Thursday, December 17, 2020

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American Legion - News Clips 12.17.20

Marine Corps League Yankee Detachment #255  December 17, 2020    No comments

Due to current weather conditions (19 inches of snow) the Troy office will be closed today. I will be working from home if you need assistance feel free to email me.
 
 
    " Pro Deo et Patria "
        James W. Casey
              Adjutant
      American Legion
Department of New York
 
 
 
Good morning, Legionnaires and veterans’ advocates, it’s Thursday, December 17, 2020, which is National Maple Syrup Day, Pan American Aviation Day, and Wright Brothers Day. 
Today in history: 
  • 1903: Near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first successful flight in history of a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft. Orville piloted the gasoline-powered, propeller-driven biplane, which stayed aloft for 12 seconds and covered 120 feet on its inaugural flight. 
 
  • On December 17, 1963, one of the first major pieces of environmental legislation in the United States becomes law. The Clean Air Act empowers federal and state agencies to research and regulate air pollution, marking a major expansion of government efforts to fight back against the damage being done to the climate. 

     
  • 1944: During World War II, U.S. Major General Henry C. Pratt issues Public Proclamation No. 21, declaring that, effective January 2, 1945, Japanese American “evacuees” from the West Coast could return to their homes. 

     
  • On December 17, 1777, the French foreign minister, Charles Gravier, count of Vergennes, officially acknowledges the United States as an independent nation. News of the Continental Army’s overwhelming victory against the British General John Burgoyne at Saratoga gave Benjamin Franklin new leverage in his efforts to rally French support for the American rebels. Although the victory occurred in October, news did not reach France until December 4th. 
 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS: 
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By STEVE BEYNON | STARS AND STRIPES | Published: December 16, 2020 
WASHINGTON -- Several major veterans organizations on Wednesday called on President Donald Trump to fire Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie after a federal watchdog report found he and his senior staff mishandled a congressional aide’s claim that she was sexually assaulted at a VA hospital. 
“Our organizations have concluded that as a result of the secretary’s personal actions in this matter, he no longer has the trust or confidence of America’s veterans and should be removed,” according to a letter from the veterans groups sent to Trump. “This is a tremendous breach of trust among veterans and Secretary Wilkie must be held accountable. His actions not only threaten to deter veterans from seeking care at VA, but also undermine the efforts of VA staff who have been working to bring an end to sexual harassment throughout the department.” 
The letter was signed by The American Legion, AMVETS, Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Vietnam Veterans of America. 
An investigation by the VA inspector general found Wilkie and senior VA officials ignored problems of sexual harassment at the Washington DC VA Medical Center and “engaged in confrontational messaging” as they tried to discredit the staffer’s credibility by falsely characterizing her complaint as “unsubstantiated.” The staffer, Andrea Goldstein, is an officer in the Navy Reserve and is an adviser on female veterans’ issues for the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. 
“While this troubling report illustrates that several senior VA staff members played a role in the mishandling of this case, the findings make clear that the secretary himself established a defensive posture and made decisions to personally disparage the veteran and circumvent the subsequent [inspector general] investigation,” the letter reads. 
The letter seeking Wilkie’s termination follows many veteran organizations in the last several days calling for Wilkie to resign. 
The White House declined Wednesday to comment on the letter. 
Christina Noel, the VA press secretary, said Wilkie will "continue to lead the department." 
“The tone set by Secretary Wilkie was at minimum unprofessional and at worst provided the basis for senior officials to put out information to national reporters to question the credibility and background of the veteran who filed the sexual assault complaint,” Inspector General Michael Missal concluded in the report. 
Wilkie responded to the report by saying it was politically motivated and all the allegations were false. 
In September 2019, Goldstein said she was assaulted in the cafeteria of the VA hospital in Washington, D.C. A male contractor for the VA slammed his body against hers and made sexually suggestive comments, she said. 
No charges were filed, partly because security cameras did not capture the attack, according to a January report from VA’s inspector general. However, the report did not dismiss Goldstein’s claim and it spurred a public confrontation between VA officials and House Democrats. 
The letter follows a growing chorus of veteran organizations and more than 20 Democratic lawmakers calling for Wilkie to be removed from office, about a month before he is scheduled to leave the job. 
President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn in Jan. 20 and he has tapped Denis McDonough to succeed Wilkie. 
“Secretary Wilkie has not only been derelict in his duty to combat sexual harassment, but he has been complicit in the continuation of a VA culture that tolerates this epidemic,” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Saturday in a statement. “He has lost the trust and confidence to serve, and he must immediately resign.” 
 
