Battlefield Tech Used in Oklahoma Search

What a well regulated, trained and supplied, citizen militia actually does as per the founding fathers wishes!! And unless called for National Defense are under the command of State Governors as CiC's

Troops Use Battlefield Tech in Search for Oklahoma Survivors

05.21.2013 - National Guard Soldiers and Airmen are using thermal imaging and night vision gear to look for survivors of the Oklahoma tornado.

Special Report: Disaster Relief: Oklahoma Tornadoes

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 21, 2013 – Nearly 250 members of the Oklahoma National Guard are assisting with victim search and security in Moore, Okla., where a monster tornado left dozens dead. Learn more about recovery efforts and resources available for survivors through an American Forces Press Service special report at Disaster Relief: Oklahoma Tornadoes.

‘DOD Live’ Compiles Resources for People Affected by Disasters

FORT MEADE, Md., May 21, 2013 – A “DOD Live” blog post compiled by Ian Phillips of Defense Media Activity social media operations here provides a wide range of resources for people affected directly or indirectly by the deadly tornado that struck Moore, Okla., yesterday.

Links in the blog post include information or help related to: read more>>>

Senior Army Guard Leader Describes Tornado Response

WASHINGTON, May 21, 2013 – Some 250 Oklahoma National Guard members are helping with recovery efforts after a massive tornado pounded an Oklahoma City suburb yesterday, killing at least 24 people and leaving neighborhoods, homes and businesses flattened or twisted, a senior Army National Guard leader said today.

Brig. Gen. Emery Fountain is an Army National Guard member from Oklahoma, who normally makes his home a few miles from Moore, where the tornado struck. Fountain currently works in the national capital region as support special assistant to Army National Guard Director Lt. Gen. William E. Ingram Jr., but has been in close contact with his counterparts at home.

“They’ve established a perimeter around the location … that was most affected, [and] they’re managing traffic in and out of that area where the destruction was most significant,” he said. “They’re also providing clean, potable water to the first responders and the folks that are involved in the response.” read more>>>

House Committee on Veterans' Affairs: 22 May 2013

"If military action is worth our troops’ blood, it should be worth our treasure, too — not just in the abstract, but in the form of a specific ante by every American." -Andrew Rosenthal 10 Feb. 2013

Expediting Claims or Exploiting Statistics?: An Examination of VA’s Special Initiative to Process Rating Claims Pending Over Two Years House Committee on Veterans' Affairs | 334 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC | May 22, 2013 10:00am

Witnesses

Panel 1

The Honorable Allison A. Hickey, Under Secretary for Benefits, Veterans Benefits Administration U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Accompanied by:
Ms. Diana Rubens, Deputy Under Secretary for Field Operations, Veterans Benefits Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Submissions for the Record

The American Legion
AMVETS
Veterans of Foreign Wars
State of Tennessee Department of Veterans Affairs
Robert J. Epley, Member of the Advisory Committee on Disability Compensation
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America
Bergmann & Moore, LLC

“Why in 2009 were we still using paper?” VA Assistant Secretary Tommy Sowers “When we came in, there was no plan to change that; we’ve been operating on a six month wait for over a decade.” 27 March 2013

"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today." - Abraham Lincoln

So who are these VA 'Aid and Attendance' pension poachers?

V.A. Warns Aging Veterans Against ‘Pension Poachers’

May 21, 2013 - If you’ve applied for the Aid and Attendance benefit from Department of Veterans Affairs — which can provide as much as $2,019 monthly for a veteran and spouse for caregiving expenses — then you are all too familiar with some of the reasons for the typical 8-to-18-month delays in getting an answer from the V.A.

As The Times reported on Sunday, the V.A. is under increasing pressure to do something about its enormous backlog of disability claims — more than 600,000 in all. But the V.A. and its overseers say there is a special contributor to the backlog of A&A claims: the need to deter so-called pension poachers.

“The system is being clogged by pension poachers who are preying on veterans, who are submitting thousands of applications for people for whom this benefit was not intended,” Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, said in an e-mail. Along with Senator Richard Burr, Republican of North Carolina and a ranking member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Mr. Wyden introduced a bill last month aiming to help cap bogus claims.

