Vets Archives

Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army's vice chief of staff, has acknowledged that 106,000 soldiers take psychotropic medications. But the Military Health System cannot track the use of those drugs, the Senate Armed Services Committee said in its report on the 2011 Defense Authorization Act released in June.

The final version of that 924-page bill, which Congress sent to President Obama for his signature yesterday, contains language requiring Defense to find a way to track the use of these medications when troops return from deployment.

The Pentagon evaluates the health of troops when they return from the field through Defense's Post-Deployment Health Reassessment (PDHRA) program, which was set up in 2005 and places an emphasis on mental health assessment.

Until now, the PDHRA did not take a look at psychotropic drugs prescribed to troops during their deployment. The 2011 Defense bill (page 269 of the PDF, if you're looking for the language) mandates that Defense include an assessment of prescribed head drugs in the PDHRA, seemingly a simple exercise for one of the most computerized outfits on the planet.

The Pentagon has a habit of ignoring congressional mandates, something I hope does not happen in this instance, because as Chiarelli said, there is a relationship between overuse of head drugs and the epidemic of soldier suicides.

Strap a 40 pound PRC-41
To the pack frame
Four smoke grenades
Don't forget the extra handset
Stand up
Grrrrr
You're not done
Need to eat, add ten pounds of C-s
Drink too, hook three quart canteens
A six pound load to the belt
A two pound M1911A1 .45
Ammo mags and medical pouch too
Stand up
Grrrr
You're not done
782 gear, e-tool, poncho and pack
To hold socks, skivvies and utilities
Pens and message pads
Some pogey bait too
15 more pounds on the frame
Stand up
Grrrrr
You're not done
Put on flak jacket
Top off with helmet and liner
Yet another 12 pounds
Strap on the pack board
Stand up
Walk
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Now you have an idea where "grunts" come from.

Tomorrow is Veterans Day. Here are my reflections, and suggestions on how to mark the occasion.

Silence

Veterans Day used to be called Remembrance Day, which harks back to the World War I armistice, which occurred on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

For years it has been marked by silence. Let's try to continue this tradition in an overly plugged-in world.

Put down the Blackberry, pull out the earbuds, turn off the iPad, embrace the hush, and reflect.

Poetry

If you live in the Washington area, drop in at the semi-annual gathering of The Memorial Day Writers' Project, organized by a bunch of my veteran friends, including fellow Marine Mike McDonell.

These are veterans who dare to declaim and you can find them in a tent behind the sidewalk facing Constitution Avenue near 21st Street in Washington. The offerings range from the profane to the profound, and I guarantee a laugh, and possibly a tear or too.

Read

Check out The War I Always Wanted: The Illusion of Glory and the Reality of War, by Brandon Friedman, an Iraq 101st Airborne veteran and director of new media at the Veterans Affairs Department.

The reviews say Friedman nails combat, along with the absurdity that goes along with any endeavor managed by the Pentagon.

Visit

Walk the lines of tombstones at Arlington, become embraced by the walls of the Vietnam Memorial, and be one of the few people to visit the District of Columbia War Memorial, the closest thing in the Capital City to a World War One Memorial, in West Potomac Park, just off Independence Ave.

Wear

A flower poppy sold by VFW members to commemorate the poppies that Canadian poet John McRae used to evoke the fallen in his World War I poem, "In Flanders Fields":

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow,
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead.
Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved and now we lie,
In Flanders Fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you, from failing hands, we throw,
The torch, be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us, who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Honor

Compose your own honor roll and send it here for posting.

Here's mine:

• My comrades from 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines and 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, Vietnam, 1965/1966 including Herbierto Gonzalez, Mike Metzger, Bill Schwartz, J.T. King, Larry Leal, Tom Wilmot and Mile Gullingsruud.
• Abigail Friedman: I have known and loved Abigail, a State Department Foreign Service officer who finished an Afghanistan tour this June working with provincial reconstruction teams, and her husband Eric Passaglia, for more than two decades and salute them both for their service. Abigail now serves as director for Afghanistan at the National Security Council.


