Hi. I am new to the group. My name is Rob and my wife is a nurse at
a VA in Tennessee. Recently one of her patients was a Korean/ Viet
Nam era vet. He was estranged from his family. He was diagnosed with
terminal cancer. All he brought with him to the hospital was one
change of clothes and a shaving kit with a tooth brush and
toothpaste. Inside of the shaving kit were smal bits of paper with
names and addresses and phone numbers. He was in massive pain and
100 percent oxygen but he tried to call someone,anyone , who was
once in his life to say goodbye. He fail as all of the numbers were
no longer valid. My wife satyed with him , holding his hand so that
he wouldnt die alone. When she came home from work that evening, she
told me what had happened. Her grief over the incident prompted me
to write a song about it. I pay it to the vets at the hospital where
my wife works and it gives them peace knowing that they are not
alone. If you would like to hear the song , for free, I will include
a link to the web page. When you get to the page click on the link
that says "listen to the song". the link is : www.mp3.com/r__mitchell
Feel free to pass this to your friends and family.
God bless you for you service and devotion to our country.
Rob

To: fast_attack_congress@yahoogroups.com
From: Send an Instant Message "Michael Schreiber" <efproductions@...>
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 00:25:45 -0000
Subject: [fast_attack_congress] priority 8 - health care

Hi, My name is Mike Schreiber. I work at ABC News Nightline and I'm
working on a story the recent changes in VA policy which restricts
new enrollees who are Priority Level 8 from getting VA health
insurance. This comes, as I'm sure you all know, at the same time as
a lot of other changes in the VA with regard to funding and
organization.

If any of you would be interested in talking to me about your
experiences with VA health care, or other veteran related issues,
please email me at michael.r.schreiber.-nd@....

Thanks,
Mike
########## End #########
http://www.fast-attack-congress.net

SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY REFORM PETITION

Money is taken out of your paychecks every week for Social Security, and SSD
and as of January 2003 the US government GAO has designated Social Security
Disability a HIGH risk area for 2003.  You could face homelessness,
bankruptcy and even death trying to get your benefits when you need them the
most.  Anyone could suddenly find themselves in a situation where they need
to access this fund – such as an accident, catastrophic illness, a victim of
a crime, military personnel, veterans and now we have the threat of
terrorist attacks – these are unfortunate realities of life.  Millions of
people across the country become disabled unexpectedly - 12,000 per week in
this country apply for long-term disability benefits.  What happens if your
work disability insurance runs out, if you don’t have it, or worse yet
become unemployed?  You will then need to turn to the most mismanaged system
in the country – the Social Security Disability System.  What you will find
is that the current system is set up to kill you so they don’t have to pay
you.  Billions of dollars are being spent in foreign lands and on pork
barrel programs, and we want the government to focus on and fix this growing
problem here at home now.  Here are just a few of the major issues we would
like to see addressed:

We are concerned about what transpires from the first point of contact, the
filing for benefits, and the final outcome or status.  Disability benefits
determinations should be based solely on the physical or mental disability
of the applicant.  Neither age, education or any other factors should ever
be considered when evaluating whether or not a person is disabled.
Discrimination of this form is highly illegal in this country, yet this is a
standard practice when deciding Social Security Disability determinations
and should be considered a violation of our Constitution.  This practice
should be addressed and eliminated immediately.  Many people who apply for
disability don’t “look” sick - you can’t tell if a person has cancer, heart
disease, diabetes or any other debilitating diseases just by looking at
them. We did not chose this fate it was forced upon us!  Yet we are treated
as “disposable people” and often viewed as lazy or frauds. The extraordinary
time it takes to process a claim from the original filing date should be
eliminated.  Why should we have to become homeless, bankrupt, starve, lose
our healthcare coverage, suffer untold stress on top of our illnesses, and
even die trying to get our benefits?  We are now being told that because of
the backlog that these are the only circumstances that anyone will even look
at our paperwork now no matter how sick we are.  Why should we have to file
for welfare, food stamps and Medicaid after we have lost everything due to
this backlog - another horrendous process - because of the inadequacies in
the Social Security Disability offices and then have to pay Social Services
back from our measly benefit checks?   Nobody else who files for public
assistance has to do that – why are disabled people being discriminated
against?

If we provide sufficient medical documents when we originally file for
benefits why should we ever be denied at the initial stage, have to hire
lawyers, wait years for hearings, go before administrative law judges and be
treated like criminals on trial?  Too much weight at the initial time of
filing, is put on the independent medical examiner’s opinion who only sees
you for a few minutes and has no clue how a patient’s medical problems
affect their lives after only a brief visit with them.  An even worse
problem is the poor review of cases by DDS caseworkers which causes too many
unjustified delays and denials.  Decisions should be based more on the
treating physicians opinions, and medical records.  The listing of diseases
that qualify a person for disability should be expanded and updated more
frequently to include newly discovered crippling diseases such as the many
autoimmune disorders that are ravaging our citizens.

We have contributed our hard earned money to this system hoping we would
never need it until we were ready to retire.  Where is the money going that
has been robbed from our paychecks every week?  Disease and tragedy does not
discriminate based upon age, race, sex or any other factor.  The disabled
citizens of this nation have been forced to tackle a very daunting system .
We challenge you to do the same and expose and correct this problem on a
national level.  The Social Security Administration, a Federal program,
administered by the states will admit that our elected officials have the
power to reform the system.  Why should we have to become homeless,
bankrupt, starve, lose our healthcare coverage, suffer untold stress on top
of our illnesses and even die trying to get our benefits?  We the
undersigned say to all  members of the US Government:

For everyone of us that starves, becomes homeless or loses our healthcare
during this process – we blame you!
For everyone of us who files for bankruptcy during this process – we blame
you!
For the unfathomable stress and suffering we have inflicted upon us during
this process – we blame you!
For everyone of us who becomes more ill or worse yet dies during this
process – we blame you!

We want to know why our elected officials seem to be ignoring this crisis
and doing nothing to reform it?  We want to know what, if anything is being
done to correct this critical issue that affects millions of sick and dying
Americans.  Please start taking care of the US citizens living in this
country whom elected you into office.  It is your duty as elected officials
to serve all those that voted you into that office and even those of us who
didn't. When the next election comes around we will not forget those who
have forgotten us.  The government may be trying to rob  millions of
disabled people from their money, and also neglect us, but remember we
millions of citizens still have, and will use our right to vote.  A country
is only as strong as the citizens who live in it.  On behalf of the Social
Security Disability Coalition we ask, disabled and healthy Americans alike,
that you please do something to fix this serious problem now!

Please sign the Social Security Disability Reform Petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/SSDC/petition.html

Linda Fullerton
President/Co-Founder - Social Security Disability Coalition
ssdcoalition@...
Social Security Disability Coalition:
http://groups.msn.com/SocialSecurityDisabilityCoalition
Please check out my website at:
http:/www.frontiernet.net/~lindaf1/bump.html
"I am disabled and I vote!"

_________________________________________________________________
STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE*
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail

washingtonpost.com

Va. Plans Major Health Care Changes
Restructuring of Facilities to Cost $4.6 Billion Over 20 Years

By Suzanne Gamboa
Associated Press
Tuesday, August 5, 2003; Page A13


The Department of Veterans Affairs announced a plan yesterday to
close seven VA hospitals, open others and retarget services in a
major restructuring of its health care system.

The plan includes major mission changes at 13 facilities, Veterans
Affairs spokeswoman Karen Fedele said.

The VA wants to close hospitals in Canandaigua, N.Y.; Pittsburgh
(Highland Drive); Lexington, Ky. (Leestown); Brecksville, Ohio;
Gulfport, Miss.; Livermore, Calif.; and Waco, Tex.

The VA also would open new hospitals in Las Vegas and Orlando; add
centers for the blind in Biloxi, Miss., and Long Beach, Calif.; and
place new spinal cord injury centers in Denver, Minneapolis, Syracuse
or Albany, N.Y., and Little Rock.

The proposals are part of a VA restructuring begun in June 2002, to
shift the agency's focus to outpatient care, place services where
they are needed most, and save money by eliminating underused and
outdated services and facilities.

"This is probably the most comprehensive assessment of VA
infrastructure since World War II," said VA Secretary Anthony J.
Principi.

A 15-member commission, appointed by Principi, will consider the
proposed changes and hold hearings in about a week. After the
hearings, the commission will make its recommendations to Principi.

As with military base closings, the secretary must accept or reject
the plan as a whole. His decision is expected by the end of the year.

Principi said the proposed restructuring is not only about closing
and realigning facilities but also about expansion and modernization.
The objective is to meet the needs of veterans for the next 20 years,
he said.

"I'm not trying to save money. I'm trying to transform an
infrastructure that has been built or acquired over the past 50
years," he said.

The restructuring is estimated to cost $4.6 billion over 20 years,
with some costs offset by closing hospitals or leasing out unused
facilities.

The restructuring has triggered opposition, including legislation
sponsored by Sen. Bob Graham (Fla.), a Democratic presidential
candidate, that would give Congress 60 days to review proposed
hospital closings. A House version sponsored by Rep. Dennis Moore (D-
Kan.), has 118 co-sponsors. Neither bill has been acted on.

Protests have occurred at VA hospitals considered possible targets
for closing.

"At a time when many troops are overseas and will need these services
when they come home, you want to bolster our veterans' health care,
not gut it," Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said yesterday.



© 2003 The Washington Post Company

Is there anyone out there who has been awarded a retroactive
settlement by the Court of Veterans Appeals.  If so, what was the
time frame for the payment to be received?

MY PROBLEM WITH THE VEETEERANS OF AFFAIRS GOES LIKE THIS: I WAS NOT
TOLD WHEN I HONERABLE DISCHARGED FROM THE MARINES THAT I WAS TO FILE
FOR MY DISABLITY. SO FOR ALL YOU WHO HAVE NOT YET DONE THIS DO IT IF
YOU WAS INJURED DURING SERICE. BECAUSE MY NIGHTMARE HAS STARTED. IT
GOES AS FOLLOWS:I FILED, THEN WAS DENIED TWICE, BECAUSE THEY WAS
UNABLE TO LOCATE MY SERICE MEDICAL RECORDS. I GOT THE NUMBERS AND
CALLED. IF THEY ARE UNABLE TO LOCATE YOURS YOU MAY CALL THIS NUMBER:
703-784-5606 OR 703-784-3926 TO REQUEST YOUR SERVICE MEDICAL
RECORDS. IF THE VETERANS OF AFFAIRS CAN NOT LOCATE THEM. FOR YOU SEE
I LOCATED MINE AND HAND DELIVERED MY RECORDS TO THEM MYSELF. AND
THEY WAS SURPRIZED THAT I FOUND THEM. IT IS GOING ON ALMOST A YEAR
AND THEY GIVE ME THAT THE SYSTEM IS. THEN WHEN I GOT TO TAKE THE
MEDICAL EXAM. WELL THEY DECIDED TO; GET THIS LOSE ONLY MY MEDICAL
PART. THEY THOUGHT IT WOULD BE MONTHS BEFORE I COULD TAKE IT AGAIN.
WELL I CALL AND THE DOCTOR THAT GIVE ME THE EXAM WAS OUT. SO MY WIFE
ASKED ME TO ASK IF THERE WAS ANOTHER DOCTOR WHO COULD DO IT. THE
SAME DAY CALLED TO SAY THEY LOST IT IS THE SAME DAY I REDID THE
EXAM. I CALL EVERYDAY OR EVERY OTHER DAY. LATELY I HAVE BEEN TOLD
THAT THEIR SYSTEM IS DOWN. OR THAT IT IS ON THE REVEIWING OFFICER'S
DESK. CAN ANYONE TELL ME; THAT IF YOU ALRIGHT SEEN SOME OF THE
MATERIALS IN MY RECORD SHOULD IT TAKE YOU OVER A MONTH TO DECIDE ON
A CASE. ESPECIALLY IF YOU NOW HAVE THE EDVIDENCE RIGHT IN FRONT OF
YOU. ITS EITHER YEA OR NAY. AS SIMPLE AS THAT. IF YOU ARE A VET AND
YOU ARE FED UP WITH THE TREATMENT OF VETS. PLEASE EMAIL ME WITH YOUR
STORY SO THAT I CAN SEND YOUR  CONCERN TO OUR GOVERNMENT AND THE VA
OFFICE. EMAIL ME PLEASE. THANK FOR READING AND EMAILING ME.

