OK - I sent my Command an e-mail explaining what was happeing and what my next steps were.

I am waiting for my appointment with the neurologist. I am sure this is going to be a long, hard, slow battle. But, oh well, if it was easy everyone would do it.

I am going to try to figure out how to put word documents on here so each post is not so long.

I will post the letter (edited with no names) as soon as I figure out how to do that.

It will give you an example. BUT, do not think it is a great or perfect example. Heck, I may have pissed off the whole world with this letter. But, at least it will give you somewhere to start.

Thank you for the e-mails I have received. Very nice. But, you are welcome to post here. No one will know your name.  Read more 

Personality Disorder has been the scapegoat discharge for some time now. This discharge robs soldiers of benefits, help, and a future life in certain occupations. The military has turned their back on soldiers and just to save a few bucks, the military doctors are ruining the future for over 24,000 soldiers. And now they are trying to do the same thing to me. THIS must stop!

Alex Horton’s tour in Iraq is over. Go read his daily witness to the war in which he served. Army of Dude — and be prepared to weep.

This makes my blood boil:

Eventually the rocket shrapnel was removed from Town’s neck and his ears stopped leaking blood. But his hearing never really recovered, and in many ways, neither has his life. A soldier honored twelve times during his seven years in uniform, Town has spent the last three struggling with deafness, memory failure and depression. By September 2006 he and the Army agreed he was no longer combat-ready.

But instead of sending Town to a medical board and discharging him because of his injuries, doctors at Fort Carson, Colorado, did something strange: They claimed Town’s wounds were actually caused by a “personality disorder.” Town was then booted from the Army and told that under a personality disorder discharge, he would never receive disability or medical benefits.
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I kid you not:

Some of the more striking problems were found at a VA clinic in White City, Ore. There, officials reported roof leaks throughout the facility, requiring them to “continuously repair the leaks upon occurrence, clean up any mold presence if any exists, spray or remove ceiling tiles.”

In addition, large colonies of bats resided outside the facility and sometimes flew into the attics and interior parts of the building.

“Eradication has been discussed but the uniqueness of the situation (the number of colonies) makes it challenging to accomplish,” according to the report, which said the bats were being tested for diseases. “Also, the bats keep the insect pollution to a minimum which is beneficial.”

Surprise! It’s not just Walter Reed!  Read more 

Here

This is the complete text of his father’s letter to the President, no emphasis is mine:

Feb 4, 2007

Dear Mr. Bush:

This will be the only time I will refer to you with any type of respect.

My son was killed in Iraq on February 2, 2007. His name is Captain Kevin Landeck.

He served with the Tenth Mountain Division. He was killed while riding in a Humvee by a roadside bomb just south of Baghdad. He has a loving mother, a loving father and loving sister.

You took him away from us. He celebrated his 26th birthday January 30th and was married for 17 months. He graduated from Purdue University and went through the ROTC program. That is where he met his future wife. He was proud to be a part of the military and took exceptional pride in becoming a leader of men. He accepted his role as a platoon leader with exceptional enthusiasm and was proud to serve his country.  Read more 

Damn. This is Too Cool:

There’s a lot of weirdness every day in the capital city, but this one pushed the envelope: 13 Iraq war veterans in full desert camo going on “patrol” from Union Station to Arlington National Cemetery. They carried imaginary assault rifles, barked commands, roughly “detained” suspected hostiles with flex cuffs and hoods — and generally shocked, frightened and delighted tourists and office workers.

“How does occupation feel, D.C.?!” shouted Geoff Millard, head of the local chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War, who previously served on a brigadier general’s staff in Tikrit.

They cut a swath across downtown, taking imaginary sniper fire and casualties on the grounds of the Capitol and the Washington Monument, scouting the White House, performing mock arrests at the foot of the Capitol steps and a vehicle search on the Mall. At the Capitol, the veterans almost got detained themselves by civilian peace officers with real guns. The vets brought their act to a military recruiting station on L Street NW and concluded with a memorial ceremony in the cemetery.  Read more 

The United States Military is an elitist, patriarchal, hierarchical organization and had been since the time of George Washington. So why is everybody so shocked by this ward 72 business??  Read more 

Via Ruth a great little piece that I missed in the excrementally fabulous WaPo. Here’s the fun part:

Soltz, the group’s intense 29-year-old co-founder who served in Iraq in 2003, displayed a fiery impatience with the procedural morass that has paralyzed the Senate. “I don’t need some fancy Senate talk about why they can’t vote,” he said in an interview. “We just want a vote. We need a vote that tells the president that his strategy is not working.”

In several news conferences, Soltz accused McConnell of “aiding the enemy” by allowing the Bush administration to build up troops in Iraq at the expense of the hunt for Osama bin Laden. “We are not fighting the war on terrorism, we are in the middle of a civil war,” he said, referring to Iraq. “Meanwhile, the guy who attacked this country on 9/11 is living in a cave in Afghanistan.”  Read more 

I just love this little “I Dare You to Veto It” bill from Webb, don’t you?

It will replace the Montgomery G.I. Bill, to which military personnel must contribute — while earning a low active-duty salary anyway — and which only provides financial support of up to $800 per month for educational expenses, which may not cover the cost of a full college education.

The Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act will pay for Veterans’ tuition, books, fees, and other training costs, while also providing a monthly stipend of $1,000 for living expenses, thus making it much more possible for a large number of Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan to actually be able to complete a college education and build a better life.  Read more 

You read that right. Ten-fold. If that’s not the clearest sign we’re losing the war, I don’t know what is.

WASHINGTON (AP) - More than one-third of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans seeking medical treatment from the Veterans Health Administration report symptoms of stress or other mental disorders _ a tenfold increase in the last 18 months, according to an agency study.
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