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01/27/2012   Downtown Parade on Saturday will honor Iraq war vets

St. Louis will host a parade for Iraq war veterans Saturday, making it the first major city to officially welcome the troops home, according to organizers. Craig Schneider said the idea for the parade launched from a late December dinner conversation with his friend Tom Appelbaum. Within days, they solicited the help of The Mission Continues, a St. Louis-based nonprofit that assists returning veterans, to handle donations and coordinate volunteers.








01/27/2012   Miller: “I Expect A Full Accounting of All Veterans’ Graves”

Rep. Jeff Miller, Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, issued the statement regarding the recent discovery of numerous mismarked graves and incorrectly interred remains throughout the Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Cemetery Administration system.


01/27/2012   Defense Budget Cuts Would Limit Raises and Close Bases

The Pentagon took the first major step toward shrinking its budget after a decade of war as it announced Thursday that it wanted to limit pay raises for troops, increase health insurance fees for military retirees and close bases in the United States.


01/27/2012   Gahanna to host walk to help Ohio veterans

Daniel Hutchison, representing Ohio Combat Veterans, said the inaugural 1-mile “Walk with a Hero” has been scheduled tentatively for 10 am. Saturday, March 3, at Creekside, with proceeds earmarked to help returning veterans transition back to civilian life.


Hearing Loss & Tinnitus     We so often forget that many of the worst wounds aren't visible.  


Jim's Mailbag

Jim;

I was reading the VA Watchdog site, as I always do, and I could not help but reflect on the life long effects of my own war caused disabilities. As a combined 280% disabled Vietnam vet with A/A there is so much in the world that I miss out on. Besides the emotional trauma of PTSD  and physical wounds there are two disabilities that rank among the highest disabilities. Those are blindness and deafness.

I have all my extremities. What I don't have is peace of spirit due to PTSD and, most of all, good hearing. I have not heard the sweet song of a bird in four decades. I cannot go into public places or even family functions without feeling left out due to my inability to hear what is being said. All I hear is noise. I cannot distinguish the noise with words. It all adds to more loneliness on my part and I feel left out in every aspect of life. I wish I could trade my poor hearing for a lost extremity. I would love to sit in a wheelchair in a park and hear the sounds of nature instead of sitting there and hearing nothing.

I'm not trying to belittle those wonderful wounded vets who have lost body parts in defense of our great nation but I am asking every vet to understand too that  those of us who lost our sight or hearing are every bit as much disabled as those who have lost a limb.

God bless you all. One day we will all go a place where no one has defects or suffering.

Reply;

Your email really touched me. My dad was a combat veteran. He was 18 years old when he went with the first wave of marines to land on Iwo Jima. By then, his ears were bleeding. He had been aboard one of the Navy ships that bombarded Iwo Jima for days in advance.

He was an engineer with the 4th Marines. He told me of nights when he'd fall asleep, or simply pass out from fatigue, next to some artillery.

He was a machine gunner, an ordinance disposal professional, a rifleman and above all else, he was a proud marine. He retired at age 36 as a Master Gunnery Sargent E-9.

His hearing was shot all to hell. By his late 40s he was more or less deaf. He applied for some help from VA and was denied. The VA informed him that there was no record of his participating in any combat. They ignored his Iwo Jima service, his Korean War service and his 3 Purple Hearts. For the next 25 years, he bought his own hearing aids. He spent an average of about $4000.00 each year until I learned about it. I refiled for him and he received a 30% rating for loss of hearing. His tinnitus was denied. It wasn't long after that he passed away, cursing the VA the whole time.

His hearing loss was profound. He gave up any social activities because he felt foolish trying to communicate with people. He couldn't go to a movie, shop at a mall or do any small task that required him to meet strangers. He denied depression but his depression was apparent to me.

Most people don't think about hearing loss as anything other than a slight annoyance. They don't recognize that it's more than a loss of hearing, it's a set of symptoms that can reduce a conversation into unintelligible noise. There may be roaring sounds like a train on a track. Any normal sounds, such as the background noise in a restaurant, can become such a cacophony of jumbled sounds that it becomes frightening. Hearing aids provide little help to many sufferers. They may amplify sounds but not filter them correctly.

