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

Category: Veterans Issues

  • If you would have served our country better you would not be a disabled veteran (Updated)

    It seems that a Disabled Veteran is suing a bill collector for the statements he received about a undisclosed outstanding debt. According to Michael Collier was told the following statement when he refused to allow is military benefits to be used towards the debts.

    Mr Collier is according the the link disabled with a neck and spine injury at rated with a 100% disability rating. Earlier this year a court had ruled his benefits could not be garnished in May 2012, the funds have not been given back.

    Collier says he called Gurstel’s office, and an unidentified paralegal told him he would have to sue to get the money. When he said the money was exempt veteran disability payments, “the assistant told Michael, ‘F— you! Pay us your money! You can’t afford an attorney. You owe us. I hope your wife divorces your a–. If you would have served our country better you would not be a disabled veteran living off social security while the rest of us honest Americans work our a– off. Too bad; you should have died.’” (Spelling as in complaint.)

    Mr Collier is planning on legal action.

    The Colliers seek actual damages, statutory damages, and punitive damages for violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, conversion, privacy invasion, and malicious infliction of emotional distress.

    Originally posted byArmy WTF when they cited Russia Today. I wanted to find another source since there are comments like the following below.

    The debt collector is right. American wars help no one and soldiers are criminals…

    Typical America. Ah well i have no sympathy for any American. Wake up and rise against your pathetic Governments and corrupt politicians and criminal corperates, bankers, and zionists. Its time for a revolution.

    This Faker isn’t the only US military veteran living off Social Security while the rest of us honest Americans work. As paid Mercenaries they Volunteer for the military because they’re too stupid to go to college and too lazy to get real jobs. Working for the military they learn theretofore unknown skills like basic hygiene, how to make their own beds and polish their shoes. Once discharged they get free education, affirmative-action in hiring and promotion for civilian jobs, free lifetime healthcare at the VA and a host of other benefits. Once civilians, the many that are criminals, drug addicts and drunks now have the lifetime excuse — “I was traumatized in the service”. We need to bring back the draft and eliminate all exemptions so that the military better reflects the regular society and is not comprised so disproportionate of society’s dregs.

    Update Sporkmaster: It seem that JM has found some more information on the law firm in question.

  • Of course, military suicides happen because of private guns

    And, of course, it’s the New York Times spreading the rumor along with another usual suspect, Elspeth Ritchie, who accused the military of harboring racist extremists a few months back. In their own article, NYT admits that privately owned weapons aren’t the major method of suicides by returning active duty soldiers;

    According to Defense Department statistics, more than 6 of 10 military suicides are by firearms, with nearly half involving privately owned guns. In the civilian population, guns are also the most common method of suicide among young males, though at a somewhat lower rate.

    So that means that less than 30% of suicides are the result of privately-owned weapons, but for some reason everyone arrives at the conclusion that by limiting soldiers’ access to POWs is some sort of panacea for the problem;

    For instance, Dr. Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, a psychiatrist, retired colonel and former mental health adviser to the Army surgeon general, said the Pentagon should aggressively promote gun safety as well as consider making it harder for at-risk troops to buy ammunition and weapons at on-base gun stores.

    “At our base stores, they are increasingly having very lovely gun shops where they sell all different types of ammunition and weapons,” Dr. Ritchie said. “I am troubled that on the one hand we are saying we are doing all we can to decrease suicide and on the other making it so easy for service members to buy weapons.”

    The key to preventing suicide is convincing veterans that they don’t want to kill themselves, because if they really want to kill themselves, they can always use whatever method the New York Times and Elspeth Ritchie didn’t mention the other 60% were using to kill themselves. I’m assuming that 30% of them are using military-issued weapons, so do we want to take their issue weapons away from them, since they seem to be using those more often that privately owned weapons. Then the Afghan National Police and the Afghan National Army can kill them instead.