So who are these pension poachers? read more>>>

Veterans Administration Claims Initiative to Reduce Claims Backlog

"If military action is worth our troops’ blood, it should be worth our treasure, too — not just in the abstract, but in the form of a specific ante by every American." -Andrew Rosenthal 10 Feb. 2013 VA and Veterans Service Organizations Announce Claims Initiative to Reduce Claims Backlog

WASHINGTON – May 21, 2013 - Today, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Disabled American Veterans (DAV), and The American Legion announced a new partnership to help reduce the compensation claims backlog for Veterans. The effort—the Fully Developed Claims (FDC) Community of Practice—is a key part of VA’s overall transformation plan to end the backlog in 2015 and process claims within 125 days at 98% accuracy. VA can process FDCs in half the time it takes for a traditionally filed claim.

“VA prides itself on our ongoing partnership with organizations that represent Veterans throughout the claims process,” said Undersecretary for Benefits Allison A. Hickey. “A Fully Developed Claim is the most effective way to ensure a Veteran’s claim never reaches the backlog—and is the basis for this new initiative between VA and what we expect will be an ever-increasing number of Veterans Service Organizations (VSOs) and others who represent Veterans at various points of the claims process. ” read more>>>

VA, DoD and HHS Partner to Expand Access to Mental Health Services for Veterans, Service Members and Families

Inter-Agency Effort to Increase Access to Mental Health Services Responds to Executive Order

WASHINGTON – May 21, 2013 - Today, the Departments of Veterans Affairs (VA), Defense (DoD) and Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the progress made to date on initiatives called for in President Obama’s August 31, 2012, Executive Order to Improve Access to Mental Health Services for Veterans, Service Members, and their families.

“We have made strong progress to expand Veterans’ access to quality mental health services, and President Obama has challenged us to do even more,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “Our ongoing, joint efforts reflect our commitment to the health and well-being of the men and women who have served the Nation.” read more>>>

“Why in 2009 were we still using paper?” VA Assistant Secretary Tommy Sowers “When we came in, there was no plan to change that; we’ve been operating on a six month wait for over a decade.” 27 March 2013

"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today." - Abraham Lincoln

Women Veterans' and Their Struggles

Homeless Women Vets Face Tougher Struggles

May 21, 2013 - Homelessness among female veterans is on the rise in the United States, even as the overall rate of homelessness among veterans is going down.

Since 2009, there’s been a more than 2 percent increase in the number of homeless women vets in shelters, according to a study by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Substance abuse and mental illness are often among the factors typically associated with homelessness. But neither of those applied to U.S. Navy veteran Javonni Harper. She and her two young children lived out of their car this past summer. Her struggles after leaving the Navy in 2008 included difficulty finding employment.

“It’s harder for us to get a job, it’s harder for us to get an apartment, because we have less money coming in, and our money has to stretch a lot farther than the average single vet, with no children, and no responsibilities,” she said. read more>>>

House Committee on Veterans Affairs: 21 May 2013

Legislative Hearing on Draft Legislation, ‘The Veterans Integrated Mental Health Care Act of 2013;’ Draft Legislation, ‘The Demanding Accountability for Veterans Act of 2013;’ H.R. 241; H.R. 288; H.R. 984; and H.R. 1284 Subcommittee on Health | 334 Cannon HOB Washington , DC | May 21, 2013 10:00am

Witnesses

Panel 1

Honorable Dennis Ross, U.S. House of Representatives 15th District, Florida
Honorable Brett Guthrie, U.S. House of Representatives 2nd District, Kentucky

Panel 2

Mark Edney, MD, FACS, Member, Legislative Affairs Committee and Urotrauma Task Force American Urological Association
Michael O’Rourke, Assistant Director of Government Relations Blinded Veterans Association
Adrian Atizado, Assistant National Legislative Director Disabled American Veterans
Alex Nicholson, Legislative Director Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America
Alethea Predeoux, Associate Director, Health Analysis Paralyzed Veterans of America

Panel 3

Robert L. Jesse, M.D., Ph.D., Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Health Veterans Health Administration U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
accompanied by:
Susan Blauert, Deputy Assistant General Counsel U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Submissions for the Record

The American Legion
Department of Veterans Affairs Office of the Inspector General
Military Officers Association of America
Veterans of Foreign Wars
VetsFirst/United Spinal Association
Wounded Warrior Project

What??? 'Now' They Want to Know About the Missing War Records???

