VETERAN'S RELATED ISSUES

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VETERAN'S RELATED ISSUES

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GOVERNMENT EXECUTIVE

"GOP Senator Pushed VA to Use Unproven 'Brainwave Frequency' Treatment"


By Isaac Arnsdorf
ProPublica

October 18, 2018

Sen. Dean Heller, a Nevada Republican, pushed doctors at the Veterans Affairs medical center in Reno to adopt an experimental mental health treatment marketed by a company with ties to his office.

On a Friday night last December in his Reno office, Heller, a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, introduced VA officials to representatives from a health care startup called CereCare.

The company markets an “off-label” method of treating addiction and post-traumatic stress, using electromagnetic brain stimulation.


The meeting came about because two of CereCare’s partners had a business connection to Heller’s senior aide in Reno.

“We’ve known her for years,” one of the partners, Nino Pedrini, said of the aide, Glenna Smith.

Pedrini and his partner have a separate joint venture with Smith’s former employer.

“This was Glenna reaching out to us, knowing what we were doing, saying we think there’s a fit here where you folks can help our veterans,” Pedrini said.

Smith declined to answer questions about her role in arranging the meeting; she said she has never had a financial interest in Pedrini’s companies.


The Trump administration is encouraging the VA to use more alternative treatments, even though doctors and mental health experts caution against steering patients to procedures that haven’t been scientifically demonstrated to be safe and effective.

The administration’s enthusiasm for such experimental treatments has opened the door to a flood of hopeful vendors like CereCare.

Heller declined to answer specific questions about the meeting.

In a statement, he said he “will never apologize for supporting policies that could lead to additional treatment options for Nevada veterans because no one who has served this country should be waiting for care once they return from combat.”

Heller co-sponsored a bill directing the VA to start a pilot program on CereCare’s procedure.

Another of CereCare’s partners, Judi Kosterman, participated in drafting the legislation, she said in an interview.

Kosterman described herself as CereCare’s expert on the procedure, and her business card identified her as “Dr.”

She is not a physician and her doctorate is in education, according to official records.

The bill says it provides no additional funding, so the pilot program would come at the expense of other treatments that are already proven to be effective.

For that reason, it drew opposition from Veterans of Foreign Wars, which represents 1.6 million members.

“The VFW believes that VA must spend its already scarce health care resources on therapies that have shown promise or have a proven track record,” the organization told Congress.

Other veterans groups, such as Amvets and Vietnam Veterans of America, supported the bill because they said the treatment is worth trying.

The Senate veterans committee hasn’t voted on the bill.

The procedure that CereCare was pitching to the VA uses electrical scans of the brain and heart to detect a patient’s “intrinsic brainwave frequency” and find “the area of the brain in need of restoration,” according to materials brought to the meeting.

CereCare then uses that data to apply electromagnetic pulses from a machine called a transcranial magnetic stimulator.


This procedure is off-label, meaning it uses equipment approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but in a way that is not approved by the agency.

Off-label procedures are not uncommon or illegal, but the FDA has not signed off on their safety or effectiveness.

Pedrini brushed off concerns about FDA approval.

“The thing we all have to get over is FDA approval on some things,” he said.


“You’ve got to try things."

"We can’t get hung up on 20 years of the FDA trying to approve something because of the bureaucracy and red tape.”

Many mental health professionals oppose pushing patients into experimental procedures.

They urge treatments that are scientifically validated or, under certain circumstances, that are part of a well-run clinical trial.

“Physicians in the VA, and any other health care setting, should not be forced to disclose treatment options for which there is no scientific basis for safety and efficacy,” the National Alliance on Mental Illness told Congress in 2016.

But these experimental treatments have found favor with political appointees in the Trump administration.

Two of Trump’s policy priorities for the VA — letting more veterans go to private doctors, and reducing suicide among veterans — have combined to lead officials to embrace private companies pitching unconventional treatments.

The president appointed Jake Leinenkugel, a Wisconsin beer baron turned senior adviser at the VA, to chair a commission studying nontraditional treatments like the one CereCare sells.


The commission’s congressional charter says its members should have a background in treating mental health and experience working with veterans; Leinenkugel has neither.

(He didn’t respond to requests for comment.)

At the commission’s first meeting, in July, Leinenkugel encouraged deploying hyperbaric chambers — not because of any scientific evidence, but because of companies’ lobbying.

Two large organizations had contacted him over the previous 12 or 13 months, he said.


“They’re becoming much more proactive."

"They’re gaining resonance on the Hill and also in states,” he said.

“So, whether or not we think that treatment works or has any evidence based to it at this point in time, it is not relevant to me.”


At the Reno meeting, Heller’s staff and CereCare talked about four veterans with mental health issues who could receive the treatment, according to meeting notes provided to ProPublica.

A local veterans nonprofit group was offering to cover the cost of the four veterans’ treatment so the VA wouldn’t have to pay, according to Pedrini.

CereCare could have used that money to treat those patients without the VA’s involvement.

But Heller wanted the VA to bless CereCare’s procedure as a pilot program to put it on a path to widespread adoption, according to the meeting notes.

“Dean Heller wanted their endorsement,” said Walter A. “Del” Marting, another of CereCare’s partners.

(Marting donated $500 to Heller’s re-election campaign in 2015, according to Federal Election Commission records.)

At the meeting, a VA representative suggested that if CereCare or Heller’s office know of four veterans needing mental health care, they should be sent to the VA for evaluation and treatment.

Kosterman, who was present, said the VA officials appeared skeptical of CereCare’s procedure.

She described the VA’s position as, “Veterans are a protected class, and we are responsible to protect them from being experimented with or being involved in something we haven’t validated.”


It’s not clear what happened to the four veterans.

But the pilot program never moved forward, much to CereCare’s frustration.

“The whole thing got bogged down in clearances and approvals and reviews,” Marting said.

Heller put a positive spin on the meeting, posing for a photo and tweeting, “Thank you to the Reno VA, Reno Vet Center, Renown Health, CereCare, the Nevada Military Support Alliance, & Northern #NV community members for joining me for a productive discussion about ways to reduce suicide among veterans and improve mental health care for them.”

This article was originally published in ProPublica. It has been republished under the Creative Commons license. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom.

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Re: VETERAN'S RELATED ISSUES

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ProPublica

"The VA's Private Care Program Gave Companies Billions and Vets Longer Waits"


by Isaac Arnsdorf, ProPublica, and Jon Greenberg, PolitiFact

23 DECEMBER 2018

For years, conservatives have assailed the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as a dysfunctional bureaucracy.

They said private enterprise would mean better, easier-to-access health care for veterans.

President Donald Trump embraced that position, enthusiastically moving to expand the private sector’s role.

Here’s what has actually happened in the four years since the government began sending more veterans to private care: longer waits for appointments and, a new analysis of VA claims data by ProPublica and PolitiFact shows, higher costs for taxpayers.


Since 2014, 1.9 million former service members have received private medical care through a program called Veterans Choice.

It was supposed to give veterans a way around long wait times in the VA.

But their average waits using the Choice Program were still longer than allowed by law, according to examinations by the VA inspector general and the Government Accountability Office.

The watchdogs also found widespread blunders, such as booking a veteran in Idaho with a doctor in New York and telling a Florida veteran to see a specialist in California.

Once, the VA referred a veteran to the Choice Program to see a urologist, but instead he got an appointment with a neurologist.

The winners have been two private companies hired to run the program, which began under the Obama administration and is poised to grow significantly under Trump.


ProPublica and PolitiFact obtained VA data showing how much the agency has paid in medical claims and administrative fees for the Choice program.

Since 2014, the two companies have been paid nearly $2 billion for overhead, including profit.

That’s about 24 percent of the companies’ total program expenses — a rate that would exceed the federal cap that governs how much most insurance plans can spend on administration in the private sector.


According to the agency’s inspector general, the VA was paying the contractors at least $295 every time it authorized private care for a veteran.

The fee was so high because the VA hurriedly launched the Choice Program as a short-term response to a crisis.

Four years later, the fee never subsided — it went up to as much as $318 per referral.

