WASHINGTON — President Obama declared an end on Tuesday to the seven-year American combat mission in Iraq, saying that the United States has met its responsibility to that country and that it is now time to turn to pressing problems at home.

In a prime-time address from the Oval Office, Mr. Obama balanced praise for the troops who fought and died in Iraq with his conviction that getting into the conflict had been a mistake in the first place. But he also used the moment to emphasize that he sees his primary job as addressing the weak economy and other domestic issues — and to make clear that he intends to begin disengaging from the war in Afghanistan next summer.

“We have sent our young men and women to make enormous sacrifices in Iraq, and spent vast resources abroad at a time of tight budgets at home,” Mr. Obama said. “Through this remarkable chapter in the history of the United States and Iraq, we have met our responsibility. Now, it’s time to turn the page.”

Seeking to temper partisan feelings over the war on a day when Republicans pointed out that Mr. Obama had opposed the troop surge generally credited with helping to bring Iraq a measure of stability, the president offered some praise for his predecessor, George W. Bush. Mr. Obama acknowledged their disagreement over Iraq but said that no one could doubt Mr. Bush’s “support for our troops, or his love of country and commitment to our security.”

Mr. Obama spoke for about 18 minutes, saying that violence would continue in Iraq and that the United States would continue to play a key role in nurturing a stable democracy there. He celebrated America’s fighting forces as “the steel in our ship of state,” and pledged not to waver in the fight against Al Qaeda.

But he suggested that he sees his role in addressing domestic issues as dominant, saying that it would be difficult to get the economy rolling again but that doing so was “our central mission as a people, and my central responsibility as president.”

With his party facing the prospect of losing control of Congress in this fall’s elections and his own poll numbers depressed in large part because of the lackluster economy and still-high unemployment, he said the nation’s perseverance in Iraq must be matched by determination to address problems at home.

Over the last decade, “we have spent over a trillion dollars at war, often financed by borrowing from overseas,” he said. “And so at this moment, as we wind down the war in Iraq, we must tackle those challenges at home with as much energy and grit and sense of common purpose as our men and women in uniform who have served abroad.”

Mr. Obama acknowledged a war fatigue among Americans who have called into question his focus on the Afghanistan war, now approaching its 10th year. He said that American forces in Afghanistan “will be in place for a limited time” to give Afghans the chance to build their government and armed forces.

“But, as was the case in Iraq, we cannot do for Afghans what they must ultimately do for themselves,” the president said. He reiterated that next July he would begin transferring responsibility for security to Afghans, at a pace to be determined by conditions.

“But make no mistake: this transition will begin, because open-ended war serves neither our interests nor the Afghan people’s,” he said.

This was no iconic end-of-war moment with photos of soldiers kissing nurses in Times Square or victory parades down America’s Main Streets.

Instead, in the days leading to the Tuesday night deadline for the withdrawal of American combat troops, it has appeared as if administration officials and the American military were the only ones marking the end of this country’s combat foray into Iraq. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are all in Baghdad for the official ceremony on Wednesday.

The very sight of Mr. Obama addressing Americans from the Oval Office — from the same desk where Mr. Bush announced the beginning of the conflict — shows the distance traveled since the Iraq war began. On the night of March 20, 2003, when the Army’s Third Infantry Division first rolled over the border from Kuwait into Iraq, Mr. Obama was a state senator in Illinois.

Mr. Bush was at the height of his popularity, and the perception at home and in many places abroad was that America could achieve its national security goals primarily through military power. One of the biggest fears among the American troops in the convoy pouring into Iraq that night — every one of them suited in gas masks and wearing biohazard suits — was that the man they came to topple might unleash a chemical weapons attack.

Seven years and five months later, the biggest fears of American soldiers revolve around the primitive, basic, homemade bombs and old explosives in Afghanistan that were left over from the Soviet invasion. In Iraq, what was perceived as a threat from a powerful dictator, Saddam Hussein, has dissolved into the worry that as United States troops pull out they are leaving behind an unstable and weak government that could be influenced by Iran.

On Tuesday, a senior intelligence official said that Iran continues to supply militant groups in Iraq with weapons, training and equipment.

By Helene Cooper and Sheryl Gay Stolberg

NYTimes.com

WASHINGTON — Closing a divisive chapter of American history, President Barack Obama marked the end of the nation’s combat mission in Iraq on Tuesday without declaring victory, winding down the U.S. role in a war he considered a terrible mistake.

Obama’s defiant pledge to end the war helped catapult him into office. Now as commander in chief, he is intent on assuring the nation and the stretched military that all the work and bloodshed in Iraq was not in vain, declaring that because of it “America is more secure.”

