Department of the Army Taps VA to Help Serve Our Nations Veterans

Army Secretary John McHugh Requests VA Secretary Shinseki to Detail
Senior VA Executive to Arlington National Cemetery

WASHINGTON (June 10, 2010) - Today, at the request of the Army Secretary
John McHugh, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki announced
that Patrick K. Hallinan, a over 31-year employee of VA's National
Cemetery Administration (NCA), is being detailed to the Army to assist
in the management of Arlington National Cemetery.

"VA and the Army share a common goal of honoring all who have served and
sacrificed for their country," Shinseki said. "We look forward to
assisting the Army in serving all Members of the Active and Reserve
Components, eligible Veterans and their families with the utmost
dignity, respect, and compassion."

Army Secretary John McHugh today announced a series of management and
oversight changes in the Army National Cemeteries Program, which
includes both Arlington and the Soldiers' and Airmens' Home National
Cemetery in Washington, DC. On the retirement of current Arlington
Superintendant Jack Metzler, VA's Hallinan will serve temporarily as
Superintendant while the Army conducts a nationwide search for their
permanent replacement.

Hallinan currently serves as VA's Director of the Office of Field
Programs, responsible for the oversight of the Department of Veterans
Affairs' 131 National Cemeteries and five VA Memorial Service Network
offices. Hallinan has a wide-breadth of experience in every facet of
cemetery operations - beginning as a basic laborer at VA's Long Island
National Cemetery through his appointment as director of VA's Calverton
National Cemetery, to his current duties at VA's headquarters in
Washington, D.C.

About Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery is administered by the Department of the
Army. Since May of 1864, Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington,
Virginia, has served as a cemetery, a memorial, a national monument to
America's war heroes. Over 300,000 Veterans have been interred on these
hallowed grounds since the Civil War and, on average; the cemetery
buries 27 Veterans every day.

About VA's National Cemetery Administration

VA's National Cemetery Administration (NCA) honors Veterans with final
resting places in national shrines and with lasting tributes that
commemorate their service to our nation.

VA operates 131 national cemeteries in 39 states and Puerto Rico and 33
soldiers' lots and monument sites.  More than 3 million Americans,
including Veterans of every war and conflict - from the Revolutionary
War to the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan - are buried in
VA's national cemeteries on more than 19,000 acres. Over the past 6
years NCA has received a customer service rating of 95 from the American
Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).  ACSI is an economic indicator that
measures the satisfaction of consumers across the U.S. economy
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_system> . It is produced by the
American Customer Satisfaction Index LLC, a private company based in Ann
Arbor <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Arbor,_Michigan> , Michigan
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan> .

Additional information on VA burial benefits can be obtained from
national cemetery offices, from the Internet at www.cem.va.gov or by
calling VA regional offices toll-free at 800-827-1000.  To make burial
arrangements at the time of need at any VA national cemetery, call the
national cemetery scheduling office at 800-535-1117.

Vote For Bert Today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friends,

If you've already voted, Bert still needs your help.  If you haven't yet voted - now is the time.

Bert is in this race to win, and together we will get there.  Please call or email five (5) fellow Second District voters and remind them how important their votes are and that Bert Mizusawa is the best candidate to send to Congress.

Turnout has been very light today - your vote could very well determine the outcome of this election.

Today is your chance to send a message to the Republican Party and Washington that we are done with business as usual.

The polls are open until 7pm tonight. If you need to find your polling place, go to https://www.voterinfo.sbe.virginia.gov/PublicSite/Public/FT2/PublicPollingPlace.aspx.

Select your locality and enter your address and your polling location will be listed and a link for directions will also be included.

If you have any questions or need any assistance, please contact the campaign at (757) 633-7059 or via email at bert@bertmizusawa.com.

Please help get out the vote ASAP! Let's make Bert our nominee!

Bert Mizusawa For Congress
Join Bert for an Election Watch Party
Tuesday, June 8, 2010

7p.m.

G.F. Keagan's at Hilltop
1550 Laskin Road
Virginia Beach, Virginia

*Click Here for Directions*

Casual & Free

Watch the primary results as they are reported by the State Board of Elections online and on television.  Light food and drinks will be served.

