Archive for January, 2010

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Marines leave Iraq

Monday, January 25th, 2010

—–Original Message—– From: Carpenter SgtMaj Kiplyn (USF-W SGTMAJ)
Cc: Tryon MajGen Richard T (USF-W CG)
Subject: FAREWELL OF THE MARINES FROM IRAQ

UNCLASSIFIED

Please pass on,

SgtsMaj, MGySgts, CMDCMs, Marines and Sailors, Saturday, 23 January at 1100 will mark the end of the Marines in Iraq as an organization. II MEF (fwd) will conduct a Transfer of Authority Ceremony with the First Armored Division without a Relief in Place from any incoming unit. USF-W (formally MNF-W) will merge with USD-C (formally MND-Baghdad) and will cease to exist.

After 6 years, over 850 Marines and Sailors killed in combat and another 8800 wounded we have completed our mission. At our peak, we had almost 26,000 Marines and Sailors on deck, close to 200 aircraft, over 380,000 pieces of ground equipment, and were averaging close to 2000 significant events a month. We have added a whole new generation of Heros; and names like Al Nasiriyah, Fallujah and Ramadi will be added to our History books. Words can’t begin to explain the magnitude of effort and sacrifice our Marines and Sailors have gone through to help the Iraqi people. Each year since the initial invasion, Marines and Sailors from all over the Corps have been a part of the revolving I MEF (fwd) and II MEF (Fwd) Commands. Each year has been different with its own sets of unique challenges and each successive year, the incoming organization has built upon the successes of the outgoing organization.

This year was no different, we didn’t have anywhere near the level of fighting that previous MEFs have done. However, we did conduct many operations, maintained security, continue to professionalize the Iraqi Security Forces, develop good governance and economics, assisted with the continued establishment of the Rule of Law and oversaw the peaceful transition of the provincial government. We also had one unique mission that we can call our own. That was to finally bring the Marine Corps home. Over the past year, we have simultaneously conducted the responsible drawdown of 24,000 Personnel, over 34 COPs and FOBs, including Baharia, Rawah, and TQ and sent six years worth of equipment out of theater.

For those of you who served with me this year, thank you. It was long and difficult at times, with our own set of challenges, but we did it.

It has been an honor to serve with you.

For those of you who have left your boot prints over here at least once during the last six years; thanks to you too. You set the stage for us to finish the job. It has been costly, it has been challenging, it has taken a while with quite a few dark days. But, in the end, it was worth it.

All Marines and Sailors, including those who remained stateside have contributed to the overall success of the Marines and Sailors in Iraq and; all of us have known someone who didn’t make it back alive or has permanent injuries. It is up to us to ensure that those who follow never forgot their sacrifice or what we did here.

Collectively, we have added another illustrious chapter to the successful story of our Marine Corps. One that all of us can be proud of.

Semper Fidelis,

K. Carpenter
Sergeant Major
United States Force – West, Iraq
(Previously Multi National Force – West) II Marine Expeditionary Force (Fwd)
21 January 2010

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Forgotten dead, in Storage

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

Forgotten dead, in storage
An estimated 1% of cremated remains go unclaimed for years. But a long-lost relative just might show up.

Dozens of unclaimed human remains are stored in boxes and urns at the Cremation Society of Illinois. Funeral home policies vary on what to do with such remains: Some scatter them, others inter them, and many just let them be. (Chris Walker / Chicago Tribune / January 12, 2010)

By William Hageman
January 24, 2010
Reporting from Chicago – It’s a small room that could be in any Midwestern basement: paneled walls, concrete floor, low ceiling, fluorescent lights, gray metal shelves lining two walls.

But what’s on the shelves sets this room apart: more than 100 small cardboard boxes of cremated human remains.

Each box — the oldest dates to the late 1960s — has a person’s name written on the outside and cremation paperwork inside. These people lived, died, were cremated — and then left behind by their families.

People in the funeral industry estimate that 1% of cremated remains go unclaimed.

David Fisher, an independent Chicago-area funeral director and embalmer, says the average funeral home might have four or five sets of ashes sitting around.

Jerry Sullivan, president of the Cremation Society of Illinois as well as the International Cremation Federation, believes the number may be lower.

“I would say that every funeral home in the state of Illinois probably has one or two sets of cremated remains that people just never came back for,” Sullivan says.

Funeral homes’ policies differ on such abandoned remains: Some scatter them, some bury them, and some just hang onto them for — well, if not for eternity, at least in perpetuity.

