Manns Medium

I attended a VA workshop yesterday, Saturday, April 16, 2016 at the regional VA Office in Chicago to help with a pilot program that is designed to help ease and lower the high number of appeals for disability and discovered that the number one reason that these agencies appear not to be working is not just the policies and procedures but mostly importantly the personnel. The policies and procedures are normally handed down by those in charge but these policies and procedures are composed by the input of those in the position to help shape them.  If the opinions and experience of those who served are not voiced as passionately as they should and those expounding those views are not willing or able to demand better treatment of veterans, then the voices with no experience except what they were told or paid to say wins out.  This is the gist of what is happening right now.  That Veteran Service Officers (VSO) who are supposed to be the veteran’s representative does litt...

You read that title right America, my school will reduce veteran suicides because the numbers do not lie and it is clear that what has been attempted in the past is not working.  We have assumed that throwing money at veterans would be the answer.  We have assumed that holding job fairs and offering businesses tax credits for hiring a veteran would do it.  We have assumed that placing them on disability and welfare would do it.  We have been convinced that donation and charity would answer the screams of veterans all over this nation demanding help and getting none.  We have assumed that saying “thank you” would quiet the voices within the heads of these veterans and within our own very souls.  We were and still are so very wrong.  We are wrong because we lack the understanding that the main underlying issue faced by veterans who contemplate suicide has nothing to really do about money.  It simply has something to do about dignity and respect. ...

I used to be a little confused as to why some veterans took offense to people thanking them for their service then I read this article and it hit me like a ton of bricks.  The article is titled “ The biggest and most disruptive layoffs in America are coming from the military ” written by Lydia DePillis in it we learn that “ The Army has already discharged 80,000 troops. The next 40,000 will be harder, especially for the communities that depend on them.  As troops poured into the Army base at Fort Drum, the rural area developed at a breakneck pace. With help from state tax breaks, developers built 3,800 units of brand-new housing and 600 hotel rooms. Troops depended on the local hospital system, which received $100 million in upgrades. The school system took on thousands more students. In an area where the last big industry — paper mills — had disappeared decades ago, the infusion of people and cash was welcome.  Now, however, the citizens of Jefferson County are bracing ...

Received this email from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs around 7:24 PM yesterday 18 March 2015 in which they seemed excited to announce new improvements here let me have them tell you.  “Effective March 24th, 2015, VA is implementing improvements to make it easier for you to apply for benefits.  Online application tools, standardized forms, and a new intent to file process will create faster and more accurate decisions on your claims and appeals.  What does it all mean?  As part of the VA’s full-scale transformation in 2015, these new changes will: Streamline the benefits process, making it faster and easier Use standardized forms to file disability claims and compensation appeals Establish a new intent to file a claim process” Now to those who are or may not be aware, if the main issue was applying to benefits that you earned, this would be a welcomed change and things would began looking better for the less than 1% who don those uniforms and mak...

For years now I have been fighting this invisible enemy and just recently come to realize who and what this enemy is.  This enemy used to get the best of me in the beginning but until recently I truly thought I had it under control.  Those nightmares and wondering minds as well as those hype-reactions took its toil but I made a fight of it.  I was just sitting here a few minutes ago and thinking that I had endured enough.  I couldn’t seem to stop the voices but as my day was getting darker, it finally occurred to me why. The enemy is PTSD and whether those in the medical community wish to acknowledge it or not, I know that it exists.  It’s invisible to many but ever present for many more.  People wish you to believe that it is only exclusive to a certain segment of society but I know that it is not.  People want you to think that they understand what it is and how to treat it but they have no clue.  People want you to believe that only those ...

According to an article titled “ Iraq Veteran, Now a West Point Professor, Seeks to Rein In Disability Pay “written by Dave Philipps with credit to Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times, tells us that “Nearly 200 sick and wounded soldiers in a gym at Fort Carson last month listened silently as Lt. Col. Daniel Gade offered a surprising warning: The disability checks designed to help troops like them after they leave the service might actually be harmful.  As he paced back and forth in front of the soldiers, some of them leaning on crutches, Colonel Gade said that too many veterans become financially dependent on those monthly checks, choose not to find jobs and lose the sense of identity and self-worth that can come from work.  “People who stay home because they are getting paid enough to get by on disability are worse off,” he said. “They are more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol. They are more likely to live alone. You’ve seen these guys. And the system is driving you to...