VA Announces Industry Innovation Competition

$80 Million Available for Private Sector Innovations

WASHINGTON (June 7, 2010) - Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K.
Shinseki announced today the opening of the Industry Innovation
Competition by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the most recent
effort under the VA Innovation Initiative.  With this competition, VA
seeks the best ideas from the private sector to address the department's
most important challenges.

"At VA, we are continually looking for new ways to improve the care and
services we deliver," said Secretary Shinseki. "Engaging the private
sector to tap its expertise and find ways to leverage private-sector
innovations, we can improve the quality, access and transparency in
service to our Nation's Veterans."

The VA Innovation Initiative (VAi2) is a department-wide program that
brings the most promising innovations to VA's most important challenges
by involving employees and the private sector in the creation of
visionary solutions in service to Veterans.

"Innovation is more than simply a collection of ideas," said Jared
Cohon, president of Carnegie Mellon University. "It requires close
collaboration between academia, industry and government to produce
solutions that make a meaningful impact on society.  VAi2's programs
bring about exactly that kind of fruitful collaboration."

"Creativity in the private sector generates a wealth of technology
capability that can help drive VA forward," said Dr. Peter Levin, senior
advisor to the secretary and VA's chief technology officer. "By
targeting innovations that are nearing commercialization, the Industry
Innovation Competition provides a bridge between creative ideas in the
private sector and real-world deployments that improve the services we
deliver."

Public and private companies, entrepreneurs, universities and
non-profits are encouraged to participate in the competition, which
targets advancements in:

*       Innovative Housing Technology to Address Veteran Homelessness:
Eliminating Veteran homelessness is a top VA priority.  New design and
construction techniques, materials and building technology can enable VA
to use existing buildings and unused space to rapidly create highly
functional, energy efficient and affordable housing.

*       Telehealth: VA is a leader in telehealth implementation and
currently serves many thousands of Veterans with solutions such as home
health monitoring.  Potential applications for telehealth solutions are
broad and varied and department officials are interested in pursuing
integrated solutions that improve their ability to provide the right
treatment at the right place and at the right time.

*       New Models of Dialysis and Renal Disease Prevention: VA
currently provides dialysis for more than 10,000 Veterans annually, at
both VA and community-based medical facilities.  Alternative treatment
strategies and dialysis technology can extend and improve our ability to
provide quality care in a patient-preferred setting.

*       Improvement of Polytrauma Care: VA provides comprehensive,
inter-disciplinary rehabilitation care to Veterans and returning Service
members with multiple injuries, or polytrauma.  Solutions in areas such
as the application of dynamic treatment algorithms, home monitoring of
diverse and complex symptoms and assistive technologies can help the
broad advancement of polytrauma care.

*       Reduction of Adverse Drug Events: The development and deployment
of strategies to prevent patient harm from adverse drug events is an
on-going priority at VA.  Tools that can integrate with VA records and
systems and provide an increased ability to continuously monitor for
at-risk situations can enhance dramatically the quality and safety of
care provided by VA.

*       Integrated Business Accelerator: A wide array of services and
benefits are available to assist Veterans, and Service Disabled Veterans
in particular, in starting and sustaining new businesses. However, an
integrated, long-term approach that assists Veterans in accessing
existing resources and provides services that aid in the launch and
maintenance of startup businesses can help insure the long-term success
of Veteran-owned businesses.

VAi2 identifies, funds, tests and deploys new efforts that significantly
improve the access, quality, performance and cost of VA services.  For
more about VAi2 please visit www.va.gov/vai2.  Please go to
www.FedBizOpps.gov <http://www.fedbizopps.gov/>  to learn more about
federal opportunities for businesses.

D-Day Remembrance

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 10:46:08 -0500

Hundreds of people gathered at the D-Day Memorial in Bedford, VA, June 6 to remember the 66th anniversary of D-Day.