• Lewis B. Puller Jr., friend and fellow Marine who touched me with his grace.


• Marine Maj. Cornelius Ram, the best company commander any Marine could ever have.


• Leon Daniel, Marine Korean War veteran and UPI bureau chief in Saigon on the last day of the Vietnam War. A friend, mentor and source of inspiration.

I have picked up very strong signals that the Veterans Affairs Department has dropped plans to issue a second contract to develop a system to process claims for veterans suffering from diseases related to the Vietnam-era chemical Agent Orange.

IBM won the original claims processing system contract in July, and evidently did such a poor job that VA Secretary Eric Shinseki personally called IBM chairman Samuel Palmisano to express his dissatisfaction with the lack of progress.

The solicitation for the second contract, I'm told, was an added tool to get IBM's attention, vendors told me, more of a club than a real plan to go ahead with another deal. The VA quietly informed interested bidders it did not plan to issue a second contract over the past week.

So what's the status of the IBM system, which was supposed to go into operation earlier this month? I keep asking the VA that question, and so far have not received a reply.

If anyone out there in VA land has concrete info on the status of the IBM system please send me an e-mail.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki personally called the chairman and chief IBM, Samuel Palmisano, this summer to express his dissatisfaction with the company's progress on development of a computer system to process veterans' claims for ailments associated with Agent Orange, VA Chief Information Officer Roger Baker told the Senate VA Committee on Wednesday.

Baker alluded to a post I wrote in September on Shinseki's pique with IBM.

Contractors often run late on government information technology contracts, and IBM did not "understand it was not business as usual" when it came to the small-($9.1 million)-but-important-Agent-Orange project, Baker said in response to a question from the committee's ranking member, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C.

IBM got the message it needed to meet its 90-day delivery schedule for the system after Shinseki called Palmisano, he told Burr. "Its not every day a Cabinet secretary calls a CEO," Baker said.

He also said he expects IBM to meet the delivery schedule, but may need a backup if IBM misses it. VA issued a proposal for a second contractor in September, although the department has not issued an award.

VA expects to be hit with 240,000 claims from Vietnam veterans exposed to the Agent Orange defoliant and Burr said the VA definitely needs the Agent Orange system as it faces "an implosion of the claims process".

Now, if only IBM and VA would answer my multiple, more-than-month-old queries on what problems they have encountered with the Agent Orange claims system, what it's supposed to do, and when it will go into operation.

Veterans Affairs Canada has found a nifty way to try and derail high-profile veterans who complain about its failure to deliver services: investigate them in a manner reminiscent of how long time FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover went after folks he did not like.

The Vancouver Sun in British Columbia reported that Veterans Affairs Canada had compiled a 28,000 page dossier on veterans advocate Sean Bruyea, a retired Gulf War veteran.

The ministry also spent a lot of time digging around in Bruyea's confidential medical files, the Sun said, with the files accessed more than 4,000 times by 850 individuals over a nine-year period as he became an increasingly visible advocate criticizing a new benefit plan that he said shortchanged Canada's Afghanistan veterans.

Pat Stogran, Canada's veterans ombudsman, says psychologically and physically disabled Canadian veterans of that war will face the same neglect U.S veterans of the Vietnam War experienced unless the country radically changes its attitude to care for former soldiers, the Ottawa Hill Times reported.

Stogran, who has described Canada's vet benefits as "chump change," told the Hill Times his medical files also had been accessed by Veterans Affairs Canada.

I guess I should take heart that when I pinch a nerve at our VA offices they don't launch an investigation of me. At most, some officials just get a bit cranky.

But since I'm a wee bit paranoid, maybe I should ask them if there is a Brewin dossier.

In July, the Veterans Affairs Department awarded IBM a $9.1 million contract to develop within three months a system to process claims for Vietnam veterans suffering from diseases stemming from exposure to the Agent Orange defoliant sprayed in that country by the Air Force. (The service's units had the motto: "Only you can prevent forests.")

