Veterans Affairs Action Team

ARTICLE X.  ACTION TEAMS (Adopted December 19, 2004)

 Section 1.  Rather than utilize Standing Committees, RCCVFP will function principally through Action Teams. Each team will then organize, coordinate and direct specific functions and/or specific types of tasks upon approval of the general membership.

 Section 2.  Chapter members will determine what Action Teams are to be created and also can dissolve an Action Team at any time.

 Section 3.  The Action Team will be comprised of those who have an interest in a specific event or function or those who have a special talent/skill/connection to make an event or function successful. Each team will consist of three or more members and have a single leader who will report monthly at the general membership meeting.

• 1 in 4 Iraq/Afghan Vets Seek Medical Care 
• Federal Money for Veterans Healthcare Falls $1.2 Billion Short
• A Flood of Troubled Soldiers Is in the Offing, Experts Predict NY Times, December 16, 2004
• Center for American Progress Highlights Hidden Cost of the War in Iraq: Mental Health and the Military
• Homeless Iraq vets showing up at shelters
• Injured Iraq Vets Come Home to Poverty ABC News story
• Illness taking grim toll at nation's boot camps Seattle Times, December 31, 2004.
• Lariam: the New Agent Orange the pharmaceutical company Roche, issued this warning in a patient information sheet : “People taking Lariam [a prophylaxis (preventative) against malaria] occasionally experience severe anxiety, feelings that people are against them, hallucinations, depression, unusual behavior or feeling disoriented. Some patients taking Lariam think about killing themselves and there have been rare reports of suicides."
• Long-term care a challenge for soldiers Chicago Sun-Times, December 5, 2004
• VA backlog Forcing Iraq, Afghanistan Vets to Wait for Treatment Detroit. Nov 8, 2004
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Concerns ABC News Nightline December 15, 2004
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD a growing collection of information that returning veterans will need
• Vets return, but not always with healthcare C.S. Monitor, November 10, 2004
• Incarcerated veterans often face service-related illnesses
• More Troops Returning From Iraq With Brain Trauma 
• Homeless Vets Already Overload Safety Net This story originally was reported on ABC News' Nightline Nov. 11 by Mike Cerre.
• PTSD and my Iraq Homecoming 
• Troops risk undetected brain injury 
  Thousands of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan may be risking permanent brain damage by returning to combat with relatively minor but undiagnosed concussions, often caused by bomb blasts, military researchers say.
• Veterans Benefits Under-funded   May 25, 2004This release shows the gap in the amount needed to adequately fund veterans benefits nationally and the state-by-state gap in funding veterans health care needs.
• Vets fighting back with brown paper If the U.S. government can break promises to the "greatest generation" and treat them as "used bags" without accountability, what will it do to our current military veterans?
• Wounds of War The story of the military hospital where there’s no escaping the horrors of the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan
  

• Vets deserve better It is high time for Congress to draft a new GI Bill for this new generation of war veterans who are just as deserving of our support as were their grandfathers and fathers in their day.

If you know someone returning from Iraq or Afghanistan that may be having trouble, this is a good site to start: Not All Wounds Are Visible - PTSD Alliance http://www.ptsd-alliance.org/  

Americans need to tie a “Yellow Ribbon” around their memories, when veterans are eventually dumped off at V.A. hospitals around the United States. - Mike Hastie, U.S. Army Medic, Vietnam 1970-71