DU veterans/Forty Years Ago -Viet Nam (re: PTSD)

[Catchawave]

I thought there was a DU Vets Forum/Group?

Was going to post this email there, but couldn't find the forum :(

Throwing my post to GD, with hopes it helps/or is debunked/or passed along, by someone more knowledgeable than moi :)

================================here ya's go:
FORTY YEARS AGO-VIETNAM

We are departing from the monthly history format that you are so familiar with. It is being reported that the V.A. is reinvestigating over 72,000 veterans disability claims for Vietnam service connected P.T.S.D. for claims of possible fraud. In a recent article, Rick Rogers of the Union-Tribune wrote the following about this recent V.A. effort.

“A government review of 72,000 post-traumatic stress disorder cases planned for early next year is an excuse to cut benefits for older veterans and toughen qualifications for future ones, veterans groups and other critics contend. The Department of Veterans Affairs intends to examine cases from 1999 to 2004 in which 100 percent disability benefits were granted primarily for combat stress. The process is expected to last about a year. In San Diego County, about 2,000 veterans have qualified for the rating of total disability caused mainly by combat stress. They each receive a monthly tax-free payment of $2,299. It is not known how many of those cases will be scrutinized.

The review seemed necessary after an audit of 2,100 such cases nationally found that 25 percent of the VA-approved awards lacked adequate documentation to prove eligibility, said department spokesman Phil Budahn. He said Veterans Affairs has tightened oversight of its program this year by requiring more proof.”

There is no reason for any Marine Corps Vietnam Veteran to LACK ADEQUATE DOCUMENTATION TO PROVE ELIGIBILITY. We provide essential documentation for V.A. claims online. All the V.A. requires is supporting documentation such as unit command chronologies and after action reports to satisfy the V.A. and validate an event or circumstance supporting service connection. DO NOT WAIT TO RECEIVE A LETTER FROM THE V.A. THAT YOUR CASE HAS BEEN SELECTED FOR REASSESSMENT. Get your in country unit records now and be prepared to confirm and document each and every event which supports your disability rating and service connection. If a veteran with PTSD loses his or her valid disability benefits, who will be there to help? CONTACT THE V.A. DISABILITY COMMISSION NOW!

[phone], 1101 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 5th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20004

Executive Director: Ray Wilburn [phone] email: [e-mail]

Write to your elected representatives and express your outrage at this policy and demand an end to this practice. You or a brother Marine could be next! Stand together, Semper Fi.

www.TheVietnamFiles.com



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[annabanana]

1. yet another way to screw the Viet. Vets..

Their shamelessness is seamless.

[Bluzmann57]

2. I ain't a VietNam vet but...

This is total bullshit! These men got crapped on when they came back from an unjust war in which they were merely following orders and now they may get screwed again? We have to try and prevent this from happening again.

[benddem]

3. the senate had this stopped

in some states the lack of documentation was evident, but in most cases the VA was able to find it.

[benddem]

4. documentation

Senate Veterans Affairs passes amendment 98-0 to halt VA investigation of disability claims


News Release Print This Release


Murray Protects Veterans with PTSD from VA Scrutiny, Stigma and Penalties


Senate Passes Murray's Amendment Today; Blocks VA from Wasting Resources Investigating 72,000 Veterans and Penalizing Those with Paperwork Errors

For Immediate Release: Thursday, September 22, 2005

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash) stood up for America's veterans by ensuring that those who need help with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are not scrutinized, stigmatized, or penalized by a planned VA investigation.

"Veterans with PTSD deserve the VA's compassion and support, not costly investigations, penalties and stigma," Murray said. "Veterans should not be punished for mistakes the VA has made, and that's what my amendment ensures."

Earlier this year, the VA announced plans to investigate the PTSD disability claims of 72,000 veterans. An earlier study of a small number of cases by the VA's Inspector General found errors in about one-third of the claims examined. Many of the problems uncovered were paperwork errors. Murray and veterans organizations like the American Legion and the Paralyzed Veterans of America feared the VA would use the review to strip benefits from veterans with mental illness.

The review would also take time and resources away from processing current disability claims.

"The VA must not delay its work on today's disability claims in order to investigate decisions it made years ago," Murray said.

Murray said the VA's review would send a message to veterans that if they seek help for PTSD, they will be subject to scrutiny.

"It's already hard enough for veterans to seek care for mental health problems. I can't stand by and let the VA throw down another barrier in front of veterans with PTSD," Murray said.

Murray blocked the review today by inserting language into the FY 2006 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Bill, which passed the full Senate this afternoon. Murray's language says the review cannot proceed until the VA justifies the program to Congress. It also ensures veterans cannot be stripped of their benefits except in cases of fraud.

Veterans leaders applauded Murray's work.

"Senator Murray has given veterans some body armor to protect them from administrative errors and penalties," said Skip Dreps, government relations director for the Northwest Chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America, which represents 20,000 veterans nationwide, including 500 in Washington state. "We bore the burden of battle once, and we shouldn’t have to bear the battle again when our government makes mistakes in our benefits."

Now that the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs bill has passed the Senate, it must be reconciled with the House of Representative's version.

In other veterans news, last week, Senator Murray announced new transitional housing for homeless veterans in Washington state. She also voted against a bill that would drain resources away from veterans healthcare to conduct a study of workforce privatization.

[ismnotwasm]

5. Reminds me of this book a Vietnam vet gave me.

This is kind of a long passage:
If you were Demonic and powerful enough to want to make someone "crazy" following a war like Vietnam, what would be the worst set of social, economic, political and psychological conditions you could create for the returnee?

First, you would send a young man fresh out of high school to an unpopular, controversial guerrilla war far away from home. Expose him to intensely stressful events, some so horrible that it would be impossible to really talk about them later to anyone except fellow "survivors." To ensure maximal stress, you would create a one-year tour of duty during which the combatant flies to and from the war singly, without a cohesive, intact, and emotionally supportive unit with high morale.

You would also create the one-year rotation to instill a "survivor mentality" which would undercut the process of ideological commitment to winning the war and seeing it as a noble cause. Then at DEROS (Date of Expected Return from Overseas Service), you would rapidly remove the combatant and singly return him to his front porch without an opportunity to sort out the meaning of his experiences with his men in his unit. No homecoming welcome or victory parade.

Since you are demonic enough, you make sure that the veteran is stigmatized and portrayed to the public as a "drug-crazed, psychopathic killer" By virtue of clever selection by the Selective Service System, the veteran would be unable to easily reenter the mainstream of society because he is under-educated and lacks marketable job skills
...Finally, but not least , you would want him to feel isolated, stigmatized, unappreciated, and exploited for volunteering to serve his country

Tragically, of course, the scenario is not fictitious, it was the homecoming for most Vietnam Veterans
John F. Wilson in testimony before the US Senate, Committee on Veteran Affairs, 1980
(From the book "Nam Vet, making peace with your past" by Chuck Dean