Though the U.S. commitment in Iraq is winding down, as many up to 50,000 troops will stay as long as the end of next year to help train the country’s forces and operate counterterrorism missions. And Obama is sending more troops to Afghanistan, the home base of the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida terrorists, where Americans have been fighting for nearly nine years.

“It is going to be a tough slog,” Obama said of Afghanistan in remarks earlier Tuesday to soldiers at Fort Bliss, Texas. “But what I know is that after 9/11, this country was unified in saying we are not going to let something like that happen again.” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said success in Afghanistan was possible but “is not inevitable.”

Tuesday night, the president was to deliver a 15-20 minute speech in prime time from the Oval Office. His point was to mark Aug. 31, 2010, as the final day the U.S. led the war in Iraq after more than seven years.

“It’s not going to be a victory lap,” Obama said earlier in the day at Fort Bliss, a post that has lost 51 soldiers in the Iraq war and seen many more severely wounded. “It’s not going to be self-congratulatory. There’s still a lot of work that we’ve got to do to make sure that Iraq is an effective partner with us.”

In fact, Iraq is in political turmoil, its leaders unable to form a new government long after March elections that left no clear winner. In Baghdad on Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden pressed Iraqi leaders anew to break the impasse. The uncertainty has left an opening for insurgents to pound Iraqi security forces, hardly the conditions the U.S. envisioned for this transition deadline, which Obama announced 18 months ago.

Since the war began, more than 4,400 U.S. troops have been killed and almost 32,000 have been wounded. The war is one of the longest in the nation’s history, even as the one in Afghanistan continues.

Obama’s big day was defined by what it was — a turning point, a promise kept — and by what it was not.

It is not the end of the war. More U.S. troops are likely to die.

All U.S. troops are not expected to leave Iraq until the end of 2011, a final agreement that was secured before Obama took office.

“I am not saying all is, or necessarily will be, well in Iraq,” Defense Secretary Gates said Tuesday. He warned that political paralysis and sectarian violence cloud the country’s future, but he emphasized that overall violence is at its lowest level since the war began.

Obama has accelerated the end of the U.S. role in Iraq by pulling home nearly 100,000 troops.

The American public has largely moved on. The prevailing worry now is joblessness at home.

Almost forgotten are the intense passions and protests that defined the Iraq debate through much of the past decade. Or that lawmakers of both parties authorized President George W. Bush to go to war.

What emerged was not just a war but a Bush doctrine of pre-emptive force against perceived threats, one that reshaped how the world viewed the United States. In Iraq, the intelligence that made the case for war was faulty; no weapons of mass destruction were ever found.

Saddam Hussein was toppled, and Iraqis now live in greater freedom, but those were not the rationales for war. The aim was, as Bush put it in his own Oval Office address in 2003, “to defend the world from grave danger.”

Obama called the war the wrong one, a misguided conflict that inflamed anti-American sentiment. The war he owns is in Afghanistan, and he is escalating it in hopes of securing the peace and getting troops home.

The national focus has turned to that war and to the staggering economy in the U.S. In particular, weeks ahead of a vital congressional election in the U.S., Obama wants Americans to see a linkage between getting out of Iraq and investing more money at home.

A major thrust of Obama’s speech was to honor the service of U.S. troops and civilian workers in Iraq. Another was to assure Iraqis that the United States is not abandoning them.

And yet another mission is to remind the country, in Obama’s view, about where the true threats to national security lie, including in Afghanistan.

Just 38 percent of people support the war in Afghanistan, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll, and only 19 percent think things will get better in the next year. On Iraq, unsurprisingly, Obama finds more support in pulling troops home: 68 percent approve of his ending the formal combat mission.

The cost has been financial, too. Congress has allotted more than $1 trillion for both wars.

The Iraq war linked Obama and Bush before the Democrat won the White House, and has ever since. Obama never ran against Bush, but his 2008 campaign against Republican Sen. John McCain often felt that way.

Fittingly, Obama called Bush about Iraq on Tuesday, more than seven years after the former president declared that major combat operations were over. The White House said the call was private and would not say more.

By BEN FELLER (AP)

WASHINGTON – Recognizing the longstanding, integrated collaboration shared by the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense, VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki gave the keynote address Monday at the fourth annual Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Military Training Conference here.

“We–DoD and VA–simply cannot afford to be less than aggressive in our effort to identify, treat and rehabilitate TBI victims,” Shinseki told the approximately 1,000 military, VA and civilian health care workers at the conference sponsored by the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center (DVBIC).

The Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center was established by Congress in 1992. DoD and VA together offer clinical care, research and education on traumatic brain injury. DVBIC is the operational component of the Defense Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury.

In praise of the collaborative DVBIC model, Secretary Shinseki said it should be replicated for all military personnel transitioning to VA care, and not just for TBI or burn care.

“When it comes to DoD’s patients, there is a network of information and hands-on human care,” the Secretary said, “that helps a wounded warrior transition from one system to the other– from the battlefield to our polytrauma centers.”

