This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Veterans Issues

  • About “Former POW” Claims

    There are very few instances of Stolen Valor that bother me more than a fake claim to POW status. People making such claims are, in my opinion, among the absolute lowest of the low.

    DoD goes to great lengths to account for its personnel. It also goes to great lengths to recover personnel taken captive – or to confirm their death and recover their remains. People sometimes die in those rescue, recovery, and confirmatory efforts.

    And what some former POWs went through . . . well, it can only be described as hell on earth.

    There is a new DoD Agency – the the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) – tasked with the POW/MIA accounting mission. It inherited the mission and assets of the former Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office, or DPMO, which is no more. (If you were familiar with the old DPMO website – well, bad news. The new agency’s website is rather different than its predecessor, and finding things there may take some re-learning.)

    Unfortunately, DoD doesn’t appear to maintain and post official DoD POW lists from all of our nation’s wars. Don’t ask me why. It would seem to me that that data should be readily available in DoD’s archives for every war since at least Korea – if not from World War I or the Spanish-American War forward.

    As you’ve guessed (or already knew), that means we have a problem. There are plenty of low-lifes out there “rockin’ the lie” when it comes to fake POW claims. We feature some of them every so often here at TAH.

    Moreover, Federal law itself IMO contributes to the problem. Federal law allows the VA – not DoD – to determine whether or not an individual is an “official former POW” for the purposes of VA benefits.  We all know just how “oh-so-thoroughly and accurately” the VA verifies each and every claim they get.

    Indeed, current Federal law does not technically even require that a person be held prisoner by our nation’s enemies for the VA to determine them to be an “official former POW” for VA benefits purposes. Here’s the text of 38 USC 101(32), where the term “former prisoner of war” for VA purposes is defined. I’ve added emphasis where I felt it was needed.

    (32) The term “former prisoner of war” means a person who, while serving in the active military, naval or air service, was forcibly detained or interned in line of duty—

    (A) by an enemy government or its agents, or a hostile force, during a period of war; or

    (B) by a foreign government or its agents, or a hostile force, under circumstances which the Secretary finds to have been comparable to the circumstances under which persons have generally been forcibly detained or interned by enemy governments during periods of war.

    The “Secretary” referenced above is the VA Secretary – not the SECDEF. And a liberal interpretation of the law could mean that a GI who got erroneously thrown into a nasty local jail run by one of our ALLIES during a period hostilities might qualify under that criteria. Last time I checked, Middle Eastern and Oriental jails are reputedly pretty damned harsh.

    Sound like a huge loophole? You betcha. The VA can – and often does – declare people to be “former POWs” who were never held prisoner by our nation’s enemies.

    The VA very obviously does not bother to consult DoD lists of persons held by the enemy to verify claims of former-POW status. As Jonn has documented here: in 2009 only approximately 570 individuals actually taken captive by our enemies during Vietnam and the Gulf War were still living; the VA at the time was granting benefits as “former POWs” of those two conflicts to over 1,200 people. That means that in 2009 well over half of the VA’s “offical former POWs” were never actually held prisoner by our nation’s enemies.

    Or, in simpler terms: that means that using the commonly-understood definition of POW, over half of them weren’t really POWs at all as the term is commonly understood. They managed to get declared POWs due to another reason – one that the VA bought.

    Because of the above, the fact that an individual has been granted a “former POW status” by the VA doesn’t really mean squat regarding the validity of a claim of being a POW as the term is commonly understood. Further, most if not all states accept a letter from the VA declaring an individual to be a “former POW” as “proof” that the individual is indeed a “former POW”. Convince the VA you qualify as a “official former POW” and you can get “Former POW” license plates for your car in most states with just a piece of paper from the VA. So those “former POW” license plates don’t necessarily prove squat, either.

    Why do people      lie through their teeth       do stuff like this? Hey, car tags are damned expensive in some states. So is medical care – which former POWs receive from the VA with most or all co-payments waived (they’re in Priority Group 3).  There’s also  a list of presumptive conditions for former POWs that are automatically held to be “service connected” – many of which are also conditions routinely associated with normal aging.  When those conditions appear or worsen with age, poof!  Instant disability rating – and compensation.

    You do the math.

