Route Mobile

"Aaron Ringel is the Republican Candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates in Arlington (48th District), as well as a former Capitol Hill staffer and Marine Arabic linguist who served a tour of duty in the Al Anabar province of Iraq in 2005."

She wasn’t even five years old, yet she knew enough to understand her country was going through upheaval and that new men with guns replaced the old men with guns. Old enough to have only known a time when her family loved her and that was all that mattered. This was the natural order of things and it would never change. Her memories began when we got here and they ended before we had even left.

Our convoy was cruising down route Mobile, the largest and most dangerous east-west highway in Iraq. The Iraqis had a phrase for the people who drive this road, they would say “they work on the doorstep of God”. The insurgents focused their roadside IED’s on Mobile since it was one of the few places they ‘knew’ we would have to travel. Outside of the IEDs there was always some form of activity on this stretch of road. If you went west, there were men selling ice where the road split towards Syria or Jordan, go east and there were young boys and old men selling gas and sodas under the bridges, and there was always at least one stray donkey wandering away from its former life, trailing a leash behind it like a fishing boat trawls a net.

Yet on this singular day there were no donkeys, and the insurgents had slept in much too late to place any bombs on the side of this road. The only thing moving on this stretch of highway was our vehicles and the burden they carried. We got there too late, yet we didn’t feel that way. It had been twenty minutes since she had fallen in. The water level was higher than it had been in a long time due to the unseasonable rains that seemed to have been following my unit like the plague since we had begun workups in Camp Lejuene two months earlier. With so much water soaking into the arid land the fields along the road were glutted with the mud and runoff, which flowed into the storm drains abutting the road much too rapidly for them to handle.

It was at one of these drains that this hapless family decided to cross the road; a mother and her six or seven daughters ranging from fifteen down to that of not more than five years old. In the confusion of crossing the road her littlest daughter disappeared. With so much water rushing from the fields to the drain she had almost no time to cry out, yet her family had seen her fall.

We happened upon this scene, all of the women hysterically yelling and waving at our passing vehicles, crying out for any help that we could possibly provide. Naturally, our convoy stopped. It was the way we handled business, if it was out of the ordinary we looked into it regardless of the situation. It was a prudent rule we always followed and it had served us well in the past.

There was little we could do, but we did all we possibly could. One Marine ran down the side of the road where the water ran out of the drain while another went down the opposite side, both sprinting as hard as they could in hope of finding the child. This is difficult to maintain for any stretch of time with gear weighing close to forty pounds…they ran for nearly a kilometer, yet there was nothing at the end.

We all wanted to go into the drain. Our vehicles had winches on them and we were willing to hook one up to our belts and crawl in to look for her, yet the water was all the way to the top of the pipe and it was deemed too dangerous. The father of the child showed up a short time later, clearly in grief he shed his robe and attempted to climb in to find his daughter, his whole family had to restrain him.

Twenty minutes on the side of the road waving, twenty minutes on the busiest highway in all of Iraq, twenty minutes that must have felt like a lifetime to this family. No one had stopped, no one had slowed down, and no one had given it a second thought or a passing glance except our convoy. The family found the little girl’s body about a kilometer and a half down from where she had fallen in the drain. Sadly there was little we could have done to save her.

The fear from rockets and mortars that fell on our base and the IEDs that detonated next to our vehicles paled in comparison to how we all felt upon seeing the grief on this mother’s face when she knew there was nothing that would save her child. This needless death, in a country already full of violence and bloodshed, has led me to draw one conclusion about its people. When tragedy occurs they will turn to those most able to help, not their fellow Iraqis, not the Iraqi Police or National Guard, but us, the coalition forces.

This was the burden shouldered when we first set foot on this soil, it is the burden we carry when we went out on a convoy, and it is the burden we gladly accept when we see a family in distress. Not only are we protecting the freedoms of every American, but we are also trying to preserve and establish those of every Iraqi until the time their country is firm enough in its resolve and strong enough in its ideals that we are no longer needed. It is my hope that on that day I will no longer have to bear witness to a mother’s grief on the side of route Mobile.

http://www.ringelfordelegate.com/

German soldiers 'drink and complain too much to fight Taleban'

They have a beer ration of up to a litre a day, and wurst for dinner. Taleban or no Taleban, Germans take a little bit of home with them when they serve in trouble spots. Even their carefully sorted rubbish gets dumped in wheelie bins before being sent from Afghanistan to Germany for recycling.

