Complaints about Warrior Transition Battalion also found at Fort Drum

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Team VCS

February 26, 2012 (Fayetteville Observer) – A recent federal review of a program for wounded soldiers at Fort Drum, N.Y., uncovered serious shortcomings that echo allegations made by soldiers in Fort Bragg’s Warrior Transition Battalion.

Among the many deficiencies cited in the Sept. 30 report, the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Defense found that soldiers and staff in Fort Drum’s Warrior Transition Battalion perceived the unit as a “dumping ground” for problem soldiers.

According to the report, the battalion’s staff indicated that less than 20 percent of Fort Drum units ever contacted wounded soldiers, and usually only when they tried to retrieve or account for equipment. That reinforced a “fire and forget” mentality among wounded soldiers that eroded morale and stunted desire to return to active service, the report said.

The report also uncovered concerns that the battalion’s physically wounded and mentally impaired soldiers were being overmedicated, partly because of a lack of communication and controls. The report quotes one command team member as saying, “half of the warriors are ‘stoned’ on psychotropic drugs.”

The Inspector General’s Office also found that:

  • Fort Drum’s Warrior Transition Battalion did not foster positive leadership to help wounded soldiers return to active duty or civilian life.
  • The possibility of inappropriately medicating soldiers “could lead to potentially harmful medication-related incidents or enduring health problems.”
  • The battalion’s staff was inadequately trained to prepare soldiers to move back to active duty or civilian life.
  • Soldiers lacked meaningful programs to assist them in the transition process. Soldiers were routinely denied the opportunity to take college courses during daytime duty hours.

‘No use to the military’

Many of the findings mirror complaints made by about a dozen soldiers or their family members at a meeting Feb. 15 in Fayetteville to discuss Fort Bragg’s Warrior Transition Battalion. About two dozen other soldiers or their family members have called The Fayetteville Observer since that meeting to voice similar complaints. Two people made positive comments about the battalion.

The complaints related to Fort Bragg include:

  • Harassment and other forms of mistreatment by Fort Bragg’s Warrior Transition Battalion staff.
  • Overmedication of wounded soldiers.
  • Forcing soldiers out of the Army – often with general or other-than-honorable discharges – by accusing them of faking illness or injury in an attempt to receive increased benefits.

During the meeting in Fayetteville, Marlena Pennington said her husband, Dale James Pennington, was separated from the Army under a less-than-honorable discharge after officials with the Warrior Transition Battalion accused him of faking seizures.

Dale Pennington died in August after collapsing on his living room floor. A heart problem killed him, his wife said. Dale Pennington had spent three years in the Warrior Transition Battalion.

“It seems like Dale became no use to the military,” Marlena Pennington said. “He was treated no better than a dog on the street.”

Shortly before the meeting, which was organized by a loose-knit group of soldier advocates from around the country, Fort Bragg Gen. Frank Helmick ordered a “thorough inspection” of the battalion for physically and mentally wounded soldiers.

A day later, Helmick, commander of 18th Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg, signed an order for his inspector general to conduct the inspection.

In a statement last week, Fort Bragg Brig. Gen. Michael X. Garrett defended the installation’s wounded warrior program.

“We take great pride in how we have cared for our wounded warriors here in the Warrior Transition Battalion at Fort Bragg. As one of the most inspected units on Fort Bragg, I can assure you we continue to look inward all the time to see how we can improve our processes and procedures to better serve our wounded soldiers and their families.

“It is unfortunate when anyone perceives they are not receiving the best possible care or treatment.”

The Department of Defense inspector general is not scheduled to conduct an inspection of Fort Bragg’s Warrior Transition Battalion. But a spokeswoman said: “We will want to review the results of these efforts and discuss with the command prior to deciding on whether a (Department of Defense inspector general) assessment is called for.”

Col. Kevin Arata, a spokesman for the 18th Ariborne Corps at Fort Bragg, said the corps inspector general’s report is expected to be complete by April 1. Meanwhile, preliminary results of a separate inspection of the handling of medications “has found no red flags,” he said.

‘Dumping ground’

Fort Drum, in rural northwestern New York state, is home to the Army’s 10th Mountain Division. The inspection of its Warrior Transition battalion was one of a few conducted at least in part because of congressional questions about the units.

The Fort Drum report cited instances in which the division’s acting commander, as well as commanders of Medical Department Activity and the Warrior Transition Battalion, failed to adequately address specific recommendations from the Inspector General’s Office. Those recommendations were sent to the commanding general of Northern Regional Medical Command and the commander of the Warrior Transition Command for further consideration.

The spokeswoman for the Inspector General’s Office said that all concerns raised have or are now being addressed.

Among other findings, the Fort Drum report said the battalion’s staff sometimes made soldiers participate in physical activities, such as PT, that risked new or further injury. One soldier with cancer was told to stay away from crowds because of his weakened immune system, yet the staff required him to be in formation and stand in ranks.

The report also said staff expressed concerns about overmedicating soldiers in the battalion. “One primary-care manager commented that the numbers and types of medications that some of the warriors were taking was a ‘scary situation,’ ” according to the report.

On the other hand, some soldiers who were interviewed said they had trouble getting necessary medications without being labeled a “junkie.”

And the report was critical of the battalion’s leadership and staff.

“There were multiple factors that contributed to the overall negative command climate within the Fort Drum WTB,” the report said. “Those factors included inadequate communication within the unit; poor treatment of soldiers by WTB staff; the stigma of the WTB being a ‘dumping ground’; and warrior attitudes toward the WTB.”

While the battalion’s leadership said it had conducted a deliberate and thorough process of selecting squad leaders, according to the report, “we observed and were told that many of the selected leaders exhibited leadership qualities suited for an infantry unit, and that type of leadership focus did not work effectively with the unique population of warriors.”

The report said the “dumping ground” perception was supported by Fort Drum units and battalion soldiers and staff. One soldier said he felt that his unit dumped him in the battalion because it didn’t want to deal with his medical condition; another said the rest of Fort Drum saw battalion soldiers as “rejects.”

The report said a staff member related a story about a soldier whose leg had been amputated below the knee. The soldier stayed with his unit rather than go to the Warrior Transition Battalion.