Leo Shane III | 14 hours ago 
House lawmakers on Wednesday finalized a massive, sweeping veterans policy measure which includes new protections for student veterans, new aid for veterans hurt by the ongoing pandemic and long sought-after improvements to VA services aimed at women veterans. 
The 337-page bill — cobbled together in recent months from dozens of smaller reform measures — easily passed the chamber by a voice vote on Wednesday afternoon. It was advanced by the Senate one week ago without any objections, and now heads to the White House for President Donald Trump’s final signature. 
Lawmakers said the legislation was sorely needed in light of the pressures caused by the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. 
“I have seen veterans in my district lining up for food, heard from homeless and housing insecure veterans who couldn’t access desperately-needed resources, and met with veterans who struggled to start new careers despite services that should’ve been there for them,” said bill sponsor Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif. and chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee’s panel on economic opportunity. 
“That’s unacceptable, and we must do more to help get them back on their feet across the country.” 
The bill — named for former Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Johnny Isakson and retiring House Veterans’ Affairs Committee ranking member Phil Roe, R-Tenn. — is also the culmination of several years of lobbying by veterans advocates on a host of issues. 
Some provisions are aimed simply at creating better oversight of hot-button issues in the Department of Veterans Affairs. New studies are mandated on toxic exposure issues, support services for homeless women veterans, veterans job licensing programs and department health care shortcomings. 
But others require near-term changes to VA operations and policies, and could have a far-reaching impact on veterans in the months to come. 
Deborah Sampson Act 
One of the most notable sections of the bill is the Deborah Sampson Act, legislation pending for four years in Congress which would enact a series of reforms aimed at improving services for women veterans across the department. 
It includes $20 million for retrofitting health care facilities “to make it safer and easier for women veterans to get care.” Many advocates say VA hospitals lack basic facilities for women such as private examination areas, maternity rooms and female-specific equipment. 
“Although positive strides have been made in recent years, there continue to be large gaps in care for women veterans in our VA healthcare system,” said Jeremy Butler, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “The passage of [this bill] takes a significant leap in providing the equal level of care and resources that the women who chose to serve this country rightly deserve.” 
It would mandate an Office of Women’s Health within the Veterans Health Administration headed by a senior VA official to oversee all women’s health programs. Department leaders would also be required to establish care standards at all medical centers to ensure that facilities are inspected and improvements are made to benefit female patients. 
The bill mandates that every VA facility have at least one women’s health primary care provider and authorize a new $1 million annual program for a women veterans health care residency program. 
And the measure would expand military sexual trauma counseling at VA to former members of the National Guard and reserves, who are eligible now only if they are currently serving. 
Department leaders would also be required to create “an anti-harassment and anti-sexual assault policy” and designate officials to take responsibility for any related complaints. 
The provision comes as VA leadership was chastised by the department inspector general for working to discredit a House staffer who reported a sexual assault at the Washington, D.C. VA Medical Center in September 2019. At least 21 members of Congress (all Democrats) have called for VA Secretary Robert Wilkie to resign in reaction to the report. 
Education reforms 
A large section of the bill deals with the effects of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic on student veterans. The measure extends emergency authorities for VA to ensure that changes in class schedules and locations related to the coronavirus outbreak do not reduce payouts for any veterans currently receiving GI Bill benefits. 
It would also ensure that students will not lose benefits or eligibility if their schools close or suspend classes due to coronavirus concerns. Students who withdraw from a school for pandemic-related reasons can also retain their remaining months of GI Bill eligibility. 
And the measure waives time limits for Montgomery GI Bill and Veteran Readiness and Employment benefits, to ensure they do not lapse while pandemic restrictions remain in place. 
Other education issues covered in the bill extend beyond the immediate education concerns. 
The measure would limit deceptive advertising practices aimed at student veterans and penalize schools found violating those rules. It would create an eligibility review for schools facing financial penalties or potential closures. 
And students whose schools are closed or lose eligibility could see their GI Bill benefits fully restored under the measure, in an effort to keep education officials’ mistakes from punishing student veterans. 
“This landmark legislation will significantly weed out predatory colleges that seek to take advantage of veterans,” said Carrie Wofford, president of Veterans Education Success. She praised lawmakers for “stepping up to protect veterans and their hard-earned GI Bill from waste, fraud, and abuse.” 
The measure would also completely phase out the Montgomery GI Bill program by 2030. That benefit has largely been overtaken by the more generous post-9/11 GI Bill. 
Other provisions 
Lawmakers included several provisions related to job retraining programs. One would triple the available funding for the VET TEC Program, aimed at helping transitioning servicemembers gain technology skills, from $15 million annually to $45 million. 
Another initiative would create new VA grants for organizations that specialize in providing transition services for troops or spouses. Those services include resume assistance, interview training, job recruitment work and other related services. That program will be coordinated with the Department of Labor. 
Labor officials will also work with VA and Defense Department leaders on a comprehensive new study examining the military’s Transition Assistance Program, to find potential challenges and improvements. 
The measure provides new financial assistance programs for homeless veterans, including new payouts to individuals dealing with housing support related to pandemic complications. 
And it would create a new VA Advisory Committee on Tribal and Indian Affairs to advise department leaders on matters relating Native American veterans. 
For surviving spouses receiving dependency indemnity compensation benefits, the new bill will lower the age that those individuals can remarry without incurring penalties from 57 to 55. 
Trump is expected to sign the bill into law before the end of the month. 
 