Now Germany’s most senior officer has berated his troops for going soft. “We cannot guarantee soldiers that they will have an all-round feel-good experience,” said General Wolfgang Schneiderhan.

His outburst follows complaints made by German soldiers to the official ombudsman about their tours abroad. Some have grumbled about unsuitable sleeping bags for their Congo peace-keeping mission — “there is no reason why this issue should have come before Parliament,” said General Schneiderhan — while others moaned about the long hours, a lack of childcare for their families at home and poor medical care.

Army doctors say that they are on the brink of leaving because pay and conditions are so bad. So many have returned to civilian life that there is a shortage of medics in the field.

“We have to tell a professional soldier who complains about his third tour of overseas duty that he has to get a grip — this is his profession,” said General Schneiderhan.
“Perhaps the problem is down to the general tendency in society to delegate responsibility to someone else, or perhaps it is the stress associated with change,” he told several hundred army officers and politicians at an official reception.

It is a far cry from Germany’s old military traditions — the Prussian officers who helped to defeat Napoleon or the tactical flair of Rommel, the Desert Fox, but the troops’ reluctance will not come as a surprise to the country’s allies in combat zones such as Afghanistan, where German participation is limited by a host of caveats.

German Medevac helicopters have to be back at base by dusk. German Tornado aircraft are restricted to unarmed reconaissance. Der Spiegel magazine highlighted the case recently of a Taleban commander — nicknamed the Baghlan Bomber because of his role in blowing up a sugar factory in that northwestern province — who was cornered by the KSK German special service unit but allowed to escape; under the terms of engagement imposed by Parliament the KSK are not authorised to kill unless they are under attack.

Although the north of Afghanistan is not as quiet as it used to be — about 30 German soldiers have been killed since 2001 — other members of the ISAF force have voiced dissatisfaction about Germany’s contribution.

The reports of soldiers’ complaints made to parliament by Reinhold Robbe, the ombudsman, paint a picture of a force that is concentrating more on its own wellbeing than on the peace-keeping mission.

In 2007 German forces in Afghanistan consumed about 90,000 bottles of wine in addition to 1.7 million pints of beer; that figure has stayed constant. British and US bases by contrast have an alcohol ban.

The diet is heavy on carbohydrates, low on fruit and a higher proportion of soldiers are overweight than in the civilian population of Germany. Mr Robbe admitted that too many soldiers had a “passive lifestyle”. In short the soldiers are fat, they drink too much and spend a great deal of time moaning.

There are 3,500 German soldiers in Afghanistan. German troops also take part in missions in Kosovo, Bosnia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. For much of the postwar period Germans were constitutionally banned from serving on foreign missions.

Deployment still requires a parliamentary mandate and this gives complaining soldiers some clout. If they moan loud enough they can usually secure improvements but they continue to suffer equipment shortages, like their British counterparts.

From the Times Online

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=116408176954&h=qGt2X&u=8CLIq&ref=nf

Courtesy of: Ryan Mits

Virginia State Director of the Student Veterans of America and President of Education for Virginia Veteran on issues concerning Virginia's veterans

Joshua Lawton-Belous from Comcast Channel 28 on Vimeo.

The Stick it to Veterans Stimulus

How America’s veterans are getting short changed by the economic stimulus

A quick reading of the economic stimulus quickly reveals a lack of interest in stimulation for America’s veterans. As of May, there are more unemployed veterans then we have had in decades. To be exact there are 1,045,000 unemployed veterans across the United States. Of those, 180,000 are OEF/OIF veterans.

What does that mean? Well, there are more unemployed Iraq and Afghanistan veterans then there are men and women serving in those wars. One would think that with America’s heroes returning home from war to fight another on unemployment, our nation’s lawmakers would go full hog to help them out. Not really. So what did veterans gain from the stimulus.

A $250.00 windfall--Don't spend it all it once.

and

In fairness, the only decent provision veterans did receive was provided by freshman Virginia Representative Glenn Nye, which provides a tax break for employers that hire recently separated servicemembers.

So where are we getting shortchanged?