Jim Marshall, E4, at Cu Chi june 1968 with 5th Platoon 25th Police
25th Div. attached to 1st Cav.  Cut your head at the Rex that month.
Remember?????  E-mail me Jimmy where ever you are, your pig buddy
Bernie.

Hello,

I am an Army veteran writing an article on US servicemembers who have
converted to Islam.  I am interested in talking to any and all
converts. I am especially interested in talking to any troops who
converted in Saudi Arabia in the early 90's, or to anyone who is
aware of the Dahwah work that was done among US troops during the
first Gulf War.

Thank you,
Karen Bradway
karenbradway@...

Combat-related special compensation begins

Last year, Congress passed legislation to partially address the
concurrent receipt problem. As part of Public Law 107-314, the fiscal
2003 DoD authorization, a new program was instituted to allow limited
numbers of combat-disabled military retirees to receive both their
military retired pay and their VA disability compensation, without
deduction from either. This new program was dubbed "combat-related
special compensation," or CRSC.
Military retirees with a minimum of 20 years of military service
would be eligible for CRSC. This includes retirees of the U.S. Coast
Guard and Reserve component retirees with 7,200 points.

Persons who retired with less than 20 years of service under
Temporary Early Retirement Authority are not eligible for CRSC. In
addition, 20-year retirees must have:

A VA disability rating of 10 percent or more and a Purple Heart has
been awarded, or:

A service-connected disability rated 60 percent or higher incurred as:
1) A direct result of combat, including a war, expedition, occupation
of an area or territory, battle skirmish, raid, invasion, rebellion,
insurrection, guerilla action, riot or any other action in which
servicemembers are engaged with a hostile or belligerent nation,
faction, force or terrorists, including POW or detention status;
2) While engaged in hazardous service, including aerial flight,
parachute duty, demolition duty experimental stress duty and diving
duty;
3) In the performance of duty under conditions simulating war,
including military training, such as war games, practice alerts,
tactical exercises, airborne operations, leadership reaction courses,
grenade and live-fire weapons practice, bayonet training, hand-to-
hand combat training, repelling, and negotiation of combat confidence
and obstacle courses; or
4) Through an instrumentality of war, such as exposure to radiation
and Agent Orange, meaning a vehicle, vessel or device designed
primarily for military service. Wounds caused by a military weapon,
accidents involving a military combat vehicle, injury or sickness
caused by fumes, gases or explosion of military ordinance, vehicles
or material.

The amount of CRSC will be equal to the amount of VA disability
compensation to which the retiree would be entitled, based solely
upon the combat-related disability. The plan's cost is estimated at
between $4 billion and $9 billion during the next 10 years.
Initial estimates indicated about 30,000 retirees would qualify for
the dual payments. This is only a small percentage of the more than
550,000 disabled military retirees in this country.

Retirees will need to complete Department of Defense Form 2860,
Application for Combat-Related Special Compensation. This form can be
obtained from your department service officer or downloaded at
www.dior.whs.mil/forms/DD2860.pdf. In addition to the application,
certain documentation is required. This includes:

Department of Defense From 214, DD Form 215 (Correction of DD 214) or
other forms that indicate Report of Separation from military service.

Retirement order.

Purple Heart citation and orders.

VA rating decisions.

For reserve components: Reserve Retirement and Point Documentation.

Uniformed service disability decision documentation.

Assignment Orders.

Copies of service medical records that document combat related
disabilities (not the entire SMR).

Other documents that describe the circumstances in which the
disability was incurred, such as buddy statements and newspaper
reports.

In case an application for CRSC is denied, the military department
will inform the retiree that CRSC is subject to the same appeals and
correction processes applicable to military pay and allowances
generally, including application to the appropriate Board for
Correction of Military Records. The applicant should then complete
DoD Form 149.
If a retiree is already drawing Special Compensa-tion for Certain
Severely Disabled Uniformed Services (SCSD) Retirees, he or she
cannot receive CRSC in addition. However, in most cases the CRSC will
be a higher amount. If CRSC applicant is approved, then he will
receive CRSC and the SCSD will be terminated.

Also, the payment of CRSC is tax exempt, whereas SCSD is not. CRSC
payments were effective as of June 1, 2003, regardless of the date of
application.

CRSC is not retired pay, therefore is not subject to payment to
former spouses of retired or retainer pay in compliance with court
orders. CRSC also is not subject to any survivor benefit provisions
of Chapter 73, Title 10, U.S. Code. CRSC is subject to a Treasury
offset to recover a debt owed to the United States, as well as
garnishment for child support or alimony. When VA makes a retroactive
increase in a member's VA disability compensation related to a
member's combat-related disabilities under CRSC, no retroactive
payment will be paid under CRSC. Any increase affecting CRSC
qualified disabilities will require that CRSC be recomputed.

This information comes from the DoD's Combat-Related Special
Compensation Web site, www.dmdc.osd.mil/crsc/. For those who cannot
access this secure DoD Web site, information is now posted at
www.defenselink.mil/prhome/crsc.html.

First off I wish to thank you for your service to our country.  I am
outraged when I hear how you are being treated after
the sacrifices you have given for the freedoms that we currently enjoy.  I
know many of you have become disabled as a result of that service, and are
struggling to get Social Security Disability benefits.  I want to help you
with that process to somehow make it a bit easier on you – knowledge is
power. I do this as a gift to show my gratitude to you for all you have done
for us.  Below are some tips to help get through the struggle of getting
Social Security Disability.  If you or anyone else you know needs help in
this area please don’t hesitate to contact me.  Be well!

Linda Fullerton
President/Co-Founder – Social Security Disability Coalition
ssdcoalition@...
Social Security Disability Coalition: FREE knowledge and support with a
focus on reform of the Social Security Disability System
http://groups.msn.com/SocialSecurityDisabilityCoalition
Please check out my website at:
http://www.frontiernet.net/~lindaf1/bump.html
“I am disabled and I vote!”

SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY COALITION - SIMPLE STEPS TO USE WHEN FIGHTING
YOUR SSD CASE

1) Take as active a roll as possible in fighting your own case – if you
cannot handle it get a family member to help you – the less YOU do the
longer it will take to process your claim

2) If your primary care doctor or any other doctor is unsupportive of
you/your diseases - get rid of them/find a new one

3) Make sure you see and get properly diagnosed by any specialists for your
medical problems

4) Get copies of ALL your medical records and tests - keep a set for
yourself and send a set to SSD

5) Anytime you fill out any paperwork for SSD make copies of it for yourself
before sending it back to them

6) Make a list of ALL medications/supplements you take – make copies - one
for yourself, give to each of your doctors and send one to SSD

7) Go through the Doctor's Bluebook of Listings - find all the listings you
meet and copy and paste them into a document - keep a copy for yourself -
send one to SSD
http://www.ssa.gov/disability/professionals/bluebook

8) Get copy of Residual Functional Capacity Questionnaire - make copies for
ALL your doctors to fill out and in your own words make up a letter
answering all the questions - make sure to include how these diseases affect
your life. You may wish to revise this sample to better reflect your own
limitations, then ask your doctor to fill out your version instead of
whatever DDS sends:
http://pbcers.org/rfcq.htm
A guide for providers on what to include in a report on your disability -
read this and write your own to give to your doctor so he knows the answers:
http://www.ssa.gov/disability/professionals/063.htm

9) Write all your elected officials and if you get any responses make copies
- keep a set for yourself - send a set to SSD
http://www.congress.org

10) Offer to help your doctors fill out any paperwork that they may get from
you or SSD.

11) Ask your family, friends and doctors to write letters on your behalf
stating how your illnesses affect your life and how they have changed you.
Make copies – keep a set for yourself and send one to SSD

12) If SSD asks you to see any doctors make sure you keep the appointment
and audio/video tape record the visit – get copies of all that doctor’s
findings.  Be very honest and specific about your condition.  DO NOT wear
make up or dress fancy – act, dress, look, function like you would on an
average day.  Make sure SSD doctors know that you have followed all medical
recommendations you were given by your doctors and what affect they are
having on your condition.  If you have not been able to follow doctors
recommendations due to side affects that have been problematic to your
condition make sure you alert the SSD doctor to that as well.  If possible
have someone drive you to the appointment who knows about your medical
conditions (family/close friend) and whom can also tell the
doctor how these diseases affect your life.

13) If your case has been denied - file your appeal immediately and get
copies of all the records in your SSD file including ALL claim examiners
notes and any doctors reports from doctors that SSD had you see - it is your
right to have them

14) Use the SSD website - it has lots of useful info and never be afraid to
contact them by phone to ask questions as to the status of your claim:
Website: http://www.ssa.gov
Phone: 1-800-772-1213

15) If you feel that you are being treated improperly report it immediately
to the SSD Office of Inspector General and Office of Public Inquiry:
       Inspector General’s Office
       Allegation Management Division
       PO Box 17768
       Baltimore MD 21235
       Phone: 1-800-269-0271/410-965-8882
       Rene Johns - Phone: 410-966-9158
       Danny Johnson – Phone: 410-966-9158
       Fax: 410-966-9201/410-597-0118
       E-mail: oig.hotline@...

       Social Security Administration Office of Public Inquiries
       Phone: 410-966-3000
       Contact: Mary Ann

16) If you are facing utility shutoff, foreclosure on your house or
bankruptcy due to waiting for your claim to be processed - make copies of
any letters/notices and send them to SSD/elected officials and your lawyer
if you have one requesting a dire needs review of your case

17) If you have been denied and have been waiting too long to get a hearing
- look into getting what is called a Pre-Hearing review of your case. SSR
97-2p: POLICY INTERPRETATION RULING TITLE II AND TITLE XVI: PREHEARING CASE
REVIEW BY DISABILITY DETERMINATION SERVICES
http://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/cqcgi/@ssa.env?CQ_SESSION_KEY=BOGBIVBZRZWG&CQ_CUR_DOC\
UMENT=3&CQ_RESULTS_DOC_TEXT=YES

18) If you have a hearing scheduled bring any new medical evidence, family,
friends, doctors to speak on your behalf and ask to record it on audio/video
tape.  Be very honest and specific about your condition.  DO NOT wear make
up or dress fancy – act, dress, look, function like you would on an average
day.  If possible have someone drive you to the hearing who knows about your
medical conditions (family/close friend) and can also tell the judge how
these diseases affect/have changed your life. Make sure judge knows you have
followed all medical recommendations you were given by your doctors and what
affect they are having on your condition.  If you have not been able to
follow doctors recommendations due to side affects that have been
problematic to your condition make sure you alert the judge to that as well.

19) Representation – You may chose to fight your case alone (it is NOT
mandatory to have a lawyer) or seek legal/advocate representation.  You can
hire a lawyer – very important to actively keep after a lawyer if you hire
one.  Since they get paid 25% of your retro pay or current cap of $5300 it
is in their best interest for your case to drag on – the longer it takes to
process the more they get.  You may be able to take advantage of legal-aid
or pro-bono services.  You can get a paralegal or in some cases free
advocacy from the Centers for Independent Living in your area:
http://www.abledata.com/Site_2/ind_lvng.htm

20) Sign the Social Security Disability Reform Petition:
       http://www.petitiononline.com/SSDC/petition.html

©Copyright Linda Fullerton – 6/4/03

_________________________________________________________________
Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*.
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail

How long does it take for the change to take effect.  I am getting
far too many messages in my in box and prefer to change to daily
digest, yet I continue to receive a volume of emails.  Help!!!  A new
member inundated with messages.  Thanks.

I am looking for anyone who may have served in the Army with
my father, Gock W Moy (he also went by James), between
1955-1957.  He passed away in 1996 but I have a treasury of
pictures he took while he served in and around Europe.  (I think
he served as an Army photographer.)  There is a picture of
someone in his unit named Hermann, another of a John Dillon
and also some wedding pictures that I am sure someone like to
have.  Unfortunately the wedding pictures were not marked.  He
was one of the few Chinese men serving at the time, so I hope
someone remembers him.

Please contact me with any information.  Thank you!

