ROA Mentions C-123 Issue in Their SmartBrief

ROA kindly mentioned the C-123 folks in their 12 July SmartBrief, at their site for your reading. Thanks, Colonel Alan Clune, for sending it in and for wrapping it around a very effective message back to ROA leadership!

C-123 Vets Launch Free eBook "C-123 Veterans & VA Agent Orange Deception"

The C-123 Veterans Association has released an early draft copy of their 320MB digital book "C-123 Veterans & VA Agent Orange Deception" now available for free download from Dropbox (no account necessary, just click)  Simply click on the link and download, but you'll have to click also on Google's suggestion that the file is too large (110MB) for them to scan. Once downloaded you can read in Adobe Reader, or port into any of Kindle's hardware or software book reading apps.

Also available: the iBooks version for iPad...click here

The PDF version of this book will always be somewhat more current than the iPad due to Apple's publishing lead-time.

VA Considering Sleep Apnea Disability Program Revisions

VA Reconsiders Disability Ratings for Apnea

Jun 20, 2013

TOM PHILPOTT

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VA Looks to Tighten Sleep Apnea Rating Schedule 

The Department of Veterans Affairs is studying changes to disability ratings for obstructive sleep apnea, particularly the 50-percent rating being awarded when VA physicians prescribe use of a CPAP, or continuous positive airway pressure machine, for sleep-deprived veterans.

"That's definitely going to be the one they look at," said Jonathan Hughes, a policy consultant for VA's compensation service.  "Because essentially there's no functional impairment related to that" 50-percent rating for obstructive sleep apnea  under the Veterans Affairs Schedule for Rating Disabilities (VASRD).

The good news for more than 114,000 veterans already drawing compensation for sleep apnea is their ratings would not be reduced with broad change to the rating schedule, Hughes explained.  Current law prohibits that.  Indeed, claimants still awaiting favorable decisions might not be impacted either because VASRD changes don't happen quickly.

The only date Hughes could quote with certainty is that an ongoing effort to modernize the entire VASRD is to be completed by January 2016.

When interviewed Tuesday at VA headquarters in Washington D.C., Hughes had just delivered a briefing on sleep apnea at a public hearing of VA Advisory Committee on Disability Compensation.  The panel, established in 2010, counsels the VA secretary on maintaining or readjusting the VASRD.

This day members wanted to know about sleep apnea including how the condition is rated in its various forms, how service-connection is established for a disorder largely associated with obesity, and what factors are behind the recent explosion of claims, as reported here in late May.

Mike Webster, a family law attorney in Florida, complained to the House Veterans Affairs Committee of widespread abuse of VA claims for sleep apnea.  Since then, Webster has heard from staff on the veterans affairs oversight subcommittee that a "team" is looking into his allegations.

 "Sleep apnea definitely has become more of an issue over the past several years," Hughes said as he began his briefing.  He gave some of the same data on sleep apnea cases published here, including that VA had rated 983 veterans for sleep apnea in 2001 and almost 25,000 last year.  He added that 13 percent of roughly 427,000 veterans who served after 9/11, and draw VA disability compensation today, have service-connected sleep apnea.

"Thirteen percent?  That's staggering," said committee member Dr. Michael Simberkoff, chief of staff of the VA New York Harbor Health System and a professor at New York University School of Medicine.

 The advisory committee chairman, retired Army Lt. Gen. James Terry Scott, also chaired the 2007 Veterans' Disability Benefits Commission. Scott asked colleagues to back his recommendation that VA Secretary Eric Shinseki commission the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academies of Science, to conduct a study of sleep apnea in the veteran population.

"Short of a scientific study by a well-recognized and competent authority, I think we're still working with rumor and innuendo," Scott said after the briefing, which he said was "extremely informative and…put to rest a lot of different theories and conventional wisdoms."

One issue addressed was conventional wisdom by some sleep disorder experts that sleep apnea is related to post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Exposure" - The VA's Amazing Shell Game

It couldn't be simpler, right? What could be easier to understand than the idea of exposure?

For C-123 veterans who flew this former Agent Orange spray airplane after Vietnam, it turns out "exposure" has had VA's own special redefinition, just for their own use VA against Agent Orange veterans. VA "newspeak" has the VA saying scientific words like exposure will mean only what the VA says they mean, not what science, medicine, law or common sense tells us it means! VA has manipulated a straightforward word to prevent claims. "Keeping the pigs from the trough" is how some mid-level staffers put it.

