Saturday, May 8, 2021

Home » » American Legion - News Clips 5.7.21

American Legion - News Clips 5.7.21

Marine Corps League Yankee Detachment #255  May 08, 2021    No comments


Good morning, Legionnaires and veterans’ advocates, today is Friday, May 7, 2021, which is Military Spouse Appreciation Day, National Barrier Awareness Day, No Pants Day, and School Lunch Hero Day. 
This weekend in American Legion history: 
May 8-10, 1919: The American Legion’s constitution is approved at the St. Louis Caucus, conducted inside the Shubert Theater. Before declining nomination to lead the new organization but serving as temporary chairman of the caucus, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., calls the session to order with a gavel made from the steamship Roosevelt’s rudder; the vessel had carried Adm. Robert Edwin Peary during his explorations of the North Pole. Roosevelt, Jr. rejects chants of “We want Teddy!” to serve as first national leader of the organization. Roosevelt, with plans to eventually run for elected office, does not want The American Legion to be politicized in any way. Former Dallas Mayor Henry D. Lindsley is instead named chairman of the St. Louis Caucus, and plans are advanced to elect a commander at the first national convention of the organization. 
By the end of the St. Louis Caucus, drafts of The American Legion preamble and constitution are approved, temporary officers chosen, a national convention site selected and the name of the organization becomes permanent. 
May 9, 1951: A 21-year-old combat veteran of the Korean War is denied admission into the Tucson, Ariz., VA Hospital because, as the director tells the media and American Legion members who take up the veteran’s cause, “no returned veteran from Korea is eligible for hospital benefits unless he has been discharged from the service because of a duty disability.” This nationally publicized story leads National Commander Erle Cocke, Jr., to call on Congress to expand VA health-care services, disability benefits and pensions to veterans of the Korean War to an equal footing as those received by World War II veterans. A joint resolution to that effect is swiftly passed and signed into law May 11, 1951. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS: 
If you wish to be removed from this email list, kindly email wproffet@legion.org with “Remove” in the subject line.  If you have received this from someone who forwarded it and would like to be added, email wproffet@legion.org.  
 
By MARK SATTER | CQ-Roll Call | Published: May 6, 2021 
WASHINGTON (Tribune News Service) — A group of House Republicans on Thursday demanded a briefing from National Archives chief David Ferriero on how he intends to eliminate a bureaucratic backlog born out of the coronavirus pandemic that could force some veterans to wait up to two years for certain benefits. 
The National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, where many of these paper records are stored, shut down in March 2020, along with many other government buildings. The building has sat empty, with employees working remotely. 
Meanwhile, records requests, most of which require someone to physically search for documents within the building, piled up. The backlog has grown to more than 499,000 requests, a spokesperson for the National Archives told Roll Call in April, and will take 18 to 24 months to clear once the center is staffed at full capacity. 
In a May 6 letter, Republicans on the House Oversight and Reform Committee and the Veterans’ Affairs Committee took issue with the NPRC’s “lack of planning” that led to the backlog, the lack of a plan to get employees back into the office and the confusion surrounding the center’s use of $15 million in emergency appropriations from Congress in December 2020. 
The records are key to unlocking veterans’ benefits such as health care, burials, home loans and even COVID-19 vaccinations. 
“Our military men and women and their families deserve far better than these delays. NRPC must clean up its act, address the backlog immediately, and give these families and Congress an explanation and timeline for fixing it,” Oversight panel ranking member James R. Comer, R-Ky., said in an email. 
Rep. Mike Bost of Illinois, ranking Republican on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, agreed. 
“Veterans need answers,” Bost said in an email. “The NPRC serves a vital function. Congress has provided the resources the NPRC needs to safely resume normal operations. It is unacceptable that we continue to receive mixed messages about when veterans will have timely access to their records. I hope Archivist Ferriero will fix this as soon as possible.” 
And this is not the first time that Congress has raised questions in an issue that is gaining traction on both sides of the aisle. 
In an April 5 letter to President Joe Biden, Reps. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, Deborah K. Ross, D-N.C., and Bost, along with 182 other lawmakers, requested a high-level intervention by the administration to address the backlog. 
At the time, a spokesperson for the National Archives said the $15 million was being used to modernize the center’s operations. That includes digitizing documents and standing up a new call center that can be staffed remotely. 
But lawmakers feel that the responses from the National Archives were inadequate. Now, House Republicans are asking for a briefing from Ferriero, and an explanation for how he intends to address the growing backlog. 
 