    Unfortunately, there aren’t any good, comprehensive, published DoD lists of POWs from World War II or Korea.  Figuring out if a “former POW” claim for vets of those wars is legit can be problematic.

    However, for the war in Southeast Asia (AKA the “Vietnam War”) the situation is different. DPAA does have and post a list of former SEA POWs – as well as a list of those who are and are not formally accounted for. Specifically, it maintains four lists.

    • The first list contains the names of those POWs who returned alive at the end of the Vietnam War. That list may be found here.

    • The second list contains the names of those POWs who escaped enemy captivity in Southeast Asia. That list may be found here.

    • The third list contains the names of those who have been formally accounted for. This list includes the names on the previous two lists, plus the names of those whose remains have been recovered and positively identified. That list may be found here.

    • The fourth list contains the names of personnel who have not yet been formally accounted for. These are individuals’ whose remains have never been recovered. That list may be found here.

    DPAA also maintains other lists sorted by home state at their website. But the four lists above – which are sorted alphabetically – are generally IMO the most useful.

    Verifying Vietnam War POW claims is thus actually fairly easy.  All you need to do is check the first two lists above.  If someone isn’t on the first two lists above, according to DoD they were never held as a POW by enemy forces in Southeast Asia. I personally wouldn’t buy anyone’s claim of being a “former ‘Nam POW” if they’re not on one of those first two lists.

    A future update – or perhaps a second article – will discuss US POWs taken captive in the Gulf War and later conflicts.  Short version:  there aren’t many.

     

    Author’s Note: For ease of future reference, this article is linked to the Site Banner’s “Military Records” article.

  • Taxing discussion

    CEEight-Oh sends us a link to Slate‘s Alec MacGillis who thinks that veterans’ pensions should be taxed and he rails against measures in the states to exempt at least a portion of veterans’ pensions from taxes. Alec MacGillis particularly doesn’t like new Republican governor of Maryland Larry Hogan’s plan. Currently in Maryland, the first $5000 of a military pension is exempt from state taxation;

    “When these folks come in from another state, they’re going to buy homes and … and some are going to be entrepreneurs,” says Minnesota state Sen. Paul Gazelka, a Republican who is pushing a full exemption. “It’s about recruiting, just like we recruit businesses … There are going to be states that are winners and losers, and I’d rather have more retiring veterans in Minnesota than less.”

    Yes, Minnesota and Maryland need more veterans in their communities than they types that are moving in these days. But, MacGillis writes;

    One can retire and collect a military pension after 20 years of service, so there are plenty of 42-year-old “retirees” who are collecting pensions of, say, $50,000 per year while making a good living as military contractors or management consultants, two common second-career destinations.

    Yeah, OK, if you want to put a cap on tax-exempt portions of pensions (West Virginia caps it at $20k) that’s fine, but don’t start telling people that we’re all making $50k/year and working a six-figure contracting job to boot. I’ll bet that more veterans are getting under $20k/year and working the same jobs as the rest of America.

    And so what if they are getting $50k. You had the same opportunity, Mr. MacGillis, but you couldn’t be lured away from your neck beard and your skinny jeans for twenty years. Jealous much? If you want to really tax someone, try taxing the SSI recipients, or remove the exemptions that illegal immigrants are getting (individuals’ state taxes are figured from the Federal personal income), rather than the producers and the law abiding citizens.

  • Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission; they’re not like us

    There’s been a hue and cry raised recently across the online military community in regards to the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission. Someone has noticed that enlisted folks are not represented on the Commission. Military.com profiled the nine-member commission and they’re all former members of the military (and one civilian who worked in the Bush Pentagon), but they come from the upper-echelon of the officer corps. From another Military.com article;

    Robert Wert, a retired senior master sergeant in the Air Force described the commissioners as “the upper echelon” of retirees. “They are surely the most comfortably retired military members in our nation,” he wrote in an e-mail. “As well, they have likely landed prominent positions in the civilian world making six figure incomes or more.”

    “To use these gentlemen as a gauge for deciding on military compensation for the rest of the 99.9 percent of average military retirees is disingenuous,” Wert added. “Of course they wouldn’t mind giving up their Tricare or other benefits, since to them it is mere pennies on their grand financial scheme of things. But for the average military retiree, every dollar taken away in benefits makes a big difference in their and their family’s livelihood.”