“I’ve been in the [funeral] business since 1970,” Sullivan says. “My parents had a funeral home from 1952. So I’ve got some of theirs. I have some from businesses we’ve bought or inherited. . . .

“I remember we bought a funeral home, and there was a file cabinet there. We assumed it was files. Then we opened it and there were 10 or 15 sets of cremated remains. We still have them.”

Sullivan stores the remains in this climate-controlled room in one of the Cremation Society’s facilities in a Chicago suburb. Some of the remains belong to friends or acquaintances. On one shelf resides a machine shop owner he knew. Side by side on another shelf are two brothers. And he’s on a first-name basis with Mary and Roy.

“Oddly enough, to me, it feels like they’re relatives,” he says. “I feel they’re in better care with me than with somebody else.”

Illinois law is fuzzy regarding a deadline for the disposition of remains. Many funeral home directors play it safe and hold on to them out of concern that a relative might come for them later.

But how does a family member get left behind and forgotten?

Before prepaid funerals, some families couldn’t pay the bill and were reluctant to drop by the funeral home. Sometimes families aren’t especially close and no one wants to take responsibility for a distant relative. Or maybe the survivors didn’t know what to do with remains, so they did nothing.

“I think, probably, the most common reason was they just didn’t want them,” says Fisher. “They didn’t have any idea what they wanted to do, so they just left them at the funeral home.”

And the funeral director is left with the ashes.

“Usually it’s about a 60- to 90-day time when we start to encourage a family more aggressively to come on in, meet with us again,” said David Klein of Dignity Memorial, a Houston-based company that operates hundreds of funeral homes and cemeteries nationwide. “Or if there’s just no contact we’ll continue to hold them over the next two or three months as well, till a point when we feel comfortable enough — it could be nine months or a year — that we can say, OK, we’ve done our duty.”

Dignity sends the remains to a central place — a mausoleum at one of its cemeteries.

“Some funeral homes will pay to have them buried,” Fisher says. “Some scatter them, or have a scattering service over Lake Michigan.”

Says Sullivan: “I know some put them in a mausoleum niche or have a burial. It just seems impersonal to me.” So he holds on to the boxes, no matter how long it takes until someone claims them.

“Our record is nine years,” he said.

But records are made to be broken. Less than an hour after saying that, in late December, Sullivan received a call from a man seeking the ashes of his sister, who died in 1991. A family dispute with the woman’s ex-husband was the reason for the delay. The ex-husband had recently died, and the brother began pursuing his sister’s whereabouts.

Sullivan knew right where the remains were.

“He wants them buried with their mother and father,” he said later. “He wanted to purchase an urn and have us take her to the cemetery and bury her for him.”

bhageman@tribune.com
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Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

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Cold War Veterans to get their Day in Court

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

January 23, 2010 by Mike Bailey

The veterans of America’s Cold War experimental programs, primarily the 7120 enlisted men and women used at Edgewood Arsenal from 1955 thru 1976, have won the right to be heard in a federal court room this coming year.

The governments lawyers from the Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Army have spent the past year attempting to persuade the Judge to dismiss this lawsuit on any and all excuses, they claimed the statuette of limitations has expired, the action was filed in the wrong court, that National Security prevented the court from hearing this case, etc, basically these lawyers threw everything but the kitchen sink at Gordon Erspamer and the other attornies representing the 6 veterans and the Vietnam Veterans of America, who as a group represented these men.

http://edgewoodtestvets.org/

Vietnam Veterans of America, et al. v. Central Intelligence Agency, et al.
Case No. CV-09-0037-CW, U.S.D.C. (N.D. Cal. 2009)http://mofo.com/news/pressreleases/16406.html

Morrison & Foerster Secures Victory for Troops Exposed to Chemical and Biological Weapons Testing in Case Against the U.S. Government

01/20/2010

——————————————————————————–

SAN FRANCISCO (January 20, 2010) – Morrison & Foerster yesterday won the right to proceed with a case against the CIA, the Department of Defense, and the U.S. Army, filed on behalf of veterans rights organizations Vietnam Veterans of America and Swords to Plowshares, along with six veterans with multiple diseases and ailments, tied to a secret testing program in which U.S. military personnel were deliberately exposed to chemical and biological weapons and other toxins without informed consent. Plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief that would free them from their secrecy oaths and grant them healthcare that they were promised.
On January 19, 2010, Judge Claudia Wilken of the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, issued an order that overruled the government’s main arguments to dismiss the case, which were based upon lack of jurisdiction, failure to state a claim for relief, statute of limitations, sovereign immunity, and standing.