There are DVBIC researchers assigned at each of the four VA Polytrauma Rehabilitation Centers (Tampa, Richmond, Minneapolis and Palo Alto) where they gather information regarding care of patients with TBI, analyze and translate this information into recommendations to improve care, and educate providers in implementing those improvements clinically.

DVBIC and VA have shared, and continue to collaborate, on many significant initiatives.  Recent examples include developing and implementing:

• Joint DoD/VA clinical practice guidelines for TBI;
• Materials and information for families and caregivers of Veterans with TBI;
• Integrated education and training curriculum, and joint training on TBI of VA and DoD heath care providers;
• A Congressionally-mandated 5-year pilot program to assess the effectiveness of providing assisted living services to Veterans with TBI;
• The TBI Screening tool used for all Veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan and are receiving care within VA; and
• A specialized Emerging Consciousness Care program at the four polytrauma centers to serve those Veterans with severe TBI who are also slow to recover consciousness.

VA HEALTH CARE AND BENEFITS PROVIDED FOR MANY VIETNAM VETERANS

WASHINGTON – Veterans exposed to herbicides while serving in Vietnam and other areas will have an easier path to access quality health care and qualify for disability compensation under a final regulation that will be published on August 31, 2010 in the Federal Register by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).  The new rule expands the list of health problems VA will presume to be related to Agent Orange and other herbicide exposures to add two new conditions and expand one existing category of conditions.

“Last October, based on the requirements of the Agent Orange Act of 1991 and the Institute of Medicine’s 2008 Update on Agent Orange, I determined that the evidence provided was sufficient to award presumptions of service connection for these three additional diseases,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki.  “It was the right decision, and the President and I are proud to finally provide this group of Veterans the care and benefits they have long deserved.”

The final regulation follows Shinseki’s determination to expand the list of conditions for which service connection for Vietnam Veterans is presumed. VA is adding Parkinson’s disease and ischemic heart disease and expanding chronic lymphocytic leukemia to include all chronic B cell leukemias, such as hairy cell leukemia.

In practical terms, Veterans who served in Vietnam during the war and who have a “presumed” illness don’t have to prove an association between their medical problems and their military service.  By helping Veterans overcome evidentiary requirements that might otherwise present significant challenges, this “presumption” simplifies and speeds up the application process and ensure that Veterans receive the benefits they deserve.

The Secretary’s decision to add these presumptives is based on the latest evidence provided in a 2008 independent study by the Institute of Medicine concerning health problems caused by herbicides like Agent Orange.

Veterans who served in Vietnam anytime during the period beginning January 9, 1962, and ending on May 7, 1975, are presumed to have been exposed to herbicides.

More than 150,000 Veterans are expected to submit Agent Orange claims in the next 12 to 18 months, many of whom are potentially eligible for retroactive disability payments based on past claims.  Additionally, VA will review approximately 90,000 previously denied claims by Vietnam Veterans for service connection for these conditions.  All those awarded service-connection who are not currently eligible for enrollment into the VA healthcare system will become eligible.

This historic regulation is subject to provisions of the Congressional Review Act that require a 60-day Congressional review period before implementation.  After the review period, VA can begin paying benefits for new claims and may award benefits retroactively for earlier periods.  For new claims, VA may pay benefits retroactive to the effective date of the regulation or to one year before the date VA receives the application, whichever is later.  For pending claims and claims that were previously denied, VA may pay benefits retroactive to the date it received the claim.

VA encourages Vietnam Veterans with these three diseases to submit their applications for access to VA health care and compensation now so the agency can begin development of their claims.

Individuals can go to a website at http://www.vba.va.gov/bln/21/AO/claimherbicide.htm to get an understanding of how to file a claim for presumptive conditions related to herbicide exposure, as well as what evidence is needed by VA to make a decision about disability compensation or survivors benefits.

Additional information about Agent Orange and VA’s services for Veterans exposed to the chemical is available at www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange.

The regulation is available on the Office of the Federal Register website at http://www.ofr.gov/.

FORT HOOD, Texas — Nine months after an Army psychiatrist was charged with fatally shooting 13 soldiers and wounding 30, the nation’s largest Army post can measure the toll of war in the more than 10,000 mental health evaluations, referrals or therapy sessions held every month.

About every fourth soldier here, where 48,000 troops and their families are based, has been in counseling during the past year, according to the service’s medical statistics. And the number of soldiers seeking help for combat stress, substance abuse, broken marriages or other emotional problems keeps increasing.

A common refrain by the Army’s vice chief of staff, Gen. Peter Chiarelli, is that far more soldiers suffer mental health issues than the Army anticipated. Nowhere is this more evident than at Fort Hood, where emotional problems among the soldiers threaten to overwhelm the system in place to help them.

