[Army Sergeant] Partisan Politics Only Screws Veterans
Now, I’ll start off by admitting that my politics may not look like a lot of the commentators on this blog. I’m not going to go into the specifics of how: most of you know. I am an IVAW member, and if you want to see more of my more nakedly political offerings, they’re over at Active Duty Patriot. That’s not what this post is about, though I’m sure it’ll be interpreted that way by those with an axe to grind.
What I’m here to talk about is the way that veterans are constantly being exploited by politicians and over-bureaucratic systems, promised the world when it’s election season or when they want to look good, and then as the nitty gritty grind of the year drags on, people remember that helping veterans is work, and costs money, and not just money but actual commitment. And somehow, almost to a man, they all find better things to do.
A few years back I was almost fangirlishly squealing over Senator Jim Webb’s Post 9/11 GI Bill. I loved it then, and I love it-in concept-now. But I know too many veterans who are having to drop out of school, who are getting evicted, or who are straight up not able to afford an apartment of their own because they haven’t gotten their check. Some still haven’t gotten their check. This is happening in an Obama administration just as much as it was happening in a Bush one, and you older vets will have to tell me if it was happening just as much under a Clinton one. The VA is broken. They’ve got some good people working for it, but the VA is still broken. They’ve been hiring some of their former most outspoken critics, but I haven’t seen substantive changes, and I don’t know that anyone else has either.
The problem is right now, there’s a severe recession going on. How severe? Severe enough that I know more than a couple vets personally, my generation of vets, still in their twenties or early thirties, who are functionally homeless, couch-surfing across the USA because they don’t have a better option. There are veterans out in the streets right now-veterans who often have no ability to make it through the severe, complicated, time-consuming process that is applying for benefits. Severe enough that veterans are coming out of the woodwork to apply for their VA benefits and disability benefits for the first time in years. Veterans who know the VA is broken, who know they’re going to be engaging in a fight that will potentially take years. But they don’t have a better option.
60 minutes recently did a piece on the VA issues, which, while it won points from me for using the phrase ‘Delay, Deny, and Hope You Die’ in national newsmedia, honestly turned into more of a light exfoliation than the gritty expose the VA actually deserves.
For a million veterans to be waiting for their VA benefits is wrong, wrong, wrong. The fact that it can be glossed over by anyone is just straight jacked up. And this is where the partisan shit comes in-because it is just as wrong under an Obama administration as it was under a Bush administration, but there are a lot less of certain people willing to talk about it. Just as under a Bush administration, there were a lot less of a different kind of certain people willing to talk about the problem.
We have to stop that. If we’re ever going to get anything accomplished, if these guys aren’t going to be languishing for years while the VA fantasizes about getting its shit together, we need to be united in these issues. Forget who’s in charge, forget who may gain or lose in political capital, stand united. Because let’s face it-much as everyone may hate to talk aloud about it, we have a lot in common. We as veterans have a lot in common. We as politicized veterans who aren’t going to take things lying down have even more in common. Whatever else we may want, whatever else our personal issues may happen to be, whether they come with an elephant or a donkey or a little Ron Paul sticker, we all served, and we all want to have our brothers-in-arms treated as well as they deserve for that service. Most of us have been in the military so long that we have an inborn distaste of taking care of ourselves: well, think of it as taking care of your buddy while your buddy takes care of you.
We need to take on the VA-the whole bloated mess of it. Yes, Democrats, you too, even in an Obama administration. Yes, Republicans, even if they take back the Senate or the House. We need to take on the entrenched incompetence and apathy.
People talk a lot about the old GI Bill, back in WWII. What they forget to remember is that those benefits didn’t come from nowhere. Those benefits came, in large part, because of what happened to the last veterans, the veterans of World War I. And those veterans had to march on Washington to get better treatment. Not as part of a protest march, some three hour shindig where everybody enjoys feeling good about themselves, and then goes home with their demands unmet and their needs unsatisfied. No, those veterans set up a camp and refused to leave until they got what they needed. Check out some history of the Bonus Army-it’s a fascinating read. And they weren’t divided by politics. They were of no political brand or creed. They united and said-hey, we’re starving here. We were promised these things and they didn’t materialize. There’s a Depression, and we really need the country we served to honor their promise to take care of us. Real issues faced by real veterans at the time-not pie-in-the-sky stuff. And what’s the important thing-they succeeded.