“We observed many instances in which lengthy process, vague timelines, and the command environment may have contributed to warrior frustration and desire to leave the WTB as quickly as possible,” the report said. “A WTB staff member stated, ‘Only an estimated one in 75 say that they like the WTB and feel helped and supported by the process. The rest of the majority just complain that they can’t wait to get out.’ ”

Despite that level of frustration, the report noted a perception among command staff that some soldiers wanted to stay in the battalion and were “gaming the system.”

The inspection found that staff training was deficient. The report said some squad leaders indicated they had only two weeks training when they arrived at the battalion, while others took only an online course. Staff members agreed that more training was needed to care for a large number of soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury.

The report said the soldiers were mostly satisfied with their primary-care managers but faced challenges getting timely access to specialty care, such as behavioral health services, neurology and sleep clinic appointments.

The report acknowledged that access to specialty care is challenging because of Fort Drum’s remote location, but said soldiers’ transitions back to active duty or to civilian life could be delayed as a result.

The report cited two areas in which Fort Drum’s Warrior Transition Battalion excelled: Providing personalized digital assistants – handheld computers, basically – to the wounded soldiers so they could keep track of medical appointments and other matters; and requiring soldiers to have a comprehensive orientation with the Family Assistance Center.

At the time of the report, 310 soldiers were in Fort Drum’s Warrior Transition Battalion. By comparison, Fort Bragg was serving 477 wounded soldiers this month.

The report shows that Fort Drum’s battalion served 1,155 wounded soldiers between June 1, 2007, and Aug. 13, 2010. Of those, 346 returned to active duty, 801 returned to civilian life, two died and six were separated from the Army.

More reports coming

Besides Fort Drum, the department’s Inspector General’s Office has concluded an assessment of the program at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and is expected to release a report on North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune next month. Reports on inspections of three other military installations are expected this year.

The office’s report for the Warrior Transition Battalion at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, uncovered fewer serious deficiencies than the one for Fort Drum. And for every problem cited for Fort Sam Houston, the battalion’s command was found to be responsive to the office’s recommendations.

Fort Sam Houston is focused on health care and, unlike Fort Bragg and Fort Drum, does not have a large proportion of combat troops.

The Inspector General’s Office report said the management and staff of Fort Sam Houston’s wounded warrior battalion and Brooke Army Medical Center appeared to be “fully dedicated to providing the best available care and services for helping warriors heal and transition.”

In 2007, the Army created 35 wounded warrior battalions in response to a scandal involving the treatment of soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

Today, there are 29 battalions for wounded soldiers in the United States and three in Germany, as well as eight community-based battalions in the United States and one in Puerto Rico.

Posted in Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged , | Comments Off on Complaints about Warrior Transition Battalion also found at Fort Drum

Preparing Veterans to Work on Wall Street

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Team VCS

February 27, 2012 (WNYC) – If Hollywood has taught people anything, it’s that Marines are tough (“You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!”), pilots walk with a swagger (think Tom Cruise in “Top Gun”) and soldiers are thrill-seeking wild men (“Apocalypse Now”, “Full Metal Jacket”).

But so-called Wall Street War Fighters Jerry Majetich and Jason Leisey, don’t really fit into the movie mold of soldiers, even ex-soldiers.

These men are soft-spoken, friendly, mild mannered – and now Wall Street finance types. They’re also both disabled veterans of the Iraq war who lost, among other things, the fingers on one hand.

For Majetich, it was his right; for Leisey, his left.

Sadly, their cases are not unique. Of the 2.2 million service members who’ve become veterans in the post-9/11 era, over 500,000 of them have come home with a service-related disability.

This is, in part, what prompted a number of veterans who work in the financial industry to create the Wall Street War Fighters program — a six-month crash course that trains, licenses and finds work for disabled veterans who want to pursue careers on Wall Street.

Located in Pennsylvania, the program is mainly funded by Drexel Hamilton, a Wall Street-based investment firm that, according to spokesperson and Drexel CFO Cal Quinn, was founded on the principal of offering “meaningful employment opportunities” to disabled veterans.

Split into four phases, the first half of the program is based in Philadelphia and includes an introduction to the financial industry, an assessment of each of the candidates’ goals and preparation for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) licenses which are required for many jobs within the industry. After that, candidates gain “short-term internship exposure” either in Chicago or New York, before beginning a formal 4-6 month internship at a financial institution based in New York, Chicago or Philadelphia, such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan or Wellington Management. So far 24 veterans have completed the program, with another 11 on the way.

From Soldier to Analyst in Five Years

Jason Leisey, 31, was one of the first vets to come through the program when it was first launched in 2008.

Originally from Lancaster, PA, Staff Sergeant Leisey was on duty in Bayji, Iraq, when a car bomb exploded in front of his vehicle, in April 2005. He suffered burns on over 20 percent of his body and lost all of the fingers on his left hand. He also lost his left ear.

In the days following the attack, Leisey was flown to the Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, where he spent over a year undergoing several surgeries and rehabilitation. And when all of that was over, he was discharged from the army.

“It’s easy to get down,” he said, reflecting on what he went through in the months following the attack. “My immediate thoughts were [that] I’d lost use of my left hand — I’m disfigured. It was really easy to see all the negatives, and I think it took a good 6 to 9 months to start to see the positives.”

As a teenager, Leisey’s father had encouraged him to understand the stock market. They studied financial statements together, crunched some numbers and started investing in stocks. Although he hated it at first, he soon realized he enjoyed it and “it stuck.” Leisey kept it up through his years in the Army and, in 2009, he graduated with a degree in finance from Millersville University in Pennsylvania.

He readily admits it was “not a great time to be looking for work” in the financial industry. That’s when an advocate from the Army’s Wounded Warrior Program called to let him know about a new foundation that was helping vets to get a foothold on Wall Street.

After completing the War Fighter program, which included taking professional development courses at the Wharton Business School in Pennsylvania, Leisey landed an internship with Drexel Hamilton.

“Jason is hugely analytical,” Drexel’s Quinn said, adding “he’s just a really great guy with a talent for numbers.”

By October 2010, Leisey landed a job with Citibank, where he now works as an analyst and client advisor. He admits the transition to the civilian work force from the military wasn’t straightforward. Leisey was able to utilize Citi’s veteran network and mentoring program.

“It’s a very different environment from what you’re used to,” he said. “But being able to lean on other mentors who’d made the transition successfully really eased the burden.”