It begins with the law and ends with the VA skirting legal rights of C-123 veterans. Agent Orange-exposed veterans can turn to the Department of Veterans Affairs for medical care and other benefits related to a list of illnesses recognized by the Institute of Medicine and the VA as being "Agent Orange presumptive illnesses," diseases such as prostate cancer and about 20 other ailments. The 1991 Agent Orange Act, various promulgations such as Title 38 USC and the 8 May 2001 Federal Register all refer simply to the word "exposure." Exposure can be by breathing, ingestion or skin contact with a contaminant.

And the C-123 veterans do claim to have been exposed. The post-Vietnam airplanes tested positive and "heavily contaminated with dioxin on all test surfaces" as read one test series. The contamination was repeatedly established by the Air Force toxicologists who identified the poisonous part of Agent Orange, dioxin. The vets flew the contaminated airplane between 1972-1982 and claim to have been exposed, some for up to ten years of their service. Numerous federal agencies such as the CDC, NIH and US Public Health Service have officially confirmed the airplanes' contamination and the veterans' exposure. Thinking, logically enough, that the facts were on their side the veterans approached the VA, only to be met with that agency's routine denial...no exposures ever happened, say VA officials.

The VA strategy to prevent C-123 claims? They could't avoid the AF tests proving Agent Orange contamination, so they opted to argue that the veterans somehow weren't exposed. As a basis of their scheme to skirt the law by denying the fact of exposure, VA tried to slip this special, VA-only redefinition into the Society of Toxicology in San Francisco at that society's 2012 meeting that exposure now has a new definition. "Exposure=contamination field+bioavailability."

That's the line tossed in to the middle of their Agent Orange poster display and for months, nobody  noticed. Only in mid-2013 did more careful reading of that poster remind veterans of a telephone conference with Veterans Health Administration's Deputy Director for Post-Deployment Health She informed C-123 veterans that, despite the contamination of their old warplanes, no exposure occurred (in the VA's mindset) because the veterans couldn't prove "bioavailability," - the specific harm done by the dioxin on the planes. She further explained that by the VA's definition none of the ground soldiers in the Vietnam War had ever been exposed, either, and few of the aircrews which actually sprayed the herbicide!

Fortunately, scientists and physicians outside the VA's control have disputed this special, post-2012 redefinition of a standard word well-understood in medicine and toxicology. Exposure is, as the definition above confirms, simply the contact with a contaminant. In some definitions, contact between the outer boundary of an organism and a contaminant. Same thing. In no situation is "bioavailability" a component of exposure, but rather, it flows from exposure. Consider: you drink coffee and are thus exposed to caffeine. Your heart rate may or not go up, and you've then had bioavailability - but you were first exposed.

VA Shell Game - with veterans' health?

VA compounds this act of confusion perpetrated on American veterans with a very special shell game performed by their Compensation Services, the folks who evaluate claims. C-123 veterans had submitted a raft of supporting independent professional medical and scientific opinions establishing their claim for exposure. Included were findings from independent toxicologists, retired US Army Chemical Corps officers,  Columbia University School of Public Health, Boston University School of Public Health, University of Texas Medical School, Oregon Health Sciences University, the NIH/National Toxicology Center, the US Public Health Service, the EPA and even the Director, CDC/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Dr. Christopher Portier.

These scientists and physicians, acting independently and without compensation, all confirmed the C-123 veterans' exposure. In a stunning verbal shell game, VA junked each and every one of these experts' opinions! VA's Director of Compensation Services directed C-123 claims be denied even though supported with this evidence, stating that as scientists and not physicians (he conveniently overlooked the physicians' findings which the veterans submitted) they were not qualified to address medical nexus.  (Actually, toxicologists are professionally qualified to address issues of toxicity, exposure and often medical nexus as well, but that's another article.)

Did you get the VA switch? The scientists and physicians verified the question at hand -  the veterans' exposure, and C&P trashed the expertise of the world's leading Agent Orange experts by ignoring exposure and saying the were not qualified to discuss medical nexus. Two different issues, swapped around in his orders to regional offices sent out to insure all C-123 claims are denied.

However: Exposure is different than medical nexus. Medical nexus means being able to point to an illness as being caused by something...you drank heavily for forty years and have a bad liver. But that's not what the experts were addressing!

The law only requires veterans with Agent Orange-type illnesses to prove they were exposed. The medical and scientific experts confirmed the veterans were exposed. C&P denied the veterans' claims by ignoring overwhelming proof of their exposure by pretending the experts were discussing medical nexus.

Do you see which shell the prize is under? Wherever the VA says it is. Or nowhere. Just like VA's infamous "every benefit of the doubt to the veteran."

