Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20131111

In afghanistan and iraq have changed the face of veterans day in america. Our phone lines are open now so you can give us a call. Host and we have a special line for veterans this morning host and catch up on social media at twitter, facebook, and email us. It is veterans day in the United States, and i want to lead with three different stories about the three different eras of veterans from three different papers today. Here is the Washington Times this morning. The headline reunion poignant for world war ii veterans. That story notes the host when the retirement army for slim tenant went to his first reunion at the 30th Infantry Division, those who landed on the beaches of normandy and fought across spansion germany, he was greeted by a thousand other veterans. Host another generation of veterans is looked at in the Christian Science monitor today. The vietnam era veterans. 40 years after americas most controversial war began to wind down, more vets seek closure and reconciliation. Front page of Christian Science monitor out this week. And finally, this story from politico. Iraq and afghanistan changed the face of veterans day. A bit of that piece host we will be talking about that subject with you in our first halfhour of todays washington journal. Has a rack in afghanistan, those wars and the change the face of veterans day in america has the and afghanistan changed face of veterans in america . Arnold, good morning. Caller let me take you off of speakerphone. How are you doing, man . Shameful the very way we treat our vet. They always tried to start another war. Off of the twoe longest wars. And the v. A. Benefits and the da hospitals are so backlog, so shamefully backlog. That they have the nerve of talking about another wars. Though that on veterans day like we do the poor for thanksgiving. All the food. The same with the vets are treated. We need to stop spending any on military supplements of supplies and stuff and start getting these vets astray into. Behind thist hurt thing. Host arnold of morning from North Carolina. We will be talking about some of those issues later in the show, but this morning we are asking who are the faces of veterans day for you . Have the wars in iraq and afghanistan changed the face to you . Faces, some veterans who are not around to celebrate veterans day from the recent conflict. The Washington Post ran the occasional feature faces of the fallen. The Washington Post has posted galleries of the fallen since 2003 and the information about those fallen have been compiled by military releases and news Service Reports and local newspaper stories and so, a few of the faces of the fallen dating back in may. We want to know who the faces of veterans day are for you. The walkie, wisconsin, on the line for democrats. Good morning. Faces that i was involved in was the vietnam war. I served two tours in vietnam. Nd we lost 58,000 troops and it seems as though, especially on the republican that they are more interested in the older, older people than it seems like vietnam is kind of pushed up under the rug throughout all of these tv programs. It is just different. We were treated differently we came home. We did not come home as a group of we came home as individuals. And we were shunned. Called baby killers. It is just Something Different about the way we are treated. Heroes. Ever called i wish someone would call me a hero today. Thank you. Host thank you for calling in from wisconsin. Of the you a shot now Vietnam Womens Memorial located near the vietnam wall. The live shot there this morning. Of ahas to also the focus piece in todays usa today. The memory and legacy of the women who served in vietnam and paved the way for future generations will be veteranst the annual day observation observance with a ceremony at 1 00 p. M. At the Vietnam Veterans memorial in washington. Also the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the womens memorial located near the iconic wall. Theres the picture for you. Notes intoday story the chart that more women serve today than ever before. Women have accounted for growing share of enlisted troops in the last 50 years, and a chart showing the 1960 numbers branches andajor going from 1970, to 1980, 1990, 2000, and finally 2008 more women accounted for 19. 9 of enlisted troops in the air force, 6. 2 in the marine corps, 15 in the navy, 13. 2 in the army. We want to know what the faces of veterans day for you and whether the war in iraq has changed it. Democrat from alexandria, virginia. John, good morning. Caller happy veterans day to you, to everybody on all the veterans listening. I am a veteran. Activeduty marine. Tours two in iraq and two in afghanistan. I won a purple heart. Meaning i was wounded. The face of veterans day is very real to me. I do have a concern. I want to speak to everyone listening. My concern is the general narrative that is going to be remembered as we think about the of veterans narrative will be bid disgruntled, upset veteran dealing with his mental wounds, post traumatic stress. Issues the other mental that accompany returning from a war zone. I am afraid this negative narrative is repeating itself over and over through constant reinforcement in the general media. Overwhelmings the majority of returning veterans are stronger and more stable as a result of their combat experience. They are more disciplined and more confident. That would be my one message to the American People. My second would be, out there to veterans, is we need to continue our dedication to service as we come home. Our country translates to service to our communities. So, when we come back home, getting involved in Cancer Awareness or running in Community Five or 10k races or. Ven local Community Politics these are things that continue , thata spirit of service i highly recommend we start to celebrate as a positive member, a unique member of the american citizenry. Bond with theue American People of voter and it is on our onus to carry on our dedication to service and to spread it throughout society. Host thank you this morning. I line for veterans. Vivian writes in on twitter. Served 20 one years in the navy. To me, he is the face of the that. We are weeding your data reading posts, es, facebook mail. The face of veterans day for you. Frank is up from beltsville, new york, on the independent line. Caller it is a disgrace our current the way our country treats