“This is what happens when people try and privatize the VA,” Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, the ranking Democrat on the Senate veterans committee, said in a statement responding to these findings.

“The VA has an obligation to taxpayers to spend its limited resources on caring for veterans, not paying excessive fees to a government contractor."

"When VA does need the help of a middleman, it needs to do a better job of holding contractors accountable for missing the mark.”


The Affordable Care Act prohibits large group insurance plans from spending more than 15 percent of their revenue on administration, including marketing and profit.

The private sector standard is 10 percent to 12 percent, according to Andrew Naugle, who advises health insurers on administrative operations as a consultant at Milliman, one of the world’s largest actuarial firms.

Overhead is even lower in the Defense Department’s Tricare health benefits program: only 8 percent last year.

Even excluding the costs of setting up the new program, the Choice contractors’ overhead still amounts to 21 percent of revenue.

“That’s just unacceptable,” Rick Weidman, the policy director of Vietnam Veterans of America, said in response to the figures.

“There are people constantly banging on the VA, but this was the private sector that made a total muck of it.”

Trump’s promises to veterans were a central message of his campaign.

But his plans to shift their health care to the private sector put him on a collision course with veterans groups, whose members generally support the VA’s medical system and don’t want to see it privatized.


The controversy around privatization, and the outsize influence of three Trump associates at Mar-a-Lago, has sown turmoil at the VA, endangering critical services from paying student stipends to preventing suicides and upgrading electronic medical records.

A spokesman for the VA, Curt Cashour, declined to provide an interview with key officials and declined to answer a detailed list of written questions.

One of the contractors, Health Net, stopped working on the program in September.

Health Net didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The other contractor, TriWest Healthcare Alliance, said it has worked closely with the VA to improve the program and has made major investments of its own.

“We believe supporting VA in ensuring the delivery of quality care to our nation’s veterans is a moral responsibility, even while others have avoided making these investments or have withdrawn from the market,” the company said in a statement.

TriWest did not dispute ProPublica and PolitiFact’s estimated overhead rate, which used total costs, but suggested an alternate calculation, using an average cost, that yielded a rate of 13 percent to 15 percent.

The company defended the $295-plus fee by saying it covers “highly manual” services such as scheduling appointments and coordinating medical files.

Such functions are not typically part of the contracts for other programs, such as the military’s Tricare.

But Tricare’s contractors perform other duties, such as adjudicating claims and monitoring quality, that Health Net and TriWest do not.

In a recent study comparing the programs, researchers from the Rand Corporation concluded that the role of the Choice Program’s contractors is “much narrower than in the private sector or in Tricare.”

Before the Choice Program, TriWest and Health Net performed essentially the same functions for about a sixth of the price, according to the VA inspector general.

TriWest declined to break down how much of the fee goes to each service it provides.

Because of what the GAO called the contractors’ “inadequate” performance, the VA increasingly took over doing the Choice Program’s referrals and claims itself.

In many cases, the contractors’ $295-plus processing fee for every referral was bigger than the doctor’s bill for services rendered, the analysis of agency data showed.

In the three months ending Jan. 31, 2018, the Choice Program made 49,144 referrals for primary care totaling $9.9 million in medical costs, for an average cost per referral of $201.16.

A few other types of care also cost less on average than the handling fee: chiropractic care ($286.32 per referral) and optometry ($189.25).

There were certainly other instances where the medical services cost much more than the handling fee: TriWest said its average cost per referral was about $2,100 in the past six months.

Beyond what the contractors were entitled to, audits by the VA inspector general found that they overcharged the government by $140 million from November 2014 to March 2017.

Both companies are now under federal investigation arising from these overpayments.

Health Net’s parent company, Centene, disclosed a Justice Department civil investigation into “excessive, duplicative or otherwise improper claims.”

A federal grand jury in Arizona is investigating TriWest for “wire fraud and misused government funds,” according to a court decision on a subpoena connected to the case.


Both companies said they are cooperating with the inquiries.

Despite the criminal investigation into TriWest’s management of the Choice Program, the Trump administration recently expanded the company’s contract without competitive bidding.

Now, TriWest stands to collect even more fees as the administration prepares to fulfill Trump’s campaign promise to send more veterans to private doctors.

Senate veterans committee chairman Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., said he expects VA Secretary Robert Wilkie to discuss the agency’s plans for the future of private care when he testifies at a hearing on Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for the outgoing chairman of the House veterans committee, Phil Roe, R-Tenn., didn’t respond to requests for comment.

“The last thing we need is to have funding for VA’s core mission get wasted,” Rep. Mark Takano, a California Democrat who will become the House panel’s chairman in January, said in a statement.

“I will make sure Congress conducts comprehensive oversight to ensure that our veterans receive the care they deserve while being good stewards of taxpayer dollars.”

Many of the Choice Program’s defects trace back to its hasty launch.

In 2014, the Republican chairman of the House veterans committee alleged that 40 veterans died waiting for care at the VA hospital in Phoenix.

The inspector general eventually concluded that no deaths were attributable to the delays.

But it was true that officials at the Phoenix VA were covering up long wait times, and critics seized on this scandal to demand that veterans get access to private medical care.

One of the loudest voices demanding changes was John McCain’s.

“Make no mistake: This is an emergency,” the Arizona senator, who died in August, said at the time.

McCain struck a compromise with Democrats to open up private care for veterans who lived at least 40 miles from a VA facility or would have to wait at least 30 days to get an appointment.

In the heat of the scandal, Congress gave the VA only 90 days to launch Choice.

The VA reached out to 57 companies about administering the new program, but the companies said they couldn’t get the program off the ground in just three months, according to contracting records.

So the VA tacked the Choice Program onto existing contracts with Health Net and TriWest to run a much smaller program for buying private care.

“There is simply insufficient time to solicit, evaluate, negotiate and award competitive contracts and then allow for some form of ramp-up time for a new contractor,” the VA said in a formal justification for bypassing competitive bidding.

But that was a shaky foundation on which to build a much larger program, since those earlier contracts were themselves flawed.

In a 2016 report, the VA inspector general said officials hadn’t followed the rules “to ensure services acquired are based on need and at fair and reasonable prices.”


The report criticized the VA for awarding higher rates than one of the vendors proposed.

The new contract with the VA was a lifeline for TriWest.

Its president and CEO, David J. McIntyre Jr., was a senior aide to McCain in the mid-1990s before starting the company, based in Phoenix, to handle health benefits for the military’s Tricare program.

In 2013, TriWest lost its Tricare contract and was on the verge of shutting down.

Thanks to the VA contract, TriWest went from laying off more than a thousand employees to hiring hundreds.

McIntyre’s annual compensation, according to federal contracting disclosures, is $2.36 million.


He declined to be interviewed.

In a statement, TriWest noted that the original contract, for the much smaller private care program, had been competitively awarded.

The VA paid TriWest and Health Net $300 million upfront to set up the new Choice program, according to the inspector general’s audit.

But that was dwarfed by the fees that the contractors would collect.

Previously, the VA paid the companies between $45 and $123 for every referral, according to the inspector general.

But for the Choice Program, TriWest and Health Net raised their fee to between $295 and $300 to do essentially the same work on a larger scale, the inspector general said.

The price hike was a direct result of the time pressure, according to Greg Giddens, a former VA contracting executive who dealt with the Choice Program.

“If we had two years to stand up the program, we would have been at a different price structure,” he said.

Even though the whole point of the Choice Program was to avoid 30-day waits in the VA, a convoluted process made it hard for veterans to see private doctors any faster.

Getting care through the Choice Program took longer than 30 days 41 percent of the time, according to the inspector general’s estimate.


The GAO found that in 2016 using the Choice Program could take as long as 70 days, with an average of 50 days.

Sometimes the contractors failed to make appointments at all.

Over a three-month period in 2018, Health Net sent back between 9 percent and 13 percent of its referrals, according to agency data.

TriWest failed to make appointments on 5 percent to 8 percent of referrals, the data shows.

Many veterans had frustrating experiences with the contractors.