Medal of Honor Recipient Seeks Bone Marrow Donor

Marrow Donors Sought

http://www.oakdaleleader.com/section/44/article/11180/

Bone marrow testing for bone marrow matches and blood donors are being sought to help a veteran who lives in the area.

U.S. Army Sergeant Major (Ret) Jon R. Cavaiani, a  recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer last February – the VA has acknowledged this is due to Agent Orange exposure, according to his cousin. He has received many blood transfusions and is now on his fifth round of chemotherapy.

On July 25, he will enter Stanford Cancer Medical Clinic for further testing to be sure he is fit for a bone marrow transplant.

Being tested for donorship is a simple cheek swab. If selected as a donor it is a same day surgery. The family is asking that anyone who is under 60 years old be tested as a donor. Cavaiani is also encouraging everyone to donate blood to “pay it forward” as he has used so much blood. Those who know him know he’s all about giving back. Blood donations may be made at the American Red Cross or Delta Blood Bank.

Cavaiani is a Vietnam War hero and was a prisoner of war for two years. He was presented with the Medal of Honor by President Gerald Ford during a ceremony on December 12, 1974.

For anyone interested in being a marrow donor, go to the website www.bethematch.org. Testing is a simple cheek swab test, and same day surgery for the donor. The most current updates on his condition may also be found on the GiveForward website under his name.

For questions, contact Debby at debby@wildspiritranch.com.

Cavaiani is also listed for donations the GiveForward website at www.giveforward.com/fundraiser /3nl2/congressionalmedalofhonorrecipientjoncavaiani.

C-123 Veterans Expand Web Presence @ www.c123cancer.org

C-123 Veterans Expand Website: www.c123cancer.org

The Engineers' Prom??

Acting on the requests and comments, especially from government employees (especially folks at Hill AFB  and at 810 Vermont Ave) who use office computers barring access to blogs, the C-123 Veterans Association this weekend greatly expanded its web sites www.c123cancer.org and our parallel site, www.c123agentorange.com.

We'll still keep the blog the most current, up-to-date posting of information, but web sites and blogs each offer different publishing advantages.

Now, dear readers, you have them both!

Veterans win mixed ruling on exposure to chemicals

Veterans win mixed ruling on exposure to chemicals

Bob Egelko

Published 4:33 pm, Thursday, July 25, 2013 Thousands of military veterans who were exposed to chemicals during decades of secret weapons testing are entitled to up-to-date government information about possible health hazards but can't get government-funded health care outside the Department of Veterans Affairs system, a federal judge in Oakland has ruled.

The decision Wednesday by Chief U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken was a limited victory for veterans' organizations, who had argued that the VA health care system is overburdened and inadequate for the needs of those veterans, and that the government should pay their private medical bills.

Wilken said the government is shielded from such lawsuits because it has established the VA system to treat veterans, along with a special Court of Appeals to hear complaints of substandard or withheld care.

The veterans "have not shown that the care is inadequate or that they are unable to address any inadequacies through the (VA) system," Wilken said.

That's not good enough, said Eugene Illovsky, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, who include Vietnam Veterans of America, Swords to Plowshares, other organizations and individual veterans.

"The VA system is a rationed system," Illovsky said Thursday, noting that those affected by the ruling may be in the tens of thousands. He said no decision has been made on an appeal, but "we're going to try to keep fighting on the issue as best we can."

Testing since WWI

He said he was pleased, though, at Wilken's ruling that the government has an ongoing duty to notify the veterans of new information it learns about the chemicals' potential health effects. The Defense Department and VA had previously denied any such obligation.

The United States began testing chemical weapons on consenting service members at the end of World War I and expanded the practice during World War II, when more than 60,000 veterans were used as subjects. At least 4,000 of them were exposed to mustard gas and a chemical weapon called Lewisite, according to government reports quoted by Wilken.

Cold War-era testing included psychiatric drugs, such as LSD. About 7,800 soldiers were exposed to chemical and biological substances at the Army's laboratories at Edgewood Arsenal, Md., from 1955 to 1975. The Pentagon said it then stopped testing chemical weapons on live subjects.

Must provide updates

The testing agencies said they obtained consent from each participant. But Wilken, in a previous ruling, said government officials had acknowledged that they did not provide full information to all participants about the chemicals and their possible effects.

Under binding government regulations, Wilken said Wednesday, "the Army has an ongoing duty ... to provide test subjects with newly acquired information that may affect their well-being."

Illovsky, the veterans' lawyer, said the ruling would help them obtain health care and "maybe provide peace of mind."

