Once a Dragoon, Always a Dragoon

Four combat brigades to stay in Europe

4/2 Saber Squadron Assumption of Command Ceremony

CSM (ret) Mike Besozki passes to Fiddler’s Green

TBI Clinics in Germany to Open in 2010

James Herbert Leach: Off to Fiddler’s Green

Minard Key Ceremony

Sponsorship is Key Watchword

Sabers Take Time Out for Food, Friends and Fun

2nd Cav Tries Out New Mobile Gun System

Vets face blizzard of red tape, group says

Combat veterans returning to the U.S. often find themselves facing a new, complex and frustrating enemy: red tape.That is the assessment of a new report released Friday by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Here are some examples of the problems faced by veterans:• Drew Brown, an Iraq veteran who returned from a 2004 deployment struggling with anxiety and depression, says he asked the military five times over 16 months for mental health counseling before he got a call back. When he tried to get help from the Veterans Affairs Department, he says he was told it would take three weeks to schedule an appointment — which could only be at a far-off location between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m, requiring the former Army sergeant first class to take time off work.• Air Force veteran Aimee Sherrod, medically retired in 2005 as a result of post-traumatic stress related to a mortar attack on her unit on her second day in Iraq in 2003, received a 10 percent disability rating that she accepted because she thought she would get better. But when she got worse in 2008 during a pregnancy, she discovered that a VA hospital would not admit her as an inpatient because they weren’t prepared for maternity care. Instead, they told her to drop out of school and relax.• Navy veteran Richard Sanchez, a veteran of Operations Enduring Freedom, Noble Eagle and Iraqi Freedom, left the service in 2006 on disability with a recommendation for back surgery for treatment of injuries suffered when heavy equipment fell on him. It took three years for VA to schedule the surgery, about the same amount of time he has been struggling with a disability claim related to post-traumatic stress.• Army veteran Matthew Hamilton, who did two tours in Iraq, is one of about 1,500 student veterans still waiting to receive their fall GI Bill payments. “My claim has been with the VA over 200 days,” said the graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “They have acknowledged they have all the information needed but cannot give me a reason why it has not been processed,” he said, calling it a “nightmare.”VA officials confirmed Hamilton’s claim has languished, apparently because of a dispute involving how to count credit hours for graduate students. “No one at VA wants a student veteran waiting for their check instead of focusing on their studies,” said VA spokeswoman Katie Roberts. The department “will do everything it can to resolve any outstanding issues and make sure this veteran gets the benefits he has earned.”The report says the four examples are not isolated but are representative of the kind of bureaucracy that the nation’s newest generation of combat veterans is facing.“More than 35,000 troops have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands of them have suffered injuries not recorded in the official military tally,” the report says. “These new veterans and their families are shouldering an unacceptable burden, recovering from their injuries while navigating antiquated and deeply flawed military and veterans’ health care and disability systems.”The report is expected to be the centerpiece of a campaign next week as Iraq and Afghanistan veterans arrange meetings with members of Congress to talk about their needs.Paul Rieckhoff, the executive director and a founder of IAVA, testified Thursday before the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee that while the nation is doing far better today to help veterans than when he returned from Iraq in 2004, “our work is far from done.”“Right now, thousands of veterans are unemployed, more than 100,000 are homeless and hundreds of thousands are desperately waiting months — sometime years — for their well-earned VA benefits,” he said.Improving the veterans’ benefits claims process is the top priority for 2010 of all major veterans groups, and several, including IAVA, are trying to draw up a comprehensive plan to address claims delays.The system is “archaic,” Rieckhoff said, with a lingering heavy reliance on paper-based military personnel and medical records that create numerous opportunities for key documents to go missing.“Hundreds of thousands of wounded troops and veterans are forced to wait months, and sometimes years, for disability compensation” because there is no electronic records system, he said.The report says troops wounded in service can face delays at every step, beginning with a military medical tracking system that doesn’t always have updated information available to treating physicians, which can result in redundant tests, misdiagnoses and delayed treatment.Other conclusions:• Troops placed in medical holding units can find themselves lingering without purpose if they arrive during a surge of wounded.• The military’s disability evaluation process seems to be aimed at making things hardest for those with the most complex injuries by generally rating only one condition when deciding a disability, so that a person with several problems may not get a fair rating.• For those leaving the military and needing care from VA, the transition is “anything but seamless,” in part because neither the Defense Department nor VA maintains complete records.• The wait for VA benefits and care can be lengthy because demand already exceeds capacity and is increasing as a result of the flood of new Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and the downturn in the economy. More than 450,000 veterans have waited more than 30 days for a doctor’s appointment, and more than 423,000 veterans are waiting for compensation claims to be paid.

