ptsd War On The Va

[yoggie2]

WOW!!!, I hope this does not happen to me or you. These people really got it broke off in them. If I felt confident before, it is all gone now. Makes me wish I had not watched it, I don't see any real changes coming to affect VA standards right now or in the future. Just a slow drown out death if your able to follow threw, after not working for over 2 years and loosing every thing my family and I have worked so hard for, for years and seeing that CNN special makes me sicker at my stomach. I know I'm not the only one. Did you see those stats with the PTSD claims 3 to 4 times higher than then every war from WWII thur Somalia = Iraqi Freedoms, did I hear that right? I was in 2 theaters of Combat Operations when we complained of PT they handed you 2 or 3 depression meds and sent you on your way I am glad they are taking it serious. Very sad stories made you want to cry for a few of them,it you had a heart at all, there lives are destroyed and never be the same. Money helps but no amount will fix what they have to live with. Reguards RC

sorry had to reedit didn't come out the way I meant it.

Edited November 19, 2007 by yoggie2

[john999]

Jazona

I understand your hesitation about letting a bunch of lying, crooked, politicians rewrite the VA law. If sympathetic congressmen did it we might benefit, but if the present group in the Whitehouse did it we would be crying for decades. I watch C-Span and hear the lies coming out of the Pentagon and the administration. Our government propaganda is based on lies and disinformation. The way the VA's top dogs lie should be a lesson to us all. We are dealing with real scum. If vets don't do in on their own it won't get done. I don't have a secret plan but we are alone in this fight. No one is looking out for us except ourselves. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

[Pete53]

Not even those lying thieving bastards would dare take people off it would probably make it better but you know the government.

[john999]

I wish we could channel our anger at these people in power who treat vets and active duty like dogs. I just heard the military is demanding the Iraq vets who were disabled out of service before they did their time to pay back their signing bonus. These guys got blown up by IED's,and now the military wants their money back!!!!!

[cloudcroft]

And the "saved" money is probably going to be given (foreign aid, etc.) to sorry, unappreciative, corrupt, anti-American Iraqis.

What an insult to ALL Americans, who I believe should come first, not last.

-- John D.

I wish we could channel our anger at these people in power who treat vets and active duty like dogs. I just heard the military is demanding the Iraq vets who were disabled out of service before they did their time to pay back their signing bonus. These guys got blown up by IED's,and now the military wants their money back!!!!!

Edited November 21, 2007 by cloudcroft

[yoggie2]

Great posts that reflect the many varied VA experiences felt (suffered) by the tremendous diversity of hadit members and their experiences.

After much consideration, I came away from the CNN report with a different take. I believe it showed that many of the VA travesties are top down rather than a monopoly at the local level.

Anyone, tell me which CNN question did Mansfield answer. NONE. When asked about the redacted (looked like normal VA surgical removal) rater name and the VA failure to service connect shrapnel wounds. He responded, "I haven't seen the filebut will check on it." He then launched into a diversionary track (that we here at hadit know by heart) of answering a question with an unrelated question.

My point being that the Washington DC leadership sets the tone and the ROs tow the line. We all know exactly what the trickle down theory is--we get pissed on!

The other point that was crystal clear with the cutup page is even more damning. The VA has unilaterally designated all veterans as violent and DANGEROUS! We are not allowed to show or express any anger, frustration, or upset at a system that the entire nation knows is dysfunctional and abusive to veterans. Once we do express any dissatisfaction with the VA, we immediately get the label. I remember very clearly being unfairly assigned these and other horrible and undeserved labels both in and out of the VA system when I returned from Vietnam-- Very first contact with the VA at the VAMC in Cheyenne, WY-- "We have nothing here for you. We don't you Vietnam veterans here because you are nothing but troublemakers and rabblerousers pissed off because you lost the war. This hospital only serves real veterans." After intervention by both Wyoming senators and the lone Congressman, I began getting "treatment" there. Several months later after a physical confrontation with a VA doctor who could not speak or understand English, my "treatment" was transferred to VAMC Denver, CO with the admonition that I never enter VAMC Cheyenne again.

I did none of us any favors by grabbing the doctor by his smock and throwing him across the room, I have always felt that it was justified because after traveling 16 hours on a bus while in the most agonizing and brutal pain known to the medical community, he gave me several demo packs of Tylenol and told me to go back home. I absolutely recommend that NO ONE do this. It can really do no good and it will give the VA a perfect opportunity to refuse you any further VA services. It is not worth it as you will actually harm your claim and medical treatment rather that advance it.

OK back to the point. As Jaz and others have so eloquently said, we, all veterans, are alone. We are a political football that gets passed back and forth when it serves someone's purpose. We instantly became a huge financial liablity when we came home injured instead of the valient warriors we were before the injuries. We have been consigned to backdrops for soundbites.

We, as veterans, need to stand up and reclaim our rightful status as America's defenders. Since it is all about money and politics, we need fight this war with the VA at the local level. We all need to remember Congress makes the rules and provides the dollars in Washington, DC, but they get elected in America's home towns-yours and mine. We need to investigate our elected representatives demonstrated commitment to veterans--ALL veterans-- and make it very clear that we will not only refuse to vote for anyone who has not supported and advocated our issues and concerns, but that we will actively oppose their election if they have not, do not, or will not do so. Then we have to back up it with action.

Check out Speaking Out's recent posts for ideas on how to accomplish what we need to accomplish.

Vets, America has many many wonderful things, collectively defined as the American way of life, to be thankful for tommorrow and every other day for that matter. We here at hadit, and every other veteran, male, female, soldier, sailor, Marine, and airmen have made huge sacrifices to protect and defend that way of life. So, we all have every right to be both proud and thankful.

God bless us all!

We all would have to be UNITED to pull something like that off. I'm really at the point where I am asking my self who was it I served and fought for? Politicians? or our freedoms and way of life? I'd think really hard and say to you, " I made friends I'll never make again in my life and for the first week we fought for our country after that we fought to protect each other, if I could do it again I wouldn't. I gave close to 9 years of my life to be busted up and other things I won't mention just to be treated like a welfare case and humiliated. not to offend just my 2 cents. RC

[Speaking Out]

WE DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. We can use our Voices as Veterans. Call your elected officials, ask them if they'll support Veteran's issues. Ask 3 people you know to do the same thing. Tell your friends, church, relatives, your difficulty with the VA or read some here and tell them. Let them know what the DAV rating of their elected officials. We'll never get all Veterans to vote the same way because of just the one issue, but some will see that the people in office right now don't care about Veterans. Senator Lugar from here in Indiana has been in office for 31 years. The VA claims process is 60 years old. Congressman Dan Burton has been in office for 26 years. Senator Evan Bayh has been in office 9 years. Both sides are represented here. I say it is time to go for all three. Now, Senator Lugar's office says he'll support Veteran's issues. Actions speak louder than words. I have a post asking for ideas to take to my two Senator's to co-sponsor. We are all Veterans and live different lives, but one thing we can do in this life is make it better for everyone who comes after us. That is just who WE are. WE don't give up. WE can try.