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: begelko@sfchronicle.com

Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Approves New Benefits Bills

Veterans’ Committee Advances Health Care, Benefits Bills

WASHINGTON, July 24  (from VeteransToday)  The Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs today approved a package of bills to improve benefits and health care services for veterans and their families.

Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said the package includes a measure to bring the Department of Veterans Affairs in line with a Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage. Other legislation approved by the Committee would improve the delivery of care and benefits for veterans who experienced sexual assault in the military. Another bill would make the VA provide detailed reports to Congress on its effort to eliminate a staggering claims backlog.

The legislation cleared by the committee would:

• Expand eligibility for benefits for spouses married in states that allow gays to wed. The measure would bring the VA into conformance with a June 26 ruling by the Supreme Court that struck down a federal law that unconstitutionally denied federal benefits for all legally married couples.
• Improve the delivery of care and benefits for veterans who experienced sexual trauma while serving in the military. The Pentagon in May released a survey estimating that 26,000 people in the armed forces were sexually assaulted last year, up from 19,000 in 2010. This legislation was inspired by Ruth Moore. Raped in 1987 by her Navy supervisor, Moore struggled for 23-years to receive VA disability compensation. Her battle for benefits finally succeeded when she lived in West Danville, Vt., and contacted her congressman, Bernie Sanders, for help.
• Extend to caregivers for veterans of all eras eligibility for the family caregiver program. This program currently provides services and benefits – including a monthly stipend, reimbursement for travel expenses, counseling, training and respite care – to caregivers of seriously injured post-9/11 veterans.
• Require quarterly reports to Congress on efforts to eliminate a backlog of benefits claims by 2015. VA would have to detail both the projected and actual number of claims received, pending, completed and on appeal.
• • Improve veterans’ health care through increased access to complementary and alternative medicine, chiropractic care and transportation services.
• Expand access to education benefits for veterans and their survivors, including making recently-separated veterans eligible for tuition at the in-state rate and improving the level of benefits offered to survivors of service members killed on active duty.
• Expand employment opportunities for veterans through new programs that will encourage employers to hire veterans and by renewing the popular Veterans Retraining Assistance Program from VOW to Hire Heroes Act of 2011.

Check Your VA Claims File - Check for JSRRC Confirmation!

"JSRRC" stands for the Joint Services Records Research Center, stationed at Fort Belvoir, VA. The

JSRRC has other functions but the one we're concerned with is their role in confirming...or denying...a veteran's claim to have been exposed to Agent Orange.

Settling the question is no problem for Vietnam veterans because the law takes care of that via what is called "presumptive eligibility." If you were in Vietnam you're covered for the typical Agent Orange-presumptive illnesses.

For others, especially C-123 veterans, its is more complicated. The VA regional offices need to gather a lot of data, but at some point they almost always turn to the JSRRC for a report to verify the veteran's claim of exposure.

Early in our struggle, we noted the consistent denials of all exposure claims veterans put forward. I made an appointment with the JSRRC chief and visited in February to learn more about their operation and how we could submit official documentation to make their VA responses closer to our understanding of C-123 contamination. Needed - official US government documentation, because as archivists that is all they can work with.

Fortunately we had our stack of supporting information ready, it has been provided JSRRC and currently their responses to VA are closer to the facts as we know them. Today I added more documentation from the USAF Historical Records Research Agency and also two statements from senior US Public Health officials - USPHS commissioned officers are military officers, thus we have a nice set of two physicians backing up our exposure claims...in writing!

But if you turned in your claim any time in the last two years, you really should check your VA C-file. There probably is, or should be, a JSRRC report on you. That report needs to agree with your situation.

If not, submit a written request, stating your JSRRC response is incorrect and VA should request a restatement from JSRRC. Simple...but you have to initiate the request. Don't out it off!

VA Challenge: Show VA MILITARY Proof That Vets Flew Contaminated C-123s?

The question keeps coming up...and we keep answering it. YES! You want proof???

1. YES. There is military documentation firmly establishing the necessary proof of the C-123s in our unit being former Ranch Hand spray aircraft.

2. YES. There is military documentation firmly establishing the necessary proof of the C-123s in our unit, particularly Tail #362 (Patches) and the others, at last five, being contaminated with dioxin (Agent Orange.)

3. YES. There is military documentation firmly establishing the necessary proof of our aircrews flying C-123s specifically identified as former Ranch Hand spray aircraft.

