History > 2007 > USA > Pentagon (IV)

Army Desertion Rate

Highest Since 1980

November 16, 2007
Filed at 11:47 a.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The New York Times

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Soldiers strained by six years at war are deserting their posts at the highest rate since 1980, with the number of Army deserters this year showing an 80 percent increase since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003.

While the totals are still far lower than they were during the Vietnam war, when the draft was in effect, they show a steady increase over the past four years and a 42 percent jump since last year.

According to the Army, about nine in every 1,000 soldiers deserted in fiscal year 2007, which ended Sept. 30, compared to nearly seven per 1,000 a year earlier. Overall, 4,698 soldiers deserted this year, compared to 3,301 last year.

The increase comes as the Army continues to bear the brunt of the war demands with many soldiers serving repeated, lengthy tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Military leaders -- including Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey -- have acknowledged that the Army has been stretched nearly to the breaking point by the combat. And efforts are under way to increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps to lessen the burden and give troops more time off between deployments.

Despite the continued increase in desertions, however, an Associated Press examination of Pentagon figures earlier this year showed that the military does little to find those who bolt, and rarely prosecutes the ones they get. Some are allowed to simply return to their units, while most are given less-than-honorable discharges.

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On the Net:

Defense Department: http://www.defenselink.mil

Army Desertion Rate Highest Since 1980, 16.11.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Military-Deserters.html

Blinded by war:

Injuries send troops into darkness

13 November 2007
USA Today
By Gregg Zoroya

ARLINGTON, Va. — Two days before a 10-mile race here, Army 1st Lt. Ivan Castro is explaining how he will run tethered to another soldier — one who can see.
As he speaks, his wife lovingly extends her right hand to Castro's face, fingers outstretched. But Evelyn Galvis pauses inches away.

"I used to be able to reach out and touch him, caress him, without telling him first, 'I'm going to touch your face,' " she says. Now, "if I just reach out and touch him, he'll startle."

Castro, 40, a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division, is one of more than 1,100 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan — 13% of all seriously wounded casualties — to undergo surgery for damaged eyes. That is the highest percentage for eye wounds in any major conflict dating to World War I, according to research published in the Survey of Ophthalmology.

It's a reflection of how eye injuries have become one of the most devastating consequences of a war in which roadside bombs, mortars and grenades are the most commonly used weapons against U.S. troops. Brain injuries and amputations have long been the focus of the damage such weapons are inflicting, but the Army has acknowledged in recent weeks that serious eye wounds have accumulated at almost twice the rate as wounds requiring amputations.

Body armor that protects vital organs and the skull is saving lives. But troops' eyes and limbs remain particularly vulnerable to the blizzard of shrapnel from such explosions.

Each explosion unleashes large metal shards and thousands of fragments, says Army Col. Robert Mazzoli, an ophthalmological consultant to the Army surgeon general. "Those small missiles are generally innocuous if they hit the (protected) forehead, face (or) chest but are devastating when they hit the eye," he says.

Surgical facilities are kept close to the fighting, so troops can be treated in minutes. Partial or total vision has been restored in most cases involving eye injuries, military statistics show. But hundreds of troops have been left with impaired vision, and dozens have been blinded.

Troops in Iraq routinely wear protective eyewear, but it doesn't always work. When a roadside bomb in Baghdad blew a hole through the heavily armored vehicle carrying Army Sgt. Luis Martinez last April, the force from the blast stripped off his helmet, headset and goggles. After the dust settled, Martinez, 38, could see nothing out of his left eye and only streaks of blood in his right. He waited for help, terrified about the damage to his eyes.

"That was the first thing I asked" hospital personnel, the National Guard soldier recalls. " 'Am I going to be blind?' "

Surgeons later restored vision to his right eye, although bits of glass are embedded there. He remains blind in his left.

"At least God was kind enough to protect me, to keep my right eye and see my family," says Martinez, of Vega Alta, Puerto Rico, who is married and the father of three.

Formidable challenges await troops who return home blind or with serious eye injuries. In the most severe cases, they will struggle to cope emotionally and financially.

About 70% of all sensory perception is through vision, says R. Cameron VanRoekel, an Army major and staff optometrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. As a result, the families of visually impaired soldiers wrestle with a contradiction: The wounded often have hard-driving personalities that have helped them succeed in the military. Now dependent on others, they find it difficult to accept help.

Because the Pentagon has no rehabilitation services for the blind, the path to recovery often leads directly to the Department of Veterans Affairs. The VA operates 10 centers across the country for blind rehabilitation that teach visually impaired veterans how to function in society. The centers have 241 beds, and it takes an average of nearly three months to get in. Iraq and Afghanistan casualties go to the front of the line, says Stan Poel, VA director of rehabilitation services for the blind. So far, 53 have enrolled in the blind rehabilitation programs, the VA says.

