Something I forgot to mention, the reason I was using the VA at all, my insurance (BC/BS Carefirst) as decided that ANYTHING that gets submitted with my name attached to it is a previously existing condition that is the Army's fault, and so they won't pay for anything I have to be seen for.
Great people. I hate insurance. -----Original Message----- From: Heald, Timothy J Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2007 5:03 PM To: CF-Community Subject: RE: Is anyone else as disapointed as me with the Army? I've got a good buddy in Walter Reed right now. That place is a mess, but I think it's a bit presumptuous to blame administrators for that. It's very simple, neither the Army nor the VA have the funds to provide for the returning wounded, not to mention all the mental health requirements they are finding they have. I can tell you I walked out of the VA hospital rather than be seen there, after several trips and a short stay there, just this week. We (vets) have to basically run a gauntlet in order to even be seen, and after you do all the paper work your level of service is far less than what I had come to expect when I was on active duty, much less as a civilian. I've paid hundreds of dollars a month for insurance since I returned, because I know how overworked the VA system is. I figured (while I could) that the VA should be left for wounded and disabled soldiers. I went in to be treated for a service connected illness, and walked out because they couldn't help me. I think it probably also has something to do with the fact that the Army is closing down Walter Reed. Soon all the patients seen at Walter Reed are going to be spread out between Bethesda Naval and Ft. Belvoir. I can't even begin to imagine what that's going to do to the medical services at those establishments. While I was in Afghanistan my family was being treated through Ft. Belvoir. My wife was never able to get my son into a child psychiatrist or psychologist (he has some issues and is on some meds). At that point she took him into a private doctor, cost us 300 a month, while I was making the least amount of money I had made in 5 or 6 years (look up an E-4s pay sometimes, I have a wife and two kids). Basically it boils down to another generation of soldiers being left behind. We'll have the whole stigma of being a war on terror soldier as did the Vietnam vets. They want us to kill and die, but they don't want to pay the price for it. I mean, if you look at how the various programs (medical, educational) are set up and administered it's near impossible for vets to actually use many of their benefits. You have to jump through so many hoops that a lot of vets just give up. I tried to sign up for some courses at Strayer about two months ago, first time I ever tried to use my GI bill. Funny thing, the Army doesn't pay for you to go to school; they send a stipend after you have paid for the school. How many young soldiers do you know that can afford to drop 10-20 grand then get paid back a little each month? I can tell you I don't know too many. Any way, I'm going to go see my boy at Walter Reed tonight. He had his foot blown off, his third wound within a month. They are operating today to remove the external metal crap that was holding his foot and leg together. It scares the shit out of me to think what is going to become of him once his medical boards are done. -- Timothy Heald Senior Developer/Architect HR/EX/SDD, SA-1, H808F Desk: 202-663-2752 Fax: 202-261-8299 Cell: 703-300-3911 -----Original Message----- From: Jerry Johnson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2007 4:43 PM To: CF-Community Subject: Is anyone else as disapointed as me with the Army? I thought that maybe, just maybe, the military would be less self-serving, less hypocritical, less political, less worried about the top brass than the guys in the trenches. After Abu Ghraib, I was uncertain. After this Walter Reed debacle, I can see I was totally wrong, and they are as cowardly and full of shit as anyone else I can think of. So, they today fired the guy in charge of Walter Reed, who has been in place since August. They have replaced him with the guy that was in charge of Walter Reed BEFORE THIS GUY. You know, they guy who was in charge in July, and in June, and for months before that. The same guy that not only _let_ the situation get this bad, but turned over the mess to the next guy, and who has now hung him out to dry. Am I missing something? Is this guy not the biggest a-hole in the entire military (Kiley)? (Except, of course, for the head of the VA, but that is another rant, and he is not in the military). Someone please tell me I have this all wrong. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Create Web Applications With ColdFusion MX7 & Flex 2. Build powerful, scalable RIAs. Free Trial http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/ Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:229268 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