Vets wrongly charged for free care, IG finds

Veterans seeking treatment for sexual trauma suffered in the military may have been improperly charged co-payments by the Veterans Affairs Department, according to a new report from the VA inspector general.The report, issued Thursday, has resulted in a change in billing practices and a promise that anyone charged for mental health counseling or treatment for physical health conditions could get his or her money back.Free counseling and treatment, mental or physical, is available for male or female veterans for sexual trauma that occurred while on active duty or during National Guard and reserve duties. Unlike disability-related health issues, which veterans often must prove are service-connected, veterans seeking treatment for injury, illness or psychological conditions relating to sexual trauma do not have to provide any documentation or evidence that they reported the incident that caused the trauma.All veterans can receive the care; they don’t even have to be eligible for veterans benefits or be enrolled in the veterans health care system.More than 65,000 patients were treated by the VA for sexual trauma in fiscal 2009, according to the report.The investigation of improper co-payments was launched at the request of Sen. Daniel Akaka, the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman, who had received specific complaints about sexual trauma victims being charged co-payments for visits and medication at a VA outpatient clinic in Austin, Texas.A review found that of 250 veterans treated for sexual trauma, 86 were billed for services.While investigators looked only at the Texas clinic, the problems could have happened elsewhere, the report says.“I am concerned that some veterans may still be charged for care they should receive for free, unnecessarily adding complications to the recovery process,” Akaka said in a statement. “However, I am pleased that VA’s leadership is ordering changes system-wide as the Inspector General recommended. I will continue to monitor this issue.”He also made a point of thanking the veteran who initially complained about being charged. “If she had not stood up for her fellow veterans, these national changes would not be in the works. Once again, this veteran has served her country well,” he said.The woman was not identified by name by Akaka or in the report.

Concurrent receipt may not be properly funded

Just days after the Obama administration announced plans to provide full concurrent receipt of disability and military retired pay to eligible veterans by Jan. 1, 2015, a key House committee chairman threw a bucket of cold water on the initiative.Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and a supporter of allowing disabled retirees to concurrently receive full military and veterans benefits, said the Obama initiative included in the 2011 defense budget request does not satisfy the House’s strict budgeting rules.Skelton said the problem is that the administration has not identified specific offsets — either cuts in existing programs or revenue increases — to pay for the new benefits for disabled retirees.“This committee has a deep commitment to this issue and our veterans, but we simply cannot enact it unless the administration identifies and advocates for specific offsets,” Skelton said Wednesday at a committee hearing on the 2011 defense request.The budget request sent to Congress on Monday adds $408 million to the military retirement trust fund in 2011 specifically to cover the first phase of a five-year plan to expand concurrent receipt. The money would go to pay full retired pay to people medically retired from the military with fewer than 20 years of service who have disability ratings of 90 percent or greater. The Obama plan calls for full concurrent receipt to be phased in by Jan. 1, 2015, for all disabled retirees who are eligible for both military retired pay and veterans disability compensation.But Skelton said the $408 million increase in the trust fund doesn’t meet congressional “pay-as-you-go” rules, which require a specific offset to pay for a specific increase. Without an offset, Skelton said the committee is unable to pass concurrent receipt legislation.This is not a new problem. The same thing happened last year when the Obama administration proposed a similar expansion of concurrent receipt without including any funding. Skelton said his committee ended up “holding the bag” for an unfunded initiative.Rep. Jim Marshall, D-Ga., a longtime sponsor of concurrent receipt legislation who also sits on the armed services committee, said he is not ready to give up. Marshall said he hopes the armed services committee would “work closely” with the House Ways and Means Committee, which is responsible for tax policy, to find money for concurrent receipt.“It seems to me we ought to be able to find $5.1 billion over a 10-year period of time, as large as our mandatory spending is. We ought to be able to do that and get this done once and for all,” Marshall said.