According to an article titled “ VA Moves to Prevent Veteran Violence Over Disability Claims ”  “Veterans Affairs officials want to change when soldiers can view some of their medical records online, fearing veterans could become violent if they see negative comments and think their disability claims will be denied.  Veterans must get a medical exam as part of the process for filing a disability claim for a service-related injury. Within days or weeks of the exam, veterans can see the doctor's forms or notes by using the "Blue Button" on My HealtheVet, the VA's website for health records.  A group of department officials said Monday that they fear veterans could see the notes from the exam, assume from this partial picture that their claim is being denied, and take out their anger on local VA officials. They voiced their safety concerns Monday to members of the department's Advisory Committee on Disability Compensation at their meeting this week in Washington. ...

In an article written by Barnini Chakraborty titled “ Sick veterans who served at shuttered, toxic Army base turn to Congress, VA for help” for Foxnews.com you can find out things that many people do not want you to know or seem to care about at all.  Monsanto settled with the city and the civilian population on this subject but for some unknown reason all military personnel was left out.  No one knows and no one has the balls to step up and tell us why, maybe because we were seen as government property and therefore less than human.  Maybe we were still under some contractual agreement that we could not sue the government so that protected Monsanto and those local lawmakers from having to think much about us or maybe it was that those who were in charge was paid handsomely to omit the military.  Either way, you need to read this article and if you have any love for your military, you need to begin calling your member of congress and demanding that they find their ...

Imagine this, you being told that if you sign on the bottom line, so many benefits will come your way.  You will be able to serve your country and make a decent living too.  You join for the education, medical, dental, housing and the other hundreds of benefits that are said would be earned but for many the service to the country is the real driving force. You spend 2, 3, 4, 6 plus years putting your life on the line or just waiting until they call you into action.  You train from basic and even during your active time for that moment when your unit will get the order to suit up.  You tense up each and every time you hear of any unrest in the world anywhere or you hold your breath as some politicians shoots off their mouths about military intervention.  You serve during or take part in any conflict with hostile forces/countries and you travel the globe to train with other countries military not knowing when you may be called back for real.  You survive...

Matthew Daly of the Associated Press penned an article about the Senate and House Committee finally reaching an agreement regarding the emergency bill to help relieve the very large number of veterans waiting on VA doctor’s appointments.  In it he reports “After more than six weeks of sometimes testy talks, House and Senate negotiators have agreed on a compromise plan to fix a veterans health program scandalized by long patient wait times and falsified records covering up delays. The chairmen of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs committees have scheduled a news conference Monday afternoon to unveil a plan expected to authorize billions in emergency spending to lease 27 new clinics, hire more doctors and nurses and make it easier for veterans who can't get prompt appointments with VA doctors to obtain outside care.  Louis Celli, legislative director for the American Legion, the nation's largest veterans group, said the deal would provide crucial help to veterans who have b...

With all of this recent discovery of the trials and tribulations that veterans have to endure daily just to get those benefits that they were promised and those that they earned, one would think that this was just a flux accident and that these occurrences are not as common as many have claimed.  Those that think that way would be gravely mistaken.  For years now, promises made to those who were willing to get up their very lives to keep this country safe have been reigned upon by so many. It is nice to sometimes hear people say to you that they appreciate your service but because of the numerous obstacles and hurdles you have to overcome just to get those benefits you earned makes that saying mute.  It’s not that we are ungrateful for the sentiment but we would like to see more accomplish to make our returning journey home a little bit more easier to make that sentiment mean what those who say it think it does. Maybe the best way to explain this and how it should be...

Some time ago, I solicited from the Department of Veterans Affairs disability income for which I had honestly believed that I had earned but like many veterans who has to endure the decision of those who may have never served a day or only have this position of authority because they knew someone or their parents knew someone, I got a letter that truly made me sick to my stomach.  Apparently there needs to be a large paper trail in order to get the benefits earned after service.  Now none of this is explained to you before you sign on the dotted line and just how many are they expecting to think that far ahead when signing up for military service.  For many of us, the thought of not returning home is the primary concern not that after we do our time we have cataloged the necessary documents to get awarded our benefits.  And it surprises so many that veteran suicides are so high and tempers are so short.  Imagine being told that all this awaits you after your se...