please watch this video

on sgt jacob blalock

no embed code so you have to go to the link to watch.

this my dears is VERY telling

ain't it?
Veterans Affairs refuses to provide voter registration for wounded vets
John Byrne
VA suggests voter registration not held because it's partisan
At a quiet 1999 ceremony in MaComb County, Michigan, a plainspoken former Texas governor delivered a patriotic speech to commemorate Veterans' Day.
But none of the eight veterans interviewed by The New York Times after the ceremony promised George W. Bush their vote.
A new report Thursday reveals that Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake told two Democratic senators his department will not help injured veterans register to vote before the 2008 election.
"VA remains opposed to becoming a voter registration agency pursuant to the National Voter Registration Act, as this designation would divert substantial resources from our primary mission," Peake said in an April 8th letter to Sens. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and John Kerry (D-MA) acquired by Steven Rosenfeld at Alternet.
Peake refers to a 1993 law that allows government departments to engage in voter registration efforts, Rosenfeld says.
What this means is that many injured veterans still in VA hospitals who can't find means to register outside of their facilities will effectively lose their right to vote. Wounded veterans who have moved must re-register at their "new addresses" or file for absentee ballots in order to participate in the presidential and other elections...........

some more consequences of the war

this time they have names (and they are NOT just the veterans, THEY ARE THE FAMILIES)
Injury in Iraq was just start of troubles
By Barbara Barrett McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — When Army National Guard Lt. Michael McMichael returned to Franklinton, N.C., from Iraq in January 2005, it took a while for his wife to recognize the changes in him.
They came on slowly at first: A hotter temper. Migraines. Sore bones.
Then the problems grew. McMichael lost his job, exploded at home and walked out on his family. In the three years since his return from Iraq, McMichael has tumbled from being a skinny but content war veteran to a troubled husband and father who's unemployed, walking with a cane and suffering tremors and nightmares.
His wife, Jackie McMichael, has suffered, too. Even when she repeatedly tried to get help, calling doctors in tears, officials turned her away, citing confidentiality requirements about her husband's health, she said.
The isolation of military families has become a common story in Congress, where lawmakers still are trying to understand how they can help veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Laws and rules have been passed to get counseling to troops in war zones, to expand research into traumatic brain injury and to ease the bureaucratic transition from the Department of Defense to the Department of Veteran Affairs........

.........."My assessment is the VA doesn't see the human face behind the patients they're treating," ...............

two sets of books

i KNOW there are way more wounded (both physically AND mentally) than 'they' say. i also know there are many wounded who have yet to come forward. it make take a while for them to do so. look what we let them (the them being king george and his entire court) do (and continue to do)
AP: True Cost of War -- Staggering Number of Wounded Vets
NEW YORK The number of wounded soldiers has become a hallmark of the nearly 5-year-old Iraq war, pointing to both the use of roadside bombs as the extremists' weapon of choice and advances in battlefield medicine to save lives.About 15 soldiers are wounded for every fatality, compared with 2.6 per death in Vietnam and 2.8 in Korea.But with those saved soldiers comes a financial price — one veterans groups and others claim the government is unwilling to pay.Those critics also say that the tens of thousands of soldiers wounded in Iraq are part of a political numbers game, one they say undermines the system meant to care for them.The most frequently cited figure is the 29,320 soldiers wounded in action in Iraq as of Thursday. But there have been 31,325 others treated for non-combat injuries and illness as of March 1."The Pentagon keeps two sets of books," said Linda Bilmes, a professor at Harvard and an expert on budgeting and public finance whose newly published book, The Three Trillion Dollar War, was co-authored with Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz...........