“The victory obtained for us by our attorneys at Morrison & Foerster finally gives us a chance to redress one of the unfortunate decisions that has made veterans second class citizens,” said Paul Cox, Board of Directors Member at Swords to Plowshares.

The court also dismissed a direct challenge to the Feres doctrine, which is an exception to the waiver of sovereign immunity that was created by the Supreme Court during the Cold War. According to Rick Weidman, Executive Director for Policy and Government Affairs at Vietnam Veterans of America, “the government became immune to damages suits by military veterans after Feres so the use of soldiers became cheaper than using guinea pigs.”

The human experimentation program launched in the early 1950s and continued through at least 1976 when it was suspended in response to hearings conducted by Congress. Thousands of experiments took place at the Edgewood Arsenal and Fort Detrick, as well as several universities and hospitals across America contracted by the Defendants. “Volunteers” were exposed to thousands of toxins under code names such as MKULTRA, including drugs such as LSD, mescaline, and cannabis; biological substances such as plague and anthrax; and noxious gases such as sarin, tabun, and nerve gases.

“The government has long reconciled its war prosecutions and reliance on international treaties with secret actions on its part. As the case moves forward, perhaps we will finally learn an answer to why our vets were made victims at Edgewood,” said Michael Blecker, Executive Director at Swords to Plowshares.

Morrison & Foerster Senior Counsel Gordon Erspamer is the lead attorney representing the veterans, along with partner Timothy Blakely and associates Stacey Sprenkel, Adriano Hrvatin, Tim Reed, and Jonathan McFarland. The case came on the heels of an earlier case the firm filed on behalf of veterans afflicted with Post-Traumatic Distress Disorder, which is now pending in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The firm is handling both cases pro bono.

The trial should be held either this summer or this fall in San Francisco, hopefully it will be given class action to that it will represent the entire 7120 veterans, their widows and their children, who have been deprived the veterans benefits the victims of these immoral and ill thought out hazards to human health.

The government has stated that this will never happen again, some how I don’t trust them. The term “national security” has been used to hide many nasty things done in this nations name. Rendition, torture, up to and including abusing it’s own military personnel as this case shows. Then they use every means possible to deny it ever happened, they lie about it, they lie about the men who talk about it, they lie to us, they lie to Congress, they lie to Generals in charge, they lie to any and all involved in investigating them.

I have been told I was NOT used in any “secret test programs” no I never claimed I was, I plainly stated I was used in a known classified project at Edgewood Arsenal, nothing more and nothing less. I have the files to prove I was there, can I prove what I was exposed to, no, I have had Congressman tell me that they have been informed by the Army that I was never there, I was not exposed to anything, I was sent home sick in July 1974, despite Army records that prove I was at Edgewood Arsenal from June 25 – August 22, 1974. What took place during that 59 day period is classified, but it did happen.

After decades of ignoring these veterans and their families, it is finally time for this nation to accept their responsibility for these men and women. We just went to war against Saddam Hussein for using WMDs primarily Sarin and Mustard agents against the Kurds, what did these 7120 soldiers do to the government of the US to deserve being used and abused by them? Justice demands that this nation give these men and women medical care and if appropriate comoensation for their medical conditions caused by the “classified experiments” 35-55 years ago.

It is time to honor these volunteers for the danger they placed themselves in to enable the development of chemical, biological safety equipment to protect todays soldiers. They did not even give these men the promised Army Commendation or Soldiers medals they were promised, let alone the promotions we were promised.

Maybe a federal court can make the military keep it’s “honor” since they decided to use and abuse and then ignore these men and women due to the true costs of doing the “right thing” decades ago

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“Blue Water” Navy veterans eligible for Agent Orange Benefits

