U.S. Senate passes bill to provide health care for Camp Lejeune water exposure

The U.S. Senate has approved a bill that will require the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide health care to veterans and their family members who have certain diseases and conditions as a result of exposure to well-water contaminated by human carcinogens at Camp Lejeune.

The Caring for Camp Lejeune Veterans Act is included in the Honoring America's Veterans Bill.

North Carolina Republican U.S. Senator Richard Burr wrote the Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act. He says, "This has been a long time coming, and unfortunately, many who were exposed to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune over the years have died as a result and are not with us to receive the care this bill will provide. "While I wish we could have accomplished this years ago, we now have the opportunity to do the right thing for the thousands of Navy and Marine veterans and their families who were harmed during their service to our country. I am encouraged that the House will pass this bill quickly and it will go to the President's desk for his signature."

North Carolina Democrat U.S. Senator Kay Hagan said, “This bill will ensure that those who were exposed to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune will receive the health care they need and deserve. I applaud the efforts of Chairman Murray and my colleague from North Carolina, Senator Burr, who has worked tirelessly on this issue. Since I joined the Senate, the issue of water contamination at Camp Lejeune has been close to my heart, and I have been working to help provide answers to veterans and their families who have lived or worked on the Marine Corps Base. The push for answers continues, but in the meantime, veterans and family members are suffering. Many need treatment today and cannot afford to wait while studies are completed. The Marines and their family members affected by this tragedy have sacrificed to keep this country safe. After decades of denial, this country owes it to them to ensure they are taken care of in their time of need.”

An estimated 750,000 people may have been exposed to probable and known human carcinogens in the base's water supply between the 1950s and 1980s. To date, this is the largest recorded environmental incident on a domestic Department of Defense installation. 

---- Jerald Terwilliger National Chairman American Cold War Veterans "We Remember" ---------------- "And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades." -- Robert M. Gates, 1996

13,000 Veterans At Risk

About 13,000 veterans were placed at risk due to improper infection control practices at VA
hospitals in Ohio, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia and Missouri.

There have been eight confirmed HIV-positive results and sixty-one cases of Hepatitis B or C, from
those tested. It is not known if these cases were caused by VA exposure or by other means.

Infections are a problem in private and public hospitals and happen quite often. The VA says
it record of care to over 6 million veterans a year is good.

Although many of the veterans who were possibly put at risk think that being placed in harms
way again, some of them decades after they served their tours feel that the VA has let them down
again.

Once more we hear of failings of the VA in protecting our veterans. Not only not protecting, but
jeopardizing their lives. To quote the old song "Oh when will they ever learn."

Jerald Terwilliger
National Chairman
American Cold War Veterans
"We Remember"

---------------- "And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades." -- Robert M. Gates, 1996

Reverse Osmosis Water Filter-Free For Disabled US Veterans

APEC a water filter and softener company has a program dedicated to US Veterans.

They will supply for FREE a Reverse Osmosis water filtering system to sick or disabled veterans.
From their website "Purified drinking water is very important for people who are already suffering
from long term exposure to toxic chemicals."

"Through our new Free Drinking Water charity program, APEC is looking to donate several
drinking water filtration systems a month to sick or disabled US veterans and their families."

This company is looking for veterans with lower incomes and already have an existing condition
that drinking purified water would help these conditions.

For more information, and to find out how to apply please visit their website
freedrinkingwater.com/charity/charity-veterans.htm

This appears to be a very thoughtful and generous company, willing to help veterans improve
their health issues.

Jerald Terwilliger
National Chairman
American Cold War Veterans
"We Remember"

---------------- "And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades." -- Robert M. Gates, 1996

Vietnam Blue-Water Sailors Out of Luck?

According to an article  in the New York Times there is not enough data available to determine
if sailors who served on deep water ships(or blue-water sailors) during the Vietnam War were
exposed to Agent Orange.

A report released Friday by the Institute of Medicine, which took 112 pages, reached this conclusion.

This is very sad news for those who served aboard the large ships that did not always enter
coastal waters of Vietnam. It also would appear highly unlikely that the Department of Veteran
Affairs will establish rules to make it easier for these Navy veterans to receive benefits for any
of the diseases linked to Agent Orange.