another wounded soldier's story

that is NOT pretty. he fought and he won (well not really WON) BUT HE NEVER SHOULD HAVE FOUGHT (in iraq OR for veterans benefits and proper health care) to begin with!
Gravely wounded Iraq vet visits old Walter Reed haunts
By Les Blumenthal McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — For months, Spc. Rory Dunn lay in Bed 32, Ward 58, on the fifth floor of Walter Reed Army Medical Center, recovering after a roadside bomb in Iraq exploded and crushed his forehead from ear to ear.
As he lay in the neuroscience unit struggling to recover from one of the worst traumatic brain injuries doctors had seen, he vowed that he'd never come back to Walter Reed.
Last week, he did.
Dunn wanted to thank the doctors, surgeons, nurses, therapists and others who'd helped him survive after most thought he'd surely die.
"This guy here is a miracle," said Solomon Montgomery, a former professional football player turned physical therapist, as he enveloped Dunn in a hug.
"Dude, you look good," said Dr. Stephen Rouse, who restored Dunn's skull using a plastic insert designed by a 3-D computer program.
Since he left the hospital in 2005, Dunn has rebuilt his life. He's living with his dog, Duke, in a condo he bought in Renton, Wash.
His wounds have healed, but scars remain...........

you should all be SO effing ashamed

yes, you king george. your court. da liebs, EVERYONE who was responsible for sending our men and women to fight in that unjust illegal and immoral war. as if THAT weren't bad enough (and of course it IS bad enough), IT JUST GETS WORSE. our returning heroes aren't getting the treatment they not only need but deserve. AND KING GEORGE DOESN'T CARE. when will the people on the other side of the fence see that? is money what makes the difference? do you not care about our returning service men and women who are injured (outside as WELL as in)? i can't understand why this is happening. why WE allow it to happen. where is our collective voice? HELP them and do it NOW

to sgt. darren mischke, thank you for serving and i am so very sorry for your treatment. for the family and friends of sgt. mischke, NEVER give up. there ARE people who care. it may not seem like it but i do and i know many others who do as well

Treatment for Vets' Brain Injuries Should Be a No-Brainer
by: Jim Spencer

There is no question that Sgt. Darren Mischke is a wounded warrior. After two tours in Iraq, the 27-year-old Army vet suffers from nosebleeds, memory loss, mood swings, dizziness, blurred vision and severe headaches.
Only instead of treating him for what are classic symptoms of traumatic brain injury - or TBI - Mischke's wife and father say the U.S. military has tried to force him from the service for domestic abuse.
Jim Spencer :: Treatment for Vets' Brain Injuries Should Be a No-Brainer
"He'd be out of the service if his wife hadn't fought for him," Tom Mischke said of his son.
Darren Mischke got knocked out in a wreck during his first tour in Iraq, said his wife, Teresa. He was riding on the turret of a military vehicle that got hit by a mortar in his second tour......

.......But even after Salazar succeeded in getting the extra 900 grand for brain trauma treatment into the Labor-Health and Human Services Appropriations Act, President Bush vetoed the bill.
The president wasn't aiming at TBI programs so much as overall spending. Still, as Salazar noted, "this is not the time to pull back on traumatic brain injury research and treatment."........

........On Nov. 5, almost a year after he returned from Iraq, a special scan finally showed his brain trauma, Mischke's wife and father said, yet discharge procedures continue.
For anyone who still needs to put a face on this country's failure to help its brain-injured vets, a portrait of the sergeant would work just fine. ........

lose an eye for your country

or a leg or an arm or part of your mind. well if you're THAT unlucky, you'll have to return part of the bonus money we paid you to defend us from the evils of iraq (WHO, ONCE AGAIN, I MUST STATE WAS NEVER A THREAT TO US. NEVER ATTACKED US. WAS NOT INVOLVED IN 9/11). this is despicable
Wounded Soldier: Military Wants Part Of Bonus Back
Reporting Marty Griffin
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
The U.S. Military is demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments.
To get people to sign up, the military gives enlistment bonuses up to $30,000 in some cases.
Now men and women who have lost arms, legs, eyesight, hearing and can no longer serve are being ordered to pay some of that money back.
One of them is Jordan Fox, a young soldier from the South Hills.
He finds solace in the hundreds of boxes he loads onto a truck in Carnegie. In each box is a care package that will be sent to a man or woman serving in Iraq. It was in his name Operation Pittsburgh Pride was started.
Fox was seriously injured when a roadside bomb blew up his vehicle. He was knocked unconscious. His back was injured and lost all vision in his right eye.
A few months later Fox was sent home. His injuries prohibited him from fulfilling three months of his commitment. A few days ago, he received a letter from the military demanding nearly $3,000 of his signing bonus back.
"I tried to do my best and serve my country. I was unfortunately hurt in the process. Now they're telling me they want their money back," he explained............

luis sinco tries to do something

king george and his court SHOULD be doing. SAVING A VETERAN (ALL veterans)

reporters are supposed to be neutral (photographers as well). i'm glad some of them are NOT. why aren't we as a nation embarrassed? AT THE VERY LEAST, embarrassed........