Soldier Missing From Korean War Identified

           The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from the Korean War, have been identified and returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

         Army Master Sgt. Roy E. Head of Clinchport, Va., will be buried Saturday in Duffield, Va.  Head was assigned to Headquarters Company, 49th Field Artillery Battalion.  After the 1953 armistice, it was learned from surviving POWs that he had been captured in February 1951, marched north to a POW camp in Suan County, North Korea, and died of malnutrition a few months later. Between 1991 and 1994, North Korea gave the United States 208 boxes of remains believed to contain the remains of 200-400 U.S. servicemen.  North Korean documents turned over with one of the boxes indicated the remains were exhumed near Suan County.  This location correlates with Head's last known location.

          Analysts from DPMO developed case leads with information spanning more than 58 years.  Through interviews with surviving POW eyewitnesses, experts validated circumstances surrounding the soldier's captivity and death, confirming wartime documentation of his loss.

          Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used dental comparisons and mitochondrial DNA  which matched that of two of his brothers -- in the identification of the remains.  

          More than 2,000 servicemen died as prisoners of war during the Korean War.  With this accounting, 8,025 service members still remain missing from the conflict.

        For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO Web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call 703- 699-1169.

Veterans Affairs wants to be an advocate, not an enemy An agency overhaul aims to eliminate a huge backlog of disability claims by 2015 and move to an electronic data system.

latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-vets-20100601,0,4326641.story

latimes.com

By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times

John Lamie survived six roadside bombings in Iraq, only to have the Department of Veterans Affairs refuse to accept three months' worth of medical tests he underwent for jaw and shoulder wounds — tests performed by VA-approved doctors at VA facilities.

Casey Elder, who says she suffers migraines and memory loss from a roadside bomb in Iraq, has been told by the VA that the bombing did not cause those problems — despite a VA doctor's diagnosis that she suffered a traumatic brain injury.

After Clay Hunt was shot through the wrist by a sniper in Iraq, the VA misplaced his disability paperwork for four months. Then he was required to visit a series of doctors to verify the extent of his wounds.

Many veterans wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan are being buffeted by a VA disability system clogged by delays, lost paperwork, redundant exams, denials of claims and inconsistent diagnoses. Some describe an absurd situation in which they are required to prove that their conditions are serious enough for higher payments, yet are forced to wait months for decisions.

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"You fight for your country, then come home and have to fight against your own country for the benefits you were promised," said Hunt, 28, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan as a Marine Corps sniper.

It took Hunt, who lives in Brentwood, 10 months to receive VA disability payments for his injuries after the agency misplaced his paperwork.

The VA, which still relies on a mostly paper-based system for disability claims, is overwhelmed by a flood of wounded veterans from the long Afghan and Iraq wars. That's in addition to the Vietnam War, Korean War and even World War II veterans.

Some veterans wait up to six months to get their initial VA medical appointment. The typical veteran of the Iraq or Afghanistan wars waits 110 days for a disability claim to be processed, with a few waiting up to a year. For all veterans, the average wait is 161 days.

The VA says a ruling on an appeal of a disability rating takes more than 600 days on average. The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, or IAVA, an advocacy group, says the average delay is 776 days.

Up to 17% of veterans' disability ratings are incorrect, the VA says. Thousands of dollars in disability payments hinge on the ratings, which are determined by the VA. The agency says it hopes to eventually cut the error rate to 2%.

With the VA deluged with 90,000 new claims a month, the backlog has reached 175,000. The VA defines a backlogged case as one that takes more than 125 days to process.

"It makes veterans feel like they're fighting VA paperwork instead of the enemy," said Paul Rieckhoff, an Iraq veteran and executive director of IAVA, which has praised the quality of VA medical care but has criticized the claims process.

VA officials concede that many veterans face delays, mistakes and bureaucratic logjams. But they say they are instituting reforms that are making the system more efficient and equitable.

"We absolutely agree it takes too long to process a claim, and we absolutely have to do a better job," said Michael Walcoff, the VA's acting undersecretary for benefits.

Walcoff acknowledges that veterans have "a lot of negative feelings" toward the VA.

"A lot of veterans don't trust the VA because of the hoops we make them jump through" for some claims, he said. "We'll do whatever it takes to fix this system."

By 2012, the agency plans to move away from paper-based claims to an electronic data system. The VA has provided some veterans with advocates to guide them through what Walcoff concedes can be "a confusing, difficult process."

Another reform has allowed service members at many bases to file for VA disability payments before they leave active duty — giving them a head start on the claims process.