Counselors are booked. The 12-bed inpatient psychiatric ward is full more often than not. Overflow patient-soldiers are sent to private local clinics that stay open for 10 hours a day, six days a week to meet the demand.

“We are full to the brim,” says Col. Steve Braverman, commander of the Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center on the post.

That doesn’t even count those soldiers reluctant to seek care because they are ashamed to admit they need help or the hundreds who find therapy outside the Army medical system, Braverman and other medical officials say.

Officials worry the problems may worsen — for the military and the country.

“If Fort Hood is representative of the Army — and 10% of the Army is assigned to Fort Hood — then if you follow the logic, our numbers should be scalable to any other post in the country,” says acting base commander Maj. Gen. William Grimsley.

“I worry that if we don’t see this through the right way over the long haul … we’re going to grow a generation of people 10 or 15 years from now who are going to be a burden on our own society,” he says. “And that’s not a good thing for the Army. That’s not a good thing for the United States.”

Statistics provided to USA TODAY by Fort Hood commanders show the explosion of mental health issues here:

•Fort Hood counselors meet with more than 4,000 mental health patients a month.

•Last year, 2,445 soldiers were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), up from 310 in 2004.

•Every month, an average of 585 soldiers are sent to nearby private clinics contracted through the Pentagon’s TRICARE health system because Army counselors cannot handle more patients. That is up from 15 per month in 2004.

•Hundreds more see therapists “off the network” because they want their psychological problems kept secret from the Army. A free clinic in Killeen offering total discretion treated 2,000 soldiers or family members this year, many of them officers.

•Last year, 6,000 soldiers here were on anti-depressant medications and an additional 1,400 received anti-psychotic drugs.

“I don’t think we fully understand the total effect of nine years of continuous conflict on a force this size,” Chiarelli says, reacting to those statistics.

“Those numbers are pretty staggering,” says Kathy Beasley, a health care executive with the Military Officers Association of America. She wonders what will happen when those soldiers leave the military. “Do we have the supply and the people in our systems to take care of that?”

Every time more counselors are hired here, their schedules immediately fill up with patients. “It’s almost like a Field of Dreams,” Braverman says, referring to the famous line from the 1989 film about a baseball field on an Iowa farm that spontaneously draws crowds. “If you build it, they will come.”

‘Life can slowly slip away’

Staff Sgt. Josh Rivera came back from his third tour in Iraq this year eager to save his marriage.

“When a soldier is constantly gone and actually fighting, not just deploying and sitting in an office, life can slowly slip away,” says Rivera, 32, a native of the Bronx, N.Y.

IN KENTUCKY: Losses mount at Fort Campbell, Ky.

Thirty-nine cumulative months of war had left him distant from his family and confused about his role in their lives, Rivera says. All that made sense was the infantry, which he loves. Rivera resisted seeing a counselor until his marriage was in real trouble, he says.

The Army therapist who met with Rivera and his wife, Julie, gently guided them back to basics — what brought them together 10 years before, why each mattered to the other and what they wanted out of life, the couple say.

Chaplains provide marriage counseling, but for soldiers who want to see a licensed marriage counselor, the base’s social work department has two, each with a caseload of 60 couples, says Lt. Col. Nancy Ruffin, department director.

She has to refer some troubled marriages to private clinics, and not all the soldiers are willing to do that, Ruffin says.

The demand for other types of counseling also far exceeds supply. There are not enough social workers to treat soldiers suffering the emotional effect of sexual assault. Ruffin says she has one social worker, who is handling 50 cases.

Fort Hood has an intensive, three-week therapy program, followed by eight weeks of group therapy, for soldiers suffering stress-related issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder. It has a waiting list of 80 soldiers.

The child and adolescent psychiatric services at Fort Hood handle more than 1,000 visits, assessments or counseling sessions with military children each month, up from about 800 in 2004. It refers about 30 overflow cases off base each month, up from zero in 2004, the base statistics show.

Fort Hood has one of the most robust mental health programs in the Army. It has 171 behavioral health providers and 28 new hires are on the way, says Lt. Col. B. Kirk Phillips, a psychiatrist and director of mental health care at the Darnall medical center. This is up from about 50 mental health workers in 2004.

Because of war and deployments, not only are there more soldiers suffering emotional problems, they are sicker than ever and require more counseling sessions, Phillips says. Even after the latest round of hiring, Phillips says, a recent internal analysis showed the mental health staff will need an additional 58 counselors to meet the demand.

Suicides outpacing 2009

Despite the increase in mental health resources, there have been 14 confirmed or suspected suicides among Fort Hood soldiers this year. That figure outpaces 2009 and matched each of the three worst years for suicides in recent base history, 2006-2008. In June, the Army recorded 32 suicides overall, the highest monthly total since it began keeping records.