    That’s what we’ve been saying all along. The general officers and the senior sergeants, who will all have comfortable retirements, as well as comfortable follow-on jobs in the private sector, have all come out and told Congress that adjusting the way that the troops are compensated will make them better, but their retirement, their own income is fairly secure.

    You know what? Ever since I was in the military, I never minded paying my fair share to my country. When I got out of the military, I looked around me and noticed that members of the military were the only ones taking the cuts to the benefits and compensation while the rest of the country demands more and more. The president has said that he wants to cut healthcare costs to all Americans while the Pentagon hikes healthcare costs to military retirees. And the services’ chiefs of staff cry, “yes, sir, three bags full”.

    I guess they thought that a commission of senior officers would go along with the Pentagon’s desires to cut compensation and that veterans would just go along with them when we’re dazzled by their stars and eagles.

  • Why I care about Stolen Valor

    I came upon this article on Facebook by Jack Murphy over at SOFREP. The article is titled “Why I do not care about stolen valor” piqued my interest to see where this was going. To be fair it was not what I thought it would be.

    Perhaps the most popular issue among veterans on social media and various military-themed websites is stolen valor. You know, those sad, pathetic pukes who throw on medals and pretend to be soldiers. That SAS poser in Prague is a good example. We all delight in exposing these frauds for what they are. We like to examine their photographs on Facebook and use our keen military insider knowledge of AR-670-1 to critique what is wrong with their uniforms. Then we like to continuously point out how stupid these people are.

    That and also have them on the internet so that when the same people try to pull the same stunts at a later time because they believe that no one will know or remember will be revived as frauds before rather then after being scammed. I mean stolen valor is just a watered down version of identity theft. Also it has helped in learning and remembering the correct wear for the Army uniforms from all the errors that they do.

    But it doesn’t stop there. Not to be deterred in our search for the faux soldiers and with our insatiable desire to expose stolen-valor cases—we always need fresh meat for the grinder—we start turning on each other. Veterans are in such a hurry to “out” people they suspect of stolen valor, they take to social media and accuse real veterans of being fakers. We’ve seen this happen over and over again where veterans jump the gun, acting like keyboard commandos suffering from small-penis syndrome.

    You know I would be happen to not see another story about someone not being guilty of stolen valor. Not because I do not want these cases being reported, but rather because these crime was not being done at all. Also I do not think that one has to look to hard to find people who want to play dress up (figuratively and literally) in public for their own benefit. I can see how Going back to the story above, I am curious if there are any updates on the Bronze Star with “V” device and the Purple Heart. Now before our favorite trolls get too excited over that last quoted statement, it follows up with this;

    I actually respect many of the websites and individuals out there who expose stolen valor. Military frauds can do real damage to people. Using fraudulent credentials, they get hired for jobs they are not qualified for. Some of them lure in unsuspecting women with their fake war stories. Their stupidity in public can make actual veterans look like idiots. Some of these fakers even collect money for their fake military charities for personal enrichment. These are perfectly good reasons to call bullshit on the bullshitters.

    Yep, so you can site back down now. Now on to his main point.

    Do you know why I don’t care about stolen valor?

    Because I have a life. You could work 24/7 trying to track down stolen-valor cases; that is how prolific these clowns are. The question you have to ask yourself is, is it worth your effort? Don’t you have professional and personal goals to meet in life? If I spend all my time writing about stolen valor, do you know what I’m not writing about? Real soldiers. I’ll be damned if I’m going to write about fake soldiers when I can write about real ones—some of them quite heroic.

    The fake CIA-SEALs like Jamie Smith can say whatever they like, but it won’t take away a single thing that I, or any of my teammates, accomplished during our military service. Our actions speak a hell of a lot louder than the bullshit on the Internet.

    For those that regularity read this site can say that we are well rounded in covering different topics such. The tags that help make sure that the actions of real service members get acknowledgement that they deserve over the frauds that do not. I also disagree in that these actions on and off the battlefield are going to have the effect that he states above. I believe that this mind set has lead to more people jumping on and riding the coat tails. It also does not help public in filtering out which is the fraud and the real deal due to not being familiar with military life.