The department plans to open three more centers beginning in 2010, Poel says.

'He has no light in his life'

Even now, more than a year after her husband's return from Iraq, Connie Acosta is taken aback to find her home dark after sunset, the lights off as if no one is there.

Then she finds him — sitting in a recliner in their Santa Fe Springs, Calif., house, listening to classic rock. Sgt. Maj. Jesse Acosta was blinded in a mortar attack 22 months ago. He doesn't need the lights.

That realization often makes Connie cry. "You kind of never get used to the fact that he really can't see," she says. "He has no light in his life at all."

The tiny piece of shrapnel that blinded Acosta, 50, an Army reservist, father of four and grandfather of three, was precise in its destruction.

On the morning of Jan. 16 last year, Acosta led soldiers on a 3-mile fitness run across Camp Anaconda in Balad, Iraq. Suddenly, insurgents attacked the camp with mortars.

Acosta remembers that he stopped, turned to yell at his soldiers and then dived for cover.

"Bam! That was it," he recalls. "Lights out."

An explosion about 60 feet away sent a piece of shrapnel — perhaps three-quarters of an inch long — through his left eye. It struck his brain and came out his right eye.

"It was a perfect hit," Acosta says.

Rushed to the Air Force Hospital at Anaconda, he spent seven hours in surgery. Army Maj. Raymond Cho, an ophthalmologist, removed Acosta's right eye and carefully reassembled his left one.

"I didn't want him waking up missing both eyes and wondering for the rest of his life, 'Gosh, could they have saved at least one?' " Cho says. "So he knows that we did everything we could."

Acosta regained consciousness as he was being returned to the USA. In Germany, a doctor told him that his right eye was gone and his left eye, although stitched together, likely would never see light.

"He said, 'You're going to have to start a whole new life from here on,' " Acosta recalls.

"I go, 'So I won't be able to see my kids? My grandkids? Nobody? I won't be able to see blue skies?'

"He said, 'Nope.'

"I just sat there. What could I do?

"A lot of things went through my mind," Acosta says. "Am I going to be accepted this way? Am I going to be rejected? I was pretty independent all my life, and I did everything. So it was pretty tough."

VA plans more clinics

Pentagon doctors can rebuild eyes, reconstruct eye sockets and nurse casualties back to health, but soldiers with serious vision problems who want to learn how to adapt into civilian life must rely on VA centers that also serve the elderly and other veterans.

The VA plans to invest $40 million this fiscal year to create 55 outpatient clinics across the nation, providing rehabilitation for veterans learning to cope with partial vision, says James Orcutt, the VA's director for ophthalmology.

The department also is taking part in two clinical trials focusing on artificial vision, says Ronald Schuchard, director of the Atlanta VA rehabilitation research and development center. The trials involve implanting silicon chips in eyes. The chips act as receptors that can transform light into electrical signals that can be transmitted to the brain. It is cutting-edge research, Schuchard says.

However, Orcutt says, "I think we're a long way from a practical use of some of these."

At the VA's rehab centers for the blind, specialists teach orientation and mobility skills. Visually impaired veterans learn to use a white cane, public transportation and perform daily routines. They also are offered computer instruction and the use of special scanners for reading text. They are assessed and treated, if necessary, for psychological readjustment to their sight loss.

The VA does not provide guide dogs, but it helps link veterans with guide-dog schools that commonly provide a dog and training virtually free to veterans, Poel says.

Iraq veterans sometimes find the VA blind rehab programs, which cater largely to elderly veterans, to be a poor fit for a younger generation. Army 1st Lt. Castro says he felt somewhat out of place during rehab at a VA facility in Augusta, Ga.

After the Army sent Jesse Acosta to a VA center for the blind in Palo Alto, Calif., for rehabilitation in January 2006, he and his wife became unhappy with the facility, describing it as having a "nursing home" atmosphere. It is a five-hour drive from his home.

"It did not fit my needs," Acosta says.

He left the VA after a few months and was accepted, free of charge, into the Junior Blind of America rehab program near his home in Santa Fe Springs. Last month, he completed training with his new guide dog at The Seeing Eye school in Morristown, N.J., and now has Charlie, a German shepherd.

All that is left, Acosta says, is figuring out the rest of his life.

He has fought a medical discharge from the Army until his medical care is complete. Ultimately, he will earn disability income for his wounds. Acosta was an energy technician with Southern California Gas before he was called to active duty.

He is still with the company, though unpaid, and a different job awaits him — one tailored to his disability, Connie Acosta says. It's unclear whether Jesse will want it, she says.

"We're hoping for the best," she says. "He's the type that constantly has to be kept busy. We always have an agenda. I have a calendar going constantly with things happening."

