Care for our Veterans should be of paramount importance, we ask them to sacrifice their bodies and minds at our behest, we as a country need to keep our promises and care for our military personnel, not just lip service but in actuality. We shouldn't, as a country, nickel dime them on their benefits.

Amen,...and about time!!! What in the world is wrong with those decision-making bureaucrats?! I'm sure those folks are financially/economically secure - They just don't get the pain and suffering of the afflicted!! Heaven help the common citizens of America!!!

All you Obama Care Supporters will really be happy when you retire and have fixed incomes to live on, and can not afford your healthcare! All this crap is just to win votes in the upcoming elections, and will not be funded after the elections are over! I was promised healthcare, dental, medical, & optical, care for me and my family, during my active duty military career! Well, I'm still waiting on that to occur after being retired for 20 years - and it hasn't happened yet! In fact, with a flick of a pen, politicians have reduced benefits coverages that I had when I retired! Their explanation - they changed the law! [:-(]

Skyparrot, I have to disagree with you. I am a retired U.S. Navy vet with 20 years service to my country and have Tri-Care for life. In the words of Harry S. Truman, when you are the president "The buck stops here"! Obama and his minions are salivating at the mouth to gut Tri-Care the first chance they get. Former Chairman of the Joint Cheifs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullin in no uncertain terms informed the Obama administration that Tri-Care was sacrosanct and and off limits and would not be touched by them. They were in a mouth foaming rage over that one.

What many people don't know and the media has done very little reporting on is that both parties have decreased health care to retired Veterans. All retired Veterans were Promised no cost health care for life in Military Medical Facilities in exchange for 20 or more years of Honorable Service, but after the Cold War ended that word was broken by both parties while Congress continues to get Gold Plated benefits. Not only that, foreign dignitaries get no cost health care at military medical facilities.

After the cold war ended, Veteran Retirees were placed on the military s version of an HMO called Tricare where annual premiums and copays are required.

Prior to the end of the Cold War, all a retired Veteran had to do to get Health Care at a Military Medical facility was to show their family member or Military I.D. Card. This was one of the Perks since the All Volunteer Military does not get 401ks, profit sharing or other civilian benefits.

The Republican Senator of South Carolina, Lindsey Graham just recently stated that Retired Vets were never promised No cost health care for life at Military Medical facilities and he received loud protest from Retired Veterans who knew better, including this Retired Veteran who provided care for these Vets for 21 years and all they had to do to get this care was to show their Military I.D., No Tricare required...

Even the benefits in the military have been whittled away and this one was the most important.

The same folks who do not hesitate to send your sons and daughters off to war seem to hesitate when it comes to taking care of your sons and daughters. Of course, you'll have all the political blame games, but the fact of the matter is neither party exactly has a shining record of care for veterans. It has always been that way -- all the way back to the American Revolution....

Republican platform: you know what you volunteered for, it was your choice, therefore you knew the risks. You must pay for your own wounds. If you ask other taxpayers to pay for your service, you are a socialist.

Why don't we give our regular U.S. Soldiers the same pay and benefits of the private armies our government has created such as the CIA, Blackwater, etc. ............. What has America come to? It seems the CIA now runs the United States............. Where is all the money they have seized. Or does "Air America" still flourish but quietly now as their bank account swells each day.

I have personally attended the vast majority of the Recovering Warrior Task Force (RWTF) meetings. At every meeting I have attended, I briefed the Task Force on continuing problems in the Defense Disability Evaluation System (DES) to include problems with the new Integrated Disability Evaluation System (IDES). In fact, the RWTF invited me to give them a detailed brief of these issues at their May 2011 meeting. The issues I raised to the Task Force can be found at the RWTF website by hitting the meetings tab.

The Task Force has its past meetings organized by month and one can find the material I presented imbedded in the “meeting agenda” link for each meeting. The transcripts of these meeting also capture my conversations with the Task Force addressing these issues. These transcripts can be lengthy so I suggest you search for the word “Parker” to drill down to the conversations I had with the Task Force addressing these issues.

