Veterans Issues in the News
May 2013
May 13, 2013 – A new study shows that veteran’s exposed to Agent Orange are 52% more likely than unexposed men to have a more aggresive and fast-growing type of prostate cancer.
May 10, 2013 – VA says it doesn’t need new law to help victims of military sexual assault. VA officials have promised that denied sexual trauma claims will be reviewed if the veteran wants, but they have not yet announced the process for requesting the review.
May 9, 2013 – Affairs got almost $126,000 in performance bonuses during a five-year period in which the agency imposed an illegal rule that drew the threat of sanctions from a federal appeals court.
May 8, 2013 - A new study from the Defense Department demonstrates a depressing truth estimating that about 26,000 people in the military were sexually assaulted in the 2012 fiscal year, up from about 19,000 in the same period a year before. The study also suggests that the great majority of sexual assault victims do not report the attacks for fear of retribution or lack of faith that the military will prosecute these crimes.
May 8, 2013 – Two days after the release of a study by the Defense Department regarding an increase in military sexual assault, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski who was in charge of sexual assault prevention programs for the Air Force was arrested and charged with sexual battery for grabbing a woman’s breasts and buttocks in an Arlington, Va., parking lot.
April 2013
April 23, 2013 – Committee Chairman Jon Runyan (R-NJ) and Ranking Member Dina Titus (D-NV) invited NOVA to submit testimony for the April 16, 2013 hearing on the Ruth Moore Act.
The Ruth Moore Act, introduced by Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-ME), would amend title 38, United States Code, to improve the disability compensation evaluation procedure of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs for veterans with mental health conditions related to military sexual trauma (MST). According to a press release distributed by the office of Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, the Ruth Moore Act would make it easier for veterans who are victims of sexual assault in the military to get the benefits due to them.
In his testimony, Matthew D. Hill, attorney at Hill & Ponton and Treasurer of NOVA, demonstrated that a vote in favor of the Ruth Moore Act would be in the best interest of both veterans and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA).
April 22, 2013 – A new study published in the journal Clinical Psychological Science found that soldiers who enlisted before the age of 25 were seven times more likely to develop post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD), previously known as “shell shock” or “battle fatigue”. Furthermore, studies found that interaction between combat exposure and pre-war vulnerability increased the chances of developing PTSD following combat.
April 13, 2013- Nearly two decades later, after the U.S. Army discovered hazardous chemicals dumped at Fort Gillem seeping into residential wells in neighboring Forest Park in the early 1990s, there may still be hazardous chemicals seeping into water supplies and migrating into the air residents breathe. The chemicals of greatest concern are the industrial solvents 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane (TeCA), classified as a possible human carcinogen, and trichloroethylene (TCE), a known carcinogen. Laboratory studies have associated both chemicals with liver damage and neurological effects. Army testing of surface water south of the base found TeCA, TCE and lead in concentrations above the level the state considers acceptable. In one location, TeCA was measured at 19 parts per billion, far greater than the acceptable limit of .17 ppb.
April 3, 2013 - “Take Back the Night,” an annual event where survivors of sexual assault and their supporters take to a podium and share their stories of trauma is healing for survivors. “Matthew Hill, a veterans benefits attorney who helped Herron secure 100 percent disability benefits in 2010 on the basis of post traumatic stress disorder caused by military sexual trauma, said male rape is severely under-reported, not just because of the stigma associated with it, but because the process of seeking justice can be equally as traumatic.”
March 2013
March 26, 2013 — Nearly 44 percent of service men and women returning home to civilian life reported readjustment challenges. Among the recommendations for the Department of Defense and VA includes to align their treatment policies with accepted standards in the civilian community, to include restricting access to firearms for troops and veterans considered at-risk for suicide.
March 25, 2013 — A federal judge lashed the Department of Veterans Affairs last week for denying veterans certain due-process rights while seeking benefits.
February 2013
Although the Department of Veterans Affairs is protected from the budgetary ax known as sequestration, veterans are not. Programs supporting veterans — on issues from housing to mental health — that are operated by agencies other than the VA are subject to the cuts.