    In the Department of Veterans Affairs, mental health counselors and suicide hot line agents routinely encourage suicidal veterans to store their guns or give them to relatives. But the issue remains difficult, with concerns that some veterans avoid mental health care because they fear their firearms will be confiscated.

    And then there’s the suicide hotline operators who call the District of Columbia Metropolitan police when they find out that veterans own guns.

    While I agree that a 30% drop in suicides would be great, I disagree that all soldiers should bear the burden. I know when I bought a handgun at Fort Stewart, GA, part of the background check was to call my commander and they cleared the sale with him. That sounds reasonable to me. But, still most people don’t buy a gun just to kill themselves, it just happens to be the most available means.

    Like I said, the best way to prevent suicide is education, not heaping the burden on innocent people.

  • I’m shocked to discover that the government is incompetent

    The Associated Press reports that the billions of dollars that the government program created to share information on the possibilities of terrorist attacks was completely useless. That the program improperly gathered intelligence on innocent Americans and prevented no terrorist plots.

    The lengthy, bipartisan report is a scathing evaluation of what the Department of Homeland Security has held up as a crown jewel of its security efforts. The report underscores a reality of post-9/11 Washington: National security programs tend to grow, never shrink, even when their money and manpower far surpass the actual subject of terrorism. Much of this money went for ordinary local crime-fighting.

    Disagreeing with the critical conclusions of the report, Homeland Security says it is outdated, inaccurate and too focused on information produced by the program, ignoring benefits to local governments from their involvement with federal intelligence officials.

    Because of a convoluted grants process set up by Congress, Homeland Security officials don’t know how much they have spent in their decade-long effort to set up so-called fusion centers in every state.

    That’s mostly why most military veterans are conservative; we’ve seen the government at it’s best and worst and there’s not much difference between the two. We’ve had to depend on government for our essentials in our most dire moments and it’s failed every time. We had the best equipment the government could buy and always it required duct tape and bailing wire to make it work the way it was supposed to work. We accepted that, but we don’t want the same process applied to our families.

    We want our guns because we know the government won’t be there when we need them most. We’re self-reliant because we know that to depend on the government is like committing suicide. And this massive boondoggle “fusion center” is a stark example of how badly government fails when we need it most.

  • “Bobby Thompson” ID’d

    Chip sends us an ABC News link which reports that “Bobby Thompson”, the guy who founded and ran the scam charity organization “U.S. Navy Veterans Association” has finally been identified. We first mentioned him back in March 2010 when he took flight. Apparently he’s a former military intelligence officer named John Donald Cody who has been on an FBI watchlist for more than 25 years.

    U.S. Marshal Peter Elliott told reporters that he discovered Cody while searching through old FBI Wanted posters. He said details about the two identities kept matching up, from his unusual hairstyle, his history in the state of Arizona, and his knowledge of the law. Cody, Elliot said, had graduated from Harvard Law School.

    The Marshal said Cody spent years evading arrest before he assumed the Thompson persona.

    “We always knew there was a reason Thompson signed his name as Mr. X and did not want to be identified,” Elliott said. “Now we know why.”

    An unusual hairstyle to say the least – it looks like a pompadour mated with a mullet. They should have spotted him from across the country.

    Ultimately, Marshals said they used a combination of Google searching, intuition and a set of 1969 military fingerprints to solve the mystery of Thompson’s real identity.

    Beware the power of Google. By the way, FBI, nice watch list you’ve got there. Use it much?

  • VFW shootout in FL (UPDATED)

    Details are a little sketchy on the links sent to us by Old Trooper and Country Singer in regards to a shootout at a Winter Springs, Florida VFW post as a formation of bikers were leaving the post after breakfast to embark on a charity ride. The only thing about the shooting is clear; two are dead and another biker is injured after scores of rounds were fired. WFTV link;

    Some witnesses at the scene told Deal that the shootout involved a biker gang known as the Warlocks and was sparked by a dispute over turf and power. But police would only confirm that Warlocks members were at the VFW at the time of the shooting. Some of the people questioned by police were wearing Warlocks clothing — and were sitting on the ground in handcuffs.