Are they seeking out another scandal and congressional distraction from what they aren't doing, their jobs!?

ProPublica and The Seattle Times Nov. 9, 2012 - Lost to History: Missing War Records Complicate Benefit Claims by Iraq, Afghanistan Veterans

DeLara's case is part of a much larger problem that has plagued the U.S. military since the 1990 Gulf War: a failure to create and maintain the types of field records that have documented American conflicts since the Revolutionary War.

Talk to daddy bush and his son, which is what you should have done long ago instead of rubber stamping these wars of choice!! How can voters think these they've hired have the intellect to be representatives of them let alone the country! Once in they run from the jobs descriptions hired to perform, blaming everyone but themselves, they and the staffs they hire, especially this Miller as majority leader of the House Veterans Affairs Committee!!

Congressmen to Hagel: Where Are the Missing War Records?

May 20, 2013 - The top Republican and Democrat on the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs are demanding more information from defense Secretary Chuck Hagel about lost Army field records from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the subject of a ProPublica investigation last year.

In an unusually detailed letter sent Friday to Hagel, Reps. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., and Michael Michaud, D-Maine, said the Defense Department’s response to an earlier request about why records are missing — and what the military is doing about it — didn’t go far enough.

“Congress must have a clear understanding of the extent of the lost records in order to safeguard the best interests of our service members and veterans,’’ the letter says. read more>>>

"If military action is worth our troops’ blood, it should be worth our treasure, too — not just in the abstract, but in the form of a specific ante by every American." -Andrew Rosenthal 10 Feb. 2013

Meanwhile as they attack Gen Shinseki why aren't they following through with the early reports about Veterans Administration records while under the previous bush administration and these two present wars:

Army Times Oct. 16, 2008 - VA claims found in piles to be shredded

CNN iReport October 25, 2008 - House Vets' Committee To Probe VA Shredder Scandal

Tampa Bay Times Oct 27, 2008 - Hundreds of VA documents improperly shredded, review finds {Tampa Bay Times search page and series of articles}

CBS News February 11, 2009 - Veterans' Claims Found in Shredder Bins

“Why in 2009 were we still using paper?” VA Assistant Secretary Tommy Sowers “When we came in, there was no plan to change that; we’ve been operating on a six month wait for over a decade.” 27 March 2013

Continued Help to End Veterans’ Homelessness

VA Announces New Grants to Help End Veterans’ Homelessness

WASHINGTON – May 17, 2013 - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced two new grants to support Secretary Eric K. Shinseki’s goal of ending Veterans’ homelessness in 2015. Under these new programs, homeless providers can apply for funding to enhance the facilities used to serve homeless Veterans, and acquire vans to facilitate transportation of this population.

“Those who have served this Nation as Veterans should never find themselves on the streets, living without care and without hope,” said Secretary Shinseki. “Homeless prevention grants provide community partners with the opportunity to help prevent and end homelessness on the local level. This is a crucial tool to get at-risk Veterans and their families on the road to stable, secure lives.”

Approximately $22 million in rehabilitation funds will be available to current operational Grant and Per Diem grantees as part of the effort to increase the useful life of the facilities previously funded under the program. read more>>>

Family members of missing military servicemen get status updates

'I'm on fire, I'm on fire'

Jack Bradway kisses his son, Don Bradway, at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in southern California. Jack Bradway shipped out for the Korean War shortly afterward and died over North Korea when his plane crashed in September 1951.

May 20, 2013 - Hayden resident Don Bradway's father was on a night intruder mission when his Corsair fighter-bomber went down in the midst of the Korean War.

"He was in North Korea and he was making a bombing run on a truck convoy," Don Bradway said Saturday. "He was in an area that was known to be completely enemy territory."

U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Judson Jack Bradway, a pilot from El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in southern California, had been in Korea for months before his plane went down on Sept. 20, 1951. He was 29.

snip

Sledge said that, combined, there are more than 83,000 American servicemen missing in action from the Korean and Vietnam wars, the Cold War and World War II.

