 Ed
Offley, Editor of DefenseWatch magazine, has
been a military reporter and defense specialist
for 22 years in a variety of journalism assignments
throughout the United States. DefenseWatch
is an online magazine that addresses military
and security issues from the viewpoint of
active-duty and reservist component personnel
and veterans.
Offley previously served as Editor-in-Chief
of The Stars and Stripes after the civilian-owned
newspaper was acquired by Stars and Stripes
Omnimedia Inc. in March 2000. A 1969 graduate
of the University of Virginia, Offley served
in the U.S. Navy in Vietnam before joining
The Virginia Gazette, Williamsburg, Va., as
a reporter in 1972. He worked as an editorial
writer at three newspapers in Virginia during
1977-85 before joining The Seattle Post Intelligencer
as an editorial writer in 1986.
Offley, 55, lives in Panama City Beach, Fla.,
with his wife, Karen, and daughter, Andrea.
Contact: dweditor@yahoo.com.
|
|
|
|
October 12, 2004
[Have an opinion about the views expressed in this article? Sound
off in the Hot Issues with Defensewatch Forum.]
By Ed Offley
I hope I'm wrong, but it seems that the old adage - "Another war,
another generation of veterans screwed" - may be repeated soon.
It's still too early to predict how severe the federal government's
shortfall will be in its ability to care for our physically and
psychologically wounded veterans from war in Afghanistan
and Iraq.
But read the current projections that the Department of Veterans
Affairs has already made, and it is clear that the already-overloaded
VA system will soon find itself in danger of collapsing under the
burden of caring for this newest wartime generation.
No citizen deserves a head-of-the-line pass for governmental benefits
more than the veteran suffering from his or her battlefield wounds.
Nevertheless, the apparent disinterest by Congress and Executive
Branch to the plight of the Terror War Veterans is becoming clear
for all to see. Consider several recent news reports:
The Washington Post on Oct. 3 revealed that just 18 months after
the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the Department of Veterans Affairs
had already determined that 150,000 National Guard and reservist
veterans mobilized for Iraq and the global war against terrorism
had become eligible for health care and benefits. The bad news,
the Post pointed out, is that the VA is currently struggling over
a backlog of more than 300,000 claims by veterans from earlier conflicts.
Actual claims received by this new veterans' cohort are already
significant, the VA reports: As of May 1, 2004, a total of 166,334
veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan had left military service, of
whom 26,633 - nearly 16 percent - had already filed benefits claims
with the VA for service-connected disabilities. That number cannot
but help to grow as the troop-rotation policy for Iraq continues
and the bloody insurgency goes on.
In another report, VA officials say to date that nearly 28,000 of
the 168,000 troops who served in Iraq and were discharged have sought
care at least one VA facility. Of those who served in Afghanistan,
44,000 veterans have been deemed eligible for VA services, and 4,300
have already sought them. But as The Washington Times noted, VA
officials warned the Defense Writers Group this week that this is
the tip of the iceberg: Dr. Mark Shelhorse, VA acting chief consultant
for mental health, told Washington-based defense reporters that
PTSD can take years, even decades, to develop. At this point, he
said, only one percent of Iraq veterans and only 0.4 percent of
Afghanistan veterans have been diagnosed with the condition.
VA Secretary Anthony Principi warned the reporters' group that medical
experts estimate about 15 percent of veterans from the two conflicts
- at least 24,000, based on current troop levels in the two AOs
- will ultimately succumb with PTSD symptoms in the years ahead.
The VA deserves credit for doing its best with limited resources
to prepare for this onslaught:
* The department has sent letters to 168,000 returning troops, informing
them of the range of care available through the government. This
includes psychiatric and psychological programs at each of 800 VA
outpatient clinics nationwide, where vets can obtain counseling
and other group and individual therapy, substance-abuse treatment,
and temporary housing in community centers for homeless veterans.
The VA has even paid for 10,000 beds in community centers across
the nation for those with no place to live, officials say.
* In an attempt to narrow the historic gap between the Defense Department
and VA over preparing military personnel for VA assistance, the
veterans' department has opened offices on 168 U.S. military bases
in the United States to make it easier for troops to find help even
before their discharges, Principi said.
* As a stopgap measure, the VA is for now giving Iraq and Afghanistan
veterans a higher priority over other benefit claims, with a goal
of completing claims processing for each veteran within 100 days.
With a current influx of 60,000 to 70,000 new claims each month
from all veterans, the VA currently takes about 160 days on average
to process each one.
The effort is making some progress in its goal to prevent suffering
veterans from falling through the bureaucratic cracks. In southern
California, the VA outreach program has written to 10,860 veterans,
including National Guardsmen and reservists, urging them to seek
medical services, including PTSD screenings, officials told the
San Diego Union-Tribune this week.
|
"This is the first time [that] the VA came out and told combat
veterans that you have two years of health care," VA caseworker
Nichael Kilmer told the newspaper. "This has really never been done
before on this scale."
But there is a serious flaw to the VA plan, however innovative and
forward-leaning its elements are: There isn't enough money.
At the same time that the VA is trying to carry out its responsibilities
to care for the Terror War Veterans, Congress and the Bush administration
are actually moving to cut the VA budget. President Bush's VA budget
request for 2005 calls for reducing the DVA staff that handles benefits
claims by more than 500 personnel, and critics charge that the overall
funding will be grossly insufficient to cover the new demand for
services.
"The VA is not ready for an influx of new veterans from the ongoing
operations in Afghanistan and Iraq," warned Rep. Lane Evans, D-IL,
who sought a recent General Accountability Office (GAO) study of
VA capabilities to deal with the new generation of veterans. That
report, issued on Sept. 20, concluded that the VA does not even
have enough information to determine whether it can handle a rush
of PTSD cases or not.
One veteran's activist strongly seconded that point. Rick Weidman,
an official with the Vietnam Veterans of America, said the VA outreach
effort looks good on the surface, but will fail for lack of funding
and staffing. "What they are trying to do is terrific," Weidman
told the San Diego newspaper. "What they are actually doing fails
the men and women who served. There (are) simply not enough resources.
People who tell you there is enough money are wrong."
The bottom line is that this worthy initiative by the VA will succeed
or fail on the agency budget's bottom line.
Mr. President, members of Congress, do not fail these young men
and women who as a result of their honorable service now need their
government's help.
Ed
Offley is Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at dweditor@yahoo.com.
©2004 DefenseWatch. All opinions expressed in this article are the
author's and do not necessarily reflect those of Military.com.
|