Leo Shane III | 18 hours ago 
Veterans Affairs officials are promising more focused initiatives to improve minority representation in department leadership positions, but outside advocates remain skeptical that the efforts can work. 
“To be honest, it’s rather difficult to fully invest in processes that have existed for some time and expect them to yield different results,” said Victor LaGroon, director of the Black Veterans Empowerment Council, said during a congressional hearing Thursday. “I think we’re absolutely right when we say that we need to put our foot on the gas and expect more and push further.” 
About 43 percent of VA employees are non-white, and about 61 percent are women, figures that lawmakers on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee said show a commitment to diversity within the department. 
However, that same mix does not hold true for senior VA posts. 
White men make up half of the department’s senior career posts despite comprising only 23 percent of the total workforce. Black women make up slightly less of the workforce (17 percent) but hold only 6 percent of those same leadership jobs. 
Lawmakers noted that data tracking LGBT individuals within senior posts at VA is incomplete and inconsistent, making tracking the progress of those groups almost impossible. 
And officials with the American Federation of Government Employees said promotion of Black employees has also remained frustratingly low in recent years. Less than 3 percent of Black applicants for management positions were promoted, lower than the rate of other applicants. 
“The VA must work harder to ensure that it’s management and senior officials look more like the veteran population and its workforce,” said Dr. Shelia Elliott, a pharmacist at the Hampton VA Medical Center and chapter president for AFGE. 
“This means, at a minimum, making sure crucial positions are filled, and that non-white applicants are given a fair chance to rise and excel.” 
Earlier this year, VA Secretary Denis McDonough ordered a full review of department hiring and employment practices to ensure “a welcoming and inclusive environment” throughout the system. 
Harvey Johnson, VA’s deputy assistant secretary for resolution management, said that work is already providing suggestions for improvement, but he also warned that putting systematic changes in place will take time. 
“It starts with good grooming,” he said. “We have to look at how we are selecting people for the senior executive candidate development program, how we are selecting them for other leadership programs. We have to look at how they are being mentored at the lower [pay] grades, because you start to see these disparities when you get to more senior posts.” 
Outside advocates said they support those moves, but also noted that work needs to turn into new policies and procedures to ensure that changes are actually implemented. 
Last month, White House officials announced plans to nominate Donald Remy as the next VA deputy secretary. If confirmed, he’ll be only the second Black man to serve in the second-highest department leadership post. No women have ever been confirmed to either of the top two VA jobs. 
Lawmakers said they are encouraged by the VA initiatives to address diversity in department leadership, but will be keeping close watch on the issue. 
“Organizational and cultural change takes years, especially for a large enterprise like VA, but it’s imperative that VA demonstrates progress in building a more diverse inclusive and equitable workplace,” said Rep Chris Pappas, D-N.H., chairman of the veterans committee’s oversight panel. “This will result in a stronger workforce, and ultimately better care for veterans.” 
 
Leo Shane III | 20 hours ago 
Faced with controversy and watchdog concerns about sexual harassment and misconduct within Veterans Affairs facilities, department officials are looking for volunteers for a new working group tasked with finding solutions how those cases are handled and how to prevent them in the first place. 
The panel, mandated by Congress as part of comprehensive VA reform legislation passed last year, comes as new department leaders have promised to address the issue, after a series of high-profile incidents suggested systemic problems with how officials handle sexual misconduct claims. 
A VA survey from 2018 found that one in four women veterans reported experiencing harassment from other veterans during visits to department health care facilities. A separate survey of federal workers found that nearly the same percentage have experienced workplace sexual harassment within VA offices. 
A Government Accountability Office review last summer found that VA leaders do not have a reliable process for collecting or reviewing those complaints, undermining their promises to address the issue. 
And last December, former VA Secretary Robert Wilkie drew widespread condemnation after an inspector general report criticized him for an “unprofessional” response to a September 2019 sexual assault report filed by a Hill staffer, who said she was physically abused during a visit to the Washington, D.C. VA Medical Center. 
Wilkie had promised an independent investigation into the incident, but investigators said he instead spearheaded an internal campaign to discredit the woman, believing her allegations to be a political stunt. 
His successor, current VA Secretary Denis McDonough, has promised a “zero-tolerance” policy on the issue. 
“Every VA patient, their families and caregivers, as well as sexual assault survivors, staff, visitors and advocates should feel safe in all VA facilities,” he said in a statement Thursday. 
“All VA entities must be free of gender-based harassment. Forming the Sexual Assault/Sexual Harassment Working Group is a critical step in making sure that happens.” 
The new working group is designed to be a step towards fulfilling that goal. Officials said they are looking for individuals “who have diverse professional and personal qualifications who are motivated to advance VA’s leadership on issues of sexual harassment and assault prevention and survivor care and support.” 
All nominations are due by June 7. The working group will serve for one year and does not include any payment or benefits. 
More information on the panel is available on the Federal Register. 
 