Tina Moy

Gannett News Service Article on "broken promises" and our nation's Veterans and
Military Retirees
----- Original Message -----
From: Strider, Burns
Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2003 9:11 AM
Subject: Gannett News Service Article on "broken promises" and our nation's
Veterans and Military Retirees


Good morning. I've been 'outside the beltway' traveling for a few days. It may
be that you have seen some of these clips, but Democratic Leader Pelosi would
like to make

sure you have had the opportunity to see the latest news on Veterans and
Military Retiree issues. I will be forwarding several clips throughout the day.
Please let me know if

you have any comments or observations as we begin bringing the August district
work period to a close and prepare for the return of Congress. Blessings to all!

Burns Strider
Advisor to Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi
burns.strider@...
202-226-4662 or 202-225-0100



<http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2135086.php>
August 18, 2003

Congress' broken promises may push veterans to political action

By Dennis Camire
Gannett News Service
Veterans are condemning House Republicans' failure to deliver a $3.2 billion
boost for the Veterans Affairs Department that would have shrunk the agency's
waiting list for medical care.

"A shameless betrayal" is how AMVETS sums it up.
"A moral outrage," the American Legion said.
"Abominable" is the word from the Non Commissioned Officers Association.
"Veterans have been pushed to the limits," said Joe Violante, national
legislative director for Disabled American Veterans. "They're being lied to, and
they're not tolerating it."

The broken promise - the second time in a year that Congress has reneged on a
pledge to veterans - has veterans steaming and vowing to remember at the ballot
box next year.

"They're saying there has got to be a change made because if there isn't we're
never going to get what we're due," said Richard DeLong, a Vietnam veteran in
Lafayette, La.

During budget debates in April, the GOP-led House - under a barrage of criticism
from veterans for not putting enough money into VA medical care - approved a
nonbinding budget that promised to increase VA medical spending by $1.8 billion
more than the $1.4 billion President Bush had requested.

The money would have helped reduce the list of more than 132,000 veterans who
now wait six months or longer for their first VA doctor's appointment. Although
the VA's medical budget has increased $8.3 billion in the past seven years, the
agency's spending on each patient has decreased $624.

And last month House Republican leadership, bowing to Bush administration
pressure to toe the line on spending and their own desire for hometown projects,
cut the promised $1.8 billion.

Despite several failed efforts to add the money back, the bill passed 316-109
with only 59 Republicans and 50 Democrats opposing.

Of the House Veterans Affairs Committee's 31 members, 20 voted against the bill,
including committee Chairman Chris Smith, R-N.J., and top Democrat Lane Evans of
Illinois.

Among Louisiana's seven-member congressional delegation, only Democratic Reps.
Rodney Alexander and Chris John opposed the bill. Republican Reps. Billy Tauzin,
David Vitter and Richard H. Baker supported the bill along with Democratic Rep.
William J. Jefferson. GOP Rep. Jim McCrery didn't vote.

The next step for the bill is Senate consideration this fall.
"We got fooled, and we got whupped," said Richard F. Weidman, director of
government relations for Vietnam Veterans of America. "We are not going to let
individual members of this Congress forget this vote."

American Legion national commander Ronald F. Conley said the discouraging part
is that House GOP leadership warned Republican members that their pet projects
in the bill would be in jeopardy if they didn't vote yes.

"We have the money to pay for a statue of the Roman god Vulcan in Birmingham,
Ala. We have money to pay for a bike trail in North Dakota. We have money to
fund a Nevada helicopter company that performs Elvis impersonator weddings,"
Conley said. "And yet we have neither the heart nor the will to ensure that all
United States veterans receive the medical care they earned and we owe them."

President Bush may hear a lot more on the issue Aug. 26 when he is scheduled to
speak before the 13,000 delegates to the American Legion's national convention
in St. Louis.

VA officials say the House-approved spending measure contains the amount they
requested next year in the president's budget proposal.

But the House blocked several policy changes the proposal was built on, said
Mark Catlett, the VA's principal deputy assistant secretary for management.
Those changes would have allowed the VA to impose a $250 enrollment fee for some
veterans with higher incomes and increase co-payments for doctor's visits and
prescription drugs.

Without those changes, the VA expects 260,000 more veterans to use the system
than the budget's projected number, leaving an $800 million shortfall. If the
policy changes aren't enacted or the VA doesn't receive more money, the agency
will not be able to meet its goal of eliminating the doctor's appointment
waiting list by the end of the year.

"It doesn't mean we're going to run out of money or not provide health care,"
Catlett said. "It's just a matter of how timely can health care be for the
number of patients that you have to see."

Last year, Congress reneged on another promise to veterans to change the law
that makes the nation's 550,000 military retirees with service-connected
disabilities give up a dollar of their retired pay for every dollar they receive
in VA disability compensation. Although both chambers approved legislation,
President Bush's opposition led Congress to finally pass a vastly scaled-down
bill that covers only about 34,000 of the retirees.

Although many Democrats voted for the VA spending bill without the extra money,
they also have been blasting Republicans in the past year about the VA budget
and other veterans issues.

In late spring, Republicans returned fire, noting with great fanfare that the
GOP-crafted 2004 budget carried a promise of $3.2 billion more for veterans
health care.

"Just as they lie and try to scare seniors on issues like Social Security and
Medicare, Democrats are now playing politics with veterans and testing new
careers as fiction writers," Rep. Deborah Pryce, R-Ohio, chairwoman of the House
GOP Conference, said in a May press release touting the budget's promised
increase.

But two months later, Pryce voted to approve the VA spending bill for next year
that cut the budget promise by $1.8 billion.

Rep. James T. Walsh, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee
with jurisdiction over the VA, wrote a Memorial Day column assuring veterans
that the VA budget would be "increased dramatically" and noting that it called
for the $3.2 billion increase next year. He also voted for the spending measure
without the extra $1.8 billion.

"I don't care whether he (Walsh) is a Republican or a Democrat. But it was a
very dramatic press release, and it was very cynical in retrospect," said Bob
Norton, deputy director of government relations for the Military Officers
Association of America.

Congress' actions have many veterans talking about political consequences in
next year's presidential and congressional elections.

"Veterans more and more are beginning to sense a loss of faith and confidence in
the administration," said Richard C. Schneider, director of veteran and state
affairs for the Non Commissioned Officers Association. "They're no longer
willing to be the quiet, accepting veterans that they have been in the past. I
think they're actually going to hold some people accountable."

Veterans are beginning to talk about getting organized and increasing turnout at
the polls next year, veterans groups say.

Medal of Honor winner Paul Bucha told the Vietnam Veterans of America this month
that politicians would not respect the nation's 26.4 million veterans - never
recognized as a voting bloc - until they made themselves better known in the
election process.

In the normal discourse of politics, politicians, pollsters and observers speak
of blacks, Hispanics and suburban women but don't treat veterans as a group in
the same way, said Stuart Rothenberg, publisher of a nonpartisan political
newsletter in Washington.

"Maybe it's because when people hear veterans they assume patriotism and backing
U.S. military action and they are conservative and Republican," Rothenberg said.
"Groups that have a strong partisan bent are often ignored, both by the party
they are supposed to be tied to and the other party."

But Violante with the Disabled American Veterans said veterans "are starting to
wake up" because Republicans now control the federal government through the
House, Senate and White House.

"If we don't get what we want, the blame squarely has to rest with the
leadership in the Republican Party," he said.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Critical Weekend For Veterans
By JOHN  F. YOUMANS,  JYou508534@...


Hundreds of thousands of retired disabled veterans are eagerly awaiting the
results of the VFW and American Legion conventions that begin this weekend
in San Antonio and St. Louis. Both invited and uninvited veterans are
committed to ensure the media and the country know about the broken promises
made by the Bush administration to disabled veterans again this year.

President George W. Bush and US Rep. Jim Marshall are scheduled to address
the American Legion convention in St. Louis while SECDEF  Donald Rumsfeld,
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice; Chairman, JCS, General Richard
Myers and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. are scheduled to speak at the VFW
convention in San Antonio.

The Retired Pay Restoration Act of 2003 and the lack of sufficient VA health
care funding are two primary veterans' issues. VA health care funding is
approximately $2 billion short of what is needed and promised.

The Retired Pay Restoration Act of 2003 concerns approximately 800,000
retired disabled veterans who are restricted from receiving their full
retirement pay after serving 20 years or more if they are also receiving VA
compensation for service-connected disabilities received during that
service. Most citizens assume these veterans receive both, but they don't.
DOD snatches the VA compensation and deducts it, dollar-for-dollar from
their retirement pay. These vets are then basically paying their own VA
disability compensation. To make it worse, all other federal retirees who
have service-connected disabilities get both while some may have only served
in the military two or four years.

The Retired Pay Restoration Act of 2003, H.R.303, would end this 112 year
old law and permit retired disabled vets to receive full payment for both.
For several years legislators have unanimously approved a bill to do this,
H.R.303, but for as many years the Bush administration has stonewalled and
threatened to veto the action saying it costs too much.

Many veterans feel abandoned when their Commander-In-Chief, President Bush,
gives away huge tax breaks to millionaires, each one gaining at least
$93,000 per year, when he gives $15 billion to Africa to fight AIDS and
purchase condoms, when he gives $22 billion for Foreign Aid and other
programs outside the US for many countries that don't even support the US
and then they are told the cost of H.R.303 is too expensive and threatens
veto if it is approved.

Veterans are also hot over  the reason Mr. Rumsfeld and Dr. David Chu, the
undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, give for not
supporting the bill. . Dr. Chu said if the bill was passed it would be at
the expense of the active duty and military readiness and an unfair burden
on taxpayers. But this a bunch of malarkey. The retirement pay veterans
receive is budgeted annually at full cost and put in the Military Retirement
Fund. The money DOD deducts from needy disabled retired veterans, "The
Disabled Veterans Tax" as Rep. Marshall calls it, is just additional money
Dr. Chu gets to spend as he likes.

To change this year's repeat ending where H.R.303 dies in committee,  US
Rep. Jim Marshall (D-Ga.) initiated a discharge petition to force the bill
for a vote. This action requires 218 signatures to be successful and there
are only 202 signatures now.  Republican party leaders ordered the 170
Republicans who cosponsored the bill not to sign the petition. In addition,
Mr. Rumsfeld sent a letter to House and Senate Armed Services Committee
leaders saying he would "join other senior advisors to the President in
recommending that he veto the FY2004 Defense Authorization Bill if it
includes Senate-passed provisions authorizing concurrent receipt of military
retirement pay and veterans' disability compensation benefits, or expands
TRICARE."

Veterans are fed up with promises of support and public flag waving for the
press by the same administration that refuses to put its money where its
mouth is. On September 6, 2000, during his campaign, President Bush said,
"In order to make sure that morale is high with those who wear the uniform
today, we must keep our commitment to those who wore the uniform in the
past.We will make sure promises made to our veterans will be promises kept."
Vets say the Bush administration needs to "Walk the Walk not just Talk the
Talk."

Last November, instead of passing Concurrent Receipt, a last minute
compromise (CRSC) was made to allow disabled retired vets with
combat-related disabilities rated 60 percent or above or those who received
a Purple Heart and have10 percent or higher combat-related disability to
keep both their full retirement pay and VA compensation. This only benefited
about 35,000 of the total 800,000 disabled retired vets or five percent. Of
the five percent who applied, DOD has only approved about five to eight
percent. The program was effective June 1.

Like an old fox who doesn't miss a trick, many of these retired disabled
vets have it all figured out. Republican representatives home on recess have
been bombarded by veterans wanting to know why they cosponsored H.R.303 and
refused to sign the discharge petition to force it to a vote. Even before
the recess many Republicans were threatening to break ranks if there wasn't
any action on the bill.

To prevent many Republicans from breaking ranks and being embarrassed,
President Bush is expected to announce at the convention another compromise
that offers only partial benefits again. The compromise is expected to
include service-connected instead of only combat-related veterans with
disabilities rated at 60 percent or more to be allowed to receive both
retirement and VA compensation. The hook to this expected compromise is that
it will be phased in over five or 10 years, long after many retired disabled
vets have dyed and missed out on receiving the retirement and VA
compensation they rightfully earned. It would also continue to not recognize
the hundreds of thousands below the 60 percent disability  rating, which
most are saying is totally unacceptable. Others are saying some is better
than none.





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Yes lets get real.  She isn't a girl.  She is a woman.  Lets get real!  She was
brutally raped and beyond anything you can imagine and you sit back w/o even
putting your name on this email and putting her down.  Lets get real! The army
specifically and the military in general, give away medals like candy.  The only
medal worth having is the CMH.  And since most people have to die for that...! 
If you noticed, all the women being returned from being captured, had broken
bones.  None of the men had that!  All the broken bones are from spiral
fractures.  If you known what this woman went through, and it were done to you,
you probably want you taken out side and whipped for talking like you just did.

