Your right Willyal!! This makes me puke. I was involved in a situation in the Pittsburgh Office as a DAV NSO, only the situation was different . It involved a DAV supervisor wanting to tape a VA rating officer. I would'nt do it (against the law), so the DAV drums up some unrelated stuff and fires me. I mean the way that the VA and DAV rewards the ones trying to do good work is very negligible. I would not want to know how much crime there really is like this in the VA and service agencies. Sad, isn't it??

My initial reaction to this is that I disagree with his premise that we must accept that if there is war, there is going to be killing. I support wholeheartedly the fact that getting shot at requires our response to shoot back and KILL, because we do not have any better weapons for the head on battle scenario, or a way to defend ourselves other than with a weapon that is going to kill. If this idea is being looked at just for the individual soldier in the field or on the river, or helicopter...why not some far out fantastic stun gun that does not kill. I can hear the laughs but when I saw those bombs being guided down those smoke stacks, I said "impossible!." the military has weapons today that blow my mind. Being shot at and continuing to live makes a person so %(**(&^$^$% angry that the guy is going to die if you have a rifle or gun in your hand. I think that something like a stun gun or freezer weapon would provide me with the same satisfaction that I would experience in killing the person, but I am only guessing at that one. I have been in many firefights and I have killed, but I just do not know if stunning the person out of control would be the same as killing him/her to satisfy that rage.. I am sure the guilt would be minimized.

I think that it is important to keep in mind that the VA continues to be let off the hook by asking veterans who are inpatient to take their meds, be very polite and do not make waves. I can control just about anyone on meds. The headline of this sad incident should read "VA hospitals continue psychiatric treatment failure" and then view this incident with that different attitude. The responsibility would be related to the responsible agency. This is just one incident out of many including veterans doing this to themselves. By the reported information, this veteran could have had paranoid schizophrenai.

Colmarsh..it isn't neccessary..vets of each war know very well what has been wrong and still is wrong...It is not the VA's fault..It is the veterans fault for letting it go on and on. I may be wrong and please tell me if I am but there are enough veterans(able veterans) to form a coalition that would stop all this insane shit!! I don't mean DAV, VVAW, VFW, dadadadada, they are all in bed together. We have seen more than enough to have a spark to do something. This stuff ain't gonna stop..Never has yet!! I am not the greatest leader in the world but start something and I will work my butt off to help these new vwts get what they have earned. PEACE

Right you are TwoCavMed..I was a National Service Officer with the DAV for 5 years and the one most important thing throughout the entire system is numbers, numbers, numbers. The DAV goes bonkers at the end of every month tallying up the numbers to be sent in to the Washington Office and vets are ignored at this time., just like the VA.
WHO requires these numbers??? Congress requires these numbers to substantiate their request for funding...Go figure???

I am in the Pittsburgh Region and have worked in it. If we could write more here I would, but the path of least resistance and having high numbers is to fill rooms and schedules with non-service connected pensioners who have and cause the least problems. PTSD'rs are put together with recently sober alcoholics and major psychiatric coditions for treatment, even though it is totally against VA policy.

Good opinion Simply Tim...It is known that trauma depletes opiate receptors in the individuals brain. Depletes means that they are gone, leaving the individual naked when experiencing more trauma and stress. Eventually a wall is built so nothing gets in. Not even love. PEACE
backfire

Thank you very much for doing this report Kurt. I believe that there are some good VA employees in the Regional Offices and the VA hospitals, but when the entire situation is evaluated I think that we will find that given the opportunity to have more and better treatment for the veterans OR get a pay increase, the VA employees will go with the pay increase. A number of people would respond and say "OF COURSE". That is not the kind of employees that the system needs. This is the same mentality that spends and spends on new construction so they can house the outsourced doctors from other countries to treat the NSC pensioners who just love the savings they get and they never make a peep about poor treatment. While the vets who need treatment experience the VA Hospitals as a home where they are not wanted. For some reason, Kurt, You presented the idea to "Tear it Down" I do not believe that there is an alternative. Thank you Larry for running this.

Righ there with you K9...I think it is beginning to form, right here and this guy needs all of our support. Most important issue is to tell only the truth here. I was a DAV NSO for 5 years and I would be glad to add the BS that I know. Wind er up, git er goin. Remember the Matrix?? So Kurt...you're the one.? Goood !!!