Monday, Aug. 15, 2005 | 11:19 a.m.
Disabled military veterans say that maybe if their health needs were pet projects of lawmakers, they would not have to struggle each year to pressure Congress to adequately fund the Veterans Administration.
"This year, veterans health care funding increased by $1.5 billion, but pork funding increased by $5 billion," said Joseph Violante, national legislation director for the Disabled American Veterans.
"Pork now gets more funding than veterans health care -- $27 billion to about $25 billion for veterans health. We want to make sure that the veterans coming home now have a good health care system in place 50 years from now. We want the government to keep its promise to veterans."
The 85-year-old DAV, for the eighth time, is holding its national convention in Las Vegas. The meeting kicked off Saturday and continues today through Wednesday at Bally's. Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., was to have addressed the DAV business session earlier today.
About 4,000 disabled veterans attending the event hope to get across their messages of increasing funding for veterans health care and reducing major delays in veterans receiving specialized health care and general benefits.
The nonprofit organization that has 1.3 million members is focusing efforts on care for a new generation of young veterans from the two Persian Gulf wars, who are coming home with higher incidences of multiple amputations and post-traumatic stress disorder related to the horrors of guerilla warfare.
Dwayne Nichols, a disabled veteran of the Persian Gulf War era from Reno, says that while health care for veterans in Nevada is better than in most places, there is a lot of room for improvement.
"In Nevada, processing a benefits claim that has no problems can take up to eight months (compared to a year or longer in other places)," said Nichols, 31, whose Air Force career was cut short by service-related rheumatoid arthritis.
"Our state processes 1 percent of all of the nation's claims for veterans benefits, and we do not have 1 percent of the nation's population in Nevada."
Statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Nevada demographer's office show that Nevada's population as of this year accounts for eight tenths of 1 percent of the U.S. population.
Nichols, who works in the Reno DAV office, said once a veteran in Nevada is approved for benefits, he now can expect to wait up to 45 days to be assigned a doctor and 30 days after that to get his initial doctor's appointment.
Again, that's better than in most places, said Violante, 55, a Marine veteran who became disabled from ear injuries sustained during a noncombat explosion while serving in Vietnam at age 19.
The problem, DAV officials say, is an unwillingness on the part of lawmakers to properly fund the health care system that is reducing staffs at a time when demand for care is on the rise.
"Since 2003, the VA has lost 600 employees (via cutbacks)," Violante said. "Benefits to veterans has suffered for it.
"It can take six months to a year for many veterans to see a specialist. Many of them get so frustrated they go to private specialists because of the need to be treated."
The DAV hopes its 84th national convention will bring greater attention to not only improving health care, but also passing resolutions that will:
The group also is supportive of the government's directive to give the most recent returning veterans priority VA health care to treat high numbers of head wounds, brain cancer, knee and back injuries and psychiatric problems.
But Violante says that cannot come at the cost of older veterans being pushed aside.
"In the past wars, those with the most serious wounds died, but with today's level of care, they are surviving," Violante said. "They are young and likely will be in the VA health care system for a half-century or longer."
Nichols said the estimated 17 percent of veterans coming home from the second Persian Gulf War with post-traumatic stress disorder is too high, and that the government needs to address that issue.
Las Vegas veterans activist Frank Perna, a veteran who is not disabled but works with homeless local veterans, many of whom are disabled, said he sees the effects every day of a veteran population in serious need of help.
"Democrat- or Republican-controlled, Congress historically forgets veterans," said Perna, who served on a veterans advocacy committee formed by Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., shortly after Ensign was elected. "During the current war we are seeing higher fatality and casualty rates, lots of PTSD and head wounds.
"If the government does not do something to help these veterans many of them will wind up on the streets in the coming years."
The National DAV convention has come to Nevada nine times prior to this year -- in Las Vegas in 1947, '77, '82. '89, '89, '95, '97 and '98, and in Reno in 1986 and 1992. The organization conducts seminars, workshops and business meetings, and honors those who have furthered the causes of disabled vets.
On Sunday, Las Vegas entertainer Wayne Newton was honored for his work as head of the USO. Oliver North and Fox News producer Steven Tierney were awarded for their series "War Stories with Oliver North."
John Devine, a Marine veteran from New York who lost a leg in a mortar attack during the Vietnam War and went on to become a disabled sports hero, was named DAV Outstanding Disabled Veteran of the Year.
Devine in recent years has hit a hole-in-one on a Pennsylvania golf course and bowled a perfect 300 game as part of an 803 three-game series. He has "become a positive example of of ability not disability" to everyone, the DAV said in a news release.
Also, over the weekend, National DAV commander James Sursely addressed the conventioneers as did VA Secretarty R. James Nicholson.
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