It begins when they wake, and he wants to know the weather and the color of the sky, she says. Nothing in the house can be moved; he's memorized the location of every chair and table.

He has his routines and chores, including weightlifting in the backyard or fiddling with the fuel pump on the 1969 Dodge Dart. (He fixed it.) Daughter Brittany, 14, is mustered into duty to operate the computer for her father until she pleads for a break.

"Taking care of Jesse has been an experience," Connie Acosta says. "He's a sergeant major in the Army, and they're tough people. He's a tough person to live with and then, worse, being blind.

"Sometimes, he can be demanding. And I deal with it. I'm used to making sure that everything's in line. That he's got everything. And that's basically all I've got to do."

'I want to feel productive'

Castro thought he knew how his life would play out.

A former Army Ranger who had worked his way out of the enlisted ranks to earn an officer's commission, Castro commanded a scout reconnaissance platoon and dreamed of becoming a Special Forces team leader.

Instead, the last thing he would ever see was the colorless expanse of an Iraqi roof in Youssifiyah, Iraq.

A mortar round landed a few feet away from him there on Sept. 2, 2006. The blast killed two other soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division and sent shrapnel tearing into Castro's left side. The explosion damaged a shoulder, broke an arm, fractured facial bones and collapsed his lungs. Doctors amputated part of a finger.

The blast also drove the frame of his protective eyewear into his face. When Castro regained consciousness days later at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., his wife, Evelyn, sat at his bedside. She told him his right eye was gone, but doctors hoped to salvage vision in his left.

The surgeons later removed one last piece of shrapnel from that eye. When they took off his bandages and flashed a light for Castro to see, he thought the eye was still covered. "That's when he told me, 'Ivan, you're not going to be able to see again,' " Castro recalls. "I swore (it was like) I was standing between the World Trade Center and the two towers had just come down on my shoulders."

From that moment on, through convalescence and rehabilitation, Castro would struggle to regain a measure of independence.

Castro has become an advocate of rehabilitation funding for the blind, visiting members of Congress. After the 10-mile race in October, he ran the Marine Corps Marathon three weeks later, finishing in 4 hours and 14 minutes.

He concedes that he needs his wife's help. Evelyn Galvis gave up her career as a bilingual speech pathologist in Fayetteville, N.C., to help her husband. She supervises his medical care and drives him around.

She guides him through crowds, keeping him aware of raised edges in the walkway and steps. She reads his menu in restaurants and tells him where the food sits on the table. She watches him memorize his hotel room, starting from the doorway and circling within the four walls to keep account of beds, the tables, the wastebasket, the bathroom.

"My husband used to be a very independent individual," she says.

Castro hopes to stay in the military.

The Army has let several amputees stay in the ranks as well as one blind captain, who will be an instructor at West Point Military Academy after completing post-graduate education. Castro awaits word on his future; the Pentagon won't comment on his situation.

"There's a world in front of me I can't predict or envision because I haven't been there yet. I haven't lived this yet. I haven't lived blind," he says. "All I ask is to stay in the Army and finish out my years … I want to feel productive."

The only good news for now is when he sleeps, Castro says.

"I've had dreams where I know I'm blind and, guess what? I've regained my vision," he says. Reality floods back each morning.

"There's not a night that I don't pray and ask God, when I wake up, that I wake up seeing."

    Blinded by war: Injuries send troops into darkness, UT, 13.11.2007, http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2007-11-13-eyeinjuries_N.htm

Edwards Unveil Plan for Veterans With PTSD

November 12, 2007
Filed at 4:00 a.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The New York Times

PLYMOUTH, N.H. (AP) -- Presidential contender John Edwards is introducing a $400 million plan Monday to help veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, including those recently returned from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Under Edwards' plan, veterans could seek counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder outside the Veterans Health Administration system; the number of counselors would increase; and family members would be employed to identify cases of PTSD.

Edwards, a North Carolina Democrat, was scheduled to introduce the five-point plan during a speech at New Hampshire's Plymouth State University.

''I strongly believe we must restore the sacred contract we have with our veterans and their families, and that we must begin by reforming our system for treating PTSD. We also must act to remove the stigma from this disorder,'' Edwards said in prepared remarks his campaign provided to The Associated Press. ''Warriors should never be ashamed to deal with the personal consequences of war.''

Edwards said that despite his opposition to how the war has been waged, the enlisted men and women deserve the nation's support when they complete their service.

''We must stand by those who stand by us. When our service men and women sacrifice so much to defend our freedom and secure peace around the world, we have a moral obligation to take care of them and their families,'' he said.

A recent study of Veterans Affairs records showed that the number veterans with PTSD increased by almost 20,000 during the last fiscal year -- a nearly 70 percent jump.