    “Those people are at the scene, and they are interviewing them now trying to ascertain their involvement,” said Lt. Doug Seely of the Winter Springs Police Department.

    Some of those questioned by police who were wearing handcuffs were eventually moved inside the VFW building. Tow trucks hauled away vehicles riddled with bullet holes.

    So, it looks like the shootout was a result of biker gang rivalries, not necessarily related to the VFW post. But, I guess we’ll see.

    UPDATE: It looks like we were right that it wasn’t related to the VFW or anything else. Dana sends us a link to the Orlando Sentinel which explains;

    Details of the shooting have not been released, but Winter Springs police noted that a Pennsylvania Warlocks chapter that was not affiliated with the Florida Warlocks tried to start a second chapter in Seminole county.

    Sounds like the locals vs. the “snowbirds”. But four people have been arrested for the murder;

    I don’t know how Otis Campbell got mixed up with that crowd, but that’s him in the first picture, isn’t it?

  • Heroes’ PII released by contractor on internet

    Someone who was interviewing Sal Giunta this afternoon called and told me about this thing in the Army Times today about the personally identifiable information (PII) for our highest decorated veterans was temporarily posted on the internet by a contractor;

    The exposed database contains 31 Social Security numbers for six MoH recipients — including former Staff Sgt. Sal Giunta and Sgt. First Class Leroy Petry and four posthumous recipients — and 25 Distinguished Service Cross recipients since Sept. 11, 2011.

    Erik Muendel, chief executive officer of Brightline, told Army Times he was unaware of the breach and did not know how the file wound up online, but he was investigating what was posted and how it got there.

    He said Brightline makes use of such data as part of a contract with the Army Chief of Public Affairs office to build a “Gallery of Heroes” exhibit at the Association of the United States Army conventions.

    He said his firm is meant to receive only unclassified information, and he was surprised the firm was provided with sensitive information.

    “I’m assuming that that file was a derivative of information that was provided to us, but I do not know,” Muendel said.

    Yeah, it wasn’t Brightline’s fault that they were careless with information. I’ll tell you guys like I passed on to Sal, get Lifelock. It costs $100/year, but it’s like life insurance – you don’t need it until it’s too late. The Deparment of Veterans’ Affairs and the Defense Department toss around your PII like so much confetti.

    My wife went to buy a car and put me down as the co-signer and Lifelock called me while she was still at the dealer so I know it works.

    Usually, the DVA and DoD don’t even tell you about these breaches of your PII until months after it happens, so be prepared beforehand. These guys are just lucky that it was Doug Sterner who discovered the breach this time.

  • That Veterans’ Job Corps Bill thing

    Someone mentioned it this morning in the comments, and I thought I’d address the Veterans’ Job Corps Bill of 2012 that failed to make it through the Senate last week. Here’s the text, if you want to read it all, since I’m not interested in addressing the bill completely. It’s Senate Bill S.3457.

    If you are a veteran who is unemployed and don’t really care about the work you do, I guess it’s not that bad, but it really doesn’t offer anything that isn’t already available. For example, the bill offers for veterans employment;

    (1) in conservation, resource management, and historic preservation projects on public lands and maintenance and improvement projects for cemeteries under the jurisdiction of the National Cemetery Administration; and

    (2) as firefighters and law enforcement officers.

    It doesn’t create any jobs, though. It just offers assistance getting jobs that are already available. It does, however offer grants to agencies that employ veterans, but there are no specifics on those grants. They could last a month, a year, a decade, but there’s no real language that addresses those grants except that the Secretary of Veterans Affairs will manage that.

    The bill gives priority to veterans hired as police officers or firefighters, but we all know that usually happens anyway, because veterans are the types of employees those agencies are attempting to recruit because of the demands of those jobs in regards to physical fitness and tolerance for the long hours.