Richard Camacho in Los Angeles said he got a call from TriWest to make an appointment for a sleep test, but he then received a letter from TriWest with different dates.

He had to call the doctor to confirm when he was supposed to show up.

When he got there, the doctor had received no information about what the appointment was for, Camacho said.


John Moen, a Vietnam veteran in Plano, Texas, tried to use the Choice Program for physical therapy this year rather than travel to Dallas, where the VA had a six-week wait.

But it took 10 weeks for him to get an appointment with a private provider.

“The Choice Program for me has completely failed to meet my needs,” Moen said.

Curtis Thompson, of Kirkland, Washington, said he’s been told the Choice Program had a 30-day wait just to process referrals, never mind to book an appointment.

“Bottom line: Wait for the nearly 60 days to see the rheumatologist at the VA rather than opt for an unknown delay through Veterans Choice,” he said.

After Thompson used the Choice Program in 2018 for a sinus surgery that the VA couldn’t perform within 30 days, the private provider came after him to collect payment, according to documentation he provided.

Thousands of veterans have had to contend with bill collectors and credit bureaus because the contractors failed to pay providers on time, according to the inspector general.

Doctors have been frustrated with the Choice Program, too.

The inspector general found that 15 providers in North Carolina stopped accepting patients from the VA because Health Net wasn’t paying them on time.


The VA shares the blame, since it fell behind in paying the contractors, the inspector general said.

TriWest claimed the VA at one point owed the company $200 million.

According to the inspector general, the VA’s pile of unpaid claims peaked at almost 180,000 in 2016 and was virtually eliminated by the end of the year.

The VA tried to tackle the backlog of unpaid doctors, but it had a problem: The agency didn’t know who was performing the services arranged by the contractors.

That’s because Health Net and TriWest controlled the provider networks, and the medical claims they submit to the VA do not include any provider information.

The contractors’ role as middlemen created the opportunity for payment errors, according to the inspector general’s audit.

The inspector general found 77,700 cases where the contractors billed the VA for more than they paid providers and pocketed the difference, totaling about $2 million.


The inspector general also identified $69.9 million in duplicate payments and $68.5 million in other errors.

TriWest said it has worked with the VA to correct the payment errors and set aside money to pay back.

The company said it’s waiting for the VA to provide a way to refund the confirmed overpayments.

“We remain ready to complete the necessary reconciliations as soon as that process is formally approved,” TriWest said.

The grand jury proceedings involving TriWest are secret, but the investigation became public because prosecutors sought to obtain the identities of anonymous commenters on the jobs website Glassdoor.com who accused TriWest of “mak[ing] money unethically off of veterans/VA.”

Glassdoor fought the subpoena but lost, in November 2017.

The court’s opinion doesn’t name TriWest, but it describes the subject of the investigation as “a government contractor that administers veterans’ healthcare programs” and quotes the Glassdoor reviews about TriWest.

The federal prosecutor’s office in Arizona declined to comment.

“TriWest has cooperated with many government inquiries regarding VA’s community care programs and will continue to do so,” the company said in its statement.

“TriWest must respect the government’s right to keep those inquiries confidential until such time as the government decides to conclude the inquiry or take any actions or adjust VA programs as deemed appropriate.”

The VA tried to make the Choice Program run more smoothly and efficiently.

Because the contractors were failing to find participating doctors to treat veterans, the VA in mid-2015 launched a full-court press to sign up private providers directly, according to the inspector general.

In some states, the VA also took over scheduling from the contractors.

“We were making adjustments on the fly trying to get it to work,” said David Shulkin, who led the VA’s health division starting in 2015.

“There needed to be a more holistic solution.”

Officials decided in 2016 to design new contracts that would change the fee structure and reabsorb some of the services that the VA had outsourced to Health Net and TriWest.

The department secretary at the time, Bob McDonald, concluded the VA needed to handle its own customer service, since the agency’s reputation was suffering from TriWest’s and Health Net’s mistakes.

Reclaiming those functions would have the side effect of reducing overhead.

“Tell me a great customer service company in the world that outsources its customer service,” McDonald, who previously ran Procter & Gamble, said in an interview.

“I wanted to have the administrative functions within our medical centers so we took control of the care of the veterans."

"That would have brought that fee down or eliminated it entirely.”

The new contracts, called the Community Care Network, also aimed to reduce overhead by paying the contractors based on the number of veterans they served per month, rather than a flat fee for every referral.

To prevent payment errors like the ones the inspector general found, the new contracts sought to increase information-sharing between the VA and the contractors.

The VA opened bidding for the new Community Care Network contracts in December 2016.

But until those new contracts were in place, the VA was still stuck paying Health Net and TriWest at least $295 for every referral.

So VA officials came up with a workaround: they could cut out the middleman and refer veterans to private providers directly.

Claims going through the contractors declined by 47 percent from May to December in 2017.

TriWest’s CEO, McIntyre, objected to this workaround and blamed the VA for hurting his bottom line.

In a Feb. 26, 2018, email with the subject line “Heads Up… Likely Massive and Regrettable Train Wreck Coming!” McIntyre warned Shulkin, then the department secretary, that “long unresolved matters with VA and current behavior patterns will result in a projected $65 million loss next year."

"This is on top of the losses that we have amassed over the last couple years.”


Officials were puzzled that, despite all the VA was paying TriWest, McIntyre was claiming he couldn’t make ends meet, according to agency emails provided to ProPublica and PolitiFact.

McIntyre explained that he wanted the VA to waive penalties for claims that lacked adequate documentation and to pay TriWest an administrative fee on canceled referrals and no-show appointments, even though the VA read the contract to require a fee only on completed claims.

In a March letter to key lawmakers, McIntyre said the VA’s practice of bypassing the contractors and referring patients directly to providers “has resulted in a significant drop in the volume of work and is causing the company irreparable financial harm.”

McIntyre claimed the VA owed TriWest $95 million and warned of a “negative impact on VA and veterans that will follow” if the agency didn’t pay.

Any disruptions at TriWest, he said, would rebound onto the VA, “given how much we are relied on by VA at the moment and the very public nature of this work.”

But when the VA asked to see TriWest’s financial records to substantiate McIntyre’s claims, the numbers didn’t add up, according to agency emails.

McIntyre’s distress escalated in March, as the Choice Program was running out of money and lawmakers were locked in tense negotiations over its future.

McIntyre began sending daily emails to the VA officials in charge of the Choice Program seeking updates and warning of impending disaster.

“I don’t think the storm could get more difficult or challenging,” he wrote in one of the messages.

“However, I know that I am not alone nor that the impact will be confined to us.”

McIntyre lobbied for a bill to permanently replace Choice with a new program consolidating all of the VA’s methods of buying private care.

TriWest even offered to pay veterans organizations to run ads supporting the legislation, according to emails discussing the proposal.

Congress overwhelmingly passed the law (named after McCain) in May.

“In the campaign, I also promised that we would fight for Veterans Choice,” Trump said at the signing ceremony in June.

“And before I knew that much about it, it just seemed to be common sense."

"It seemed like if they’re waiting on line for nine days and they can’t see a doctor, why aren’t they going outside to see a doctor and take care of themselves, and we pay the bill?"

"It’s less expensive for us, it works out much better, and it’s immediate care.”

The new permanent program for buying private care will take effect in June 2019.

The VA’s new and improved Community Care Network contracts were supposed to be in place by then.

But the agency repeatedly missed deadlines for these new contracts and has yet to award them.

The VA has said it’s aiming to pick the contractors for the new program in January and February.

Yet even if the VA meets this latest deadline, the contracts include a one-year ramp-up period, so they won’t be ready to start in June.

That means TriWest will by default become the sole contractor for the new program.

The VA declined to renew Health Net’s contract when it expired in September.

The VA was planning to deal directly with private providers in the regions that Health Net had covered.

But the VA changed course and announced that TriWest would take over Health Net’s half of the country.

The agency said TriWest would be the sole contractor for the entire Choice Program until it awards the Community Care Network contracts.

“There’s still not a clear timeline moving forward,” said Giddens, the former VA contracting executive.