Edwards said the Bush administration's extension of tours to 15 months has only exacerbated the situation, and he promised to increase the time given to service members between deployment. A Defense Department study earlier this year showed that inadequate time stateside led to higher rates of PTSD or aggravated mental stress from service in the field.

Edwards' campaign said there are too few trained counselors in the networks available to veterans. As such, they avoid seeking care because of the wait or the stigma. Instead, Edwards said he would increase counseling and training for counselors and allow veterans to seek treatment outside of the existing system.

The VA currently has a backlog of as many as 600,000 claims, increasing delays for initial treatment by up to six months, according to the campaign. Edwards pledged the entire backlog would be eliminated by Memorial Day 2009 -- four months after he might take office -- and would cut the processing time by half.

Edwards' plan also would provide a comprehensive medical examination, which would be part of a ''Homefront Redeployment Plan'' provided to every veteran. Edwards said veterans don't receive their first examinations for months or years after leaving the service, making it more difficult to determine whether an injury is service-related or not.

The Edwards campaign said the government could pay for the program through closing tax loopholes and more efficient tax collection.

    Edwards Unveil Plan for Veterans With PTSD, NYT, 12.11.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Edwards-Veterans.html

War Foes Arrested at Veterans Day Event

November 12, 2007
Filed at 10:34 a.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The New York Times

BOSTON (AP) -- Several anti-war veterans were arrested when they protested their exclusion from a Veterans Day event by refusing to move away from a podium.

The Boston chapter of a group called Veterans for Peace estimated 15 of its members and supporters were arrested Sunday at the event sponsored by the American Legion. Boston Police said several arrests were made, but did not have an exact number. The detainees were later released on bail.

''We're opposed to the U.S. invasion of Iraq; we're opposed to the planned invasion of Iran,'' said group member Winston Warfield, a Vietnam War veteran. ''A lot of veterans view us as traitors.''

Warfield said the American Legion rejected their request to have a speaker at the event, which took place outside City Hall. A call to the American Legion office in Boston was not immediately returned Monday.

''From our point of view, it's a public affair,'' Warfield said, despite U.S. Supreme Court precedent that allows private groups that obtain proper permits to choose who can participate in their events.

Earlier Sunday, Gov. Deval Patrick and Sen. John Kerry presented medals to five surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen, the famed group of black fighter pilots from World War II.

''It is an honor to formally recognize these heroic pioneers,'' said Patrick, the state's first black governor. Legislation was approved last year authorizing a Congressional Gold Medal for the Tuskegee Airmen as a group; it was presented in March. Individual airmen receive bronze replicas.

    War Foes Arrested at Veterans Day Event, NYT, 12.11.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Veterans-Day-Protest.html

A Stark Reminder of War, 25 Years On

November 12, 2007
The New York Times
By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ

WASHINGTON, Nov. 11 — Throngs of veterans gathered on Sunday under a clear sky on the Mall to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a stark symbol of a war that bitterly divided the nation.

In a poignant reminder of that tumultuous time, the veterans wept, prayed or reminisced at the stone memorial inscribed with the names of 58,256 Americans killed or missing in the Vietnam War.

“I can hardly explain how I feel,” said Joe Hatathle, 63, who was an Army engineer in Vietnam and who traveled here from Rock Point, Ariz., to attend a ceremony to rededicate the memorial. “It’s a mix of sadness and pride.”

At a time when the nation is divided over the war in Iraq, the gathering was, to many in attendance here, a momentary break from the politics of war.

It was a sentiment that seemed to be summed up by the ceremony’s keynote speaker, Colin L. Powell, a Vietnam veteran who when he was secretary of state pushed the United Nations Security Council to adopt a resolution demanding that Iraq comply with weapons inspections or face the prospect of war.

“There are no politics here, no policy disagreements,” Mr. Powell said at the ceremony, calling the memorial “a sacred place.”

The ceremony was one of many gatherings held across the country on Veterans Day.

At nearby Arlington National Cemetery, Vice President Dick Cheney laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns and, in a speech, paid tribute to members of the American military fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Gathered as we are today in a time of war, we’re only more sharply aware of the nation’s debt to the members of the armed forces,” Mr. Cheney said. “They are constantly in our thoughts.”

The Vietnam memorial was dedicated on Nov. 13, 1982, a black, V-shaped monument of granite on the mall between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.

It was the creation of Maya Lin, who was an architecture student at Yale at the time. The selection of her design was controversial then. Ms. Lin did not attend the ceremony, but she sent a message that was read to the crowd saying, among other things, that she never foresaw the powerful emotional response the monument would stir.