Many are asking for legislation to expand coverage of benefits and make it just as easy for these
deep water sailors to  receive health care and disability payments as it is for infantrymen who
were exposed to Agent Orange.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) who has sponsored legislation to help the blue-water veterans,
said the new report did not disprove the possibility that deep-sea sailors were sickened by Agent
Orange during Vietnam.

"This report does not invalidate the claims of thousands of blue-water Navy veterans who are
still suffering from the same illnesses as those who served ashore in Vietnam," the senator said
in a statement.


It has been estimated that as many as 800,000 military members were exposed to Agent Orange
even if they never set foot on Vietnam soil.

Since 1991 the government has presumed that Vietnam veterans with certain diseases were exposed
to Agent Orange, making them eligible for health care and disability payments. But then in 2002
the VA decided it would apply only to those who had actually been in Vietnam.


A federal court upheld that decision which basically left out sailors that served on large ships
like aircraft carriers which were in the deep water and further from Vietnam shores. So called
brown-water sailors who served on smaller boats that operated on inland waters are still
eligible for those benefits.

Agent Orange contains one of the most toxic forms of dioxin, and has been linked to
some cancers, and was the most used herbicide in Vietnam.



So another injustice is perpetrated upon our brave veterans. Will it ever end?

Contact your elected officials, tell them to include these blue-water sailors, and marines who
even though they did not enter Vietnam, or it's coastal waters.

Equal treatment and rights for all veterans is something our country must bring about. It is our
duty to those who served, no matter where or when. Justice must be served. Our veterans
deserve nothing less.

Jerald Terwilliger
National Chairman
American Cold War Veterans
"We Remember"



---------------- "And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades." -- Robert M. Gates, 1996

Mental Health Care for Disabled Veterans

For anyone seeking to claim benefits for disabled veterans, finding mental health coverage is not always easy. A number of reports in recent years have suggested that veterans are more likely to report mental health problems than the general population, and that these reports usually occur 6 months or more after returning home. While a mental health assessment is usually carried out by the army before the veterans return home, the fact that the claims occur after six months means that some veterans are missing out.

Being Eligible for Mental Health Care

Any veteran who is already receiving benefits for disabled veterans should be eligible to apply for general mental health coverage. This includes mental health services such as clinics, residential care, assisted living, and primary care clinics. Veterans with serious mental health issues may also have work programs and rehabilitation paid for, in addition to long-term case management of their illness.

Being Assessed

If you want to claim benefits for disabled veterans due to a mental illness which has developed after your retirement, then you will probably have to be re-assessed by a VA physician. This may improve your disability ratings, so that you receive a benefit from the VA, but it is much harder to claim for mental health issues than for obvious physical disabilities.

Jerald Terwilliger
National Chairman
American Cold War Veterans
"We Remember"

---------------- "And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades." -- Robert M. Gates, 1996

DoD says "Virtual World" Helps with PTSD

 The Department of Defense is using virtual-world interactivity to educate and help
warfighters and others who are reluctant to seek more direct care to deal with post traumatic
stress, said an official at the National Center for Telehealth and Technology also known
as "T2"

During a recent telephone briefing from the center's headquarters at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, Wash., Greg Reger -- a clinical psychologist and acting chief of the center's innovative technology applications division -- said the kinds of immersive experiences available in virtual worlds, such as the internationally populated virtual world called Second Life, are designed to appeal to tech-savvy service members and their families.

"Far too many of our warriors come home and, despite difficulties they are having, are not going to come and see a psychologist, a social worker, a psychiatrist," Reger said.

According to the center's website, many researchers have declared traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress to be the "signature wounds" of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. About 19 percent of service members returning from combat screen positive for psychological health problems, and just more than half seek help, the website says, noting that barriers for those that don't seek help include perceived stigma, physical access barriers and limited resources.

"There's a lot of great work going on at DOD to address stigma, but it is still an issue," Reger said. "So we desperately need solutions to get resources into the hands of those who will not give us the opportunity to provide them basic care."
Virtual worlds are computer-based simulated environments where users, as representations of themselves called avatars, can interact with each other and build and interact with objects and activities.