Robert White
   ----- Original Message -----
   From: k29boom@...
   To: veterans@yahoogroups.com
   Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 6:43 PM
   Subject: [veterans] (no subject)


   Lets get real. A bronze star for getting lost and not even firing her weapon.
   Got no business  in the military in  the first place.Can you imagine a bunch
   of girls crawling up the beaches of Tarawa or Iwo Jima. I've got four combat
   tours and surrendering was never considered the most valiant thing to do let
   a. lone getting a medal for it.
   I do not intend toput dowm Jessi and what she endured. I know it's
   politics.and media frenzy. I think that the brass are doing this great little
woman a
   great injustice.She should have been treated like any other buck ass PFC.I
   really believe that is the way this great girl would have preffered.Jessi I
love
   you.

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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

see this web site for updated info on CRSC
www.crlegislation.com

http://www.militarypress.com/update.html
Military Update

     By Tom Philpott
   Concurrent receipt pressure rises;
CRSC policies refined

     House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and other Republicans leaders are urging
President Bush to drop his veto threat and allow Congress to further ease
the century-old law that bans "concurrent receipt'' of full military retired
pay and Department of Veteran Affairs' (VA) disability compensation.

Capitol Hill sources said career retirees who now forfeit part or all of
their earned annuities to draw tax-free VA disability pay are, with
surprising effectiveness, threatening House Republicans with election defeat
next year if they don't back up words of support for concurrent receipt with
action.

Action this year, if the Bush administration continues to oppose concurrent
receipt, would be for Republicans to join Democrats in signing a discharge
petition by Rep. Jim Marshall (D-Ga.) to force a vote on HR 303, legislation
that would end the ban on concurrent receipt for all 710,000 retirees who
served 20 or more years and have VA-rated disabilities.

Marshall's petition has turned an uncomfortable spotlight on Republicans who
cosponsored HR 303, the Retired Pay Restoration Act, but balk at forcing a
vote on it because Bush opposes the bill. Only one Republican, Tom Tancredo
of Colorado, has signed the discharge petition. Congressional sources said
other Republicans have warned Hastert they might break ranks too if the
White House can't be persuaded to accept relaxation of the concurrent
receipt ban before the August recess.

Rep. Michael Bilirakis (R-Fla.), author of HR 303, is said to be pressing
for the compromise the House reached last year before it fell victim to Bush
's veto threat. It would have allowed a five year phase-in of full
concurrent receipt for 90,000 of the most seriously disabled retirees, those
with VA disability ratings of 60 percent or higher. The pressure is almost
as intense now as last December when Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) persuaded Bush
to accept a more targeted compromise, the Combat-Related Special
Compensation, which took effect June 1. CRSC, in effect, is concurrent
receipt by another name. But eligibility is limited to roughly 35,000
retirees who have permanent injuries for which they received the Purple
Heart or who have disabilities of 60 percent or higher tied to combat,
combat training or an instrumentality of war such as exposure to the deadly
defoliant Agent Orange in the Vietnam War. The Bilirakis compromise seems
the high end of what House leaders might settle for during "high-level''
discussions now underway with the White House. The least costly step
Congress might be able to take and still crow about would be to extend CRSC
eligibility to all reserve retirees with combat-related disabilities. Only a
few reserve retirees are eligible for CRSC under current law.

Steve Strobridge, government relations director of the Military Officers
Association of America, said Marshall's discharge petition "is putting great
pressure on Republicans to do something so they don't have to explain the
inconsistency'' of cosponsoring HR 303 but refusing to allow a vote.
Proponents "hope and expect substantive progress'' on easing the concurrent
receipt ban this year, Strobridge said.

If it happens, Congress and the White House will be going against the advice
of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. In a July 8 letter to House Armed
Services Committee chairman, Rumsfeld opposed concurrent receipt saying the
Senate's unfunded plan to eliminate the ban altogether would cost $57
billion over 10 years and drain resources from more important personnel
programs.


CRSC and "Unemployability"

Defense officials are circulating draft policy decisions on how
Combat-Related Special Compensation likely will be set in two special
circumstances important to severely disabled retirees.

The first is when retirees are deemed "unemployable'' by the VA, and
therefore eligible for higher compensation as fully disabled, even though
their combined disability rating doesn't reach the same level of 100
percent. The planned policy would allow higher CRSC payments for
"unemployability'' only if the combat-related disabilities, when combined,
meet VA threshold requirements for "unemployable.'' If a finding of
unemployability rests in part on non-combat-related injuries or illnesses,
CRSC will not be raised. The CRSC second policy in final review involves
Special Monthly Compensation (SMC), which is payable on top of regular VA
compensation when disabilities are disfiguring or profound on daily living.
Receipt of SMC, on top of other VA compensation, often eliminates retired
pay entirely.

But to reverse whatever offset in retired pay is caused by SMC, the service'
s CRSC board would rely only on disabilities that are combat-related or
otherwise qualified to affect CRSC. For example, if the retiree lost a hand
years before to enemy gunfire, any reduction in retired pay from receipt of
SMC would be payable as CRSC. If the hand were lost to a home repair
accident, any drop in retired pay from receipt of SMC would not be restored
by higher CRSC.

CRSC won't always match what a disabled retiree draws in VA compensation and
SMC even if all disabilities are combat-related. That's because the goal of
CRSC is to fully restore retired pay that was offset. It can match but never
exceed the amount of retired pay offset.

Reserve TRICARE

Another Senate provision in the 2004 defense authorization bill that
Rumsfeld opposes is opening TRICARE to reservists and their families in
return for a modest enrollment fee. It would cost an estimated $5.1 billion
a year, he said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) recently announced a compromise on this with
the Bush administration. The Defense Department has agreed to study the
issue. Congress promises to do something on reserve health care next year.




----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----


Comments and suggestions are welcomed. Write to Military Update, P.O. Box
231111, Centreville, VA 20120-1111, or send e-mail to: milupdate@...




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Pass this on to Veterans & Military Retirees.
  Excuse the Ad..we must grow larger.  Add a link  at your websites
cover in news articles
          Do you want to know what is going on with Veteran Issues?

               Subscribe Free to - Veteran Issues by Colonel Dan

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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

From the National Gulf War Resource Center The following phone numbers are
available to veterans
   Active duty military personnel with questions or concerns about their service
in the Persian Gulf region: contact your commanding officer or call the
Department of Defense (DoD) Gulf War Veterans Hotline (1-800-497-6261).

   Gulf War veterans with concerns about their health:contact the nearest VA
medical center. The telephone number can be found in the local telephone
directory under Department of Veterans Affairs in the "U.S. Government"
listings. A Persian Gulf Registry examination will be offered. Treatment will be
provided to eligible veterans.

   Gulf War veterans in need of marital/family counseling: contact the nearest VA
medical center or VA vet center. For additional information, call the VA Gulf
War Information Helpline at 1-800-PGW-VETS (1-800-749-8387).

   Gulf War veterans seeking disability compensation for illnesses incurred in or
aggravated by military service: contact a Veterans Benefits Counselor at the
nearest VA regional office of health care facility or call the VA Gulf War
Information Helpline at 1-800-PGW-VETS (1-800-749-8387).

   Gulf War veterans interested in learning about the wide range of benefit
programs administered by the VA: contact a Veterans Benefits Counselor at the
nearest VA regional office or health care facility or call the VA Gulf War
Information Helpline at 1-800-PGW-VETS (1-800-749-8387).

   Press one for GW illnesses, press 2 for Agent Orange or press 3 for
information on SHAD. Apparently, the Washington DC Hospital has a special center
that deals only with GW Illnesses.  They will pay to have someone come there to
be treated.  There toll free number is: 800-722-8340.  They are located in room
3B203.  There is a second clinic located in New Jersey.

   Individuals with first-hand information about "incidents" that occurred in the
theater of operations during the Gulf War and that may be related to health
problems experienced by individuals who served in the War: call the DoD
"Incidents" Hotline at 1-800-497-6261.

   Active Duty, their family members and former members of the military can that
believe they suffer from Gulf War diseases can call 800-796-9699 to register for
medical examinations and treatment.  It is located at Walter Reed in Washington
DC.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Foreign Policy Research Institute
A Catalyst for Ideas
www.fpri.org

E-Notes
Distributed Exclusively via Fax & Email

THE 2003 PITCAIRN TRUST LECTURE ON WORLD AFFAIRS
ROBERT KAPLAN ON A JOURNEY INTO THE FUTURE

July 31, 2003

Robert Kaplan,  one of  the nation's leading foreign affairs
journalists, is  an FPRI associate and a contributing editor
to the  Atlantic Monthly.  His books  include Balkan  Ghosts
(1994), Ends  of the Earth (1996), Empire Wilderness (1998),
Eastward to  Tartary (2000),  Soldiers of  God: With Islamic
Warriors in  Afghanistan and  Pakistan (2001),  and  Warrior
Politics: Why  Leadership Demands  a Pagan Ethos (2002).  On
April 9,  2003, he  delivered  the  second  annual  Pitcairn
Lecture  on  World  Affairs,  sponsored  by  Pitcairn  Trust
(www.pitcairn.com), a  private trust  company and investment
management firm  serving  the  wealth  management  needs  of
affluent individuals and families.


       THE 2003 PITCAIRN TRUST LECTURE ON WORLD AFFAIRS
          ROBERT KAPLAN ON A JOURNEY INTO THE FUTURE

                  Rapporteur, Trudy Kuehner

Mr. Kaplan  began his  remarks by noting that in March 2003,
while  hundreds   of  thousands   of  American  troops  were
mobilizing in  the Persian  Gulf region  for the invasion of
Iraq, the  U.S. Army Special Operations Command was involved
on the  ground in 65 countries. The U.S. Air Force currently
has a  presence in  170 countries.  Even before  9/11,  U.S.
armed services  professionals were  engaged in operations in
some 150  countries a  year. It  is already  a cliche to say
that by any historical standard the United States is more an
empire,  especially  a  military  one,  than  many  care  to
acknowledge.

While foreign  policy commentators discuss the pros and cons
of concepts  like nation-building,  mid-level officers  have
been making all kinds of decisions around the world, such as
how best  to build  a  Yemeni  coast  guard,  modernize  the
Rumanian army,  or help  the Mongolians protect their border
against Chinese  infiltration. These  young people, cultural
repositories of America's experience and deputized in effect
as agents  of the  American empire,  are making decisions on
the ground without instructions.

Mr. Kaplan  used three  case studies--one  in Latin America,
one in the Middle East, and one in Africa--to illustrate how
these service  people think  and the  specific  ground-level
problems they face.

COLOMBIA
Taking first  the case of Colombia, Mr. Kaplan reported that
he had just returned from being embedded with four different
U.S. Army Green Beret regiments there, where an entire other
war is  going on  in which  the  U.S.  is  deeply  involved.
Colombia's drug  problems may  seem less  important now than
the problems  in Iraq  and North  Korea,  but  those  latter
countries represent  the  last  of  the  Cold  War  dinosaur
regimes that  are passing  as we  speak. Colombia represents
the kind of challenges we are going to face in the future.

Colombia is  "interagency" writ large, meaning that there is
a meshing  of the Departments of State, Defense, Energy, and
Commerce and  the EPA,  as is  now happening  in Iraq as the
military operation  gives way  to a rebuilding operation. In
Colombia  one  sees  American  soldiers  in  full  kit  with
grenades and  rifles, but they are not working for Secretary
of Defense Rumsfeld, they are working for Secretary of State
Powell. Meanwhile,  one  sees  American  civilians  with  no
weapons at  all working  for the  Secretary of  Defense. The
American ambassador  in Colombia  is more a general, and the
commander of  Southern  Command  more  a  diplomat.  We  are
entering an  era where  the civil, military, diplomatic, and
military services are becoming inextricable.

For  people   on   the   ground,   Mr.   Kaplan   continued,
"interagency" can  mean bureaucratic boondoggles and various
agencies with  different agendas  stepping on  each  other's
toes. The  goal is  to develop  it into  a  fluid  civilian-
military command structure.

