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H&I* Fires, 22 MAR 2007

By Denizens on March 22, 2007 | | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (1)

Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite.

You're advertising here, we should get an ad at your place...

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Interesting story about the VA in the AP.

WASHINGTON - The Veterans Affairs' vast network of 1,400 health clinics and hospitals is beset by maintenance problems such as mold, leaking roofs and even a colony of bats, an internal review says. The investigation, ordered two weeks ago by VA Secretary Jim Nicholson, is the first major review of the facilities conducted since the disclosure of squalid conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. A copy of the report was provided to The Associated Press.

Democrats newly in charge of Congress called the report the latest evidence of an outdated system unable to handle a coming influx of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. Investigators earlier this month found that the VA's system for handling disability claims was strained to its limit.

"Who's been minding the store?" said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. "They keep putting Band-Aids on problems, when what the agency needs is major triage."

"Who's been minding the store?" said Sen. Patty Murray D-Wash.

Given that the Armorer's Grandfather, Father, and the Armorer himself have been customers of the VA since... 1919, continuously, I might add, I would say... no one. This is a long-standing bi-partisan failure. And I freely acknowledge that things did improve under the Clinton administration - it was in 2000 that I started the two-year process to get my claim processed... can't blame Bush for that.

The Armorer's father was so disgusted by his experience with the VA during the Carter Administration that he does not use his Agent Orange Exposure entitlements to handle his diabetes expenses, preferring instead to use other avenues available to him - even with the out-of-pocket expenses associated with them.

The VA is full of fine people who try hard. So is Walter Reed.

But no one wants to fund it until it's so bad that they have no choice. And then the all pompously posture and bloviate until it goes away again. And regarding war veterans - that's just a statement of fact since the Founding. I don't have an answer - but as a client of the two major government run health care systems... what we deal with doesn't bode well for Universal Health Care run by the Federal Government without a really different approach. -the Armorer

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I mentioned Cathy Seipp in regards to Maggie's Cancer drive, the other day.

Unfortunately, We Lost Her The woman who took on the LA Times, is no more, another victim of the Big C. Ironically her Obit is featured by none other than...The LA Times

We'll miss you Cath.
-BloodSpite
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*A term of art from the artillery. Harassment and Interdiction Fires.

Back in the day, when you could just kill people and break things without a note from a lawyer, they were pre-planned, but to the enemy, random, fires at known gathering points, road junctions, Main Supply Routes, assembly areas, etc - to keep the bad guy nervous that the world around him might start exploding at any minute.

Not really relevant to today's operating environment, right? But, it *is*

The UAVs (oops, can't call 'em UAVs anymore - they're now Unmanned Aerial Systems... some Colonel got his Legion of Merit for that change...), er, um UAS's we fly over Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for targets of opportunity are a form of H&I fires, if you really want to parse it finely. We just have better sensors and fire control now.

I call the post that because it's random things posted by me and people I've given posting privileges to. It's also an open trackback, so if (Don Surber uses it this way a lot) someone has a post they're proud of, but it really isn't either Castle kind of stuff, or topical to a particular post, I've basically given blanket permission to use that post for that purpose. Another term of art that might be appropriate is "Free Fire Zone".

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VA review: Hospitals beset with problems from Unpartisan.com Political News and Blog Aggregator on March 22, 2007 9:31 AM

The Veterans Affairs' vast network of 1,400 health clinics and hospitals is beset by maintenance pro Read More