“They need to move forward with the next program."

"The longer they stay with the current one, and now that it’s down to TriWest, that’s not the best model.”

Meanwhile, TriWest will continue receiving a fee for every referral.

And the number of referrals is poised to grow as the administration plans to shift more veterans to the private sector.

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Re: VETERAN'S RELATED ISSUES

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WHY IS THIS NOT SURPRISING?

WHY IS SHODDY ALWAYS THE STANDARD EMPLOYED BY OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT?

REUTERS

"Special Report: U.S. military's new housing plagued by construction flaws"


By M.B. Pell and Deborah Nelson

23 DECEMBER 2018

TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Oklahoma (Reuters) - Here, near the heart of America’s “Tornado Alley,” an Air Force contractor built 398 new homes less than a decade ago, bankrolled as part of the U.S. government’s vow of safe shelter for the men and women who serve.

Today the collection of cookie-cutter duplexes is showing declines more typical of aged and neglected housing.


Last spring, just six years after landlord Balfour Beatty Communities finished construction, the company was forced to start replacing every foot of water line in each house to fix systemic plumbing failures.

In September, the company and Air Force inspected the tiny rooms where heating, ventilation and air-conditioning equipment is housed.

Half had mold or water damage.

Residents complain of leaks, mold, rodents and cockroaches.

While living in her new house on base, Stephanie Oakley’s five-year-old son underwent 42 weeks of chemotherapy, 33 days of pelvis radiation and 10 days of full-lung radiation this year.

Doctors removed his adenoids, the hospital says, and then his tonsils.

The cancer treatment severely weakened his immune system.

Any infections from mold, the family’s doctor warned, could be lethal.

So when Oakley found mold in the vents of her home in August, she instantly called Balfour Beatty .

Yet the cleanup worsened the problem, she said.

A contractor cleaned the vents but failed to cover the Oakleys’ possessions.

She returned home to find fungus throughout the house.

Green webs of mold stretched across the Batman emblems of her son’s sheets.

“I never felt hopeless about him getting cancer."

"I had faith,” she said.

“But this right here is harder to deal with.”

Her story is part of a largely hidden reality about life on America’s military bases.

The U.S. Department of Defense has privatized most of the living quarters on bases around the country, partnering with private companies to manage the vast system.

What the Pentagon touts as privatization’s signature achievement – the building of new housing for military families – is marred by faulty construction and poor upkeep, Reuters found.


The Pentagon has never publicly released a definitive assessment of its two-decade old new construction program covering some 150 bases.

But three years ago, the Pentagon’s Inspector General spot-checked housing units at five U.S. military bases, finding 282 deficiencies at 89 homes, including dwellings built or renovated under the privatization program.

The problems, including “pervasive” fire hazards, faulty electrical wiring and unmitigated mold growth, were caused by “improper installation, insufficient inspection and inadequate maintenance,” the IG found.

A Reuters review – built from court records, interviews and Defense Department Inspector General documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act – found serious construction problems with new or renovated housing on at least 17 bases.

The flaws include water damage, improper electrical wiring, missing smoke alarms, and construction errors requiring residents to leave new homes.

At six bases, the developer, unable to complete construction, was dismissed from the project.

The building program, some tenants say, has failed to meet the goal the Pentagon set two decades ago of building adequate homes for “the most dedicated” members of the armed services.

“The service members risk their lives,” said Andrea DeLack, whose husband, a retired Marine first sergeant, served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They were housed in a new, mold-ridden home on an Air Force base in Mississippi run by another landlord.

“And in return, the organization as a whole doesn’t even give back with safe housing for us and our kids.”

Over the past two decades, the Defense Department has transferred ownership of more than 200,000 homes to private landlords.

It also contributed $3.4 billion to help finance the renovation of 52,000 old homes and the construction of 80,000 new ones nationwide.

The decaying homes in Oklahoma and Mississippi are among that new housing stock.


The military says the overall quality of housing has improved under the privatization program, but the Pentagon’s massive financial outlay has come with limited federal oversight and little accountability for the companies that run the gargantuan system.

The contracts under which landlords operate, their revenues, inspection records and resident complaints are kept secret or heavily redacted by the Defense Department and the companies.

The Pentagon says the details are proprietary.

In a statement to Reuters, the Air Force said it inspects a sampling of homes annually or when concerns arise, and that it requires private operators to employ third parties to ensure homes meet local building codes.

The Air Force did not provide the results of its inspections, but noted, “results of these visits vary.”

“The Air Force places the health and safety of its members as a top priority,” wrote spokeswoman Laura McAndrews.

Balfour Beatty declined to discuss conditions at specific homes at the Oklahoma Air Force base.

In a statement, the London-based company said most residents are pleased with its work.


“We are steadfastly committed to making things right in these homes,” it said.

BIG BUSINESS, BASE TROUBLES

Balfour Beatty manages 43,000 housing units at Air Force, Army and Navy bases across the country, making it one of the biggest players in the industry.

The company won the Tinker contract in 2008.

Overall, the base has 660 homes.

At Tinker and two other bases, the Air Force contributed $137 million in loans to help finance new and renovated housing.

The Defense Department does not reveal how much its partner landlords earn in rent.

But Reuters estimates the rental revenue is $10.5 million annually at Tinker and $800 million at all the bases where Balfour Beatty is a housing partner.

The figures were calculated using Pentagon data on military housing stipends.

Neither the military nor Balfour Beatty challenged these estimates.

Here in the suburbs south of Oklahoma City, Balfour Beatty built nearly 400 homes between 2008 and 2012.

It noticed the leaks as early as 2009, according to a court filing by Balfour Beatty.

Last spring, Balfour Beatty started replacing every foot of water line in each house to address extensive water damage.

While plumbers replaced the piping, Air Force housing personnel and Balfour Beatty employees spent a week in September at each new home inspecting the mechanical closets, which hold heating, ventilation and AC equipment.

Half had water damage, including spraying leaks, water pools three inches deep, raw sewage, rotten wood and severe mold, records show.

At a town hall meeting two weeks later, Balfour Beatty executives downplayed the problems, saying mold and water damage in HVAC areas don’t affect residents.


“The good news is the mechanical rooms are isolated from the living areas,” said Steve Curtis, vice president of risk management at Balfour Beatty.

Tim Toburen, an environmental specialist in mold and water damage, disagrees.

Examining photos taken by Reuters and residents, Toburen noted the walls separating the mechanical closets from living spaces appear to be made of drywall – a material susceptible to mold growth and providing no barrier to water.

The air circulation systems themselves, when not properly sealed, suck up mold spores and distribute them around the house, he said.

Inspection records obtained by Reuters show dozens of HVAC systems incorrectly sealed in new homes.

“Clearly there are big problems here,” Toburen said.

Asked about those problems, spokeswoman McAndrews said the Air Force “is concerned about the water damage.”

The Air Force and landlord will promptly reinspect affected homes and make fixes, she said.

Balfour Beatty will now inspect the rooms during routine maintenance checks.

Repairs were finished in October, homes were re-inspected and families are satisfied with the work, said Balfour Beatty spokeswoman Maureen Omrod.

The landlord is a unit of Balfour Beatty plc, a publicly traded corporation, which reveals little about the finances of its military housing subsidiaries.

The Defense Department deems the project finances confidential and will not disclose figures.

Balfour Beatty assures investors, however, that housing soldiers, sailors and airmen is lucrative.

At the company’s August results call with analysts, CEO Leo Quinn described military housing as a “fantastic business.”


The complaints about new homes extend beyond Oklahoma and Balfour Beatty.

Another big player is Hunt Companies, which owns 50,000 homes on 49 bases and bills itself as the “largest military housing owner in the country.”

At Mississippi’s Keesler Air Force base, 13 military families are suing Hunt over endemic mold infestations they say sprouted from faulty construction and poor maintenance in their homes, which were among 1,000 built from 2007 to 2010 for $287 million.

Among the plaintiffs is the DeLack family.

Earl DeLack, a retired first sergeant in the Marines, said his home at Keesler – the base has a Marine detachment – was riddled with mold, sickening his wife, baby and two other young children with allergies, rashes and headaches.