In Colombia,  the drug  war has  been folded into the war on
terror  ("narcotraffickers"   are  now   "narcoterrorists").
Colombia is the third-largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid,
after Israel  and Egypt,  and also  the third  most populous
country in  Latin America,  after Brazil and Mexico. Several
guerrilla bands, left and rightwing narcoterrorists, control
about a  third of the country, a vast amount of real estate.
They make  about $600-700  million a year in cocaine-related
protection profits. So they have vast resources and money to
buy all  kinds of military hardware. They have the territory
to set up bases in what amounts to a sovereign sanctuary.

Some of  the most  violent parts  of  Colombia  are  on  the
Venezuelan border,  where President  Hugo Chavez  has  given
these  criminal   groups  rear  bases  while  inviting  Arab
criminal and  terrorist gangs into Maracaibo and the islands
off the Venezuelan coast. There have already been documented
linkages between  the various  guerrilla groups  in Colombia
and the  FARC,  ELN,  and  IRA,  and  signs  of  a  possible
relationship of  convenience between  Al Qaeda and Colombian
terrorists.

Like a  number of such places in the world (including Yemen,
which will  be discussed  below), Colombia  is less a nation
than a  group of  city-states in  the highlands  that cannot
control the  criminal lowlands,  where historically the hand
of central  government has  not extended, leading to anarchy
or chaos. We are moving in because imperialism has proven in
the past the most benign antidote to chaos.

The Colombian terrorists are much more highly developed than
many others  in Latin  America. They  are  so  inventive  in
Colombia that  they set up roadblocks where one must show ID
so they  can check  your name  against a  computer database,
which can take days, to see if you are worth kidnapping.

Mr. Kaplan  observed that  the  received  wisdom  about  the
United States'  involvement in  Latin America throughout the
Cold War--the  coup in Chile, and Guatemala in 1954--is that
it is  something of  which we  should be  ashamed.  But  the
larger truth  is that  our Cold  War method  of operation in
Latin America  is the  only viable  approach for  the United
States to  follow in  the coming  decades in the Middle East
and elsewhere.

Throughout the  Cold War  decades, the U.S. Southern Command
had very  little money. All the military funds were budgeted
for the  European Command,  because of  the Soviet Union and
Germany, and the Pacific Command, because of China and North
Korea. Yet  SOUTHCOM had  to defend  South America, parts of
Central America,  and the Caribbean against Soviet and Cuban
infiltration. It came up with an imperial strategy as old as
the  Romans  and  Greeks,  called  economy  of  force.  They
inventively used  special operations  units and intelligence
agencies such  the CIA  to  quietly,  off-camera,  mold  the
political reality  in countries  in a  way that  didn't risk
bogging the U.S. down.

The U.S. had 550,000 troops in Vietnam but didn't accomplish
much there.  By contrast,  at no point between 1979 and 1992
did we  have more  than 55  special forces  trainers on  the
ground in  El Salvador,  but with  just those  55 and  a few
hundred support  personnel, the  U.S. was  able to  help the
rightwing groups  suppress the  leftwing groups and then the
regular army  to absorb  the rightwing  groups and turn them
into a  professional army  that respected  human rights.  El
Salvador today  may not  be  a  success  story,  but  in  an
imperfect world  it is  about as  normalized  as  one  could
reasonably hope.  Because you  cannot fix a whole society or
its whole  military, you  have your  elite units  train  the
trainers of  their elite  units. You  work to  convert a few
elite units in the host country's military and train them to
go after  a few  pivotal  targets,  thus  achieving  maximum
effect with minimum manpower.

From a moral perspective, in the ten years after the Chilean
coup, for  example, infant mortality was lowered from 79 per
1,000 births  to 11  per 1,000 births, the poverty rate from
35 percent  to 11  percent. Chile  is now  the  model  Latin
American democracy,  while Venezuela  and Colombia have very
little to  show for their four decades of democracy in terms
of quality of life.

Mr. Kaplan  noted that Colombia's terrorists have no central
structure, another  feature that  makes it  a testing ground
for  the   future.  The  guerrilla  groups  have  a  diffuse
hierarchy, with  no overall  commanders. Rather,  they  have
been separated  out into  franchises. You  can cut  off  one
element, but  there is always another, just as with Al Qaeda
after its  central command structure was severely hit by the
United States. So you have a country with a vast interagency
challenge, where everything is diffuse.

The leftist Colombian guerrilla groups, Mr. Kaplan said, are
Karl Marx  on top  and Adam Smith all the way down. Ideology
is gone  in Colombia, yet there is a higher rate of violence
and torture  than almost  anywhere else. Everything is about
money. This  blending of  criminalization and war is another
of the  challenges we  will be facing in the Philippines and
numerous other places.

YEMEN
Mr. Kaplan  noted that  Yemen is  a lot  like Colombia.  The
principal challenge  for its  capital, Sanaa, at 7,500 feet,
is extending  the central  government's  power  out  to  the
lowlands: in this case, desert, whereas in Colombia they are
jungles. The  Yemeni government  controls half  its country;
the Colombia government, about 60 percent of its country.

The Americans  on the  ground in  Yemen, as in Colombia, are
concerned with  maintaining the  status  quo.  The  American
empire, like  every other empire in history, is a status quo
power,  meaning  that  it  seeks  to  preserve  the  central
authority in each place as it is and spread its power.

Much as we don't want to change the Colombian government but
just want it to be able to control all (or at least more) of
Colombia, we  don't want  to change  the Yemeni  government,
just to help it control more of Yemen. Because if the status
quo changes,  if too  many countries  have new (even if they
are more  liberal) forms  of government, the world will be a
different  place.   America's  power  is  supreme  precisely
because the world is the way it is now. If the world becomes
a different  place, America's  power may  dissipate, even as
American values  take over  in many places. So the challenge
in Yemen  is how to get the government to rule over those of
the country's  regions where  the  government  doesn't  have
control, mainly in the north, along the Saudi border.

It is  a stretch,  Mr. Kaplan  said,  to  think  the  Yemeni
government can actually control all these places. But with a
minimum number of Americans on the ground, with a reasonable
budget expense  that gets  the most  for the  least, one can
train a  few special units in the Yemeni government that can
project power at will, wherever and whenever they want, in a
far more  efficient manner,  into these  tribal badlands  to
bring them under control. Indirectly but effectively

Mr. Kaplan  noted that Yemen probably has a higher degree of
anti-Americanism than  most other places in the Middle East.
The antiwar  demonstrations in  Sanaa earlier this year were
30,000  strong   and  quite   violent.  The  U.S.  embassy's
architecture tells  the story:  the sandbags  and concertina
wire are  higher than  elsewhere, and  the armed guards more
numerous. It is, however, a democracy after a fashion.

Yemen's president, Ali Abdallah Salih, who has been in power
since 1979  (as the last president of North Yemen; he became
president of Yemen upon its reunification in 1990), runs the
country, and  has institutionalized  his  rule  through  the
security and  other services.  But there  is  a  parliament,
which holds  elections. The Islah, a somewhat fundamentalist
party, is  the  largest  political  party.  President  Salih
controls this  parliament,  less  by  intimidation  than  by
tribal relationships.  Both he  and the  leader of the Islah
party come  from the  Hashid family,  so it is really tribal
relationships that  keep a  lid on  things. Left  to itself,
this parliament  would be  very radical. The problem here is
that the  government has  too little  control, not too much,
Mr. Kaplan  said. Precisely  because of that, it is the most
violent, dangerous  place for  American  citizens.  That  is
directly related to its level of democratization.

Given these  ironies and  challenges, Mr.  Kaplan said,  the
Iraq operation  is not  a model  for the future. It involved
mobilizing too  many troops  and assuming too much risk. The
fewer times  we do  this kind  of thing, the better. Because
the U.S.  can dominate  easily provided it operates quietly.
The moment  a crisis  comes to  center stage in the world in
this time of mass global media, it stops being judged on its
merits and  starts being seen as a defining symbol. Everyone
can define  themselves as members of some group through that
crisis:    anti-American,    European,    Muslim,    antiwar
intellectual, whatever  one wants.  Once the  crisis becomes
symbolic, rational  argument has  no chance.  So the U.S. is
better off with many small crises than one big crisis.

How, he  asked, in  a lot of these places do we operate more
nimbly and  do things  more quietly? Again, he said, look at
Latin America  in the  fifties, and the CIA's involvement in
the 1967  assassination of Che Guevera in Bolivia (which did
not set  off any big demonstrations in the U.S., preoccupied
it was with the Vietnam War).

Applying this to Yemen, which is a setting for the emergence
of Al  Qaeda cells,  where one hour outside of Sanaa you are
in a poor country of crowded pickup trucks filled with young
men with AK-47s, whose loyalty is to a tribal sheik. You are
close to the Saudi Arabian border. Saudi Arabia is some four
times larger than Yemen, but Yemen's population is almost as
large as  Saudi Arabia's.  Both countries'  populations  are
concentrated  in  the  southwest  quadrant  of  the  Arabian
Peninsula, on the Yemen/Saudi border.

Far from  being most  concerned about Iraq or Yasser Arafat,
Saudis are  most concerned with Yemen and the instability it
produces. Yemen  in this  regard is  like Colombia:  a hard-
working, entrepreneurial society with the highest population
growth rate  in the region. Half of all Yemenis are 15 years
old  or  younger.  It  is  one  of  the  most  highly  armed
populations  in   the  world,   according  to   World   Bank
statistics, with  about four  AK-47s or  grenades for  every
Yemeni: 80  million arms  for a population of 19 million. It
is lawless,  poor, overpopulated,  and very dangerous. Also,
it is  vast. You  have the desert badlands in the north, but
also a sophisticated, cosmopolitan culture in the northeast,
the  Hadhramaut,   with   Indian,   Indonesian,   and   Thai
influences, cut  off from everyplace else. Its age-old spice
trading links to southeast Asia, make perfect links not only
for legitimate  business and financial networks but also for
terrorist networks. And you have this whole other area which
requires infiltration  and policing.  Then  in  the  coastal
cities of  the south,  Mocha, Aden,  and others,  you have a
proletariat fundamentalist phenomenon. In Al Mukalla, on the
coast, one  part of  the boardwalk  is for men and the other
for women  and children.  There are Ethiopian street urchins
and Somali  refugees. Everyone  dresses in  black. There  is
garbage everywhere.  It is  crowded  as  anything,  and  the
Yemeni security  forces have  little success  finding anyone
there. This  other part  of Yemen  shows the  urban side  of
fundamentalism. (One  might also  note, however,  that Islam
seems to  better reduce common crime among the urban poor in
Yemen than Catholicism does in Colombia.)

Then you  have southern Yemen as a whole, which from 1967-90
was the  People's Democratic  Republic of  Yemen,  or  South
Yemen. Because  it was Marxist, it is now more pro-American,
or at  least  less  anti-American.  Many  Yemenis  who  went
through the  Soviet experience are much more grateful to the
West than  in more  traditional northern  Yemen. Yet because
they were forcefully denied religion for those decades, they
are more  susceptible to  fundamentalism now.  So it is pro-
Westernism in  the south,  as a  short-term phenomenon,  but
fundamentalism is a more a long-term phenomenon.

American officers  on the  ground in Yemen have to deal with
and  recognize   some   unsavory   people   with   terrorist
backgrounds in  order to  prevent worse  people from  coming
into power.  They know  that the  president of  Yemen  needs
these people  to give him legitimacy in order to do business
with us  in other  ways. This is a reality that is difficult
to understand unless you are there.

ERITREA
Mr. Kaplan finished by briefly noting the case of Eritrea, a
country of  only 3.5  million people  on the Horn of Africa,
across the  Red Sea from Yemen. It is the most civil society
in Africa  without democracy.  But only  a small  elite  are
subject to  coercion: it  does  not  feel  like  a  coercive
dictatorship as  far as  the  common  person  is  concerned.
Eritrea has no personality cult and no ethnic tensions among
its nine  ethnic groups,  even though half the population is
Orthodox Christian and half is Muslim; several languages are
spoken. The  government resists  holding elections,  feeling
that elections would only cause ethnic splits.

Eritrea may  be the only third-world country that has a high
level of  American-style secular  patriotism, because of its
thirty-year war  with Ethiopia.  It uses  its financial  aid
efficiently,  and   the  bureaucracy  works  well,  with  no
corruption.   At the  same time,  Eritrea has  serious human
rights problems.  Several U.S.  embassy employees,  Eritrean
nationals, are being held in prisons (even as Eritrea offers
the U.S. air and sea bases whenever it needs them).