The department does about six to eight of the regional events each year, and it's been several years since one was conducted in Spokane.

The department has done monthly updates since 1995, reaching more than 14,000 family members in face-to-face meetings.

Don Bradway said he knows that if U.S. military officials ever receive cooperation from the North Korean government an effort will be made to recover his father's remains.

"I just pray that it will be in my lifetime," he said. "Given the circumstances in North Korea right now, they may never get in there." read more>>>

Not Wanted in American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Disabled American Veterans

Ever wonder why you don't hear much, or fighting hard for, about the issues confronting our women military members and veterans of from the long established national, reactive not proactive, veterans organizations! They do same on many veterans issues, just like the country and it's representatives, federal congressional and state legislative!

Women Warriors have a POWWOW

May 19, 2013 - Diana Stevens wanted to join the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Disabled American Veterans after she retired from the Army.

The organizations didn’t want the Cheyenne native to join because she was a woman, she said, although she had served in the Army for 16 years in the 1970s and 80s.

“I had to fight to be recognized,” she said. “The mindsets are so strong about what a veteran is.”

Veterans are most often associated with one gender, she said. But after battling for the privileges she earned as a woman warrior, the veterans groups caved to pressure and included her in what were historically male clubs.

The female veterans of Wyoming have started a club and tradition of their own. Women with the Veterans Administration and other veterans organizations sponsored the second POWWOW, Promoting Our Women Warriors of Wyoming, on Saturday. The first POWWOW was in 2012. read more>>>

Though I do question their choice for the Keynote Speaker:

Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and a political analyst for Fox News, gave the keynote speech at the event. She addressed the hardships veterans must overcome when they return to civilian life.

Especially after these two recent wars, the abandoned so rapidly main missions for why we even sent our military into that region still winding down, and what very little her fathers administration and those congresses did for the veterans of both as well as the veterans of the previous decades and wars from, still obstructing and now going after Gen Shinseki. As well as the Military health care establishment, remember Walter Reed.

But it is Wyoming and isn't that where the family say they're from.

Shelter to Veteran Women in Transition

New York home gives shelter to veteran women in transition

05.18.2013 - When people hear the word “homeless shelter,” it’s easy to imagine a sterile building with long, narrow hallways and rooms filled with creaky, metal beds.

But as Kathy Dunlap, a resident and assistant house manager for the Guardian House, gave a tour of this New York shelter, the large home offered a different feel.

The rooms held beds with colorful linen, pictures along the walls and personal belongings on top of spacious dressers. The wooden steps climbing up the main stairwell are still held in place today by the square nails hammered down 200-plus years ago. The hardwood floors dip in places and groan beneath the weight of feet walking the hallways. One woman prepped a large, seasoned chicken inside a crock-pot sitting on the kitchen counter. Other women scurried between rooms and main-floor offices as they anticipated a visit from a group of honored guests. read more>>>

Care Packages?! To Help Senior Military Veterans?

"If military action is worth our troops’ blood, it should be worth our treasure, too — not just in the abstract, but in the form of a specific ante by every American." -Andrew Rosenthal 10 Feb. 2013

HEMET: Care packages to help senior veterans

May 18, 2013 - While sending care packages to troops overseas is a time-honored tradition, Emeritus at Hemet will be delivering them to local senior veterans or their surviving spouses during Memorial Day week in an initiative designed to assist them in staying safely in their homes.

The program is part of a national effort by Emeritus Senior Living to deliver more than 2,000 care packages and provide a helping hand with safety measures for seniors.

snip

The Heroes Emeritus care packages include nightlights, first aid kits, medication management containers, water bottles, healthy snacks and other items that make a senior’s daily life and home more secure. In addition to delivering the packages, the Emeritus team will perform a home safety check to ensure the living environment is free of any potential hazards. read more>>>

How does a Country HONOR It's Fallen, by Their Own 'Sacrifice' in Taking Care of the Brothers and Sisters They Served With!! The Whole Country Served, Not Just The Many Caring Groups, with handfuls of members and volunteers, Within!!