DeLack said he alerted the base commanders, inspector general and others, to no avail, finally moving off base in 2016.

He retired in July, following deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

“It was a bad way to leave the Marine Corps,” said his wife, Andrea.

Another plaintiff, Ann Yarbrough, an Air Force technical sergeant, showed a reporter black spots spreading across her ceiling in early December.

Mold has been a recurring problem since the family moved into the house in 2011, putting her three young children at risk, she said.

Later in December, the family was moved out of the house for mold remediation and will be spending Christmas in temporary quarters on base.

“That’s the crazy thing,” Yarbrough said.

“When I was deployed to Afghanistan, I was worried about my family back here, because they were getting sick.”

In court filings, Texas-based Hunt denied allegations of poor maintenance, mold outbreaks or any harm to tenants.

However, an internal memo from a Hunt affiliate to Air Force officials in 2008 shows the company knew its new homes were prone to mold.

The company and Air Force confirmed to Reuters this month that 1,000 have needed “moisture remediation” in the past two years – including those of DeLack and Yarbrough.

Air Force spokeswoman McAndrews said some homes have required "extensive repairs," so the service and Hunt agreed to complete the work in phases.

The Air Force is monitoring progress “to ensure project milestones were met," she said.

Hunt said it’s committed to addressing the problem.

“Hunt Military Communities takes pride in providing the best possible housing for our Service Members and their families,” the company said in a written statement.

FAMILY TROUBLES

In Oklahoma, landlord Balfour Beatty faces resident complaints of maintenance nightmares and punitive fees.

At Tinker, more than a dozen residents said they believe the company is slow to fix problems, admit obvious water damage or investigate mold.


In Janna Driver’s home on Night Hawk Court, water regularly seeped from the mechanical closet into the adjacent playroom for her four-year-old twin girls, she said.

In August 2018, the family called in its ninth request for help in a year.

Driver’s husband followed the Balfour Beatty maintenance technician into the mechanical closet and snapped pictures of walls covered with mold from floor to ceiling, along with a puddle of water where the air conditioning unit’s condensation pipes emptied onto the floor.

Her account is supported by maintenance records and photos and videos she took of the premises.

When Driver asked Balfour Beatty maintenance staff about the mold, she said they told her the company had been trying to treat it with bleach for six months.

During that time, medical records show, the family pediatrician diagnosed both twins with chronic upper respiratory infections – a symptom of mold exposure.

Driver said she, her eldest son and oldest daughter experienced headaches and nosebleeds.

In August, Balfour Beatty moved the Drivers into temporary base housing, where water leaked into a light fixture.

The family moved to a hotel – paid for by Balfour Beatty – in September.

After two months, they left for a home off base.

“I haven’t had one headache since,” Driver said.

Balfour Beatty continued to collect the family’s monthly housing stipend, however.

It charged the Drivers a month’s rent for terminating the lease early.

And it billed them $1,171 for unspecified damages.

The company declined to discuss the specifics of the Drivers’ case with Reuters.

It said it has been transparent with the Air Force and residents about the plumbing problems, which it said affected a “select segment” of homes.

Company executives told residents the water damage was caused by defective plastic water lines installed by a subcontractor.

Since last spring, Balfour Beatty has spent $6 million to repair water damage and install water lines, replacing the lines in at least 150 new homes, with plans to finish the remaining 250 by May.

In October, Balfour Beatty sued NIBCO, the Indiana company that made the water lines, in federal court in Oklahoma, alleging systematic failure of the equipment that caused “extensive leaks” throughout the Tinker homes.

Balfour Beatty was still discovering new leaks at Tinker “on a weekly basis,” the suit said.

Earlier this year, NIBCO agreed to pay $43 million to settle a separate class action suit over allegations its water lines failed in homes across the country.

Edward Sullivan, NIBCO’s general counsel, said the company believes other installation problems were to blame at Tinker and plans to fight the Balfour Beatty lawsuit.

In any case, the original pipes aren’t the only problem with the new homes.

Inspection records show leaking HVAC systems and roofs, backed-up sewage lines and standing water in homes where the lines were replaced.

Balfour Beatty insisted sewage backups were not a problem, but records show three homes had backups in HVAC rooms, one described as “bad raw sewage.”

In August and September, senior airman Abigaila Courtney said, sewage water backed up from her shower drain into the nursery in her remodeled home – which does not have plastic water lines.

An environmental testing firm found high levels of mold spores in her child’s bedroom.

Her four-month-old baby boy went to the emergency room with breathing difficulty, according to a letter from her son’s doctor.

The doctor told Balfour Beatty to remove mold from their home.

Balfour Beatty declined to comment on Courtney’s complaints.

Courtney discovered that Balfour Beatty’s maintenance log, which she shared with Reuters, sometimes did not match the work done at her home.

The log said her air filter was replaced in September, but a week after the purported upgrade, the filter was so furry it looked like a bearskin rug, according to a photograph she took at the time.

In the past, the work order system did not always match “actual performance,” the Air Force’s McAndrews said.

After an audit, she said, changes were made to improve the work order process.

Courtney said the base’s inspector general told her it couldn’t help.

So her family moved in with her sister-in-law off base.

Nevertheless, Balfour Beatty said it would continue to collect her rent.

“We have nothing to back us up and no one to help us,” she said.

BIG BILL AND SECRECY

In October, Balfour Beatty gathered Tinker residents in a town hall meeting to try to ease their concerns.

A Reuters reporter was in the audience.

To educate the tenants about mold, company vice president Curtis kicked off his talk by defining the word “ubiquitous.”

Mold, he continued, is everywhere.

He displayed a picture of mushrooms growing in the yard of his home and discussed the many uses for mold, such as making penicillin, beer and cheese.

“We eat mold,” he said.

“Does anyone like gorgonzola cheese?”

Stephanie Oakley, whose husband is an Air Force staff sergeant, said she called Balfour Beatty 30 times since moving in three years ago to complain about leaky plumbing, heating and cooling problems and water damage that left her living room carpet so wet it soaked through her socks.

She said the carpet smelled like pee.

Oakley later learned the dank conditions posed an acute health threat for her son, who was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a soft tissue cancer, in October 2017.

She began to worry in August when she discovered mold in all six of her vents and a patch growing on her carpet.

An environmental testing firm found high levels of mold spores in her son’s bedroom.

Her son’s oncologist wrote Balfour Beatty Communities that “death rates are unfortunately high” when pediatric cancer patients contract infections from mold and fungus.

He urged the company to remove the fungi and mold.

Balfour Beatty agreed to replace the flooring, clean the vents and pay for the family’s hotel room for a month, Oakley said.

But the cleanup backfired.

Oakley said a Balfour Beatty contractor did clean the vents while the family was away, but failed to cover the furniture and possessions.

Oakley came home in September to find a patina of mold spreading across the house and on her shoes, her husband’s dress shirts and their son’s bedding.

Still, the landlord would not acknowledge the existence of mold, nor would it share the results of its own mold tests with the Oakleys, she said.

On September 26, Oakley learned her son was officially cancer free.

The next step was follow-up chemotherapy to cut the chances of a recurrence.

That same day, the boy’s doctors discovered a possible infection in his lung, delaying his follow-up chemo for weeks.

The spot in his lung turned out to be severe asthma congestion.

Though the cause cannot be certain, mold spores can aggravate asthma, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the weeks after the company’s town meeting in October, the Oakleys moved into a new home off base.

It is mold free.

After they left, Balfour Beatty accused the family of breaking the lease early and continued to collect $1,314 in monthly rent from the husband’s paycheck.

The company also billed the Oakleys $2,400 to replace the mold-coated carpet, blaming the family for its condition.

The bill came with an offer.

Oakley said if the family agreed not to sue and not to publicly discuss their experiences at Tinker housing, Balfour Beatty would waive the fee and refund one month of rent.

“It’s making us feel like we don’t have an option, like we have to sign it so we can make our mortgage payment,” Oakley said in late November, still mulling the company’s offer.