In reading today’s Washington Post metro section I was disappointed to say the least.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/16/AR2009061603086.html

Two events are about to occur simultaneously. First, the State of Virginia is about to start issuing contracts for stimulus related projects. Once these companies receive these contracts they will start to employ individuals.

This my friends is where veterans receive the shaft. Currently, there are no Virginia specific laws that require companies receiving contracts to do anything for veterans, nor are there any requirements for these companies to do anything for veterans’ employment. But there are requirements for contractors receiving federal contracts. Additionally, 3 percent of all federal contracts are supposed to be awarded to small disabled veteran owned businesses (SDVOSB’s). But wait, isn’t stimulus money federal money? It would seem that these same requirements should apply to this grant money.

Thanks for asking but—No!

Indeed, so our federal tax dollars that otherwise would provide employment and contract opportunities for veterans are being bypassed in the stimulus! Since stimulus funds are technically state grants, the states are not required to adhere to the federal veteran requirements even though the money is federal.

When approached for a fix many of our legislators turned their back/ear/leg in fear it would slow the rate of recovery—no worries over the skyrocketing unemployment numbers of veterans, particularly recently separated servicemembers.

In conclusion, Virginia lawmakers need to stipulate that all companies receiving stimulus dollars have a veteran employment preference for those projects. Also, 3 percent of all Virginia contracts and sub-contracts being funded by federal stimulus money ought to be set-aside for small disabled veteran owned businesses from Virginia.

Anything less is sticking it to Virginia Veterans!

Gov. signs military, veterans bills

Gov. signs military,veterans bills

Tuesday, 16 Jun 2009, 2:03 PM EDT

RICHMOND, Va. - Gov. Tim Kaine Tuesday ceremonially signed several Virginia General Assembly bills providing assistance to military personnel and their families and honoring the Commonwealth’s veterans.

Among the bills signed was the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children. The compact, which has been signed into law in at least 10 other states, will allow for the uniform treatment, at the state and local district level, of military children transferring between school districts and states, and will also address the timely sharing of their educational records. According the the Governor's office, Virginia currently has more school-aged children of active duty military than any state in the nation (76,352).

Other bills signed provide tuition assistance for members of the National Guard that have a minimum of two years remaining on their service requirement, increase the homestead exemption for veterans with a 40% or greater service connected disability rating, and make it easier for military and overseas voters and their families to vote absentee.
Virginia is home to 156,000 active military personnel, as well as 26,000 reservists and 10,000 members of the Virginia National Guard. Additionally, 807,000 veterans call the Commonwealth home, meaning that one out of every ten Virginians is a veteran.

The bills signed Tuesday in detail are:

Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children -
HB 1727: Establishes a compact to remove barriers to educational success imposed on children of military families because of frequent moves and deployment of their parents. The compact is currently in effect as at least 10 states have enacted the compact into law.

Election -
HB 1881: Provides that the absentee ballot shall be sent by email to military and overseas voters and their families who are located outside the Commonwealth and who request the ballot be sent by email. However, the voted ballot must be returned by regular mail.

SB 993/HB 1712: Removes the requirement that a federal write-in absentee ballot will only be considered valid for purposes of simultaneously satisfying both an absentee ballot application and a completed absentee ballot for federal offices if the envelope contains the signature of a witness and his printed name and address. The bill provides that the envelope need only contain the signature of the witness in order for the ballot to be considered valid. The bill also provides that the ballot must be received no later than the closing of the polls rather than five days before the election and that the federal write-in absentee ballot may serve as a registration application if the voter is eligible to register in Virginia.

Active Duty Military Personnel and Reservists -
HB 2342: Provides that notwithstanding the eligibility requirement that a member of the National Guard have a minimum of two years remaining on his service requirement in order to receive a grant, if a member is activated or deployed for federal military service, an additional day, up to 365 days, must be added to the member's eligibility for the grant for each day of federal service. Additional credit, or credit for state duty, may be awarded at the discretion of the Adjutant General.

SB 1159: Extends from 72 hours to five business days the amount of time a person serving in the armed forces of the U.S. outside Virginia has to get his vehicle inspected upon returning to the Commonwealth.
Veterans -

HB 1667: Extends the American Former Prisoners of War Memorial Highway (U.S. Route 19) northward from the Russell/Tazewell County line to U.S. Route 460 at Claypool.

