Blog post

IAVA Daily Brief 08.17.09
Posted by Michelle McCarthy on August 17

Here are some of today's top stories and happenings at IAVA.  Prefer to receive real-time updates about major stories and legislation that IAVA is tracking?  Follow us on Twitter @iavapressroom.

MUST READS

1) Obama to Address VFW Convention Monday

President Barack Obama will deliver an address Monday at the Veterans of Foreign Wars' national convention in Phoenix, Arizona.  According to White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, the President will discuss the United States' responsibilities to maintain the world's finest military. Gibbs also indicated Obama will speak about the nation's responsibility to the men and women of the armed services when they return home from combat.  Tune in beginning at 2:00 PM EST Monday to watch the speech live, or follow IAVA on Twitter @iavapressroom for real-time updates on the President's remarks.

2)  Specter, VA's Shinseki Address Veterans at Philadelphia Town Hall

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki spoke with veterans at a morning forum at Drexel University in Philadelphia on Monday.  In his remarks, Secretary Shinseki noted that the VA "... is a point in time where change is required" and he reiterated that VA officials are working as fast as they can to improve benefits for new veterans.  "We started as being a center of medical centers and in essence veterans came to us," he said.  "The next step... is bringing deliverable services to veterans where they live."  On the issue of rising veterans' suicide post-deployment, Sec. Shinseki said "not enough" is being done but that the VA is working with the U.S. Army and USMC to improve diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Distress Disorder.  During the hour-long town hall, Secretary Shinseki also highlighted the benefits the new Post-9/11 GI Bill will hold for new veterans, as well as nearly $500 million in funding that will be disseminated to local community organizations to help the VA combat homelessness. Click here to watch the formal Q&A session with Specter and Shinseki.

3) Wave of GI Bill Applicants May Delay Payments

Veterans and schools expecting new GI Bill payments from the Department of Veterans Affairs face a 30-day delay in getting paid - and the delays could get longer if a flood of claims arrives in the next few weeks.  Keith Wilson, VA's education service chief who is responsible for the Post-9/11 GI Bill and the department's other education benefits programs, said Friday said about 136,000 service members, veterans or family members of service members have been certified as eligible for the new GI Bill benefits but that payments won't go out until final enrollment information is received from schools.  About 8,000 of the eligibility claims are for active-duty members seeking to transfer benefits to their spouses or children, he said.  So far, processing time is about 30 days, a little longer than VA's goal of 24 days. But completing claims even in 30 days may prove difficult if the VA is swamped with claims in early September as the result of a rush of fall enrollments, Wilson said.  "We have our hands full," he said. "The fall enrollment period always is a challenge for us."

4) Women at Arms: Living and Fighting Along-side Men, and Fitting In

The New York Times started a series over the weeked exploring womens' changing role in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.  "There was a lot of debate over where women should be," said Brig. Gen. Heidi V. Brown, one of the two highest ranking women in Iraq today, recalling the start of the war. "Here we are six years later, and you don't hear about it. You shouldn't hear about it."  In interviews, female service members on the ground told The Times the issues that arise in having women in combat - harassment, bias, hardship, even sexual relations - are a matter of discipline, maturity and professionalism rather than an argument for separating the sexes.  Missed it?  Click here to read the first article in the series, "G.I. Jane Breaks the Combat Barrier."

AFGHANISTAN

In an attempt to incite fear a week before Afghanistan's landmark presidential election, a Taliban suicide car bomber struck near the front gate of NATO headquarters in Kabul on Saturday, killing seven people and wounding nearly 100.  he bomber managed to evade several rings of Afghan police and detonated his vehicle about 30 yards from the main entrance to the NATO base, where top U.S. commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal has his headquarters. It was unknown whether McChrystal was there at the time of the attack. On Monday, an American civilian working alongside U.S. troops was killed in an insurgent attack in easter Afghanistan though no further details were avaiable.

Early Monday, the U.S. condemned powerful and controversial Afghan warlord Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum's return late Sunday from exile in Turkey late Sunday - an apparent attempt by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to attract ethnic Uzbek voters in this week's presidential election.  U.S. officials are raising alarms about his alleged involvement in "massive human rights violations," including the deaths of up to 2,000 Taliban prisoners early in the Afghan war.