In the days after Reuters asked Balfour Beatty about the Oakleys, the Drivers and the Courtneys, the landlord stopped garnishing their monthly housing stipends.

(Editing by Ronnie Greene)

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Re: VETERAN'S RELATED ISSUES

Post by thelivyjr »

AS A DISABLED VETERAN, I TRULY HAVE TO WONDER IF AOC EVEN KNOWS WHERE A VA HOSPITAL IS, AND HOW MANY DAYS SHE HAS SPENT IN ONE, OR TRIED TO GET CARE …

BUT NOT KNOWING ANYTHING ABOUT A SUBJECT DOES NOT STOP AOC FROM TALKING LIKE AN EXPERT ABOUT IT …

And so ...

FOX NEWS

"Ocasio-Cortez declares VA ‘isn’t broken,’ already provides top-notch care"


By Adam Shaw | Fox News

24 APRIL 2019

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., claimed during a recent town hall event that the Department of Veterans Affairs “isn’t broken" and is actually providing “some of the highest quality” care to veterans.

“All I can think of is that classic refrain that my parents always taught me growing up, is that: ‘if it ain't broke, don't fix it,’" she said in New York, as part of her argument against privatizing aspects of the scandal-scarred agency's work.


"That is the opening approach we have seen when it comes to privatization, it's the idea that this thing that isn’t broken, this thing that provides some of the highest quality care to our veterans somehow needs to be fixed, optimized, tinkered with until we don’t even recognize it anymore," she said, in comments first reported by The Washington Examiner.

"They are trying to fix the VA for pharmaceutical companies, they are trying to fix the VA for insurance corporations, and, ultimately they are trying to fix the VA for a for-profit healthcare industry that does not put people or veterans first," she said.

“And so we have a responsibility to protect it.”

Ocasio-Cortez's comments were aimed at Trump administration efforts to expand choice and private health care options in the VA health care system, particularly via the MISSION Act -- signed into law by President Trump last year.

The comments are likely to raise the ire of proponents advocating VA reform.

The department was plagued by scandal during the Obama administration -- including secret wait lists, systemic neglect and veterans dying while waiting to see a doctor.

“Putting our veterans first means making sure they are at the center of any reform efforts."

"That is exactly what the administration did with the VA MISSION Act -- put the veteran ahead of the bureaucracy," Dan Caldwell, executive director of Concerned Veterans for America, told Fox News when asked about Ocasio-Cortez's comments.

"The VA is structured for a veteran population that has fundamentally changed from when it was built."

"Policy reforms should fundamentally change with the population and the times."

"When the resources follow the veteran, the veteran wins."

"When resources go to prop up an aging and outdated bureaucracy, the veteran loses."

"It’s not about ‘fixing’ the VA, rather it is about making sure the focus of the VA is on the veteran, not itself," he said.

Current VA Secretary Robert Wilkie is the fourth secretary to lead the VA in the past four years, while the VA’s $200 billion budget has doubled in the past decade.

Wilkie has since declared the VA to be making “groundbreaking progress,” on accountability, transparency and efficiency while touting the MISSION Act.

"Under President Trump, VA has done more in the last two years than it has in decades in reforming the department and improving care and benefits for our nation’s heroes," he said in a Fox News op-ed in January, before saying there was still work to be done on issues such as suicide prevention.

Ocasio-Cortez’s comments are part of an increasing ideological shift among Democrats questioning the benefits of private health care -- with many now pushing single-payer forms of government-run health care for the population at large.

2020 hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., this month unveiled his latest Medicare-for-all plan, signed onto by a number of other 2020 hopefuls.

That plan would largely abolish private insurance plans -- with Sanders suggesting insurers could be reduced to cosmetic surgery.

"Under Medicare for All, we cover all basic health care needs, so they're not going to be there to do that."

"I suppose if you want to make yourself look a bit more beautiful, you want to work on that nose, your ears."

"They can do that," he said.

Fox News’ Barnini Chakraborty contributed to this report.

Adam Shaw is a reporter covering U.S. and European politics for Fox News.

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Re: VETERAN'S RELATED ISSUES

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CNN

"Top US Navy SEAL tells commanders in light of misconduct: 'We have a problem'"


By Barbara Starr, CNN Pentagon Correspondent

2 AUGUST 2019

The top US Navy SEAL recently sent a blistering letter to the force, writing in boldface type, "We have a problem," following several high profile incidents of alleged misbehavior by the US Navy's elite service members, CNN has learned.

Rear Adm. Collin Green has given commanders until August 7 to detail the problems they see and provide recommendations on how they will ensure troops are engaging in ethical and professional behavior.

The letter -- dated July 25 and exclusively obtained by CNN -- comes in the wake of several high profile incidents of alleged misbehavior by SEALs.

"I don't know yet if we have a culture problem, I do know that we have a good order and discipline problem that must be addressed immediately," Green said.

Although Green, commander of Naval Special Warfare Command, does not mention specific incidents, the letter comes on the heels of an entire SEAL team being sent home from Iraq following allegations of sexual assault and drinking alcohol during their down time -- which is against regulations.

Another case involved an internal Navy investigation that found members of SEAL Team 10 allegedly abused cocaine and other illicit substances while they were stationed in Virginia last year.

The members were subsequently disciplined.

Green said in the letter that "some of our subordinate formations have failed to maintain good order and discipline and as a result and for good reason," the culture of the Navy's special operations forces "is being questioned."

Concerns raised at highest levels of the Pentagon

The incidents are rising to the highest levels of the Pentagon.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper earlier this week spoke to the head of all special operations forces, Gen. Richard Clarke, about recent ethics violations in the military and how they are being addressed.

"They discussed some of the recent cases that have emerged in the special operations community."

"They share the concerns," Jonathan Hoffman, Esper's spokesman told CNN.

Clarke is expected to also send his own memo to the force on ethics and call for a renewed focus on ensuring all special operations forces behave appropriately.

CNN has spoken to several military officials who say they don't believe there has necessarily been an increase in incidents of bad behavior, but they have to ensure none of the incidents are tolerated even if they don't rise to the level of full criminal investigations.

After the most recent series of misconduct cases, including alleged illegal activity by two Navy SEALS teams, the Navy leadership at the Pentagon above the SEALs may step in and issue new directives on compliance with ethics standards, even as the SEALs potentially face criminal military charges, according to a senior Navy official.

"There is a cultural and ethics issue in the SEAL community," the senior Navy official told CNN.

"Senior Navy leaders are keenly interested in how this problem is going to be addressed."


New actions could involve Navy Secretary Richard Spencer and the Chief of Naval Operations.

Congress is also beginning to question how the US military is dealing with these incidents.

The admiral picked to come in as the next Chief of Naval Operations was asked about this at his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday.

"It's especially important in combat that those values be maintained for all the reasons that we understand so well," Vice Adm. Michael Gilday told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

He said he was committed to "getting a better understanding of those issues, to holding people accountable if and where they need to be held accountable, to getting after the root causes and ensure that if there is a problem with the culture with the community, that that is addressed very, very quickly and very firmly."

In early July, a military court decided Navy SEAL team leader Eddie Gallagher, a one-time member of SEAL Team 7, would be demoted in rank and have his pay reduced for posing for a photo with a dead ISIS prisoner while he was serving in Iraq.

Another SEAL was sentenced in June for his role in the 2017 death of Army Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar, a Green Beret, in Bamako, Mali.

Systemic problems?

Gilday promised the committee that if he is confirmed he will take a "deeper look" at the SEAL community.

Some military officials question if these incidents, such as Gallagher's case, are happening because of the pressures special operations forces have been under for the last nearly two decades with constant deployments on the most dangerous missions.

But many, like David Lapan, a retired Marine colonel, reject that notion.

"Yes, they are being asked to go out and kill as part of their jobs but they are supposed to be able to do it with discipline and do it in ways that don't allow them to lose their bearing and lose their discipline," Lapan said.


Whether it is a systemic problem or not, the community appears to be taking the misconduct seriously.

"These ethical breaches effect the entire command and effect the credibility of our entire force," said US Special Operations Command Chief Master Sgt. Greg Smith.