We could learn a lot from those folks.
“No, thank you, we don’t want food, sir; but couldn’t you take an’ write
A sort of ‘to be continued’ and ‘see next page’ o’ the fight?
We think that someone has blundered, an’ couldn’t you tell ’em how?
You wrote we were heroes once, sir. Please, write we are starving now.”
-Rudyard Kipling, Last of the Light Brigade
I know that this doesn’t apply to all veterans. I know many veterans are making it, are successfully weathering out this economic downturn. But the thing is, there are a lot who aren’t. I’m not trying to make it sound like everyone is out on the streets. But there are a lot who are, and a lot who aren’t making it. And the more we fight with each other about what the concept of taking on the problem would mean to various political parties, the more the problem doesn’t get fixed.
Category: Antiwar crowd, Bloggers, Congress sucks, Politics, Support the troops, Veteran Health Care
What happened to the Army Sergeant everyone hates?
Jonn, did you write this?
(good job AS, I will have a longer comment later, but I agree with you.)
Just trying to be honest, but I’m having a huge problem getting past “I am an IVAW member”. Makes it very hard to read the rest with a remotely open mind.
Let’s get back to the naked part.
You do make good points about how the VA, like every other federal government agency seems to stumble over their own bureaucratic red tape. Red tape that for the most part is self inflicted.
I fell into a group of veterans who was never really eligible for any sort of post service education benefits. The Vietnam era GI Bill was gone when I joined and while we had some sort of program, VEAP I think it was called, it required a contribution of $100 a month for a year, back in a time when a private only made $400. I never joined.
I did take advantage of the educational opportunities afforded me while on active duty, and while I came up a class or two shy of a bachelors degree, nothing related to my major, so far it has served me well.
The VA needs to not just do a review, I am sick of reviews, they need to take action. Veterans expect action, not words. Streamline the process. Get rid of the confusing flowcharts. Get the veterans what they deserve and let this latest greatest generation get into the workforce and just like the generations of veterans before them, get this country back on the right track.
No application for benefits should go across any more then 3 desks for approval. What they have is layer upon layer of self important government employees, all trying to justify their job, gumming up the works.
The problems at the VA are systemic and not tied to whoever sits in the big boy chair. We can criticize the system without it being a criticism of the president, but while I would like to say he has the power to change it, he really doesn’t. That my friends is up to the congress who often imposes these mandates.
Just for the record, I do not have confidence in either Shinseki or Duckworth to be the ones to champion this fight.
good posts, AS and Grunt. Last summer when I was working in a Comm College registration office we saw the ed benefits problems all the time. So much time and effort was dedicated to the Vets because the VA would screw around until they were late for classes to start, etc. With VA benefits, you’d have to have all of your stuff together, to the T, the first week of registration and MAYBE your check would come in time to pay for classes.
I know a couple vets who are attending classes now, and they are doing ok, now that there is a rhythm to it, but it shouldn’t be that hard.
Sure, it might sound swell for a politician say that they want to “support veterans”, but vets are only a small percentage of the voting public. Modern American politics dictates that you cater to “what’s in it for me” type special interest groups rather than the overseeing responsibilities of governing a republic (one of those responsibilities is taking care of vets). Unfortunately, we just don’t have the numbers we used to. Just throw in the towel and live abroad. That’s my advice (and I’m not being cynical).
heh, heh, heh, she said naked.
On a more serious note: Well done.
One thing you might want to let people know is this; don’t take on the VA by yourself, when filing for benefits. Go to your County Veterans Service Officer; they are there to help you get the paperwork filled out properly and will help you understand what the letter full of jargon, that you get from the VA, actually says. Plus, and I know you don’t want to hear this part, they will ask you which Veterans Service Organization you would like to represent you as your proxy when dealing with negotiations on benefits with the VA. They all have a person that sits down with the VA every week and goes through cases and benefit percentages, etc. They are there for you.
Just wanted to add that part to your post.
Again; well done.
See, I’m keeping my promise to behave 🙂
I had to go back and find where she said naked. lol
Bravo! Very well done, Army Sergeant! Very well done!
AS,
We can be objective and give thanks and praise to those who think differently, honest. It’s the peeps who start slinging stupid comments with nothing to back up what has been said.
And here, you do a great job.