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

From VA’s Jan 2010 Comp and Pension bulletin
Policy (211)
Information on Vietnam Naval Operations
Compensation and Pension (C&P) Service has initiated a program to collect data on Vietnam naval operations for the purpose of providing regional offices with information to assist with development in Haas related disability claims based on herbicide exposure from Navy Veterans. To date, we have received verification from various sources showing that a number of offshore “blue water” naval vessels conducted operations on the inland “brown water” rivers and delta areas of Vietnam. We have also identified certain vessel types that operated primarily or exclusively on the inland waterways. The ships and dates of inland waterway service are listed below. If a Veteran’s service aboard one of these ships can be confirmed through military records during the time frames specified, then exposure to herbicide agents can be presumed without further development.
All vessels of Inshore Fire Support [IFS] Division 93 during their entire Vietnam tour USS Carronade (IFS 1) USS Clarion River (LSMR 409) [Landing Ship, Medium, Rocket] USS Francis River (LSMR 525) USS White River (LSMR 536)
All vessels with the designation LST [Landing Ship, Tank] during their entire tour [WWII ships converted to transport supplies on rivers and serve as barracks for brown water Mobile Riverine Forces]
All vessels with the designation LCVP [Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel] during their entire tour
All vessels with the designation PCF [Patrol Craft, Fast] during their entire tour [Also called Swift Boats, operating for enemy interdiction on close coastal waters]
All vessels with the designation PBR [Patrol Boat, River] during their entire tour [Also called River Patrol Boats as part of the Mobile Riverine Forces operating on inland waterways and featured in the Vietnam film “Apocalypse Now”]
USS Ingersoll (DD-652) [Destroyer] [Operated on Saigon River, October 24-25, 1965]
USS Mansfield (DD-728) [Destroyer] [Operated on Saigon River August 8-19, 1967 and December 21-24, 1968]
USS Richard E. Kraus (DD-849) [Destroyer] [Operated on coastal inlet north of Da Nang, June 2-5, 1966, protecting Marines holding a bridge]
USS Basilone (DD-824) [Destroyer] [Operated on Saigon River, May 24-25, 1966]
USS Hamner (DD-718) [Destroyer] [Operated on Song Lon Tao and Long Song Tao Rivers, August 15-September 1, 1966]
USS Conway (DD-507) [Destroyer] [Operated on Saigon River, early August 1966]
USS Fiske (DD-842) [Destroyer] [Operated on Mekong River, June 16-21, 1966]
USS Black (DD-666) [Destroyer] [Operated on Saigon River, July 13-19, 1966]
USS Providence (CLG-6) [Cruiser, Light, Guided Missile] [Operated on Saigon River 3 days during January 1964]
USS Mahan (DLG-11) [Guided Missile Frigate] [Operated on Saigon River October 24-28, 1964]
USS Okanogan (APA-220) [Attack Transport] [Operated on Saigon River July 22-23, 29-30, 1968 and August 5-6, 1968]
USS Niagara Falls (AFS-3) [Combat Stores Ship] [Unloaded supplies on Saigon River and Cam Rahn Bay, April 22-25, 1968]

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Help for Homeless Female Veterans in Florida

Saturday, January 23rd, 2010

Help for Homeless Female Veterans in Florida
Ground was broken on Friday for a new building in Cocoa, FL, that is designed to provide female veterans living in Florida with a new resource for coping with veterans’ related issues, such as homelessness.

According to a story on FloridaToday.com:

» Each night, there are an estimated 131,000 veterans who are homeless
» Nearly 300,000 veterans each year will be homeless at some point AND
» Of those figures, 15% are believed to be women veterans.
The Center for Drug Free Living in Cocoa is transitional housing for homeless female veterans in the Brevard County, Florida-area. The proposed building will provide much-needed housing for veteran women, with seven units of two bedrooms each. There will also be services in place to assist 28 homeless veteran women and their dependent children with any mental illness or drug addiction problems.

Female veterans in Florida face unique challenges. Among the concerns for Florida female veterans are issues of finding affordable housing, childcare, and healthcare. They also might struggle to maintain adequate employment, which can be difficult in healthy economic times, let alone during a recession.

This project is funded, in part, by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The center also received local funding and a generous donation from an anonymous source. The center is projected to reach completion in 2011.

Homeless Florida veterans deserve to have access to adequate resources to combat substance abuse and mental health disorders, which are debilitating problems that severely impact the veteran’s qualify of life. When Florida veterans do not have access to veterans’ disability benefits, the chances only increase that those veterans could eventually face homelessness.

Additional housing benefits are available to disabled veterans which may be based on your disability rating. If you are a disabled veteran who is fighting the VA to receive disability compensation, contact the veterans’ disability rights law firm of LaVan & Neidenberg.

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Post-traumatic stress diagnosed using magnetism

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

brain3-nih
Jan. 21, 2010
Courtesy Institute of Physics
and World Science staff

The thick­et of anx­i­e­ty, re­cur­ring night­mares and related prob­lems that en­velops some war vet­er­ans and oth­er trau­ma sur­vivors has been di­ag­nosed us­ing a phys­i­cal test for the first time, re­search­ers say.

The find­ings are being called a major ad­vance in stu­dy­ing the condition—post-trau­matic stress dis­or­der (PTSD)—which in the past was de­tect­a­ble only through psy­cho­log­i­cal screen­ing.

