{This blog is not affiliated with the VA. Though a Veteran, four yrs. all shore in Navy last year In-Country Vietnam, I don't work for the VA}
**USN All Shore '67-'71 GMG3 Vietnam In Country '70-'71 - Independent**

In 2003 some 72% of Americans fully supported the Abandoning of the Missions and those Sent to Accomplish so extremely Quickly after 9/11!!
At least some 95%, if not more as less then 1% serve them, not only still support the, just below, total lack of Sacrifice, they ran from any and all Accountability and left everything still on the table to be continually used if the political/military want was still in play in future executive/legislative wants!!
DeJa-Vu: “With no shared sacrifices being asked of civilians after Sept. 11", Decades and War From, All Over Again!!
Especially for the Corporate and Wealthy Community, investors in Defense Industries, and for these, Afghanistan and Iraq, came Two Huge Tax Cuts, with more sweetheart deals to same from states and the fed!!


Thousands of people across America don’t just talk about honoring Veterans; they walk the walk. Dedicated Volunteers Serve Veterans for Decades

On this Executive Administration, it's Cabinet and those directly around same, "Best - Ever": "We haven't had this kind of visibility from the White House—ever." Joyce Raezer National Military Family Association - Dec. 30, 2011, and plenty more of similar since Joyce, others, spoke and continues!

Ask yourself: If the Veterans Administration is so corrupt and mismanaged, as the conservative ideology, under which the seeds of are planted when they control, wants everyone to buy into as they obstruct the budgets and do extremely little after they charge same, then why does the Private sector, many problems within rarely heard about, adopt so many practices and advanced technologies developed within the VA, for free?! The VA, DoD, and in partnership with Universities and Colleges, not just Health Care are constantly in R&D and that developed that works is quickly moved into the private, for profit, sector, even as the VA is long under funded, decades, and especially during and after our wars that the few are sent into!

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President Obama 26 August 2014
Fact: "This is not just a job of government. It’s not just a job of the veterans’ organizations. Every American needs to join us in taking care of those who've taken care of us. Because only 1 percent of Americans may be fighting our wars, but 100 percent of Americans benefit from that 1 percent. A hundred percent need to be supporting our troops. A hundred percent need to be supporting our veterans. A hundred percent need to be supporting our military families."

Fact: "We’ve been able to accomplish historic increases to veterans funding. We’ve protected veterans health care from Washington politics with advanced appropriations. We’ve been able to make VA benefits available to more than 2 million veterans who didn't have them before, including more Vietnam vets who were exposed to Agent Orange. We’ve dedicated major new resources for mental health care. We’ve helped more than 1 million veterans and their families pursue their education under the Post-9/11 GI Bill."

August 26, 2014 - Secretary Robert A. McDonald's Remarks for the American Legion's 96th Annual Convention, Charlotte, NC
Fact: "Unlike, P&G, VA may not be concerned about quarterly profit and loss statements or shareholder value, but it does have a bottom line—Veterans. "
{which is why No Government agency should be turned into a private corporate entity feeding for profit off the Countries duty and responsibility, especially the VA}
* * * * *

Fact: “We are dealing with veterans, not procedures—with their problems, not ours.” —General Omar Bradley, First Administrator of the Veterans Administration

Facts: Matthew Hoh {former Marine and foreign service officer in Afghanistan}: "We spend a trillion dollars a year on national security in this country."
"And when you add up to the Department of Defense, Department of State, CIA, Veterans Affairs, interest on debt, the number that strikes me the most about how much we're committed financially to these wars and to our current policies is we have spent $250 billion already just on interest payments on the debt we've incurred for the Iraq and Afghan wars." 26 September 2014

Fact: "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

Fact: "12 years also is a long time. We now have a lifetime responsibility to a generation of service members, veterans and their families." Dr. Jonathan Woodson 11 Sep. 2013: With 9/11 Came Lifetime Responsibility
 {two tax cuts, especially for the wealthy, came with these two recent unpaid for wars, nor the results of, DeJa-Vu all over again from the previous decades and wars from! Ignore the many issues, by those served, no need to fund!}

Fact: Sen. Bernie Sanders told Republicans: “If you can’t afford to take care of your veterans, than don’t go war. These people are bearing the brunt of what war is about, We have a moral obligation to support them.” February, 26th, 2014

Fact: 25 June 2014 U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller: Veterans' Affairs issue an 'all too similar' scene

Fact: How We Could Do More For Our Vets: "We need to go into debt to pay our debt to U.S. veterans to make sure they get the care and services we owe them."

Fact: “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

WHY? GOOD QUESTION THOSE SERVED SHOULD ANSWER!


Bob Herbert Losing Our Way : "And then the staggering costs of these wars, which are borne by the taxpayers. I mean, one of the things that was insane was that, as we're at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush administration cut taxes. This has never been done in American history. The idea of cutting taxes while you're going to war is just crazy. I mean, it's madness." Bill 'Moyers and Company': Restoring an America That Has Lost its Way 10 Oct. 2014

Presidential Proclamation -- Veterans Day, 2013: "As we pay tribute to our veterans, we are mindful that no ceremony or parade can fully repay that debt." read more>>>


Under two previous Executive administrations and wars from, father and son. With son and conservative congresses leading the extremely quick abandoning of the missions and those sent to accomplish after 9/11:

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."

Part Two: A Son Lost in Iraq, but Where Is the Casualty Report?