    A Stark Reminder of War, 25 Years On, NYT, 12.11.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/12/us/12powell.html

Op-Ed Contributor

Over There — and Gone Forever

November 12, 2007
The New York Times
By RICHARD RUBIN

BY any conceivable measure, Frank Buckles has led an extraordinary life. Born on a farm in Missouri in February 1901, he saw his first automobile in his hometown in 1905, and his first airplane at the Illinois State Fair in 1907. At 15 he moved on his own to Oklahoma and went to work in a bank; in the 1940s, he spent more than three years as a Japanese prisoner of war. When he returned to the United States, he married, had a daughter and bought a farm near Charles Town, W. Va., where he lives to this day. He drove a tractor until he was 104.

But even more significant than the remarkable details of Mr. Buckles’s life is what he represents: Of the two million soldiers the United States sent to France in World War I, he is the only one left.

This Veterans Day marked the 89th anniversary of the armistice that ended that war. The holiday, first proclaimed as Armistice Day by President Woodrow Wilson in 1919 and renamed in 1954 to honor veterans of all wars, has become, in the minds of many Americans, little more than a point between Halloween and Thanksgiving when banks are closed and mail isn’t delivered. But there’s a good chance that this Veterans Day will prove to be the last with a living American World War I veteran. (Mr. Buckles is one of only three left; the other two were still in basic training in the United States when the war ended.) Ten died in the last year. The youngest of them was 105.

At the end of his documentary “The War,” Ken Burns notes that 1,000 World War II veterans are dying every day. Their passing is being observed at all levels of American society; no doubt you have heard a lot about them in recent days. Fortunately, World War II veterans will be with us for some years yet. There is still time to honor them. But the passing of the last few veterans of the First World War is all but complete, and has gone largely unnoticed here.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. Almost from the moment the armistice took effect, the United States has worked hard, it seems, to forget World War I; maybe that’s because more than 100,000 Americans never returned from it, lost for a cause that few can explain even now. The first few who did come home were given ticker-tape parades, but most returned only to silence and a good bit of indifference.

There was no G.I. Bill of Rights to see that they got a college education or vocational training, a mortgage or small-business loan. There was nothing but what remained of the lives they had left behind a year or two earlier, and the hope that they might eventually be able to return to what President Warren Harding, Wilson’s successor, would call “normalcy.” Prohibition, isolationism, the stock market bubble and the crisis in farming made that hard; the Great Depression, harder still.

A few years ago, I set out to see if I could find any living American World War I veterans. No one — not the Department of Veterans Affairs, or the Veterans of Foreign Wars, or the American Legion — knew how many there were or where they might be. As far as I could tell, no one much seemed to care, either.

Eventually, I did find some, including Frank Buckles, who was 102 when we first met. Eighty-six years earlier, he’d lied about his age to enlist. The Army sent him to England but, itching to be near the action, he managed to get himself sent on to France, though never to the trenches.

After the armistice, he was assigned to guard German prisoners waiting to be repatriated. Seeing that he was still just a boy, the prisoners adopted him, taught him their language, gave him food from their Red Cross packages, bits of their uniforms to take home as souvenirs.

In the 1930s, while working for a steamship company, Mr. Buckles visited Germany; it was difficult for him to reconcile his fond memories of those old P.O.W.’s with what he saw of life under the Third Reich. The steamship company later sent him to run its office in Manila; he was there in January 1942 when the Japanese occupied the city and took him prisoner. At some point during his 39 months in captivity, he contracted beriberi, which affects his sense of balance even now, almost 63 years after he was liberated by the 11th Airborne Division.

Nevertheless, he carries with aplomb the burden of being the last of his kind. “For a long time I’ve felt that there should be more recognition of the surviving veterans of World War I,” he tells me; now that group is, more or less, him. How does he feel about that? “Someone has to do it,” he says blithely, but adds: “It kind of startles you.”

Four years ago, I attended a Veterans Day observance in Orleans, Mass. Near the head of the parade, a 106-year-old named J. Laurence Moffitt rode in a Japanese sedan, waving to the small crowd of onlookers and sporting the same helmet he had been wearing in the Argonne Forest at the moment the armistice took effect, 85 years earlier.

I didn’t know it then, but that was, in all likelihood, the last small-town American Veterans Day parade to feature a World War I veteran. The years since have seen the passing of one last after another — the last combat-wounded veteran, the last Marine, the last African-American, the last Yeomanette — until, now, we are down to the last of the last.

It’s hard for anyone, I imagine, to say for certain what it is that we will lose when Frank Buckles dies. It’s not that World War I will then become history; it’s been history for a long time now. But it will become a different kind of history, the kind we can’t quite touch anymore, the kind that will, from that point on, always be just beyond our grasp somehow. We can’t stop that from happening. But we should, at least, take notice of it.

Richard Rubin, the author of “Confederacy of Silence: A True Tale of the New Old South,” is at work on a book about America’s involvement in World War I.