    So this is why I take a small amount of time to write about stolen valor and who is doing it.

  • Veterans Service Organizations and phonies

    First let me say that this blog is not affiliated with any veterans’ service organizations. I am a life member of the American Legion, the VFW, the Disabled Veterans of America along with several other unit organizations. Like you, I’m disturbed by the number of phonies that we’ve uncovered in the leadership of some of these organizations, but I understand it.

    There was a time when I talked to veterans, I believed everything they told me, because I WANTED to believe that a veteran would never lie to another veteran. But those days have passed – I trust them up to a point. Yes, the VSOs should be checking these records more thoroughly, but they WANT to trust veterans to not lie to them. You know, the opposite of the Veterans’ Affairs folks who WANT you and expect you to lie.

    I am a little disturbed by those of you who declare that you won’t join these organizations because of the phonies. Actually, that’s more harmful than helpful. If the real veterans won’t join, the organizations will be run over by the phonies.

    In 2009, when the president decided that service-connected disabled veterans would buy their own insurance for their treatment, it was the American Legion, the VFW and the DAV that marched into the Oval Office and changed his mind. Last year, when the VA in Arizona couldn’t process appointments for sick and injured veterans fast enough, it was the American Legion that filled the breech and processed those appointments.

    When this administration wants to make the case for reducing your benefits, increasing your healthcare costs, alter your retirement benefits, its the VSOs who are your only voice in Congress to present your side of the story. They knock on doors in the Congressional offices and represent you in those hallways and cafeterias. They’re the only ones who will.

    Your motorcycle club, your rescue dogs, your charities won’t be there. Only the VSOs. The VSOs only have the weight of their membership numbers behind them to give them credibility in Congress and when they march into the White House. In effect, when you say you won’t join because of the phonies or because of the dimly-lit exclusive barrooms full of vets telling their war stories – well, that’s what the cost-cutters want. By you not participating in any manner, the folks who want to do away with the military win. They don’t want you to join the VSOs so their voice, and consequently yours, will fade into history.

    I figure that my membership in those organizations is the least I can do – the VSOs are becoming more skeptical about who they allow in – how many of you email me and say you never knew that the stolen valor problem was as wide spread as it is? Yeah, I didn’t either, and neither did the VSOs – but they’re coming around to it, and you can help them while you help yourselves along with the rest of the veteran community.

  • Washington Post: PTS killed Chris Kyle

    Washington Post: PTS killed Chris Kyle

    Abby Phillip, a general assignment national reporter for the Washington Post has determined that Eddie Routh, the fellow who shot and killed Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield almost a year ago, did it because of PTS, you know, regardless of the evidence to the contrary.

    A 2014 study found that veterans who had problems with PTSD or alcohol abuse were seven times more likely to engage in acts of “severe violence” than other veterans. And in 2011, a New York Times analysis of some of those cases found dozens of examples of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans accused of murder; some of the veterans even turned weapons on themselves.

    There are no current and official nationwide statistics about veterans who enter the criminal justice system.

    While there are efforts to create alternative courts and sentencing guidelines for veterans accused of crimes who suffer from PTSD and combat-related mental illnesses, those efforts have been slow to apply to those accused of serious violent crimes.

    “Violent crimes are excluded, which to me is a real shame; you should look at it case by case,” said Duncan MacVicar, a retired Vietnam veteran who began working with California jurisdictions to establish veteran treatment courts in the state. “Is it really true that someone with PTSD can commit a crime because of that problem? I can guarantee you that it’s true.”

    Experts who treat PTS daily, agree that violent and criminal behavior itn’t necessarily caused by Post-Traumatic Stress. Veterans who suffer from PTS are more likely to turn their violence inward on themselves than to harm other people. PTS is an excuse more often manufactured by people who want sympathy from their victims and the public at large who are willing to believe that they are victims of the evil military rather than look for more accurate, more believable excuses.

    Routh, for example, is said to have been a unit armorer and a vehicle mechanic who never left the wire during his time in Iraq, but the Washington Post and Abby Phillip find it easier to believe that he was traumatized by his military service, regardless of the fact that real PTS experts would disagree with them.

