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Skin In The Game
The Twin Towers descended to earth in a cascade of dust, metal and mangled bodies hours before I knew we had been attacked. I was a junior in high school on September 11, and on that morning I played hooky and slept well into the morning. When I came to and booted up the computer, I saw a flood of posts that clogged a message board I frequented, detailing the attacks in hurried detail. The towers crumbled, the Pentagon fumed like a cracked furnace. A plane smashed into a Pennsylvania field like a winged meteor. I had decided to join the Army sometime in my early childhood; the attacks simply steeled my resolve further. My fantasies of choking the life from Osama bin Laden spilled over into Algebra class the next day. At sixteen, I had my first hunger pangs for bloodthirsty revenge. I would’ve happily traded the prom for the Hindu Kush. It was clear that my future was pointed toward combat far more than a maddening existence in the Dallas suburbs anyway.
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America’s Heroes: Caregivers Get More Support
More than two million servicemembers have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. Over 40,000 have been injured, including 5,500 with severe Traumatic Brain Injury. Family Caregivers are the lifeline, allowing Vets with TBI and other injuries to not only reintegrate back into the community, but to do so in the comfort of their own homes. And now, VA has ramped up support for those Vets and their families.
As of May 9, 2011, post-9/11 Veterans can fill out the Family Caregiver program application for services offered under the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010. Included are a stipend, mental health services, and access to health care insurance. To be eligible, Vets must have sustained “a serious injury including traumatic brain injury, psychological trauma or other mental disorder incurred or aggravated in the line of duty, on or after September 11, 2001.”
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Mothers Who Served, World War II – Present
In honor of Mother’s Day, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is celebrating the women who have served our country and taken on one of the greatest roles in life: motherhood. In doing so, we reached out to mom Veterans and their family members for photographs and stories. We’ve received photographs and stories that stretch beyond the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan back to World War II. Each mother has a unique story, united by their service. Below are photos and excerpts of stories of mothers who served in World War II to Iraq and Afghanistan. Happy Mother’s Day!
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Service to America: VA Nominees
Public Service Recognition Week isn’t a celebration that gets a whole lot of play outside of the little bubble of Washington, DC–in fact, even having lived here for awhile now, I’d never heard of it. So when I saw that First Lady Michelle Obama recorded a video in honor of the week, I decided to do a little more research.
Turns out one of the way public servants are recognized is through the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals. There are 34 nominees for 2011, and four of them work for the Department of Veterans Affairs. One of the nominees is Dr. Batres, a Vietnam Veteran who’s worked for the Department for almost 30 years, and been at the head of the Vet Center program since 1994. Vet Centers are community based facilities that offer Veterans (and their families) stress and family counseling, career counseling, community program referrals, and outreach services. The Washington Post also did a write-up of Dr. Batres, in connection with his nomination for the Service to America award:
“It is an honor to serve fellow combat veterans and their families. It is our sacred duty to keep the promise and provide them with the best service and care possible.”
Read more about the other VA employee nominees and their accomplishments.
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Family Caregivers to Get More VA Support
When a Veteran is seriously injured in combat, family members sometimes have no choice but to give up their careers to provide care full-time. To assist, VA is now offering new programs for the families of eligible post-9/11 Veterans. To provide details on what these new programs are and how families can apply, VA’s Chief Consultant for Care Management and Social Work Service, Deborah Amdur, has explained in a VAntage Point guest piece today. Take a look and let us know what you think.
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Help Us Honor Moms Who Served
In honor of Mother’s Day, we here at VA need your help to thank the women who have undoubtedly shaped our lives. We would like to put together a tribute honoring mom Veterans. Their service has not only shaped your life but has paved the way for fellow female service members.
Here is how you can help: Please send photos and/or a story of a woman close to you who served in the military as a mom. The photographs will be created into a Flickr set and the stories will appear on VAntage Point. With each submission, please provide name, branch of service, when they served, and what they are doing now. Please send all information to newmedia@va.gov by Thursday May 5.
Post edited from previous version to clarify.
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Running VA on Sustainable Energy
As you may know, this past Friday was Earth Day; and while “going green” may not be the first characteristic that pops into your head when you think about VA, the Department is making strides when it comes to researching and implementing renewable energy sources.
Fittingly, last Friday (Earth Day) was the dedication of a new wind turbine at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne, MA. Luckily, cool weather didn’t deter Bourne residents and VA leadership from attending the event. Secretary Shinseki took part in the dedication, and Acting Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs Steve Muro—also a Vietnam Veteran—spoke to the crowd.
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On Civilian Guilt
Photo by Bill Murphy Jr. Used with permission from Stars and Stripes. © 2011 Stars and Stripes
I have four really good friends. Well, three of them would say we’re good friends, and the fourth would claim that he’s my sort of boss. But we’re friends, whether he likes it or not.
I love being around them. We sit next to each other at least nine hours every work day. We eat lunch together. They tease me incessantly for my monthly jet setting. We laugh. A lot. But we work really hard too.
Sometimes I have this nagging feeling that, somehow, the stories I tell them are completely ridiculous. In their defense, most of things I say are ridiculous. I tell them about college, my foibles of law school and the messy interim between school and when I started at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
I feel guilty recounting these stories to them. Mostly because I know (and have read) that at those exact moments when I was wearing candy necklaces in my favorite bar, worrying that my boyfriend was partying too hard with his fraternity brothers, my Veteran friends were in a remote place that I couldn’t conceive, then or now. They served our country and were willing to sacrifice their lives for something that I was taking for granted in Pittsburgh. Frankly, it makes me feel awful. But I can’t exactly look them in the face and say, “Your service makes me feel guilty – but I’m so thankful for it. And it makes me want to cry and scream and hug you all at the same time.”
My civilian guilt is sometimes debilitating.
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Electronic Health Records: The Latest Expansion
Having grown up with the advent of the internet, the idea of medical records being electronic and shareable seems like a no-brainer to me. When I arrived at VA, however, I realized that something that sounds so simple actually requires a lot of research, tests and trials in order to keep Veterans and Servicemembers, and their privacy, safe.
President Obama set a goal for DoD and VA to create a shared lifetime electronic records system, so, I’ve kept a close eye on new developments and achievements in this arena.
This morning an article from the Newport News Daily Press caught my eye. It highlights successes the Hampton VA Medical Center in Virginia is having with the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) pilot program. The Hampton VA Medical Center, in coordination with its partner, Bon Secours Virginia Health System, is the second such pilot (the first was conducted in San Diego), and it’s off to a great start:
9 CommentsSharing medical records among providers electronically is speedier than the old paperwork way, said Richard Bone, a Vietnam veteran who lives in Newport News.
“The coordination between the facilities is outstanding,” the Army veteran said.
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For Veterans, Every Face A Story
Old. Male. White. Riddled with PTSD.
Ask a typical person in America to describe a Veteran, and you’ll likely hear a combination of those words. Most folks seem to have an image of Vets in their head that rarely escapes the outdated caricatures indelibly linked to pop culture icons like Rambo and the guy from Taxi Driver. The truth is, Veterans are a reflection of society more than most people realize; young and old, folks of all color, yankees and southerners, rich and poor, baseball fans and philanthropists, doctors, lawyers and jazz lovers. One photographer is helping to break down those old prejudices from a VA medical center in South Carolina.
Retired Air Force Staff Sergeant Stacy Pearsall is in a constant state of motion. A photographer by trade, Stacy served ten years with the military photojournalism team Combat Camera. She has stayed busy since medically retiring after serious injuries sustained over the course of her four deployments. She owns the Charleston Center for Photography and conducts photography workshops all over the country. She seems to never waste a minute.
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