Wounded Held Captive at Walter Hospital

[Guest guest]

Source:

Counter Punch

http://www.counterpunch.org/

Wounded " Held Captive " at Walter

Disabled Vets Fire Back at Rumsfeld

http://www.counterpunch.org/vest01092004.html

By DAVID VEST mailto:davidvest@...

The organization known as Disabled American Veterans has been helping U.S.

combat casualties figure out what benefits they have coming to them and how

to apply for them since 1920. Lately the Bush administration has been going

out of its way to make the DAV's job harder.

Their job would be hard enough even if the government appreciated their

efforts and was glad to see them coming. Incredibly, it doesn't and it

isn't. Not any more.

An army of U.S. veterans more than twice the size of Operation Iraqi

Freedom have lost their health insurance benefits since Bush took office.

As many as half a million vets are homeless. Seven VA hospitals are being

closed as part of an effort to " restructure " the Department of Veterans

Affairs. Meanwhile, veterans of the Iraq campaign can fall in line with

over 250,000 U.S. veterans who are already waiting at least six months to

see a doctor.

Although it hasn't hesitated to send them to face death in Iraq, the

administration has consistently opposed any attempt to extend full benefits

to Reservists and National Guardsmen, twenty percent of whom have no health

insurance by General Accounting Office estimates.

It was one thing when the White House tried to roll back increases in

monthly imminent-danger pay and family separation allowance, and another

when it called a modest proposal to increase the sum given to families of

soldiers who die on active duty " wasteful and unnecessary. "

Finally, it occurred to the firm of Bush Cheney Rumsfeld Rice Minions and

Myrmidons to wonder how much money the country would save (and how much

more could be diverted to Bechtel and Halliburton contracts) if veterans

couldn't even find out what their benefits are.

And so now we learn that ever since Operation Iraqi Freedom got underway,

it has been easier for a terrorist to get into the United States legally

than for a DAV representative to get into a military hospital to help

wounded soldiers with their benefit applications. Sickeningly, the Pentagon

has been severely limiting DAV access to wounded veterans and doing it on

grounds of " security. " Oh, yes, and protecting " privacy. "

It protects the veterans' privacy by not allowing them to speak with DAV

representatives " unmonitored. "

Fortunately someone blinked and it wasn't the Disabled American Veterans.

When he got back to the office after celebrating New Year's and opened his

mail, Rumsfeld found a letter informing him that he had messed with

the wrong people this time.

DAV Urges Defense Secretary to Get the Facts to War Wounded

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=126-01072004

Here's part of what DAV Washington Headquarters Executive Director W.

Gorman had to say to the Secretary of Defense:

" At one facility in particular [Walter Army Medical Center] our

efforts to visit with wounded patients have been severely restricted. For

example, all requests to visit patients must now be made through the WRAMC

headquarters office, which then selects the patients we may visit and

strictly limits information about the patients, even the patient's name and

the nature of the injury is withheld without express permission. The DAV's

representatives also are escorted at all times while in the facility, and

all contact with patients is closely monitored by the escort. This is

particularly unnerving and inappropriate as all conversations between a

representative and client are confidential in nature.

" I believe these overly broad restrictions on patient access inhibit the

ability of our professional accredited representatives to help ensure these

wounded service members have the vital information they and their families

need in order to obtain the medical care and benefits many of these

veterans will depend on for decades to come.

" The American public would be outraged if these restrictions became public

knowledge. "

[Would they? Hard to tell. There has been little or no coverage in the

mainstream media since the DAV released the letter.]

Gorman goes on to say:

" The record of benefits awarded by the VA shows our honored wounded and

injured are getting less than they are rightfully entitled. Those wounded

and disabled in service to our nation should not be held captive and

deprived of the knowledge that would allow them to receive all their

rightful benefits, earned on a battlefield half a world away. It brings

great dishonor to our nation to learn of disabled veterans suffering

physical and economic hardships following their release from medical

treatment solely because they are unaware and uninformed of their rightful

benefits. "

Think of it ... wounded veterans " held captive " ... prevented from seeing

people who have a congressional charter to serve them ... not allowed to

speak with DAV reps in private, lest their " privacy " be violated ... an

administration that regards Disabled American Veterans as security risks.

A government increasingly unable to tell the difference between terrorists

and its own citizens.

Vest writes the Rebel Angel column for CounterPunch. He and his

band, The Willing Victims, just released a scorching new CD, Way Down Here

http://tinyurl.com/3y6o6 .

He can be reached at: davidvest@...

Visit his website at http://www.rebelangel.com

Also see:

Vets say visits restricted to U.S. wounded

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/01/07/sprj.irq.dav.complaint/index.html