    Over There — and Gone Forever, NYT, 12.11.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/12/opinion/12rubin.html

Editorial

The Plight of American Veterans

November 12, 2007
The New York Times

As an unpopular, ill-planned war in Iraq grinds on inconclusively, it can be a bleak time to be a veteran.

There is little outright hostility toward returning military personnel these days; few Americans are reviling them as “baby killers” or blaming them for a botched war of choice launched by the White House. Indeed, both Congress and the White House have been hymning their praises in the run-up to Veterans Day. But all too often, soldiers who return from Iraq or Afghanistan — and those who served in Vietnam or Korea — have been left to fend for themselves with little help from the government.

Recent surveys have painted an appalling picture. Almost half a million of the nation’s 24 million veterans were homeless at some point during 2006, and while only a few hundred from Iraq or Afghanistan have turned up homeless so far, aid groups are bracing themselves for a tsunamilike upsurge in coming years.

Tens of thousands of reservists and National Guard troops, whose jobs were supposedly protected while they were at war, were denied prompt re-employment upon their return or else lost seniority, pay and other benefits. Some 1.8 million veterans were unable to get care in veterans’ facilities in 2004 and lacked health insurance to pay for care elsewhere. Meanwhile, veterans seeking disability payments faced huge backlogs and inordinate delays in getting claims and appeals processed.

The biggest stain this year was the scandalous neglect of outpatients at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and a sluggish response to the needs of wounded soldiers at veterans clinics and hospitals. Much of this neglect stemmed from the Bush administration’s failure to plan for a long war with mounting casualties and over-long tours of duty to compensate for a shortage of troops.

Thus far, more than 4,000 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, many more than died in the almost-bloodless Persian Gulf war, but only a fraction of the body counts in Vietnam (58,000) or Korea (36,000). A higher percentage of wounded soldiers are surviving the current conflicts with grievous injuries, their lives saved by body armor, advances in battlefield medicine and prompt evacuation. A study issued last week estimated that the long-term costs of their medical care and disability benefits could exceed the amount spent so far in prosecuting the war in Iraq.

To their credit, Congress and the administration have poured billions of added dollars into veterans’ programs and streamlined procedures in a scramble to catch up with the need. That is only appropriate. The entire burden of today’s wars has been carried by a voluntary military force and its families. The larger public has not faced a draft, paid higher taxes or been asked to make any other sacrifice. The least a grateful nation should do is support the troops upon their return.

    The Plight of American Veterans, NYT, 12.11.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/12/opinion/12mon1.html

More Reservists Report Job Problems

November 8, 2007
Filed at 9:21 a.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The New York Times

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Strained by extended tours in Iraq, growing numbers of military reservists say the government is providing little help to soldiers who are denied their old jobs when they return home, Defense Department data shows.

The Pentagon survey of reservists in 2005-2006, obtained by The Associated Press, details increasing discontent among returning troops in protecting their legal rights after taking leave from work to fight for their country.

It found that 44 percent of the reservists polled said they were dissatisfied with how the Labor Department handled their complaint of employment discrimination based on their military status, up from 27 percent from 2004.

Nearly one-third, or 29 percent, said they had difficulty getting the information they needed from government agencies charged with protecting their rights, while 77 percent reported they didn't even bother trying to get assistance in part because they didn't think it would make a difference.

''This is shameful because Iraqi bullets and bombs don't discriminate. Yet reservists face job discrimination here in America after serving in war,'' said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense.

Legal experts say the findings might represent the tip of the iceberg. Formal complaints to the Labor Department by reservists hit nearly 1,600 in 2005 -- the highest number since 1991 -- not counting the thousands more cases reported each year to the Pentagon for resolution by mediation.

And a bump in complaints is likely once the Iraq war winds down and more people come home after an extended period in which employers were forced to restructure or hire new workers to cope with those on military leave, they said.

Among the survey's findings:

--About 23 percent of reservists reported they did not return to their old jobs in part because their employer did not give them prompt re-employment or their job situation changed in some way while they were on military leave.

--Twenty-nine percent of those choosing not to seek help to get their job back said it was because it was ''not worth the fight.'' Another 23 percent said they were unsure of how to file a complaint. Others cited a lack of confidence that they could win (14 percent); fear of employer reprisal (13 percent), or other reasons (21 percent).

--Reservists reported receiving an average of 1.8 briefings about their job rights and what government resources were available. This is down slightly from the 2.0 briefings they reported getting in 2004.

''Most of the government investigators are too willing to accept the employer's explanation for a worker's dismissal,'' said Sam Wright, a former Labor Department attorney who helped write the 1994 discrimination law protecting reservists.

''Some of it is indifference, some of them don't understand the laws involved,'' Wright said. ''But the investigators establish for themselves this impossibly hard standard to win a case. As a result, reservists lose out.''

