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11-12-2004, 05:11 PM
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/199200_wounded11.html
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Wounded veterans face new fight to secure government benefits
By MIKE BARBER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
PRIEST RIVER, Idaho -- Some evenings as Joe and Jackie Davis cuddle up near the wood stove in their remote, rustic home to watch television, Jackie uses a needle to pluck slivers of Iraqi shrapnel that Joe's skin has cloaked in scar tissue and seems to pull to the surface.
Davis, a Washington National Guardsman who turned 23 last week, was peppered head-to-foot by shrapnel by an Iraqi mortar round near Baghdad on Feb. 29. The explosion so badly shredded his legs that surgeons considered amputation.
An hour down the road in Spokane, former Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Ian Anderson, also 23, who returned last year to near celebrity as one of Washington's first servicemen wounded in Iraq, has applied for welfare to pay his 2-year-old daughter's doctor bills.
On April. 6, 2003, Anderson was with an elite Marine reconnaissance unit spearheading the invasion of Iraq when an Iraqi ambush near Baghdad felled him, bullets piercing his knees, thigh and shoulder.
Today, when the nation honors those who have served their nation, Davis and Anderson are reminders that the fight for many veterans continues after they have left the battlefield. Their story is both fresh and old -- one that casualties of battles from Gettysburg to Hue could recognize.
The government for whom they shed their blood will help, but only after agonizing waits. There are too many Joe Davises and Ian Andersons, and the Department of Veterans Affairs has too few resources to help them all.
The VA says it's working to cut the backlog, but that's little immediate help for Anderson or Davis.
"For a lot of people in my situation, the problems didn't start in Iraq; they started when we got back home," Anderson says. "When they gave me the Purple Heart, I wanted to throw it back, not at the person who gave it to me -- I admired him. I was disgusted with my treatment."
Davis has not met Anderson but shares a painful, frustrating homecoming.
"The military left a real bitter taste in my mouth. I went to Iraq and with the intention of doing some good, but it seems like no one there wants us. What was it for?"
Anderson and Davis are among more than 250 Washingtonians wounded in action in Iraq since March 2003. More than 8,100 U.S. troops nationwide have been wounded in action in Iraq as of last week.
While public attention focuses on those killed in Iraq, the frustrating experiences of the wounded, physically and mentally, are often overlooked, says David Chasteen, board member of Operation Truth. The New York-based, non-profit, non-partisan group was created six months ago for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
U.S. casualties have swelled demands upon the Veterans Affairs Department serving troops who have left the service. The department serves 6 million to 7 million veterans alone, with a backlog of 300,000-plus claims. Many wonder how it will handle so many. In August, an additional 150,000 National Guard and reservists became eligible for care and benefits. "The system needs help because it wasn't designed or prepared to handle this load. More than 40 percent of all troops on the ground in Iraq are National Guard," says Chasteen, an Army chemical corps captain in Iraq from March to August 2003.
President Bush's 2005 budget, however, calls for cuts to the veterans department. Though Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are moved to the front of the line, the average hurry-up-and-wait time for veterans' claims to determine eligibility for health care, after spending months being processed out of the service, is 160 days, says Dave Autry, spokesman for the Disabled American Veterans. Many current problems occur during the handoff from the military to the veterans department, he said.
Laurel Scheiner, spokeswoman for Seattle's regional VA office covering the state, said "there's a really big push within the VA to reduce the backlog of claims to zero."
On the health care side, Jeri Rowe, spokeswoman for the VA's Puget Sound Health Care system, said Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are moved to the front of the line. The medical center participates in program allowing injured Southwest Asia war veterans two years of health care access while their disability claims are processed.
Consequently, "we have no problems with backlogs here at all," she said.
Nationwide, the military admits it was unprepared to handle so many wounded soldiers, taxing a system geared toward full-timers, and cobbled together temporary fixes.