HB 1767: Requires that the Board of Education award an honorary high school diploma to veterans of the Vietnam War who, as secondary school students, enlisted or were drafted to serve in any branch of the United States Armed Forces during the war between 1959 and 1975, were subsequently honorably discharged, and were unable to complete their secondary education upon return to civilian life.

HB 1875: Requires the Virginia War Memorial Foundation Board of Trustees to establish criteria for those name and homes of records to be engraved on the War Memorial. The bill specifies the issues that the Board must address in its criteria. The bill requires the Board to report to the Governor and the General Assembly on or before November 1, 2009.

HB 2279: Requires the Commissioner of the Department of Veterans Services to ensure that benefit claims assistance is provided on a regular basis at locations other than established service offices. Current law specifies that the Commissioner shall ensure that the personnel assigned to process benefit claims shall provide these services at locations other than the service office at least one day per week

HB 2401: Designates the following bridges: the U.S. Route 29 bridge over the Rapidan River between Greene and Madison Counties as the "Fallen Heroes Memorial Bridge in honor of Corporal Adam J. Fargo
and Private First Class Edwin A. Andino" and the U.S. Route 340 bridge over Overall Run at the Warren County/Page County line as the "Corporal Larry E. Smedley (USMC) Memorial Bridge."
HB 2534: Authorizes the issuance of special license plates for veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom.

HB 2560: Increases the additional homestead exemption from $2,000 to $10,000 for veterans with a 40% or greater service-connected disability rating

HB 2639: Exempts from the mandatory disclosure provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (i) personal information contained in the Veterans Care Center Resident Trust Funds concerning residents or patients of the Department of Veterans Services care centers and (ii) certain records maintained in connection with fundraising activities by the Veterans Services Foundation

SB 1116: Requires health insurers, health care subscription plans, and health maintenance organizations to offer and make available coverage for medically necessary prosthetic devices, their repair, fitting, replacement, and components, to replace a limb.

A quick fix for veterans...

Within two years of the conclusion of World War II, more than 16 million service men and women were released from active duty. Millions filed claims with VA for compensation. Why wasn’t the VA overwhelmed? Perhaps it is time to recognize that better production and timeliness levels achieved by the VA in the 1950s and ‘60s may very well have been accomplished because there was less attention paid to procedural rights and that the VA may have exhibited a rather cavalier attitude when it came to interpreting the law and its own regulations.

Whether you agree with either view of history, it is clear the VA was able to make claim decisions quickly. Reexaminations were frequent and allowed VA to increase or reduce evaluations as disabilities worsened or improved.

Today, claims development takes longer. Quite simply, Congress recognized that past procedures and practices by VA were not always veteran friendly, did not adequately tell veterans what was needed and often led to decisions based on less than all the available evidence. Decisions are longer because Congress decided that veterans should be told what evidence was considered and why benefits were denied or granted. Appeals take longer to resolve because of increased evidentiary and notice requirements, the introduction of an additional review level with Decision Review Officers and the need to satisfy all judicial mandates.

The fact is there is nothing inherently wrong with any of these changes. Those decisions were all needed to fix recognized problems and abuses.

Having said that, how do you devise a system that allows VA to make decisions rapidly without increasing mistakes, is not costly either to the veteran or the American people, and continues to provide veterans with the protections that have been built into the law over the past 60 years?

Jerry Manar, who is the VFW’s Deputy Director of National Veterans Service, with assistance from VFW staff and VA alumni, has developed a process that incorporates the best practices of a post WWII claims system to make expedited provisional decisions based on existing records. This proposal, which calls for the creation of a test program entitled the Provisional Claims Processing Program, would grant benefits on limited information quickly but with quality.

Limited to servicemembers leaving the Armed Forces or recently discharged veterans, evaluations would be based on existing evidence, understanding that benefits for some conditions may be denied when further development would enable VA to grant service connection under existing law. Conversely, it is understood that benefits, based on existing evidence, may not be service connected when all evidence is eventually developed and considered. Consequently, a grant of benefits for any disability is not a grant of service connection entitling the veteran to protections afforded by existing law and regulation.

Under this program, full development, a VA examination and a new decision would be required four years after the initial provisional rating. Provisional decisions made under this program would have no precedent value, and service connection for all disabilities, including any new condition the veteran chooses to place into contention, would be made during the review at the four-year point.