The bureaucracy endured to get what is rightfully theirs is pretty despicable. I am a healthy vet. But God Help those who are not. As the member of an American Legion post, also the youngest…I see what “my boys”(I am the only woman)have to do to get certain things. These guys are all WWII vets and all older than 75. We do a lot for the VA here, but there is so much more, if we were allowed. I would gladly volunteer untold man hours to get these guys what they need. They should not have to wait.
I wish there were more I could do, because the younger vets are really suffering, not just medically, but as seen with the education benefits.
Ok I read it. Its always about politics and whether we believe it or not it will always be about politics. The money that VA gets is an extension of political capital and political will. The trick is getting your side (whichever it may be) to live up to their end of the election promises. Thats where we screw the pooch, election ends and promises get scrapped. Personally, I use damn near none of my VA benefits. I get my retirement check and disability check and thats about it.
Ultimately Nixon is right, there just aren’t enough of us to matter enough to change jack or shit.
Good read, and I agree with what you have written.
I have absolutely no problem with the medical care I have received from the VA. I’ve been hospitalized, had surgeries, all sorts of things. The doctors, nurses, etc, were always top notch and considerate. No complaints from me about that.
HOWEVER: My personal nightmare is dealing with the paperwork, the layers of bureaucracy designed to protect the public’s money by spending it on clerks and typists before it gets to the public. The delays in GETTING an appointment with your primary care physician in order to get a referral from him to see a podiatrist. Yeah, i could go to the VA urgent care facility, but it’s over 30 miles from me and I can’t drive, and don’t own a car.
I am just so jaded and depressed about the whole system. After this last go-round which took more than a year to get a decision on my rating, and most of it denied, I’ve resigned myself to just getting by as best I can.
I am tired of fighting the system. I am tired of having to go from one place to another to ask for help because the whole system is so damned complicated, and no one seems able to simplify it, or explain it simply, and I’d rather try and make do with the little I get than to fight anymore.
I kept my part of the bargain, my part of the contract. I know now that that was a sucker’s bet.
AW Tim-
Remember, systems as fucked up as the VA’s is, count on people like you quitting. But you deserve the care, you should not give up. If I could help, I would. TSO, any ideas?
N is for never quit!
AS, I’m gonna be honest, just as honest as I would be TSO or Jonn, so don’t take what I write to you as having anything to do with your IVAW stance. What you’ve told me, in essence, is nothing. We, the overwhelming number of vets who are active in the political side, have always called BS on political shenanigans, regardless of whether its repub, demo, or retard. It’s the IVAW and anti war folks that have tried to see some type of savior in their elected officials. Trying to come together as one voice for veterans has already been going on for a long long time, i.e. American Legion and Vets for Freedom and other organizations have existed. And don’t get into political slant of each group. The fact is that each group, whether you agree with them or not, are doing it because they are sick and tired of being used and abused as a voiceless group and are actually out there to fight for veterans. YOU may feel that you believe what you’re doing is right in IVAW, and I actually believe you believe what you’re doing with IVAW is for vets, but there’s no denying that VV, VFP, IVAW, and your other idiot “vet” groups are in it for other motives than truly helping out vets. This leads me into the king of all wolf in sheeps clothing, IAVA. I’m surprised you didn’t go after them AS, and until you address them, your criticism of trying to come together as vets and get change truly rings hollow. Let’s forgo the fact that IAVA isn’t really IAVA but a warm and fuzzier name of Operation Truth. These are the guys that gave McCain and other lawmakers C’s and D’s on their veteran law voting “report card” by using totally unrelated bills and ridiculous issues so they could bash McCain and force something the Dems could use to bolster their wimpy limp dick reputation when it comes to veterans. Yet where is IAVA? What are they doing in response to the so called epidemic of new homeless vets?… Read more »
I was in during the Army College Fund days and had a very good experience getting my ed benie’s. Both Universities I went to had people that specifically delt with veterans, my benie’s came on time and were never interupted. I’m not trying to claim there is no problem but why the hell did they have to change all of the protocol’s for handling the paperwork and process from somethng that obviously worked well in my day? I got out right after Desert Sheild/Storm when the military was downsizing and there were large numbers of vets using their benefits and I don’t recall there being large scale systemic problems.
TSO and OldTanker have given me some good advice. But I need some down time from fighting the system. I appreciate the help I’ve gotten from folks, and from my rep at the DAV.