Here are the three answers for the important question, last raised by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs on June 7 2013 in his letter to Senator Burr, in which the Secretary wrote:

"VA does not currently have a method of determining if a Veteran claiming stateside AO exposure was flying on one of the Operation Ranch Hand C-123s or one of the many other post-Vietnam C-123s flown stateside during the 1970s and 1980s." 

1. The USAF Historical Records Research Agency, Maxwell AFB AL, has identified the histories of
nearly all C-123 aircraft from manufacture and sale to the Air Force, and has identified which of them by specific tail number was modified for aerial spray operations and used for Operation Ranch Hand, spraying Agent Orange in Vietnam. Further, they identified which of the three post-Vietnam USAF squadrons had which former spray aircraft. Tail numbers and units to which the aircraft were assigned were reconfirmed by HQ Air Force Reserve Command.

2. For Westover veterans, the most heavily tested C-123 is Tail #362 (Patches, mentioned by the Secretary) now at the Air Force Museum. Its first test confirming military herbicides was in 1979, and a more comprehensive series of tests by AF toxicologists in 1994 confirmed the aircraft was "heavily contaminated on all test surfaces" and "a danger to public health." None of the other former spray planes were tested so thoroughly, and because they've been destroyed as toxic waste no testing can be done any longer. Documentation released by AFMC showed 1996 testing of 17 aircraft reported all 17 positive for dioxin contamination.

There is every scientific and logical reason to conclude the other aircraft were similarly contaminated, especially as Patches ceased spraying Agent Orange years before the other aircraft when it was switched to malathion missions, thus the other C-123s had "fresher" dioxin.

3. Air Force aviators are provided tracking of their flying activities via a "Form 5" which reports the individual's name, crew position, date and time of the mission, type of mission, and tail number flown. Thus, veterans who flew Patches will have a Form 5 showing their name and Tail #362. In the decades since the C-123 was flown, very few veterans will have saved paperwork dating back over four decades. Veterans have been gathering available Form 5s and flight orders. Flight orders do not show a tail number but they list the crew members for the flight. Matching names on Form 5s and names on flight orders satisfies Air Force archivists requirements for documenting any individual's flight activities.

So there is no question. All three parts of the Secretary's question are addressed with military documentation adequate to convince any jurist or archivist. If some VA officials remain unconvinced, it is because they are deliberately looking away from the proof and are dedicated to wrongly preventing our veterans' access to vital medical care.

DOD Denies Request to Designate C-123 as "Agent Orange Exposure Sites"

In May, the C-123 Veterans Association requested the Department of Defense to designate the already-destroyed toxic C-123 fleet as "Agent Orange Exposure Sites."

This designation is used by VA claims officials in denying exposure claims from C-123 veterans, as well as throughout the Internet and especially, on VA pages. DOD has refused, citing VA and USAF reports.

Why is this important? Because VA cites the absence of C-123s on the DOD list as their reason for denying claims.

Why is this ridiculous? Because DOD says they don't maintain such a list, and in particular, cites the VA as their authority for determining C-123s weren't contaminated. DOD also cites the 2012 USAF C-123 Consultative Letter which was flawed in so many scientific areas that it stands discredited. For instance, the Consultative Letter could never have withstood peer review and publication!

Next step? We again ask DOD's help. Framing our request around their response to our May inquiry, we'll ask that DOD realize that the issue of the amount of dioxin contamination is irrelevant. We'll ask that DOD weigh the role of OSD and AFMC officials in their efforts to destroy the C-123s to prevent veterans' claims. We'll ask that DOD weigh the USAF Office of Environmental Law's recommendation in 1996 to "keep all information in official channels only." And finally, we'll ask that DOD accept the fact that numerous other federal agencies have concluded C-123s were contaminated and the crews exposed.

Let's hope our request reaches somebody who actually wore a flight suit at some point in their careers, somebody who can weigh the importance of this argument.

VA's Blanket Policy Forbidding C-123 Veterans' Claims

VA has no blanket policy against C-123 claims.

                    - Secretary Eric Shinseki, letter to US Senate 7 June 2013

                     - blanket claim denial boilerplate language provided by VA HQ to regional offices
                               

VA regulations do not allow us to concede exposure to herbicides for Veteran's who claim they were exposed to herbicides after the Vietnam war while flying in aircraft used to spray these

chemicals

                        -   from Manchester NH regional office denying a terminally ill vet's claim -

How does the statement "regulations do not permit" equate to the promise of
"no blanket denials?"
They are contradictory statements!

VA deceives the Senate with one statement and then denies 100% of our claims with their other.