U.S. war vet­er­ans were in­volved in clin­i­cal tri­als that sci­en­tists say ap­pear to have di­ag­nosed post-trau­matic stress dis­or­der us­ing mag­ne­toen­ceph­al­o­graphy, a non-in­vas­ive meas­ure­ment of mag­net­ic fields in the brain. (Image courtesy U.S. NIH)

This se­vere anx­i­e­ty dis­or­der, en­shrined in pop­ular cons­cious­ness through films such as the Ram­bo se­ries about a tor­m­ented Viet­nam veteran, of­ten stems from war but can re­sult from any trau­matic event. The dis­or­der can man­i­fest it­self in flash­backs, re­cur­ring night­mares, an­ger or hy­per­vi­gil­ance.

U.S. war vet­er­ans were in­volved in clin­i­cal tri­als that sci­en­tists say ap­pear to have di­ag­nosed the dis­or­der us­ing mag­ne­toen­ceph­al­o­graphy, a non-in­vas­ive mea­s­ure­ment of mag­net­ic fields in the brain.

Con­ven­tion­al brain scans had failed to de­tect the dis­or­der, said the re­search­ers, whose work ap­peared Jan. 20 in the Jour­nal of Neu­ral En­gi­neer­ing.

The re­search­ers from the Min­ne­ap­o­lis Vet­er­an Af­fairs Med­i­cal Cen­ter and the Univers­ity of Min­ne­so­ta, led by Apos­to­los P Geor­go­pou­los and Bri­an En­g­dahl, worked with the 74 vet­er­ans who had served in World War II, Vi­et­nam, Af­ghan­i­stan or Iraq, and had been di­ag­nosed with be­hav­iour­al symp­toms of PTSD. Al­so par­ti­ci­pat­ing in the study were a group of peo­ple with­out the dis­or­der.

With more than 90 percent ac­cu­ra­cy, the re­search­ers said, they were able to tell apart PTSD pa­tients from healthy sub­jects us­ing a “syn­chronous neu­ral in­ter­ac­tions test.” This in­volves an­a­lys­ing the mag­net­ic charges re­leased when popula­t­ions of brain cells con­nect or “cou­ple.”

The abil­ity to ob­jec­tively di­ag­nose PTSD is seen as a first step to­wards help­ing those af­flicted with the dis­or­der.

“The ex­cel­lent re­sults ob­tained of­fer ma­jor prom­ise for the use­ful­ness of the syn­chro­nous neu­ral in­ter­ac­tions test for dif­fer­en­tial di­ag­no­sis as well as for mon­i­tor­ing dis­ease pro­gres­sion and for eval­u­at­ing the ef­fects of psy­cho­log­i­cal and/or drug treat­ments,” the re­search­ers wrote.

This work fol­lows suc­cess in de­tecting oth­er brain dis­eases, such as Alzheimer’s and mul­ti­ple scle­ro­sis, us­ing the mag­net­ic tech­nique, sci­en­tists said. The meth­od was in­vented by Geor­go­pou­los and the lat­est re­search was funded by the U.S. De­part­ment of Vet­er­ans Af­fairs.

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Veterans Aid & Attendance: The Missing Puzzle Piece

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

Are you a veteran or the widow of a veteran?
Do you need help covering long term care and medical expenses?

If you answered “yes” to both of these questions, then you may be eligible for as much as $1,949 a month. Read on . . .
Most people believe that veterans’ benefits are only for those who retired from the military or were injured during active duty. For years that was the common belief. Until recently. Buried beneath layers of bureaucratic and regulatory red tape there is another important benefit that many are just now discovering.

An Important Benefit That Most Veterans (and Fewer Widows) Know Nothing About

The Department of Veterans Affairs administers a variety of programs for veterans. Most people know about the VA Health System (hospitals, nursing homes, and clinics). Many are aware that the VA administers monetary programs such as educational benefits, home loan guaranties and compensation for service-connected injuries.

But a huge number of veterans (and widows of veterans) are simply unaware of a program under the VA heading of “Special Monthly Pension” (or SMP). Because they don’t know about SMP, or because they don’t know how to access it, millions of veterans and the widows of veterans who qualify will never see a dime.

This pamphlet explains the basics and will tell you whether you might qualify. If financially you do not qualify now, after the right planning you might qualify – so don’t give up! If physically and medically you do not qualify now, you may want to start planning now if you think you may need the help later.