There are also growing concerns in the Marine Corps of troops adhering to ethics and cultural standards.

Recently 18 Marines and one sailor were arrested at Camp Pendleton, California, over allegations on human smuggling.

Gen. David Berger, the new Marine Corps. commandant, said he was "troubled by the extent to which drug abuse is a characteristic of new recruits and the fact that the vast majority of recruits require drug waivers for enlistment."


He also said over the last ten years more than 25,000 Marines were dismissed from the service for misconduct, and drug and alcohol offenses.

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Re: VETERAN'S RELATED ISSUES

Post by thelivyjr »

TULSI 2020

America —

Trump is betraying our troops.

With just one tweet he offered to place our military - my brothers in sisters in uniform - under the command of Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, the dictator of Saudi Arabia.

He tweeted: “We are locked and loaded … but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!”

Trump’s actions are a gross betrayal of my brothers and sisters in uniform, the American people, and our Constitution.

We are not Trump’s prostitutes, and we will not be pimped out to war for the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.

Make no mistake: President Trump is making our country Saudi Arabia’s b*tch — this is not “America First.”

His willingness to pimp out our military to the highest foreign bidder is a betrayal of my proud brothers and sisters in uniform.

Servicemen and women who are ready to put our lives on the line for our country — not for the Islamist dictator of Saudi Arabia.

President Trump has shown time and time again that he is unfit to serve as our Commander in Chief.

Our country, my brothers and sisters in uniform, our children - we deserve a Commander in Chief who will protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.

Who will honor our service members and put the wellbeing of our people and our country above all else.

For years I’ve been calling out Presidents from both political parties, the foreign policy establishment and the military industrial complex, for perpetuating wasteful regime change wars.

These wars cost American lives, trillions of taxpayer dollars, pain and suffering in the countries where we wage them, all while undermining our national security.

These wars are not only stupid, they’re unconstitutional.

I introduced the bipartisan No More Presidential Wars Act because -- and this might come as news to President Trump -- the President does not have the power under the United States Constitution to declare war.

Not on Iran, not on North Korea, and definitely not on behalf of Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia.

Our country deserves a Commander in Chief who both understands and respects the rule of law.

One who will never stop calling out the warmongers in both parties, and who will end unconstitutional wars.

One who will honor those who are willing to put their lives on the line for our country by only sending them on missions worthy of their great sacrifice.

For the love of our country,

Tulsi Gabbard
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Re: VETERAN'S RELATED ISSUES

Post by thelivyjr »

THE WASHINGTON POST

"U.S. tank crew receives medals for valor 74 years after gripping duel"


Fredrick Kunkle

19 SEPTEMBER 2019

The German Panther tank lay in ambush in the debris-filled streets of Cologne in the waning days of World War II, an American tank in its sights just 70 yards away.

As the Americans rolled forward in challenge, Cpl. Clarence Smoyer, the tank’s gunner, spotted the enemy’s gun barrel pointed his way the instant before he pulled the trigger.

The shell slammed into the German tank, followed by two more quick rounds in a remarkable one-on-one battle that was immortalized on film by an Army cameraman.


The duel knocked out the Panther, achieved a measure of revenge for the deaths of other U.S. soldiers in another tank minutes earlier and brought the end of World War II a little bit closer.

On Wednesday, Smoyer, the last living member of the American tank crew, collected a Bronze Star for his heroism that day.

Three more Bronze Stars were awarded posthumously to fellow crew members in his Pershing tank during a ceremony at the National World War II Memorial.

An Army color guard saluted, a military band played and an immaculate Sherman tank was rolled onto the Mall for good measure.

The medals — which already had been given to the Pershing’s commander and the cameraman who risked his life to get the battle footage — now make the Pershing’s men perhaps one of the most decorated tank crews of the war.

The belated citations honor their teamwork during the battle on March 6, 1945, and reflect the perseverance of author Adam Makos, who tells the crew’s story in his book “Spearhead.”

The medals are perhaps a testament, too, to the enduring power of the moving image.

Besides getting the tank duel on film, Sgt. Jim Bates, a cameraman with the 165th Photo Signal Co., captured the moment a few minutes earlier when the same Panther had hit a Sherman tank a few blocks away and its mortally wounded commander bailed from the hatch.

After the battle was over, Bates also recorded a portrait of the victorious American crew, including Smoyer, who wore a shy smile.

Smoyer, 96 now and walking gingerly with a cane, acknowledged the honors with the same smile and a shaky salute.

“It was just a great, great honor and a very big surprise,” Smoyer said afterward of his medal.

“I’m wearing it for all those who lost their lives.”

His Bronze Star and the ceremony had been kept a secret worthy of D-Day among friends and family until Smoyer was dropped off at the memorial on the way to what he thought would be a book signing.

A crowd of perhaps 100 people was waiting, including graying war buddies, his tank crew’s family members, some military brass and Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.), who had championed the medals under a law that allows for belated nominations.

Other crew members honored Wednesday included Pvt. Homer L. Davis of Morehead, Ky., the Pershing’s bow gunner; Pfc. John DeRiggi of Scranton, Pa., whose duty was to load the tank’s gun; and Tech. Cpl. William McVey of Jackson, Mich., the tank’s driver.

The tank’s commander, Staff Sgt. Robert Earley, received his Bronze Star soon after the battle.

John DeRiggi, 66, who accepted the Bronze Star on behalf of his late father, said his father seldom discussed his wartime experience and its lingering effects on him until shortly before his death at the age of 83 in 2005.

“I’m just so proud of him,” DeRiggi said.

“My father actually suffered quite a bit."

"Part of his face was actually ripped up by shrapnel, and some of it they couldn’t get out [because] it was too close to his eye."

"So he lived without complaining but had some issues after the war."

"He was just always my hero.”

Makos tracked down Smoyer after a college friend, Peter Semanoff, had suggested looking into his story.

Semanoff had grown up in Smoyer’s hometown and heard tales of the soft-spoken gunner’s bravery.

On Wednesday, Semanoff, now an Army major, pinned the Bronze Star, along with its “V” for valor, to Smoyer’s jacket.

Makos, the ceremony’s emcee, drew on his book to recount the dramatic battle for what was then Germany’s fourth-largest city and a key gateway to the Rhine River.

Many German soldiers, sensing that the war had been lost, surrendered without a fight.

But others were willing to fight to the death, including the crew of the Panther that was lurking in a street near the city’s Gothic cathedral as a line of American tanks approached.

When 2nd Lt. Karl Kellner, finding his way blocked by debris, halted his Sherman tank within the Panther’s range, the Germans opened fire.

The shell ripped into the Sherman, killing two crew members and shearing off Kellner’s left leg.

Kellner tumbled out of the hatch.

Other soldiers rushed to help, including Sgt. Andy Rooney, a Stars and Stripes reporter who went on to become a well-known and irascible commentator for CBS News.

The soldiers tried to save Kellner’s life using a tourniquet from a shirt sleeve but without success.

Smoyer’s crew, hearing the radio traffic about the clash, knew that it fell to them to try to knock out the Panther, Makos said.

Their Pershing tank, a model recently introduced to the battlefield, was better armed than the Shermans.

Earley, the commander, scouted the Panther on foot, with the cameraman’s help, before they rolled forward into combat.

“He’s just sitting there like he owns the place,” Earley told Smoyer, according to Makos’s book.

Smoyer swung the 15-inch gun into position.

Makos said Smoyer knew the first shot mattered most.

If he missed, his fellow crew members — men he regarded as family — might die.

He often psyched himself up, saying to himself, “Don’t miss, don’t miss.”

As McVey goosed the engine, the tank rolled forward and Smoyer let loose.

What he did not know — and Makos learned later — was they also had a bit of luck on their side: For an instant, the Panther’s commander mistook the new American tank for one of his own, and his moment’s hesi­ta­tion proved costly.

“That was close,” Smoyer was quoted as saying.

Joe Caserta, an attendee Wednesday who had been inside another tank that day 74 years ago, said he was glad Smoyer and the others received their medals.

