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

Category: Veterans Issues

  • Retirees get 13th paycheck this year

    The Stars & Stripes reports that military retirees will get a 13th paycheck this year because of changes to the law;

    The reason, explained Defense Finance and Accounting Service spokesperson Steve Burghardt, is that Congress changed the law this year to require that DFAS pay retirees on the first of each month, unless that day happens to fall on a weekend or a holiday.

    In those cases, the payment is to be made on the last business day before the first of the month. Because New Year’s Day, Jan. 1, is always a federal holiday, that means that going forward retirees will always receive their January pay in the previous December.

    So you know what they say about 13 being unlucky? That means you’re going to end up paying more taxes on your retirement pay than you have in the past. The Stars & Stripes makes it sound like it’s a windfall, but it could cost you if you teeter between tax brackets like I do. It probably means we’ll get our 1099Rs late, too. So forewarned is forearmed.

  • NYT provides cover for Obama on Vet and Defense cuts

    The New York Times knows, like we all know, that Obama won’t keep his promise that he made to the assemblage of Legionnaires in Minneapolis on Tuesday that he won’t the national budget to be balanced on the back of veterans. So the Times, provides excuses for the president;

    Yet just how much power Mr. Obama will have to prevent such cuts is not quite clear. The bipartisan “super committee” created to recommend $1.5 billion trillion in spending cuts over the coming decade will undoubtedly include some veterans programs on its agenda; already some of those proposals are floating around Congress and inside the Pentagon, including one that would revamp military pensions to make them similar to 401(k) retirement programs.

    And if Congress cannot agree with the committee’s plan, then across-the-board cuts will be mandated, some of which will almost certainly fall on the Department of Veterans Affairs, which has seen its budget increase by more than 20 percent since Mr. Obama took office.

    Yeah, see it’s not Obama’s fault that he and Congress have no intention of keeping their promises to veterans. It’s the political forces involved. Probably those Tea Partiers.

    Of course, dicksmith at VetVoice just takes the President at his word;

    “We’re pleased that President Obama has committed to not balancing the budget on the backs of veterans,” said Ashwin Madia, Iraq War Veteran and Interim Chairman of VoteVets.org. “We have always made a deal with those who served that we will take care of them when they get home.

    I’m sure everyone is prepared to blame the Tea Party when the President and Congress make their final plans to make veterans and their families pay for this country’s irresponsibility once again.

  • The new National Commander of the American Legion

    After a huge celebration and a prade, the American Legion has elected their new National Commander for the coming year, Fang A. Wong, a naturalized US citizen from China who served more than twenty years in the Army.

  • Bill Simon, CEO WalMart USA quotes

    “We love hiring veterans. They’re savvy, loyal. quick learners and, of course, team players.”

    “We’re not waiting for the government.”

    “Putting the economy back in shape will be hard…but not Fallujah hard.”

  • Veterans not fooled by pretty words

    If the President’s intention was to win veterans’ votes today in his speech to the American Legion Convention, he failed miserably if the opinions I asked for from attendees are at all representative of veterans who heard the speech. The most common response when I asked folks gathered around the ashtrays and in the hallways after the speech what they thought of it was “He said everything we wanted to hear” but they aren’t convinced that the rhetoric matches the President’s intent.

    The New York Times called it a “somber speech”, but i think it was more tentative than somber. The applause was polite and the President’s words were carefully chosen and delivered in a very uncomfortable tone. The audience was waiting for the other shoe to drop as the President praised them for their service and commitment. The only enthusiastic applause I heard was when the President praised currently serving troops and renewed his commitment to the wars.

    But Mr Wolf noticed that the President was only committed to “ending” the wars while he carefully avoided a mention of “winning” the war. He’s obviously not as concerned about the legacy he leaves this nation than he is about winning the next election and i guess the people in the room this morning sensed that concern, or rather the lack thereof.

    The Times reports this quote from the President;

    “As a nation, we’re facing some tough choices as we put our fiscal house in order, but I want to be clear,” Mr. Obama said. “As a nation, we cannot, we must not and we will not balance the budget on the backs of veterans.”

    Funny, but those are the exact words I’ve used countless times and the sense I got from the various people I talked to, no one believes that. The Defense Department is already planning to jack up our health care costs to reduce government spending. Has anyone recommended that they increase other Federal employees share of their health care premiums? Has Congress decided that they’ll pay more for their health care? Yet no one bats an eye when DoD goes after their former employees. Because we’re getting fat on those health care benefits.

    No, I didn’t talk to anyone was convinced that the President meant much of what he said. But that’s his own fault – if his rhetoric had matched his actions over the last two years, he may have done better.

  • The American Legion Convention so far


    You already know that I’m in Minneapolis along with TSO and B5’s Mr Wolf and mostly its been a serious ball. Yesterday we sat outside a place called “The Local” in downtown Minneapolis and self-lubricated while ten thousand Legionnaires paraded past us. The picture above is when the bagpipes stopped near our spot on the sidewalk and played several songs. Of course, TSO nearly wet himself.

    At ten o’clock local time tomorrow morning, the President is supposed to address the assemblage on the subject of what this administration has done for veterans according to Minnesota Public Radio;

    “You’ll hear him talk about the historic accomplishments of the administration in terms of veterans’ policy: the largest percentage increase in the VA budget in 30 years, help for caregivers of severely wounded veterans, taking homeless veterans off the streets in the tens of thousands to date,” Flavin said. “So there’s a lot of good stuff to talk about, but at the same time, I think you’ll hear form him that it’s still not enough and we still have along way to go.”