Under the law, military personnel are protected from job discrimination based on their service and are generally entitled to a five-year cumulative leave with rights to their old jobs upon their return. Reservists typically file a complaint first with a Pentagon office, the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR), which seeks to resolve the dispute informally.

If that effort fails, a person typically can go to the Labor Department to pursue a formal complaint and possible litigation by the Justice Department.

A report by the American Bar Association as early as 2004 noted problems in which the government was ''not seen as an aggressive advocate for the returning veteran.'' A presidential task force chaired by former Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson earlier this year found that agencies could do a better job of educating troops and veterans. The report did not address government enforcement of the law.

Just ask Ret. Marine Lt. Col. Steve Duarte, who won a court judgment of more than $430,000 from Agilent Technologies Inc. in March 2005 after turning to a private lawyer after losing his job. Duarte was a senior consultant when he was mobilized twice from October 2001 to April 2002 and from November 2002 to July 2003.

When Duarte returned from the second mobilization, Agilent did not reinstate his previous position but assigned him to a special project. He soon received a poor job evaluation that differed from previous positive reviews and was terminated four months later.

Duarte said he contacted the Pentagon and Labor Department, both of which turned him away. Labor Department lawyers allegedly said he didn't have a case unless he specifically heard his employer say they were terminating him for military reasons.

''I am not a lawyer, but I expected various government agencies like ESGR and the Department of Labor to help me,'' Duarte said in documents provided to the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee, which is reviewing the Labor Department's practices.

''I felt as though they were on the side of the large corporations,'' he said.

Eileen Lainez, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said: ''We carefully consider information our members provide, and we actively work to develop solutions where needed.'' The Labor Department has said it has been working to better educate troops and veterans about their rights.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who chairs the Senate Health Committee, said he was troubled by the findings. He said he plans legislation to hold agencies accountable by requiring them to collect and release employment data.

The Labor Department currently releases an annual report on employment complaints to Congress, but the figures do not include Pentagon data. The report, which is due to Congress on Feb. 1, has yet to be released this year.

    More Reservists Report Job Problems, NYT, 8.11.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Vets-Returning-to-Work.html

Surge Seen in Number of Homeless Veterans

November 8, 2007
The New York Times
By ERIK ECKHOLM

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 — More than 400 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have turned up homeless, and the Veterans Affairs Department and aid groups say they are bracing for a new surge in homeless veterans in the years ahead.

Experts who work with veterans say it often takes several years after leaving military service for veterans’ accumulating problems to push them into the streets. But some aid workers say the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans appear to be turning up sooner than the Vietnam veterans did.

“We’re beginning to see, across the country, the first trickle of this generation of warriors in homeless shelters,” said Phil Landis, chairman of Veterans Village of San Diego, a residence and counseling center. “But we anticipate that it’s going to be a tsunami.”

With more women serving in combat zones, the current wars are already resulting in a higher share of homeless women as well. They have an added risk factor: roughly 40 percent of the hundreds of homeless female veterans of recent wars have said they were sexually assaulted by American soldiers while in the military, officials said.

“Sexual abuse is a risk factor for homelessness,” Pete Dougherty, the V.A.’s director of homeless programs, said.

Special traits of the current wars may contribute to homelessness, including high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and traumatic brain injury, which can cause unstable behavior and substance abuse, and the long and repeated tours of duty, which can make the reintegration into families and work all the harder.

Frederick Johnson, 37, an Army reservist, slept in abandoned houses shortly after returning to Chester, Pa., from a year in Iraq, where he experienced daily mortar attacks and saw mangled bodies of soldiers and children. He started using crack cocaine and drinking, burning through $6,000 in savings.

“I cut myself off from my family and went from being a pleasant guy to wanting to rip your head off if you looked at me wrong,” Mr. Johnson said.

On the street for a year, he finally checked in at a V.A. clinic in Maryland and has struggled with PTSD, depression, and drug and alcohol abuse. The V.A. has provided temporary housing as he starts a new job.

Tracy Jones of the Compass Center, a Seattle agency that has seen a handful of new homeless each month, said she was surprised by “the quickness in which Iraqi Freedom veterans are becoming homeless” compared with the Vietnam era. The availability of meth and crack could lead addicts into rapid downhill spirals, Ms. Jones said.

Poverty and high housing costs also contribute. The National Alliance to End Homelessness in Washington will release a report on Thursday saying that among one million veterans who served after the Sept. 11 attacks, 72,000 are paying more than half their incomes for rent, leaving them highly vulnerable.

Mr. Dougherty of the V.A. said outreach officers, who visit shelters, soup kitchens and parks, had located about 1,500 returnees from Iraq or Afghanistan who seemed at high risk, though many had jobs. More than 400 have entered agency-supported residential programs around the country. No one knows how many others have not made contact with aid agencies.