VA presumes all 2.6 million veterans who served in Vietnam had exposure to Agent Orange. If veterans have one of 15 diseases -- including hairy cell leukemia, Parkinson's and ischemic heart disease, which were added
to the list on Aug. 31 -- they don't have to prove they were in an area where the defoliant was sprayed and their diseases resulted from military service.

The new approach to Agent Orange will add 240,000 claims to its case load, which is why it tapped IBM to build a separate system to process machine readable claims that veterans submit electronically.

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki hailed the approach as "a new way of doing business and a major step forward in how we process the presumptive claims we expect to receive over the next two years."

But after spending a month chasing rumors and tips, I'm told IBM quickly ran into problems trying to build, by the end of this year, a system that would process 30,000 claims.

I have confirmed with multiple sources that an angry Shinseki last month personally called top IBM management to express his dissatisfaction with the lack of progress on the system. I'm also told VA officials followed up Shinseki's call with a formal letter to IBM telling it to get its act together.

This probably explains why early this month VA issued a notice that it would like to find a second contractor to develop an Agent Orange claims processing system, with the ability to start within 15 days of award.

IBM officials did not respond to multiple calls placed during the past month about the status of the Agent Orange claims processing system. VA spokeswoman Katie Roberts declined to comment on whether or not a piqued Shinseki called IBM.

The Senate Appropriations Committee added $13.4 billion to the fiscal 2010 Supplemental Appropriations Bill this to foot the bill for the Agent Orange claims.

But Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., a Marine Vietnam veteran, doubts everyone who served in Vietnam was exposed to Agent Orange, and he wants Shinseki to explain his case at a hearing of the Senate VA committee scheduled for 9:30 a.m. EDT on Thursday.

The Congressional Review Act gives Congress 60 days to review regulations before they go into effect, which means Congress could derail the new Agent Orange rules between now and the end of October.

(Full disclosure: I served in the Marine Corps in Vietnam in 1965 and 1966, and have been in the VA Agent Orange Registry since the mid-1970s.)

I have picked up strong signals that the Veterans Affairs Department has hit another speed bump with its 9/11 GI bill claims processing system.

Although VA rolled out the major portion of a new and improved claims processing system last month just in time to handle the fall semester, I hear another piece to handle automatic input of enrollment data from colleges may not be ready for prime time for another three months.

Keith Wilson, did not put a specific date on the delivery of this piece at a press briefing last month, but said it would go into operation this fall, which starts Sept. 22. I'd say VA will miss the deadline.

I have a query into VA, but have not heard back. That's OK. All will probably be revealed Sept. 16 when the House VA Committee holds a hearing to get an update on the status of the 9/11 GI bill.

Veterans attending college under the post-9/11 GI bill did not receive an increase in their basic housing allowance for the 2010 spring semester due to the clunky claims processing system that was in place until just this month.

The Veterans Affairs Department finished installing a shiny new claims processing system on Aug. 23, and Keith Wilson, director of the education service at VA, said the new system already has started processing and pumping out retroactive payments to 153,000 veterans who attended school in the spring semester.

VA had to pay housing allowances for the spring semester based on 2009 rates because the old claims processing system did not have a rate table for 2010, Wilson said,

He said the retroactive payments range from under a dollar a month to as much as $250 a month, depending on where a veteran attends college, with the average retroactive payment just under $100 a month.

A handy fact sheet posted by VA on its GI Bill website says the department started sending out retroactive payments on Wednesday as a lump sum payment covering Jan. 1, 2010, through July 31, 2010, with deposit expected in the first three weeks of September.

Wilson said the new system will automatically handle any change in 2011 housing allowances.

In the almost forgotten era before the Internet, if you were sick enough to go to a hospital, all you had do was lie in bed, have doctors and nurses care for you, and you eventually got better.

Now, thanks to technology, the Veterans Affairs Department wants to develop an Interactive Patient Bedside Care Tool, or an e-patient terminal. The idea is to encourage patients to "be more actively involved in the care process."

VA wants a contractor to turn the bedside TV into an interactive terminal so patients can access the MyHealheVet website, stream educational videos, view a list of scheduled appointments for the day and, who knows, maybe a surgery webcam.