Labels: Afghanistan, Military, Obama, Pentagon, Veterans
Operation Survivor currently includes three initiatives:
Labels: Operation Survivor, Survivor Corps, Veterans
Labels: Afghanistan, Bush, Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, Military, Obama, Pakistan, Syria, terrorism, Veterans
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio recently wrote Teresa McKay, director of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service expressing his concern over a veterans' claim program where millions of dollars in payment errors allegedly occurred, according to the Associated Press.
-DippoldKucinich blamed the errors on a weakening of quality control checks prompted by a rush to shrink a backlog of unprocessed claims.
LaRock said his office started a review of the program after the House Oversight subcommittee on domestic policy that Kucinich chairs held hearings on the issue last July. He said they have reprocessed about 10 percent of the 133,000 claims originally considered eligible for the program, and hoped to complete the review by early spring of next year.
Calls To Veterans' Suicide Hotline Double: New VA Phone Line, Created Last July, Now Taking 250 Calls Per Day [AP via CBS News]
Labels: Afghanistan, Iraq, Military, Veterans
The AP is reporting that according to a new congressional report at least 28,283 vets may not have been paid money owed to them by the government because the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) were working frantically to clear a backlog of claims resulting from changes in the law allowing vets to claim both military retirement and disability at the same time. -DippoldIn mid-2006, DFAS had hired Lockheed to help it work through the long list of cases. The government identified some 133,000 veterans who were eligible for money through its "VA Retro" program. The list quickly grew by another 84,000 names because newly retired veterans or those with a changed disability status were being added.
Officials finally cleared the backlog last June, seven months after the original deadline.
According to the House investigation, officials reached their goal only after lowering their standards. . .
According to a report by the Associated Press Saturday, veteran group Vets for Freedom is launching a national ad campaign this week touting the troop buildup in Afghanistan and Iraq.Labels: advertising, Afghanistan, Iraq, Veterans, warfare
The term "Swift Boat" has become synonymous with nasty campaign smears. Today's New York Times has an article that basically states these Vietnam Veterans, who served on the type of boat pictured above (know as Patrol Craft Fast or Swift boats), want their good name back.Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, formerly known as the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT), is a political group (527 group) of American Swift boat veterans and former prisoners of war of the Vietnam War, formed during the 2004 presidential election campaign for the purpose of opposing John Kerry's candidacy for the presidency.Even some of the Vets who associated with the anti-Kerry group do not like what "Swift boat" has become (to mean.)
Labels: 2008, Military, Swift Boat, Veterans, Vietnam
The AP has obtained internal documents from the VA showing that despite the declining number of vets, the government expects to spend $59 billion a year in 25 years to compensate injured troops, up from today's $29 billion.
CBS News reports on a congressional hearing titled, "The truth about veteran suicides."Why address the problem, and try to reduce the number of actual suicide attempts, when it’s so much easier to just perform a radical numerectomy on the official statistics? Especially when you can achieve much more dramatic results by number-fudging than you ever could through providing adequate mental health services.
This guy is surely the perfect combination of criminal negligence and criminally stupidity? What kind of mental defective do you have to be to a) think you can get away with claiming that attempted suicides are 15 times lower than they actually are, and b) to openly put it all in writing in an email like that?
-Dippold
According to the AP and Cleveland.com there is significant disparity between states in average annual disability payments to veterans.This is a problem that definitely need to be fixed. Our veterans, regardless of the state they reside in, should be compensated the same for their injuries. Each state should have the same rating system in place and follow the exact same guidelines. Training is a must, for those who are making those decisions. I look at it this way … our veterans have given a portion of their lives to serve our country and they should, each and every one of them, be shown the respect, by compensating them in the same manner. That’s the least they deserve.-Dippold