Even for those who don’t have a background in finance, the war fighter program is still a realistic prospect, according to Leisey. “They give you a lot of exposure to different parts of the industry. They work with everyone to gauge their interests and get them placed appropriately.”

Finance is More Than Numbers

That certainly was the case for 43-year-old Jerry Majetich.

Majetich spent four years in the U.S. Marine Corps followed by another 16 in the army where, as a Staff Sergeant, his final role was as a tactical team leader within “psychological operations.”

“I talked to people. I travelled to some of the small villages, talked to religious leaders, village elders, political, military and police leaders,” he said, with the reassuring manner of the kind of guy you’d want to talk to.

Majetich was attacked while in Al Dora, Iraq, in 2005. His vehicle hit an IED which he said “basically evaporated” half of the vehicle he and four others were travelling in.

“I was still inside the vehicle when it was on fire. [I] eventually got out of the vehicle, still on fire,” he said, with a dignified calmness. He was also shot three times before he managed to get away.

Majetich spent the next 22 months in the hospital at Fort Sam Houston in Texas. He’s undergone 62 surgeries to date. But, as he said himself, he’s ‘still kickin’.”

(Photo: The humvee Majetich was traveling in when it hit and IED./Courtesy of Jerry Majetich)

A native of Washington  State, Majetich was able to retire from the Army in 2007 after almost 20 years of  service. “I wasn’t exactly sure what I was gonna do,” he said. A single father with three children, he wasn’t ready to retire but, despite his military career and college degree, he struggled to find a job he was interested in. Then he got an interesting call from a friend.

“I found the [War Fighter] program because one of my friends saw a picture of me saluting General Pace on the homepage,” he said. “And they asked me ‘isn’t that you on that website?’”  So Majetich gave the War Fighter Foundation office a call and asked them what they did. A month and a half later, he was in the program.

After completing his six months with the Wall Street War Fighters, Majetich was hired by Drexel Hamilton last April. He’s now a vice president based in Florida, covering the south-east region of the country, setting up appointments and working with the sales team.

On paper, Majetich might come across as an obvious candidate for this environment: he has a degree in business communications and an accounting background, having done some accounting in the army for a few years. But he believes it’s the skills he picked up on the job in Iraq that make him effective in the workplace today.

“Actually the thing that helps me the most is was the last thing I did in the army — talking to people,” he said. “The finance industry is far more about networking and communication than it has anything to do with numbers and stocks. When people get to know and trust you, you can accomplish so much more.”

Even with the volatility of today’s markets, Majetich says it’s nothing compared to what he’s had to deal with before.

“The very, very, very worst day in any market situation, I think I can deal with it. You might get mad, ‘cause you’ve lost some money or something, but I think it’s a little better than some of the other situations we’ve been in,” he said. It’s hard not to believe him.

Posted in Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged | Comments Off on Preparing Veterans to Work on Wall Street

Rebuilding Purpose Through Community Service

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Team VCS

Feburary 24, 2012 (VA.gov) – Many veterans struggle to find the same purpose at home as they found in the mission, camaraderie and structure of the military. Life as an active duty service member is a total commitment of self to mission and unit. It is, in essence, a purpose-drive life. So when the time comes to transition to the civilian world many veterans, including myself, are left wondering, “What now?”

I served in the United States Marine Corps from 2003 – 2008. In the transition to civilian employment, I was recruited to make parts for different aircraft because of my experience in the military as an airframe mechanic. The job was not what I wanted to do, but because of the limited options available at the time I accepted the offer. I quickly found myself working for the paycheck and nothing more. There was no feeling of accomplishment, or reason to be proud of what I was doing. Where was the mission? Where was the purpose?

I did not realize at the time that my transition to civilian life could be characterized as normal. In a study of recently returned OIF/OEF veterans, only 13{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} “strongly agreed that their transition home was going well.” Nearly nine out of ten agreed that Americans could learn something from their example, but only half considered themselves leaders in their communities as a result of their service. Yet, the study found veterans were still overwhelmingly eager and willing to continue serving their country at home.

The organization I now work for, The Mission Continues, challenges post-9/11 veterans to rebuild purpose through community service. Through 26-week community service fellowships, veterans volunteer at the nonprofit organization of their choice. Fellows are awarded a cost-of-living stipend to offset living expenses and in return commit 520 hours of service to their community.

Following my time as an aircraft technician and an even shorter stint as a secretary, I stumbled upon a listing for The Mission Continues Fellowship Program. I was awarded a fellowship in 2010 and chose to work in The Mission Continues office, recruiting other veterans who were stuck in similar situations as I had been, to recommit to a life of service. By providing a challenge to others, I had again found purpose.

Today, I serve as the Fellowship Recruitment Manager. I have seen firsthand the positive impact of a fellowship for over 200 other veterans. A study conducted in partnership with the Center for Social Development at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work found 71{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} of Fellows have furthered their education since joining the program, 86{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} have transferred their military skills to civilian employment, and 100{cd9ac3671b356cd86fdb96f1eda7eb3bb1367f54cff58cc36abbd73c33c82e1d} would recommend the program to a friend or family member.

I wake up every morning knowing I am going to make a difference is someone’s life. I may no longer put on the uniform of the United States Marine Corps each day, but my service to my country is far from over.

The application deadline for entry to the Mission Continues 2012 Fellowship Class Bravo is March 1. For more information about the Fellowship Program, please visit our site or email fellowships@missioncontinues.org.

Tiffany Garcia is the Fellowship Recruitment Manager of The Mission Continues, a national nonprofit that engages veterans to serve as community leaders. She served in the United States Marine Corps from 2003-2008. She is also an alumna of The Mission Continues Fellowship Program.

Posted in Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged | Comments Off on Rebuilding Purpose Through Community Service

New Study Gives Scope and Cost of Combat-Related Conditions Among Veterans

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Team VCS

February 24, 2012 (New York Times) – It’s difficult to know just how many of the two million people who have served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been afflicted with two common combat ailments, post-traumatic stress disorder (P.T.S.D.) and traumatic brain injury (T.B.I.). But a new study of six years of data from the Veterans Health Administration, published this month by the Congressional Budget Office, illuminates not just the extent of the treatment that is needed, but its costs.