Answer These Simple Questions
SMP is divided into two basic benefits: “Housebound” benefits and “Aid and Attendance” benefits. Take a moment to see if you might qualify.

STEP 1 First things first. Make sure each of the following apply to you (or your veteran):
The veteran must have served at least 90 days active duty, and just 1 of those days needs to have been in a War Time Period. The War Time Periods are:
WWII 12/7/1941 thru 12/31/1946
Korean Conflict 6/27/1950 thru 1/31/1955
Vietnam 8/5/1964 thru 5/7/1975 (back to -2/28/1962 if time served in Vietnam)
Gulf Wars 8/2/1990 – current

The veteran must not have received a Dishonorable Discharge
The veteran must be either disabled or over age 65

STEP 2 Next, determine if you might qualify for the higher benefit of Aid and Attendance. If any of the following apply, you might.
Is the veteran, spouse or widow blind?
Is the veteran, spouse or widow living in a nursing home or assisted living facility?
Does the veteran, spouse or widow have some incapacity or limited ability that requires regular assistance from others in order to remain safe and clean?
STEP 3 If nothing in STEP 2 applies to the veteran, spouse or widow, the person may still qualify for the lower “Housebound” benefit if the person is essentially confined to the home and cannot leave without the assistance of others.
STEP 4 If STEP 1 and either STEP 2 or STEP 3 apply, determine if you might meet the income requirements. The veteran’s (or widow’s) family income, as adjusted, cannot exceed the following for Housebound benefits:
veteran only $1,204
veteran with dependent $1,510
widow(er) with no dependents $808

For Aid and Attendance, the adjusted income limits are higher

veteran only $1,644
veteran with dependent $1,949
widow(er) with no dependents $1,056

IMPORTANT: The income limits apply to adjusted income. Medical expenses not paid by insurance can reduce total gross income: doctor’s fees, dentist’s fees, prescription glasses, Medicare premiums, prescription drugs, nursing home expenses, home health care, and assisted living facility costs.

For example, a veteran with $2,000 monthly income, living in an assisted living facility or perhaps at home with the help of a home health agency will likely have no (zero) income after adjusting for expenses. He might qualify for the maximum $1,949.

There are plenty of planning options available if you have access to expert assistance.

STEP 5 If you might qualify under STEP 4, determine if you meet the asset/resource requirements. The VA uses a “gray” standard of whether a person has “sufficient means” to pay for his or her own care.
You will need to have less than “sufficient means”. Generally, for a married couple “sufficient means” is around $80,000 or more. A single person might be held to a lower standard. An older single person might be held to an even lower standard. A residence and an automobile are not counted as resources for determining asset levels.

Again, the good news is there are plenty of planning options available if you have expert guidance.

STEP 6 A properly prepared application with all supporting documents must be submitted to the VA. By law, only the following can assist with an application
A state veterans affairs office
A veterans service organization (such as VFW)
A licensed attorney
While no one can charge a fee for actually preparing and submitting an application, an expert can charge a fee for assisting you to qualify for VA Aid and Attendance or Housebound benefits. Very few persons understand the “ins and outs” of the process.

A BIG DANGER, BUT A BIG OPPORTUNITY Most veterans, their spouses or perhaps their widows have other concerns. These concerns may involve Medicaid planning and conserving (or stretching) assets for themselves and their families.

Without expert care, a veteran who applies for VA benefits with no thought to his or her overall situation might create incredible hardship and perhaps jeopardize other important nursing home or assisted living benefits.

On the other hand, in the hands of an expert, VA benefits might provide a tremendous boost when properly integrated with other planning options.

The bottom line: VA benefits can be a wonderful piece (one that has been missing) to a planning puzzle, but without expert help fitting the pieces together, putting the puzzle together might be impossible.

The time to start working on the puzzle is now.

January 19th, 2010 | Author: Bob Mason

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Soldier guilty of cruelty and maltreatment in Irag

Monday, January 18th, 2010

JoANNE VIVIANO
From Associated Press
January 18, 2010 4:38 PM EST

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A military panel in Kuwait convicted a U.S. soldier of being cruel and mistreating fellow soldiers, a case undertaken after an Army private from Ohio committed suicide in Iraq.

Staff Sgt. Enoch Chatman, of West Covina, Calif., was convicted Wednesday on two violations of the cruelty and maltreatment article of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, said Lt. Col. Kevin Olson, a military spokesman in Iraq.

Chatman was one of four soldiers accused of mistreating others in their platoon in Iraq through verbal abuse, physical punishment and ridicule of other soldiers.

