SAVING SERGEANT TURNER,Why today’s veterans shouldn’t expect any better than yesterday’s

Have you seen the Vanessa Turner story?" asks Steve Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center (NGWRC), when I call to talk to him about the current state of veterans’ benefits.

"She’s the soldier who returned from Iraq and had the leg injury, and she went down to the VA and they told her it would take six months to get around to her."

What? It sounds like a bad joke, with a black eye for a punch line. But no, the plight of Vanessa Turner — which, compared to the star-spangled Jessica Lynch story, was barely a blip on the summer news cycle — is ominously true.

Turner, a young black Army sergeant from Boston, was medically retired from the military when doctors at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center thought she was on her deathbed after collapsing in 130-degree heat in Iraq. When she miraculously recovered and found herself unemployed, homeless, and without any kind of health insurance, she reported to the VA hospital in Boston to seek further care for her unresolved illness and related injuries. The VA informed her that she could be seen on October 12.

"Now this was July 12th," Turner told CNN a month later. "My leg is hurting, it’s swollen, I’m on nerve medication, what do I do?"

What Turner did was appeal to Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) for help, which she received (she had her first medical appointment the day of the CNN interview). What the VA did was trip over itself calling the situation a mistake and an anomaly. Deputy Secretary Leo Mackay assured CNN that all veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have "priority."

But the NGWRC’s Robinson says this is far from the truth. In reality, he says, the VA doesn’t even know who’s coming back from combat — or in what condition are these newly minted veterans.

"For the last two years, we’ve been fighting with the Department of Veterans Affairs to do what’s called Department of Defense/VA data sharing," Robinson explains. "That would include understanding where a soldier is going, [and] what are the daily occurrences of illnesses that are coming out of that location. Each day the military puts out what’s called a disease and non-battle injury report. There’s no reason why the Department of Veterans Affairs is not apprised of that report.

"You know, if a guy’s lost his leg below the knee, he’s going to require some special attention from the VA," he says. "And it might behoove them to get in contact with these people while they’re here at [Walter Reed] and find out where they’re going and get ready for them."

Gary Christopherson, senior advisor to the undersecretary for health at the VA, says the department is actively working with the DoD on a data-sharing project. Right now, he says, the VA already has DoD information on 1.5 million former service members, under a program called the Federal Health Information Exchange. By 2005, the two departments plan to have real-time two-way sharing of information between the two departments’ massive databases.

Unfortunately, as veterans like Turner are soon to find out, there’s often a huge gap in VA services between knowing what a veteran needs and being able (or willing) to provide it. And it’s going to take a lot more than a software upgrade to change that fact.

This summer, VA secretary Anthony Principi said during a San Antonio speech that his department was weathering "the perfect storm" of too many veterans enrolling in the VA and not enough money from Congress to take care of them all.

"I think most health-care systems in America would collapse under the burden," he told his audience.

While the VA has not yet collapsed, it is certainly showing signs of strain. Funding is a primary factor. In many ways, though, money is merely the physical manifestation of a deeper fault line within the system: The federal government — VA officials included — have engaged in a history of actions and inactions since at least World War 1 that are distinctly anti-veteran.

This dynamic has played itself out in different ways in the two major arenas of the VA: the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), and the Compensation and Pension Benefits program. Problems in the former are relatively new, and, some say, getting worse; problems in the former go back decades, and, some hope, are getting better. But most experts aren’t optimistic regarding veterans’ chances for better care and compensation.

The VHA is where Congress always gets to play the bad guy, historically under-funding the system’s budget and insisting that it remain discretionary, unlike the fixed budget that Comp and Pen enjoys.

"Which is ‘good luck,’ every year, to try to get what you need to serve the veterans," says Ronald Brodeur, a disabled Air Force veteran who serves as a volunteer adjutant for the Disabled Veterans of America at their Togus VA Medical Center office in Augusta.

The VA’s financial woes were compounded in 1996, when Congress mandated that all veterans be allowed to enroll in the VA health-care system, without fully funding the expansion.

"We [the DAV and other veterans organizations] went out on a big recruitment to find those people who may not have been service-connected," says Brodeur, "but they did spend some time in the military and now they may have some health problems, or they lost their job and they’re having a hard time just getting prescriptions.

"And we really went crazy doing that, and we found a lot of people who needed assistance," he says. "And we started flooding the system with them, and we choked it."