In a sampling of nearly half a million veterans of the two wars, 21 percent had P.T.S.D., 2 percent had symptoms of T.B.I., and 5 percent had both. For a variety of reasons, it’s hard to extrapolate these rates to the entire group of those who served.

But the notable finding of the report is this: Taken together, the afflicted group’s first-year treatment costs ran four to six times as high as patients without these conditions.

From 2004 to 2009, the Veterans Health Administration spent $3.7 billion on the first four years of care for all the veterans tracked by the study. Sixty percent of that sum, or $2.2 billion, went for the care of patients with P.T.S.D. or T.B.I., or both. About half of that went for therapies specific to P.T.S.D. and T.B.I.

In the first year of treatment, the cost of treating a typical patient with P.T.S.D. averaged $8,300, one with T.B.I. $11,700, and one with both $13,800. The average cost of the first year’s treatment for a patient with neither diagnosis was $2,400.

In patients diagnosed with P.T.S.D., the first year of treatment with the P.T.S.D.-specific therapy averaged $4,100, or nearly half of the $8,300 spent in total. In the second, third and fourth years of treatment, the average costs per patient went down, but the P.T.S.D. therapy continued to account for about half. The same pattern prevailed generally for patients with T.B.I. or with both problems – the highest costs come in the first year of treatment, costs generally decline in the next few years (once some technical wrinkles in the data are ironed out) and a significant portion of overall treatment costs are for these two conditions.

Total treatment costs were much higher, as would be expected, in one subset of about 500 patients whose injuries were much more far-reaching and who were treated as inpatients at a polytrauma rehabilitation center – about $136,000, on average, in the first year, $42,000 in the second year, $27,000 in the third year, $28,000 in the fourth year. About 95 percent of this group received treatment for P.T.S.D. or T.B.I. And in the polytrauma group, just as in the general Veterans Health Administration population, therapies for P.T.S.D. and T.B.I. accounted for 60 percent of total health care costs.

This somewhat dry and statistical treatment of a difficult subject is not a comprehensive accounting of the costs of these two war-related conditions. Many active-duty service members are treated by the Defense Department hospital system, not the veterans system, and many with these disorders receive treatment privately or not at all. Many who receive some treatment do not come back for enough sessions. But even though the budget office makes no recommendations – that’s not its function — there is valuable information in its study, and it is a reminder that the costs continue even as the wars wind down.

(To put the numbers in perspective, the Veterans Health Administration spent a total of $6 billion on health care expenditures for veterans of these wars from 2002 to 2010; total spending in 2010 alone for health care for veterans of all ages and all conflicts came to $48 billion. All dollar amounts are adjusted to 2011 values.)

Posted in Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged , | Comments Off on New Study Gives Scope and Cost of Combat-Related Conditions Among Veterans

Veterans Learn Tools of Business

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Team VCS

February 28, 2012 (The Advocate) – Sitting at desks in a Lod Cook Hotel conference room on Sunday, 11 military veterans were armed with a new set of weapons — laptops, pamphlets and PowerPoint slides.

From across the country, the veterans, who are from 29 to 59 years old, said they have different goals in life, including opening a restaurant franchise or starting an indoor baseball facility.

But all of them want to learn how to operate a business, so they’re going through “boot camp” all over again.

Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities, provided by LSU’s Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute, began Sunday and continues through March 3.

The boot camp, which is a first for LSU, is part of a training program at several universities nationwide aimed at helping disabled veterans get acclimated to the business world, said Robin Kistler, director of LSU’s program.

Other universities that participate are Syracuse University, Florida State University and the University of California at Los Angeles. Follow cheapmotorhomes for more latest updates.

“They (the veterans) need people who can give them business advice,” Kistler said.

Sunday’s session felt like a classroom setting. The veterans sat in a U-formation of desks as lecturers went through PowerPoint slides full of business-launching tips.

One of Sunday’s lecturers, Mike Ricks, used his prior military experience to relate to the veterans.

Ricks, the Louisiana district director for the U.S. Small Business Administration, served in the Army for 13 years before retiring in 1999.

Ricks gave tips about applying for special loans as well as maximizing business opportunities and resources. He also told the veterans that time equals money, which isn’t always the case during military service.

“You reap what you sow,” he told the students. “If your business fails, it’ll be because of your decisions. If your business succeeds, it’ll be because of your decisions.”

Before his presentation, Ricks said he wants to help veterans find all the programs they need to be successful in business.

“A program like this for me back then (when I retired) would have been immensely helpful,” he said.

Veterans eligible for the program are those who have a service-connected disability, designated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and who served on active duty after September 2001, according to an LSU news release.

Twelve veterans signed up for the LSU program, but one could not attend Sunday’s session because she was sick, Kistler said.

Of the 12, eight are men and four are women. Only four hail from Louisiana.

Kim Robinson, a Prairieville native, served in the Army from 1989 to 2009, eventually reaching the rank of sergeant first class. She declined to reveal her disability.

Robinson, 40, said she wants to open her own Subway sandwich shop franchise.

“I’m just trying to get the knowledge and skills I need to be successful,” she said.

Elmer Rivera, 39, also served in the Army and medically retired in 2004 after he was hit in the stomach during a mortar attack. He said he has undergone 18 surgeries since the attack.

Rivera is from Puerto Rico but heard about the program through Wounded Warriors. He said his wife attended the seminar at Syracuse University.

Rivera works as a quality representative for pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly. But he wants to follow his passion and open an indoor baseball training facility back home, which he says would be the first in Puerto Rico.

Rivera said the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp has already given him a wealth of knowledge about starting his own business.

“The program is set up so you can get out with all the tools you need,” he said.

It’s too late for veterans to sign up for LSU’s sessions this week, Kistler said. However, any disabled veteran interested in the summer programs at other universities can go to ebv.lsu.edu for more information.

The program is funded by private donations and is free for veterans, Kistler said.

LSU hopes to grow its program to 25 people next year, Kistler said.

“We’re going to continue to train more and more people,” she said. “They only gave us 12 this time so we could get our feet wet.”

Posted in Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged | Comments Off on Veterans Learn Tools of Business

Veteran Who Called Suicide Line Offered Counseling to Avoid Charges

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Team VCS

February 27, 2012 (Washington Post) – Sean Duvall, the Navy veteran charged with fabricating a homemade gun after calling a suicide hotline last year, would avoid prosecution if he completes court-mandated counseling under an agreement reached in federal court Monday.