The investigation was prompted by the August death of Pvt. Keiffer Wilhelm, who grew up in Willard in northwest Ohio.

Wilhelm, 19, was in Iraq with his new platoon for just 10 days before he killed himself. His family believes he was treated so badly that he took his own life, but the military has determined there was no direct evidence the four soldiers’ misconduct caused the death.

His father, Shane Wilhelm, attended the trial and said he was glad Chatman “got something” but is not completely satisfied with the outcome.

“We’re glad that he was found guilty because he was there for most of the occurrences that took place to our son,” he said. “He was in a position to prevent this from happening, and he didn’t.”

Wilhelm’s mother has said he called her twice from Iraq and told her he was being targeted in his new unit and forced to run for miles with rocks in his pockets that smashed against his knees. He also told his mother that he was being forced to exercise for hours and that his personal items were disappearing, she said.

Chatman was sentenced Thursday to three months’ confinement, a reduction in rank and a reprimand, Olson said. He had faced up to 10 years in prison.

Sgt. Jarrett Taylor of Edmond, Okla., was found guilty in November and was sentenced to confinement for six months, reduction in rank and forfeiture of two-thirds pay for six months, Olson said.

Staff Sgt. Bob Clements of Eastland, Texas, is scheduled to face trial Feb. 14. He faces charges of cruelty and maltreatment, making a false statement, impeding an investigation and reckless endangerment. If convicted of all counts, he faces up to 25 years in prison.

Charges were dropped against Spc. Daniel Weber of Frankenmuth, Mich., who resigned from the Army.

Shane Wilhelm said Army officials told him that other platoons have taken notice of the case and are taking steps to improve the way officers treat subordinates.

“Hopefully, all four branches of the service make some changes so this doesn’t happen again,” he said.

___

Associated Press Writer Matt Leingang contributed to this report.

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Veterans widow forced to fight for benefits

Monday, January 18th, 2010

Widows

Son says VA is waiting for his mother to die
By Lou Michel
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: January 17, 2010, 7:09 AM

Lawrence Henry enlisted twice to serve in World War I and then in World War II.

He died in 1963, but with the expectation that the Department of Veterans Affairs would honor benefits for his wife, Florence, if she ever needed them.

It turns out that his widow, now 91, does need help, but her family believes the VA is intentionally delaying crucial financial assistance to her in the hopes she will die first.

Though not in the best of health, Florence E. Henry is not thinking about dying any time soon. She says she is more worried about paying the rent for her costly assisted-living apartment in Williamsville.

“My savings are just about gone. I have been here for 3z years. Where I will go from here, I don’t know,” Henry said. “My husband was a very patriotic man, and although he was a little over 40, he enlisted in World War II and was very proud of it.”

Her 64-year-old son, Michael, has been leading the effort to get his mother a needs-based “aid and attendance” monthly benefit of about $1,000. And while not every widow qualifies, the benefit can be applied to the survivors of veterans if there is a demonstrated need for assistance in carrying out the daily tasks of living.

VA officials on Friday confirmed that Florence Henry has a claim pending, but could not comment any further than that, citing privacy rules.

When The Buffalo News contacted Rep. Chris Lee, whose district comprises Henry’s apartment, officials said this type of complaint involving elderly individuals experiencing lengthy delays is not uncommon with the VA.

“We just closed a similar case for a 99-year-old woman,” said Andrea Bozek, Lee’s spokeswoman. “The [assisted] living facility had given her notice that if she couldn’t pay the rent, she would have to move to a skilled nursing facility because [it] will accept Medicaid . . . an assisted-living facility does not.”

Henry’s case, according to Lee, is a reminder that the VA has an unacceptable backlog and needs to come up with a plan to fix it.

Henry needs help with her daily medications, is unable to cook for herself and depends on others to do her laundry and other household chores, her son said, “because of her cardiac condition.”

But so far, Michael Henry says, efforts to get the benefit have been an exercise in futility. He says he has tried more than 20 times since his mother first applied for the help on July 14, 2006, to move the process along.

Now the mother and son say they have reached a critical point in their lengthy wait. In about 10 months from now, the last of her life savings will have been devoured by rent.

“I think this is purposeful. I mean, the VA is waiting for my mother to die. They don’t want to pay her a dime,” said Michael Henry of North Buffalo. “I’ve been told the VA has a policy of telling its employees we are not in the estate-planning business. They are scared to death that someone might pass the money on.”

As for any secret money she may have socked away for her heirs, the son said it does not exist.

“There is no fast one going on here,” he said.