Army Says War Records Gap Is Real, Launches Recovery Effort

3/27/15 - U.S. Nerve Gas Hit Our Own Troops in Iraq
"During and immediately after the first Gulf War, more than 200,000 of 700,000 U.S. troops sent to Iraq and Kuwait in January 1991 were exposed to nerve gas and other chemical agents. Though aware of this, the Department of Defense and CIA launched a campaign of lies and concocted a cover-up that continues today."
"When Brown and others tried to obtain their medical records to prove their illnesses were service-related, they learned that the records had disappeared."



Add in the issues of finally recognizing in War Theater and more Veterans, by the Shinseki Veterans Administration and the Executive Administrations Cabinet, what the Country choose to ignore from our previous decades and wars of: The devastating effects on Test Vets and from PTS, Agent Orange, Homelessness, more recent the Desert Storm troops Gulf War Illnesses, Gulf War Exposures with the very recent affects from In-Theater Burn Pits and oh so so much more! Tens of Thousands of Veterans' that have been long ignored and maligned by previous VA's and the whole Country and through their representatives!

How does a Country HONOR It's Fallen, by Their Own 'Sacrifice' in Taking Care of the Brothers and Sisters They Served With!!


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

"To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan" - President Lincoln

She wrote that she's proud of her service but added this: "That doesn't change the fact that I contributed - however indirectly - to human beings vanishing from the earth in a moment of sheer agony."



Homeless Veterans/Stand Downs

Are You Concerned About a Veteran? The Veterans Crisis Line Can Help>>>

For our sisters: National Women Veterans Hotline, call 1-855-VA-WOMEN1-855-VA-WOMEN (1-855-829-66361-855-829-6636) New Hotline now up and running

Friday, February 18, 2011

VA {Greening of} Observes Recovery Act Anniversary

With More Progress Nationwide


Washington – February 18, 2011 - On the second anniversary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced that Recovery Act funds are playing a major role this year in advancing much-needed infrastructure and other construction nationwide to benefit our Nation’s Veterans.

“This will be a banner year for VA in serving more Veterans more efficiently in more places,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “We are pleased to be able to improve buildings and expand the capacity of VA’s health care network and national cemeteries to serve Veterans.”

Since February 2009, VA has distributed $1.3 billion in Recovery Act funds to modernize medical facilities, make improvements at national cemeteries and award grants to states for Veterans homes. VA has more than 1,100 Recovery funded projects underway or completed in VA medical centers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Nineteen VA medical centers received between $5 million and $20 million for major repairs, renovation or energy conservation initiatives. The impact of these Recovery dollars affects more than 5 million Veterans who receive care in VA health services across the nation. Nearly 70 percent of all Recovery funds have already been paid to various contractors. The balance of funds are currently on contract to complete improvements and modernizations of existing projects.

The stimulus funding is providing, among many improvements, a solar photovoltaic system at the Albuquerque VA Medical Center, replacement of a central boiler plant at the Danville, Ill., hospital, and chiller installations for the West Palm Beach hospital. Other Recovery Act projects are adding 26,000 medical facility parking spaces, enhancing nearly 14,000 bed spaces, and investing in energy or “greening” projects. VA is contributing to “greening” the U.S. economy with these projects, with all new construction designed to meet sustainable building principles.

In 2010, VA invested $826 million to improve its energy infrastructure. A total of $487 million in Recovery Act funds were devoted to renewable energy projects, such as solar, wind, and biomass-fueled cogeneration systems; installing utility metering at all VA-owned facilities to monitor the use of natural gas, steam, and chilled water; increasing energy and water conservation measures; and upgrading infrastructure improvements at existing facilities around the country, such as boiler and chiller systems, and heating, ventilation, and cooling systems to promote better efficiency. All projects are well underway in 2011, and VA will soon see the benefits of the new projects contribute to reducing the agency’s environmental footprint.

In 2011, VA is devoting $276 million to more projects of this type, including “re-tuning” of building systems to improve energy efficiency and provide more comfort for Veterans and employees. VA plans to add to its list of 25 “green” certified buildings with over 13 percent of the square-footage already certified. VA is assessing all of its owned buildings to identify those that can be eligible for a third-party “green” building certification in 2011.

More information on all of these on-going energy projects and other sustainability initiatives can be accessed at the VA’s green management program webpage.

Throughout VA’s 131 national cemeteries, 392 improvement projects are underway using $50 million in stimulus funds, including realigning and cleaning about 200,000 headstones and markers and renovating turf.

Recovery Act grants totaling $150 million are helping states build or improve Veterans homes.

On the horizon this year is an even broader scope of construction activity.

VA has more than $11 billion in major building projects in either design or construction this year. They include six new VA medical centers as well as outpatient clinics, mental health facilities, spinal cord injury centers, new and expanded national cemeteries, renovation and modernization projects and seismic safety projects.

This year, VA will have 31 structural projects in design and nine beginning construction. These will include new hospitals in Orlando, Fla.; Las Vegas; Denver; New Orleans; Omaha, Neb.; and Louisville, Ky.; new outpatient clinics in Alameda, Calif.; Pittsburgh, and Walla Walla, Wash.; and new spinal cord injury treatment centers in Brockton, Mass.; Bronx, N.Y.; Dallas; Syracuse, N.Y.; and Milwaukee. The new hospitals and other projects will add nearly 3,500 beds.

Sixteen VA national cemeteries will be expanded, bringing major improvements and further development of burial space, while 10 future cemetery sites will be identified this year, including in urban areas. Another six new cemeteries will be in various stages of building near Birmingham, Ala.; Bakersfield, Calif.; Columbia, S.C.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Sarasota, Fla.; and Philadelphia.

When these projects are completed, they will add 424,000 additional gravesites to VA’s national cemeteries, including 141,000 columbarium niches for cremated remains.

Additional information about VA recovery Act projects is available at VA Recovery and VA Green Routine.

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