So bad did they choke the system, in fact, that incoming veterans now routinely wait six months to a year for their initial VA medical appointments. Meetings with specialists often take just as long.

To mitigate this backlog, Secretary Principi was forced to make a politically unpopular move in January, and suspend new enrollments by veterans above a certain income level with health issues lacking a direct service connection.

Now, on the heels of President Bush’s $87-billion Iraq request, the Senate is preparing to vote on a $26.8-billion VHA budget, which is less than what veterans’ groups requested, but more than Bush or the House of Representatives was willing to give. And, points out a spokesperson from Senator Snowe’s office, that number could still be negotiated upward on the Senate floor — which is something the senator would support.

Snowe "sees [the $26.8-billion appropriation] as a step in the right direction," says spokesperson Elizabeth Wenk, "and only the beginning of the process. But I think [she] agrees with the veterans’ groups that we can go further."

Portland resident Rodney Mears would agree as well that the VA needs more funding, though he’ll also tell you first-hand about that infamous anti-veteran sentiment rumbling below the agency’s surface.

Mears recently had to buy his stepfather a $1000+ hearing aid out of his own pocket because neither he, a 1970s-era Navy veteran, nor his 72-year-old stepfather, a World War 2 veteran, could figure out how to complete the reams of documentation required by the Department of Veterans Affairs before they would pick up the tab.

Mears says his stepfather’s hearing loss is a result of standing next to "the big guns" during his military service, but the paperwork the elder man was confronted with at Togus was so daunting that he gave up on the health care to which he was entitled.

"To go back and ask the day, the time, the type of gun, the commanding officer — I mean, these are things that are 40, 50 years old," Mears says, "and it’s almost impossible, unless you kept a diary, to be able to convey in any kind of manner that can make sense on paper, like they’re trying to produce."

What angers Mears, though, is not that he had to open his wallet for his stepfather — it’s that the government managed to keep its own purse strings tightly shut.

"These people were called upon in that war," he says. "When the Japanese attacked our country, they volunteered, there were lines in the streets. And my stepfather did the same thing.

"Now he goes up to Augusta and stands in a line that’s four hours long. There’s more red tape than the worst crime scene in the world — and he felt like a criminal, like you’re begging, begging, for some kind of benefits, when it should be totally the opposite. It should be ‘How can I help you?’ "

But Mears is well aware that the state of veterans’ benefits is only likely to get worse as time goes by.

"Let me tell you something," he says, "I’m going to do everything in my power, while I’m young now, to put money away. Because I have absolutely no faith in any kind of ability to receive benefits from the government when I’m older."

What Mears and his stepfather experienced is far from unique. Veterans must jump through similar hoops to get treatment for practically every condition that doesn’t have an obvious service connection (like a gunshot wound, versus prostate cancer), and to get disability compensation for those conditions under the Comp and Pen program.

"There is a burden of proof that has been improperly placed on the veteran, when it should be placed on the Department of Defense," the NGWRC’s Robinson says. "It’s the department’s job to hand the VA everything that the soldier would need to file a claim."

On an increasingly complex battlefield, Robinson says there’s no way for a service member to know or keep track of all the exacting details that will later be necessary to file a successful claim. And they shouldn’t have to worry about these things.

"The Department of Defense has a responsibility," Robinson says. "When a soldier goes to war, they need to know what shots the soldier received, how many times the soldier got ill, whether or not there was an environmental or endemic disease that may have impacted on his health, what the air quality was, what the soil quality was.

"Soldiers don’t have time to take wind speed and direction calculations and fight a war," he adds. "They don’t have time to be epidemiologists while they’re squeezing off M-16 rounds. The Department of Defense must get more proactive in preparing a seamless medical record that is ready to go and immediately answers any and all questions that the soldier might have to answer from the Department of Veterans Affairs. There should not be this disconnect, and there is."

Robinson, a Gulf-War era Army Special Forces veteran, is uniquely qualified to comment on the military’s role in helping veterans help themselves. His last assignment before leaving the Army was at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, working on the Gulf War Illness research project. It was his dissatisfaction with certain aspects of this project that motivated Robinson to join the NGWRC when he left the military.

"I did not feel proud about the results of our investigation, and I was not alone in that sentiment," he said in a press release announcing his new job at the NGWRC. "It seemed that everything we produced leaned away from helping the veteran."