The Washington Post reports this morning that discontent at the Pentagon with former General David McKiernan's languid, old-school behavior forced them to remove him as U.S. commander in Afghanistan. "There are those who would have waited six more months" in order to have a less abrupt transition, Mullen said in an interview. "I couldn't. I'm losing kids and I couldn't sleep at night. I have an unbounded sense of urgency to get this right."  McKiernan's removal was the first sacking of a wartime theater commander since President Harry S. Truman dismissed Gen. Douglas MacArthur in 1951 for opposing his Korean War policy.

IRAQ

Over the weekend, the U.S. military reported that three Iraqis herding cattle were killed Saturday after wandering into the middle of a U.S.-Iraqi mortar training exercise 12 miles north of Baghdad.

The Associated Press has a profile feature today on U.S. Marines that remain in Iraq's Anbar Province but who are itching to depart for action in Afghanistan.  "It's tougher out here when you've been trained so well to go out and close with the enemy and get him by the neck, so to speak," Sgt. Glyn Long, a squad leader with Echo Company, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines, which is winding up its tour. Instead of firefights and rolling-thunder columns of armored vehicles, Long and his troops told reporters that Anbar these days is a place where Marine convoys pull off the road to let Iraqi police or army convoys pass.  "It's to show them that it's their area and we're just more or less visitors in it at this point," said Capt. Matt Bartels, company commander.

MILITARY AFFAIRS

The Veterans Affairs Department will begin Monday offering routine HIV tests to veterans who receive medical care. The new policy follows recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which says all patients should be offered HIV testing even if they are not considered at risk. Under the new policy, veterans must verbally consent to the test; they can also decline it.  Previously, veterans had to sign a consent form.  The hope is that by dropping the written consent, more veterans will get tested and get medical treatment earlier.  About 22,000 veterans with HIV get care at VA facilities.

Last Thursday, Sergeant William J. Cahir – a former Express-Times Washington, D.C., correspondent and Pennsylvania congressional candidate – was killed in action in Afghanistan while serving with the U.S. Marines.  Cahir had been deployed to Iraq twice before, and was currently in Afghanistan leading a civil affairs team.  In a letter sent to the families of Cahir’s unit over the weekend, Maj. George Anikow wrote of Cahir:  He was patriotic to the core, and fiercely loyal to his Marines… Not many have the courage to join the Marine Corps in the first place, even less have the resolve to join it in their 30’s and a smaller fraction have the bravery to volunteer for three war zone deployments.  However, Sergeant Cahir was no ordinary person, he was motivated by his desire to make a difference, and a difference he did make.”  Cahir leaves behind his wife Renee, pregnant with their twin daughters.   Read the full letter from Maj. Anikow attached.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

Though Congress is in recess until September, the White House sent a formal request to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Aug. 13th for permission to shift roughly $1 billion of next year's proposed Pentagon budget to pay for a previously announced temporary boost in Army end strength, aimed at reducing strain on the heavily deployed force. To cover that cost, the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force - as well as the Army - would all take modest hits to procurement funds requested in the overseas contingency operations portion of the 2010 federal budget.  In the letter, President Obama has asked that Congress consider reallocating money from "lower-priority DoD contingency operations' requirements" which are no longer needed "due to changed circumstances."  The letter did not elaborate further.

CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE

THE SENATE

The Senate is on recess until September 8^th.

FUTURE COMMITTEE HEARINGS of INTEREST

August 28, 2009 - SVAC will conduct a field hearing on the state of VA’s services on Maui, to include an OIG report of the same.  10:00 a.m.; Maui Cultural Center (Vasquez)

THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

The House is on recess until September 8^th.

IAVA IN THE NEWS

Outlet: CNN’s American Morning

Title: Veterans Affairs Town Hall

Date: Monday, August 17th

Representative: IAVA Member Vet Don Gomez

Outlet: Military Times

Title: Wave of GI Bill Applicants May Delay Payments

Date:  Saturday, August 15th

Representative: Patrick Campbell

A wide-range of views, positions, and publications are represented in these articles.  These views, positions and publications are not endorsed by nor do they necessarily represent the views of IAVA.