DAV Urges Defense Secretary
to Get the Facts to War Wounded

1/7/04
4:09:00 PM

PRESS RELEASE
To: National Desk
Contact: David E. Autry
Disabled American Veterans
202-554-3501

WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Disabled American Veterans (DAV) is urging Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld to relax severe restrictions that are preventing wounded service members from the war in Iraq and the war on terror from receiving adequate information about their earned benefits and health care.

In a letter to Secretary Rumsfeld, DAV Washington Headquarters Executive Director David W. Gorman asked the Secretary "to ensure that America's newest generation of war-wounded veterans has access to appropriate information and representation."

"For more than six decades, the DAV has received access to military hospitals so that our professionally trained and fully accredited representatives could provide crucial information and counseling to servicemembers to help smooth their transition from military to civilian life," said Gorman. "The policies of the Department of Defense citing the Privacy Act and security are preventing our skilled representatives from carrying out our congressionally chartered mission."

While wounded soldiers receive some information about veterans' rights and benefits from the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs representatives, Gorman said that information often is "inadequate and fails to meet the needs of those who have been injured. DAV National Services Officers offer the best knowledge, skill, experience, and representations available to disabled veterans today." DAV services are offered at no cost to the servicemembers as part of our mission to help build better lives for disabled veterans and their families.

"For 83 years, we have accomplished that mission to the gratitude of millions of disabled veterans and their families," said Gorman. "Our record of service is unquestioned and second to none."

Gorman cited Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., for selecting patients who could be visited, requiring DAV to request permission to visit servicemembers, and strictly limiting information about the patients, such as name and nature of the injury to the servicemember. Gorman asked Secretary Rumsfeld to urge military medical facilities to restore DAV access to wounded servicemembers "in the best interests of those who have sacrificed so much in the name of freedom." The 1.2 million-member Disabled American Veterans, a non-profit organization founded in 1920 and chartered by the U.S. Congress in 1932, represents this nation's disabled veterans. It is dedicated to a single purpose: building better lives for our nation's disabled veterans and their families. For more information, visit the organization's Web site http://www.dav.org.
 
 

Following is a letter from DAV Washington Headquarters Executive Director David W. Gorman to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld:
 

January 2, 2004     Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld  Secretary of Defense  1000 Defense Pentagon  Washington, DC 20301   Dear Mr. Secretary: I am writing to express the serious concerns of the more than 1.2 million members of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) about the future of those brave men and women who are wounded, sickened, or otherwise disabled in service to our nation, particularly those returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, and the war on terror.  With combat casualties returning to military hospitals in the United States, it is essential that these wounded soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines be made fully aware of their rights, benefits, and health care options even before they leave military service. I know you share my concern that unless they have this vital information, this new generation of veterans will be denied timely access to medical care and the full range of benefits provided by a grateful nation through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).  The Disabled American Veterans was founded in 1920 and was awarded a congressional charter in 1932 to carry out our mission to help build better lives for America's disabled veterans and their families. For 83 years, we have accomplished that mission to the gratitude of millions of disabled veterans and their families. Our record of service is unquestioned and second to none. We have provided our outstanding services free of charge to the men and women who so nobly sacrificed for our nations liberty and have assisted them in obtaining their rightful benefits guaranteed by a grateful nation. For more than six decades, the DAV has always been granted access to military hospitals so our professionally trained and fully accredited representatives, attorneys-in-fact, could provide such crucial information and counseling to these servicemembers to help smooth their transition from military to civilian life. Sadly, that is no longer the case. The current policies of the Department of Defense citing the Privacy Act and security are preventing our skilled representatives from carrying out our congressionally chartered mission. At one facility in particular-Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) in Washington, D.C. -- our efforts to visit with wounded patients have been severely restricted. For example, all requests to visit patients must now be made through the WRAMC headquarters office, which then selects the patients we may visit and strictly limits information about the patients, even the patient's name and the nature of the injury is withheld without express permission. The DAV's representatives also are escorted at all times while in the facility, and all contact with patients is closely monitored by the escort. This is particularly unnerving and inappropriate as all conversations between a representative and client are confidential in nature. I believe these overly broad restrictions on patient access inhibit the ability of our professional accredited representatives to help ensure these wounded servicemembers have the vital information they and their families need in order to obtain the medical care and benefits many of these veterans will depend on for decades to come. The American public would be outraged if these restrictions became public knowledge. We are aware that some VA representation is available for these men and women. It is inadequate and fails to meet the need of those who have been injured. DAV National Service Officers offer the best knowledge, skill, experience and representation available to disabled veterans today. In addition, our expert representatives serve no special interests other than helping the veterans. The record of benefits awarded by the VA shows our honored wounded and injured are getting less than they are rightfully entitled. Those wounded and disabled in service to our nation should not be held captive and deprived of the knowledge that would allow them to receive all their rightful benefits, earned on a battlefield half a world away. It brings great dishonor to our nation to learn of disabled veterans suffering physical and economic hardships following their release from medical treatment solely because they are unaware and uninformed of their rightful benefits.  In that regard, I respectfully request the assistance of your office in our efforts to ensure that America's newest generation of war-wounded veterans has access to appropriate information and representation, in the pursuit of VA health care and the full range of their benefits without delay. Important guidance from your office urging military medical facilities to restore access to these patients by the DAV's accredited representatives would be in the best interests of those who have sacrificed so much in the name of freedom.  I look forward to your prompt reply. Sincerely,  DAVID W. GORMAN Executive Director Washington Headquarters DWG:lmb  cc: President George W. Bush  Secretary of Veterans Affairs

  http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=126-01072004