Jessie Bur | 13 hours ago 
Employees across various Department of Veterans Affairs facilities are being kept out of the loop as their leaders make plans to address COVID-19 needs and staffing challenges, American Federation of Government Employees officials said on a Dec. 16 press call. 
“The leadership keeps the union out of all decisions, no pre-decisional [consultation] at all. We don’t know how many masks we have; we do not know the amount of COVID [positive] employees running around,” said Regina Smith, president of AFGE Local 424 at the Baltimore VAMC. 
That lack of planning involvement has become especially relevant as VA medical centers begin to roll out COVID vaccinations for their employees. 
According to Barbara Galle, president of AFGE Local 3669 at VAMC Minneapolis, her facility required employees to reserve a time slot and show up at a separate part of the facility at their designated time. This could cause some nurses to miss their appointments, because they can’t leave their patients when their time slot comes up, forcing them to be placed further down the wait list for a vaccine. 
“What we would like to see is that they go to the floors and the areas to give the vaccines, the reason being then you’re not taking away from patient care, you’re not expecting staff to leave a patient so that they don’t miss their opportunity to get a vaccination and you have staff around to monitor for the 15 minutes required after the vaccination. But once again AFGE is not allowed to provide any input into this,” said Galle, describing the union as being “shut out” of essential decisions. 
A VA spokesperson said that the agency has “put in place rigorous safety measures at all of its facilities, including employee and veteran COVID-19 screening, physical distancing and appropriate personal protective equipment such as face coverings,” and “employees exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms are immediately isolated to prevent potential spread to others,” though union officials said that they have seen less than adequate cleaning and employees required to continue working while awaiting COVID test results. 
Galle, Smith and others said that employees at their facilities have struggled or in some cases failed to obtain the necessary personal protective equipment, like N95 masks and face shields, and the union is not kept apace of PPE stockpiles. 
Union officials said that the pandemic has also exacerbated staffing shortages at many facilities, with frontline staff required to put in overtime to cover the necessary shifts. 
“We’ve heard from VA central office that they’ve hired these 10,000 employees. In Minneapolis, the positions that are posted and the positions that they’ve hired for are management positions. There are no new frontline staff added,” said Galle. “The only new frontline staff they’ve added are temps.” 
Geddes Scott, President AFGE 1988 at St. Albans Community Living Center in New York, said that he has not been able to get access to records of who is on duty at his facility. 
“We know we’re working short; we know we don’t have all of the bodies in the building, but the agency is refusing to tell us how short we are,” said Scott. 
“But in the middle of the pandemic, the agency was able to go and contract out for over 100 nurses, over 50 environmental management service employees.” 
Those contracted employees, according to the union officials, are making higher salaries than the career VA employees and entitled to greater COVID hazard pay. 
Hazard pay has itself been a challenge across the VA, as central leadership left it up to the individual facilities to determine how it would award such pay. This led to some facilities categorizing it as a performance award, which is up to managers to file. 
According to Scott, employees that had no direct patient care work ended up getting upwards of $3,000 in awards, whereas nurses working on the front lines got $250. 
Those limited workforces are in turn having an impact on patient care, as leadership at some hospitals have altered acuity levels — the number of patients assigned to a single nurse based on their severity of needs — to make up the difference. 
Galle said that, for example, a patient that had just come out of heart surgery would usually have a one-to-one acuity level for around six hours, meaning that they needed the undivided attention of a nurse post-operation. That patient may now have their nurse looking after themselves and another patient due to short staffing. 
“The worst part is that the agency won’t even listen to our input. We represent the frontline staff, the people who are on the ground, who have been doing the job and know what they’re doing,” said Galle. 
Employees in non-medical departments of the agency are also feeling the crush, as Jim Rihel, president of AFGE 940 for the Veterans Benefits Association Philadelphia Regional Office, said that his office has reduced the amount of credit that each benefit claims case means for an employee and increased the amount of credit an employee needs to meet acceptable performance. The result is employees having to get through significantly more cases per day to meet expectations, even when they are not assigned that minimum number of cases in a day. 
“AFGE’s comments lack credibility considering that during the pandemic, VA employees have provided life-saving COVID-19 care more than 105,000 patients and tested nearly 1.1 million patients and employees for the virus, all while limiting the department’s current employee infection rate to less than one percent — much lower than other health care systems,” the VA spokesperson said. 
“Additionally, as part of VA’s COVID response, VHA has hired 65,696 employees from March 29 to Nov. 17.” 
 
