LAT: Back Home, Disabled Vets Fight Injuries, Red Tape

[DeepModem Mom]

THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ
Back Home, Disabled Vets Fight Injuries, Red Tape
Army and VA can't keep up with numbers of badly wounded soldiers and their families awaiting benefits

By Esther Schrader, Times Staff Writer


MANASSAS PARK, Va. — The yellow ribbons are faded and fraying outside the neatly appointed house where Jay Briseno lies tethered to a respirator, his nearly motionless, 21-year-old body a shrunken shadow of the young man who last year went marching off to war.

Shot in the back of the neck in Baghdad on a sweltering afternoon in June 2003, Briseno was rushed with all the speed and efficiency the Army could muster to one hospital after another, brought back from multiple heart attacks and strokes.

But Briseno isn't a soldier anymore. He is a veteran, facing a lifetime of excruciating disability. The efficient war-fighting machine he was a part of has moved on. His care is left to his parents and sisters, who, bent over his bed day and night, are struggling to adjust.

For Briseno and his family — as for thousands of others wounded in the Iraq war — the transition from the life they knew as soldiers to a future as disabled veterans is filled with frustration and pain. The military is more efficient than ever in treating its wounded. But after the battle-scarred leave Army hospitals, they often find themselves on their own in an unfamiliar and difficult-to-navigate thicket of benefits and services.

Since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began, 6,239 troops had been wounded in action, according to a recent Pentagon count. Of those, 57% were so severely injured that they were unable to return to duty. Medically retired from active duty military service, they need immediate assistance from the Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare system.

The surge of newly disabled veterans represents a challenge of a magnitude unseen since Vietnam....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-na-wounded8aug08,1,2869030.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[saigon68]

1. Get used to seeing this Folks, Just wait til they cut his benefits

Even Right-Wing Veterans cannot deny that the treatment of all veterans is shabby at best.

This poor person has now become a burden on his family. Check out "Born on the 4th of July" to see what happened when the ruling class moves on to their polo ponies and the underclass is relegated to the trash heap.

We used to say

USED UP---THOUWN AWAY

We say Today

THANKS CHIMP YOU MOTHER-FUCKER


PS--- Ron Kovic and Bobby Muller (both confined to chairs for life)from the VVAW were the reasons why John Kerry hated that war so much.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Oh, man -- thanks for posting that picture, saigon68 --

We should never forget those guys. And thanks for the connection to Kerry's antiwar stance.

[saigon68]

3. That Pic is FROM NIXON'S 72 CONVENTION

In Miami Beach---Ron Kovic (Born on the 4th of July) is the man in the chair at the right.

The Cops were assholes to the VVAW

[LauraK]

4. Long term illness, eg low radiation sickness, hasn't hit YET.

War sucks.

[Nambe]

5. Today's release of the Nixon/re-election tapes is timely.

Nixon stayed on in Viet Nam to assist his re-election. Many died on both sides or were severely wounded.

Is this happening again. We will lose this war. No peace in Israel, no peace in the middle east. Informed diplomats all agree on that. The oil interests are benefiting from these conflicts in so many ways. All Americans need to wake up. A Kerry win will not solve this problem. Few realized how important President Clinton's peace summit was. Can Kerry do that and succeed with Sharon in power? I don't think so. It's nothing to do with Kerry's abilities, pressure must be put on Israel to remove Sharon and accept a workable treaty.

[2Design]

6. I hate war and the aftermath of broken bodies....it is never

justified, never.....there must be another way instead of having all these people and families lives ruined forever.....

They need to ban together and get to washington, like the 911 widows.....

the government has failed them, again.