Robert Burns and Lolita C. Baldor, The Associated Press | 13 hours ago 
WASHINGTON — The United States has deployed a dozen additional warplanes to bolster protection of American and coalition troops making a final withdrawal from Afghanistan as Taliban insurgents step up pressure on Afghan government forces, top Pentagon officials said Thursday. 
Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said F-18 attack planes have been added to a previously announced package of air and sea power — including the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier in the North Arabian Sea and six Air Force B-52 bombers based in Qatar — that can be called upon as protection for withdrawing troops. Also part of that previously announced package are several hundred Army Rangers. 
U.S. officials said before the withdrawal began that they expected the Taliban to attempt to interfere, even as the insurgents continue pressuring government forces, especially in Helmand and Kandahar provinces in southern Afghanistan. 
“There continue to be sustained levels of violent attacks” by the Taliban against Afghan security forces, Milley said, speaking alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at a Pentagon news conference. He said there have been no attacks against U.S. or coalition forces since they began pulling out of the country on about May 1, and he described the Afghan forces as “cohesive,” even as speculation swirls around Kabul’s ability to hold off the Taliban in the months ahead. 
Both Milley and Austin, a retired Army general, are veterans of the war in Afghanistan. 
“They’re fighting for their own country now, so it’s not a foregone conclusion, in my professional military estimate, that the Taliban automatically win and Kabul falls, or any of those kinds of dire predictions,” Milley said. “That’s not a foregone conclusion. There’s a significant military capability in the Afghan government. We have to see how this plays out.” 
Milley said the Pentagon is considering options for continued support of Afghan government forces after the troop withdrawal is complete, including possibly training Afghan security forces in another country. That would be in addition to urging the Congress to authorize continued financial assistance to the Afghan forces, which has been in the range of $4 billion a year for many years, and possibly providing aircraft maintenance support remotely from another country. 
“We haven’t figured that out 100% yet,” Milley said. 
Milley said Afghanistan’s air force is central to the strategy for holding off the Taliban, but the durability of those planes is in some doubt. The U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in an April 30 report that without continued foreign contractor support, none of the Afghan air force’s airframes can be sustained as combat effective for more than a few months. 
Austin acknowledged that holding off the Taliban without American support on the ground “will be a challenge” for the Afghans. 
“We’re hopeful that the Afghan security forces will play a major role in stopping the Taliban,” Austin said. “What we’re seeing unfold is what we expected to unfold — increased pressure” on the Afghan forces. He asserted that government forces launched a counterattack this week against the Taliban in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, and that they were “performing fairly well.” 
President Joe Biden announced last month that all American troops will withdraw from Afghanistan by Sept. 11. NATO allies have said they will do the same, and troops have already begun leaving. Austin said the “drawdown is going according to plan.” 
The Pentagon has said there were about 2,500 U.S. troops there in recent months, and Milley said in an interview last weekend that the total rises to 3,300 if special operations forces are counted. Military commanders have said that additional forces will flow in temporarily to help with security and logistics for the drawdown. 
Pentagon officials have said they will do all they can to monitor terror threats and help the Afghans from other locations in the region, described as “over the horizon.” But officials have not detailed where those would be. 
Gen. Frank McKenzie, the top U.S. commander for the Middle East, has warned that Afghanistan’s military “will certainly collapse” without some continued American support once all U.S. troops are withdrawn. He has expressed concerns that Afghan forces may be unable to prevent the Taliban from taking more ground, and said the Afghans will need help and funding to maintain and fly their aircraft. 
Milley said last week that Afghan government forces face an uncertain future and, in a worst-case scenario, some “bad possible outcomes” against Taliban insurgents as the withdrawal of American and coalition troops accelerates in the coming weeks. 
On Thursday, Milley took a hopeful tone in speaking about the government forces avoiding a collapse. 
“There is 300-plus thousand (in the) Afghan army, Afghan police,” he said. “It’s their country. They’ve been leading the fight for several years now. We’ve been supporting them, for sure. But they’ve been leading the fight. And I’m a personal witness ... that the Afghan forces can fight.” 
 
 
 
     

0 comments:

Post a Comment