Blog post

IAVA Daily Brief 07.28.09
Posted by Michelle McCarthy on July 28

Here are some of today's top stories and happenings at IAVA.  Prefer to receive real-time updates about major stories and legislation that IAVA is tracking?  Follow us on Twitter @iavapressroom.

MUST READS

(1) House Passes Military Caregiver Measure

The House of Representatives passed a bill by voice vote Monday afternoon to authorize training and support for families caring for wounded veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The Caregiver Assistance and Resource Enhancement Act (H.R. 3155), introduced by Rep. Michael Michaud (D-ME), would directs the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide certain caregivers of veterans with training, support, and medical care.  Additionally, the bill, which now goes to the Senate for consideration, would also authorize monthly stipends for individuals caring for “severely injured” veterans who would otherwise be forced to live in a hospital or institution.  Although the VA will determine the definition of a “severely injured” veteran, the bill generally identifies them as individuals unable to carry out the basic activities of daily life who, without care at home, would have to be institutionalized. In addition to the stipend, those caregivers could also receive travel reimbursement for taking the veteran to doctor’s appointments.  In a 2007 survey of more than 1,700 injured Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, the Dole-Shalala Commission found 21 percent of active duty personnel, 15 percent of the reserve personnel and 24 percent of retired or separated veterans reported that friends or family had given up a job to care for them.  The bill, H.R. 3155, would require the VA to conduct a survey of caregivers at least every three years to identify potential gaps and to improve services.

(2) IG: Military, KBR at fault in electrocution

The Defense Department’s Inspector General determined in a report released Monday that military leaders and military contractor KBR Inc. failed to protect Green Beret Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, 24, who was electrocuted while showering in his barracks in Iraq in January 2008.  According to the review obtained by The Associated Press, the inspector general concluded that “multiple systems and organizations” failed and exposed Maseth to “unacceptable risk.”  It specifically spells out that Houston-based KBR Inc. improperly installed equipment that faulted and led to Maseth’s death.  Per the report, Maseth was electrocuted while showering when he came in contact with an energized metal shower and hose caused by the failure of an ungrounded water pump located on the roof of the building.  While the IG report concluded that KBR did not have standard operating procedures for the technical inspection of facilities, it also said military commanders and key decision makers “underestimated the risk” failing to ensure that renovations and maintenance were properly performed.  Maseth’s family has an ongoing lawsuit against KBR.  Meanwhile, of the 18 electrocution deaths of U.S. soldiers and contractors in Iraq, the report blamed nine on service members touching live electrical wire or cables. Eight involved possible equipment faults or malfunctioning that caused or contributed to the electrocutions.  As a result, the IG has recommended military criminal investigators reopen investigations into four of the deaths.

(3) Program aims to curb Marine suicides

USA Today reports this morning that the United States Marine Corps is ordering training for all immediate supervisors — sergeants and corporals — to become more involved and knowledgeable about the intimate details of the lives of their young charges in an effort to stem rising Marine suicides.  "We are very concerned (in the Marine Corps) because we are running ahead of last year's pace," says Navy Cmdr. Aaron Werbel, a clinical psychologist and suicide-prevention program manager for the Marine Corps.  The number of Marine suicides this year is on a record pace, reaching 30 through July 16.  There were 42 during 2008, the highest since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There have also been 89 attempted suicides this year, compared with 146 attempts in all of 2008.  The rate of Marine Corps suicides in 2008 reached 19.5 per 100,000, approaching the civilian rate of 19.9.  Per USA Today, the training program weaves a dramatic film about a suicidal Marine with a video featuring interviews with relatives of Marines who committed suicide and troops, talking about how to help other troops seek counseling. The mandatory training, which includes discussions and lectures, lasts three hours for trainers, who then spend half a day teaching other non-commissioned officers (NCOs).  The video includes footage of Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Workman, who received the service's second-highest award for valor, the Navy Cross, for heroism in Iraq, discussing his post-traumatic stress disorder and his own suicide attempt in 2006.