7 Comments

By Oldloadr on March 22, 2007 8:27 AM
If I may pontificate, just a bit: In my experience with the VA as both a client and a school certifying official I have come to several conclusions I would like to express: 1. The VA is staffed by government civilians, most, but not all are veterans themselves, but all are in the civil service system. This means that personal performance is a personal choice. We all know that it is far easier to discharge a military member than to fire a government employee. In dealing with veteran-students seeking vocational rehabilitation (which is conditional on a disability rating), I found the system to be arbitrary and precocious. Whether or not a veteran received voc-rehab benefits for his/her chosen field of study depended entirely on which counselor they saw. There were 2 responsible for the region I was working in and they had totally opposite attitudes: One thought the money was coming out of her own pocket; the other seemed to wake up every morning looking for something good to do for a veteran. Guess which one I told all of my students to make their appointments with. 2. I ended up not pursuing any kind of disability since I was going to school and having trouble getting the VA to respond to both my Education needs and my disability claim, I chose to pursue straightening out my education situation (since the college insisted on being paid for their efforts). By the time I had finished my Masters degree, I had contacted my congressman so many time that his aide eventually told me to not even bother calling the VA 800 number, but to contact his office first with any future problems. The first problem I had was being a Viet Nam era veteran who chose to stay on active duty for 24 years. By the time I had retired, most of the VA staff had forgotten how to process our claims as the Montgomery GI bill omitted dependant stipends, which all previous GI bills contained. Anyway, the regional office in Atlanta lost my dependant certification 4 times. Actually, they didn’t lose it, they just kept throwing it away since they thought it only applied to voc-rehab students. Of course, when the 5th one showed up under the congressman’s cover letter, money instantly materialized in my checking account. Now I know the discussion was about health care, but my point is the problem is VA wide and systemic. The funding issue, I think goes back to competing constituencies and giving money to the entitlement class fits a lot of people’s agenda better than keeping promises to those who have honorably served.
 
By Maggie on March 22, 2007 8:34 AM
BS - I'm sorry for your loss.
 
By BloodSpite on March 22, 2007 8:45 AM
Mags-> Thanks. I wish I could say I knew her well, or personally, but I didn't. Passed a few E-mails with her, new of her work with NRO, and watched/read a lot of her confrontation with the LAT, but beyond that I knew her less than I know folks here. Still, good people however. On the VA thing. I've never even bothered to be checked for a disability rating. For one thing I can work, so I see no reason to take money from someone who actually needs it. That being said I was never examined during my discharge process by the VA, even though it was a Involuntary/Medical discharge Would I get it? I don't know. But what I do know is it's probably not worth the fight. I will say that my local VA Hospital has been outstanding. I've heard rumors that they are ranked highly, but I've never seen anything conclusive for me to tout them. However both the quality of care, (Hell my Doctor actually has called me at home several times to see how I'm doing, remind me to take my med's and see if there was anything else I needed for him to do or follow up care) and for the most part they do things pretty fast (I was examined by Ortho on this past Monday. I already have an MRI appointment today.) That being said we used to refer to the VA Hospital outside of Atlanta on the 285 perimeter as "The Butcher Shop" so I guess it really is variable on where you are.
 
By John of Argghhh! on March 22, 2007 9:08 AM
Bloodspite - you aren't taking money from someone who needs it regarding the disability payments, it's not like there's a fixed pool. And if your disability affects your life, or life expectancy, then you *earned* it. Not quite the same thing as a handout. Regarding VA medical care - it is spotty, and there are places where great things are done. Eisenhower Medical Center in Leavenworth is considered a pretty good (if limited) hospital. Truman Medical Center down in KC, has in the past been a roach-infested cesspool. Guess which one the VA periodically wants to close? That said - the logic is that Truman is closer to a larger number of veterans, which certainly is a supportive argument - if we believed they would fix the problems at Truman. As for VA medical care, even though I am a priority 1, "must see" client of the VA, because I have other options available to me, I choose to not use the VA, so there are that many more appointments available to the space available veterans with no other good options.
 
By Maggie on March 22, 2007 9:29 AM
I had already read some of Cathy's stuff, in particular about different people driving her to treatments. I remember being so grateful that I have my sisters and the rest of my family. Everyone should have a support network. We have one out here and I am grateful for that too.
 
By KCSteve on March 22, 2007 1:12 PM
"Who's been minding the store?" said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.
Kind of sad how much that says, isn't it?
 
By Barb on March 22, 2007 2:22 PM
KCSteve - I am constantly embarassed that my fellow Washingtonians sent Murray back to the Senate, especially after her goofy statement about OBL years ago. This one just demonstrates her complete cluelessness.