VA Views on Agent Orange Conflict With Other Experts!

note: TCDD=dioxin=2,3,7,8 (toxins in Agent Orange)

"There is no scientific evidence that a Veteran's presence in an aircraft containing solidified TCDD can lead to adverse long-term health effects."

            

                 - Secretary of Veterans Affairs, 7 June 2013 letter to US Senate

In my opinion, it is highly likely that you and other crew members were exposed to the herbicides and to their highly toxic contaminant, dioxin.

        - Dr. Jeanne Stellman, Profesor Emerata, Columbia University

Given the available information, I believe that aircrew operating in this, and similar environments, were exposed to dioxin.
       - Dr. Christopher Portier, Director, CDC/Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry

VA Perspective on Other Federal Agency Findings

All other government agencies'  confirmation of C-123 veterans' exposure is unacceptable. VA Veterans Health Administration has decided aircrews weren't exposed.
       
    - VA Veterans Benefits Administration official (in dismissing confirmation of C-123 veterans' exposure from US Public Health Service, CDC Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, NIH/National Toxicology Center, EPA, NIH/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences)

Veterans Health Administration Perspective on Veterans Agent Orange Exposure

"No C-123 aircrews or Vietnam War ground solders were ever exposed to Agent Orange"
                  - Deputy Director VA Post-Deployment Health
(citing VA definition of "exposure" being: exposure=contaminated field+bioavailability)

VA Perspective on C-123 Veterans' Exposure Claims

VA "CANNOT PERMIT" C-123 AGENT ORANGE EXPOSURE CLAIMS
         - Deputy Director, VA Post-Deployment Health, Veterans Health   Administration
No C-123 CLAIM WILL BE APPROVED REGARDLESS OF PROOF
         - Director, Compensation Services, Veterans Benefit Administration
VA REGULATIONS DON'T PERMIT C-123 VETERANS' EXPOSURE CLAIMS              - Manchester NH Veterans Regional Office
VA HAS NO BLANKET POLICY AGAINST C-123 VETERANS' CLAIMS
               - Secretary Eric Shinski
(it is just that VA doesn't approve them...any of them...ever.)

Congresswoman Duckworth Interview re: VA Claims

Featured Interview: Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth

July 2013

In 2004, Tammy Duckworth (D-IL [8]) was deployed to Iraq as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot for the Illinois Army National Guard. She was one of the first Army women to fly combat missions during Operation Iraqi Freedom until her helicopter was hit by an RPG on November 12, 2004. Duckworth lost her legs and partial use of her right arm in the explosion and was awarded a Purple Heart for her combat injuries.

Duckworth spent the next year recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. As one of the highest-ranking patients, she quickly became an advocate for her fellow soldiers.( and testified before Congress about caring for our Veterans and wounded warriors.) In November 2012 she was elected to Congress for the eighth district of Illinois.

Duckworth declined a military medical retirement and continues to drill as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Illinois Army National Guard.

---

Featured Interview: Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth

VLM: What prompted you to join the Army?

While in graduate school at George Washington University I found that my peers and those whose values I most respected in class were all Veterans or active members of the military. They recommended I enroll in ROTC courses to learn more about the military. I fell in love with the military at basic training. I fell in love with the challenges and the camaraderie. I even liked the drill sergeants yelling at us, challenging us to do better. I knew that I’d serve as long as the Army needed me.

In addition, a member of my family has proudly served our country throughout every period of conflict dating back to the American Revolution, so service has played an enormous role in my life.

VLM: After your serious wounds you sustained in Iraq, why did you continue service to veterans through the Department of Veterans Affairs and as a mentor to other disabled veterans?

After I sustained my injuries in Iraq, I made a commitment to my buddies who saved me to make every moment of my life count. In 2006 I was appointed Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, and then went on to work as an Assistant Secretary for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs in 2009. I truly felt that my service to this country was not over after I recovered. I wanted to advocate for service men and women who dedicated so much to our country. We often forget that our responsibility to this nation’s military men and women does not end when they come home.

VLM: In your opening statement on June 26 to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, you began as follows: “I want to support our small businesses as much as possible, I want these set-asides to be successful but I am appalled by the advantages taken because of the system…” Is one of these advantages [for fraud] the government-wide policy of ‘self-certification’ of service-connected disability?

It is disheartening to learn about fraud in government programs that have been created to support Veterans who have given so much to our country. These programs and set-asides are meant to encourage those with service-connected disabilities to take the skills and experiences they have learned in the military and put them to good use. When people exploit the system they do a great disservice to our country.

