Veteran's compensation should be for truly disabled

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales it seems is the news that is covered and if he is being less than honest he should be in the spotlight. However, other issues are also relevant for example the Institute of Medicine (IOM) studies that have yet to be put into practice for veterans.
Please look at the IOM studies “Veterans and Agent Orange (2002) page 8”, “Gulf War and Health: Volume 2: Insecticides and Solvents 2001 page 562..”, “Gulf War and Health, Volume 3: Fuels, Combustion Products, and Propellants (2003) page 398..”. The implementation of the studies findings are for the most part shelved, many of those from Vietnam have died before they or their families could receive any benefit from the findings that have been put in place. It seems that those from the Gulf War will have past from a living state before implementation of any of the findings would help them or here families.
The debate over care at VA facilities is a good thing, nevertheless if veterans and their families cannot get enough to live on and are denied reasonable benefits or any for the disease or illness acquired in the conflict, then what is a change at the facilities going to do for them? The issue of benefits and implementation of IOM studies would benefit all veterans; just the findings on benzene would help many. If those elected to government wish to fix the problems for veterans then fix them all, don’t just pick and chose or is it the cost and not enough have died for serving this country?
You cover the news you should look in to the issue? But then too the issue I brought up may not be news worthy? When I was in school it was the press that would get the answers and to the truth of the matter, is that a thing of the past like the veterans?

Mr. McFeatters,

Your March 28th editorial is based on faulty interpretation of data. The story, by Lisa Hoffman drew an incorrect conclusion regarding how benefits are paid to Veterans diabled by service-connected injury or disease, and presents the absolutey incorrect assertion that there are Veterans getting benefits soley for shaving bumps, or hemmorhoids. This is NOT the case.

The VA disability system is a tree of disabilities all rooted in a single or multiple disabilities that are service connected. The easiest explanation is the Agent Orange presumption. There are currently twelve diseases for which service connection is granted to veterans exposed to Dioxins (Agent Orange, Agent White, etc.). Most are forms of cancer, but some are not, such as chloracne, peripheral neuropathy, and Diabetes Mellitus Type II. The latter, a very insidious disease, can spawn sub-diseases such as heart problems, kidney disease, skin diseases, loss of teeth, blindness, loss of limbs due to amputation to stop the spread of gangrene [due to inadequate healing ability in extremities], and more. All of these sub-diseases are considered when deciding the degree of disability in a Veteran. It is a complex formula, but the various sub-diseases run up the score, so to speak, on top of one or more of the twelve qualifying dioxin related diseases. Diabetes alone might get a veteran a 30% disability rating, but heart damage, and loss of function in a kidney, might very well run the veterans disability rating as high as 70 or 80%, or even 100% if, for example, the heart problems significantly affect the Veteran's life and ability to work.

Suffice it to say, no one gets a disability from the VA for shaving bumps alone.

Were you to pursue this with the VA for corroboration, I would recommend you contact your closest Regional Office.

Should you have a further interest in a VA-Veterans story that is legitimate, perhaps you could look into the VA's refusal to grant Agent Orange benefits to Naval and Coast Guard veterans of the Vietnam War, despite wording in the original enabling Agent Orange legislation extending coverage to those who performed "...naval service in off shore waters...", and in spite of the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, the VA's own court, overturning that discriminatory policy last summer in a case referred to as Haas v. Nicholson.

Haas v. Nicholson is currently under appeal by the Department of Veterans Affairs in the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Many Veterans of Naval service on the Gunline and in coastal patrols, Search and Rescue operations, and support of such operations are dead, or dying from Agent Orange diseases without benefit of coverage Congress granted because of the VA's policy.

"...Naval service in off shore waters..." included combat operations, and apparently exposure to dioxins via wind drift by prevailing winds, and runoff into seawater, from which fresh water was made in a process that removes the salt, but concentrates the dioxin. Ship's crews drank it in their coffee, and bathed in it in their showers.

This travesty by the Department of Veterans Affairs affects tens of thousands of Naval Vietnam Veterans, and their families, who are being denied benefits because, essentially, the VA thinks they know Congressional intent, and they think it would be too expensive to pay the Veterans.

Perhaps your attention to this story might help expose it to a wider audience, and help bring justice to the thousands of men of the United States Navy who served honorably and loyally during the Vietnam War.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Please feel free to contact me for further information on this matter. Such contact would be quite welcome.

W. G. Davis
US Navy, Vietnam, 1966

Please remember that in the courts when a criminal act is done with

the benefit of doubt, then that crime has been committed. For a

veteran to wait thirty years for proof, then it is something wrong

with justice system. True cirmes are committed and due process is the

Bill of Rights. But if someone has paid millions for the act, then

why should the veteran be held responsible for the act of it's own

government and high profile businesses. Murder is a felony in the

United States and you would put someone who did a lesser crime of

simple assault in prison with the due process and the benefit of

doubt. Well the government knows that the makers of the dioxion

would kill more then the grass and trees and bushes. So when ask

what the human life would be, they lied and tried to cover this

crime up until thye had to pay for their mistakes. So now they want

to change the rules so that the veterans that are losing arms, legs,

or just plan K I A the government just make lier's to shuffle the

crime as non-void in the books. A crime was committed when they

used Agent Orange, because it is able to hide in the fatty cells

of the human body and organs to later cause cancer, diabetes, pain

of eminse sorrow that the doctors lie to veterans and will give

the wrong or higher doses to kill the veterans. This is called

murder in the worse degree.

A Real Caring with his thoughts.