    It also makes the DVA Secretary responsible for reporting on the progress of the Job Corps, and we all know how that turns out – we’re always getting rosy reports from the DVA on how well they’re doing in spite of the available evidence otherwise.

    The bill also tells the DVA to set up “One Stop” centers with internet access to help veterans find the available jobs. Like we don’t have that already in our homes or at the library or a thousand other places. Like the VA.

    (e) Report- Not later than 455 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Labor shall submit to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and the Committee on Heath, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate and the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and the Committee on Education and the Workforce of the House of Representatives a report on the pilot program that includes the findings of the Secretary with respect to the feasibility and advisability of providing computing facilities as described in subsection (a) with assistance as described in subsection (d) at all one-stop centers.

    So, the DVA has more than a year just to report if setting up those One Stop facilities is even feasible, so there’s no help for veterans in that regard for more than a year from the date the law is passed.

    The bill also provides off-base transition training. We all know how effective the on-base transition training is when we’re leaving the service, I don’t know how anyone thinks that more government training is going to be much of a help, except in employing more DVA bureaucrats punching their time sheet.

    The Veterans’ Job Corps Bill doesn’t really do anything useful. If anyone was thinking that it creates more jobs for veterans, it doesn’t. It creates more jobs for bureaucrats – now if you were hoping to get one of those jobs, you’ve got a reason to be disappointed that it didn’t pass.

    But, honestly, I don’t see anything in the bill that isn’t already being done in another shape or form. I’ll admit that I work for the federal government, but all I needed was an opportunity to work, and when Bill Clinton did away with the Carter-era double-dipping prohibition, that was all I needed. Since I’m a disabled combat veteran, I had a hiring preference anyway. It didn’t hurt that it was almost guaranteed that I’d clear the security clearance hurdle, either.

    Now, I know that the IAVA and Paul Rieckhoff are going to make a big deal out of the Senate’s failure to act on the VJC Bill, it’ll probably be the centerpiece of their scorecard this year, but they’re going to have to show me where the bill was more than a bureaucrat employment bill.

    IAVA’s statement linked above said the bill created jobs for police and firefighters and it did nothing of the sort as you can read for yourself, unless you think that giving non-specific grants is creating jobs. Paul and the gang are hoping you don’t read the bill and just take their word for it.

    The Veterans’ Job Corps Bill of 2012 was nothing more than a boondoggle to wave in front of veterans. The truth is that the federal government can’t do anything for veterans that we can’t do ourselves for a lot less money.

  • Army “stands down” for suicide training

    I just got my letter from Army Chief of Staff General Odierno announcing that the Army is “standing down” world wide today for suicide prevention training. Associated Press reports;

    “The Army has decided that this issue is so important to us that we’re going to devote an entire day … that was otherwise devoted to something else and say `That’s not as important as this,”‘ the Army’s top enlisted man, Sgt. Maj. Raymond Chandler, told a news conference Wednesday.

    The Army is the largest of the services, it has the highest number of suicides, and it is the only branch planning the special training Thursday.

    For the first seven months of 2012, the Army recorded 116 suicides among active-duty soldiers, officials reported last month. If that pace were maintained through December, the year’s total would approach 200, compared with 167 total in 2011.

    There are a couple of excellent stories in the video “Shoulder to shoulder” that’s been linked in my sidebar for several weeks about soldiers who saved their buddies from suicide. I won’t claim to have a silver bullet cure for the rash of suicides this year, but I do know that one path to a cure is saying something to your friends whether you’re thinking about it or if you spot someone who might be thinking about it.

    I know that I’ve intervened a few times when I read a comment on the blog that seemed like a warning signal. There’s no one at VA or DoD who is going to look out for us like we do for each other. I feel the loss when I read about soldiers who took their own lives, whether I know them or not, and I’m sure that each of you feels the same way.

    It’s time to nip this suicide thing in the bud, and we’re all up to the task at hand. Dakota Meyer talks about his thoughts about succumbing to the demons;