As an example, one of the issues I presented to the Task Force involved the situation of PO2 Daniel Kinberg whom the Navy tried to deny disability benefits to by falsely claiming his disabilities preexisted service. NBC’s Rebecca Ruiz wrote an article about PO2 Kinberg’s situation and a link for that article can be found in her article above. In the comment section of this article you can find entries by me that provide deeper details of PO2 Kinberg’s situation and just how poorly the Navy adjudicated his disability case.

While the Task Force’s report does address some IDES issues, it barely scratches the surface. The Task Force failed to make recommendations addressing the IDES problems I raised that are systematically cheating our wounded warriors out of proper DoD disability benefits. For example, the issue I raised on PO2 Kinberg’s disability case involved the Navy ignoring the requirement to provide clear and unmistakable evidence to demonstrate his disabilities preexisted service and thus are not compensable by DoD.

What the Task Force should have done in their report was make recommendations to address the problem exposed in PO2 Kinberg’s case. First, the Task Force should have recommended that DoD develop processes to monitor and enforce the clear and unmistakable evidence standard. Second, the task Force should have recommended that DoD investigate past cases where the military denied DoD disability benefits by declaring conditions preexisting to ensure the Services properly followed the clear but unmistakable evidence standard as required by law. Unfortunately, the Task Force’s report failed to do so. This is a simple problem to fix by simply enforcing the standard. In fact, many of the DES problems I raised are also a matter of DoD monitoring and enforcing well established disability laws and policies; a function where DoD is completely AWOL.

The preexisting condition problem is just the tip of the iceberg in terns of IDES issues. As such, I am going to provide extensive feedback on the Task Force’s FY2012 report to help facilitate corrective action on the DES issues sooner rather than later. I will share this feedback with the Task Force, DoD, Congress and the public.

Please don’t get me wrong. The Task Force is comprised of dedicated members that are working very hard across a complex set of issues affecting wounded warriors. They are all great Americans. Unfortunately, as my feedback will demonstrate, their IDES related recommendations are painfully inadequate and any future delay in fixing these issues is an extreme disservice and injustice to our wounded warriors.

Michael A. Parker

LTC, USA (Retired)

Wounded Warrior Advocate

neither one of the turkeys running for president has said a word about our Vets, except for threating to send them to another war thats none of our business,the way they are treated is a National Disgrace.

read Kipling's Tommy--disrespecting and ignoring vets is not new, nor restricted to USA. i am a veteran too.

From all the experts from the DNC it reasonably appears that the Obama Administration had completely redetermined the effect of emotional trauma on physical conditions, over and over again on the news multiple experts have renounced hundreds of years of incidents of miscarriges and spontaneous abortions resulting from emotional trauma and instead consider the condition of pregnancy to be a compartmentalized construction that exists independent of the mother's emotional condition, so then the modern consideration of Post Traumatic Stress, this should also have no affect on any man or womans' physical condition, under a natural extension of these decided scientific findings. Pregnant servicewomen should not expect any increase of service related medical care for pregnancies as a result of emotional trauma, because under Obama Administration findings, no trauma can in any manner affect any pregnancy.

There should be no need for things like the wounded warrior project. The Govt is supposed to take care of its veterans. If its too expensive then bring our men and women home before more are hurt. Another MSN article last week stated the VA is so backloged that the weight of paperwork alone has made the buildings unsafe. We need more VA clerical workers but we get more IRS agents instead. The Govt keeps getting bigger yet the VA system stays a mess. It takes years to get a claim approved. Sadly some become so despondant they kill themselves before help arrives. When is the ACLU going to sue the VA To get help for our soldiers. They seem to have time for the friviolus, how about the necessary.