It’s here where we begin to enter some truly confusing territory, a land of role-reversals where Congress consistently pushes for better treatment of veterans and the VA tries to thwart those moves at every turn.

READ THIS CLOSELY:

Turner, a young black Army sergeant from Boston, was medically retired from the military when doctors at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center thought she was on her deathbed after collapsing in 130-degree heat in Iraq. When she miraculously recovered and found herself unemployed, homeless, and without any kind of health insurance, she reported to the VA hospital in Boston to seek further care for her unresolved illness and related injuries. The VA informed her that she could be seen on October 12.

Talk about a pack of lies trying to slam the US some more.

Medically Retired? then she receives her retirement pay! IF she is disabled, she receives additional $$$ above the standard retired pay. If she is NOT disabled ... Unemployed my ass!

Homeless? it is probably just another blatant lie - unless it was by her choice. Did her boyfriend kick her out? her hubby????? her family??????

No medical insurance? IF medically retired see above.

I have service connected disabilities, we have a brand new clinic with very good doctors, if hospitalization is required, first choice is the one of the TWO VA hospitals in LittleRock. If specialization is required, the local hospital is available thru medicare?

If you need medications and you are receiving disability from the military, it is covered 100% if you are 100% disabled or a small co-pay if you are not 100%.

Notice the city she is from....Home of the kennedy crime family and the kerry slime pit.

Why doesn't someone knock on their door first before you knock on America? It was THEIR fault. And I will give you 100-1 odds that this pack of lies has been started by the dnc/kennedy/kerry crime clan

I am 100% disabled - I DO visit the local VA clinic - I do NOT have supplemental medicare insurance and cannot receive it anyway (I lie, I can buy supplemental at around $2000/mo - my insurance agent said bank the money instead) I receive my medications from the VA I pay a $20 co-pay (My 100% is not totally caused by military - in their opinion - that's why the co-pay)

I think this is called "means testing," and seems a fair way to handle Non Service Connected issues (disease or injury) I've been through this process in the past, and it seems fair to me. When I was sick and unemployed, the VA took care of me (Ann Arbor, MI) When I could afford my own health plan, I didn't expect the VA to take care of me anymore. Just my two-cents worth. Regards, Avery

DTOM

Right on
If she is "Medically Retired" she is not only getting a military disability check but more than likely Social Security disability as well....
She also has a CHAMPUS card FWIW
She is also eligable for DVR through the VA (Vocational Rehabilitation) books tuition etc
She could also possibly be eligible for a VA pension on top of this
Plus she can collect unemployment Ins
She also will get Veterans Preference in hiring for Govt jobs Post Office many state and federal as well...

I am in the VA system and have been told now that because it has been so long since I have seen a doctor(pain was being controlled by medication) that I will have to wait "month and months," direct quote from VA rep until I can get more medication until I see a VA doc. In the mean time they will not even cover an emergency room visit, because it is a "chronic condition." They broke me, they won't fix me. Iraq is the excuse they are using. Vets should be the first in line for any problems, the welfare recipients last. What is happening is a disgrace, and I blame government, but mostly the lying dimrats.

IF she is disabled, she receives additional $$$ above the standard retired pay.

Have you heard of "concurrent receipt"? A retired service member has to forfeit dollar-for-dollar his/her retirement pay for every dollar received in disability pay. Since the disability pay is usually higher than the retirement pay for an enlisted person, this means that a retired service member must lose all retirement pay to get disability pay.

I too was medically discharged from the Marine Corps. It took several months just to get amy money started, and it was woefully not enough. Result we lost our home, I could not hold down a job as a result of my accident, and a lot more. I nearly lost my wife,children, and maybe my life. We went homeless off and on for nearly 5 years. This last strech lasted about 18 months, and to top it off I have a son with Down Syndrome to boot.
My congressman were of little to no help what ever. It took a heck of a lot of time & paperwork to get going. My disablities are service connected, but the goverment broke its promis to all of the vets.
They signed a promis in ink & the vets signed in blood, sweat & tears! What a bargin.
My injuries are as follows, rod [left calf] 6 screws,3 pins,avalsion left little finger,skin graft left palm,massive conssion left rear of skull [this resulted in a personality change, loss of a lot of other parts of me that I can not speak of....] I spent 18 months learning how to walk a stright line [which I still can not do very well] and have to use a cane most of the time. And I am only 41. I can not run with my kids, or do a lot of the things that I want to do, so I have to do without.