Duvall, a 45-year-old Persian Gulf War veteran who lives outside Roanoke, was charged with four counts related to the manufacturing of the weapon after calling a suicide crisis hotline run by the Department of Veterans Affairs last June.

The case outraged veterans groups, who said that the government should not prosecute those seeking help. They feared that Duvall’s prosecution could have a chilling effect on distressed veterans at a time when they are committing suicideat a rate of 18 per day.

And they were flabbergasted that the man in charge of the office pursuing the charges against Duvall was Timothy Heaphy, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, who is the son-in-law of VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki, an advocate for helping troubled veterans rather punishing them.

Prosecutors initially argued they had every right to charge Duvall, who admitted to being armed with a gun when he called the hotline from the campus of Virginia Tech. But during a hearing Monday, the government changed course and recommended that Duvall be admitted to counseling overseen by a new Veterans Treatment Court. If completed, the charges, which carried a prison sentence of up to 40 years, would be dropped.

After the hearing, Duvall, a graduate of Gar-Field High School in Woodbridge, said he was thankful for the chance to continue putting his life back together. But the veteran who enlisted in the Navy in 1991 and deployed to the Persian Gulf and off the coast of Somalia before being honorably discharged in 1995, said he was “confused as to why they came after me.” He assumed that the VA hotline was confidential, as advertised.

He also said that he was concerned about “the veterans that are coming back [from Iraq and Afghanistan]. I know it’s going to be rough for them.”

Duvall, homeless and unemployed, had been wandering the streets for a week before  his call to the crisis hotline, according to court documents. He was despondent and reeling, he said, from the death of his father.

In his backpack, he carried a final note to his family, a letter confirming his eligibility to be buried in the Southwest Virginia Veterans Cemetery and a homemade gun fashioned from a pipe. While on the campus of Virginia Tech, where he had worked previously as a part-time cook, he called the VA’s suicide hotline shortly after midnight and told the counselor he was going to kill himself.

A police officer who arrived a short time later took Duvall, a divorced father of two, to a psychiatric facility, where he was treated for depression.

But a week later he was charged by state authorities with carrying a concealed weapon without a license. Eventually, those charges were dismissed so that the U.S. Attorney’s Office could prosecute the case in federal court.

During Monday’s hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Wolthuis said that authorities were concerned that an armed and mentally unstable person was on the campus of Virginia Tech, the site of a massacre in 2007 in which 32 people died and two dozen were wounded before the gunman killed himself.

Wolthuis also said that Duvall’s criminal history — which included public intoxication, driving while intoxicated and destruction of property — also factored in to the decision to charge him.

Heaphy said the fact that Duvall was a veteran didn’t register with him at first. He said that prosecutors were focused more on the fact that Duvall had taken a weapon onto Virginia Tech’s campus.

“That he was a veteran was never really a focus,” said Heaphy, whose father in-law is  a former Army chief of staff.

After Heaphy reviewed the case, which received widespread media attention, he said he thought that “maybe we ought to take a deep breath.” The veterans court, he said, would help Duvall fix “the underlying issue that led to the commission of this crime.”

Asked if he should have referred Duvall’s case to the veterans court at the beginning, he said he wasn’t sure. “I can’t say I would have done it differently,” he said. “I do think there is a value in demonstrating how serious law enforcement is at Virginia Tech.”

He said that Duvall’s case was the first felony referred to the Virginia veterans court, which typically takes misdemeanors. Veterans courts are modeled after drug courts and are a relatively new way to help veterans get substance abuse and mental health treatment. If the programs proscribed by the court are completed, charges are often dropped.

Under the deal approved Monday, Duvall will be required to appear in the veterans court monthly to update the judge on his progress. If after six months he continues to show improvement, the charges would be dropped.

About a dozen veterans came to the hearing Monday to show support for Duvall. Dan Karnes, president of the Roanoke Valley Veterans Council, said he was angry that the charges were ever filed. Sending Duvall for treatment “is what they should have done from the beginning,” he said.

Duvall, though, said he wasn’t angry. The call to the crisis hotline, he said, saved his life. The counselor on the other end of the line, he said, “talked me through a very difficult time.”

Posted in Gulf War Updates, Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Veteran Who Called Suicide Line Offered Counseling to Avoid Charges

Summit Seeks to Ease Retraining for Troops Entering Civilian Workforce

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Team VCS

February 22, 2012 (Stars and Stripes) – Business leaders and veterans advocates say state licensing and certification rules are a crippling obstacle for troops seeking post-military careers, and the problem will worsen if solutions aren’t found soon.

Defense officials have identified more than 2,000 private-sector certifications and licensing programs that active-duty troops may immediately qualify for, based on their military skills. But only a few states have provisions to fast-track troops seeking those employment documents.

“At some point, state agencies that license workers must balance their insistence on paperwork against their obligation to our servicemembers,” said Maj. Gen. Mark MacCarley, who oversees troop mobilization and post-military transition programs as deputy commanding general of the Army Reserve. “I understand each state has a sovereign interest in setting its own [work-qualification] standards, but if the idea behind the licensing and credentials is creating a barrier for troops already qualified for those jobs, that is wrong.”

The comments came Wednesday during the two-day national credentialing summit hosted by the American Legion and U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The event is designed to offer a list of best practices for states and military transition programs, and help reduce veteran unemployment.

Speakers also relayed anecdotes of troops frustrated by red tape and redundant training upon leaving the service.

One rifle company commander was told he’d need 100 hours of supervised training to qualify for security work. A convoy driver who served in Afghanistan couldn’t qualify for a commercial driver’s license. An infantryman with combat experience couldn’t get hired as a highway patrolman without extensive retraining.

Defense and Department of Labor officials said they’ve begun tackling the problem, developing pilot programs to show how medical professionals, mechanics and other trade workers can transition to civilian professions without lengthy training programs.

Ed Kringer, state liaison for the Pentagon’s community and family policy office, said officials expect in the next month to unveil new military transcripts for departing servicemembers, highlighting their skills and specialties in language easier for civilian employers to understand. Hiring experts at the summit lauded the initiative.

A 2010 poll by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 60 percent of private sector personnel officials did not understand how military missions and skills translated into non-military job qualifications.

