Some returning vets suffer, but some programs not fully used
TIGARD, Ore. (AP) - There were horror stories of foul-ups only a veteran could believe, but many who testified on adjustment problems for Oregon National Guard veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan said Tuesday there are more services available than often are used.
A major problem, they said at a hearing in Tigard chaired by Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., was getting the people who need help to the help that is available.
"When someone is holding a gun in Afghanistan and eight days later he is holding his child," Wyden said. It is "a tremendous transition to ask of a Guard member."
But the bottom line, Kulongoski said, was that returning veterans have a right to expect their problems to be addressed. He said about 850 guardsmen will be returning from Afghanistan this summer, but that about 250 to 300 more will be heading for Iraq. Members of the 224th and 234th Engineer Companies from Salem and Warrenton are on notice for deployment in June or July.
Retired Col. Scott McCrae, who heads the Guard's reintegration team for returning veterans, said his department is working with employers and employment officials, and there are more jobs available to veterans than there are veterans to fill them. The problem, he said, is making sure veterans know how to get them.
Jim Sardo, who runs the post traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse programs at Portland's Veterans' Administration hospital, said about 1,100 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have come for treatment and about 45 percent had mental disorders.
Of those, he said, about a third were there for stress disorder and a quarter for depression.
Kulongoski and McCrae proposed phasing veterans back into the civilian world by extending the length between the return from a war zone and the release from active duty.
Kulongoski and Wyden heard from relatives of veterans who complained that some doctors would not honor health insurance programs provided for servicemen and dependents. Compensation rates are generally linked to those of Medicare.
"We will not let guard members and reservists fall out of this system," Wyden said. "That's what will come out of this meeting."
Donna Elliott told of her husband, Col. Robert Elliott, who broke a leg in Afghanistan and got initial treatment at Fort Lewis, Wash., but then was told to had to go to Fort Gordon in Georgia for further treatment because it was his base of record.
She said he waited for days there with no attention and then was seen for just a few minutes.
Kulongoski said Rep. Darlene Hooley, D-Ore., had put an amendment in the Iraq appropriations bill to allow injured veterans to be treated at the nearest military facility.
Cpl. Armondo Borboa said he was detained on a medical hold for 90 days before they even found what his problem was. He said he had been exposed to chemicals and was told continually that he had asthma.
"It wasn't asthma," Borboa said. "I used to run marathons."
But generally, he said, "the programs that are there work, but we can't get to them. The care is great if you can get to it."
Wyden said a lot is being done right in Oregon. "But we still have a lot of heavy lifting to do. There are still a lot of people falling through the cracks."
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