    Well, you’ll be pleased to know that Mr Wolf and I will be there in the room with him live blogging, the President’s speech. We have our own table near the center of the room. Hopefully, I’ll have a chance to kick out some New York Times goofs. The American Legion will also be streaming it live beginning at 10 am Central Time.

    So you won’t hear from me early in the morning because I’ll be queued up to get my body cavity search from the Secret Service very early. It wont be a good day for TSO either since his plane to Harrisburg is scheduled to take off at the exact same time as the Presidents plane is supposed to land.

  • How Far Would YOU Go?

    It’s taken me a coupla days to calm down enough to post this one. I kept reading about the thing and getting pissed. For something different each time, mind you, but even as semi-literate as I am a post with little more than WTF! said over and over seemed a waste of time.

    So here goes: Army vet with PTSD sought the treatment he needed by taking hostages – but got jail instead

    Fifteen months of carnage in Iraq had left the 29-year-old debilitated by post-traumatic stress disorder. But despite his doctor’s urgent recommendation, the Army failed to send him to a Warrior Transition Unit for help. The best the Department of Veterans Affairs could offer was 10-minute therapy sessions — via videoconference.

    So, early on Labor Day morning last year, after topping off a night of drinking with a handful of sleeping pills, Quinones barged into Fort Stewart’s hospital, forced his way to the third-floor psychiatric ward and held three soldiers hostage, demanding better mental health treatment.

    “I’ve done it the Army’s way,” Quinones told Henson. “We’re going to do it my way now.”

    Aside: As a ‘Nam vet watching friends and others trying to get help before there even WAS a diagnosis of PTSD around; and watching civilians who had watched one too many movies about Crazy Vietnam Vets cringe away from me when it became known I’d visited the place I reckon I’m just a bit sensitive.

    The story of  “Q” gets worse as it unfolds:

    He saw an Army therapist twice a week, and he was prescribed high doses of medications to treat anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia and depression. In March 2009, his psychiatrist completed the Army’s Warrior Screening Matrix, a tool implemented by the service to determine when a soldier should be assigned to a Warrior Transition Unit, a medical unit for injured soldiers.

    The doctor answers questions about a soldier’s ability to perform his duties, his behavioral health, treatment needs, drug or alcohol abuse, suicide history, medical compliance, life stressors such as divorce and whether the illness or injury affects self-worth.

    Each answer gets a corresponding number, which are all totaled for a score.

    Less than 29: no need for the WTU.

    Between 30 and 199: Possible need for the WTU.

    Between 200 and 999: Needs to go to the WTU.

    A score of 1,000 or above: Failure to assign a soldier to the WTU is likely to hurt treatment.

    Quinones scored 2,331. The psychiatrist underlined it twice on the paperwork.

    He left a voicemail for Quinones’ company commander, but in the Army’s system, medical professionals are largely consultants. The decision on how to proceed is up to the commander.

    Quinones was never sent to the WTU. 

    There’s a lot of Army terms I’m unfamiliar with, but the story DOES come from S&S. The comments offer further validity.

    And it pisses me off! Not quite sure what to do next, but it’s for certain that this story needs to get out there.

     

  • That retirement pay thing again

    Several of you are upset with a CBS story about the planned changes to the military retirement system. I guess they shouldn’t have started the story the way they did;

    It sounds like a pretty good deal: Retire at age 38 after 20 years of work and get a monthly pension of half your salary for the rest of your life. All you have to do is join the military.

    Yep, that’s “all you have to do”…join. You don’t have to spend months away from your family, live in the mud, climb mountains pulling a 500-pound ahkio behind you through waist deep snow, suffer in triple digit temperatures and no air conditioning in sight. Stand in real torrential downpours, holding a spike lined tree hoping you don’t get washed away. Sleep in a hammock four inches above the swamp water because you don’t like waking up with poisonous snakes in your bed. You don’t have to live for days on a few moments of sleep or forage for your food. You don’t have to arrive at the cutting edge of battle by land, sea, or air.

    You don’t have to be responsible not only for your welfare, but the welfare of 30 other people and 7 million dollars worth of equipment, all before you’re 25 years old. Or you don’t have to move 120 one million dollar-plus vehicles and their crews from point A to point B across the plains of Europe before you’re 30 years old.

    You don’t have to look your country’s enemies in the eye and pull your trigger and then live with the attendant dreams the rest of your life. You don’t have to wake up with night sweats screaming almost every night. You don’t have to deal with the hippies spitting on you and calling you names. You don’t have to intermittently watch your children grow up.

    Your day doesn’t start at 4 in the morning and end at 6 PM on a regular duty day – on one of your short days. And it doesn’t include those days when you get called at 2 AM for an alert and you don’t come home for a month or six.

    And, oh, you don’t have to share half of your pension with that cheatin’ wife who couldn’t wait for you to come home from doing your duty before she divorced you.

    All you have to do is join the military and your future is secured with that anemic pension that presidents and Congress can snatch away from you a portion at a time.

    By the way, CBS, the military pension hasn’t been “half your salary” since Jimmy Carter made it 40% for folks who joined after 1977. Do your research.