This spring, the VA expects to ease requirements for proving post-traumatic stress disorder, the signature wound of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Veterans will have to show only that the totality of circumstances during their service caused PTSD. Currently, they must prove that a specific "stressor" incident caused the disorder.

But a huge backlog remains. VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki, who has promised to eliminate the backlog by 2015, called it "one area in which we did not progress as I would have wanted."

In a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in March, Shinseki promised "to change the culture inside VA to one of advocacy for veterans."

The Obama administration has proposed a 27% increase in the VA's budget for next year. The agency has hired 4,200 employees since 2007 to tackle the backlog and has increased overtime.

For 27,000 veterans in a pilot program, the average wait for benefits — after they finish the disability evaluation process — was reduced to one month, from six to eight months. Another pilot program puts VA employee advocates at 27 military bases, assisting nearly half of the veterans seeking disability benefits.

Tom Tarantino, a former Army captain and Iraq veteran who analyzes the disability system for the IAVA advocacy group, said the changes had made some things easier for veterans, "but I still see things that are so stupid, so ridiculous, it makes me want to slap my forehead."

Even with reforms, negotiating the disability system can be a maddening slog. Many veterans complain that the burden is on them to prove the severity of their wounds and also verify that they were injured during their service.

Often in severe pain or suffering psychological distress, many wounded veterans are overwhelmed by the task.

Lamie, 25, an Army combat engineer who risked his life uncovering and defusing roadside bombs in Iraq, declared bankruptcy in April. He is unable to work because of his combat injuries, he said, and VA delays have left him short of cash to support his wife and four children. He gets $311 a month in food stamps.

"I did everything the VA asked of me, but they block you at every turn," Lamie said from his home in Georgia. "They play with people's lives."

Last year at a VA facility on his Army base in Kansas, Lamie underwent exams for PTSD and wounds to his shoulder, knees and jaw. But after he left the Army and moved home to Georgia, the local VA office told him he'd have to take the tests again.

Those tests had resulted in a 50% VA disability rating, and Lamie began receiving a monthly disability payment. But he said his Army retirement pay was docked for the disability amount, reducing his monthly retirement check to $86, from $1,085.

After more than a year of placing several hundred angry phone calls to the VA and bombarding the agency with medical paperwork, Lamie was finally told last month that he would soon receive $3,300 a month in VA disability benefits.

The logjam was broken after Lamie stumbled upon a helpful VA employee in Valdosta, Ga. He phoned her 15 to 20 times and visited her office several times.

"They drag their feet, hoping you'll give up," Lamie said. "A lot of people do. Not me."

In Los Angeles, Hunt said he spent weeks visiting various doctors and putting together the 200-page packet of medical records that the VA later misplaced.

"I can track my pizza from Pizza Hut on my BlackBerry, but the VA can't find my claim for four months," he said.

Now he has developed memory loss, panic attacks and other symptoms of possible traumatic brain injury, he said. He is deciding whether to apply for increased benefits and dive once again into the VA bureaucracy.

When he volunteered for the Marine Corps, Hunt recalled, a selling point was lifelong medical care if he were wounded.

"But then the time comes to get those benefits, it turns into a lifelong battle with the VA to get what you were promised," he said.

Elder ultimately received VA benefits for wrist, arm and shoulder injuries from the roadside bombing in Iraq, where she was an Army military police officer. But when she began experiencing migraines, memory loss and vertigo, she filed a claim for traumatic brain injury.

A VA-approved neurologist diagnosed her with traumatic brain injury, she said. But after almost a year's wait, the VA denied her claim, saying the injuries weren't caused by her military service.

"Well, I didn't have these problems before I went into the service," she said from her home in Billings, Mont.

Now Elder worries that her symptoms will deteriorate into dementia — at age 25.

"I just want them to acknowledge that they broke my brain," she said.

Lamie said he had to fight for a year, "basically screaming and raising hell to get what I got."

The experience has left him drained and disillusioned. He said he couldn't even look at his old Army uniform anymore.

"I can't stand the sight of it after what I've gone through with the VA," he said. "I'm not proud anymore."

david.zucchino@latimes.com