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 Praises Secretary Shinseki as He Takes Charge and Fixes Post-9/11 GI Bill Fiasco
Written by Bob Brewin
Friday, 02 October 2009 16:38
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Student Vets Get Pay -- and Pizza NextGov, October 2, 2009 - Here's a real "Hooah" for the top leadership at the Veterans Affairs Department, who decided early on Friday to keep all 57 of the department's 57 regional offices open until every veteran waiting in line picked up an emergency GI bill check valued at up to $3,000. Based on reports I have received from individual veterans and veterans groups, the Washington D.C. office on 1722 I Street N.W. was nearly overwhelmed by a crowd of 300 vets waiting for payment at about noon on Friday. VA spokeswoman Katie Roberts told me that to speed processing on I street, VA dispatched more computers and staff to handle the crowd. And since it was lunch time, they ordered pizza for one and all, she said. VA likely was able to quickly assess the situation at the Washington regional office because Roberts told me Deputy Secretary W. Scott Gould and Assistant Secretary of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs Tammy Duckworth were hanging out there to greet veterans. Also in the crowd at the I Street office was Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., chairman of the House VA Committee, who showed up to say hello and also eyeball the emergency payment process. Lines in other areas of the country were smaller, Roberts said, a fact confirmed by Ryan Gallucci, a spokesman for AmVets, a veterans service organization like the VFW or the American Legion. Gallucci said AmVets staffers at VA offices in Oakland, Calif.; Phoenix, Ariz.; Atlanta, and Winston-Salem, N.C., reported long lines early in the morning, but had disappeared by the end of the day. As of 3 p.m. on Friday, VA had made 6,619 emergency payments to veterans at regional offices and another 6,752 had requested emergency payments online, Roberts said. Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, gives VA high marks for the emergency payment program and described the decision to keep the office open until everyone gets paid "unprecedented."
Graph from Houston Chronicle Story from NextGov |