He also recalled what it was like to stifle one’s fears whenever he climbed into a tank and jumped off into battle.

“Once we jumped off, you were scared and you wondered whether you were going to make it another day,” said Caserta, 97, of Ocean City, N.J.

“But once you’re in battle, the fear leaves you for a while, and you don’t realize it until you made it back.”

fredrick.kunkle@washpost.com

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Re: VETERAN'S RELATED ISSUES

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THE WASHINGTON POST

"Pentagon chief asks for Navy secretary’s resignation over private proposal in Navy SEAL’s case"


Ashley Parker, Dan Lamothe

24 NOVEMBER 2019

Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper asked for the resignation of Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer on Sunday after losing confidence in him over his handling of the case of a Navy SEAL accused of war crimes in Iraq, the Pentagon said.

Spencer’s resignation came in the wake of the controversial case of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who was accused of war crimes on a 2017 deployment.

He was acquitted of murder but convicted in July of posing with the corpse of a captive.

Esper asked for Spencer’s resignation after learning that he had privately proposed to White House officials that if they did not interfere with proceedings against Gallagher, then Spencer would ensure that Gallagher was able to retire as a Navy SEAL, with his Trident insignia.

Spencer’s private proposal to the White House — which he did not share with Esper over the course of several conversations about the matter — contradicted his public position on the Gallagher case, chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement.

Esper said in the statement that he was “deeply troubled by this conduct.”

“Unfortunately, as a result I have determined that Secretary Spencer no longer has my confidence to continue in his position," Esper said.

"I wish Richard well.”

Spencer’s spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Esper and Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, learned of Spencer’s private offer to the White House when they spoke with President Trump on Friday, Hoffman said.

Spencer’s proposal to the White House came after Trump intervened in the cases of Gallagher and two soldiers on Nov. 15.

Countering Pentagon recommendations, the president issued pardons to Army Maj. Mathew Golsteyn, who faced a murder trial next year, and former 1st Lt. Clint Lorance, who was convicted in 2013 in the murder of two unarmed men in Afghanistan.


Trump reinstated Gallagher’s rank after the SEAL was demoted as punishment for posing for the photograph with the corpse.

As a result of the actions over the last few days, Hoffman said, Esper has decided to let Gallagher keep it.

Spencer made his private pitch to the White House in conversations before a Thursday tweet by Trump, in which the president publicly pushed back against the Navy launching a review that could have stripped Gallagher of his Navy SEAL status.

“The Navy will NOT be taking away Warfighter and Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher’s Trident Pin,” Trump wrote.

“This case was handled very badly from the beginning."

"Get back to business!”

Hoffman said that Esper has suggested to Trump that Kenneth Braithwaite, a retired Navy rear admiral who is currently the U.S. ambassador to Norway, be considered as the next Navy secretary.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/pentag ... li=BBnb7Kz
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Re: VETERAN'S RELATED ISSUES

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NBC NEWS

"'They committed treason': Pelosi pushes for removal of Confederate statues, military base names"


By Rebecca Shabad

June 11, 2020, 12:55 PM EDT / Updated June 11, 2020, 2:58 PM EDT

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Thursday that the names of Confederate leaders must be removed from American military bases and the statues of these men must be taken out of the U.S. Capitol.

"These names have to go from these bases and these statues have to go from the Capitol," Pelosi told reporters at her weekly press conference.


"The American people know these names have to go."

"These names are white supremacists that said terrible things about our country,” she said.

“Some of these names were given to these bases."

"You listen to who they are and what they said and then you have the president make a case as to why a base should be named for them."

"He seems to be the only person left who doesn't get it.”

President Donald Trump has rejected calls to remove Confederate statues and monuments from public spaces and on Wednesday, said he would “not even consider” renaming Army bases that honor Confederate leaders who fought to protect slavery and uphold white supremacy.

On Wednesday, the speaker wrote a letter to the Joint Committee on the Library, which oversees statues in the U.S. Capitol, calling for the removal of Confederate statues from the building because they are a "grotesque affront" to American ideals and "pay homage to hate, not heritage."

Pelosi had pushed, unsuccessfully, for the removal of Confederate statues from the Capitol after the events in Charlottesville in 2017, calling on then-Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to join Democrats in demanding their immediate removal.

She said Thursday that "public sentiment is everything" and now, "the timing might be just right" to remove these artifacts as the nation confronts systemic racism.

"They committed treason against the United States," Pelosi said of Jefferson Davis and Alexander, the president and vice president of the Confederate states respectively.

Pelosi said that, during the period when she first served as the House speaker, she "did do what I had the authority to do, which was relegate Robert E. Lee to the crypt," referring to a circular area on the first floor of the Capitol where there are 40 exposed columns that support the Capitol Rotunda above.

Lee served as general of the Confederate army during the Civil War.

Several House Democrats have proposed legislation, she said, that would get rid of 11 Confederate statues in the Capitol that Pelosi said "we have our eye on."

She said legislation or committee action may be required to remove them.

"Believe me, if I had more authority, you'd have fewer of these statues around," she said.

Asked if she has the power to move the statues of Davis and Stevens from Statuary Hall into dark corners of the Capitol, Pelosi said, "We’ll see."

"You start with a feather...let’s see how we can have consensus on it."

Rebecca Shabad

Rebecca Shabad is a congressional reporter for NBC News, based in Washington.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congre ... s-n1229971
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Re: VETERAN'S RELATED ISSUES

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POPE FIELD

"Fort Bragg celebrates Women’s Equality Day"


By Marvin Krause, 43rd Airlift Group

Published August 31, 2015

FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- Team Bragg members celebrated Women's Equality Day Aug. 26 with a combined yoga exercise at the Polo Field and an observance at the Conference and Catering Center hosted by the 43rd Airlift Group and Team Bragg's Equal Opportunity Office.

The celebration marked the 95th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

Women's Equality Day is a symbol of women's continued fight for equal rights and that the United States commends and supports them.

Today, it is celebrated in honor of modern day women's rights to be seen as equals to men.


During the observance, women's suffrage movement actors, dressed in traditional period clothing, role-played with the event's attendees, answering questions and explaining what they accomplished for women's equality.

Guest speaker Kady-Ann Davy, Fayetteville mayor pro tem, shared her experience with the progress made due to the suffrage movement and the progress still needed in the future.

"America has shown that no step forward for women's equality has been easy," Davy said.

"From the women's right to own their own property, the women's right to receive higher education and the continued struggle for women's rights for equal pay, these and many others are the reason why the women's suffrage movement carries on today."

"Because of women's rights, equality now continues to replay itself."

Davy, a Kingston, Jamaica native, moved to the United States when she was 4 years old and made Fayetteville her home in 2005, becoming actively engaged in city and community affairs.

She was elected as the District 2 representative to the Fayetteville City Council in 2009 and in 2013, she was unanimously elected as mayor pro tem of Fayetteville.

She is the youngest and the first African American woman in this position.

"Today, we all honor and remember the hard work and the sacrifices that women have made, the sacrifices that their husbands have made, the sacrifices that brings us here to continue to celebrate women's equality," Davy said.

"We all continue to look at the charge."

"What is a charge?"

"Realizing that there's women around the world that still don't have the right to vote."

Davy challenged Soldiers and Airmen in attendance to continue advancing the women's rights movement.

"I know that whatever we do, we're writing a piece of history today," Davy said.

"Do you now see the need for the fight to continue?"

"The fight to continue not only for yourself but for your daughters, your sisters, your grandchildren."

"What does the future hold?"

"We're going to continue to lead the work on voting."

"It's another attack in many opportunities throughout the states right now."

"We're going to continue the need to work on advancements in areas of business, medicine, politics, sports, education, management, entertainment and in the home."

"We must continue to educate, get engaged and get involved so we can be a part of the solution."

"This is an important day and I thank you all for this opportunity," Davy said.

"This opportunity to shine light on the legacy, our history, our heroes, our she-roes, right here in our community--we have many of them."

"Don't let the movement stop here."

https://www.pope.af.mil/News/Article-Di ... ality-day/
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