The heartbreaking frustration of veterans
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- October
- 9
U.S. Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains, along with U.S. Reps. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., and Tim Walz, D-Minn. met in New Windsor today to listen to the stories of four veterans who have struggled to receive the benefits necessary to their recovery from service-related illnesses and injuries.
They gave two men a standing ovation. One was Sgt. Eddie Ryan, the 23-year-old Ulster County Marine who was shot twice in the head during friendly fire in Ramadi in April 2005. More than two years later, Christopher and Angela Ryan continue to fight with the Department of Veterans Affairs to get Eddie the therapy he needs to continue his recovery. Dressed in camouflage and wheeled in by a police sergeant from his hometown of Ellenville, Eddie Ryan told the congressmen that “I’d do it again.”
His parents told Hall and the others of the infected bed sore their son suffered at the VA hospital in Virginia, a result of laying in his own feces. They successfully lobbied to get Eddie moved to the Helen Hayes Hospital in West Haverstraw, where he spent nearly a year before being discharged last year. Now they are fighting to have his therapy sessions restored after they were nearly cut in half this summer.
“We are always on the opposite side of the VA,” Christopher Ryan said. “Our question is, ‘Why?’”
The three congressmen were from the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs. The focus of the testimony today was the claims backlog, which Hall said totaled around 600,000.
They also heard from Alex Lazos a former Marine who suffered for years with debilitating post traumatic stress disorder. He started getting benefits in August, more than three years after he first filed a claim. It was Lazos who got the other standing ovation.
Eddie Senior, a West Harrison veteran from Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm told the subcommittee how he’s still filing appeals 12 years after he left the service.
And though Ted Wolf, a Vietnam War veteran fro m Pomona, was too ill to attend, he submitted written testimony that detailed his fight against cancer and how the VA cut his benefits after deciding his cancer was in remission, which it was not.
Hall thanked the veterans for testifying and said he hoped their stories would lead to improvement in the system so others wouldn’t have to suffer in the same way.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, October 9th, 2007 at 3:33 pm by Sarah Netter.
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Congressman Hall should be thanked by all 25 million living veterans and their families. He has exposed how the Administration is trying to balance the budget on the backs of our veterans by delaying healthcare and benefits for hundreds of thousands of wounded, injured, and ill veterans. As of today, more than 600,000 veterans are waiting for beneifts from VA – including 40,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veteras. Call your Congressman and Senators today and ask them to make sure that, if there is an unlimited budget for bullets and bombs for the military, then there must be an unlimited budget for hospital beds and benefits for our fellow citizens willing to stand between a bullet and our Constitution. One bill that would streamline the system is S 1606, the Wounded Warrior bill. President Bush is fighting this important bill because he doesn’t want to spend any more money on veterans.
IT IS A SHAME AND A NATIONAL DISGRACE THAT OUR WOUNDED VETERANS ARE BEING LEFT TO THE SIDE OF THE ROAD LIKE OLD WORN TIRES,WHILE OUR 11% APPROVAL CONGRESS GETS THE WORLD’S FINEST HEALTHCARE,INCLUDING COSMETIC DENTRISTY AND PLASTIC SURGERY (IF NEEDED)AT ABSOLUTELY NO COST TO THEM!THE SAME SELFISH COWARDS WHO ARE BETRAYING OUR HEROES (MOST OF WHOM NEVER SAW A DAY OF MILITARY SERVICE)PAY NOTHING.THIER FAMILIES PAY NOTHING- FOR LIFE!SEN. JOE BIDEN,THE MOST TRANSPARENTLY ANTI MILITARY AND ANTI WAR (ANY WAR)POLITICIAN,RECEIVES HAIR TRANSPLANTS AND COSMETIC UPGRADES ON A REGULAR PERIODIC BASIS FREE!ALL AND I MEAN ALL AT TAXPAYERS EXPENSE!YOUR TAXES,MY TAXES AND THE TAXES OF THE FAMILIES OF WOUNDED AND DEAD WARRIORS…YET THEY CAN’T AND WON’T IMPROVE THE LIVES OF THE PAINFULLY WOUNDED AND DISABLED SOLDIERS AND MARINES.
IF THIER PAY AND PENSIONS WERE AFFECTED BY THIER PERFORMANCE,THEY WOULD POSSIBLY WORK HARDER AND WITH GREATER CONSCIENCE FOR THE PEOPLE THAT SENT THEM TO D.C.REMEMBER THEM IN NOVEMBER,REMEMBER THEM ON ELECTION DAY-THE DAY THEY DREAD THE MOST.