VA claims expected to take longer in 2011

The 2011 Veterans Affairs Department budget unveiled Monday by the White House includes what VA officials called an “unprecedented” 27 percent funding increase for the Veterans Benefits Administration, some of which will be used to hire 4,000 permanent employees to process benefits claims.The increase does not mean disability, pension and survivors claims will be processed faster, however.In an admission that comes as no surprise to those who have been watching VA struggle with a backlog of benefits claims, Michael Walcoff, VA’s acting undersecretary for benefits, said veterans should be prepared for the average claims processing time to be longer in fiscal 2011 than it is today.The reason? Even though more workers are being hired, VA officials expect a big jump in the number of Vietnam-era veterans filing Agent Orange-related claims due to newly expanded eligibility.It takes an average of 158 days to process a benefit claim today, Walcoff said. He expects that will rise to 190 days in 2011, at least for the first few months of the year, as new employees are hired and trained and a flood of complicated claims requesting retroactive benefits are received from Vietnam veterans.“Dealing with the claims backlog is complicated,” Walcoff said. “There is more involved than just the number of people we have handling claims.”VA officials expect to receive 1.3 million claims in 2011, part of a two-year, 30 percent jump that is greatly hampering VA’s efforts to achieve its goal of bringing the average claims processing time down to 125 days.In a statement, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said there are long-term plans to harness technology to speed claims, such as establishing a paperless processing system and changing procedures to reduce steps as part of promised transformation. But in the short term, there is no quick solution.In addition to the 27 percent increase in benefits funding, the proposed 2011 VA budget includes an 8.5 percent increase in medical funding.At a Monday press conference, VA Deputy Secretary W. Scott Gould called the 2011 budget a “watershed moment” for veterans, citing the big funding increases and the fact that the budget includes, for the first time, advance funding for health care for the following fiscal year.The budget calls for 5,715 additional permanent employees, a 2 percent increase over the current workforce. This includes the 4,000 claims processors, about 1,300 medical care workers and a smattering of additional workers in other departments.The 4,000 claims processors are not necessarily new employees; about 1,800 are currently temporary employees whose positions would be made permanent, said W. Todd Grams, acting VA assistant secretary for management.VA expects big increases in patient loads in 2011 and 2012 as the number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans seeking treatment rises.About 382,500 recent combat veterans use VA today. A 15 percent increase is projected for 2011 and an additional 13 percent increase is expected in 2012, Grams said.

VA wants emergency GI Bill payouts back

The Veterans Affairs Department is seeking to recoup $3,000 emergency payments sent last year to about 80,000 people whose Post-9/11 GI Bill education benefits were delayed — including some active-duty members who were not supposed to get the checks.If the $3,000 checks were never cashed, they can simply be returned, VA officials said.If they were cashed, the $3,000 must be repaid either through reductions in spring semester GI Bill benefits for those who are attending school or by direct payments to VA for those who are not enrolled.People who got the payments, considered by VA to be advance pay of benefits, will be contacted about repayment options, officials said.Advance payments were issued from October through the end of December as an emergency measure after student veterans complained that delays in approving claims under the complex new program were leaving them unable to afford college. Student veterans advocates reported some students were paying out of their own pockets or considering dropping out of school.When VA officials announced the $3,000 payments, some congressional staffers raised concerns about the possibility of fraud and error. Paying people before certifying their eligibility and before they enrolled in qualified courses — two key steps of the claims process — would open the door to overpayments, House aides warned.Those concerns were overruled, however, when it became clear to VA officials that they would not be able to process claims in less than 30 days, the original goal, which guaranteed that student veterans who were counting on living stipends would not get them on time.Active-duty service members, who are eligible for Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits, were not meant to be eligible for advance payments, but some received them anyway.The payments were aimed at covering monthly living stipends available to student veterans carrying more than a 50 percent course load, something not available to active-duty members who already receive either housing or a housing allowance from the military.But VA officials did not clearly indicate that active-duty members did not qualify for advance payments until December, creating a situation in which some active-duty members — the exact number is unknown — received payments that will have to be fully repaid.The $3,000 advance payments were discontinued at the end of the fall term, and VA officials have no plans to provide them for the spring term because they believe they have the claims process under control.VA has received about 132,000 spring enrollment applications and has processed more than 105,000.