Rescue operation aims to save a wounded warrior

Despite concerns of overstepping, Times photographer Luis Sinco feels compelled to help the Iraq vet he made famous.
By Luis Sinco : Times Staff Photographer, Second of two parts November 12, 2007
James Blake Miller was in a world of pain, and I figured I should be by his side.A veterans' treatment program in West Haven, Conn. -- arguably the best in the nation -- offered hope. Moe Armstrong, a pioneer in vet-to-vet counseling, had heard of the Marlboro Marine's troubles and sent him feelers about coming for a visit. Despite my reservations about getting too involved, I had flown from Los Angeles to Kentucky to help Miller grab this lifeline. I coaxed him into my rental car and we headed north. I questioned myself. Was this the right thing to do? For Miller, yes. But for me? What awaited us at the end of this journey? I caught Miller's eyes reflected in the rearview mirror, droopy and lifeless. He hadn't slept well, and a long road led from his home in the Appalachian coal country to New England.........

photo: This is the photo that made Marine Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller -- the "Marlboro Marine" --famous. This photo also changed my life. I’m Luis Sinco, a Los Angeles Times staff photographer, and I took it while embedded with his Marine unit in Fallouja. We had spent the previous night in a traffic circle, pinned down by enemy fire, and just before I snapped this photo, a tank had blasted an insurgent position next door to ours. Many people looked at the photo and saw a heroic figure; I saw, in his eyes, a man at the point of breaking. It was how I felt, too.
(Luis Sinco / LAT)
November 9, 2004

thanks to jeff for sending me the link to

the wounded warrior project

wounded warrior project videos

Our Mission
To raise the awareness and enlist the public's aid for the needs of severely injured service men and women, to help severely injured service members aid and assist each other, and to provide unique, direct programs and services to meet their needs.
Wounded Warrior Project is a non-profit organization

this is unacceptable

no arguments. unacceptable. there is only ONE person accountable and he can't even give a speech unless it is phonetically spelled out.

why i ask myself, WHY WOULD ANYONE currently join the armed forces? if i KNEW there was an almost 100% probability i would be sent to iraq, i would most likely be at the very LEAST wounded and i would NOT (again, if i made it back alive) receive the care i NOT ONLY NEEDED BUT WAS ENTITLED TO AND DESERVED. why would i join?

oh and why is king george taking ANY days off when our men and women are suffering? why isn't anyone asking him that? that's the FIRST thing i'd ask him. hey king george, it's kinda ballsy to take vacation time when our troops lives are on the line, no? why are you taking ANY
time off then?
instead of everyone running around and taking votes on or over an ad moveon.org put in the newspaper, shouldn't our congress and senate be CONCERNED WITH THE WELL BEING OF OUR TROOPS? SOMETHING TANGIBLE? asswipes

and a special shout out to tim ngo

Months After 'Wash Post' Walter Reed Revelations -- and Official Promises -- GAO Finds Not Enough Done

By Hope Yen, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON Months after pledging to improve veterans care, the Bush administration has yet to find clear answers to some of the worst problems afflicting wounded warriors, such as delays in disability payments and providing personalized care, investigators say.A report by the Government Accountability Office, released Wednesday, offers the first preliminary assessment of improvement efforts initiated by the Pentagon and Veterans Affairs Department after revelations in February of shoddy outpatient treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.The report found that even though the Army has touted creation of more personalized medical care units so that wounded veterans don't slip through the cracks, nearly half -- or 46 percent -- of returning service members who were eligible did not get the service due to staffing shortages.The report said after 10 years of review, the Pentagon and VA still remain far away from having a comprehensive system for sharing medical records as injured veterans move from facility to facility.And despite months of review by no less than eight congressional committees, a presidential task force, a presidential commission and the Pentagon and VA itself, the government has no apparent solution for reducing severe delays of 177 days, on average, in providing disability payments.....