(4) In Battle, Hunches Prove to Be Valuable

The New York Times has an extensive front-page article this morning focusing on efforts by the  U.S. military to create hardware, like signal jamming technology, to help U.S. troops detect and destroy improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.’s, the roadside bombs that have proved to be the greatest threat in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Per the article, U.S. troops are now at the center of a large effort to understand how it is that in a life-or-death situation, some people’s brains perform better sensing danger and act on it well before others’ do or technology can.  In the past two years, Army researcher Steven Burnett has overseen a study into human perception and bomb detection involving about 800 military men and women, putting service members through personality tests and other programs to measure depth perception, vigilance and related abilities.  In the article, IAVA Member Veteran Don Gomez talks about his own experience in Iraq, reaffirming that those who are most sensitive to the presence of the bombs not only pick up small details but also have the ability to step back and observe the bigger picture: extra tension in the air, unusual rhythms in Iraqi daily life, oddities in behavior. “One afternoon I remember turning down a road in Baghdad we were very familiar with, and there’s no one out — very creepy for that time of day,” said Sgt. Don Gomez, a spokesman for the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.  Per Gomez, Trash was heaped in a spot along the street where Sergeant Gomez and other drivers in the convoy had not seen it before, so they gave it a wide berth.  “We later called it in to an explosives team and, sure enough, they found one and detonated it — the thing left a huge crater,” he said.  Click here to read more about the studies.

AFGHANISTAN

Afghanistan's Taliban pledged Tuesday to limit suicide attacks in a newly-issued code of conduct for its militants.  "Suicide attacks should be used only at high and important targets ... Utmost efforts should be made to avoid civilian casualties," according to a new book, "The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Rules for Mujahideen,"  a copy of which was acquired Monday by al-Jazeera TV.  The book also forbids the formation of any new militias or armed groups and calls for disbanding any group that refuses to join the main structure of the Taliban movement.  Additionally, the book lays out guidelines for treating abducted foreigners and prisoners, granting the right to decide the fate of the prisoners on the condition of not attacking or harming them. The code forbids prisoner exchange for money.

Meanwhile, a gunman opened fire on a campaign team for President Hamid Karzai’s top challenger former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdulla.  One campaign worker was killed in the incident on Tuesday in Laghman province.  The attack comes as officials estimate more than 17 million registered voters are eligible to vote in the Aug. 20^th presidential and provincial elections. "These are the most complicated elections I have seen," Kai Eide, the top U.N. official in Afghanistan, said while surveying a cavernous hangar in Kabul where election materials packed and sealed in blue plastic boxes were being loaded onto trucks for delivery to the provinces. Eide said some 3,000+ donkeys will be used to carry ballots to the country's most inaccessible regions, areas that trucks and even helicopters cannot reach.

Stateside, U.S. authorities on Monday arrested seven people from North Carolina charging them with plotting to carry out terrorist attacks overseas, including in Kosovo, Jordan and the Gaza Strip.  Per U.S. prosecutors, the ringleader of the group, Daniel Patrick Boyd, trained in Afghanistan and Pakistan from 1989 to 1992 and used that experience to set up his own organization to train fighters, raise money and carry out attacks abroad.  A U.S. official told reporters that there was no indication that Boyd's group was connected with the Taliban or al-Qaeda or that they were planning attacks in the United States.

IRAQ

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates traveled to Iraq Tuesday to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, as well as Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Baghdad.  During the visit, Gates also traveled to Talil where U.S. troops are serving mainly as advisers to Iraqi forces.  ''What you are doing here is the next phase of our progress in Iraq,'' Gates told U.S. troops.  In describing to reporters the evolving ground-level relationship with Iraq, he said: ''Nobody's the boss or the occupier.''

