SOUTH JERSEY
VIETNAM VETERANS ASSOCIATION
BUSINESS
MEETINGS: IS THE FIRST WEDNESDAY OF THE MONTH AT AT 7 PM.
SJVVA OFFICERS
Charles Gallagher, President (609)280-9100
Andrew Bain, Vice President
Ray Milligan, Secretary
Charles Byers, Treasurer
David Studstill, Sgt. of Arms
Committee Chairpersons
Public Relations/Communications:
John Tedeschi (856)256-8866
Quartermaster: Bob Cermak – (856)
228-2764
Advertising: Paul Introcaso: (609)634-4453, Drew Bain:
856)384-0226, Bob Harris: (856) 629-2793
Membership: John J Tedeschi: (856)256-8866
Newsletter: Colleen Murtaugh
Auxiliary: Carole TedeschI
Chaplain: Lou Perry
Color Guard: Ray Wands (856) 226-5944
GLASSBORO
VFW MEMORIAL POST 679
BUSINESS
MEETINGS: IS THE 4TH TUESDAY OF EVERY MONTH AT 7 PM.
VFW POST 679 OFFICERS
Jack Haas, Commander
Ray Wands, Sr. Vice
Dennis Cleary, Jr. Vice
Charles Gallagher, Quartermaster
Ray Milligan, Surgeon
Charles Byers, Service Officer
Jacqueline Posey, Chaplain
John Tedeschi, Judge Advocate
John Girardi, Adjutant
Warren Gansart, Officer of the Day
VFW CHAIRPERSONS
Dennis Cleary, Building
Ray Wands, Grounds
Dennis Cleary, Bingo
Drew Bain, Armour
Don Holland, Bar Chairman
Charles Gallagher, Hall Chairman
MILITARY
ORDER OF PURPLE HEART
DJ BENTZ, III
CHAPTER 336
BUSINESS
MEETINGS: IS THE 3RD THURSDAY OF EVERY MONTH AT 7 PM.
Military Order of Purple Heart
Charles Byers, Commander
Paul Introcaso, Sr. Vice
James Winkler, Jr. Vice
Louis Damiano, CFO
Charles Gallagher, Judge Advocate
Dennis Cleary, Sgt. of Arms
Matt Crawford, Adjutant
PTSD GROUP MEETINGS:
CAMDEN COUNTY:
DR. JENSEN:
MONDAY EVENINGS, 1868 GREENTREE ROAD, CHERRY HILL, NEW JERSEY, AT
8:00 P.M.
DR. HANKINS:
1868 GREENTREE ROAD, CHERRY HILL, NEW JERSEY ON TUESDAY, AT 10:30
A.M., AND WEDNESDAY AT 10:30 A.M., AND WEDNESDAY EVENING AT 5:30 and
7:00 P.M.
GLOUCESTER COUNTY:
FRIDAY:
WITH DR. JENSEN AT THE DEPARTMENT OF VETERAN AND MILITARY AFFAIRS
SERVICE OFFICE, EXIT 20, OFF 295.
Two meetings will be held:
1st beginning at 9:45 – 10:45 AM.
2nd beginning at 11:00 to 12PM.
Wednesday morning with Dr. Jensen -- PTSD meeting at the VFW Post
679 in Glassboro at 10:30 AM.
VFW
Bingo is
every Thursday morning at 10:00 a.m.
PLEASE COME OUT WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!
VFW ON SATURDAY NIGHTS
Just a reminder to everyone that the post will be open every
Saturday night from 7 PM Till .....? Please come out and enjoy
the camaraderie of your fellow Veterans.
We have a pool table, shuffle board, the "Wii" game, Juke box and
TVs.
SOUTH JERSEY VETERAN EVENTS
January
6, 2009
- Veterans Advisory Committee meeting, 7PM, Supt of Schools Bldg.
February 3, 2009 - Veterans Advisory Committee meeting, 7PM, Supt
of Schools Bldg.
February
14, 2009
– Valentine’s day Show, VFW 2071, (Franklinville). Frank
Sinatra tribute. Call Al (694-0022) or Rudy (694-2527) Tickets
$25.00 Dinner and show
March
3, 2009
- Veterans Advisory Committee meeting, 7PM, Supt of Schools Bldg.
March 14, 2009 – St. Patrick’s Day Beef and Beer. 7-11 p.m.
Tickets $25.00. Buffet, Beef and Beer. DJ.
Cash Bar.