something is being done

but i'm not sure this is the solution. having combat leaders as 'squad leaders' for the wounded at walter reed. the vets at walter reed are recovering. some have VERY serious injuries. i don't think calling squad meetings is a good start. patients need to be individuals. while at walter reed, why not treat them as such? some will continue to be in the military. many will not.

these men and women deserve a solution NOW. not experimentation. stop spending BILLIONS on iraq and other middle eastern countries and SPEND THE F**KING money at home. on our vets AND on our children AND on our elderly AND on education


At Walter Reed, a New Approach
Combat Veterans Assigned to Aid Recoveries


By Steve Vogel Washington Post Staff Writer

It was the sort of message that sergeants have delivered to soldiers since time immemorial: Formations would be held three days a week at 7:30 a.m., and attendance was mandatory. "NO EXCEPTIONS!" screamed the e-mail, sent this month by a staff sergeant to his squad.
"I am sick and tired of chasing everyone around when it should be simple," the message read. "This [is] the United States Army NOT the Salvation Army."
Normally, no one in the Army would blink. But the e-mail recipients were stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where many are missing limbs, coping with post-traumatic stress disorder or suffering from brain injuries. The backlash was swift. After fielding a complaint from a soldier's mother, a commanding officer ordered the sergeant to apologize.............

i want to know

how the HELL they FIND ANY civilians to work in iraq. hell, i want to know how they're finding young men and women to join the military these days at all... well we all know the kinds of treatement some of our wounded vets are receiving (or NOT as the case may be). so wounded civilians NOT getting care comes as NO shock

Service Civilians and the Wounds of War
Many Fill Vital Roles in Iraq, but Medical Care Can Be Spotty


By Ann Scott Tyson Washington Post Staff Writer
Traveling through Sunni insurgent territory north of Baghdad, the U.S. military convoy was nearing a base when a roadside bomb ripped into the lead Humvee, leaving its gunner, Mike Helms, bleeding and swaying from a strap in the open back.
Helms, 31, a civilian counterintelligence expert with the Army's 902nd Military Intelligence Group, had been sent to Iraq in 2004 to help fill a critical intelligence gap in the area known as the Sunni Triangle. While in Iraq, he lived with soldiers and ate military rations, took fire from mortar rounds and small arms, and clocked hundreds of miles manning a machine gun on the back of a Humvee.
Nevertheless, his status as an Army civilian would leave him stranded in the aftermath of the June 16, 2004, attack, when the bomb hit his Humvee so hard it blew his M-60 off its turret.......

another war wounded hero gets a giant boot in the ass

i am incensed. how one more person can enlist after reading shite like this is beyond me. how? why?

how can king george sleep at night when jon town isn't getting the benefits he deserves (also see the story posted before this on ANOTHER denial of benefits to a vet SHOT in iraq. if i read this story and i'm aware of it, why isn't king george? why isn't he on the phone RIGHT NOW to some va hospital nailing someone's ass to the wall over this? according to laura 'i guess i did one too many tabs in the 60s' bush, NO ONE (and she means NO ONE) suffers MORE than YOUR president and i

right

How Specialist Town Lost His Benefits

Joshua Kors

Jon Town has spent the last few years fighting two battles, one against his body, the other against the US Army. Both began in October 2004 in Ramadi, Iraq. He was standing in the doorway of his battalion's headquarters when a 107-millimeter rocket struck two feet above his head. The impact punched a piano-sized hole in the concrete facade, sparked a huge fireball and tossed the 25-year-old Army specialist to the floor, where he lay blacked out among the rubble. ..............

.............Eventually the rocket shrapnel was removed from Town's neck and his ears stopped leaking blood. But his hearing never really recovered, and in many ways, neither has his life. A soldier honored twelve times during his seven years in uniform, Town has spent the last three struggling with deafness, memory failure and depression. By September 2006 he and the Army agreed he was no longer combat-ready.
But instead of sending Town to a medical board and discharging him because of his injuries, doctors at Fort Carson, Colorado, did something strange: They claimed Town's wounds were actually caused by a "personality disorder." Town was then booted from the Army and told that under a personality disorder discharge, he would never receive disability or medical benefits. .........