AMVETS
Executive director praises VA leader’s vision, endorses plans for new processing system
WASHINGTON, March 23, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — In the wake of calls from a few vocal critics in the media and veterans’ community for Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki to resign, AMVETS National Executive Director Stewart Hickey today announced his organization’s support for the VA leader’s continuation in his post.
Hickey argued only Shinseki, a man with a proven record as a transformational leader, with a clear and well-articulated vision for improving the VA claims backlog, is capable of successfully leading VA through the necessary planned changes that will make services and benefits more readily available to those veterans who have earned them.
“There is a reason major veterans service organizations, including AMVETS, are standing with Secretary Shinseki,” said Hickey. “It’s because we’re working alongside VA to connect thousands of veterans with their benefits each year, and we understand the organizational challenges VA faces. We know the Secretary is on the right path, prioritizing older and more complex claims, and instituting a new electronic processing system.”
Hickey also lauded Shinseki for adding more than a million veterans to VA’s rolls for care and benefits through his decisions on presumptive conditions associated with Agent Orange, Gulf War Syndrome and PTSD.
“The Secretary’s call to serve more veterans despite the existing backlog challenge was nothing short of courageous,” said Hickey. “We need this leader who has consistently made the right calls to advocate for the veterans who depend on their government’s assistance. Instead of calling for Secretary Shinseki’s resignation, those wanting change should urge Congress to adopt the recommendations of The Independent Budget, and guarantee sufficient, timely and predictable funding for VA.”
About AMVETS:
A leader since 1944 in preserving the freedoms secured by America’s armed forces, AMVETS provides support for veterans and the active military in procuring their earned entitlements, as well as community service and legislative reform that enhances the quality of life for this nation’s citizens and veterans alike. AMVETS is one of the largest congressionally-chartered veterans’ service organizations in the United States, and includes members from each branch of the military, including the National Guard and Reserve. To learn more, visit www.amvets.org.
Media contacts: Jay Agg , [email protected], (571) 991-6998
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American Legion
WASHINGTON, March 22, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The leader of the nation’s largest wartime veterans service organization is expressing “great concern” over allegations that the Department of Veterans Affairs has grossly mishandled the care of Gulf War Illness patients.
In testimony this week before the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, several witnesses claimed that VA has consistently failed to treat the multi-symptomatic disease known as Gulf War Illness (GWI) or Gulf War Syndrome properly. Further, VA is accused of suppressing evidence of links between GWI and environmental hazards to which service members were exposed in southwest Asia.
The latter charge came from Dr. Steven Coughlin , a former senior epidemiologist at the VA’s Office of Public Health. He ended his four year career with VA last December by resigning “because of serious ethical concerns.”
“If the studies produce results that do not support Office of Public Health’s unwritten policy, they do not release them,” Coughlin told subcommittee members on Mar. 13.
“I am greatly concerned” said National Commander James E. Koutz of The American Legion Thursday. “If Dr. Coughlin’s allegations are true, VA’s conduct is absolutely unconscionable. Some veterans – those of the first Gulf War – have been suffering from this disease for as many as two decades. That the cause of this serious, painful and debilitating malady might have been purposely withheld from broad medical knowledge is beyond comprehension. With knowledge of the cause could have come a cure, perhaps long ago. A thorough investigation is demanded by The American Legion.”
During a recent Legion conference, U.S. Army MAJ Michael Chagaris , a Fort Bragg company commander and registered nurse, told Legionnaires of his own investigations into GWI, from which he had suffered. His privately commissioned medical team, which included a VA doctor, determined that the disease was caused by a bacterium common in Iraq and Afghanistan and resistance to it was lowered or destroyed by exposure to insecticides and other chemicals employed by the military in those regions. Chagaris recovered fully from GWI after taking a combination of two antibiotics over a course of 18 months. His findings have been published in the form of a peer-reviewed paper in a military medical journal.
Media Contacts: Craig Roberts (202) 263-2982, cell (202) 406-0887, Marty Callaghan (202) 263-5758, cell (202) 515-8644 or John Raughter (317)630-1350, cell (317) 441-8847.
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