The treatment of our Veterans is absolutely deplorable. A Soldier signs a Blank Check to the United States of America, for the amount of "UP TO AND INCLUDING MY LIFE" and this is the diabolical treatment that they receive from their own Government upon the return home. Our Government's Number One priority should be caring for our Service Veterans.

The VA Healthcare System is dysfunctional, incompetent and corrupt. I've been recognizd with Depression, Anxity and PTSD since 2000. Medication was always the solution, until 20011. Then there was talk of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for my Depression and Anxiety, never materialized. Only in 2012 was Cognitive Processing Therapy initiated for my PTSD. No effect after six sessions, anxiety "went through the roof". Had asked for EMDR Therapy, referenced to on VA Website. Denied, "not proven" but CPT is "evidenced based", BS ! EMDR Therapy hasn't been "proven to work or how", but it works and is used, WORLDWIDE. Here are some other successful therapies, also "not proven". Emotional Freedom Technique, Rapid Eye Technology and Accelerated Resolution Therapy, all of which you won't find available at the VA. I was pleasantly surprised that at the Seattle VA Hospital, acupuncture was offered. Two series of 8 sessions has drastically reduced my caffeine addiction, exasperates anxiety and my anxiety. Only after it being reduced, did I know how severe it had been, so thankful !!! Ironically, the VA has been treating my Crohn's Disease for a solid 12 years ! For the last 7 years I have had an IV Therapy with Remicade, every two months. The cost each time, $6000.00 for a total of over $240,000.00 !? Yet, for my just as important and life threatening Depression, Anxiety and PTSD. They haven't even touched $10,000.00 and is obviously not a priority. I am just thankful I had not in worse condition as unfortunately, my fellow Veterans. Of which we are ALL waiting for the recognition and ALL help we need and deserve !!!

Lets cut our military spending,let the world police itself,if these countries don't like their government,then fix it.Everytime we try to help,were the bad guys,it's usually only the British that stand buy us.Any and all American soldiers should n't have to pay a dime,period.How can a country turn on their own.Let's not put Americans on the street for any reason.Instead of turning our backs on the homeless,we should try to fix it,period.I'm all for defending America,don't get me wrong,but one less fighter jet can help a lot of vets.

Our Government, Our CONGRESS, is doing a piss poor job of caring for our service members needing specialized care due to the horrors of the Republican war mongering.

The Republicans in Congress have failed to provide for the essential needs of our service personell, this is an utter disgrace.

I do not see the Republicans in Congress taking the initative to correct their failed policies!

If Obama gets reelected, they might as well forget. Obama is "king" and he could care less for the military. His Defense B udget for next year will be cutting pay for the military, cut benefits for the military, and cut costs for supplies for military who fighting over there. Need I say more?

My husband is a Veteran with several medical challenges. He is receiving excellent care through the VA and I highly doubt that will change. My health benefits are very good although a tad costly but I get what I pay for in services, specialists and preventative testing. The only ones who seems to want to change things for the worse and practice medicine without a license are the republican crack pots who want to control everything possible regarding womens bodies and their reproductive organs. They are the ones who are out of control and poking their noses into areas they don't belong. So if you are a woman or a man with female loved ones beware and very careful how you vote this fall. The republicans are no better than the catholic church - they'd rather let a woman die to save a child conceived by rape. Or, they'll make a woman carry a child full term and deliver it even if it is destine to die at birth because of complications which won't allow it to survive outside the womb. Is that the type of care you'd want for yourself or for the women you love?

We must vote for our own best interests this time and the current republican candidate can't possibly relate to anyone who's not a 1%'r. He is clueless when it comes to knowing how we live, what we, our children and grandchildren need on a daily basis and what our futures hold for us. He lives at the top of a corporate environment with wealth and power. He does not live in our world and never will. This is not the type of person we should have running our country, and making decisions that directly affect our daily lives and the future of America. Keep in mind he couldn't even visit the UK without pissing them off - that takes real talent but not the kind that's going to help the USA.