Karen Jowers | 9 hours ago 
As a four-star general weeks away from retirement, Larry Spencer pulled into one of two general officer parking spaces in front of the gym at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C. As he stepped out of the car in his workout clothes, a man jumped out of his car nearby and ran to him. “He chewed me up one side and down the other because I would dare park in a general officer’s spot,” Spencer said. 
“That wasn’t the first time this had happened. So at the end of his little soliloquy, I looked him in the eye …. and said to him, ‘What makes you think I’m not a general officer?’ " said Spencer, who was the former vice chief of staff of the Air Force before he retired in 2015. 
“The ironic thing was, that gentleman was African American. We all have been conditioned with these biases that we need to understand and we need to embrace. Here was an African American who could not see someone who looked like him as a general officer.” 
Spencer spoke during the virtual launch of Blue Star Families’ Racial Equity Initiative Wednesday, aimed at improving the service experience of military families of color. He’s a member of the organization’s Racial Equity Committee, which includes high-ranking military leaders from all branches, wounded warriors, caregivers, and military spouses. Spencer said he’s been curious about the silence of military families about their experiences, whether it’s racial inequality or other issues that affect the community at large. And he’s encouraged that Blue Star Families “has stepped forward to take on that challenge.” 
The $1 million initiative will include initial steps such as research, a leadership training program to create a pipeline for the next generation of diverse leaders who want to work with private organizations supporting military families. The leadership teams of military service organizations and veteran service organizations are disproportionately populated by white people, not reflecting the diverse military family population, according to Blue Star Families. 
The committee has met regularly since summer, convened by Blue Star Families CEO Kathy Roth-Douquet, following the murder of George Floyd, to start delving into the experiences of military families of color. 
A review of current research on military families of color indicates that before COVID, 7 out of 10 Black and Hispanic/Latinx military families experienced stress due to their current financial situation. In addition, 50 percent of Black and 40 percent of Hispanic/Latinx military families reported that unemployment and underemployment is a top three contributor to financial stress. These findings were extracted from the 2019 Blue Star Families Military Family Lifestyle Survey. 
Studies conducted during the pandemic by Blue Star Families and The Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse University indicated that Black active-duty families reported more difficulty staying informed, and were less able to find information for resources. 
What drives Roth-Douquet’s work with this initiative is “to make sure that military families of color don’t feel isolated,” and feel included in their community, said retired Army Lt. Gen. Gwen Bingham, former Army staff principal for installation management, and co-chair of the committee. With frequent moves, and 70 percent of soldiers living outside the gate, it’s important for all military families to feel connected and included. If that foundation is not there, people miss out on important information about resources available to help them. 
“We need to make people of color feel included,” Bingham said, in an interview with Military Times. 
“We as a nation and a world have to grapple with the fact that racism exists…. We need to do better by our people of color to make them feel they’re welcome, included, and have a connection with the community.” 
Bingham said she believes the Blue Star initiative “has the capability of becoming a model program. 
“This will help the racial divide, and bring awareness to the talent inside the military families of color.” 
The perspectives and guidance of the Racial Equity Committee have shaped the initial steps of the initiative. Work will include conducting focus groups in 2021, looking at previous research and launching new surveys and research, to help form recommendations to improve the experiences of military families of color. 
One of the first steps is creating a leadership pipeline of training to bring more people of color into military service organizations and veteran service organizations. The leadership teams of the organizations that serve military families are disproportionately white, said Ingrid Herrera-Yee, co-chair of the committee, a military spouse, and suicide prevention expert. 
“The more we see of ourselves in leadership, the more comfort there is, and the more you feel like you belong,” Herrera-Yee said. 
This effort will help ensure the support system reflects the diversity of military families. 
That pipeline, dubbed the “DEPLOY MC” — Diversify and Expand the Pipeline of Leaders for Your Military Community — entails a fellowship program. 
Blue Star Families is looking for military spouses, veterans and adult children of veterans who may be interested in these fellowships, said Roth-Douquet. Right now there are seven fellowships funded for various areas around the country. DEPLOY Fellowship interest forms are accepted through Dec. 31; the application period is from Jan. 2 to Jan. 31; and the full-time fellowship terms run from April 1, 2021 through March 31, 2022. 
Fellows will serve for one year in chapter-based or national roles for the Blue Star Families organization. These are full-time paid fellowships where they’ll receive training in military service organization or veteran service organization leadership. 
Once they graduate from the fellowship program, there’s the potential for employment with Blue Star Families or other service organizations. 
 
