What's New
| Congressman Mitchell: Pausing to Consider People Who REALLY Matter |
Chairman Harry Mitchell is a Hero to Veterans Nationwide August 20, 2010 (Arizona Republic) - It's been a month since I spoke to Rep. Harry Mitchell about suicides among military veterans and I'm just getting around to writing something. |
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| What Obama Won't Say Tonight About US Withdrawal from Iraq |
| August 31, 2010 (ConsortiumNews) - President Barack Obama’s aides say his speech this evening marking the end of "combat operations" in Iraq will avoid the vainglorious aspects of President George W. Bush’s infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech in 2003. We’ll see. |
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| Lawsuit Update: Prudential's Half-Billion in Dirty Secret Profits |
Families of Dead Soldiers Sue Insurer Over Its Handling of Survivors’ Benefits August 29, 2010 (New York Times) - Vickie Castro’s only child was killed six years ago just before Christmas, when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside an Army mess tent in Mosul, Iraq, killing more than 20 people. |
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| Op-Ed: Cost of War Must Also Include Caring for Our Veterans |
Overlooked Cost of Iraq / Afghanistan Wars: Our Veterans' Healthcare and Benefits August 15, 2010 (San Francisco Chronicle) - Two years after an Army specialist saw half his platoon torn apart in Iraq, he hanged himself in a California backyard. |
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| VA Secretary Shinseki's Open Message to Gulf War Veterans |
| August 11, 2010, Washington, DC (VA Press Release) - August 2010 marks the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the Gulf War, launched with Operation Desert Shield and followed by Operation Desert Storm. VA honors this milestone with a renewed commitment to improving our responsiveness to the challenges facing Gulf War Veterans. |
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VCS Opens New Dialog with VA on Gulf War Illness
Written by Paul Sullivan
Sunday, 16 August 2009 14:29
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Earlier this month, Veterans for Common Sense wrote to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. We shared our view that the new Administration has an excellent opportunity to make significant progress on the issue of Gulf War illness - a medical condition impacting as many as 210,000 Desert Shield / Desert Storm Veterans. Our VCS letter to VA appears below.
August 2, 2009 The Honorable Eric K. Shinseki Dear Secretary Shinseki: On this day nineteen years ago, Iraq invaded Kuwait and the Gulf War began. Nearly two decades later, there are no treatment programs for the estimated 210,000 Gulf War veterans who remain ill with complex multi-symptom illness. Unfortunately, disability compensation benefits remain nearly impossible to obtain for many Gulf War veterans. However, there is hope on the horizon. With a new administration comes a rare opportunity to move forward and provide assistance to our Gulf War veterans. Veterans for Common Sense (VCS) urges you to use the full authority of your office to craft a bold plan to address the many issues impacting the nearly 700,000 veterans who served in Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Our letter outlines a six-point plan we hope VA will consider in addressing scientific research to better understand Gulf War illness, medical research to find treatments, streamlined regulations to provide disability compensation benefits, and other concerns. 1. Scientific Research. We encourage VA to expand scientific research to better understand the causes of Gulf War illness. This includes working with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses (RAC) to continually review new scientific findings because our veterans want to know why we are ill so we can receive treatment. VCS supports the scientific research underway at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, and we hope they continue to make progress. 2. Medical Treatments. VCS asks VA to work closely with the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program as they try to find needed treatments for our veterans. We hope the CDMRP is expanded soon, as most Gulf War veterans have waited nearly two decades for treatments to alleviate difficult-to-diagnose symptoms. In a related matter, VA training staff can and should meet with Gulf War veterans and advocates in a cooperative atmosphere to update VA’s clinical education guide and other resources for veterans. We are pleased with VA’s recent improvements to the Gulf War Veterans’ Illness web site, and hope VA meets with veterans and other stakeholders to continue enhancing the site. 4. Gulf War Reports. VCS supports the continued publication of Gulf War Veterans Information System (GWVIS) reports that describe the Gulf War service member population and various aspects of their healthcare use and disability claim activity. This statistical information, mandated by Congress (“Veterans Health Care Act of 1992, Public 102-585), remains vital for monitoring this population and for comparing it with other cohorts of deployed veterans. 5. VA Coordination. We suggest that VA coordinate VA efforts related to Gulf War veterans, preferably by naming a single office or person responsible for Gulf War healthcare, research, and benefits. This would include VA’s Office of Research and Development, VA’s Office of Public Health and Environmental Hazards, VBA’s Compensation and Pension Service, VA regulatory staff, and the four relevant VA advisory panels – the RAC, the Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans, the Advisory Committee on Disability Compensation, and the Veterans’ Advisory Committee on Environmental Hazards. 6. Stakeholder Meetings. VCS is pleased to have had the opportunity to meet with VA’s VSO liaison in June. We understand members of the RAC met with VA’s Chief of Staff in July. Regular meetings with stakeholders represent the start of a process and relationship VCS hopes will continue, as this is in the best interests of our veterans. Much work remains to be started and completed so our Gulf War veterans receive the prompt and high-quality healthcare and benefits they need after deploying to the war, and we look forward to working with all of the many components within VA for the benefit of our veterans and their families. We hope to hear from you soon about scheduling meetings to discuss this plan in greater detail. Sincerely, |