But I’m tired of the fight right now. I just don’t have the energy for it, and whenever I get paperwork to fill out, my mind just shuts down anymore. It’s all just a little much at the moment.
Thank you, though. And again, a good article.
AS
BTW, what does this post have to do with the Veteran behavior you were “observing” at the bar??
I actually look forward to Army Sergeant’s comments (and now posts) because of her IVAW membership. She and I disagree on most everything politically, but that’s the best part-we can disagree without profanity or childish manes.
As far as the content of the post, I tend to agree that the VA is screwed up, but I would expect that of any large government bureaucracy. I tend to agree that too many politicians look at us a victims rather than veterans and try to calculate how to get our votes, but I would expect that out of any career politician.
I also agree with USMC Chris that it is hard to be too sympathetic to these large numbers of couch surfing vets. Unless you have issues with PTSD (which some do) then a US military veteran should have everything they need to make a living. We were taught responsibility and initiative, as well as the value of hard work. As a veteran, we have more people willing to step forward and help us out than probably any other group of people in America. American Legions and VFW’s across the country are literally asking for names of veterans that they can help. And on this very blog, I have read about too many phony or exaggerated veterans who have tried to game the system to automatically believe every hard luck story.
But as for solutions, well one seemed pretty obvious from the post. Systemic problems at the VA and homeless/unemployed veterans means that the VA should be aggressively hiring more veterans. The possibilities are endless.
For instance-when a company size unit gets deployed, there is always somebody that can’t deploy because of medical or family issues. So let them do a tour at the VA instead. The VA gets a year’s worth of help with the backlog in claims, and the deployed unit will have a subject matter expert at VA issues when they get back.
Dave; helluva idea. Good on ya!
“For instance-when a company size unit gets deployed, there is always somebody that can’t deploy because of medical or family issues. So let them do a tour at the VA instead. The VA gets a year’s worth of help with the backlog in claims, and the deployed unit will have a subject matter expert at VA issues when they get back.”
Now THAT is a great idea! And if they’re NG or Reserve they can work at the County Veteran Service Office from their prospective county, I like it!
Dave, I am forwarding your suggestion to see what we can do.
I doubted anyone here would argue against the essence of your post, AS.
However, I’ll offer that you might want to note that most of those things that are wrong with the VA system are consistent with all bureaucracies in general – and government bureaucracies in particular.
As a side note; look for the the VA health care system to be folded into any national health care system. We Vets will just another group with a right to health care. Education, along with other ‘rights’ will likely be included in some broader system as well.
Said another way… you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Socialist Democrat,
See above for the proper way to initiate and carry on a discussion. Pro AND con. Please note, no name-slinging by the participants against each other. And as far as I can tell, the only editing is self-imposed.
‘Nuff said.
But I wonder if there is just some way that this could be stream lined with the VA.
Finrod: I appreciate you trying and succeeding to look past that and considering the substance. Seriously.
JAG: Yes, especially to the people trying to justify their job and layers upon layers of bureaucracy. I think people are afraid to admit that things could be streamlined, because one of the things that might be streamlined is them. I don’t think that it needs to have approval processes on top of approval processes. Have appeals issues for denials, but authorize people to approve easy claims at the lowest level without needing excess review. Cut out the crazy paperwork.
Nixon: We don’t have the numbers only because we haven’t been building the numbers. Sure we have lots of active vets, but they’re not all unified, they’re in little pockets all over the country. I think if we made noise it could be heard. Also, not fleeing the country just yet. I love it way too much!
OldTrooper: I have nothing against VSO’s, really. I think that they do great work taking care of vets. But it’s not their job to do it. When they do it, it’s awesome, but most claims shouldn’t need a VSO to push through. No process should be so complicated that your average veteran couldn’t understand it and navigate through. It’s not supposed to be a maze, it’s supposed to be an easy access street.
Everyone else: will respond, your response is overwhelming but great! Thanks so much and I promise I’ll get to you all.
Just a quick note, to Ponsdorf and your post #21. You stated that vets will just be another group with a right to health care. Actually, vets will just be another group with a right to meet with a bureaucrat, to see if you have your paper work done, so you might qualify for health care. So, actually, the rest of the citizenry will get a chance to see what vets have gone through to get health care. And, I agree nobody’s seen nothing yet.
