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... |
|
Army General Chiarelli: Reduce Stigma Against PTSD and TBI
Written by Matthew Cox
Monday, 05 October 2009 22:04
|
|
|
|
|
Army Times, October 5, 2009, The Army’s vice chief of staff Monday called upon the service’s sergeants to change the stigma linked to “the signature wounds of this war – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury.”
Speaking before an audience of noncommissioned officers, Gen. Peter Chiarelli said the Army has “seen a significant increase in number of soldiers” suffering from these two conditions. Since taking over as the vice chief in August 2008, Chiarelli said cases of PTSD and TBI have grown from 38 percent to 52 percent among soldiers who have been involved in incidents in Iraq or Afghanistan that required a casualty report. “This issue is real and must be addressed,” Chiarelli said at the 2009 Association of the United States Army’s Annual Meeting and Exposition. “Contrary to what some believe, PTSD and TBI are not phantom conditions exhibited by weak soldiers trying to get out of a deployment. … This is something that affects real warriors.” Chiarelli tasked NCOs to be careful of the tone they set on this issue because it will affect how their subordinates view these conditions. “If you believe anxiety and depression are signs of weakness, so will they,” he said. “This is the great challenge of your generation. And how you respond will impact not only the soldiers who serve beside you today but those in future generations.” |