Sorry if I am complaining, but it is how I feel and deal with all that has happened to me & my family. There are times I feel like, we have been raped and plundered. And it was done to us by our own goverment.

When she miraculously recovered and found herself unemployed, homeless, and without any kind of health insurance

One, people don't just find themselves unemployed and homeless. But leaving that aside, what do you expect from government hospitals? The whole VA hospital system should be abolished and vets should be bought private health insurance policies so that they can go to any hospital to get the care that they deserve.

Priority to Gulf War Vets? For God's sake, what about the Vietnam Vets, the WW2 Vets, the Vets who supported our country for years but never went into a war zone? Our Federal Government has made a mockery of our Constitution which says it's priority is to defend and protect.

My brother died just last week because the VA failed to act on his behalf. I am still reeling from my family's loss and it's very hard to explain to his two little kids why they were standing next to a coffin accepting a flag rather than bringing a living dad back home. When it comes to Veterans, it shouldn't matter how old they are, what war the fought in, or even whether or not they saw actual combat or supported the efforts from home........they deserve better! I saw last night where a prisoner was bumped to the top of the transplant list because he was given special medical protection by the State of California, but my brother, a disabled Vietnam Vet whose heart was damaged in Vietnam was told they couldn't do anything until it was too damned late to do anything!!!!

Vanessa should have definitely received the care she deserved, but so should ever single other vet out there! Instead we are catering to illegals and people who have forfeited their positions in society by their own actions.

Teddy Kennedy helped her? That was big of him. Isn't it pathetic that she should have to go ask for Congress to get her into treatment? Just like my brother, lying on his death bed functioning at only 10% heart capacity (which is considered incompatible with life) wrote his own letter to Lois Capps to finally be given a bed at the VA hospital in California! That should NEVER happen! What about all those who simply don't have the will of steal to face the redtape and continue battles? The battles they see on the homefront trying to get their benefits causes far more destruction then the battles fighting a war. At least in war you can recognize your enemy.

Sorry for the rant. I am so hurt and angered by this. Every single Vet deserves to be considered a priority! This sucks!

Page 2 of this story had an error; but also I wanted the editor to read your comments. This is the e-mail I received.

thank you - I'll fix the link If someone would like to write a letter to the editor for publication, I could include that in this week's paper.

Sam Pfeifle
Managing Editor
Portland Phoenix

If anyone has a letter they would like to contribute on this story for publication, this is the address: portland-feedback@phx.com

The military often medically retires terminal patients. They try to make this happen within 72 hours of when they think the person is going to expire. I am not sure why, but it has something to do with benefits. I've seen it happen to a couple of my friends who were dying of non combat related illnesses.

The question here is how this Sgt was dumped out of the miltary so quickly, when she was still ill. You would think she would qualify for a medical hold to avoid just this kind of disconnect. Many of these stories boil down to uninformed personnel not knowing their rights and chains of command not looking after their people.

A similar story popped up this summer about a guy activated with his Guard unit whose family was left without medical insurance. That story blamed the Guard when it is still the servicemembers responsibility to take the ten minutes to fill out an insurance enrollment form. During the mobilization prep units are supposed to take care of all that stuff.

I am so sorry. I know how difficult it must be for you and your family. The loss is something that goes way behind anything most of us humans can even comprehend or calculate. Again, I am so sorry. Thank you for your service.

My brother also lost his benefits in error after his first open heart surgery. The story was, "sorry....we can't find your records!" As he was trying to recover on his own, the VA was not giving him any of the monetary support he needed to survive. After open heart surgery he was doing odd jobs for a neighbor just to get something to eat! And it's just not right! The medical community at the VA treated him well at the time and did a lot for him, but the VA redtape kept screwing up. He was supposed to have a transplant before he died recently, but it was withheld for two years because someone had written in a report, "Denied." He was denied supposedly because he had to get an infection under control before it was safe. Once that happened, no one would take the time to look behind the words "denied" to learn that he would be eligible as soon as the infection cleared. I am livid! My brother is dead. All of the resources of the US Government should go into correcting this problem because our military units are the very backbone of our society. We are here because they were willing to put their lives on the line.

I still say, let no Congressman EVER earn more than a man in uniform fighting on the line to protect and defend our country. NO Congress person is worth as much as those young men and women who do battle. And NO Congress person should be given medical benefits and retirement plans that surpass those in the military. Then maybe they will get a clue.

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