Eritrea is an exception that proves the rule of how vast and
variegated the  world is,  and how  difficult it is to apply
many of  our general principles in specific places. So while
we need  general principles  to give coherence to our values
and  operations,   we  also   need   to   be   flexible   in
implementation. There  are many  Eritreas in  the world, and
countries that  show the  opposite example,  too. Each place
requires its own strategy.

Mr. Kaplan  concluded by noting that the U.S. does best when
it applies  the general,  historic principles  of a  liberal
free society,  but we  must not be too narrow and legalistic
in  interpreting  those  principles.  We  should  not  force
elections, for  example--that is  where we  tend to get into
trouble. We are a global power with global responsibilities.
Flexibility is  key, but  we can  use the Cold War-era Latin
American paradigm  today,  infused  with  a  stronger  human
rights component for our times.


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Unfortunately, what you've described is no basis for the award of the
Bronze Star, so the question remains.

Actually, I have my congressman's military staffer looking into it...
and will keep the group posted.

K.J. in Battle Ground

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert White [mailto:etihwr2@...]
Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2003 10:37 AM
To: k29boom@...; Various Vet's XXV
Subject: [veterans] Lets get real.


Yes lets get real.  She isn't a girl.  She is a woman.  Lets get real!
She was brutally raped and beyond anything you can imagine and you sit
back w/o even putting your name on this email and putting her down.
Lets get real! The army specifically and the military in general, give
away medals like candy.  The only medal worth having is the CMH.  And
since most people have to die for that...!  If you noticed, all the
women being returned from being captured, had broken bones.  None of the
men had that!  All the broken bones are from spiral fractures.  If you
known what this woman went through, and it were done to you, you
probably want you taken out side and whipped for talking like you just
did.

Robert White
   ----- Original Message -----
   From: k29boom@...
   To: veterans@yahoogroups.com
   Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 6:43 PM
   Subject: [veterans] (no subject)


   Lets get real. A bronze star for getting lost and not even firing her
weapon.
   Got no business  in the military in  the first place.Can you imagine a
bunch
   of girls crawling up the beaches of Tarawa or Iwo Jima. I've got four
combat
   tours and surrendering was never considered the most valiant thing to
do let
   a. lone getting a medal for it.
   I do not intend toput dowm Jessi and what she endured. I know it's
   politics.and media frenzy. I think that the brass are doing this great
little woman a
   great injustice.She should have been treated like any other buck ass
PFC.I
   really believe that is the way this great girl would have
preffered.Jessi I love
   you.

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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian/issues03/feb03/pdf/smithsonian_februar\
y_2003_marching_on_history.pdf

Thank you Ron Regan  for pointing me to this story... after the current 108
congress session ends.... we may have to march again on DC

Marching on History
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian/issues03/feb03/bonus_army.html

When a "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans converged on Washington in 1932
to demand a promised payment, MacArthur, Eisenhower and Patton were there to
meet them

By the spring of 1932, as the Great Depression deepened across the land,
thousands of America's veterans, unemployed and desperate, were traveling by
rail, train and on foot, bound for the nation's capital. Simple justice,
they believed, was their goal.

The soldiers who fought the Great War-many of whom now had taken to the road
with their families-had been promised, eight years before, in 1924, a
special payment for their military service, though compensation had been
deferred until 1945. America's now-impoverished veterans believed this delay
to be a travesty.

What none of the participants could have foreseen was that the arrival of
the Bonus Army would help shape several figures who would soon assume larger
roles on the world stage-including Douglas A. MacArthur, Dwight D.
Eisenhower and George S. Patton. The Bonus Army would also affect the
presidential election of 1932, when the patrician governor of New York,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, squared off against incumbent President Hoover,
widely blamed for the economic crisis.

By early that summer, thousands of vets were living in hastily erected
shantytowns in the shadow of the Capitol. Fearful that protests would grow
violent, and incited by advisers who claimed the Bonus Army numbered
Communist sympathizers among its ranks, the president ordered that the vets
be removed forcibly on July 28. Presiding over this day of violence was the
Army Chief of Staff, Douglas MacArthur and his principal aide, Dwight
Eisenhower, while the brash George Patton rode with the cavalry. With
unfortunate political consequences for President Hoover, MacArthur far
exceeded his authority by extending the expulsion to the veterans' camps
beyond the downtown area.

Within a few days, newspapers and theater newsreels showed graphic images of
the rout-fleeing vets and their families, blazing shacks, clouds of tear
gas, soldiers wielding fixed bayonets. After reading accounts of the
incident, Franklin Roosevelt turned to an adviser and remarked: "This will
elect me."
*****continue with full text of article at:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian/issues03/feb03/pdf/smithsonian_februar\
y_2003_marching_on_history.pdf



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From the National Gulf War Resource Center

   Washington, DC (October 25, 2002) -- Former Defense Secretary Robert S.
McNamara is among nine defendants named in two first-of-their-kind class action
lawsuits for allegedly covering up medical records without which veterans of
atomic, biological, and chemical warfare testing cannot receive needed medical
and other benefits. The plaintiffs include veterans, their families, and the
Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA), who allege a deliberate and ongoing cover-up
by US government officials to conceal and ignore relevant records, many of which
are personal medical records that would allow them to seek proper benefits from
the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for the often devastating long-term
health effects of the government's testing of weapons of mass destruction.

   Filed by the law firm of Shaw Pittman, LLP, the complaints--one for veterans
exposed to atomic detonations and the other for veterans exposed to biological
and chemical tests, as well as their survivors--aim to hold government officials
personally responsible for their involvement in illegal and unethical activities
and to obtain justice for aging veterans. The complaints tell disturbingly
similar stories of government and military officials protecting the government
and themselves from liability for the effects of cold war atomic, biological,
and chemical experiments on their own troops, sailors, airmen, and marines.

   The complaints point to several smoking guns, including a White House memo
that describes the classification of records as a tactic to prevent public
relations risks and ultimately limit the government's liability. The veterans
and their families also cite original test documents and reports that record
large-scale radiation overexposures and medical test procedures that directly
contradict government and military official statements that veterans were not
used as test subjects and were not exposed to unsafe levels of radiation.

   The "Atomic Veteran" plaintiffs consist of more than 415,000 surviving
veterans exposed to radiation as part of the government's atomic testing and
military programs in the 1940-1950s. The plaintiffs in the second complaint are
approximately 10,000 military personnel used as involuntary test subjects in
biological and chemical warfare tests in the 1960s known as "Project SHAD."
Additionally, VVA serves as a named plaintiff in the SHAD case on behalf of the
thousands of Vietnam-era veterans affected by the government's actions

   "The VA has a statutory mandate to advocate for and protect the interests of
these veterans, but instead VA officials have purposefully failed them. This is
the age of Enron, when the government contends that you are personally
responsible for your unethical decisions. We're holding up a mirror and
expecting them to practice what they preach," said Shaw Pittman partner David
Cynamon, who filed the complaints.

   "America's veterans deserve their benefits. They deserve honesty. And they
deserve accountability, especially from our government officials. Justice for
our veterans is at the heart of VVA's mission, and this lawsuit will help get
them the justice they deserve," said VVA National President Thomas Corey.

   Former Navy crewmember of the USS Navarro in 1963 and plaintiff Robert Bates
said, "I wasn't asked if I wanted to be a human guinea pig. I wasn't told that I
was part of an experiment until thirty years later. And now, I can't get my
complete medical records from the government so that I can get needed benefits."
Mr. Bates suffers from congestive heart failure and joint problems thought to be
related to the chemical warfare tests.

   The complaints allege a policy that government and military officials began in
the 1940s and current officials continue to carry out in order to keep veterans
from claiming their just medical benefits. For example, government and military
officials admit that Project SHAD medical records were and remain "classified"
and unavailable to veterans attempting to claim VA benefits for health problems
arising from biological and chemical agents used on them by their own military.
The government contends that other relevant records disappeared, were destroyed,
or never existed.

   "They tell you that they can't give you benefits until you prove you were
involved, but they keep the documents that can prove it in a sealed vault behind
their desks. This is not the government my husband intended to serve," said Pat
Broudy, whose husband died due to lymphoma, a cancer known to be caused by
radiation exposure. Her husband had served in the occupation of Nagasaki, Japan,
trained on a radioactive target ship, and participated in mock assaults on
ground zero following atomic detonations in the Nevada desert but was denied VA
benefits.

   Shaw Pittman began representing veterans as a result of a project that relied
on the firm's litigation and scientific expertise. "As Americans, we expect our
government and military officials to uphold a basic standard of legal and
ethical conduct. There is a right way and a wrong way to protect legitimate
military secrets. Concealing medical information to avoid potential government
liability for veterans' injuries is not the right way." said Shaw Pittman
attorney Douglas Rosinski.

   Shaw Pittman, LLP has offices in Washington, D.C., New York, Northern
Virginia, London and Los Angeles. The firm provides business and technology
legal services on a global basis. It can be accessed online at
http://www.shawpittman.com.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hello!

I thank each of you for the comments you left in the guestbook at this
Veterans Eblitz website.

I apologize to those of you whom I did not get time to make a personal
response.  I hope you will forgive me for that ommission.

Many responses were of the view that the VA should be taken to court.

After much consideration, and many hours of effort accumulating
documented evidence, I have decided to do exactly that, sue the VA.

Several of the citizens and veterans who left guestbook messages also
responded directly to me with stories and some documented evidence, or
insight into where to find such documentation.

The suit will begin as an action by just myself, and then be expanded
into a class action lawsuit on behalf of all veterans, past, present,
and future.

For any of you with some legal background, this is due to the power of
In Forma Pauperis issues.

The Veterans Eblitz website will, shortly, be shut down and
re-developed into an informational site about the progress and issues
of the lawsuit.

It will contain links or information for those veterans who have
similar issues and wish to provide evidence, testimony, and be named
members of the class.

It will also contain and urgent needs area where issues relating to the
suit and requiring urgent response from veterans will be highlighted.

A quick series of responses to the latest questbook entires!

ahasagic: I agree, this is a great country, i would wish to reside
nowhere else.

jackjos: You are welcome!  I do this because I, a veteran, owe deceased
warriors and living veterans for my life and my freedom.  Did you see
"Pay it Forward"?  I have a debt, I am paying it forward.

786isa: Agreed, perhaps this will be the successful class action suit!

rak: Agreed, we do need to fight against those in office.  We are.  May
I suggest a visit to www.vets-voting-bloc.org and that you join them?
Membership is free, and they are extremely effective.  They tested the
power of the veterans voting united and it succeeded in Colorado.  That
and other veterans unification issues is why so many federal
functionaries are traveling the nation on speaking tours, right now.
It's called, DAMAGE CONTROL.

levins: Yes, the VA is a fraud as an agency.  Hang in there bro, we are
making extreme changes.  But, it is the gov'ment beasty we deal with
here and rapid change to it can be lifetimes to us.  Unfortunately,
true rapid change could kill our beloved gov'ment beasty, and we really
don't want to do that.  We are veterans and patriots, not anarchists.

firebirdmagic:  Whoa there bro, I'm not a webmaster guru guy!  I really
don't know how to create such a link as that there beasty!  The only
reason this old f--t was able to get the Eblitz site up was because
Yahoo offers both one free web site and the klutz friendly instructions
on how to build it!  And... they offered some pretty snazzy plug-in
graphics.  The only real "trick" I developed into the site was the
modified VA logo/insignia.  And the logo idea isn't even mine, it
belongs to a veteran friend I email with through the veterans forums.
My only real ideas on the site were: that of the site, the email blitz
approach and the suggested "seven steps" message.  Everything else,
including the change from email, to email to fax, came from creative
veterans all over the country.

liveoak: Oh, I definitely agree, the Eblitz was never concieved of as
an extremely effective or long-lived approach, only a relatively
short-term idea to (hopefully) improve the unification efforts of
veterans.  It has been, basicly, a tool to teach veterans a method
through which to develop unified power.  It is only one of many such
educational tools being used to that end.  It also worked more
effectively than dreamed of.  It caused the government to react by
attempting to close citizens mass email access to government ears.
Under growing charges of government violation of Constitutional rights
of citizens to use of any/every avenue of redress and grievance to the
government, those efforts stopped.  Did you happen to notice that they
never fulfilled their threat to shut down our email to fax access?
Constitutional violation issues were raised and won.  The Eblitz has
been way far more effective and educational than ever expected for the
mentors and the learners!  And just think what it taught the government
about veterans unification!  We are feared therein, bro!