VLM: During the hearing, you asked Mr. Castillo: “Do you think that the VA’s disability rating of 30% is accurate?” Your disability rating for loss of two limbs is 20% …Do you think a general review of the VA’s rating system is overdue?

I received a disability rating of 20% for the injuries to my arm, and I am a 100% disabled Veteran overall.

The VA’s disability rating system was implemented prior to World War II and needs to be reviewed. I’ve always made clear that it is of the utmost importance to fulfill promises that have been made to Veterans and ensure that they are provided with the benefits and services they deserve. When someone takes advantage of the system it slows down the process for our Veterans most in need.

SECVA: Backlog Goal Drew Fire, Also $$

Shinseki: Backlog Goal Drew Fire, Also Dollars

Jul 18, 2013

TOM PHILPOTT (military.com)

In setting an ambitious goal three years ago to end the Department of Veterans Affairs' disability claims backlog in 2015, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki exposed himself to criticism, including calls to resign as the backlog rose.

But that bold goal, Shinseki said, also helped VA get the funding it needed to modernize operations, including to phase out an inefficient, paper-driven claim processing system.

"If I had written a plan that said we're going to end the backlog in 2025, I wouldn't have gotten any resources," Shinseki said in an interview while he visited the VA regional claims processing office in Newark, N.J.

With extra billions of dollars appropriated for claims processing and other "transformative" initiatives, VA's backlog finally is falling. It stood last week at 536,400, down from 608,000 in March.  Shinseki said he remains confident it will be gone in 2015.  He sounds a little less confident of ending homelessness among veterans by that year, another determined goal.

Regardless, the retired four-star general and former Army chief of staff doesn't regret setting bold objectives.

"I've been writing plans all my life.  I never wrote a tentative plan.  That's not what you expect from a guy you want to solve a problem."

A VA claim is in "backlog" if not decided within 125 days.  When Shinseki became secretary, early in 2009, VA tracked claim performance with a different yardstick: average time to decision.  The average then was 191 days, Shinseki said.  The average sought was 125 days.

"So if I completed a claim in one day, and another claim in 249 days, that's a 125-day average, and that would have ended the backlog," Shinseki said.  "It just seemed to me a bad way to define the problem or try to solve it.  So we said: No claims over 125 days."

As newly defined, the backlog was 180,000 by September 2009.  Over the next three years it more than tripled, passing 600,000, even as VA hired thousands more claim processors.  VA was deciding a million claims a year, yet the backlog grew with as many as 1.3 million claims pouring in.

Only part of the flood of claims is from veterans who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.  As Shinseki explains to Congress and to his own claims staff, it was his decisions to aid more veterans, including from the generation he went to war with in Vietnam, that helped to create the backlog.

Under Shinseki, VA simplified the process for filing post-traumatic stress disorder claims from veterans of all wars.  He made compensable more illnesses for 1990-91 Gulf War veterans exposed to toxins and other health threats in that campaign.  He also added ischemic heart disease, Parkinson's disease and B-cell leukemia to the list of ailments for which Vietnam veterans can receive disability compensation, on presumption wartime exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange caused these conditions.

 This last decision alone resulted in 280,000 retroactive claims.  As of last month, 166,000 veterans with at least one of these illnesses, or surviving spouses, received more than $4.5 billion in VA pay.  Thousands of additional Agent Orange claims are being filed monthly.

Shinseki stands by his Agent Orange decisions, citing scientific studies.  But for two years, VA had to reassign 2300 of its most experienced claim processors – a third of the staff – to review old claims that qualified for special handling under a 1985 Nehmer court ruling. Shinseki said he could be faulted for not better understanding requirements that Nehmer imposed so VA was better prepared for the extra workload.

"They had to go through every page of every claim.  It wasn't enough to say, 'Vietnam, exposure to Agent Orange and therefore Parkinson's disease [so] grant service connection.' The Nehmerdecision required them to see if there was anything else in the file…page by page by page.  And, by the way, Nehmer goes to the head of the line.  Everything else waits…I should have asked more questions."

Shinseki promised in 2010 not only to end the backlog in 2015 but also to raise the decision accuracy rate to 98 percent, up from the low 80s.  These goals, Shinseki guessed while visiting the claims staff in Newark last month, must have made a few of them "suck wind through your teeth."

That was also the reaction by some at headquarters, he told me.

"Somebody said, 'Is he crazy?'  'No, no, no,' I said. 'I'm just asking: Is this a good goal?  If it is, then we will go figure out how to get there.' "

First priority was to begin to replace paper claims with electronic ones.  Last month, six months early, VA completed rollout of an electronic claims processing program, the Veterans Benefits Management System.  VBMS allows the 56 VA regions to accept new claims electronically.  It also allows VA to accelerate a massive process of scanning existing paper claims into computers to be processed and decided faster and more accurately.

