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

Category: Veterans Issues

  • Arlington records discovered in private storage

    The Associated Press/Stars & Stripes report that the Army has launched yet another investigation into the administration of Arlington National Cemetery when a storage unit owner discovered burial records when he began auctioning off the contents of one unit which was delinquent;

    The investigation was revealed Thursday at a House Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing on operations at the cemetery. Kathryn Condon, the cemetery’s executive director, told the committee that Arlington officials contacted the Army CID as soon as they learned of the boxes’ existence earlier this month from the owner of the facility. She said personally identifying details such as Social Security numbers were in the records, but there’s a limited security risk because the individuals are deceased.

    Yet people responsible for the administration of Arlington were allowed to retire at full pensions receiving no punishment despite the fact that their negligence lasted throughout their careers at this “most sacred cemetery” as the signs say at the entrance.

  • One veteran’s battle with the VA

    Fox News tells the story of a wounded veteran who lost his leg in an IED attack and now does his battle with the VA;

    Iraq War veteran Joel Klobnak is waiting. It’s how he spends his time these days after the Department of Veterans Affairs slashed his disability pay two years ago, the Des Moines Register reports.

    Klobnak, 24, a former Marine who lost his leg in Iraq in 2006, says the cut in disability pay is a misunderstanding, but he still feels forgotten.

    He’s trying to support a family of four on $1,557 per month while he waits to hear whether the government will reinstate full disability pay for his injury and the mental anguish that accompanied it, according to the paper.

    His appeal is trapped in a paperwork backlog that is delaying payments to injured veterans across the country.

    The story goes that he his payments were slashed when he missed an appointment with a VA doctor that he wasn’t aware of, then he got a hearing with an administrative law judge who told him she’d make a decision about his benefits in three months…more than a year ago.

    But we can all take comfort in the fact that people like Tammy Duckworth still get their checks and take time off from their duties at the VA to use their own VA benefits. Did Duckworth have anything to do with Klobnak’s claim…no, probably not, but she didn’t help either.

    Shinseki and his band of leftist nitwits went to head the VA because he is a disabled veteran and was supposed to bring personal perspective to the job…so why is the VA still on it’s bloated ass, doing nothing for veterans except kicking the can down the road while they’re tearing apart real lives and real veterans?

    And who are the first to pay for the national debt out of our COLA and medical benefits?

  • Hiring Our Heroes Manhattan

    Our buddy, Laughing Wolf asked that I let you guys know about a job fair Thursday June 23, 2011 on the pier alongside the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City called “Hiring Our Heroes”. From the name you’ve probably figured out that it’s veteran-centric.

    Simultaneous with the VOWS Conference, the U.S Chamber of Commerce, Department of Labor Veterans Employment and Training Service (DoL VETS) and Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) will co-host a premier veterans hiring fair on the pier adjacent to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum from 8:30am to 3:30pm. There will be 100 local and national employers representing all industries looking to immediately fill positions in their corporations. Veterans and their spouses, as well as interested companies, can register for Hiring Our Heroes Manhattan. For more information please contact HiringOurHeroes(at)USChamber(dot)com.

    There’s more information at the link.

  • Duckworth resigns. Meh, so what?

    The Chicago Sun-Times reports that double amputee veteran Tammy Duckworth has resigned;

    Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki told the Chicago Sun-Times in a statement, “Assistant Secretary Duckworth has submitted her resignation. She has served the Department of Veterans Affairs with distinction. Her unwavering dedication to Veterans and their families has strengthened VA’s ability to perform our mission–providing Veterans the healthcare and benefits they have earned.

    “Tammy Duckworth uniquely understands the needs of today’s Veterans and their families, and her commitment to serving Veterans and increasing VA’s outreach has helped the department serve more Veterans and serve them well. We will miss her advocacy and leadership, but wish her the very best in the years to come.”

    What a load of horseshit. Duckworth’s time at the Department of Veterans Affairs has been about Duckworth, not about veterans. Remember when she defended death panels for veterans? Remember when she “bravely” went back to school during the time she was supposed to be fixing the new GI Bill? Remember when she deflected blame for her own incompetence on veterans healthcare?

    The DVA can only improve with her absence – but that boob Shinseki will screw that up, too.

    The Sun Times speculates that Duckworth will run for Congress in Illinois and that sounds about right. She realizes that she’s a failure at the VA, so she’ll go to Congress where she doesn’t have to be accountable to taxpayers.

    I hope there’s a veteran in Illinois who’ll challenge the brainless twit. I can think of one…hint, hint.