    Classmates of Routh told the New Yorker that he was a “standard troublemaker” who “didn’t show a whole lot of respect” for the teachers, even as far back as high school before he joined the Marines. Workmates said “Routh was “always ready to fight” and “had a chip on his shoulder.” But, you know, it was PTS that made him a murderer, even though there are thousands of veterans who really saw bad stuff in real war who are suffering from PTS who don’t kill anyone every day – many have been functioning normally for decades, Abby Phillip and the Washington post are shitting on those good veterans while they try to tear down good soldiers like Chris Kyle and the millions of veterans who behave themselves every day.

    Thanks to Chief Tango for the link.

  • Gudmundsson: The Hire More Heroes Act is misguided

    Gudmundsson: The Hire More Heroes Act is misguided

    Peter A. Gudmundsson, a former Marine artillery officer writes in the Washington Post that “The Hire More Heroes Act is misguided. There is no veterans’ unemployment crisis.” The Hire More Heroes Act simply exempts numbers of veterans in a business’ count of the 50-worker threshold at which they must provide health insurance or pay a fine under the Affordable Care Act. Simple, huh? Most veterans already get their healthcare from Tricare or the VA, so why not give the folks who hire them a break – well, unless you approve of the “taxation” of the Obamacare plan.

    Mr. Gudmundsson, however says that this particular bill treats veterans like victims;

    Companies live or die based on their ability to find intelligent, hard-working employees. It would be foolish to hire someone based on a financial incentive if that person were not likely to excel; the costs would outweigh the gains. Quality drives hiring, not a health-care head-count exemption.

    The irony is that one of the few topics that can unite both sides of the aisle in Congress is veterans’ affairs. Yet lawmakers are harnessing bipartisan good intentions to pass a bill whose most significant legacy would be to increase the federal deficit by nearly $900 million. There is simply no need for Congress to turn veterans into a cynical “exemption” in the otherwise flourishing market for high-quality human capital. The idea that veterans require or deserve special treatment is anachronistic, counterproductive and insulting.

    Who is to say that employers wouldn’t hire this nebulous veteran we’re discussing regardless? Lord knows that the Washington Post, CNN, and countless other media outlets have given employers enough reasons to NOT hire a veteran with their focus on the bad things a small number of veterans do. Why not give a veteran a break in this regard. Certainly, no employer is going to hire a completely unqualified candidate based solely on their tax status.

    I’ll agree that a lot of legislation that comes out of Congress in regards to veteran employment is pretty useless, and this one is in that mix, too, but the only reason to oppose this one is purely political opposition to anything that creates a loophole for a business to avoid participation in the Affordable Care Act. It helps small businesses avoid excess taxation.

    Mr. Gudmundsson should be more honest about his opposition.

  • Kyle Dinkheller’s murderer’s execution is a “go”

    Kyle Dinkheller’s murderer’s execution is a “go”

    Andy11M sends us a link to Reuters which reports that Andrew Brannan, the Vietnam veteran we talked about the other day will be executed on schedule tonight;

    The execution of Andrew Brannan, 66, by lethal injection is set for 7 p.m. on Tuesday. He is slated to be the first person executed in the United States in 2015, the Death Penalty Information Center said.

    Brannan’s lawyers asked the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute his sentence to life without parole because he was suffering from a combat-related mental disorder when he killed Laurens County Deputy Sheriff Kyle Dinkheller, 22, during a traffic stop in 1998.

    The board said in a statement it denied the clemency request after thoroughly reviewing it and hearing testimony on Monday.

    Brannan still has appeals pending in Georgia courts. By law, Georgia’s governor does not have the power to grant last-minute clemency to a death row inmate.

    The inmate’s lawyers do not dispute he shot Dinkheller nine times during a traffic stop in an encounter caught on tape by the deputy’s patrol car camera.

    But they urged the parole board to consider the physical and mental toll of his combat duty in Vietnam.

    I’m not a big advocate for the death penalty, but this guy deserves it if anyone does. PTS doesn’t make veterans act like fools. I don’t doubt that this peckerwood has mental problems, but they’re not related to his experiences in combat.

    In case you forgot, here’s the video again;