Posted on 07/19/2007 9:49:51 AM PDT by SubGeniusX
NIAGARA FALLS — Members of the State American Legion, meeting here for a four-day convention, strongly criticized the treatment of wounded soldiers when they return home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Many young men and women are coming home with multiple disabilities, and they’re not getting the help they need,” James W. Casey, state commander of the American Legion, said Wednesday.
Casey, a Navy veteran from New York City, spoke at a news conference about the Legion’s position on the war on terrorism. The American Legion, as an organization, doesn’t take a position on the war in Iraq, but the troops are a matter of great concern, he said.
“When a war is declared, we go and fight it, and the American Legion backs the men and women fighting over there,” Casey said. “But what we do take issue with is the way they are treated when they come home.”
The substandard conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and other veterans’ care facilities nationwide haunts the more than 1,000 American Legionnaires who are gathered in Niagara Falls for their 89th annual state convention. “It’s not right,” said Paul Einstein of Niagara Falls, an Army Air Forces veteran. “The rehabilitation of our veterans is in very serious trouble, and we want to get the word out that it must not continue.”
Einstein said convention delegates heard a litany of challenges facing troops returning from the battlefields, from loss of limbs to mental-health nightmares.
“I didn’t fully realize the gravity of the situation,” Einstein said after attending one of the committee meetings. “But I came away from there with a feeling that the American Legion is on top of this. Our people are putting pressure on the places where it can help.”
The poor care given the returning veterans is only the beginning of the problem, Casey added.
“There is a critical backlog of 900,000 people waiting to get their benefit claims into the VA,” Casey said, referring to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The department is failing in its responsibility to provide patient care and federal benefits to veterans and their families, Legionnaires agreed.
“The Veterans Administration is operating on a shoestring,” Casey added.
It didn’t help matters when President Bush slashed the claims processing staff by several hundred employees in 2004 and 2005, Legionnaires noted.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has been under heavy fire since the Walter Reed scandal broke in February. The fallout continued to impact Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson, who said Tuesday he would resign by Oct. 1.
The resignation of Nicholson, 70, who has held the job for less than 2 1/2 years, follows those of several other top officials, including Secretary of the Army Francis J. Harvey.
Delegates at the Niagara Falls convention were welcomed by Mayor Vince Anello and Clyde L. Burmaster, a Vietnam veteran and chairman of the Niagara County Legislature. Burmaster and Einstein go back a long way. Burmaster’s father, Dedrich, drove the bus that took young Einstein to school.
Einstein, as chairman of the Niagara County American Legion Convention Corporation, pushed for the gathering to be held here, as did the Niagara Tourism and Convention Corp., which began bidding for it in 2004. The meeting continues through Saturday in the Crowne Plaza Hotel.
Govt Run Healthcare 101
So when did Walter Reed become part of the VA system?
Walter Reed is a military hospital and separate form the VA system.
Lousy reporting.
Actually the VA was in an oversight capacity w/ Walter Reed - that is why Jim Nicholson retired
But nice way to pick on the reporting and not comment on the real issue
Not perfect, but if you're somewhat aware, it's not a bad organization. [my mos was 91B10, so I might have a leg up on some lads.]
agreed ... I do believe the the folks in the VA really often do the best they can under the constraints that they have been forced to deal with ...
and Thanks for you service...
actually, the military has provided some of the best and least expensive care to active duty and veterans
See post #9.
part of the problem at Walter Reed is that they replaced most of the military staff with shady “medical contractors” who cut corners on virtually everything. In less than 2 years Walter Reed became a disaster area
as for reimbursing them for private care, that would become outrageously expensive. and it would become more expensive every year. and we would be paying the bill for millions of vets, many old and ill, for health insurance. Far more expensive than the VA
Absolutely not. Never. No way. Impossible. November Foxtrot Whiskey.
That is the answer to both VA and private health care providers.
I forgot one other remedy: rid the system of people like John Edwards (D-NC) AKA F’d up human trial lawyer.
It didn’t help matters when President Bush slashed the claims processing staff by several hundred employees in 2004 and 2005, Legionnaires noted.
Yea, President Bush personally went to every one of those emplyees and told them to clean out their desks. /sarc.
Sounds like the American Legion has been hijacked by the Left.
The VA is part of the issue.
The first problem stems from the some military services not giving veterans the appropriate disability rating. The US Army is giving soldiers a lower rated disability than before the war.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/04/ap_disability_070423/
The army times had a story where in 2000 there were X number of soldiers who were medically retired. The army showed less medically retired soldiers in 2005 and 2006.
The Army times showed the records of some soldiers who got 10% disability ratings to either the VA, American Legion or VFW. The spokesperson was appalled and said the soldier qualified from anywhere from 50-100% disability.
I as a soldier am confident if I lose a limb, that I will be fully taken care of by the military and the VA system.
I am not confident if I suffer any other type of injury, head trauma, back, PTSD, that I will be taken care of by the military. I may be taken care of eventually by the VA if I live within a reasonable distance to a VA hospital.
The biggest problem with the VA is they didn’t expect the huge influx of new veterans to their hospitals with these serious injuries. The VA planned to be taking care of the older vets (WWII, Korea and Vietnam) and planned their hospital staff accordingly. These new vets need drs and associated staffs the VA doesn’t have enough of at its hospitals. Goverment agencies are not use to having to surge (increase their staffs for a short time) their personnel. The VA needs to hire a lot of new people, some as permanent employees and some for a short time and no government agency works or thinks like that.
The VA also needs to outsource some of its care to other civilian hospitals which would help vets get care in a timely manner. Of course this won’t happen since the VA would lose funding to pay for this service. Too many turf battles where people don’t want to give up control instead of doing whats best for the veteran.
Haven’t your heard? Bush is responsible for every ill in America. /sarc
Why don’t you go down to you local Post and ask them ...
And in other news...
Retired SGM states that he will die on the street in front of a VA hospital before he will go inside and suffer the indignity of dealing with a bunch of nitwitted, know-nothing, care-less, non-english speaking public teat-suckers.
The VA can KMA.
The VA should simply be abolished. Promising health care to Vets does not mean that the government is required to actually run the facilities. Just buy them all good insurance policies.
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