Author Archives: Team VCS

January 21, 2008 “It cannot be stopped at the border;Or trapped in a shelter of stone;Or arrested by following orders.War has been coming home.” In my first column two months ago, I discussed the mental health problems that our troops … Continue reading →

January 22, 2008 (AP) The Senate voted Tuesday to approve a revised defense bill authorizing a 3.5 percent pay raise for troops while sidestepping a veto showdown with President Bush. The 91-3 vote sends the $696 billion measure to Bush … Continue reading →

Teenage Bomber Strikes In Anbar: Suicide Attack Targets Meeting Of Tribal Leaders January 21, 2008, Baghdad, Iraq – A 13-year-old boy wearing an explosives-packed vest blew himself up Sunday among a group of tribal leaders in the western province of Anbar, … Continue reading →

Fairmont, West Virginia, January 20, 2008 —  Spurred by last winter’s spate of stories about the poor living conditions and bureaucratic hassles encountered by wounded veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, state lawmakers ordered a study at the end … Continue reading →

January 17, 2008 – Both Montana Senators, Jon Tester and Max Baucus, are teaming up to call for an investigation into the state’s VA mental health care. The senators want the VA’s top investigator to get to the bottom of … Continue reading →

January 17, 2008 – WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush on Thursday released $3.7 billion in emergency money that Congress requested to care for veterans, including those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush released the emergency funds even though he said … Continue reading →

January 16, 2008 – Few federal programs have seen the kind of turnaround experienced by the Veterans Affairs Department’s health care system in the late 1990s. Formerly a poster child for substandard medical care and incompetent management, VA’s health care … Continue reading →

January 20, 2008 – Fairmont, West Virginia – A recent survey of West Virginia’s combat veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo suggests that nearly half may have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or depression. It’s not only the nearly … Continue reading →

Dead soldier’s doctor is fired: Psychiatrist treated veteran at Fort Knox January 18, 2008, Fort Knox, Kentucky – A psychiatrist who treated Sgt. Gerald Cassidy, the wounded Iraq veteran from Indiana found dead in his Fort Knox barracks, has been … Continue reading →

January 16, 2008 – Congressman Tim Walz returned yesterday from a nine-day Congressional delegation trip to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Germany during which he investigated the continuum of military health care.  Walz, who served 24 years with the Army National … Continue reading →