hearted. Despite four calls and one e-mail to the governor's press shop over three days, we received no response to our questions. The governor's chief spokesman, Christopher Cooper, referred us the Jeffrey Beckham, undersecretary for legislative affairs at OPM, who responded with this statement:

"That program was new and had not gotten started. The agency required some cooperation from the federal government to get it going and I understand that cooperation was somewhat lacking. Given that we were struggling to protect existing programs, we thought that not going forward with that new program was a reasonable call."

We asked Beckham in a follow-up e-mail to elaborate about the lack of federal cooperation and respond to the questions unanswered by the governor's staff, but did not receive a response by press time.

Now I'm assuming, and probably right, about the lack of federal cooperation, that they are talking about the previous administrations control, as the present has been on the job only since January 20th '09.

Another in an ever growing list of the Incompetence and Corrupt leadership we've been a party to for these last eight years in the federal government, including the years of control prior to in the congress, and coming also out of the state governments!

Now a certain political party can't be blamed for everything concerning Military and Veterans Care, but this political party are the ones Thumbing their Chests as to being True 'Americans', More 'Patriotic', Stronger on 'National Defense', and the only True 'Supporters of the Troops' and thus us Veterans, and are the ones who championed the Two Occupations and the creation of huge numbers of enemies towards our country and it's citizens!!

Countries Responsibility - Veterans Care

Facing The Wall: A Mission

Witness This Engaging Account About One Woman's Struggling in Taking Care of Her Vietnam War Veteran Husband Suffering From Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

FACING THE WALL: A MISSION symbolizes the everlasting pains of war as well as our search for peace. It pays special attention to PTSD and its effects on the whole family.

Growing Problem For Veterans: Domestic Violence

"The increasing number of veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) raises the risk of domestic violence and its consequences on families and children in communities across the United States," says Monica Matthieu, Ph.D., an expert on veteran mental health and an assistant professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis.

Veterans oppose change in health care

They protest VA hospital contracting out surgical, emergency, ICU services

He held a sign that read: "Dole Out Burr Next." Other signs read: "Save our hospital," "Save our ICU," and "Be loud save our care."

An unspoken illness among veterans

On this Veterans Day, whether we are a veteran, family member, friend, co-worker or simply a concerned citizen, we all need to make sure we continue to fight the stigma attached to seeking mental health treatment. We need to do go the extra yard to ensure that veterans who may be suffering from mental illnesses receive the help they need.

After Two Iraq War Deployments

Army Major General Steps Forward, Breaks Culture of Silence on Mental Health

Blackledge got psychiatric counseling to deal with wartime trauma, and now he is defying the military's culture of silence on the subject of mental health problems and treatment.

"It's part of our profession ... nobody wants to admit that they've got a weakness in this area," Blackledge said of mental health problems among troops returning from America's two wars.

Challenges remain for many veterans
People can do more for those who served, VFW commander says

“Somewhere as veterans, these people have crossed the line from normal to abnormal. They need help and they need to know they won’t be judged if they reach out for help,” he said.

Obama can make quick, modest gains on health care

**Expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover as many children as possible when it comes up for renewal in March. The program has broad support in Congress, but it was cut during its last renewal to win President Bush's signature.

**Authorize the federal government to negotiate bulk purchases of Medicare prescription drugs. Bush opposed this, but the Veterans Affairs already does it with great success.

Dems get new crop of military voters

With McCain facing a diminished role in the GOP, and Chuck Hagel retiring from the Senate, there are few prominent Republican leaders left with military bona fides. This is in stark contrast to the Democratic Party, which has seen the emergence of a new generation of veteran leaders.

In the past two election cycles, Democrats have added ten new Democratic veterans to Congress. Last week, President-elect Barack Obama helped close the gap among military voters, winning 44 percent of veterans as opposed to John F. Kerry’s 41 percent in 2004.

For all the GOP’s patriotic imagery and testosterone-infused rhetoric, the sad truth is that most of the current crop of Republican leaders – Rudy Giuliani; Mitt Romney; Newt Gingrich; Mitch McConnell; John Boehner; etc. – were all of age at the time of Vietnam but avoided serving in the military.

N.J. Hospitals, Military and Veterans Affairs Join Broad Effort to Improve Returning Vets' Healthcare

The New Jersey Hospital Association and the N.J. Department of Military and Veterans Affairs have partnered with more than a dozen national organizations in a sweeping effort to educate healthcare professionals, veterans and family members about the unique health-related problems faced by returning veterans.

Honor America's Veterans on Nov. 11

Tuesday, Nov. 11 the United States marks the 55th Veterans Day observance. Across the nation, we will pay tribute to America's 25 million living veterans and the more than one million who have given their lives in military service.

While Veterans Day is a time to recall the sacrifices of those who have protected our liberty and way of life, honoring America's veterans must be an ongoing national priority which is reflected in a strong federal commitment to veterans' needs.

Keep In Front Of Mind, Who Had Total Control.......

As they Rubber Stamped Two Major Conflicts!

Signing off on Conflict Budgets with No Oversite and No Questions!

Whatever this administration wanted They Got, and are Still getting even though the People Want the Complete Opposite and Spoke out for last election!

Well we have now been watching the Results of Their 'Tough On National Defense and Supporting The Troops'!

They sent our Military into these Wars of Choice, and showed a Total lack of Concern about our returning Military Personal. Speaking hollow words of 'Support'!

Their Choice, to follow the Failed Policies and Incompetent Corrupt Leadership!!

Tampa Bay VA hospitals forced to turn away patients
Overloading is the reason for denying services. Critics say it's a national crisis.

Two Tampa Bay veterans hospitals turn away critically ill patients for huge chunks of the year because of an overloaded veterans' health-care system.

They managed to take an already strained VA Health Care system, thanks to inaction for far too long, and not only strained it further but once again broke it, as it was after our last major debacle.

"The VA has never dealt with its capacity issues seriously," said Bill Geden, district director in west-central Florida for the Blinded Veterans Association. "They're underfunded, undermanned and overloaded."

With the Billions, 'rubber stamped', and spent creating another generation of major numbers of maimed Combat Veterans, not only are these recent Veterans not being cared for properly, as we've been finding out, but Veterans of past conflicts are being pushed aside by a Nation, who through their Representatives, shows the lack of caring and concern!

Now who can Speak of 'Strong on National Defense', it certainly isn't those who base their political ideology on those words, they can't even take care of those who serve to make Defense Strong!

Who can speak of 'Supporting The Troops', it certainly isn't those who's Representatives show their total lack of 'Support'!

I went way beyond Fed Up long ago.

I want any and all running for National Office against any, who still call themselves republicans, asking the Questions of why our returning Military and our Veterans are facing these Major Problems. But especially our returning Combat Troops at a time of two Major Theaters of Operations!

They beat the drums of war and gave our Military the Finger!

UPDATED

New report on Military Suicides

Iraq, Afghan vets at risk for suicides

By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer 31 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Mary Gallagher did not get a knock at the door from a military chaplain with news of her Marine husband's death in a faraway place. Instead, the Iraq war veteran committed suicide eight months after returning home.