OK, Good post AS. You point out the basic premise that a camel is a horse built to Government specs. While we as Veterans are pretty much used to it, even we can become frustrated and beaten down by a glacierly slow Gov process. It shouldn’t be that way, but I’m afraid the best we can hope for is the convesion from a two humper to a one hump camel and will never see Sea Biscuit.
The only real issue I had with your post is the sneaky way you made me read the entire thing by saying the word “naked” in the very beginning. 🙂
UpNorth said: Just a quick note, to Ponsdorf and your post #21.
Yeah… I agree with you.
Truth is I spent a while expanding/deleting and fiddling with my comment. But I DO have a blog and decided to ‘keep it simple’ here. [grin]
USMC Chris:
Nah, I don’t take honest disagreement personally, just actual personal attacks.
I agree that most of the groups you reference are out there fighting for veterans, but what I think is unfortunate is that they get so caught up in the inter-political sniping that they don’t band together as often as they should. Sometimes they do, and they often do by for example, lobbying at the same time or for the same things. But they’re so caught up in sometimes what name they’re under that I think they dont’ cooperate as much or as focused as they should.
I’m not going to trashtalk any specific veteran’s organization here, but I will say that IAVA is not exempt from the charges I lay above, especially in reference to partisan activity. IAVA has definitely ceased lobbying as aggressively as they did under the Bush administration. They do a lot of work for veterans, and I won’t deny that, but I think they suffer from the same problems that many other veteran’s orgs, including IVAW and the Legion and really any that you can think of do, where they don’t make as much noise depending on the guy in charge.
Look, I know that some of the couchsurfing guys are there because of laziness or what have you. Carl Webb is proof positive of that, to choose one well known example. But I think some of it is actually because of the bureaucracy, and a lot of it is also from PTSD, which makes it even harder to deal with the intensive bureaucracies. Sadly, the more intensively they are disabled, the less they seem able to deal with the programs and bureaucracies out there to “help” them. Even healthy vets often have trouble dealing with the byzantine nature of some of the bureaucracies they need to negotiate.
Also, I’m generally almost always up for beer. That’s how I met these guys! 🙂
AS: You do realize we are talking about the gummint; right? With that in mind, it really is better to go through your County Veterans Service Officer, because they are versed in “governmentese” and know the ins and outs to the very bureacracy that is supposed to help them. You’re right, it shouldn’t be complicated, but it is the government we are talking about, after all.
I wish it could be easier as it really gets me when I talk to Vets that have been waiting/denied/jumping through hoops, because they were trying to do it on their own. The very government that makes it so complicated also supplies us with the CVSOs, which doesn’t really make much sense, but it’s there for us at taxpayer expense; so why not use them?
AS-
I hope you understand by now that half the commenters read your first paragraph and only retained this much;
“Now, I’ll start off by admitting that my…naked offerings …may not look like a lot of the commentators on this blog.
If you want to see more…they’re over at Active Duty Patriot.”
Thus they were predisposed to disagree with you because they felt cheated when you made an actual reasonable argument. Good first post, and I look forward to more.
I went over to Active Duty Patriot to see some of this “naked politics” thing of which you speak. I hae to say that I was vastly disappointed at the amount of “naked” that I saw there. There was a sufficient amount of “politics” but hardly any “naked”.
If we can’t rely on the liberals for nudity in this country anymore, I don’t know what’s become of us.
P.S. Good post AS. Keep it up.
Excellent work, Selena.
The Navy Times and The Army Times both carried an article today (the same article) about the GI Bill backlog climbing. However, according to VA Watchdog.org, the backlog is actually going steadily down. (This information coincidentally came into my Navy email at work today in a news clips mass email that’s routinely sent out…which is the only reason I happen to know.)
The Navy Times article (published just today) here: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2010/01/military_gibill_springdelays_010510w/
The VA Watchdog.org website at http://www.vawatchdog.org/ has the following statement on it (also dated today), “Contrary to a report in The Army Times [also The Navy Times], the VA’s backlog of G.I. Bill claims is going steadily down.”
I sympathize with the plight of the students in school having to go through this, of course. I used to work as an admissions advisor at a university prior to my current job as a Navy civilian, so I’ve seen firsthand what students go through sometimes over finances and student loan problems, both veterans and non-veterans. I know it can be very tough being a student sometimes.
