Hoo-AH U.S. Troops: The real one percent

The following op-ed was written by 

"60 Minutes" producer Henry Schuster...

We like to divide the world up. It's only natural to think in terms of us v them. Right now, in the public discourse, it seems to be all about the wealthiest one percent and the rest of us - the 99 percent.

However, after covering the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for the last ten years - including numerous trips to the war zones and to military communities here at home -- I've learned there's another one percent, who I call the real one percent. They are the men and women who fight our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (not to mention Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya) and their families. The rest of us are the 99 percent.

We lend our moral support to the one percent. We cheer the veterans when their names are announced at ball games. Maybe we even have ribbons of various colors on our car. We say the obligatory 'thank you for your service,' and I believe we mean it. But we don't really understand what that service really means for these members of the military.

We don't understand that the cost of war doesn't end when the troops come home, but is instead often paid out over the years.

This is our real great divide in this country. It is in part the consequence of an all-volunteer military. It is also in part the consequence of fighting wars without involving the rest of us. We weren't asked to sacrifice after 9/11 or pay for the wars that followed. Imagine the reaction if we had a war tax. Or if there had been a draft. Instead, we've got the few fighting for the many and they do it at great cost to themselves and their families.

Last season on "60 Minutes," we did a story about homeless veterans and a program called Stand Down to help them. And now, on this week's broadcast, Scott Pelley and I report onOperation Proper Exit, a story about the price of war being paid by the real one percent. Part of that price is the horrific wounds suffered by many who, in wars past, might have died. Advances in military medicine allowed them to survive - survive with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. That's something the rest of us, the 99 percent, need to know.

HOO-ah: Bo Derek Honored for Work on Behalf of Veterans

Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake today honored actress Bo Derek for her work to increase public awareness of the rehabilitative programs of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

"Ms. Derek has worked tirelessly to shine the public spotlight on veterans, especially those who have been severely injured while serving this nation," Peake said. "She has been a good friend of veterans and a bright example of dedicated volunteerism."

Since 2000, Ms. Derek has been the honorary chair of VA's National Rehabilitation Special Events, improving public understanding of veterans issues, encouraging veterans to take advantage of VA's rehabilitative programs and visiting VA medical centers around the country.

"I am deeply humbled and honored to serve as the Honorary Chair of VA's National Rehabilitation Special Events," Ms. Derek said. "I have met so many amazing veterans who have sacrificed so much on our behalf. They are truly among our nation's finest citizens, and it is a privilege to stand by their side."

Ms. Derek has also taken part in USO tours to support troops and works with the Special Forces Association, which named her an honorary Green Beret.

Ms. Derek's father, Paul Collins, was a radio operator during the Korean War, and both her stepfather and her late husband, actor John Derek, were also veterans.

VA secretary nominee says he will automate Veterans Affairs

See Shinseki To Be Secretary of Veterans Affairs for back ground

President-elect Barack Obama's choice to head the Veterans Affairs Department vowed during his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday to transform the sprawling agency into a 21st century organization that relies heavily on automated processes.

Retired Gen. Eric Shinseki, a former Army chief of staff, also told the panel that he would work with Defense Department Secretary Robert Gates to ensure development of a seamless electronic health record for active-duty personnel and veterans.

Shinseki said the obstacle to developing the digital records was not technical but rooted in the leadership at VA and Defense, and if confirmed as VA secretary, he plans to discuss the matter with Gates.

Shinseki also said he wants to make VA's business practices as "paperless as possible" to streamline operations and support decision-making. He also promised that the department would not miss its deadline to start issuing checks under the new GI bill passed this summer. Shinseki said he intends VA to start sending payments to veterans by August, "with as few administrative problems as possible."

In an illustration of the problems Shinseki faces as he tries to make VA a paperless organization, outgoing VA Secretary James Peake told the House and Senate VA committees in a letter last October that the benefits payments the GI bill creates will require "significant manual processing" until the department can develop a claims processing system.

VA has hired the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command to build the system. Sources said last week that SPAWAR only recently started work on the system, just seven months before the GI bill goes into effect. Sources added that VA has allocated minimal staff to the project and has not yet hired a contractor.

In their comments to Shinseki, three senators on the VA committee -- Jon Tester, D-Mont.; Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas; and Roger Wicker, R-Miss. -- put the onus on Defense for the slow development of an electronic medical record system that the Pentagon and VA can share

Tester said he was concerned that the two departments don't have a seamless record despite working on the project for a year. "We need to get Defense to buy into it," he said. Hutchinson said Defense had not matched VA's commitment to the project.

Shinseki told the panel the technology to build a seamless electronic health record "is there" and it is "just a matter of getting the technology to do the right handshake" between the electronic health record operated by Defense and the one operated by VA.

Wicker asked Shinseki if he thought a single electronic health record could meet the requirements of both departments. Shinseki said he could not answer the question at this time, but he reiterated his position that sharing medical information between the two departments was not a technical issue, and had to do instead with leadership.

A spokesman for the Military Health Systems said, "We look forward to working with Secretary Shinseki" on electronic health records.

Shinseki told the hearing that VA's VistA electronic health record system received an informal endorsement from doctors at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington when Shinseki had a checkup there last week. He said he asked two Walter Reed doctors if they were familiar with VA's electronic health record system, and, according to Shinseki, they said, "they thought it was an excellent system, and they wished they had it at Walter Reed."

Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, said he expected the full Senate to conform Shinseki on Jan. 20, Inauguration Day.

Shinseki To Be Secretary of Veterans Affairs

I’m not a big fan of Shinseki for a number of reasons.

The signature events of his tenure as Army Chief of Staff was carrying out a direct attack on the Ranger Regiment by mandating that the entire Army adopt the black beret (and in the process crafting a contract specification that prohibited the only US manufacturer of berets from competing and awarding the contract to a ChiCom company) and a disloyaly effort to roll the new Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on the procurement of the Crusader artillery system. The dominant meme, naturally, focuses on his Iraq War testimony in February 2003.

Having said that, I am cheered by the selection of General Shinseki as the Secretary of Veterans Affairs rather than a politcal hack like Max Cleland who has made a career of riding his admittedly serious injuries.

He is a disabled veteran, having lost half of a foot to a landmine in Vietnam. He has experienced the military casualty system.

Unlike Cleland, he has experience in running large organizations. The VA is a beast. The best one can hope for is that it will be nudged in the correct direction because “turning” it anywhere just can’t happen.

There is no evidence that Shinseki is very far left on the political spectrum. He is tightly wired into the Japanese-American power structure that has dominated Hawaiian politics since 1954 and has been rumored to be a successor to either Daniel Inouye or Daniel Akaka in the US Senate when they retire.

Those, of course, are the empirical reasons why we can be well satisfied with General Shinseki’s nomination. But there are other, more selfish reasons, that leave us chuckling.

Shinseki is bulletproof. Mr. Obama had better be happy in his choice because there is no firing the man. Shinseki has also demonstrated that he doesn’t let good judgment get in his way once he embarks on a course of action (see Beret, Black) and he’s not adverse to going behind his boss’s back to get his way (see Crusader). And if he is smacked about he’s perfectly willing to seek public revenge.

These traits in the context of an economic environment that offers no new money for veterans programs and veterans organizations who have made a sport of brutalizing VA secretaries promises to provide many opportunities for amusement in the dark days ahead.

President-elect Barack Obama has chosen retired Gen. Eric K. Shinseki to be the next Veterans Affairs secretary, turning to a former Army chief of staff, under the Bush administration.
"I think that General Shinseki is exactly the right person who is going to be able to make sure that we honor our troops when they come home," Obama said in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press".