Six states have passed legislation to help solve that problem. In Washington state, lawmakers approved rules mandating that troops not be made to repeat training programs they’ve already mastered.

Kringer said 23 other states are considering similar steps.

But attendees at the conference said all 50 states will have to find better answers soon, before the next wave of veterans returns home. The Pentagon is looking to trim about 100,000 troops from its ground forces by the end of 2017, adding even more veterans to the civilian workforce.

“The goal here is employment,” Kringer said. “It’s not just to simply get people credentials. It’s to get people working.”

Posted in Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged , | Comments Off on Summit Seeks to Ease Retraining for Troops Entering Civilian Workforce

Veterans Fight for Jobs They Left Behind

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Team VCS

Battles and setbacks follow return to civilian posts, despite federal law.

February 27, 2012 (Star Tribune) –  Michael Schutz came back to Truman, Minn., after being deployed to Kuwait with the Navy and expected to strap on his gun belt, refasten his badge and slide back into the police cruiser for the city, where he had worked full time as a cop before he left to serve his country.

Instead he was offered part-time hours and had to work two other jobs to make ends meet.

“I find it unfortunate that soldiers and sailors have to go overseas and do involuntary missions and have to deal with going away from family, then have to deal with this kind of problem when they come back,” Schutz said.

It’s a common belief that veterans returning from deployments can come home confident they’ll be given their old civilian jobs back, protected by federal law and, often, a sense of patriotism from employers grateful for their service.

But after 10 years of war, members of the Guard and Reserve are returning home to find their old jobs have been given to someone else, or they are coming back to fewer hours and benefits. Sometimes employers have been weary of accommodating the emotional and physical baggage that multiple deployments may exact.

The issue will take on added importance as the American military draws down its forces, spilling out as many as 50,000 service members into the civilian world. Half of the current U.S. military strength is now made up of forces from the Guard and Reserve. Close to home, 2,400 Minnesota National Guard troops are expected to return this spring from a deployment to Kuwait. In a survey before they left, 20 percent of them expected to come back and have to look for work.

But the federal law used for protecting those coming back to jobs is often a time-consuming venture that produces disappointing results. Cases are handled at the local level by an all-volunteer crew who do double duty handing out awards to businesses that treat their returning employees well. In Minnesota, if a service member files a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor, the claim will be dismissed as having “no merit” more often than it will be settled or granted. Even finding out who the offending employers are is kept secret by federal privacy statutes.

“The law reads better than it works,” said Marshall Tanick, a Minnesota employment law attorney. “I wouldn’t say it’s toothless, but it needs a good case and some good support to have some bite.”

Pointing out the law

The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, or USERRA, is the key law protecting members of the National Guard and Reserves when they return to their civilian jobs. It makes it illegal for an employer to discriminate against a worker because he or she has served in the armed forces. With a few exceptions, it requires employers to restore seniority, benefits and pay to soldiers when they come back to work.

“It can take several years once a service member reports a violation until they may have their job back,” said John Baker, an attorney who specializes in laws affecting veterans. “At that point they may have moved on, but usually not to a better job; and their family and their own mental health have suffered in the meantime.”

To be sure, many employers go beyond the call of duty. U.S. Bank and 3M, for instance, have been recognized recently for outstanding contributions to their workers in the military. 3M makes up the difference between a worker’s salary and the soldier’s pay and provides the same level of benefits for deployed employees and their families. It even sends a worker’s military unit care packages and letters of support.

When there are problems, many companies just need the law pointed out to them, said Paul Monteen, local chairman of the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR), a Defense Department program that acts as an arbitrator — the first step in the process — if a soldier feels there has been a violation. Monteen said he sees the program working best when used informally.

“It’s more friendly to the service member than it is to the employer,” Monteen said. “The employers seem to step up and go above and beyond USERRA for their employees without our prompting or asking.”

But success is difficult to quantify. Until recently, the Minnesota ESGR did not keep data on the number of cases and how they were handled. In fiscal year 2011, though, the only year it has kept data, the group handled 70 cases, with the average case open for 9.5 days. It resolved 29 of them and sent 13 to the Department of Labor for further investigation.

Burned twice

For police officer Robert Simon, the process has failed him twice.

“The law needs to be strengthened,” he said.

Simon was deployed twice with the Minnesota National Guard and had problems with his employer, the Bloomington Police Department, both times. Before a deployment to Afghanistan in 2003, he was asked during an interview for a higher-paying job about how long he would be gone, which he saw as a violation of the law. An investigator interviewed people in the department, then told Simon, who had been an officer with the department since 1994, that there was nothing that could be done.

During a second deployment to Iraq in 2009, three men in his platoon were killed and he returned with what he acknowledged were some unresolved mental health issues. He said the department failed to recognize his problems and deal with them correctly. But he later withdrew a complaint after what he saw as the investigation stalling. He subsequently retired from the department.

“USERRA will not fight anything that is not a clear-cut win,” Simon said.

Officials for the city of Bloomington, though, say they have been diligent about following the law and accommodating not only Simon but also another employee in the military, the city’s only epidemiologist. The city even gave Simon a welcome-home celebration after his first deployment.

The city attorney’s office attends annual employment law conferences that cover things such as USERRA, and its human resources department provides materials to departments.

“There was no basis, in my opinion, for him to claim we violated USERRA laws,” Bloomington City Attorney Sandra Johnson said.

Government offenders

When the ESGR office can’t resolve a complaint, the U.S. Department of Labor can investigate the claim. But a computer analysis of 10 years of Minnesota cases shows, at best, a mixed bag of results. The results are made more cloudy because the department refuses to release names of employers, making it impossible to determine if some are repeat offenders.

Of the 344 Minnesota claims handled by the department since 2000, according to a Star Tribune analysis, 107 cases, or 31 percent, were found to have no merit, the highest number of any category of claim. The department granted or settled 81 claims while 79 were withdrawn.

Governments accounted for 20 percent of the claims, with private businesses making up the rest. Claims peaked in 2008 at 50, corresponding with the return of a large contingent of Minnesota National Guard troops from a deployment to Iraq.

A spokesman for the Department of Labor’s Chicago regional office said a finding of no merit may mean only that there isn’t enough evidence to show that military service was the reason for the discrimination and that the case might be pursued for violation of other laws, such as age, race, gender, religion or disability.