Speaking for myself, I would give anything just to have a GI bill back again, no matter how long I had to wait for the check to come through (long as it was coming). I was under the old Vietnam Era GI bill which expired at the end of 1989 while I was at home raising babies and taking care of my Army officer husband. My stupid fault, I guess – letting it go, thinking he would put me through college later when the children were older. A GI bill is a wonderful thing…for those who have it.
Never thought I would post a positive comment on this blog, but just wanted to say I appreciated what you have said ArmySergeant. You are right. Partisan politics does screw veterans.
Whether you are left, right, or center, or something else, I think the one thing we all can agree on is that those who have served deserve their full benefits. I’m not sure what the answer is (would appreciate hearing from those who do have opinions on this, especially those who have served), but I would love to see a unified front between veterans and their allies to demand a true GI bill that actually works and pay benefits on a timely basis.
Also for those who don’t know the history of the Bonus March after WWI (that Army Sergeant referenced in her post), here are a couple of links that discuss it in more detail…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler
Ok, where is the real James Branum and what have you done with him??
Good post James. Yeah, I have read about all the happenings during the bonus march and tent city they set up in DC. It was a sad situation and I hope something like that never happens in this country again.
Debbie: I can’t believe you went to the darkside (Navy) on us!! I’ll call the boys at Ft. Stewart and have them repossess your Army mule picture. *sigh* I just hope my brother (the swabby) doesn’t hear about this, I’ll never live it down.
AS,
OldTrooper is not talking about VSO’s (Veterans Service Organizations i.e. American Legion) He’s talking about CVSO’s (County Veterans Service Officers) These are taxpayer funded salaried people whos job IS specifically to help Vets navigate the VA.
This is why I think Dave’s (#17) idea is a good one. There will be ALOT more vets out there over time with a good working knowledge of the VA to help other vets.
Thanks, Old Tanker, I thought she may have mis-construed who I was talking about. The other thing about CVSOs is that 99.5% of them are retired military. My old recruiter is now a retired E-8 and CVSO, plus my own CVSO is a retired E-9.
Good people that really know their shit.
OldTrooper
I know what you mean. When I was a student teacher I got aquinted with the father of one of my students who was a Nam vet. He was and still is in charge of my AL honor guard. After losing a job or two he finally ended up as our county VSO and it’s his absolute dreamjob, which is good because he helps alot of people. My wife is a Social Worker who deals mainly with Mentally Ill adults. Whenever she has a veteran she goes straight to my buddy to get any VA benie’s they’re due, she rarely runs into a snag but if she does he’s got the workaround. On a side note, his son, my former physics student, became an engineer, joined the Marines, flys the CH-53 Stallion and just got his Major cluster pinned on him. My buddies Grandfather was one of the original American Legion Zouaves of Ed Sullivan fame too…..helluva family!
Dave- that is in fact a great idea. I agree that having more vets working at the VA would be a great start on a solution, though it’s going to take more. Also, I’m not sure on this, but I have heard from some of my contacts that people who have offered to volunteer at the VA doing admin stuff to speed up the processing are being turned down. Do you or does anyone else know more? Do they take interns? Why aren’t they aggressively promoting work-study at the VA for new vets at colleges?
Ponsdorf-that’s true, about bureaucracies in general, and I fear what happens when the gov’t takes over healthcare fully.
OldTrooper: I believe you, it’s just wild that that’s the first time I’m hearing about County VSOs. I don’t think the Army puts out that info in ACAP or whatever, the VA sure doesn’t. It’s almost like you have to be ‘in the know’ to even know these services exist, which still leaves thousands of vets out.
Dave, Sniper, Ray and others: Hah. Should have had the infantry translation of it the first time. Sorry for getting folk’s wires switched.
AS: That’s ok, I didn’t know about them, either, until I joined a VSO and was told about them. That’s the real shame in all this; that information should be out there for all Vets through the military, at least when they are being seperated. Here in Minnesota, we have a proactive approach where the State is involved with those coming back from deployment, where an information fair is held. The only problem is that it doesn’t help those coming off active duty, because of privacy laws, there is no way to know who they are, so the military should take the step to add such information to the seperation packets. It would be the responsible thing to do.
Trooper, I’m not sure if every state has CVSO’s, which would explain AS’s confusion.
