What's New
| VA Secretary Pressed by Senator on High Percentage of Wrongly Denied Benefit Claims |
March 16, 2010, Washington, DC (CQ Politics) - A leading Republican senator on Tuesday asked Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to explain why so many veterans’ benefit claims are wrongly denied, resulting in a high rate of reversal on appeal. |
| Read more... |
| Profile of New Veterans' Courts in New York Times |
Defendants Fresh From War Find Service Counts in Court - VCS Supports Veterans' Courts March 15, 2010, Charleston, West Virginia (New York Times) — When Judge Robert C. Chambers handed down Timothy Oldani’s federal sentence for selling stolen military equipment on eBay, he gave the former Marine a break. |
| Read more... |
| Presdent Obama Donated $250,000 of Nobel Prize Money to Fisher House |
March 11, 2010, Washington, DC (New York Times) - President Obama made good on his promise to give his $1.4 million Nobel Prize money to charity, releasing the names on Thursday of the organizations that will benefit. |
| Read more... |
| Philanthropist Bobby Willis to Build New $3.3 Billion Hospital for VA in Farmington, NM for Rural and Native American Veterans |
Proposed state-of-the-art Kirtland veterans clinic could provide as many as 8,000 jobs March 14, 2010, Farmington, New Mexico (Farmington Daily Times) — A proposed veterans complex in Kirtland centered around a new hospital, backed by a wealthy entrepreneur and costing an estimated $3.3 billion promises to bring state-of-the-art medicine and other benefits to veterans, as well as 8,000 jobs to the local economy. |
| Read more... |
| Dr. Haley at UTSW Presents Compelling Brain Images Showing Gulf War Illness |
VCS Asks VA: Since UTSW Research Remains Vital to Understanding Gulf War Illness, Then Why Did a Handful of VA Staff in Washington Impede UTSW Contract and Then End Funding for UTSW? March 9, 2010, Salt Lake City, Utah (Science News) - Nearly two decades after vets began returning from the Middle East complaining of Gulf War Syndrome, the federal government has yet to formally accept that their vague jumble of symptoms constitutes a legitimate illness. Here, at the Society of Toxicology annual meeting, yesterday, researchers rolled out a host of brain images – various types of magnetic-resonance scans and brain-wave measurements – that they say graphically and unambiguously depict Gulf War Syndrome. |
| Read more... |
|
Press Officer Sues Over Snatch 'Lies'
Written by Defence Management Journal
Thursday, 06 August 2009 10:03
|
|
|
|
|
August 6, 2009 - The MoD is facing a lawsuit from one of its press officers, after he alleged that he developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from being forced to lie to the families of dead servicemen about the safety of certain combat vehicles.
John Salisbury-Baker is pursuing compensation from the MoD through an employment tribunal, claiming that he was traumatised from having to hold back information on the safety of vehicles such as the Snatch Land Rover. Salisbury-Baker's job included telling the families of servicemen and the media that the Snatch was safe despite growing concerns that the vehicles were extremely vulnerable to IEDs and mines. He worked at the Imphal barracks in York. After a soldier was killed. Salisbury-Baker would visit the families to serve as their press representative up to and through the funeral. It was during these visits that he claims he was forced to lie to families, telling them that soldiers killed in IED blasts had been in safe vehicles. In 2007 he was diagnosed with Angina, a stress related condition. After being off of work for a year he attempted to return to work at the MoD but subsequently was diagnosed with PTSD. He is claiming that the MoD did not make adequate provision for condition, nor was his condition accepted as a disability. But in his most revealing comments, Salisbury-Baker said that he was not trained for the family liaison role that he so often assumed. "John is an honest, sensitive and moral person, and having to peddle government lies that soldiers in vehicles such as the Snatch Land Rovers were safe from roadside bombs made him stressed," his partner Christine Brook said. "He was particularly plagued by the thought that some of the bereaved families he was visiting might have previously believed their loved ones were safe, because of what he himself had said to the media. "He felt responsible. He has been diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder by his doctor and is pursuing a claim for disability discrimination, on the grounds that the stress of what he was being asked to do effectively made him disabled." The MoD has said it would be inappropriate to comment on a case before an employment tribunal. At least 37 personnel died in Snatch Land Rovers during the Iraq and Afghan conflicts. The MoD is gradually withdrawling them from service but claims that they are necessary for some combat missions and patrols.
|