  • Why you should hire a vet

    Tman sends us a link to the story of a 91-year-old Marine veteran, Morris Wilkinson, who fought in the pacific during WWII who is still on the job at the Post Office in Alabama with 70 years of federal service;

    His shoes are always meticulously shined. His hair is always perfectly in place. He’s cordial and courteous, and he’s loath to shirk a single obligation. In fact, he refused to be interviewed for this story until he was off the clock because he had no interest in “wasting time.”

    Thanks for your service, Morris. Your story is one that will dissipate the Hollywood version of what war veterans should be like. Employers, hire a veteran and he may still be on the job 70 years from now.

  • 284 sexual assaults at VA facilities in three years

    USAToday reports that there were 284 sexual assaults in Department of Veterans’ Affairs facilities during a three year period which ended last July. Both men and women were victims and the perpetrators were both patients and employees of the DVA.

    Investigators blamed the assaults on a host of problems, including haphazard security measures, too few VA police and no program for assessing potentially dangerous patients. There was also a failure to report crimes to higher leadership for corrective systemwide action and to the VA inspector general.

    Yeah, well, if they can’t ferret out potentially dangerous employees, how can they be expected to find equally dangerous patients?

    The VA is reviewing the study and taking corrective steps, said Josh Taylor, VA press secretary. An operations center established in 2009 has improved the tracking of crime, he said.

    “We are taking steps to expand and improve our reporting of allegations and to provide more secure facilities,” Taylor said. “We take all allegations seriously and investigate them thoroughly.”

    Somehow, i just don’t trust VA’s new programs after watching them screw the pooch on the New GI Bill and dick up the support for family members to treat their long term wounded at home.

    Knowing Shinseki like I do, he probably put a known sex-offender in charge of the program.

  • Johnson won’t apologize…again

    Since TSO found an opportunity to get in some licks on Charles Johnson, I decided to kick Johnson while he’s down.

    Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs is resisting calls for his apology to Andrew Breitbart for accusing Breitbart of misreporting the Wiener thingie. According to Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, Johnson writes;

    And I’ve been getting a flood of hate mail, much of it demanding that I “apologize” for something. So here’s my official response to this demand:

    Not a freaking chance. If Weiner admits to sending the pictures in question, I’ll be surprised and disappointed, but I’m never going to apologize for calling it as I see it.

    And I’m certainly never going to apologize for pointing out that Andrew Breitbart is a sleazy fraudster, with a well-documented and very tawdry history of deception.

    Those of us who’ve been around TAH for the last two years remember the same mindless drivel from Johnson when he happily jumped on veterans when he thought that a murderer in Arizona was a veteran.

    Johnson intimated that Jason Eugene Bush was a retired Special Operations soldier, and that his participation in a murder with his organization proved the Homeland Security Department’s evaluation of potential violent veterans taking part in terroristic activities. It turned out that Jason Eugene Bush was actually a violent life-long criminal with no military service.

    Johnson refused to apologize then, saying he’d not disparaged veterans. While writing this, I checked the two year old post and Johnson has removed his implication of military service in the double murder. So he knows he was wrong, but he won’t apologize.

  • Hiring Heroes Act

    Just A Grunt sends us a link to an Atlanta Journal Constitution article about the new Hiring Heroes Act now winding it’s way through Congress;

    Robinson is one of thousands of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan struggling to find work, the reason U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., introduced the Hiring Heroes Act last month.

    “Bottom line, we’ve got too many homeless vets and a high percentage of veterans who are unemployed or unemployable,” Bishop said.

    The legislation will provide all veterans leaving service with individualized career assessment, matching up military personnel skills with civilian occupations, as part of the Defense Department’s transition assistance program.

    The bill will make available an additional two years of vocational rehabilitation — restoring injured or disabled vets to the level of work or skills they had prior to being hurt — and employment services once federal and state financial assistance has been exhausted. The bill will also create a program giving vets paid work experience with civilian employers and contractors.

    The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that Gulf War II veterans unemployment was 11.4% in 2010 – higher than the national unemployment rate which is 9.1%. The article says it’s higher this year;

    The legislation comes at a time when the employment rate for returning service members ages 20 to 24 stands at 27 percent, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

    Of course, a lot of the reason for this disparity is that veterans have to overcome the Hollywood stereotype of veterans on the verge of a violent breakdown. I’ve dealt with that in my own workplace. Some of my workmates have no problem telling me to my face that all veterans are crazy.

    From the Chicago Sun Times;

    In decades past, there were greater numbers of veterans in the civilian workplace, including in hiring positions, who understood military language, life and the skills gained there, said Tom Tarantino, senior legislative associate with Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. But today, with an all-volunteer military and a smaller percentage of Americans in the workplace that have served in the Armed Forces, that understanding often isn’t there, he said.

    This sounds like something Paul Reickhoff and his IAVA should get involved in if he can stop perpetuating the myths that come out of Hollywood for a minute.