AS-here is a link to what we have in Minnesota-one CVSO in every county, and all they do is assist veterans in getting the benefits they are entitled to. They are state employees, and even the more rural counties have a secretary/assistant, while some of the urban counties have a half dozen people on staff.
http://www.macvso.org/cvso.html
Here in Michigan the employees are county employees but the office is funded through state funding. Sadly, due to our states’ problems, our office is now down to 1 1/2 people and we have both a NG and Reserve unit stationed here. The state cut the budgets of most departments by an average of 5% except veterans, we got a 25% cut…..and yes, they’ve been getting an earful from me since our Gov. ripped Bush routinely for not doing enough for the vets and then she pulls this…..
Thanks Dave, I guess I never considered that not every state was up to our standard….. 🙂 Although I will do some research and see what I can find for other states and maybe put together a list and post it here, so we can at least get word of mouth going. Nothing gets to me more than Vets not having enough information to help them.
OldTrooper, Concerning (what appears to be) my defection to the dark side, er…Navy, while I must acknowledge the Navy does have a few things going for it that the Army seems to lack (i.e., naval bases on the water with palm trees, herons, sea gulls, beaches…plus sailors who look very cute in their cracker jack uniforms… 🙂 ), it was not really a chosen defection to the dark side, per se, but rather an outright case of the proverbial “blood is thicker than water.” These things happen. One of the Navy chiefs where I work tells me that if they got rid of all the branches of service except for one, the one branch they would keep would be the Navy. He says the reason for that is because the Navy is the only branch of service that can do it all – on the land, on the sea, and in the air. That may or may not be true, but have you ever seen how sailors march? Sailors march differently than soldiers do. They kind of sway very slightly to the side as they’re marching, almost imperceptible, but as a former soldier, I could definitely detect the difference. It’s like as though they’re marching on a ship instead of on land. That worries me. I will say, the Marines do march better than the sailors do, and they also call cadence more like soldiers do…though sometimes I also catch the Marines calling cadence the way the sailors do…this very strange, sing-songy, rhythmical “lo-righty, lo-righty, lo-righty” kind of thing. Never, ever, ever did I ever hear anything like that in the Army. Other cultural differences between sailors and Marines – well, when it’s sailors who are the door watches to the building, they’ll say “Carry on” after checking your ID (or maybe, “Welcome aboard”), but when the door watches are Marines, they’ll, often as not, say, “Kill!” instead of “Carry on” (except to the civilians, of course). They’ll say “Kill!” to both sailors and Marines coming through the door, but they only say “OO-RAH!” to each other. (I knew about… Read more »
Debra,
That sway in the march is indicative of folks who have been to sea and have their “sea legs”. Lord knows I still have mine, although it mostly comes from having to stay balanced while walking down the fuselage of the P-3 Orion in flight.
You can easily sea it though in all the old veterans of the Navy, that slight “list” or sway to one side and then the other, because they slightly threw each leg out to the side as they walked to help keep their balance on a rolling deck.
respects,
AW1 Tim,
That’s pretty much what I was figuring, but I’m at a training base and I’m talking about mostly kids barely out of high school who just finished boot camp. So what must be happening is that the old sailors who got their sea legs somehow are passing some aspect of that along to the new sailors who they are training and they absorb it from them and imitate it. They don’t have the actual sea experience yet (in most cases), but they are apparently still learning it.
It’s quite interesting to me as I’ve always been interested in cultural anthropological type of stuff.. I noticed it right from the start, when I first started working there. I commented on it several times to some of the other civilians who I work with, but they didn’t really seem to know what I was talking about when I would tell them that the sailors march differently than soldiers do. (They also act differently.) They didn’t seem to realize it, but then, they were never soldiers. So thank you for confirming that for me!
Btw, did I notice you said something about homeschooling your daughter? Are you really homeschooling? I homeschooled my kids when they were young, before my marriage failed, and my oldest daughter and her husband are planning to homeschool their kids also.
Well, Debbie, I have seen many Army mule pictures from a certain beer company where they say “blah, blah, blah, salutes the Army” and they have the Army mule pictured, or the Navy goat, Marine bulldog, etc. A buddy of mine works at a distributor and got me one of the Army ones, even though I never asked for one, he knew I had been in the Army and decided to give me one and I proudly display it in man country (the garage). I figured every Soldier had one 🙂 It drives my brother nuts, so that’s a bonus, because every time he sees it, he has to comment on it. It’s like they have it ingrained in them that they can’t help themselves, if they see something like that, it’s open for comment. Of course, I have gotten the call every year for the last 8 years, when the Army-Navy game is over……………….