K2FRD: bro, I too feel that same fear.  I know how disheartening
dealing with such a perverted VA can be.  Listen, bro, a very high VA
official told me to my face that the VA intended to deny me access to
the proper medical care in hopes that I would "die soon and stop being
such a pain in our asses!"  If I can take that, and keep my cool, and
keep on fighting for veterans rights, you can hang in there with some
hope that things will get better!  Even better, you can take that
anger, and fear, and frustration and turn it into fuel with which to
use all legal means to force the VA into compliance with the laws!
Remember how it was done?  Swallow it bro and turn it into fighting
power!!!

To several in the genre: Well, the power - and the mystique - is built
like this: "We've got people, who've got people, who know how every
system "they" have is built and the inherent weaknesses.  We ought to,
we're the ones who built everything they've got!  We also have people
who know how to shut down their systems, temporarily or permanently."

Would you want to take on such an army, one that knows everything
you've got and how to defeat it?  That's what "they" did when they
pissed off the current veterans.  Veterans are the largest single
segment of our population.  We out-populous any other segment.  And we
are all other segments.  We, are everyone.  And, therefore, everyone
identifies with us.  We are everyone's granddad/mom, uncle/aunt,
cousin, dad/mom, husband/wife, brother/sister, son/daughter.  We, are
where our front line troops will be in one, two, three, four, ect.
years and each individual troop is counting the time until he/she is at
the mercy of the perverted VA.

This nation does not belong to it's government, it belongs to it's
people.  It belongs to the veterans, the living citizen survivors of
those who built this nation, defended this nation, bled for this
nation, died for this nation, were maimed for this nation, lost their
minds for this nation, lost their souls for this nation, AND OWN THIS
NATION!

This nation belongs to those who have the duty and the responsibility,
by Constitution and law, to defeat all "threats from within and
without" whether they be of foreign design or of our own government's
design.

"If not part of the solution, you are the problem!"
Gary Kendall


__________________________________
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Before you start yanking a medal away from someone, you should yank all medals
away from anyone who served in GWI.  Everyone got the Bronze Star for being in
the Combat Zone.  Same with Vietnam.  Also as another person pointed out, the
crew and pilots of the P3 that the Chinese brought down were given medals.  You
need to take away these medals taken away.  While your at that, while I was in,
medals were given out for setting up chairs or performing routine tasks.  Yeah,
that's Bull Shit, but that is what the military does, it gives away medals
instead of ribbons or awards.  The Army gives away ranks in almost the same
manner.  Don't waste your congressman's time.  This lady suffered enough.  She
endured what most guys wouldn't and you want that taken away from her.  Since
the criteria for a medal is has been cheapened and is individually interpreted,
who are you to say she isn't deserving!

Robert White
   ----- Original Message -----
   From: K.J. Hinton
   To: 'Various Vet's XXV'
   Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2003 2:04 AM
   Subject: RE: [veterans] Lets get real.


   Unfortunately, what you've described is no basis for the award of the
   Bronze Star, so the question remains.

   Actually, I have my congressman's military staffer looking into it...
   and will keep the group posted.

   K.J. in Battle Ground

   -----Original Message-----
   From: Robert White [mailto:etihwr2@...]
   Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2003 10:37 AM
   To: k29boom@...; Various Vet's XXV
   Subject: [veterans] Lets get real.


   Yes lets get real.  She isn't a girl.  She is a woman.  Lets get real!
   She was brutally raped and beyond anything you can imagine and you sit
   back w/o even putting your name on this email and putting her down.
   Lets get real! The army specifically and the military in general, give
   away medals like candy.  The only medal worth having is the CMH.  And
   since most people have to die for that...!  If you noticed, all the
   women being returned from being captured, had broken bones.  None of the
   men had that!  All the broken bones are from spiral fractures.  If you
   known what this woman went through, and it were done to you, you
   probably want you taken out side and whipped for talking like you just
   did.

   Robert White
     ----- Original Message -----
     From: k29boom@...
     To: veterans@yahoogroups.com
     Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 6:43 PM
     Subject: [veterans] (no subject)


     Lets get real. A bronze star for getting lost and not even firing her
   weapon.
     Got no business  in the military in  the first place.Can you imagine a
   bunch
     of girls crawling up the beaches of Tarawa or Iwo Jima. I've got four
   combat
     tours and surrendering was never considered the most valiant thing to
   do let
     a. lone getting a medal for it.
     I do not intend toput dowm Jessi and what she endured. I know it's
     politics.and media frenzy. I think that the brass are doing this great
   little woman a
     great injustice.She should have been treated like any other buck ass
   PFC.I
     really believe that is the way this great girl would have
   preffered.Jessi I love
     you.

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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I have to say that Mr. White's claims the other night in his email has me
questioning where he got his information.
    According to various sources, Ms. Lynch received her injuries and broken
bones from the vehicle flipping in the ambush. She never had the chance to fire
her weapon. I never heard reports that she was raped, nor the African American
woman for that matter. Maybe I missed that news tidbit, like I missed the one
that Ms Lynch alledgedly fired her M-16 until she emptied the magazine into a
bunch of Iraqi soldiers and was then stabbed and beaten when they captured her.
     The way I understand it, she was taken to the hospital not long after being
captured and the Iraqi doctors took care of her. I doubt that if the Iraqi
soldiers had raped her they would have been so kind to take her to the hospital
afterward. They would have left her to die. Especially if she had just killed a
bunch of their men.
    Although I have always had my qualms about women in the military and have had
a hard time dealing with serving aboard mixed-gender ships, I have to say that I
found find Mr. Anonymous' letter to be very rude.
     I will say that I do agree with Mr. Anonymous in that Ms. Lynch did not
merit receiving a Bronze Star. That was definitely a political PR campaign to
drum up good news and support during a time when the war was turning badly for
our troops.
     She merits the Purple Heart and the POW medal, but I'm sorry, according to
the following criteria found in the military directives manual for military
awards which can be found @
http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/text/p134833m.txt she did not merit
being awarded the BS because she did not do anything heroic nor meritorious. The
following is the criteria:

AP1.1.2.20.  Bronze Star

AP1.1.2.20.1.  Authorized by Executive Order 9419, "Bronze
Star Medal," February 4, 1944, superseded by Executive
Order 11046 (reference (sss)).

AP1.1.2.20.2.  Awarded to any person who, after December
6, 1941, while serving in any capacity with the Armed
Forces of the United States, distinguishes himself or
herself by heroic or meritorious achievement or service,
not involving participation in aerial flight, under
any of the following circumstances:

AP1.1.2.20.2.1.  While engaged in an action against
an enemy of the United States.

AP1.1.2.20.2.2.  While engaged in military operations
involving conflict with an opposing foreign force.

AP1.1.2.20.2.3.  While serving with friendly foreign
forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing
armed force in which the United States is not a belligerent
party.

AP1.1.2.20.3.  When the Bronze Star is awarded for heroism,
a bronze letter "V" (for valor) is worn on the suspension
and service ribbon of that medal.

She was at the right place at the wrong time and got captured without ever
getting an opportunity to fight. Honestly, I feel really sorry for her for
having to not only go through the horror of being injured in an accident under
fire and being a captive, even in a hospital, wondering what her fate will be,
but to have the public spotlight shined on her afterwards. Only she really knows
what happened and how, and only she can live with her concious about whether she
really deserved the BS or not. I only hope she has the courage to speak out and
tell the truth.
Sincerely, Dominic F Hix



"K.J. Hinton" <educationproject@...> wrote:
Unfortunately, what you've described is no basis for the award of the
Bronze Star, so the question remains.

Actually, I have my congressman's military staffer looking into it...
and will keep the group posted.

K.J. in Battle Ground

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert White [mailto:etihwr2@...]
Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2003 10:37 AM
To: k29boom@...; Various Vet's XXV
Subject: [veterans] Lets get real.


Yes lets get real.  She isn't a girl.  She is a woman.  Lets get real!
She was brutally raped and beyond anything you can imagine and you sit
back w/o even putting your name on this email and putting her down.
Lets get real! The army specifically and the military in general, give
away medals like candy.  The only medal worth having is the CMH.  And
since most people have to die for that...!  If you noticed, all the
women being returned from being captured, had broken bones.  None of the
men had that!  All the broken bones are from spiral fractures.  If you
known what this woman went through, and it were done to you, you
probably want you taken out side and whipped for talking like you just
did.

Robert White
   ----- Original Message -----
   From: k29boom@...
   To: veterans@yahoogroups.com
   Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 6:43 PM
   Subject: [veterans] (no subject)


   Lets get real. A bronze star for getting lost and not even firing her
weapon.
   Got no business  in the military in  the first place.Can you imagine a
bunch
   of girls crawling up the beaches of Tarawa or Iwo Jima. I've got four
combat
   tours and surrendering was never considered the most valiant thing to
do let
   a. lone getting a medal for it.
   I do not intend toput dowm Jessi and what she endured. I know it's
   politics.and media frenzy. I think that the brass are doing this great
little woman a
   great injustice.She should have been treated like any other buck ass
PFC.I
   really believe that is the way this great girl would have
preffered.Jessi I love
   you.

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that
   doesn't specialize in VA lending?  VALoans.com, a Nationwide Mortgage
   Banker, are experts at getting you the benefits of a
government-guaranteed
   loan.  For over 16 years, they have been successfully fulfilling
residential
   financing for military personnel and veterans like you.  Give them a
   toll-free call at 1-877-832-9347, or visit them online at
www.valoans.com.

   Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

just escaped from that place.I think that it has to be the worst hospital in
the va system ..   I told the admn that if when they let me out that if
collapsed on the street to not bring me back cause it would be better to die
in the streets      what a place!!  anyway if anyone is in the chgo area and
needs health care avoid that hospital at all costs!!!!

I no longer want to be on this list.  How many times do I have to submit a
request for removal?

In the beginning of a change,
the patriot is a scarce man and brave,
hated, and scorned.
When his cause succeeds, however,
  the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.
Mark Twain




---
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Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.507 / Virus Database: 304 - Release Date: 8/4/03

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Then "everyone" was wrongly awarded said medal. .. and what anyone else
was, or was not awarded does nothing to change this undeniable,
unalterable FACT:  PFC Jessica Lynch did NOTHING to deserve it.

I'm well aware of the Army's propensity to give them away like samples,
but being blond, cute, looking like the girl next door and being in the
wrong place at the wrong time does very little to rate the award of the
Bronze Star... or anything else, save, perhaps, the Purple Heart.

Were it in my power, the pilots and or mission commander of the P3 would
be spending the rest of their lives in Leavenworth.  They did nothing
heroic except save their own asses while doing tremendous damage to our
intelligence capabilities.  Saving one's own ass instead of doing one's
own duty (in this case, setting the aircraft down far enough out in the
ocean that it could not be salvaged by the ChiComs) is rarely grounds
for getting a medal.

You see, here's where we disagree.  I could give a $%#* how the medal
system was abused in the past.  I no more support that kind of crap then
I supported OER/NCOER inflation.  That it's a fact of life is
meaningless.  That all of these awards were, or are, handed out for
reasons not worthy of the award in question is the issue.

I will be bringing all of the pressure I can (such as it is) to get the
Army to recind this award unless I can see adequate justification for
presenting it.

As much as I appreciate your advice on how to deal with my congressman
or how to modify my thought-process, I would urge you to take your own
advice:  Don't waste MY time.

K.J. in Battle Ground

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert White [mailto:etihwr2@...]
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2003 3:56 AM
To: K.J. Hinton; Various Vet's XXV
Subject: Re: [veterans] Lets get real.


Before you start yanking a medal away from someone, you should yank all
medals away from anyone  served in GWI.  Everyone got the Bronze Star
for being in the Combat Zone.   Same with Vietnam.  Also as another
person pointed out, the crew and pilots of the P3 that the Chinese
brought down were given medals.  You need to take away these medals
taken away.  While your at that, while I was in, medals were given out
for setting up chairs or performing routine tasks.  Yeah, that's Bull
Shit, but that is what the military does, it gives away medals instead
of ribbons or awards.  The Army gives away ranks in almost the same
manner.  Don't waste your congressman's time.  This lady suffered
enough.  She endured what most guys wouldn't and you want that taken
away from her.  Since the criteria for a medal is has been cheapened and
is individually interpreted, who are you to say she isn't deserving!