The first military sexual assault victims to testify before a Senate panel in nearly a decade described a pervasive culture of harassment and danger in which victims had little or no redress. The Pentagon estimates that roughly 19,000 service members are assaulted annually.
VA Secretary Eric Shinseki vowed four years ago that all claims would be processed within 125 days with 98% accuracy by 2015. However, Veterans representatives told Congress recently that they doubt the Department of Veterans Affairs will make significant progress in reducing the backlog for more than a million unprocessed benefits claims by then.
There are many veterans suffering from PTSD, including women service members traumatized by sexaul assault suffered within the military that have been improperly diagnosed with personality disorder or adjustment disorder and have been denied veterans benefits. Congressman Tim Walz is pressing for legislation that would require the Department of Defense to review the service records of 31,000 veterans discharged after military doctors diagnosed them with “personality disorder” or “adjustment disorder.”
A clinical neuropsychologist indicated that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have had a significant impact on the number of soldiers with severe brain traumas than ever before. Early diagnosis and intervention is key to helping veteran’s regain health.
An 81-year-old Marine from Coral Springs, Florida, waited five years for a hearing and he now has to wait weeks or months to know whether a VA appeals judge will grant his claim for pension. The St. Petersburg regiona office, serving all of Florida, has the steepest claims backlow in the nation, the VA reports.
Sources have reported that the Pentagon is likely to uphold that large amounts of potentially harmful chemicals were buried in Okinawa Island during the 1960′s and 70′s, but will likely dismiss claims that the toxic Vietnam War defoliant Agent Orange was among them.
January 2013
New research suggests that Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may be suffering from the 20-year-old set of symptoms known as Gulf War Syndrome.
Veteran’s health concerns could be related to smoke from one of the hundreds of burn pits that dotted Iraq and Afghanistan during the course of the two wars. A new Department of Veterans Affairs registry, mandated by Congress, will be used to try to determine if there is a link between the burn pits and long-term health problems. If researchers find certain illnesses are linked to exposure to burn pits, then the VA would be more likely to declare those illnesses a presumptive condition, eliminating the need for a veteran to prove that his or her illness is service-related.
Former U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel, a Republican from Nebraska, was nominated to be Secretary of Defense by President Barack Obama at the White House on Monday, January 7, 2013, in Washington, DC. Will he make the perfect candidate to bridge Pentagon and VA operations? If confirmed, the two-time Purple Heart recipient will be the first noncommissioned officer to lead the Department of Defense.
An improved eBenefits self-service web portal provides registered users with secure online information and access to a variety of military and veterans benefits resources. The latest release, eBenefits 4.3, allows for easy navigation of the online disability compensation claim submission process and allows Veterans to view processing times for each phase of their claim.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder is just one of the effects of trauma. There are a number of common problems people experience that are associated with posttraumatic stress disorder. Learn more about other common problems and reactions related to experiencing trauma.
What the nation owes each year to veterans who are disabled during service has more than doubled since 2000, rising from $14.8 billion to $39.4 billion in 2011, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Reasons for rising costs include: multiple deployments, changes in regulations for veterans exposed to Agent Orange or veterans diagnosed with Gulf War syndrome, worsening illnesses in aging veterans, and a change in rules associated with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Veterans Affairs inspector general found 50 percent error rate in some disability claims at the Alaska BVA office. The inspector determined that VA overpaid some veterans amounts totaling $139,177 and underpaid others by $19,220.
The VA inspector general reported that 824 of the VA’s 7,011 full-time-equivalent (FTE) specialty physicians apparently aren’t doing enough work. The impact, of course, is that hundreds of under-utilized doctors can contribute to longer waits for appointments and other frustrations suffered by the nation’s veterans, who are depending on the VA for tax-payer funded health care this year.
The Veterans Benefits Management System (VBMS) slowed to a crawl last month due to sluggish response times for claims examiners trying to access veterans’ files stored on remote servers. Currently, only 5% of claims examiners are using the system. The department needs to develop a plan to permanently fix the problem as VA rolls out VBMS nationwide.