Army Sgt. Douglas Hale Jr., 26, was one of the most recent Fort Hood suicides.

On July, 6, Glenda Moss received this text message from Hale, her son: “i love u mom im so sorry i hope u and the family and god can forgive me.”

Her son had tried to kill himself in May. She feared he might try again. She immediately called the Army and then drove the 90 minutes from her home in King, Texas, to the base.

It was too late. Hale had walked into a restaurant across Highway 190 from Fort Hood, asked to use the bathroom, locked the door and shot himself in the head with a newly purchased handgun, according to a police report. He was removed from life support a few days later.

Moss knew her son was very troubled. When his second combat tour to Iraq ended in 2007 after 15 months, he was diagnosed with PTSD and severe depression, began drinking heavily, saw his marriage disintegrate and, finally, left the base without permission last year.

He was brought back to Fort Hood in May after being taken into custody by police in King for being absent without leave, his mother said. He attempted suicide in his barracks that month.

The Army sent him to a psychiatric hospital in Denton, Texas. Army doctors told him “we don’t have enough people here (at Fort Hood) to help you,” his mother recalls.

A statement released by Fort Hood in response to questions about Hale’s case says, “Space and staff shortages prevent us from treating all our patients on post. While it is our intent to treat patients within our facilities, the reality is we cannot at the present time.”

Base officials declined to discuss the specifics of Hale’s case while an Army investigation continues.

Moss says her son seemed to be in good spirits after leaving the Denton hospital following a month of treatment in June. He spent the July 4th weekend at his mother’s home before she drove him back to Fort Hood on July 5.

Moss says the Army can do more to watch over troubled soldiers like her son. “They need to do as much as they can to stop this, because if they don’t, the Army’s going to be responsible for a lot more (suicides),” she says. “I don’t want another family to have to deal with what I went through.

‘Stigma was still a problem’

After the mass killings in November, Fort Hood launched a campaign to gauge the psychological health in the community. The goal was to see how many people needed help, whether they were getting it and how many counselors were needed. Part of the effort was an online, confidential survey in February to get soldiers’ views. Troops were offered incentives such as a day off from work to participate. More than 5,000 responded.

One in four said they would be viewed as weak, treated differently or harm their careers if they admitted suffering emotional issues, says Col. William Rabena, who led the campaign. The attitude was particularly strong among majors, lieutenant colonels and full colonels.

“Stigma was still a problem,” Rabena says.

For those soldiers afraid to seek help, who decline to go to Army therapists or private clinics that contract with the military, there are alternatives.

A Pentagon program offers soldiers a limited number of counseling sessions with private therapists that will remain off their medical records. The program is called Military OneSource, and it provides up to 12 free and confidential therapy sessions when soldiers call a toll-free hotline. From May 2009 to May 2010, there was a 72% increase in sessions provided by the program in the Fort Hood area, from 822 to 1,412, says Air Force Maj. April Cunningham, a Pentagon spokeswoman.

Another option for Fort Hood soldiers who want to keep their psychological problems secret from the Army is a free clinic in Killeen called Scott & White Military Homefront Services. The therapy provided at this clinic does not show up as a mental health diagnosis on a soldier’s medical record.

The five therapists at the project are booked solid, says the director, Maxine Trent, a psychotherapist and the wife of a retired Navy SEAL.

The clinic has seen 7,117 soldiers, spouses and their children since it opened in 2008, says Matthew Wright, a director with Scott & White Healthcare of Temple, Texas, which operates the project.

Soldiers, many of them officers, come into the clinic seeking therapy for the first time in their careers, Trent says.

“Generally, you have the parade rest,” she says, demonstrating how they sit with backs straight, arms outstretched and palms on knees. The tension in their bodies, she says, is palpable.

“Those who have been back-to-back deployed vibrate. … There’s different energy. There’s hyper-vigilance that you won’t see anywhere else,” Trent says. “They walk in here not sleeping. They walk in here having mood disruptions, angry driving, explosions at wife and/or husband and kids.”

When her offices opened, Trent canvassed the wives of Fort Hood commanders to get a sense of what she was facing. “They told us basically, ‘We know everything we need to know about deployment. Please don’t set up any programs to teach us about deployment,’ ” Trent recalls. ” ‘What we don’t know how to do is to keep doing it (deployments). We’re tired. We’re exhausted.’ ”

Even this program struggles to cope with all those needing help and getting the money to pay for it.

A $750,000 grant from the Dallas Foundation and the Association of the U.S. Army for the project is nearly gone and officials are trying to secure more funding, Wright says.

Adam Borah, who runs the outpatient psychiatric clinic at Fort Hood, sees progress in the many soldiers stepping forward to seek help. “The bad news is that there are a lot of people out there who need behavioral heath care,” he says.

