Action Alert: Army says - Don't help injured vets
Our Troops Deserve Better
Secretary Geren: Disabled soldiers should get all the help they need when they return home.
If you're a disabled soldier returning from Iraq or Afghanistan and need a hand filling out the paperwork for your benefits, don't bother asking the Department of Veteran Affairs. They won't help.
That's because last year Army officials instructed representatives from the VA at Fort Drum, NY not to help veterans with their disability paperwork because there was a "conflict of interest."1 Soldiers that get help from the VA tend to get higher disability ratings...which means that the government owes them more money. And within the Bush administration's corporate worldview, that just doesn't work. After all, they've got their buddies to pay. Tell Secretary of the Army Geren that this is not acceptable and sign our petition today.
Secretary Geren: Disabled soldiers should get all the help they need
http://act.truemajorityaction.org/t/53/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=45
The soldiers say they feel betrayed and Americans should be outraged. These are men and women who have fought for our country and deserve better.
Unbelievable,
Ben Kroetz
TrueMajority.org Online Organizer
1. "Document Shows Army Blocked Help for Soldiers," NPR Morning Edition, February 7, 2008
- Stephen Rockwell's blog
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Comments
It seems to me different type
It seems to me different type of posts...there are certainly many posts at here and this one seems to me different one,actually i was surfing net to get data related to the projects of exam 70-270 , mcse certification , ccna exam questions and in the meantime came here and find this post different o
ne...This one seems to me a different type of paragraph u know," Secretary Geren: Disabled soldiers should get all the help they need when they return home.If you're a disabled soldier returning from Iraq or Afghanistan and need a hand filling out the paperwork for your benefits, don't bother asking the Department of Veteran Affairs. They won't help."
Wounded Vets arrive at Naval Hospital here in San Diego
They arrive with absolutly no personal items: shaver, pencil/pen, note pad, comb etc. An organization here is supplying them with a back pack with pertenent items.
I can' believe how badly the Vets are being treated.
I agree with the comments about the National guard. They are to be used in the U.S. not over seas. James the Director of the Presbyterian Crisis Center was in Iraq for 6 monthes putting his family under tremendous strain. This is inexscuable.
Wars in the past were paid for with higher taxes.Under Bush we just go deeper and deeper in debt and now it is astronomical!!!
it fits
At least it is consistent with the policies that had our troops fighting without flak jackets, unless they bought their own, and consistent with the policy of charging the vet for the meals eaten while in Walter Reed Hospital. Or other examples that have shocked me that I can't remember now.
Our vets deserve better. Our vets deserve the best this country has to offer, way too high a percentage come home unable to step back into their old lives. What disturbs me is thinking of our reservists, many of whom joined on the premise of one weekend a month and perhaps helping in a national emergency... and they're being deployed for months and months at a time, and then redeployed some of them several times. And just how many of their jobs can be held open for all that time? And how many of them ever expected to see their families try to exist on an Army salary.
There's one fellow here in town, he's been sent over to Iraq three times now. The first time was for like 14 months. He was a partner in a law firm, probably one of the easier positions to sort of cover with other attorneys and still hold open for the reservist. But that was the first time. Now his job is gone, he'll have to start over if/when he can start over his life. His family has lost their house, understandable since their mortgage payment was more than Army pay. He was a champ already in my eyes for volunteering to spend the normal time in reserve training, it just doesn't seem fair. Our reservists deserve better than this, and most of them have a similar story to my friend.
How can people have that support our troops bumper sticker next to a Bush sticker on the back of their cars? Around here you see a lot of bumpers just like that. It is beyond my understanding.
National Guard and Reservists
Janet you are so right on about the Reservists.
I live in one of those poverty stricken rural communities you hear about.Think of Appalachia, only much colder and you start to get the picture. All we have for employment are Native American Gambling Casinos, prisons,lumberjacking, and tourism. Many men and women join the National Guard for a guarantee of income and a retirement plan.
They have been devastated by the all the deployments. Low ranking enlisted men don't make that much and some folks have had their incomes cut in half. Some have lost their houses and their jobs as you mentioned about your acquantinence. There have been husband and wife both sent to service with Grandma and Grandpa, or other relatives taking the kids.
I have gotten involved with something called Operation Military Kids, a program designed to help military families that are isolated cope. A military family that lives on or near a base with a career military person is usally well plugged in to services and options available to them. These National guard and Reserve families are often clueless as to how and who can help.So it is a little bit but it helps.
Disabled Vets
I am a 60% disability rated Vet and am trained as a Disabled American (DAV)Veteran's Service Officer to assist other veterans with their paperwork and accessing the system. The major service organization have to train people like me willing to give of their time to help other vets, and professional Service Officers, to help veterans with the paperwork because the VA won't do it or do it inadequately.
Now isn't that a great example of how our government "supports the troops" after we have been wounded and sickened in war?