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286 of 21 POW's getting VA benifits

Discussion in 'Political Debate & Discussion' started by Salty, Mar 15, 2011.

  1. Salty

    Salty 20,000 Posts Club
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    No, I did not make a mistake.

    The VA lists only 21 living POW's from Gulf War I, yet 286 are receiving POW benefits.

    Same story for Vietnam vets

    sounds like Congress should be able to save some money here.

    Hey, I'm all for helping the real POW's, but not the fake ones
     
  2. TCassidy

    TCassidy Late-Administator Emeritus
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    Before you get your panties in a knot remember the criteria the VA uses to define a "prisoner of war." "The person who was a POW, surviving spouse, dependent children, parents of the POW if he/she is caring for them."
     
  3. carpro

    carpro Well-Known Member
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    I stll don't believe the numbers will add up

    The VA is notorious for paying benefits to fraudulent veterans, especially for PTSD.
     
  4. Don

    Don Well-Known Member
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    Um...PTSD isn't a "fraudulent" claim. But it should be checked out by actual psychiatrists/psychologists, not someone who has a checklist with questions like "are you frequently angry?"
     
  5. billwald

    billwald New Member

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    >There are only 21 surviving POWs from the first Gulf War in 1991, the Department of Defense says. Yet the Department of Veterans Affairs is paying disability benefits to 286 service members it says were taken prisoner during that conflict, according to data released by VA . . . .

    Doesn't compute! Less than 10% of this group of GIs who came home in 1991 are still alive? What is killing them?
     
  6. th1bill

    th1bill Well-Known Member
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    Don,
    You just put your foot in you mouth! That check list is for a referral to a shrink. There was no pay status before I had been certified by three, count them carefully, three, shrinks!

    And your comments are?
     
  7. th1bill

    th1bill Well-Known Member
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    Thank you Bill, I'm a vet from the Vietnam era but my nephew is of the Gulf War and he knows to many of those men for the 21 number to ride.
     
  8. matt wade

    matt wade Well-Known Member

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    In the Gulf War there were 47 US troops captured and interned. Of those, 25 died while a POW. 21 returned to US control. You'll notice the numbers don't add up because this report did now know the status of Navy Captain Michael Scott Speicher.

    www.vba.va.gov/bln/21/benefits/POW/DOCS/POW4-06-05.doc
     
  9. Don

    Don Well-Known Member
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    Sorry; I was basing my comment on my own personal experience. When I returned, that's what I was given: A checklist of questions.

    Sounds like the VA is doing a better job of it.
     
  10. th1bill

    th1bill Well-Known Member
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    Thank-you for that. With a half million Americans killed in WW II and thousands of them living close to me and going to the VA I have only bumped into one of them in the Trama Clinic and he is the last surviver of the B-29 that dropped the last Bomb on Japan. While I find it hard to deal with people that know nothing of Vietnam, other than they have read, the VA is doing their best, i believe.
     
  11. carpro

    carpro Well-Known Member
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    Nobody said it was, but some of the recipients have been frauds. Some never served in the military and others never saw a combat zone.
     
  12. Don

    Don Well-Known Member
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    My bad; misunderstood how you were coupling "fraudulent veterans" with PTSD.

    I understand what you meant. Unfortunately, it can be easy to fake some PTSD symptoms. I mean, I've never considered myself a PTSD case; but if I'm flying off the handle at my wife for the first few months after I return (she didn't like my driving, because I'd gotten into the habit of riding my lead vehicle's bumper and remembering that "speed saves lives"; and dagnabbit, I'm ordering my guys outside the wire every day, knowing full well that some or none of us may return; how dare she question my "order" to her to take care of some piddling little thing around the house? Just say "yes, sir" and get 'er done, for pete's sake <grin>) ... well, it can be easy to fake unreasonable anger, and some of the other symptoms.

    Now, you take someone like Bill, or our fellow military members that were in places like Fallujah, Marjah, etc.; and you've got serious justification for ensuring they get the best care we can give them.

    What I'm glad to hear is what Bill said about the VA requiring 3 different professionals being required to certify a case.
     
  13. th1bill

    th1bill Well-Known Member
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    I certainly do not know about everyone but in my case one of those doctors was outside the system, in his own private practice. And I can tell you that most of us, the guys with bad attitudes, do not get into the system until we can no longer survive on our own. I drove Taxis and trucks and worked construction until I was no longer able to and a lot of my VN era vet friends are still out there washing dishes and doing other low paying jobs because we really do not trust most of you civilians. You'll need to excuse me Don, but when I came home after my third tour the spit in the face was the last straw and we find it hard to trust anyone that is not our brother from Nam.
     
  14. Don

    Don Well-Known Member
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    Bill, I understand -- because I feel the same way about the guys I served with in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    I'm not a civilian. At least, not yet. But you may have been referring that remark to other readers of this thread and not me.

    -----

    Edited to add: Thanks, Bill, for your service and sacrifice.
     
    #14 Don, Mar 17, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 18, 2011
  15. Salty

    Salty 20,000 Posts Club
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    I attended an Equal Opportunity Class once and I remember one thing the instructor taught us:

    You will never be a Civillian again - when you leave military service you will be a Veteran - but never a Civillian.
     
  16. carpro

    carpro Well-Known Member
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    And I remember what a shrink told me when I told her I did not suffer from the effects of PTSD connected with my Vietnam service.

    She said, "Yes, you do. You just don't know it."

    Many shrinks were ready and willing to be duped ...and were.

    But that doesn't excuse the VA from checking the credentials of those that received benefits. They just didn't bother...and anyone can produce a phony DD214.
     
  17. th1bill

    th1bill Well-Known Member
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    Salty,
    I spent eight years in and only ETSed because Civilians, and stupid ones at that, would not allow us to end the Vietnam War because they were to busy making the "almighty dollar" while my men were being killed. I spent three tours in Nam, helping my men to live through that experience and the bulk of the "civilians" drafted into the service were never military, they were Civilian Soldiers serving, only, because they were conscripted. A Soldier is a soldier because he wishes to be.
     
  18. Don

    Don Well-Known Member
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    I'm curious, Bill -- what do you think of David Hackworth, LTC, USA (probably retired as a full bird)? Wrote a book about his experiences with the 4/39th?

    And based on your comment to Salty, I have to ask: what about those that have done their 20 years and are getting out? How do they rate?
     
  19. billwald

    billwald New Member

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    Killing another human changes the killer almost as much as it changes the killee, mentally, not physically . . . if the killer wasn't psycho to start with.
     
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