Author Archives: Team VCS

A Shock Wave of Brain Injuries

“We can save you. But you might not be what you were.” Neurosurgeon, Combat Support Hospital, Balad, Iraq This is the new physics of war. Three 155mm shells, linked together and combined with 100 pounds of Semtex plastic explosive, covered … Continue reading

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Delayed Benefits Frustrate Veterans

Hundreds of Thousands of Disability Claims Pending at VA; Current Wars Likely to Strain System Further In his last years, World War II veteran Seymour D. Lewis would stand at the door of his home in Savannah, Ga., waiting for … Continue reading

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Insult to Injury: Veterans’ Disabilities Are Being Downgraded

Insult to InjuryNew data reveal an alarming trend: Vets’ disabilities are being downgraded In the middle of a battle in Fallujah in April 2004, an M80 grenade landed a foot away from Fred Ball. The blast threw the 26-year-old Marine … Continue reading

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Injured in Iraq, a Soldier Is Shattered at Home

DUNBAR, Pennsylvania — Blinded and disabled on the 54th day of the war in Iraq, Sam Ross returned home to a rousing parade that outdid anything this small, depressed Appalachian town had ever seen. “Sam’s parade put Dunbar on the … Continue reading

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Senator Rockefeller says problems at Beckley veterans hospital ignored

BECKLEY, West Virginia — Senator Jay Rockefeller has asked Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson to investigate complaints of chronic staffing shortages and low morale at the Beckley VA Medical Center. Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said he has received numerous complaints about the hospital. … Continue reading

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Five Deaths at a V.A. Complex Draw Lawmakers’ Concern

LOS ANGELES, April 2 — Five deaths in recent months at the nation’s largest Veterans Affairs medical complex are troubling and could be a further sign of a system badly in need of closer oversight, two members of Congress said … Continue reading

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Lorry Bomb Kills Children in School

A newborn baby was one of at least 14 children and adults killed when a suicide bomber detonated a lorry laden with explosives close to a primary school in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk yesterday. The latest massacre of … Continue reading

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Arizona Veterans Navigate a Medical & Benefits Maze at VA

It took 15 months and a phone call to U.S. Rep. Harry Mitchell before Iraq war veteran Ruben Gallego could get treatment for his injured knee. Gallego left the Marines in September 2005 and didn’t seek help right away. Once … Continue reading

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Reminders of War

SWEETWATER, Tennessee — David Thomas has a left leg made of carbon fiber and steel, and the composed bearing of a man who has learned to wait. The 42-year-old father of four waited six months for the Department of Veterans … Continue reading

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DoD accused of fuzzy math in Iraq and Afghanistan war injury reports

Leaving out non-combat wounds softens war’s blow, vets groups say   Veterans groups and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., say government officials are obscuring the actual number of wounded in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars by leaving out of some public documents … Continue reading

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