Part of a 1971 document recently released by the Pentagon has a single sentence saying the U.S. military stored toxic herbicides, including Agent Orange, in Okinawa during the Vietnam War.
December 2012
New scientific paper presents evidence that nerve agents released by the bombing of Iraqi chemical weapons depots just before the ground war began in 1991 could have carried downwind and fallen on American troops staged in Saudi Arabia.
A report by the nonprofit and nonpartisan National Center for Policy Analysis released last week says 31 percent of VA claims are likely to be denied and that 60 percent of those denials are likely be erroneous. However, VA denies high error rate in denied claims alleging that estimated numbers appear to have come from a “flawed” 2009 study of the appeals process.
A proposed regulation change to add five presumptive medical conditions to a list of diseases associated with traumatic brain injury would make it easier for veterans receive benefit and health care from VA.
A bill to provide a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for disabled veterans and survivors that had been blocked by a Republican Sentor, passed the Senate on November 13, 2012, meaning that the 1.7 percent increase is expected to be included in checks to be sent to veterans in January 2013. The increase would mean an additional $500 in benefits for veterans and their families.
As the VA attemps to modernize its claims process by improving training, creating special teams to handle complex claims and replacing paper with digital technology, they are asking our veterans, who have sacrificed so much for our nation, to be patient while the changes are made. As of Sept. 22, the VA had nearly 900,000 claims awaiting decisions. The VA hopes to break the backlog of claims by 2015. Our veterans deserve better than this.
Dozens of Vietnam-era veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange while serving in country, surrounding countries, or the rivers or waters surrounding Vietnam continue to present a big health concern due to diseases and illnesses residual to the effect of the toxic chemical. Many of these veterans that are diagnosed with a presumptive condition related to Agent Orange may be eligible for VA disability compensation.
President Obama nominates William Greenberg as a Judge to the United States Court of Appeal for Veterans Claims. Mr. Greenberg received the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service in 2011 and was named New Jersey Lawyer of the Year in 2009 by the New Jersey Law Journal.
Exploding workload adds to the Paperwork Mountain at Veterans Affairs, and adds delay to the processing of the veteran’s claims. Veterans filed more than 1.3 million claims in 2011, double the number of 2001. The department says about 45 percent of recent veterans are seeking benefits, each with about 11 to 15 medical issues, vastly higher than the historical rate after World War II and Vietnam.
The Army has lost, destroyed, or has not kept accurate (if any) field records from Iraq and Afghanistan, two of the nation’s most protracted wars. It has been reported that recordkeeping breakdown was especially acute in the early years of the Iraq war, when insurgents deployed improvised bombs with devastating effects on U.S. soldiers now seeking benefit claims.
November 2012
What Obama’s re-election means for the military, veterans. Obama’s re-election will mean significant changes for the military in coming months, especially in terms of defense spending.
Big pay and benefits decisions awaits Congress. Congress will return from the November elections to face unfinished business vital to the military and veterans — one of the issues is ensuring veterans get the same 1.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment going to Social Security beneficiaries and military retirees.
Inappropriate drug use found at VA. More than one in four older veterans in nursing homes were taking antipsychotic medications, with more than 40 percent of those veterans having no documented related diagnosis.
October 2012
Internal VA statistics are showing that National Guard and Reservists are a lot more likely to have their VA compensation claims wrongly denied.
A recent VA report on post-traumatic stress disorder revealed that nearly 30 percent of veterans who served in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and treated at VA hospitals were diagnosed with PTSD.
The benefit known as Total Disability due to Individual Unemployability (TDIU) grants the veteran the equivalent of a 100 percent rating, even if their true rating is less than 100 percent.
VA issues final rule extending the statutory period to December 31, 2016 during which undiagnosed illnesses and multi-symptom disorders most often associated with Gulf War Syndrome will be presumed as service-connected diseases.
September 2012
Latest update from Military Times on burn pits.
Congress has proposed a new Stolen Valor Act
The VA claims backlog nears 1 million according to the Pittsburg Post-Gazette
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