The U.S. Justice Department also can sue companies that violate USERRA. In September, Thomas Perez, an assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division, told the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee that the Department of Justice was aggressively enforcing USERRA, filing suit in 33 cases since the beginning of the Obama administration, compared with 32 cases filed in the previous four years under the Bush administration.

Last year, the U.S. attorney in Minnesota took on the Schutz case, filing suit against the city of Truman. Schutz said other service members tried to tell him not pursue a USERRA claim because “it will be nothing but problems.” He ignored them, figuring it “may be problems for you but it’s also problems for them as well.”

After Schutz, who was hired full time in 2005, began pursuing his case, the city accused him of misconduct, claiming he falsified one hour and 15 minutes on his time card, a discrepancy that amounted to about $25 in pay. They demanded he surrender his badge, his radio and his keys.

In court papers filed in the case, the city said Schutz’s position was reduced because of impending state aid cuts while he was deployed and that, because of the cuts, he was retained at his regular pay rate but with fewer hours.

“We are confident that claim will be dismissed,” said Jon Iverson, an attorney representing the city.

Doing something

Marty Breaker taught business classes at Bemidji State University but was called to active duty in Iraq with the U.S. Army, where he was a colonel who guarded Saddam Hussein during one of his trials.

When he came home after nearly three years of active duty, Breaker found his old teaching job had been eliminated and the new post he was offered was in a different city and for less pay.

When Breaker tried to sue, he discovered that the state of Minnesota had immunity under the 11th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects a state (in his case the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system) from being sued under some laws, including USERRA. Based on Breaker’s efforts, the Minnesota House unanimously passed a measure earlier this month that would allow a service member to sue the state for violating USERRA. A similar bill passed several key Senate committees and probably is headed to a floor vote soon.

“That shows the tenacity and fabric of a person when they don’t give up,” said Rep. David Dill, DFL-Crane Lake, the chief author of the bill in the House. “He didn’t sit around and cry in his beer and cry foul. He did something about it.”

Breaker, who now teaches at the University of Minnesota, Crookston, has completed law school and hopes to practice USERRA law once he passes the bar. During his three-year ordeal, he had to remortgage his house and borrow on a life insurance policy.

“I didn’t expect a ticker-tape parade when I got back,” Breaker said. “But I expected to be treated with some degree of fairness.”

Posted in Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged , | Comments Off on Veterans Fight for Jobs They Left Behind

Time for a Federal Veterans Court

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Team VCS

Read for an in-depth look at recent incident with suicidal veteran. VCS quoted. Posted: 02/28/2012 10:45 am

On February 12, the Roanoke Times reported the arrest of Sean Duvall for carrying a firearm — a crude gun he had made himself from steel pipe, a shotgun shell and a nail. The reason the Blacksburg, Virginia police became aware that Mr. Duvall was carrying a gun was because he had called the toll-free crisis hotline for veterans contemplating suicide. A veteran of the Navy, Duvall was homeless and increasingly despairing. He had dialed the hotline for help.

He did receive help. The counselor who answered his call called in the local police who took Duvall to a psychiatric hospital. After several days he was transferred to the care of New River Valley Community Services. Counseling and medication improved his mental state, and afterwards, he even found a new job.

But then he was arrested and charged in federal court with possession of a destructive device and three related felonies. He is facing a possible prison term of 40 years. His lawyer argues that the response of the criminal justice system in rural Virginia is “dishonorable,” not to mention “unfair.” “It shocks the conscience.” The federal prosecutor’s response: “Confidentiality is not absolute.”

Duvall served two tours as a member of the Navy — one tour during and one after the Gulf War. He was honorably discharged. Last spring of last year, he maxed out on the number of hours his part-time job allowed, and soon, he became homeless. Like so many of our close to 70,000 homeless veterans, his pride prevented him from applying for benefits or going to a shelter. In June, he made a gun out of a steel pipe and nail to kill himself.

The Roanoke Times lays out the details of the now public conversation Duvall had with the crisis hotline counselor, a conversation he expected to be confidential. He told the counselor — a person in upper New York state — that he had lost everything, that he had been walking the streets for days, that he intended to commit suicide, that he was ready to give up. He described the crude gun.

“The counselor promised to send help and asked Duvall for his location. Looking around, Duvall spotted a blue light from a Virginia Tech police phone in the parking lot of the school’s international student center on Clay Street. He waited there for a police officer to arrive.” The federal prosecutor has argued that because Duvall agreed to wait for the police, he gave up any expectation of privacy for what he told the counselor.

Mr. Duvall’s lawyer asserts that the federal government has broken a fundamental promise to a veteran. “It is wrong to tell a man that what he says will be kept in confidence and then use statements and evidence given in reliance of that promise to charge the man.” While counselors for the hotline are trained to rely on options other than the police, federal law stipulates that in cases of “serious and imminent threats to the safety of the veteran or others,” the hotline can disclose information. The prosecutor argued that the implications of Duvall’s argument are that police could not file charges if they responded to a veteran’s plea for help and found he had killed his wife and children.

This case raises critical issues for our veterans and our responsibility to them. The most glaring is the impact this case might have on other veterans in despair. The crisis hotline has, according to Veterans for Common Sense received over 240,000 calls since it was created in 2007. It has saved the lives of 19,823 veterans. The suicide rate among our veterans has been skyrocketing in the last few years, now reaching 18 a day. It takes tremendous trust on the part of a veteran to call the crisis hotline. The veteran must believe that the person answering the call has the veteran’s best interest at heart and has training and expertise to handle their crisis in a way that will protect the veteran from harm.

It will be difficult for many veterans to look past the impression of this situation to the specifics. We all need to be concerned that this case will have a terrible effect of dissuading veterans in need to call the hotline. We face the possibility that more veterans might end up taking their lives.

When we look at the case’s specifics, many questions present themselves. Was the counselor calling the police rather than an ambulance or the fire department the best way to get Duvall to a psychiatric hospital? Once Duvall readily agreed to wait for the police, did that indicate anything significant to the counselor about how dangerous Duvall might be?

