Veterans Administration into the 21st Century: Veterans Head to the Hill

The present Veterans Administration is the most pro-active one in my lifetime, lets keep it that way, as it always should have been! The Countries Responsibility is to Fully Fund!
“We are dealing with veterans, not procedures—with their problems, not ours.” —General Omar Bradley, First Administrator of the Veterans Administration
"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
“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!

Prior too this present Executive and Veterans Administrations and just touching on the problems:
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
And more disturbing in relation to even before and through the early years of the Afghanistan, quickly abandoned missions of, and Iraq occupations, this:
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."
Add in the issues of finally recognizing in War Theater and more Veterans, by this 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!

America's representative democracy, that "government of the people, by the people, for the people" - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln
How does a Country HONOR It's Fallen, by Their Own 'Sacrifice' in Taking Care of the Brothers and Sisters They Served With!!
These present wars have yet to be paid for, rubber stamping and rapid deficits rising started before 9/11 and continued with same for the wars. But especially in the early some six years of extremely little was added to the Veterans Administration budgets by those Congresses, and since obstructed by same war rubber stampers, as to the long term results of War, DeJa-Vu all over again. Keeping the VA under budgeted causes problems and of many grow worse, which costs more to correct much more, which is the goal of those seeking to privatize Government Agencies as they attack the people of and which was created by their own incompetence and ideologies, but doing those served will!
"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

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

Monday, November 12, 2012

Veterans Head to the Hill

Changing of the guard

11/11/12 - They served their nation in war, and now they’ll serve it in Congress.
A record number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans were elected to the House last Tuesday, including two history-making female combat veterans.
Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat from Hawaii who did a tour in Iraq with the Army National Guard’s 29th Brigade in 2004, was elected to the House with 8o percent of the vote.
Gabbard, who is just 31, said her service has influenced her political career.
“One of the most heartbreaking responsibilities I had was to go over the list of troops who had been injured or killed every day and identify Hawaii soldiers so that I could make sure they were receiving proper care. This experience has never left me,” Gabbard told POLITICO. read more>>>