All but $18,000 of her $120,000 nest egg, mostly from the sale of her last house in Eggertsville, has gone to pay the rent along with her monthly $1,200 Social Security check and monthly $650 pension from her years as a University at Buffalo bookkeeper — a job that became a necessity after her husband was killed 47 years ago when he was hit by a car.

She continued to work at that job on a part-time basis into her mid-80s, and former coworkers still stop by to visit her at her apartment.

But residing in an assisted-living apartment is not cheap— $3,500 a month. If she were to eventually receive the $1,000 VA stipend, Florence Henry would still fall short of the monthly rent, but her son says the family would find a way to make up the difference.

The long wait and letters from the VA, he adds, have been trying on his mother’s mental and physical condition.

“For the last seven or eight months, every time I see her, she asks, ‘Have you heard from the VA?’ ” the son said.

In July 2006, the VA rejected her application for aid, stating that her savings exceeded the $80,000 limit for receiving what, in her case, amounts to a widow’s pension.

In February 2008, she reapplied when her savings dropped to $77,000 and again was denied. Tracy Kinn, a New York State veterans counselor, then provided additional information on Henry’s behalf to prove she lacked assets to meet her needs.

And despite enlisting assistance from area politicians, Michael Henry said several months passed before he learned from Kinn that the Buffalo Veterans Benefits Administration Office had shifted the case to Philadelphia.

Last month, the Philadelphia office, after some back and forth with the family, said it was determining if any additional information would be necessary for its evaluation.

Frustrated, Michael Henry contacted The News to publicly complain about the bureaucratic odyssey.

On Friday, a VA worker in Philadelphia called Michael Henry to say the department wants to resolve his mother’s case, the son said.

The son was glad to hear that, but also dismayed by another piece of information he received from the worker.

“He told me the VA in Buffalo had not sent the Philadelphia office my mother’s entire file last May,” Michael Henry said. “Something is definitely wrong.”

His mother, he added, does not want to end up in a nursing home.

“She wants to live in her own apartment and live with dignity.”

lmichel@buffnews.c

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Bikes, tattoos: Kensett event celebrates art in many forms

Sunday, January 17th, 2010

Iowa MIAPBy RICHARD JOHNSON, richard.johnson@globegazette.com

 

Iowa Tattoo

Deb Johnson of Swea City, artist Don Hering of Northfield, Minn. (center), and Deb’s husband, Randy Johnson, discuss Hering’s motorcycle art during Saturday’s fourth-annual Blazin’ the Winter Blues Away bike/tattoo show and swap meet at the Kensett Community Center. Hering co-owns Hering Kustoms Inc., a custom paint and body shop in Northfield. (RICHARD JOHNSON/The Globe Gazette)
Randy Craig of Mason City displays a tiger and dragon tattooed onto his shin. He won first place for that large tattoo, and also earned the Best in Show trophy for his tattoos, which also included small “pinup girls” on his arm and a medium-sized pinup girl on his leg. Craig’s wife, Julie, earned first place in the medium division, among 25 tattooed competitors. (RICHARD JOHNSON/The Globe Gazette)
A closeup of some of Don Hering’s motorcycle art. (RICHARD JOHNSON/The Globe Gazette)KENSETT — They definitely beat the blahs during Saturday’s fourth-annual Blazin’ the Winter Blues Away event.

Some 200 people checked out hot motorcycles, major tattoos and a swap meet at the Kensett Community Center.

“This year was phenomenal,” event founder-coordinator Lisa Luskey Lestrud said. “This was our best year. People are recognizing, calling me, saying, ‘Hey, can we get a spot for your show?’

“I couldn’t ask for a better day,” she said. “And I’m already planning for next year.”

This year’s event raised money for Locks of Love; Operation Homefront, which provides emergency assistance and morale to troops and their families; and for the Missing in America Project, to help volunteers locate cremated remains of veterans — some of which have sat unclaimed for decades — and give them a proper military burial.

Phil Mansker of Charles City, Iowa State coordinator for Missing in America, said Vietnam veterans like himself were mistreated upon returning home, and he’s out to change that.

“We do it because it’s the right thing to do,” he said.

Mansker displayed a Vietnam Veterans Memorial painting and Harley-Davidson clock, to be raffled off April 10-11 during the ABATE Expo at the North Iowa Fairgrounds in Mason City.

Another image, “Freedom Rock,” by David Rottinghaus of Nora Springs, will be raffled during June’s Missing in America ride.

Call Mansker at 641-228-4199 or see www.miap.us for more information.

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