SJVVA
CHRISTMAS PARTY 2008
New Officers
VFW
VETERANS DAY 2008 – A STUDENT’S REFLECTION
|
Veterans Day and Clayton high school on the day before
veterans day, commander Jack Haas of the Glassboro VFW Post
697 and commander Chuck Byers of The Military Order Of The
Purple Heart attended classes at the school. Chuck showed a
short film on Vietnam. After the film Chuck and Jack talked
shortly on there experiences in Vietnam then turned it into
a question & answer session for the reaming time. We spent
most of the day going from class to class the students as
well as the teachers showed much interest and there were
many questions asked. Enclosed is a letter I received from a
student ;
On behalf of the students of Clayton High School, I
would like to extend a heart felt thank you to Mr.Chuck
Byers and Mr Jack Haas for your wonderful presentation to
our class.It is a shame how quickly Mr. Byers and Mr. Haas
were deployed for the war because of the draft. I know it
had to be hard for you being drafted at a young age, packing
your bags and leaving without a choice.
My grandpa was in the very same war that you two were in.
For me, the Vietnam war was differ ant from the other wars
just because he was in it. I have a passion for history, and
that passion came from my grandpa's experiences in the war.
I learned just how rough war is from my grandpa's stories,
and now I no even more about the war from the stories Mr.
Byers and Mr. Haas told our class at Clayton High School on
the day before Veterans Day.
One of the points in your presentation that really sticks
with me is how you learned to perform in the medical field
with a dog being brought into the area and shot, and you
having to help the dog. I know it could not have been an
easy thing to see the dog in pain, and to know that you
would have to encounter even more pain-the real deal, the
casualties of life.
Veterans Day is all about showing respect to all veterans,
regardless of the conflict or war that he or she may have
served in. No matter what, we should all show respect to the
ladies and gentlemen who served our country throughout the
world and helped to solve global problems.
Your speech really made me realize how hard it is to live as
a veteran with all those memories, Thank you for sharing
your stories.
Sincerely,
Joseph Grosso
10th grade student |
VETERAN NEWS
VA MILEAGE REIMBURSEMENT:
Service-disabled and low-income veterans who are reimbursed for
travel expenses while receiving care at Department of Veterans
Affairs (VA) facilities will see an increase in their payments
beginning 9 JAN 09. A recently passed law allows VA to cut the
amount it must withhold from their mileage reimbursement. The
deductible amount will be $3 for each one-way trip and $6 for each
round trip -- with a calendar cap of $18, or six one-way trips or
three round trips, whichever comes first.
GI BILL: An estimated 526,000 veterans, active duty
servicemembers,
and reserve component personnel are expected to apply for benefits
under the new Post-9/11 GI Bill program when the program begins 1
AUG 09. VA officials have
promised that, unless the new Congress adds a new layer of
complexity to improve the program, payments to qualified students
and their colleges will begin as scheduled with the fall 2009
semester. Members of the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on
Economic Opportunity came away reassured by the testimony by VA
officials 18 NOV during which they laid out in detail their near-
and long-term
strategy for bringing the Post-9/11 GI Bill to life. The near-term
plan is to hire and train an additional 400 claim processors to
handle the extra workload from the new GI Bill during the program’s
first year. Through fall 2010, the VA will screen and approve new GI
Bill applications using the same manual method the department has
used for years to pay claim under the Montgomery GI Bill
(MGIB) and other veterans’ education claims. “The veteran will apply
online for benefits as [most] do now,” said Keith M. Wilson,
director of education service for the Veterans Benefits
Administration. “We will determine eligibility with our existing
staff and the additional staff we hire to process these claims, just
as we do now.”
Though benefit applications are filed online, the VA does not
process that information using computers. Instead, claim processers
review the information
filed, verify eligibility, and calculate the payments. The
turnaround time is an average of 19 days on an original claim and 10
days for a supplement claim.
Those will remain the goals for the new GI Bill. By NOV 2010,
however, the VA plans to have a fully automated claim processing
system in place. It will be designed and built under an interagency
agreement by the Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command. The
command, known also as SPAWAR, has the information technology
expertise the VA lacks to build its own automated claim processing
system. Most early participants in the new GI Bill will be
transferring in from the MGIB, seeking nearly to double the value of
payments. To qualify for at least partial post-9/11 benefits,
applicants must have served on active duty at least 90 aggregate
days after 10 SEP 01. Full benefits will be available to
individuals who served at least 36 total months on active duty after
10 SEP 01, assuming they haven’t used MGIB. Also eligible for full
post-9/11 benefits will be veterans who served at least 30
continuous days on active duty since 11 SEP
01, and were discharged due to service-connected disability.
GI BILL TUITION REIMBURSEMENT:
The Post 9/11 GI Bill will provide up to 100% of your tuition. In
addition, the program provides a monthly housing stipend a stipend
of up to $1,000 a year for books and supplies. If you attend less
than full-time you will receive a portion of the payment based on
the number of units of study.
The amount of tuition and stipends paid under the Post 9/11 GI Bill
will vary depending on your state of residence, number of units
taken, and amount of post 11 SEP 01 active-duty service. Here is a
quick reference showing the percentage
of total combined benefit eligibility based on the following periods
of post 9/11 service:
100% - 36 or more total months
100% - 30 or more consecutive days with Disability related
Discharge.