Many veterans become withdrawn and seem antisocial. It's embarrassing to have strangers speak to you and you can't figure out what they said.

Thanks for your message. I'm going to publish this as a reminder to everyone of just how serious a disability this can be.

Comment    01/27/2012 1:05 PM Eastern

Jim,

It is not usual that reading your site brings me close to tears (cussing, often - tears, seldom) but today's VAWatchdog.org mailbag from the 280% VN vet lamenting about his hearing loss and your personal reply regarding your father's hearing loss really touched me.  I, too, had a WWII veteran father with SC hearing loss.  He was lucky.  His was covered under VA and he got excellent care, hearing aids, and batteries and was able to continue conversing with people and being active until the CHF got the better of him in his mid 80s.  The vet's letter and your reply made me realize that we took Dad's ability to hear with his hearing aids for granted.  When he was in cardiac ICU we could always tell when he was on the mend because he would ask for his teeth, his hearing aids, and a paper.

You have mentioned that many VA employees read your site.  It would be my prayer that today's mailbag and reply would be required reading by everyone in the entire claims processing chain of command, especially the raters, to give them a true disability picture beyond what the tests may measure and the rating schedule may dictate.  This column so clearly shows the quality of life issues that can be affected by hearing loss and tinnitus.

Thank you, Jim, for all you do for veterans and their families.

Please let your VN vet know that today, as I go about my day, chatting with others I encounter, I will see the birds and revel in their color and hear their song with joy in my heart on behalf of the veteran who wrote, your father, my father, and all the other veterans in a similar situation.  I humbly thank you both for reminding me of the things I have that I take for granted.

Sincerely,
TSS





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01/26/2012   For a Veteran, Disability Payment Is Long in Coming

In a case as much about government bungling as one man’s perseverance, the Department of Veterans Affairs said last week that it would end years of litigation and repay Mr. MacKlem, 88, for six decades’ worth of disputed disability compensation, about $400,000. “This case has been resolved, and Mr. MacKlem will receive V.A. disability compensation retroactive to April 1, 1950,” the department said in a statement.

To which Mr. MacKlem, a World War II veteran from Portland, Mich., replied, “I’ll believe it when I get the settlement.”


01/26/2012   Paralyzed Veterans of America Commends President-Need to Take Care of our Veterans in State of the Union Address

In his speech he said: "Above all, our freedom endures because of the men and women in uniform who defend it. As they come home, we must serve them as well as they've served us. That includes giving them the care and the benefits they have earned - which is why we've increased annual VA spending every year I've been President. And it means enlisting our veterans in the work of rebuilding our nation."


01/26/2012   Veterans among the growing homeless in Delaware County

"There are always vets at homeless shelters and in programs and stuff, but I'm seeing more and more these days, like in the last year"


01/25/2012  Lara Logan still suffers nightmares, PTSD from attack in Egypt

"There's something called latent PTSD. It manifests itself in different ways. I want to be free of it, but I'm not...It doesn't go away...It's not something I keep track of. It's not predictable like that. But it happens more than I'd like."


01/25/2012  Mentoring: Giving Back to Those Women Who Have Given So Much

Read: Women Vets





01/26/2012   Police get help with vets who are ticking bombs

The Justice Department is funding an unusual national training program to help police deal with an increasing number of volatile confrontations involving highly trained and often heavily armed combat veterans.

01/25/2012   Veteran's court 'graduates' first class

01/25/2012  PTSD as a Criminal Defense?

01/25/2012  Iraq War veteran Chase Boruch sentenced to life in prison

"To hint that your government caused you to do this is an absolute disservice and a slap in the face to every veteran who has served in this country"







01/25/2012  VA Telehealth Lauded As Model Healthcare Program

The VHA program, which served 50,000 veterans in 2011, is the largest telehealth project in the world, the report said. Patients enrolled in the program--most of whom have chronic conditions such as heart failure, COPD, hypertension, diabetes, and post-traumatic stress disorder--receive free telemonitoring equipment and attention from care coordinators who teach them how to manage their own care.


Divorce In Military Families – How It’s Different & What You Need To Know

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What Do I Need to Know about the Federal Electronic Benefits Rules?

A Servicemembers Guide to Student Loan Interest Rates

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