MILITARY AFFAIRS

Nashville Attorney Mike Sheppard is preparing to ask the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to pay disability benefits and damages for hospital mistakes that may have exposed veterans in Florida, Georgia and Tennessee to infectious body fluids — a complaint that he said could ultimately multiply into many more such demands.  On Monday, Sheppard said he is preparing to file claims with the VA for about 60 veterans, including three women.  Among them are veterans who have tested positive for HIV and hepatitis and others who suffered emotional distress after the VA provided them with initial positive blood tests for infections that turned out to be wrong.  Sheppard also said other veterans among the roughly 10,000 affected former patients at VA hospitals in Murfreesboro, Tenn., Miami and Augusta, Ga., are likely to seek compensation beyond the VA's offer of free medical care.  "I've gotten calls from all over the country," he said.  Sheppard said he will file medical malpractice and emotional distress claims with the VA within 30 to 45 days.  Updated records show that among the patients who have heeded VA warnings to get follow-up blood checks, eight have tested positive for HIV. Twelve former patients have tested positive for hepatitis B and 37 have tested positive for hepatitis C.  VA records show 9,141 veterans have received follow-up blood test results among the 10,320 former patients who were warned they might have even minimum risk of exposure.

INSIDE WASHINGTON

In a statement Monday, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) announced that Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), chairman of the armed services committee, has agreed to hold hearings this fall on the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy banning gays from openly serving in the military.  A date for the hearings has not been set, but it will come after the August congressional recess and probably after the armed services committee completes work on the 2010 defense authorization bill.  Levin spokeswoman Tara Andringa said the chairman has agreed to hold hearings but has not determined when, or whether, such hearings would be before the full committee or a subcommittee.  Meanwhile, Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA), an Iraq veteran, continued a five-week long series of events Monday with gay rights organizations in Philadelphia to galvanize support for the Military Readiness Enhancement Act (H.R. 1283) which he has sponsored in the House to overturn DADT policy.

CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE

THE SENATE 

The Senate will convene at 10:00 a.m.

Weekly policy lunches: 12:30-2:15 p.m.

Roll call votes expected.

FUTURE COMMITTEE HEARINGS  of  INTEREST

• July 29, 2009 - SVAC will hold a hearing entitled, "Review of Veterans' Disability Compensation: Forging a Path Forward."  9:30 a.m.; 418 Russell (Smith)
• August 2, 2009 - SVAC will conduct a field hearing on VA’s outreach to returning Guardsmen.  10:00 a.m.; Oahu Veterans Center (Vasquez)
• August 28, 2009 - SVAC will conduct a field hearing on the state of VA’s services on Maui, to include an OIG report of the same.  10:00 a.m.; Maui Cultural Center (Vasquez)

THE HOUSE of  REPRESENTATIVES       

The House will convene at 12:00 p.m.

Under suspension of the rules:

HR 1803 — Veterans’ business center

Subject to a rule:

HR 3326 — Defense spending

FUTURE  HOUSE COMMITTEE HEARINGS of  INTEREST

• July 29, 2009 - Full Committee Hearing:  Meeting the Needs of Injured Veterans in the Military Paralympic Program  10:00 a.m.; 334 Cannon HOB
• July 30, 2009 - Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Hearing:  The Implications of VA’s Limited Scope of Gulf War Illness Research  10:00 a.m.; 334 Cannon HOB
• July 30, 2009  Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity Hearing:  VRE Contracts for Veteran Counseling  1:30 p.m.; 340 Cannon HOB
• September 10, 2009 - Joint House and Senate Full Committee Hearing:  Legislative Presentation of the American Legion  9:30 a.m.; 345 Cannon
  

IAVA In the NEWS

Outlet: New York Times/Sarasota Herald Tribune

Title: In Battle, Hunches Prove to Be Valuable

Date: Tuesday, July 28^th

Representative: IAVA Member Veteran Don Gomez

A wide-range of views, positions, and publications are represented in these articles.  These views, positions and publications are not endorsed by nor do they necessarily represent the views of IAVA.

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