Braverman worries that if the number of patients keeps climbing, soldiers will give up waiting to see someone and avoid seeking help. Private clinics that contract with the military to handle overflow patients are overworked, says Chuck Lauer, a senior administrator at Darnall Hospital. “These guys (local private therapists) are putting in six days a week. Some of them have their practices open 10 hours a day,” Lauer says.

Staff Sgt. Rivera, who got the marital help, worries for the soldiers. “The military needs to know that they are losing very good soldiers and squads and platoons to multiple deployments,” he says. “The amount of help needed is actually overwhelming.”

By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY

Previously, veterans “have been required to produce evidence proving that a specific event caused their PTSD,” Obama said during his Saturday radio address. “And that practice has kept the vast majority of those with PTSD who served in non-combat roles, but who still waged war, from getting the care they need.”

The Department of Veterans Affairs will begin streamlining the benefits process next week, Obama said.

In the Republican radio address, Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., discussed a new Web forum — AmericaSpeakingOut.com — in which people can suggest ways to reduce federal spending and improve government.

“Americans are fed up with how things are going in the country right now,” Gingrey said. “They see more job losses, rising debt and plummeting home sales. They feel let down by a government that passes one 2,000-page, trillion-dollar law after another instead of focusing on addressing the problems Americans worry about every day.”

Here is Obama’s address:
Last weekend, on the Fourth of July, Michelle and I welcomed some of our extraordinary military men and women and their families to the White House.

They were just like the thousands of active duty personnel and veterans I’ve met across this country and around the globe. Proud. Strong. Determined. Men and women with the courage to answer their country’s call, and the character to serve the United States of America.

Because of that service; because of the honor and heroism of our troops around the world; our people are safer, our nation is more secure, and we are poised to end our combat mission in Iraq by the end of August, completing a drawdown of more than 90,000 troops since last January.

Still, we are a nation at war. For the better part of a decade, our men and women in uniform have endured tour after tour in distant and dangerous places. Many have risked their lives. Many have given their lives. And as a grateful nation, humbled by their service, we can never honor these American heroes or their families enough.

Just as we have a solemn responsibility to train and equip our troops before we send them into harm’s way, we have a solemn responsibility to provide our veterans and wounded warriors with the care and benefits they’ve earned when they come home.

That is our sacred trust with all who serve — and it doesn’t end when their tour of duty does.

To keep that trust, we’re building a 21st century VA, increasing its budget, and ensuring the steady stream of funding it needs to support medical care for our veterans.

To help our veterans and their families pursue a college education, we’re funding and implementing the post-9/11 GI Bill.

To deliver better care in more places, we’re expanding and increasing VA health care, building new wounded warrior facilities, and adapting care to better meet the needs of female veterans.

To stand with those who sacrifice, we’ve dedicated new support for wounded warriors and the caregivers who put their lives on hold for a loved one’s long recovery.

And to do right by our vets, we’re working to prevent and end veteran homelessness, because in the United States of America, no one who served in our uniform should sleep on our streets.

We also know that for many of today’s troops and their families, the war doesn’t end when they come home.
Too many suffer from the signature injuries of today’s wars: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury. And too few receive the screening and treatment they need.

Now, in past wars, this wasn’t something America always talked about. And as a result, our troops and their families often felt stigmatized or embarrassed when it came to seeking help.

Today, we’ve made it clear up and down the chain of command that folks should seek help if they need it. In fact, we’ve expanded mental health counseling and services for our vets.

But for years, many veterans with PTSD who have tried to seek benefits — veterans of today’s wars and earlier wars — have often found themselves stymied. They’ve been required to produce evidence proving that a specific event caused their PTSD. And that practice has kept the vast majority of those with PTSD who served in non-combat roles, but who still waged war, from getting the care they need.

Well, I don’t think our troops on the battlefield should have to take notes to keep for a claims application. And I’ve met enough veterans to know that you don’t have to engage in a firefight to endure the trauma of war.

So we’re changing the way things are done.
On Monday, the Department of Veterans Affairs, led by Secretary Eric Shinseki, will begin making it easier for a veteran with PTSD to get the benefits he or she needs.

This is a long-overdue step that will help veterans not just of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, but generations of their brave predecessors who proudly served and sacrificed in all our wars.

It’s a step that proves America will always be here for our veterans, just as they’ve been there for us. We won’t let them down. We take care of our own. And as long as I’m commander in chief, that’s what we’re going to keep doing. Thank you.