What did the counselor know about the gun Duvall described? Such a gun cannot be used to easily kill someone. What did the person answering Duvall’s call know about Blacksburg, Virginia and the police there? Did they remember that Blacksburg is the location of Virginia Tech where a gunman killed 32 people in 2007? Did the counselor anticipate that the police there might have a severe reaction to a man on the street with a gun, no matter what type of gun it was?

Duvall’s horrible predicament underscores the necessity of training our police force, our counselors, our first aid workers to the unique characteristics and needs of our veterans. Rather than seeing them as intending to perpetrate violent acts, we must understand that what might look like criminal behavior are manifestations of trauma and cries for help.

What good, what justice will be served by locking Mr. Duvall in prison? What he needs is treatment. Over the last five years many states have recognized the injustice of prosecuting veterans for behavior that results from trauma they suffered serving their country. These states have created veterans courts, a specialty court that, rather than taking the traditional adversarial approach of convicting and incarcerating veterans when their criminal actions resulted from PTSD, creates a rigorous program of rehabilitation and training, enabling them to lead a productive life.

As of 2004, the last time the U.S. Department of Justice reported, an estimated 140,000 veterans were held in state and federal prisons. State prisons held 127,500 of these veterans; federal prisons held 12,500. According to the Texas Criminal Justice Department, as of October, 2011, Texas — the state most notorious for incarceration– had 11,567 incarcerated veterans. According to Brian McGivern of the Texas Civil Rights Project, many of these prisoners are veterans of Vietnam, who have been imprisoned for over 20 years. There are indications some have never received mental health care. Such care is not easily available in the prison system..

The good news is that the number of incarcerated veterans seems to be dropping. In 1986 the percentage of federal prisoners reporting military service was 24.9 percent. In 1997 it was 14.5 percent. In 2004 it was 10 percent. But considering only one percent of the country serves in our military, it is disgraceful that even 10 percent are veterans.

While the emergence of veterans courts is an invaluable reform, no state mandates them. It is up to the individual county whether to create a veterans court. This creates a terrible roll of the dice for the veteran. Here in Texas, a veteran can languish in prison in one county where in another the court would be connecting her or him to critical services from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and facilitating her or his healing. If Mr. Duvall had walked out onto a street in Houston with his gun rather than Blacksburg, Va, he would not be in prison today.

The fact that it is the federal government prosecuting him makes his situation all the more horrifying, as the federal government can create a policy of rehabilitating our veterans rather than destroying them. It is time for a federal veterans court. Time to model for the states how we treat our veterans.

Posted in Gulf War Updates, VCS In The News, Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged , | Comments Off on Time for a Federal Veterans Court

Head of Madigan removed from command amid PTSD probe

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Team VCS

 It was VCS that first testified before Congress about the billions of dollars “saved”  by preventing tens of thousands of veterans from obtaining any (or timely) PTSD medical care and disability benefits from DoD and VA. –VCS Board

——-

Col. Dallas Homas has been removed from command amid an Army investigation into the medical center’s handling of soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder.

By Hal Bernton

Seattle Times staff reporter

Col. Dallas Homas has been administratively removed from command of Madigan Healthcare System less than a year after taking over the top leadership position at the Western Washington military medical center.

Homas’ departure, announced Monday, comes as the Army Medical Command launches an investigation into Madigan’s treatment and screening of soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The investigation is looking into complaints by soldiers that their PTSD diagnoses were improperly reversed and into comments a Madigan psychiatrist made about how costly PTSD diagnoses were for taxpayers.

During a U.S. House Appropriations subcommittee meeting this month, Lt. Gen. Patricia Horoho, the Army surgeon general, also said the investigation would examine whether undue command influence was involved in the 2010 closure of a Madigan outpatient PTSD treatment program.

While the investigations are ongoing, Homas has been administratively removed from his position, according to Maj. Gen. Philip Volpe, who heads the Western Regional Medical Command, which oversees Madigan.

“This is a common practice during ongoing investigations and nothing more,” said Volpe. “Through this action, all leadership, both at Madigan and throughout the Western Regional Medical Command, reaffirms their faith and trust in the investigation.”

Homas is a West Point graduate who has had a distinguished career in Army medicine that included deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, where he served as Command Surgeon. His military honors include two Bronze Stars.

“I remain optimistic that the truth will come out with these investigations,” Homas said Monday. “I don’t feel that I or my team have done anything wrong.”

Homas was appointed Madigan’s commander in March 2011. Responding to news about the PTSD investigation, Homas said recently, “We welcome the opportunity to show investigators our procedures and practices and are committed to doing so with the utmost transparency and cooperation.”

Madigan is on Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Tacoma and has been a major health-care facility for soldiers returning from tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The focal point of the Army Medical Command investigation is a Madigan forensic psychiatric team that has the lead role in screening soldiers being considered for medical retirement due to PTSD.

The current Madigan system for screening PTSD patients was set up in October 2008, according to a statement from Madigan. At that time, Horoho, the current surgeon general, served as Madigan’s commander, according to The Mountaineer, a Madigan publication.

Soldiers diagnosed with PTSD gain at least a 50 percent rating of disability, and qualify for pensions, family health insurance and other financial benefits.

In 2011, an ombudsman investigated complaints from soldiers who said that the forensic psychiatric team had reversed earlier diagnoses of PTSD, and tagged some of them as possible malingerers.

The ombudsman also wrote a memo about a lecture in which a member of the forensic psychiatric team talked about the need to be “good stewards” of taxpayer dollars and not rubber stamp PTSD diagnoses that could result in a soldier earning $1.5 million in benefits over a lifetime.

The ombudsman investigation resulted in more than a dozen soldiers getting the chance for a second PTSD screening by doctors from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside Washington, D.C.

Fourteen of those soldiers will have the results of their Walter Reed reviews detailed beginning Tuesday in individual meetings at Madigan with Col. Rebecca Porter, chief of behavioral health, Office of the U.S. Army Surgeon General.

In the weeks ahead, more are expected to get second reviews at Walter Reed.

While the investigation unfolds, Dr. William Keppler, the leader of Madigan’s forensic psychiatric team, has been suspended from clinical duties.

Also in the interim, Col. Mike Heimall, commander, Irwin Army Community Hospital, Fort Riley, Kan., will assume command of Madigan as its interim commander.

Posted in VCS Congressional Testimony, Veterans for Common Sense News | Tagged | Comments Off on Head of Madigan removed from command amid PTSD probe