90% - 30 total months
80% - 24 total months
70% - 18 total months
60% - 12 total months
50% - six total months
40% - 90 or more days
Under the new GI Bill you will be provided tuition up to the
highest established charges for full-time undergraduate students
charged by the public institution of higher education in the State
in which you are enrolled. One of
the added features of this tuition payment plan is that the tuition
will be paid directly to the school, relieving you of the
responsibility. This is similar to the process used for military
tuition assistance. Based on 2008 in-state tuition
rates, the anticipated annual tuition payment rate for 2009 will be
just over $6,000. The low being Wyoming at $3,500 a year and
Michigan which is the highest
payment in-state tuition rate at $13,000. [Source: Military.com 26
Dec 08 ++]
COLA
2010:
The 5.8% cost of living adjustment (COLA) retirees will see in their
Jan. 2 paychecks will be the largest one since 1982. But the new
fiscal year is a whole different story, as steeply falling prices
have started off next year's COLA calculation in a deep hole. This
month, the Bureau of Labor
Statistics announced that the consumer price index dropped 2.3% in
the month of November. That makes a whopping decline of 3.8% for the
first two months of
FY2009 - the biggest two-month drop in more than 60 years. In case
you’re wondering: if inflation is negative for the year, there would
be no COLA in 2010. Retired pay would not be reduced. [Source: MOAA
Leg Up 19 Dec 08 ++]
VA
DISABILITY COMPENSATION:
Every surviving spouse of a veteran
receiving VA disability benefits at the time of his death, if the
death was after 31 DEC 96, should call the VA. On 12 DEC 08, the
headline War veteran widows wrongly denied help in an AP story told
the sad tale of another benefits
miscue at the Department of Veterans Affairs. In recent years VA
has been plagued by negative headlines, from a stolen laptop with
personal information on
millions of veterans to claims document shredding at a majority of
VA regional offices around the nation. The War veteran widows
headline was not exactly accurate. As Paul Harvey says, here’s the
rest of the story:
• Each year the Federal government pays compensation and pension
to millions
of disabled veterans. Compensation is paid for service connected
disabilities (war service not required); pension goes to wartime
veterans who are totally
disabled and have a low income. Checks are direct deposited or
mailed out each month for the preceding month.
• Under the law, both benefits end on the last day of the month in
the month preceding the veterans death (e.g., if a veteran dies on
10 JUN, the benefit is terminated on 31 MAY). Since it may take
days or weeks for VA to receive word
of a veteran’s death, and may take more time to process that
information, benefit checks are often sent out after a veteran dies.
• In 1996 Congress changed the law to allow the surviving spouse
(for the sake of simplicity, lets call them widows) to receive or
keep the veterans benefit for the month of death. This change
applies to the widows of all veterans,
whether the veteran had wartime service or not.
• VAs implementation of the change in law was less than elegant:
to make it easy on itself widows were required to contact the VA to
claim that last check.
Usually, that claim was in the form of an application for death
benefits. Those who were awarded death benefits received either an
amount equal to the last
check or their new death benefit, whichever was greater.
• The problem, of course, was that many widows did not apply for
death benefits or payment of the last check. As a consequence, a
large number of widows failed to receive money to which they were
entitled. To be fair, most of
these checks were for $100-200: real money but not usually crucial
to making the mortgage. However, some were $2,500 or more: serious
money that could spell the
difference between eating every day of the month and skipping meals
or not paying bills.
• VA will begin issuing retroactive payments to eligible surviving
spouses at the end of DEC 08. Payments will continue to be issued
as additional unpaid
beneficiaries are identified and VA is able to obtain current
address
information.
VA is in the process of identifying every veteran who died
between 1996 and December 2008 and was receiving a compensation or
pension check when he died.
It is reviewing its computer
records to see if the veteran was married at the time of death and
working with Social Security to obtain current addresses for
widows. VA promises to make press announcements, news releases and
perform outreach to try and locate every widow who may be entitled
to the veteran’s last check. To date VA has identified nearly
11,000 surviving spouses of deceased veterans who will receive a
lump-sum payment to correct an error in their VA
benefits. Payments were to be released to these survivors on 29 DEC
09. The total value of the payments is about $24 million. Also
documented were more than 73,000 who had been previously paid.
VA promises to fix the computer program. And it has briefed
the major veteran service organizations. VA says that it wants every
surviving spouse of a
veteran who died after 31 DEC 96, who is unsure whether they
received the veterans last check either separately or as part of
their award of death benefits, to call 1-800-749-8387 Mon thru Fri
07-1900 CST and speak with a counselor. The counselor will need
information that identifies the veteran (either his Social Security
number or his VA claim number). They will also ask for the full
name of the surviving spouse, a current address and a phone number.