Goals

• To install a digital entertainment library at Ft. Stewart, GA
• To provide FREE DVDs to over 450 wounded soldiers & family members
• To provide FREE video games to wounded soldiers at Ft. Stewart
• To show wounded soldiers they have the support of a grateful nation

Overview

More than 9,000 soldiers are recuperating in military hospitals from life-altering injuries. Facing long hospital stays they battle pain, uncertainty, boredom & loneliness. To recover they need more than medical care alone; they need activities to combat isolation & depression & concrete signs of appreciation from a grateful nation. The Cause digital entertainment library (C-DEL) meets these needs by providing soldiers with FREE DVDs & video games.

Cause seeks funding for a library at Ft. Stewart, GA, a post experiencing multiple deployments. C-DEL, often the only source of free entertainment on post, has recorded more than 180,000 lending transactions at 7 locations since the first branch opened at Walter Reed in 2005.

Research shows that recreation & entertainment are vital to the healing process. Studies have also shown that playing video games can reduce the hyper-arousal & that playing Tetris may reduce PTSD flashbacks.

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On Wednesday a group of 20 senators announced the formation of the Senate Military Family Caucus, the first legislative coalition in that chamber to focus on the impact of war on spouses and children of troops.The move comes almost a year after House members launched their own military family caucus. In a statement organizers said the Senate caucus members will work closely with their house colleagues to “improve programs and services for military families, and to focus on the unique and growing challenges they face.” That includes a closer focus on military childcare, family health care, education benefits, spouse employment programs, and mental health services for troops’ families. 

The new caucus will be chaired by Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Richard Burr, R-N.C. In a statement Boxer noted that “when a service member puts on a uniform, the entire family sacrifices for our country.” Burr called military families “the backbone of our military” and called the new caucus an avenue to push for legislation that will benefit these families.”

The two co-chairs just last month pushed Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to stop insurance companies from profiting off death benefits owed to families troops killed in action.
Pentagon officials have emphasized family support programs in recent years, noting that the care and comfort of spouses and children back home are among troops’ top distractions when they deploy for combat tours.

By LEO SHANE III
Published: August 19, 2010

Veterans’ advocates win extension through November 10, 2010 for Sabo v. United States. NVLSP calls on friends and families of OEF/OIF vets to encourage class members to “opt-in”.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON— Veterans discharged from military service due to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) between December 17, 2002 and October 14, 2008 and shortchanged on their military benefits have three additional months to join a class action lawsuit, thanks to a critical deadline extension.

Last Thursday, Judge George W. Miller of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims signed an order giving eligible veterans – almost all of whom served in Iraq or Afghanistan — until November 10, 2010 to join (or “opt-in to”) Sabo v. United States, a class action lawsuit brought in December 2008 by the National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP) and pro-bono counsel Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP.

As a result of an agreement reached with the military services, veterans who join the lawsuit are guaranteed a disability rating upgrade and expedited records review, which can potentially lead to additional financial benefits and improved healthcare for veterans and their families.

Approximately, 42 percent, or 1,835 veterans, signed and sent in “Opt-in Forms” before the original July 24, 2010 deadline, making them class members in the lawsuit. At least 2,623 other veterans are eligible to join the lawsuit and become class members.

Class notices were mailed to 4,400 Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom veterans in January 2010. However, many notices were returned as undeliverable by the post office.

Using government sources and public records research, NVLSP staff attorneys called more than 600 eligible veterans as the July 24 deadline approached.  They found that many veterans did not understand the legal notice they received in the mail, or never received it.

“More than a third of the eligible veterans are severely disabled, with VA disability ratings for PTSD of 70 to 100 percent,” said Bart Stichman, co-executive director of the NVLSP. “It’s not easy for them to understand the legal notice and what are the advantages of joining the lawsuit, even though they stand to potentially gain significant lifetime financial and healthcare benefits for themselves and their families.”

Stichman says NVLSP plans to continue calling eligible veterans over the next three months, but is also asking families and friends of eligible veterans to get involved and talk with the veterans.

“Anyone who knows an Iraq or Afghanistan veteran discharged between December 17, 2002 and October 14, 2008 because of PTSD should ask if he or she has received a legal notice and opted into this lawsuit,” said Stichman. “These veterans and their families were treated unjustly and denied the benefits to which they were entitled. This is about getting them the lifetime military benefits that they have earned and deserve. More information is available at www.ptsdlawsuit.com.”

Eligible veterans who join the lawsuit are entitled to review of their PTSD disability rating by the military on a priority basis, a guaranteed correction of military records to show a higher military disability rating for PTSD for the six-month period following the date of release from military service, as well as a determination of whether the new rating should be permanently increased, decreased, or remain the same after the six-month period.

The correction of military records will not change the disability ratings that the veteran may have from the VA and no eligible veteran who opts into the lawsuit will risk losing any other military or VA benefits that he or she is already receiving. Nearly all class members who have already gone through the prioritized review with the military have received higher disability ratings and better benefits.