MOST AFFECTED STATES
States with the largest number of U.S. servicemen and -women wounded in Iraq. Latest figures as of Sept. 25:
Texas, 839
California, 825
Florida, 381
New York, 334
Ohio, 330
Illinois, 285
Pennsylvania, 272
Washington, 253
Michigan, 204
Missouri, 193
*Source: Defense Department
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Wounded veterans face new fight to secure government benefits
By MIKE BARBER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
PRIEST RIVER, Idaho -- Some evenings as Joe and Jackie Davis cuddle up near the wood stove in their remote, rustic home to watch television, Jackie uses a needle to pluck slivers of Iraqi shrapnel that Joe's skin has cloaked in scar tissue and seems to pull to the surface.
Davis, a Washington National Guardsman who turned 23 last week, was peppered head-to-foot by shrapnel by an Iraqi mortar round near Baghdad on Feb. 29. The explosion so badly shredded his legs that surgeons considered amputation.
An hour down the road in Spokane, former Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Ian Anderson, also 23, who returned last year to near celebrity as one of Washington's first servicemen wounded in Iraq, has applied for welfare to pay his 2-year-old daughter's doctor bills.
On April. 6, 2003, Anderson was with an elite Marine reconnaissance unit spearheading the invasion of Iraq when an Iraqi ambush near Baghdad felled him, bullets piercing his knees, thigh and shoulder.
Today, when the nation honors those who have served their nation, Davis and Anderson are reminders that the fight for many veterans continues after they have left the battlefield. Their story is both fresh and old -- one that casualties of battles from Gettysburg to Hue could recognize.
The government for whom they shed their blood will help, but only after agonizing waits. There are too many Joe Davises and Ian Andersons, and the Department of Veterans Affairs has too few resources to help them all.
The VA says it's working to cut the backlog, but that's little immediate help for Anderson or Davis.
"For a lot of people in my situation, the problems didn't start in Iraq; they started when we got back home," Anderson says. "When they gave me the Purple Heart, I wanted to throw it back, not at the person who gave it to me -- I admired him. I was disgusted with my treatment."
Davis has not met Anderson but shares a painful, frustrating homecoming.
"The military left a real bitter taste in my mouth. I went to Iraq and with the intention of doing some good, but it seems like no one there wants us. What was it for?"
Anderson and Davis are among more than 250 Washingtonians wounded in action in Iraq since March 2003. More than 8,100 U.S. troops nationwide have been wounded in action in Iraq as of last week.
While public attention focuses on those killed in Iraq, the frustrating experiences of the wounded, physically and mentally, are often overlooked, says David Chasteen, board member of Operation Truth. The New York-based, non-profit, non-partisan group was created six months ago for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
U.S. casualties have swelled demands upon the Veterans Affairs Department serving troops who have left the service. The department serves 6 million to 7 million veterans alone, with a backlog of 300,000-plus claims. Many wonder how it will handle so many. In August, an additional 150,000 National Guard and reservists became eligible for care and benefits. "The system needs help because it wasn't designed or prepared to handle this load. More than 40 percent of all troops on the ground in Iraq are National Guard," says Chasteen, an Army chemical corps captain in Iraq from March to August 2003.
President Bush's 2005 budget, however, calls for cuts to the veterans department. Though Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are moved to the front of the line, the average hurry-up-and-wait time for veterans' claims to determine eligibility for health care, after spending months being processed out of the service, is 160 days, says Dave Autry, spokesman for the Disabled American Veterans. Many current problems occur during the handoff from the military to the veterans department, he said.
Laurel Scheiner, spokeswoman for Seattle's regional VA office covering the state, said "there's a really big push within the VA to reduce the backlog of claims to zero."
On the health care side, Jeri Rowe, spokeswoman for the VA's Puget Sound Health Care system, said Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are moved to the front of the line. The medical center participates in program allowing injured Southwest Asia war veterans two years of health care access while their disability claims are processed.
Consequently, "we have no problems with backlogs here at all," she said.
Nationwide, the military admits it was unprepared to handle so many wounded soldiers, taxing a system geared toward full-timers, and cobbled together temporary fixes.
MOST AFFECTED STATES
States with the largest number of U.S. servicemen and -women wounded in Iraq. Latest figures as of Sept. 25:
Texas, 839
California, 825
Florida, 381
New York, 334
Ohio, 330
Illinois, 285
Pennsylvania, 272
Washington, 253
Michigan, 204
Missouri, 193
*Source: Defense Department