Veterans News Bureau

AUSTIN – A West Texas jury acquitted a former employee of a state veterans home Tuesday on a felony charge of abusing a resident in late 2007.

The 12-member jury deliberated for about 45 minutes in finding Bryson Vanderbilt not guilty, said Howard County District Attorney Hardy Wilkerson. The verdict followed a six-hour trial.

Vanderbilt, 25, was charged with injuring John Harris, a World War II Navy veteran, at the state-run home in Big Spring.

“I don’t believe the jury thought the state proved their case beyond a reasonable doubt,” said Vanderbilt’s court-appointed attorney, Wayne N. Frost.

Wilkerson said it was difficult to gauge whether the passage of time between the alleged abuse and the indictment in March had any effect on the outcome. Harris died in May 2008 at the age of 98.

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The Ohio Attorney General has ordered the U.S. Navy Veterans Association to cease fundraising in the state after finding what it says is false and misleading information in the charity’s registration.

The Attorney General’s Charitable Law Section investigated the organization and sent a letter to its listed directors outlining these violations of the state’s requirements:

* A USPS mailbox is listed as the primary business address.
* Phone numbers for the organization’s offices were not provided.
* Addresses for directors, trustees and executive personnel were not provided.

The U.S. Navy Veterans Association does not meet the Better Business Bureau’s standards for charity accountability because it failed to make financial statements available and did not respond to consumer complaints.

A six-month investigation by the St. Petersburg Times concluded there was only one operating officer in the organization –not the reported 85 — and that millions of dollars in income have gone unaccounted for.

See full article from WalletPop: http://srph.it/akQXG7

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Taps is sounding for old soldiers smoking at the retirement home.

Military veterans (and spouses) living at the two state-run retirement homes in King and Union Grove will have to follow the statewide smoking ban when it goes into effect on July 5, according to the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs.

“We must follow the law like everybody else,” said spokesperson Sara Stinski.

Not very many veterans living at the homes smoke anymore, but the ban will be a big change for those that do, and for those who visit or work at the two homes.

More than 700 veterans live at the home in King in Waupaca County, and several hundred live at the home in Union Grove in Racine County.

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WASHINGTON — The superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery for the past 19 years is retiring.

John C. Metzler Jr. has worked for the government for 42 years and says his last day will be July 2.

The 62-year-old’s father was also superintendent at the cemetery outside the nation’s capital.

He said the high point of his career was expanding the cemetery for veterans and their families so it could continue to take new burials until 2060.

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The Veterans Affairs Department is good at finding waste and inefficiency, but it could be faster to take action to fix these problems, according to testimony at a Wednesday congressional oversight hearing.

Since October, the VA inspector general has issued 120 reports containing 232 recommendations for saving $673 million, said Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., the House Veterans Affairs Committee chairman. That is good news, he said, showing the VA IG is doing “high-quality” and “essential” work.

However, VA has 124 open reports with a combined 756 recommendations, including 16 reports with 45 recommendations that are more than one year old, said Richard Griffin, the VA’s deputy inspector general. The oldest open report dates back to Sept. 30, 2005, he said.

“The monetary benefit yet to be realized by these recommendations going unimplemented approaches $100 million,” Filner said.

Filner and other committee members said delays need to be minimized, especially at a time when governmentwide cost cutting is underway. “During the country’s difficult financial time brought on by the recession, the VA must realize cost savings anywhere practical,” he said. Savings from eliminating waste and inefficiency could reduce pressure to cut programs, he said.

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DEARBORN — Forgotten for generations, the unclaimed cremated remains of U.S. military veterans sit on shelves of funeral homes and state hospitals across the United States.

Mostly men, some were indigent or homeless; some outlived their families and friends. They ended up missing in America.

In Dearborn, 26 veteran cremains were found at local funeral homes. They will be buried with dignity by the Dearborn Allied War Veterans’ Council (DAWVC), which has planned a first-of-its-kind ceremony in Michigan.

At 9:30 a.m. on Memorial Day, the DAWVC will pay final respects to the veterans who served in WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam.

They expect to set a new standard for transferring the cremains, including a WWI veteran who had been languishing at funeral home since 1938.

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Veterans groups are blasting Georgia lawmakers for passing legislation that would allow a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder to appear on driver’s licenses.

The legislation, which awaits Gov. Sonny Purdue’s signature, would permit servicemembers and veterans to request a PTSD denotation, which would appear on their driver’s licenses as a specific health problem, much like poor eyesight.

PTSD is an anxiety disorder that can occur after a traumatic event, including sexual assault, physical assault and military combat. Symptoms include vivid flashbacks to the traumatic event, depression and substance abuse, among others. Up to 20 percent of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars suffer from PTSD, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The bill would require a sworn statement from a physician verifying a diagnosis of PTSD and a waiver of liability for the release of the driver’s medical information.

State Sen. Ron Ramsey, who co-sponsored the bill, says he sees no downside to the measure. In a statement to FoxNews.com, Ramsey, a Democrat, said the “completely voluntary” legislation may protect law enforcement officers and veterans from potentially dangerous situations.

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ARLINGTON, Va. | Garage sales and quilt raffles helped a determined group of female World War II veterans raise money to transform a rundown wall at Arlington National Cemetery into a grand stone memorial to women who served their country. But those women are dying off, even as the memorial runs short of funds.

With women now involved more heavily in combat jobs, those early organizers hope a new generation will step up to the challenge of keeping the memorial open so military women’s stories won’t be lost.

The dedication of the memorial that today is visitors’ first view of the cemetery was such a joyous event that 40,000 people attended in 1997. One of them was a 101-year-old World War I vet named Frieda Mae Hardin, who was met with cheers when she told the crowd that women considering military careers should, “Go for it!”

Even as a steady flow of visitors enters its doors, the deaths of about three-quarters of the 400,000 women who served in World War II has left the memorial honoring military women of all eras without many of its loyal benefactors, though some still visit.

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VFW Press Release:

WASHINGTON, May 11, 2010 – The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. learned yesterday that the cross-shaped veterans’ memorial in the Mojave Desert was torn down Sunday night by someone or persons with no respect for the dead or the nation’s laws.

“This was a legal fight that a vandal just made personal to 50 million veterans, military personnel and their families,” said VFW National Commander Thomas J. Tradewell, Sr. “To think anyone can rationalize the desecration of a war memorial is sickening, and for them to believe they won’t be apprehended is very naive.

“The memorial will be rebuilt and the vandals will be caught and prosecuted in federal court, since the crime occurred on government property,” said Tradewell, a combat-wounded Vietnam veteran from Sussex, Wis. “We hope this horrible act will highlight the importance of resolving this case quickly so that the memorial and land can be transferred to the VFW so that the service and sacrifice of all American war dead will be properly recognized and honored, as originally intended by a group of World War I VFW members 76 years ago.”

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