Robert White
   ----- Original Message -----
   From: K.J. Hinton
   To: 'Various Vet's XXV'
   Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2003 2:04 AM
   Subject: RE: [veterans] Lets get real.


   Unfortunately, what you've described is no basis for the award of the
   Bronze Star, so the question remains.

   Actually, I have my congressman's military staffer looking into it...
   and will keep the group posted.

   K.J. in Battle Ground

   -----Original Message-----
   From: Robert White [mailto:etihwr2@...]
   Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2003 10:37 AM
   To: k29boom@...; Various Vet's XXV
   Subject: [veterans] Lets get real.


   Yes lets get real.  She isn't a girl.  She is a woman.  Lets get real!
   She was brutally raped and beyond anything you can imagine and you sit
   back w/o even putting your name on this email and putting her down.
   Lets get real! The army specifically and the military in general, give
   away medals like candy.  The only medal worth having is the CMH.  And
   since most people have to die for that...!  If you noticed, all the
   women being returned from being captured, had broken bones.  None of
the
   men had that!  All the broken bones are from spiral fractures.  If you
   known what this woman went through, and it were done to you, you
   probably want you taken out side and whipped for talking like you just
   did.

   Robert White
     ----- Original Message -----
     From: k29boom@...
     To: veterans@yahoogroups.com
     Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 6:43 PM
     Subject: [veterans] (no subject)


     Lets get real. A bronze star for getting lost and not even firing
her
   weapon.
     Got no business  in the military in  the first place.Can you imagine
a
   bunch
     of girls crawling up the beaches of Tarawa or Iwo Jima. I've got
four
   combat
     tours and surrendering was never considered the most valiant thing
to
   do let
     a. lone getting a medal for it.
     I do not intend toput dowm Jessi and what she endured. I know it's
     politics.and media frenzy. I think that the brass are doing this
great
   little woman a
     great injustice.She should have been treated like any other buck ass
   PFC.I
     really believe that is the way this great girl would have
   preffered.Jessi I love
     you.

           Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
                 ADVERTISEMENT




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firm
   that
     doesn't specialize in VA lending?  VALoans.com, a Nationwide
Mortgage
     Banker, are experts at getting you the benefits of a
   government-guaranteed
     loan.  For over 16 years, they have been successfully fulfilling
   residential
     financing for military personnel and veterans like you.  Give them a
     toll-free call at 1-877-832-9347, or visit them online at
   www.valoans.com.

     Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.



   [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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This was published in April?  Can't believe I missed it..
http://www.hepatitismag.com/newsbriefs/default.asp?NewsBriefID=36

I have said it before.. all veterans should asked to be tested for Hep C.

----- Original Message -----
From: dweller@...
To: ; ColonelDan ;
Subject: Hepatitis C Achilles Heel Found
----- Original Message -----
From: VET66A@...

****************************************
Hepatitis C Achilles Heel Found


By Daniel DeNoon

April 17, 2003 -- The central mystery of hepatitis C now is solved.
A new finding promises more effective, shorter, and easier
hepatitis C treatments.

What Michael Gale Jr., PhD, and colleagues discovered is how
hepatitis C virus establishes lifelong infection. They found that
the virus makes a key that lets it turn off a cell's anti-virus
machinery. And they found that a type of drug -- already in
development by several companies -- robs the virus of this key.
Without it, the anti-viral machinery comes to life. It churns out a
chemical called interferon that rids the cell of the hepatitis C
virus.

"The beauty of [this type of drug] is it can clear persistently
infected cells," Gale tells WebMD. "The cells rid themselves of
hepatitis C virus within an average time of four to five days."

Gale and colleagues at University of Texas Southwestern Medical
Center, Dallas, wondered why hepatitis C virus is able to cause
long-lasting infection. Most viruses can't do that. Gale guessed
that hepatitis C virus must somehow disable a crucial immune
response -- some part of the innate immune system that's part of
almost every cell in the body.

A crucial clue came from the McGill University lab of John Hiscott,
PhD, in Montreal. Hiscott was studying the molecular switches that
trigger interferon release inside a cell. One of these triggers is
called interferon regulatory factor 3 or IRF-3. He gave Gale some
IRF-3 to work with.

Gale's lab then found that a protein made by hepatitis C virus
blocks IRF-3.

"By blocking it completely, hepatitis C virus prevents the cell
from mounting an immune response," Gale says. "That lets the virus
get a foothold soon after infection. Once it has this foothold, it
never lets go."

The IRF-3 blocking protein is an enzyme called protease. Like
hepatitis C virus, the AIDS virus also makes a kind of protease.
Drugs that disable protease -- protease inhibitors --
revolutionized AIDS treatment. Several inhibitors of hepatitis C
protease are now in the drug pipeline. Schering-Plough Corp. gave
Gale some of its experimental drug, which he calls SCH6.

"We found that SCH6 not only inhibits hepatitis C protease, but
also allows restoration of this cellular immune response," Gale
says. "We could restore the ability of infected cells to respond to
the virus, and naturally clear the virus on its own."

There's more good news. Gale's lab worked with genotype 1. It's the
most common type of hepatitis C in the U.S. -- and the hardest kind
to treat. Yet the protease inhibitor knocked it out.

By attacking the virus and also turning on antiviral immunity,
hepatitis C protease inhibitors would have a dual action. And
there's likely a third kind of action. Protease inhibitors likely
would make current interferon treatments work better, at lower and
less toxic doses. That's an exciting idea to Leslye Johnson, PhD,
chief of the enteric and hepatic diseases branch at the National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

"If a compound like this goes forward into clinical trials, it has
the potential for dual activities and may work better than what's
out there now," Johnson tells WebMD. "It might also allow people to
use decreased doses of interferon. This finding opens new
possibilities that are important for drug development. What it says
for patients is that a hepatitis C protease inhibitor, as long as
it is safe and everything else, could have multiple ways of getting
rid of the virus. That is really the bottom line."

At least three drug companies are working on hepatitis C protease
inhibitors. Farthest along appears to be BILN 2061 from Boehringer
Ingelheim Pharma. It's already being tested in humans. The
Schering-Plough product is not yet ready for human tests, says
Schering spokesman Robert Consalvo.

Gale's findings appear in the April 17 issue of the online journal
Sciencexpress. Also appearing in the same issue is an article by
Hiscott's lab, offering new insights into how viruses trigger a
cells antiviral immune response. That finding may lead to drugs
effective not only against hepatitis C, but all viruses.

SOURCES: Sciencexpress, April 17, 2003. Michael Gale Jr., PhD,
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas. Leslye
Johnson, PhD, chief, enteric and hepatic diseases branch, National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Robert Consalvo,
director of external communications, Schering-Plough Corp







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If you were a mechanic or painter, and were ever involved in Painting Vehicles
with CARC paint... read this... print it out and add to your claim file.. I sent
some info out on this in June 2000.
full..lengthy report is at these web sites..

http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/carc_paint_ii/

http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/carc_paint_ii/index.html#iid


http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/carc_paint_ii/carc_paint_ii_s03.htm#iiic2
part reprinted below

2.  Possible Health Effects of Hexamethylene Diisocyanate and Solvents

Exposure to isocyanates and solvents without proper protection can be harmful.
Isocyanate exposure, including exposure to the HDI found in CARC, can cause
three types of health effects:

   a.. Almost all persons exposed to relatively high concentrations of
isocyanates will develop irritation to skin and the respiratory tract;
   b.. A small proportion of persons who are chronically exposed can become
sensitized and develop asthma;
   c.. A small proportion of persons who are chronically exposed can develop
hypersensitivity pneumonitis.
At high concentrations, isocyanates can cause non-specific irritation of the
mucous membranes and respiratory tract in some individuals, even after
relatively short-term (minutes to hours) exposures.[16] At high concentrations,
HDI causes shortness of breath, chest pain, chest tightness and cough and is
extremely irritating to the eyes, nose, and throat, causing watery eyes and
burning sensations.[17,18] At high enough concentrations, nearly all exposed
persons will exhibit some or all of these short-term symptoms, but when the
exposure stops, the symptoms will generally resolve rapidly.[19]

A small proportion of individuals exposed to HDI over a period of months to
years may develop asthma.[20] This occurs sometimes even at relatively low
concentrations over time.[21] Sensitization to isocyanates after exposures of
shorter duration (days or weeks) is unlikely.[22,23,24] However, once a person
is sensitized to isocyanates, an exposure to levels as low as the
parts-per-billion range can cause the onset of episodes of wheezing, shortness
of breath, chest tightness, and coughing.[25,26,27] Sensitized persons may
suffer progressive worsening of respiratory symptoms with recurrent
exposures.[28] When exposures stop, the asthma may resolve; on the other hand,
it may be persistent and may be triggered by other factors, such as tobacco
smoke, cold air, or exercise.[29,30] The general, worldwide population diagnosed
with asthma ranges from 5 to 10%.[31]

Hypersensitivity pneumonitis, though uncommon, is another known effect of
chronic exposure to isocyanates. The symptoms of hypersensitivity pneumonitis
can be severe, and, in most cases, abnormalities will appear on chest X-ray and
pulmonary function tests. Symptoms, which usually occur about three to eight
hours after exposure, include repeated bouts of fever, muscle aches, headaches,
malaise, shortness of breath, dry cough, and chest tightness. Removal from
exposure is usually mandatory. Sometimes the condition persists, even when no
longer exposed to isocyanates. In such cases, medications such as steroids may
be necessary.[32,33,34]

Some solvents found in CARC are readily absorbed through the respiratory tract
and skin.[35,36] Exposure to high concentrations of solvents can lead to
non-specific central nervous system effects, ranging from headaches or
dizziness, to more serious effects, including staggering gait, nausea, vomiting,
or loss of consciousness.[37,38] At high levels, solvent vapors can also cause
irritation of the eyes, skin, mucous membranes, and respiratory tract. If
exposures are brief (for example, an eight-hour shift), these irritant and
central nervous system effects are generally transient and resolve rapidly after
cessation of exposure.[39,40] Nevertheless, chronic, long-term exposure to
solvents can cause skin rashes, usually leading to an irritant dermatitis,
characterized by dryness, scaling, and cracking of the skin, especially of the
hands.[41]

Long-term exposure to solvents has been associated with increased rates of
chronic central nervous system symptoms, such as fatigue, irritability,
depression, headaches, poor concentration, and forgetfulness.[42] These chronic
effects generally occur only after several years of heavy exposure (many experts
estimate a threshold to be about ten years of relatively heavy exposure).[43]
Some solvents can cause peripheral neuropathy, which means damage to the nerves
in the arms and legs.[44] CARC does not contain the solvent compounds that are
most closely associated with this type of nerve damage.

Workers occasionally develop liver or kidney disease after either long-term
exposure or a massive single over-exposure to some solvents. Generally,
chlorinated solvents cause these effects. CARC does not contain chlorinated
solvents. A few solvents, such as benzene, are known or suspected to be human or
animal carcinogens (cancer-causing agents),[45] but CARC has been specifically
formulated to eliminate these types of solvents.

D.  Occupational Safety and Health Guidance

Tab E provides a detailed discussion of safety and health requirements for CARC
painting operations, including Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) and National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
requirements, as well as military guidance for conducting CARC paint operations.
The tab also includes a discussion of material safety data sheets and the hazard
communication program. A direct comparison of the exposures during the Gulf War
to existing standards is theoretical since no workplace sampling or measurements
were taken during the war. These standards are discussed in detail in Tab E and
in the applicable cited references, but the most important aspect of this
discussion is that there were no measurements taken during the Gulf War for
direct comparison. Obviously, this has hampered retrospective efforts to
evaluate the frequency, intensity, and duration of exposures, and their
subsequent medical or health effects.

Nevertheless, two conclusions can be drawn. First, current Army and federal
occupational and safety directives require the use of personal protective
equipment, including respiratory protection, during polyurethane (CARC) spray
painting operations. Second, based on experience and professional judgment of
the health and safety professionals monitoring the CARC painting operations
in-theater, unprotected personnel who were spray painting CARC in the conditions
documented in the Gulf were exposed to potentially hazardous conditions.


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