Just sayin
“Of course, I have gotten the call every year for the last 8 years, when the Army-Navy game is over….”
He-heh… Did I tell you I also drive around in a car with a front plate that says, “Army Veteran, Navy Mother-in-Law”? The gate guards on base find it very amusing…
🙂
Debra,
Yes, I am home schooling my youngest. She’s 11 (going on 22) and quite a bright thing, if I do say so.
Mostly, I was just terribly disappointed with the Middle School here. It’s so far left of center that I couldn’t justify exposing her to that. She’s been in the gifted and talented program all through elementary school. but the Middle School version of that program was rife with politics and social-justice dogma, so that clinched the deal for me.
The older ones are already grown. My oldest has graduated from college and she is looking at a commission in the Navy. My son is in Afghanistan. He’s an infantryman with the 173rd Airborne Brigade.
What I enjoy most about homeschooling is that it lets me spend more time with my youngest, something I didn’t get to do as much of with the older kids.
It’s been interesting reading the comments and suggestions made in response to this post. I’m glad to see that despite how “broken” many aspects of the VA system are, people are trying to come up with genuine suggestions for improvement. I have a different viewpoint than many of you- I’m not a veteran. I work for the VA providing direct clinical care to veterans. I’d like to respond to some of what has been said. Having worked in both VA and non-VA settings (public and private hospitals), I see definite advantages to the VA despite the flaws. First, to AW1Tim- please don’t give up on your claim. I’m glad to hear you have DAV helping out. The unfortunate truth is that VSO involvement is usually necessary to get a claim through and persistence is key. I’ve been trying to distill my impression of the Comp & Pen process into a few sentences and I’m at a loss. My colleagues and I pretty much universally agree that we don’t get WTF the Comp & Pen examiners think or how they come to their decisions. Frankly, it doesn’t matter what diagnosis I give to a patient or what my impressions are after multiple contacts. The Comp & Pen examiner makes a decision based on a single evaluation (and supposedly a chart review, but that often seems questionable based on the notes and decisions I have read). Yes, there are fakers who are trying to game the system, but they are FAR outweighed by veterans with genuine problems that are clearly service connected whose claims are denied. It’s frustrating as a provider to see it happen and know that there is no way you can affect the outcome. I would love to see Comp & Pen totally revamped. Another comment AW1Tim made was about delays in getting access to primary care (at most VAs this would apply to almost any service, not just primary care). I’m hoping that the change in advance funding for the VA will help with this somewhat, but VISN allocation of funds to the different hospitals/clinics also has a… Read more »
Yup, I finally broke down and wrote my senator (something I swore I’d never do) and promptly heard crickets chirping ever since: Dear Senator, I’m writing because I feel that I’ve nearly exhausted my options with the Veteran’s Administration. I know you sponsored the post-9/11 GI Bill, and I believe it is an amazing opportunity for those of us who qualify. However, I have been attempting to get the benefits paid for 5 months without success. I transferred benefits to my wife and have been repeatedly assured that our paperwork was filed correctly and that we are indeed qualified. Despite this, her semester has ended almost a month ago, and her school still has not been paid. The school has been very patient knowing that the VA has been overburdened with claims so has allowed her to move through an entire semester unpaid. At this point, their patience has run out, and we have nearly run out of time. She must disenroll and we must pay out of our own pocket if it is not paid within the next few days — an expense we have not budgeted for based on the guaranteed payout of VA Education benefits. Today, I am seeking a second job in order to pay this debt and am not certain how I will manage this expense. I understand the VA is overburdened, and have been very patient despite numerous hours on hold and emails that go unanswered. I simply cannot get anybody to commit to an answer on these benefits, so have now turned to you for help. I’m actually embarrassed to be in this position. I worry it’s too late to respond, but think you should know what reality is: I will never promote actually using this benefit to any of my friends in the military. On the contrary, I will only actively dissuade eligible recipients because of the additional burden it has placed on my family. We altered our lives based on this promise, moved into a new apartment to accommodate the change in lifestyle, spent money from our modest savings on childcare,… Read more »