The VA counselor will forward that information to people who will
research VA records to see if the last check was ever paid. If it
was not paid, and the caller can be identified as the surviving
spouse, then VA will issue a new
check. Inquiries may also be submitted through the Internet at
http://www.vba.va.gov/survivorsbenefit.htm.
[Source: Assistant Director National Veterans Service Gerald Manar
notice 18 Dec & VA News Release 24 Dec 08 ++]
Changes
coming to veterans hospitals?
By Jennifer Calhoun, Staff writer
A recent brouhaha over closing the emergency room at Salisbury’s
Veterans Affairs hospital has some critics worried that unwarranted
changes could be coming to veterans’ health care.
In September, the Salisbury hospital planned to eliminate its
emergency, inpatient and surgical services.
Under the proposal, veterans needing emergency services would be
directed to local hospitals on a fee-for-service basis, while others
would be directed to the VA’s new outpatient facilities in Charlotte
and Winston-Salem.
Salisbury would retain its mental health and long-term care
services, and the emergency room would be turned into a 12-hour
urgent-care center.
The plan is part of a national movement to shift the VA’s focus from
inpatient to outpatient care, reduce delays in care and cut back on
costs, according to James Peake, secretary of Veterans Affairs.
This month, however, communitywide protests in Salisbury forced VA
officials to put the plan on hold until 2013.
Critics said the loss of the Salisbury emergency room would hurt
veterans, who would pay more for emergency services, while clogging
up busy, private hospital emergency rooms that don’t specialize in
veterans’ health issues.
Essie Hogue is president of the regional chapter of the American
Federation of Government Employees. Hogue said the VA knows the
specific health-care needs of veterans, and private hospitals do
not.
Veterans would also have to pay for services they once got for a
mere copay, she said.
Dr. Dave Rainey, spokesman for the the VA’s Mid-Atlantic network,
said the changes would help, not hurt, veterans.
The Mid-Atlantic network covers eight hospitals, including Salisbury
and Fayetteville, as well as six other VA medical centers and 16
community-based outpatient centers.
Rainey said the proposed changes are a cost-effective way to expand
health care and localize emergency room services, while eliminating
waste in the form of underused facilities.
This year, between 10 and 15 surgeries have been performed at the
Salisbury hospital, Rainey said.
“It’s a relatively small number of vets that can be affected,” he
said.
Still, the Salisbury emergency room had 21,000 visits last year and
is considered the leading care center in the Mid-Atlantic network.
The hospital serves about 62,000 of the network’s 318,000 patients,
Rainey said.
But only 10 percent of the emergency room visits were true
emergencies — a problem private, not-for-profit hospitals are also
struggling with as patients continue to use the emergency room for
many of their health-care needs.
“On one hand, we have a $1.8billion budget,” Rainey said. “That’s
taxpayer money, and it has to be spent effectively, by making plans
in the short term and the long term. That’s the business case for
what we plan there in the Salisbury VA.”
But the VA also looks at the problem in terms of compassion for its
veterans, Rainey said.
It’s one of the reasons the protests helped stave off the emergency
room closure in Salisbury. At least for now.
‘Enhancing’ services
Rainey said the VA will use the next five years to educate veterans
on the changes.
One of the educational tools is a 24-hour call line where veterans
can find out about their benefits in private settings, he said.
In the meantime, VA services in the Mid-Atlantic region will
continue to expand.
The Jacksonville outpatient VA clinic has already been expanded, and
the Wilmington outpatient clinic is also expected to grow during the
next few years. A new clinic was added in Hamlet, and another is set
to open in Lumberton in September.
With more outpatient clinics, and localized emergency room care from
private hospitals, the change is expected to help veterans receive
quicker, more localized service.
“We’re not taking it away,” Rainey said. “We’re enhancing it.”
The Fayetteville VA Medical Center is also expected to expand,
officials said.
In a written response, VA officials said that Fayetteville was
“awaiting the award of a construction project to improve workflow
efficiency and patient privacy in the emergency and outpatient
departments. The project will improve our ability to treat our
veterans. There will be no reduction in services.”
Still, change could come to the VA in the form of a new White House
administration. President-elect Obama recently appointed Gen. Eric
“Ric” Shinseki to secretary of Veterans Affairs. Shinseki, former
chief of staff for the Army, will replace Peake.
Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for Obama’s transition team, said future
plans for the VA hospitals haven’t been formulated yet.
But while Obama campaigned, he promised to expand VA centers across
the country and allow all veterans access to services. He also
proposed to increase funding for VA medical care and make
improvements to claims processing and procedures.
Vietor said Shinseki would make his own recommendations sometime
after the inauguration on Jan. 20.