Earlier this year, as criticism of the rising backlog intensified, Shinseki set a two-month deadline to identify and complete 66,000 claims more than two years old.  VA expedited the process for claims at least a year old using new provisional approval authority to start benefits based on evidence submitted to date.  He ordered mandatory overtime of 20 hours a month for all claims processers.  And VA established a partnership with the American Legion and Disabled American Veterans to have their claim experts certify claim packets they worked as "fully developed" and ready for decision.

To meet the 98 percent accuracy goal, Shinseki hopes for support from Congress and vet groups to redefine a term.  VA now counts a completed claim as "accurate" if every medical condition identified is rated correctly.  So if an individual claims 12 conditions, and one is rated wrong, the claim doesn't qualify as accurate in tracking VA performance.

The all-or-nothing approach ignores a lot of good staff work, Shinseki said.  It would be more appropriate, he suggested, to base performance on percentage of conditions rated correctly, not claims flawlessly decided.

Under such a change, VA would have an accuracy rate today of 95 percent, just shy of the 98 percent mark promised by 2015, officials said.

To comment, write Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA, or email milupdate@aol.com or twitter: Tom Philpott @Military_Update.com

VA Reports Claims Down to 124 Day Backlog - good news!

VA disability ratings 125-day backlog

The number of claims by military veterans waiting for more than 125 days for a disability compensation decision from the beleaguered Department of Veterans Affairs has fallen below a half-million for the first time in 21 months.

On Nov. 14, 2011, VA reported it had 498,403 such claims. Since then, a combination of factors including an ever-increasing number of war veterans asking for compensation for service-related problems, multiple claims, rules changes that made it easier to file for PTSD and Vietnam War-era Agent Orange exposure, a system still clogged with paper medical records and inadequate staffing caused the backlog to spike. The total peaked over that stretch at 588,959 claims on the books more than 125 days – the VA’s own standard – on March 23.

As of the latest report, July 15, VA reports that that number had fallen back to 498,410, or 66.9 percent of 745,224 total claims. 

Good job, VA!

- See more at: http://blogs.delawareonline.com/delawaredefense/2013/07/17/va-disability-ratings-125-day-backlog-drops-below-half-million/#sthash.HqrBiP2b.dpuf

VA Expands Homeless Programs, Agent Orange Listed Ships

VA News and Notes By Jud Powell Little River County Veteran's Service Officer Published: Wednesday, July 17, 2013 11:56 AM CDT We learned last week that the Veterans Administration has updated the list of U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships that operated in Vietnam, adding more ships and expanding i nformation for others. There are now 285 ships on the list. The list can help Vietnam-era Veterans find out if  they qualify for presumption of Agent Orange exposure when seeking disability compensation for related diseases. Last Friday, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki announced the award of nearly $300 million in grants that will help approximately 120,000 homeless and at-risk Veterans and their families.  The grants have been awarded to 319 community agencies in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Under the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program, VA is awarding grants to private non-profit organizations and consumer cooperatives that provide services to very low-income Veteran families living in -- or transitioning to -- permanent housing. The SSVF program supports VA’s efforts to prevent at-risk Veterans from becoming homeless and rapidly re-house those who have recently fallen into homelessness. Thanks to the SSVF grants, those community organizations will provide a range of services that  promote housing stability and play a key role in connecting Veterans and their family members  to VA services such as mental health care and other benefits. Community-based groups can  offer temporary financial assistance on behalf of Veterans for rent payments, utility payments,  security deposits and moving costs. This is the third year SSVF grants have helped Veterans and their families find or remain in their  homes. Last year, VA provided about $100 million to assist approximately 50,000 Veterans and  family members. In 2009, President Obama and Secretary Shinseki announced the federal government’s goal to end  Veterans’ homelessness in 2015. The grants are intended to help accomplish that goal.  According to  the 2012 Point-in-Time Estimates of Homelessness, homelessness among Veterans has declined 17.2  percent since 2009. Through the homeless Veterans initiative, VA committed over $1 billion in fiscal year 2013 to strengthen programs that prevent and end homelessness among Veterans. VA provides a range of services to  homeless Veterans, including health care, job training, and education. More information about VA’s homeless programs is available at www.va.gov/homeless.  Details about  the Supportive Services for Veteran Families program are online at www.va.gov/homeless/ssvf.asp.