$60B VA budget includes goals for better care

The Obama administration is setting some ambitious goals for veterans programs as it releases its budget request for fiscal 2011.The new budget calls for a $60.3 billion Veterans Affairs Department budget plus $50.6 billion in advance funding for VA health care programs in 2012.The $60.3 billion, which does not include funding for veterans benefits, would be up from $56.1 billion in the 2010 budget.White House officials said the $60.3 billion would represent a 20 percent total increase in veterans programs since 2009.Some of the goals outlined in the budget documents:• By June 2012, VA will reduce the homeless veterans population to 59,000.• By December 2010, VA will deploy an automated GI Bill claims processing system that, by the end of 2011, will reduce the number of days to process a benefits claim to 18. It took on average of 47 days to process claims last fall. The 2011 budget request contains more than $200 million to improve accuracy and timeless of benefits claims.• By the end of 2010, 97 percent of VA patients will be screened at regular intervals for alcohol abuse and 96 percent will be screened for depression.• By the end of 2011, 96 percent of mental health patients will get a mental health evaluation within 15 days of asking, and 97 percent of eligible patients will be screened for post-traumatic stress. The budget requests $5.2 billion for specialized care of veterans with post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injuries and other mental health conditions.• By 2012, an electronic medical and benefits record system, combining military and VA information, will be available for new veterans. The budget request includes $52 million to implement the system, called the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record.• By 2013, more than 500,000 moderate-income veterans will be enrolled in the VA health care system.

Obama to request 1.4% pay raise for 2011

President Obama will seek a 1.4 percent military pay raise for 2011 as part of his defense budget request that will be unveiled Feb. 1, according to a point paper issued Tuesday by the White House.If approved by Congress, it would be the smallest annual military pay raise since the birth of the all-volunteer force in 1973, a reflection of the lingering recession’s dampening effect on wage growth and living costs. The next-smallest raise in the volunteer era was a 2 percent increase in 1988.In contrast, the pay raise for this year, which took effect Jan. 1, was a robust 3.4 percent.The proposed 2011 raise would match the projected increase in the Employment Cost Index, a Labor Department measurement of private-sector wage growth. For 11 consecutive years, including this year, Congress set annual military raises half a percentage point above the increase in the ECI in order to whittle a perceived gap between average military and private-sector pay that supposedly has existed since 1982 and peaked in 1999.The point paper, issued in advance of a speech on military family initiatives by first lady Michelle Obama to an association of military spouses, also envisions an average 4.2 percent increase in Basic Allowance for Housing rates next year.In other budget highlights noted in the point paper, Obama will seek:• $30.9 billion for the Defense Department’s medical program, an increase of 5.8 percent above 2010 levels. About $669 million would be devoted to treatment for traumatic brain injury and other mental health issues, while $250 million would go to fund continued research on mental health issues among service members.• $1.36 billion to expand the availability of military child care services, an increase of $87 million over 2010 funding.• $1.9 billion for expanded counseling and assistance services, to include financial counseling and transition and relocation assistance, an increase of $37 million over 2010.• $84 million to fund programs designed to expand career and education opportunities for military spouses through tuition assistance and internship programs, an increase of $12 million over 2010.For the full details on Obama’s plans for 2011 — including a complete pay chart that shows how the proposed raise would affect you — see Monday’s issue of Air Force Times, Army Times, Marine Corps Times or Navy Times.

Thousands of PTSD vets may get benefits boost

Military officials have agreed to pay potentially millions of dollars to service members who were medically retired for post-traumatic stress disorder with disability ratings of less than 50 percent.According to federal law, the military is required to give anyone whose PTSD is bad enough to warrant discharge a rating of at least 50 percent — a level that quialifies them for lifetime medical treatment for the veteran and his family, as well as monthly tax-free retirement payments if the rating is combat-related.However, in a class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, pro bono attorneys for National Veterans Legal Services Program argued that at least 4,300 veterans diagnosed with PTSD by the military received ratings of less than 50 percent between Dec. 17, 2002, and Oct. 14, 2008.The seven original plaintiffs in the suit each received ratings of 10 percent for PTSD.The military’s position “was that they were not bound by the 50-percent law,” said Bart Stichman, co-director of National Veterans Legal Services Program.In October 2008, the Defense Department sent out a memo ordering adjudicators to automatically give a rating of 50 percent for PTSD for service members going through the medical retirement process.“They recognized, under duress, that it was wrong, but they did nothing to undo what had been done” to service members prior to the policy change, Stichman said. “Hence, our lawsuit.”The agreement between the plaintiffs and government states that anyone rated at less than 50 percent for PTSD between Dec. 17, 2002, and Oct. 14, 2008, will automatically receive a rating of 50 percent for six months. That means back pay for anyone whose PTSD is combat-related.Then, the military must put those cases on a priority list for further review.“The veterans have nothing to lose,” said Ami Neiberger-Miller, a spokesperson for National Veterans Legal Services Program. “The military is not allowed to lower the ratings.”Lawsuit could be droppedThe lawsuit was filed in December 2008. Under the negotiated agreement, if the military adheres to the terms for the next year, the lawsuit will be dropped. Both sides will give the court monthly updates.A court-ordered letter went out Monday to the 4,300 veterans inviting them to join in the lawsuit.It is an opt-in lawsuit, which means veterans must sign up to benefit from it. The deadline for joining is July 24. The PTSD does not have to be the direct result of combat; service members rated for other kinds of trauma, such as rape or another violent crime, also qualify for the higher rating.As an example, Marine Cpl. Tyler Einarson was shot in the arm and chest during combat in Afghanistan in 2005. During his military medical retirement process, the military rated him at 10 percent for PTSD and 10 percent for nerve damage in his right arm from one of his wounds. Two months later, using the same law as a guide, the Department of Veterans Affairs rated Einarson at 50 percent for his PTSD, 30 percent for his arm, and 60 percent for lost lung capacity. Because of the agreement, Einarson will receive $24,000 in back pay from the military, as well as tax-free monthly retirement payments because his wounds were combat-related.James Kelly of Morgan, Lewis and Bockius, which argued the case, said they are not seeking damages for the service members — just “what they’re due.” Kelly said he hoped the agreement would help hasten recovery for veterans, as well as put an end to some of the delays on the cases that have been sent back for appeal through the military system.Anyone who would like to add his or her name to the lawsuit, or to get more information about it, can go online.