The Associated Press | 12 hours ago 
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama Medal of Honor recipient Bennie G. Adkins, who died from COVID-19 earlier this year, was remembered at his funeral Wednesday both for his battlefield heroics and the work he did to help others after Vietnam. 
Adkins’ flag-draped coffin sat at the front of an Arlington National Cemetery chapel decorated with Christmastime poinsettias as Lt. Col. Michael Shellman, an Army chaplain, described the retired Army command sergeant major as a decorated veteran and “a man well-loved.” 
Special Forces Gen. John W. Brennan Jr. recalled meeting Adkins at the ceremony in 2014 where Adkins was presented with the nation’s highest military honor for heroism during the Vietnam War. Adkins ran through exploding mortar rounds to drag several troops to safety, according to his medal citation, and then exposed himself to sniper fire to carry wounded comrades to medical care. 
Adkins was “obviously courageous,” Brennan said, and he didn’t stop serving others after retiring from the Army. 
Once home, Adkins earned college degrees and taught night classes for adults seeking their high school equivalency degrees. Three years ago he established The Bennie Adkins Foundation, which has provided about 50 educational scholarships to Special Forces soldiers. 
“What he did after his career in the military is absolutely amazing,” Brennan said. 
Adkins died in April at the age of 86 after developing the illness caused by the new coronavirus. His funeral was delayed because of the pandemic, and the service from Arlington National Cemetery was shown by livestream. 
Gov. Kay Ivey ordered the lowering of flags to mark Adkins’ funeral. He was being buried beside his late wife, who died last year. 
 
 
 
     

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