More than 11 percent of the newly homeless veterans are women, Mr. Dougherty said, compared with 4 percent enrolled in such programs over all.

Veterans have long accounted for a high share of the nation’s homeless. Although they make up 11 percent of the adult population, they make up 26 percent of the homeless on any given day, the National Alliance report calculated.

According to the V.A., some 196,000 veterans of all ages were homeless on any given night in 2006. That represents a decline from about 250,000 a decade back, Mr. Dougherty said, as housing and medical programs grew and older veterans died.

The most troubling face of homelessness has been the chronic cases, those who live in the streets or shelters for more than year. Some 44,000 to 64,000 veterans fit that category, according to the National Alliance study.

On Wednesday, the Bush administration announced what it described as “remarkable progress” for the chronic homeless. Alphonso R. Jackson, the secretary of housing and urban development, said a new policy of bringing the long-term homeless directly into housing, backed by supporting services, had put more than 20,000, or about 12 percent, into permanent or transitional homes.

Veterans have been among the beneficiaries, but Mary Cunningham, director of the research institute of the National Alliance and chief author of their report, said the share of supported housing marked for veterans was low.

A collaborative program of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the V.A. has developed 1,780 such units. The National Alliance said the number needed to grow by 25,000.

Mr. Dougherty described the large and growing efforts the V.A. was making to prevent homelessness including offering two years of free medical care and identifying psychological and substance abuse problems early.

One obstacle is that many veterans wait too long to seek help. “I had that pride thing going on, ‘I’m a soldier, I should be better than this,’” Mr. Johnson said.

Kent Richardson, 49, who was in the Army from 1976 to 1992 and has flashbacks from the gulf war, said, “when you get out you feel disconnected and alone.”

Mr. Richardson said it took him two years to find a job after leaving the Army. Then he became an alcoholic. He now stays at the Southeast Veteran’s Service Center in Washington, awaiting permanent subsidized housing.

Joe Williams, 53, spent 16 years in the Army and the Navy, including a deeply upsetting assignment in the mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where the dead from the gulf war were taken for autopsies.

For the past three years Mr. Williams has lived in a bunk bed in a Washington shelter. He was laid off, his car and house were repossessed, and his wife left him. He moved to Georgia, where he lost another job.

Broke and depressed, he walked from Georgia to a V.A. hospital in the Washington area, where schizophrenia was diagnosed. Now, after three years of medication and therapy, he feels ready to start looking for work.

“I have a mission I’ve got to accomplish,” Mr. Williams said.

Sean D. Hamill contributed reporting from Pittsburgh, Michael Parrish from Los Angeles and J. Michael Kennedy from Seattle.

    Surge Seen in Number of Homeless Veterans, NYT, 8.11.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/us/08vets.html?hp

Military Bill Omits War Funds

November 6, 2007
Filed at 11:45 a.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The New York Times

WASHINGTON (AP) -- House and Senate negotiators agreed Tuesday on a $460 billion Pentagon bill that bankrolls pricey weapons systems and bomb-resistant vehicles for troops, but has little for Iraq and Afghanistan.

Democrats said they wouldn't leave troops in the lurch, but were reluctant to say when Congress might consider President Bush's $196 billion request to pay expressly for combat operations.

The nearly half-trillion dollar bill covers the 2008 budget year, which began Oct. 1.

Republicans supported the spending measure, but said the lack of war money would cause a tremendous strain on the military. To keep the wars afloat, the Pentagon would have to transfer money from less urgent accounts, such as personnel and training programs.

Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, the top Republican on the Senate defense appropriations panel, said that if Congress didn't act soon, the Army would run out of money by January.

''I do believe that Congress would break the Army if it refuses to fund the troops with what they need now,'' he said.

Stevens suggested adding $70 billion to the bill for the wars, but Democrats, who hold sway on the panel, declined.

''This amendment would send to the president additional funding for his horrible, misguided war in Iraq without any congressional direction that he change course. No strings attached,'' said Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

While the bill omits most money for the war, it does include $11 billion for Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles. Stevens said the money to produce the vehicles was useless unless Congress approved additional funds to deploy them.

Democrats were considering approving money for the war in a separate bill -- a tack that would give party members a chance to oppose war spending and still support the military's annual budget.

Ten months into their reclaimed control of Congress, Democrats have been unable to pass legislation ordering troops home. Republicans are more optimistic than ever that the Iraq war may be turning a corner, and Democrats lack enough votes to overcome procedural hurdles in the Senate or override a presidential veto.

Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Congress has approved more than $412 billion for the war there, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Most of the money has paid for military operations, while $25 billion went to diplomatic operations and foreign aid. About $19 billion has gone toward training Iraqi security forces.

Military Bill Omits War Funds, NYT, 6.11.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-US-Iraq.html