Military families can use sitter site free

The Defense Department now is paying for an Internet service that helps military families find in-home child care, nannies, tutors, elder care providers, pet sitters and other services in their local communities.Active-duty Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps members and their families, as well as National Guard and reserve members and their families, can receive a free membership to the service, which costs an average of $120 a year. Retirees are not eligible.You must go to www.sittercity.com/dod to activate your free membership.Those looking for the services can do it in two ways, through a sitter search or by posting a job. Those looking for child care, elder care providers, pet sitters and house cleaners can use specific search criteria, including geographic areas. The database will pull from more than 600,000 child care provider profiles nationwide. But there are more than 1 million care provider profiles across all five types of care — child, tutoring, senior, pet, and home, said Mary Schwartz, spokeswoman for Sittercity.The program provides military families with instant access to caregiver profiles, including background checks, pictures, references, reviews, a four-step screening process, and a specialized matching technology to help select the right caregiver. They also are working to include military spouses who provide family child care in their homes, too.Sittercity.com doesn’t employ the caregivers; it simply helps match them with families. The family hiring the caregiver negotiates the salary or fee with the caregiver.The site will help increase options for families, including normal weekly and hourly care and care for those who work in excess of a normal duty day or live off-base in remote areas, said Melissa Anderson, head of Sittercity’s corporate division.“We’re very honored and excited to be part of this program for military families,” Anderson said.“Because of the mobile nature of military life, trusted community resources are often difficult to identify and locate. These online tools will help service and family members attain the best match between resource and need,” said Tommy Thomas, deputy undersecretary of defense for military community and family policy, in a statement announcing the new service.The site confirms eligibility through the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System.

GI Bill looks better for spring, VA says

Veterans Affairs Department officials appear to have a good jump on processing spring semester claims for Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits, and they hope that hiring more people, getting help from an outside contractor and convincing schools to submit enrollment information faster will avoid delays that plagued the program in the fall.Officials reported Jan. 20 they have processed 72,000 of the 103,000 GI Bill claims received for the spring semester and are geared up to process about 30,000 total claims a week.The goal, officials said, is to have all 103,000 claims processed by Feb. 1.For the fall term, VA received a total of 167,000 claims and had so many problems getting money into the hands of veterans that it made advance payments of up to $3,000 to more than 79,000 students.As part of its effort to speed claims, VA officials have contacted university and college administrators and student veterans to urge everyone to file for benefits as soon as possible. In particular, VA officials want educational institutions to submit enrollment information for students without waiting for students to receive an official eligibility certificate from VA that shows what benefits they have earned. The wait for certificates of eligibility was part of the reason for delays in the fall term, VA officials said.There are several reasons to be optimistic about benefits for the spring term, officials said. For one thing, the staff, now numbering 1,200 employees after more hiring, is more familiar with the benefit and experienced in processing claims, officials said. New pamphlets also are being distributed on campuses, and ads are being placed in college and university newspapers, with information about how to get benefits.VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said in a Jan. 14 statement to state veterans officials that processing GI Bill claims remains “an ongoing challenge,” but that with the help of schools and veterans, he believes up to 30,000 claims can be processed each week, with new payments made every four days.“Prompt submission of information from schools each term helps avoid delays in tuition and fee payments to schools and, in turn, applicable payments to our veterans,” he said.Related reading• Delays continue for Post-9/11 GI Bill students

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