As a result of an increase in their military rating for PTSD, class members may receive back pay of disability benefits, reimbursement for healthcare expenses the military should have covered, as well as a higher amount of future benefits to which they and their families are entitled—potentially millions of dollars in benefits over time.

One hundred volunteer lawyers stand ready to offer free counseling to all class members. The lawyers for the veterans from NVLSP and Morgan, Lewis and Bockius LLP are donating their services for free. The lawyers involved say their payment is knowing an injustice is being righted for those who have served our country.

The disability ratings which are the subject of the lawsuit are critically important to ensuring veterans receive the benefits which they have earned and deserve. For years, the law has required the military to assign a disability rating of at least 50 percent to all veterans discharged for PTSD.  A permanent disability rating of 30 percent or more entitles a veteran to monthly disability benefits for the rest of the veteran’s life, to free lifetime health care for the veteran and his or her spouse, and to free health care for their minor children.

All of the veterans who qualify as class members for this lawsuit were illegally discharged from the military with military disability ratings for PTSD of less than 50 percent.  After they were discharged, many of them obtained a higher disability rating for PTSD from the VA, but the lawsuit is aimed at getting these veterans a higher military disability rating and with enhanced military disability benefits that accompany a higher military disability rating.

WHO CAN BE A CLASS MEMBER IN THIS CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT?
All individuals who:
(a) served on active duty in the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, or Air Force,
(b) were found by a Physical Evaluation Board to be unfit for continued service due, at least in part, to the individual’s PTSD,
(c) were assigned a disability rating for PTSD of less than 50 percent, and, as a result,
(d) were released, separated, retired, or discharged from active duty after December 17, 2002, and prior to October 14, 2008 (regardless of whether such release, separation, retirement, or discharge resulted in the individual’s placement on the Temporary Disability Retirement List).

VETERANS WITH QUESTIONS ABOUT THE LAWSUIT

Veterans who have not received the legal notice, but who believe they may qualify as a class member, should go to www.ptsdlawsuit.com or call877-345-8387for more information.

PRESS/MEDIA INTERVIEW REQUESTS
Lawsuit information is available at www.ptsdlawsuit.com. Press information, more information about Lawyers Serving Warriors^TM and the legal complaint for the lawsuit are available at www.LawyersServingWarriors.org. Press and media interview requests ONLY should be directed to Ami Neiberger-Miller, cellular 703.887.4877, ami@steppingstonellc.com.

ABOUT NVLSP
The National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP) is an independent, nonprofit veteran service organization that has served active duty military personnel and veterans since 1980. NVLSP strives to ensure that our nation honors its commitment to its 25 million veterans and active duty personnel by providing them the federal benefits they have earned through their service to our country.  NVSLP offers training for attorneys and other advocates, connects veterans and active duty personnel with pro bono legal help, publishes the nation’s definitive guide on veterans’ benefits, and represents and litigates for veterans and their families before the VA, military discharge review agencies, and federal courts. For more information go to www.nvlsp.org.

ABOUT MORGAN, LEWIS & BOCKIUS LLP

Morgan Lewis provides comprehensive transactional, litigation, labor and employment, and intellectual property legal services to clients of all sizes—from global Fortune 100 companies to just-conceived startups—across all major industries.  Its international team of attorneys, patent agents, employee benefits advisors, regulatory scientists, and other specialists—nearly 3,000 professionals total—serves clients from 23 offices in the United States, Europe, and Asia.  For more information about Morgan Lewis or its practices, please visit: www.morganlewis.com.

“He broke a bone, and will be a paraplegic and wheelchair bound,” said Sandra Thornton.

John, a former Army lieutenant, is being treated at Boston’s VA Hospital, which is a lengthy drive from Augusta, Maine, the Thornton’s are from.

“I would have come down perhaps once a week to visit for a couple hours and then travel back home and we would have communicated by phone,” said Sandra Thornton.

But with the official dedication of the Fisher House, a 20-suite complex on the VA grounds, Sandra now has this home away from home for free.

The Fisher House provides housing for the families of veterans and wounded military personnel at no cost for as long as their loved one is a patient.

“I get up, I can cook him an omelet, take him an omelet for breakfast or cook dinner here and take him dinner. It just made a big difference,” said Sandra Thornton.

“These men and women have made these sacrifices. They’ve given limbs, they’ve given their sight. They’ve come back in some cases catastrophically wounded and having their families here helps them get through that,” said Ken Fisher, the chairman of the Fisher House Foundation.

Members of the military come from all over the country for the Boston VA’s renowned spinal cord injury unit and not only will they be assured the best doctors by their bedside, but their families as well.

“It’s helped him cope a little bit better. He’s had the family support here and somebody that cares,” said Sandra Thornton.

A very small part of the house was paid for by a federal grant, but much of the $5.6 million price tag came from fundraising by people in Boston.

WHDH TV NBC Boston
07.25.10