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ANGRY TEXAS VETERANS COMMANDEER MEETING WITH
CONGRESSMEN -- Darrell shouted, "I've had PTSD
for 24 years.
I've been diagnosed five times. But what does
the VA say?
'We need more information.' And they turn me
down again."
We need more of this!
As long as veterans sit and just listen to
politicians, all we'll get is the same old line.
There is nothing wrong with letting them know
we are angry with the way we have been treated.
Bravo to these great veterans in Texas!
For more on PTSD, use the VA Watchdog search
engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/ses
search.php?q=ptsd&op=and
Story here...
http://www.mysanantonio.
com/news/metro/stories/MYSA08060
7.01A.vet_hearing.339ebfb.html
Story below:
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Frustrated veterans lash out at VA care
Tracy Idell Hamilton
Express-News
Angry veterans shouted down U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez as he tried to
bring order to a forum for veterans held downtown Sunday.
"We know, we understand, how crucial this issue is," the San Antonio
congressman tried to tell an overflow crowd of veterans who had been
invited to ask questions and share experiences with U.S. Rep. Bob Filner
D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, along
with Rodriguez and two other Democratic congressmen from Texas.
But Rodriguez was drowned out and ultimately gave the floor to Jack E.
Long, one of several vets who heckled the moderator as she tried to read
e-mail questions that had been sent to the congressmen in advance.
"Don't try to talk over me!" Long yelled to Rodriguez as he clutched his
wife's hand. "I've had PTSD for years, and I've been turned away from
the VA five times! I served my country for 44 years!"
Veterans and their families around him cheered and clapped. Then they
set about telling the congressmen that a nation that claims to support
its troops hasn't done well by them since they served; many of them said
they've had to deal with PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder.
Hancock Darrell refused to sit until he, too, could tell his story.
"I've had PTSD for 24 years," Darrell shouted. "I've been diagnosed five
times. But what does the VA say? 'We need more information.' And they
turn me down again."
Talk Back
* What do you think about veterans' treatment?
Again the crowd erupted.
Filner then told the audience — packed into the Buena Vista Building
Theatre at the University of Texas at San Antonio's Downtown Campus —
that the House had committed "tens of billions" into the 2008 budget for
PTSD. He said he was working to change the adversarial relationship the
Department of Veterans Affairs has with so many veterans, especially
those of the Vietnam era.
"I want to run a claim system like the IRS," he said.
Such a system would accept a veteran's claim on its face rather than
force the veteran "to prove Agent Orange caused this."
"You shouldn't have to prove anything," Filner said. "You served us; now
we should be serving you."
U.S. Rep. Charlie Gonzalez of San Antonio, who joined Filner, Rep. Henry
Cuellar, D-Laredo, and Rodriguez on the stage, took the microphone to
plead for unity.
"We're not fighting smart," he said. "We're fighting ourselves here
today. We have to show people that veterans are not part of our past."
The key to a healthy volunteer military, he said, is showing young
people who might be interested in serving that they will be taken care
of after they leave the military.
Rodriguez, who sits on the Veterans' Affairs Committee, noted that 80
percent of veterans get no care from the VA, many because they've become
disillusioned with an agency that has a backlog of claims close to
800,000 — claims that can take years to resolve.
In his opening remarks, Filner said he had come to listen and learn, and
he asked the capacity crowd how many had served in Vietnam. The majority
in the room raised their hands.
"Thank you for your service," he said, "And I am sorry. We did not do
the job for you."
More than 200,000 homeless Vietnam veterans will sleep on the streets
tonight, he told the crowd, and as many Vietnam veterans have now
committed suicide as died in the war.
"And that is a moral disgrace," he said to approving murmurs. "We must
correct it as best we can and make sure it never happens again."
The ratio of injured to killed in today's wars is a staggering 17-to-1,
he said. In Vietnam, it was 3-to-1.
"We spend $1 billion every two and a half days" in Iraq and Afghanistan,
he said. "Supporting our troops at home needs to be part of that cost."
Congress has added $13 billion to the 2008 budget for veterans affairs,
Filner said, calling it "the largest increase ever."
"The resources will be there. It's our job to make sure they serve you."
Long before the audience was ready, the hour-long session came to a
close and the congressmen headed to Del Rio for another veterans forum
Sunday evening.
thamilton@express-news.net
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Larry Scott --