"An avatar is basically a computer-generated representation of oneself," Reger said, adding that users create these computer characters to navigate around the environment and to explore and learn.

The T2 Virtual PTSD Experience, based in Second Life, is an immersive, interactive learning activity that is open to the public and educates visitors about combat-related post-traumatic stress.

The graphics-dense immersive simulation requires a broadband Internet connection, he said. Users must download a copy of the Second Life world and then can access the world from any computer with a broadband connection.
When avatars come into the virtual space, Reger said, they land at a welcome center that offers information about different deployment-related difficulties and a map of activities available in the T2 virtual experience.

"The cornerstone of the experience is when they leave that area and go into an area that teaches about the causes of post-traumatic stress disorder," Reger said. "They enter a space where they get into a Humvee and are taken through a computer-generated simulation that includes [intense fighting on an Afghan street and] an explosion.
"As this occurs," he continued, "they receive audio instruction about what we think causes post-traumatic stress disorder, and this sets the stage for the rest of the experience."

Users then take a simulated flight home, during which they watch a video about post-traumatic stress. They land at a shopping mall, where each store offers an activity that illustrates a symptom and how it may affect daily life.
For example, Reger said, in the mall is a mattress store.

"If you go into the store, you have an opportunity to lie down on a mattress and a video pops up over the avatar's head that illustrates a re-experiencing of the traumatic event they experienced earlier during the simulation," he said. "Then information is presented on the nature of trauma-related nightmares and sleep disturbances."

The environment uses a range of activities to simulate symptoms and help visitors determine if they or a loved one need care, and offers information about where to go for more direct assistance.

"Second Life provides the opportunity to interact with anyone who is in that space. Any warrior who goes in there will be able to talk with whoever is in that space," Reger said.

"We know that many of the difficulties that our warriors have result in increased social isolation and diminished interest in getting outside the home and interacting with other people," he added. "We do wonder about the potential in this space to really get some of these folks connected with each other in a meaningful way that might be helpful."

The National Center for Telehealth and Technology is a component of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, which leads a collaborative global network to promote the resilience, recovery and reintegration of warriors and their families.

"We created an environment that lets people learn by doing, rather than reading text and watching videos on two-dimensional websites," Kevin Holloway, the psychologist who led T2's virtual-world development, said in a statement. "They can learn something new each time they visit."

More information on "T2" can be found on their website http://www.t2health.org/vwproj/


  Jerald Terwilliger
National Chairman
American Cold War Veterans
"We Remember"

---------------- "And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades." -- Robert M. Gates, 1996

Secretary Gates wants to raise TRICARE costs

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates thinks that one way to save money for the Pentagon would
be to raise enrollment rates for veterans who are covered under TRICARE. The program
provides health care coverage to active duty and retired military members and their families.

Although Gates mentioned raising the rates for "working age" retired military members. Gates
said that many of these beneficiaries are employed full time while receiving their full pensions
and ofter forgo their employer's health plan to remain with TRICARE."

Gates' plan would raise the rates for fiscal year 2012 and make other changes in military
health care that could save over $7 billion over the next five years.

Gates said, "These will include initiatives to become more efficient as well as modest increases to
TRICARE fees for working age retires to adjust for medical attention."

The current enrollment fee of $460 for the basic family plan has not changed since it was
sent in 1995. Although there have been attempts in the past to raise the rate, Congress
has failed to do so.

Several members of Congress are watching closely to see the exact figures and what the
effect would be on both active duty and retired members.

Once again, it is the veteran who gets cuts first and deepest. Most of us seem to remember
quite clearly being told that we and our families would be taken care of for life.

It just does not happen for most.

Jerald Terwilliger
National Chairman
American Cold War Veterans
"We Remember"

---------------- "And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades." -- Robert M. Gates, 1996

The Congressional Budget Office Report on VA Health Care

 The CBO issued a report on potential VA health costs through 2020. In using two scenarios, one good
thing both scenarios allow for VA lowering restrictions in all priorities, and increasing the number of veterans covered by the VA.
http://cboblog.cbo.gov/?p=1449

---------------- "And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades." -- Robert M. Gates, 1996