This program would restore the rapid delivery of benefits based on current rating standards, while still maintaining veterans’ rights under a system of protections carefully crafted by Congress over the past 60 years. It should dramatically increase decisions on original claims while allowing the bulk of VFW’s field staff to concentrate on resolving the existing backlog.

More importantly, this program would provide a win for new veterans. In exchange for agreeing to wait for a final decision, they would receive a provisional decision and benefits in a matter of weeks instead of more than six months. If properly structured the VA could fulfill the promise it made with the BDD program that a decision could be made prior to discharge.

Further, veterans have the right to choose which program they participate in AFTER they know what the provisional decision awards. If they disagree with the provisional decision, they need not accept it. And, since they know that the current program may take six months or more to produce a decision, their conscious choice to accept the wait should reduce the number of complaints and consequent pressure on Congress.

Kibbeh

When coming to this blog to read about Virginia's veterans the question that should always come to your mind is "Why should I spend time reading and deciphering the minds of these bloggers"? Unlike many of us who are from Northern Virginia, and those who work in the D.C. Metropolitan Area, I do not feel the need to impress you with my position nor tell you about how wonderful of a person I am. I'd rather you read my posts and agree or disagree with me based on the post's merits alone. Yet to deny who we are and our personal story is to deny reality. My experiences have written my story which have shaped my opinions. Thus below is only one experience which may help you get to know me as a person. If the heart is the home of the soul and food is the key to a man's heart, it is only proper that I tell you about my favorite food and how I came to love it.

There are only some men in life who die only to be born again: Jesus and all those who go to war and come back. The only difference between Jesus and those warriors is that Jesus came back the same person while these warriors are unrecognizable from their past selves. And as Jesus broke bread with his disciples so to did the disciples of war break peace and eat of the local foods. Some found the new local tastes to be exotic and delightful while others found these tastes disgusting and could not deign on the delights of war.

I loved the delights of war. The tastes, the smells, the texture were all new and exciting to me. Maybe it is because I was young when I first went over to Iraq and naïve, that I found the tastes of Baghdad to be so exciting. Whatever the reasons for my new found love of Baghdad cuisine, I came to love a meat rolled dish called kibbeh. Kibbeh is a hodgepodge of meat. Most recognizable in its rolled torpedo shape, kibbeh is also sometimes shaped as meatballs. A main stay of Middle Eastern cuisine, kibbeh can be found from Lebanon to Iraq. There are few things that the Israelis and the Arabs share, but each cultures love of kibbeh is one of those things. If the Israelis and the Arabs can agree on how great kibbeh is, you know kibbeh has to be something special.

When I was first introduced to my new found love, I was throwing a placenta away in a trash bag. The birth of some destitute woman’s baby had gone well and her husband had thought to offer me money as a reward. I flatly refused him. My refusal was not so much out of the generosity of my heart, but rather my belief that 2,000 dinar was not worth my time. I was afraid that the next thing that would happen is that the Iraqis in my district would use me as a cheap and competent medical alternative to the incompetent and costly medical personnel in Baghdad. I neither had the time, the medical supplies, nor the patience to deal with that many people. My job was to take care of the men in my platoon and I was not going to let anything get in the way of my job.

Under the an upturned water bottle I was washing my hands off with antibacterial gel and water when one of the guys said, “Doc, the husband’s comin’ back.” Tapping me on my shoulder he thrust into my wet hands a hot, dripping with juice, paper wrapped gift. “Shukron, Shukron, Docteur,” he exclaimed while kissing me on the cheeks. Rather shocked and disgusted by this display of affection, I looked down at the dripping paper gift and back up at his big toothy grin and thought “Well it can’t be that bad.”

My saliva glands exploded with activity as I chewed my first bite of this delicious Arabic food. The smell of cumin and meat wafted through my nostrils and danced on the back of my tongue with every bite. This meat seemed as if it dissolved in my mouth when I tried to relish the taste. Before I knew it, I had finished the kibbeh.

Unfortunately I could not relish the aftertaste of the meat nor the cigarette that I had just lit because off in the distance a huge explosion was heard. Running back to throw on my gear and come to the assistance of whoever had just been hit, I thought to myself “Maybe if it’s Iraqis, I can get some more kibbeh.” Unfortunately for me, my hopes of free kibbeh died along with the family of Iraqis who were peacefully driving with their children in a van.