utterance. You see so many advertisements for wounded warriors. You know, the government should be taking care of our veterans because it is older men in the government who declared war. There was no necessity for a lot of these wars, what our veterans when voluntarily. Sometimes they were draft did in the vietnam conflict. And our government does not really take care of them. It is a shame as we make his promises these old men make promises to veterans and then they disregard them when they come back. They really do. Because there are just too many out thereople mentally and physically. They cant get jobs. We are focused on too many wrong things. Not to the average guy. People inng for the power. That is all i have to say. Page,on our facebook facebook. Com cspan, Edmund Christian says host facebook. Com cspan. cspanwj. Jerry is on the line for republicans out of maryland gary is on the line. Good morning. The local good morning to you and for the hero who called an ally calls ago caller good morning to you for the hero who called about three calls ago. About the negative narrative is going on if it is ok to say there is a very positive narrative, gary sparks, the american way on youtube. I suggest all of you veterans watch it. You will find out how we young people feel about you. From essex,s gary maryland this morning. A viewer says on twitter. A day to remember our beloved veterans was shut out visiting their memorials for the first time in history. She write to thanks obama. Of refers to the closure some of the memorials on the national mall. One place that gained a lot of attention was the closure of the world war ii memorial and the subject ofi veterans many different articles. From the wall street journal, the doolittle raiders, those who made the famed world war ii bomber attack in the pacific on tokyo. The article notes that of the original 80 men who four remain. Only before that can travel went to the National Museum of the air force for a final toast to their comrades, a tradition they kept up for over 50 years. Doolittle, then a general, and the raiders first reunited to commemorate their mission and it became an annual event. We are getting so old that we said a around anymore, retired Staff Sergeant who was an engineer gunner. I think it is time to put it to rest. That article in todays wall street journal. Wisconsin, on our line for democrats. Sergio, good morning. Im a veteran. What this day means to me. During the iraq and Afghanistan Wars i am a desert storm veteran, by the way. I was some 19861996. The womensay a lot of in these last two wars, lasted 10 yearsplus, have suffered. They went to battle. We with these women out here. Thats the togod last caller, blaming obama the. Hings that were closed i dont agree with that. I believe it is congress fault and they need to have mentors spending. The whole v. A. System needs to be nondiscretionary spending and funded a year in advance like to do the hospital side. January, this coming when they do the budget, they dont have to put us veterans on the line again. That is all i got to say. I appreciate them serving. In the be glad to be hole with them. Host sergio from madison this morning. You may want to note that later 35 we willw, around 9 speak to the National Legislative director of the disabled American Veterans group to discuss putting veterans funding first act that group is supporting it. Advanced appropriations for v. A. Programs and services to make sure veterans and families are not affected by a future government shutdown. We will be talking a little bit about this bill. Gregory is up next from tarboro, North Carolina, i veteran on our line for independents. Caller good morning, sir. My only comment is since those aforementioned wars, i think it tobe made easier for vets either start businesses through the Small Business association and or get work. It is a little rough in North Carolina for both of those things, especially after the sequester. I knew about a small company, they wanted to build a factory in North Carolina. I dont know if i can say their name on the air. Mine wave unita but it was pretty much washed because of my intelbased and the segment was taken out because them marketing segment museums,tals, goals, disabled people, and they would be able to control the flying helicopter with their mind. The sequester, that was pretty much squashed. They could still be done through a grassroots level. Business. T a small they were willing to build a factory here. Host gregory from the carolinas this morning. Talking about some legislative effort he is looking for. An article in the Washington Times was quote that talks about the several the washington bills working through congress. Host the headline lawmaker pushes to give veterans a day off on their day. Chicago, on our line for democrats this morning. Bill, you are on washington journal. Caller i want to thank all the veterans. I am a veteran of but i did not see any combat it the woman who called in see any combat. The woman called in and said. She did not realize to shut down the memorials. Congress did that. Also a shame. Veterans being00 cut. And weve got millions of veterans on social security. That is the way i look at it. That is criminal treatment of our veterans. It is the republicans who are driving these things. Thanks again to all veterans. Thank you. Host you are seeing a live shot of the Vietnam Veterans memorial this morning. As we show you that shot, i want to show you a few other headlines as well from around the papers today that dont have to do with veterans issues. A piece from the washington leaves deadly typhoon grim scenes. The full scale of the disaster just becoming apparent. Up to 10,000 people may have died. Affected people were by the storm, according to the National Disaster agency. A few of the other papers have teachers pictures. As usa today puts it, the horrors of the typhoon. A picture from the new york timesof the destruction. Christie went on the sunday shows yesterday. Cost around questions on his president ial run. Chris christie was on abcs yesterday and was asked whether he was going to serve out his entire second term as governor. Times notes he stiff armed some questions about the 2016 resident to run and sidestep some of the hot button issues and declining to wade into what he called the washington d. C. Game. We want to play you a little bit from the interview now. [video clip] the governor of new jersey. That is my job on what i asked for for for years. That is what i was going to do. Bowls for years . Who knows. I will continue to finish to my job. He will try to figure out what life will bring you two years from now. I did not expect to be sitting here four years ago, george, so no one can make those predictions. Host one of the headline in many of the papers today is on nuclear deal and what happened after negotiations ended over the weekend. Heres the front page of the Washington Post. H, we host weve got about five minutes left in the segment. We are asking our callers who they see as the face of veterans day and has air rack and afghan changedand afghanistan it for you . John. Good morning. Are you there . All right, we will go to stored from petersburg, virginia. A democratn and a veteran waiting to talk about who he sees as the face of veterans day. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. I served with the 24th Infantry Division in germany during the cold war. Have beenar veterans forgotten. There was so much danger. Berlin wall, czechoslovakia. So little said about the cold war veterans. It was a very dangerous place over there. Got the wall torn down you hear very little about the cold war veteran. I think more should be done about that. I am going to try to promote something to recognize that. The young men over there it was terrible. I think. On online for veterans. Also waiting on the line for veterans is jerry from portsmouth, rhode island. Good morning. Caller good morning. Listening to the last gentleman called. I was drafted during the vietnam war, to patient in germany. What happened with me i remember my dad, he was in the in the navy, in the pacific. He brought me to the train station to go overseas and when i came home my dad was waiting for me when i got off the plane. To me, the greatest guy in the world is proud of serving his country and he inspired me. Andink the people in iraq Afghanistan War, what i see are a lot of great people who volunteered to go to war and willing to serve their country. Were a little hesitant. I just want to congratulate all the veterans who served, and i great job. All did a host a veteran talking about his father. On the opinion page of usa ofay, and executive editor the newspaper talk about his father who was also a veteran of world war ii and died a few weeks ago. The headline he starts his piece by quoting from tom brokaws book the greatest generation. Host quoting from the greatest generation. , new jersey on our line for democrats. Angela, good morning. Caller andrew, good morning. Caller i am calling for the families of people who died during the Second World War, rent of mine. Died in the Pacific Theater shortly after pearl harbor. Died in the european theater, the invasion of normandy. Joe died. Host those are the faces of veterans day for you . And the korean war, william armstrong, who i went to school with. Paperboy waswar, my vet. E war he got killed in vietnam did all these other guys got killed in these other wars. God bless those families and the people surviving, and for those memories. Doing thisare you veterans day for yourself . I am years old, so i cant do very much. A friend of mine, their families. The three people i spoke about first, i guess their families are all gone, too. But there are friends of theirs that are still around and served. The andrew, thank you for call this morning from new jersey. Appreciate you calling in on the world war ii veterans. He brought up a few of them. The oldest world war ii vet, 107, is set to meet with president obama today. Richard overton. Believed to be the oldest known American Veteran of world war aviationrmy 188th engineer battalion. He volunteer when he was in his 30s for service and joined up in 1942. Set to meet with president obama. President obama is set to go over to Arlington Cemetery across the Potomac River for a wreathlaying ceremony and remarks at the tomb of the unknown soldier. That will happen at 11 00 a. M. This morning. You can see that on cspan today. Last call in the segment goes to rick from new baltimore, michigan, on our line for democrats. Good morning. Caller i just want to thank all the veterans today alive alive today and deceased, fighting for the freedom. In countries in the middle east and elsewhere you name it. Dictatorships that are ruthless and everything else. You know what i mean . My dad went to normandy and he came back in the war changed drastically. In and out of the hospital for a good part of my life while living with my folks. To when i was 16, i wanted quit school and join the marines and fight with the others but my dad wouldnt hear of it. So, i just wanted to thank all of the veterans. Remember the deceased. They got to be doing good right now wherever they are at. I know it. Host appreciate the call. That doesnt for this first segment. Up next on this veterans day holiday, Michael Noonan from the Foreign Policy Research Institute will talk about the current civilianmilitary divide in the u. S. Later, we will discuss the availability of jobs for returning Service Members from q and afghanistan with ward carroll from military. Com. With the war in europe turning hot, when the blitzkrieg took place in the lower countries the u. S. Was totally unprepared. George marshall, chief of staff of the army, and to president roosevelt and said we cant do things we started in the past. We have to act now and we have to act decisively and we have to do it today. So, roosevelt went to congress u. S. Ext week and said the must build 50,000 airplanes to protect itself. And all of the Auto Companies were given projects to build engines and airplane parts. Ford Motor Company was given the be 24 bomber which is the problematic airplane. The newest airplane we had. It was still in the development stages. And they wanted to massproduce this airplane. Just notsaid, i am going to build parts but i will build complete airplanes. Iny took what had been done individual pieces and they took the engineering drawing and they designed it to hold a of 210,007 inch and then these pieces going on in the similar line and basically unskilled Assembly Workers with just a little training could assemble the airplanes. Between january and june of 1944, 35 of the four engine bombers built in the United States was delivered here in willow run, and that was one of 11 factories building the bomber. A little piece of the plant that was so important to the story is just beyond words. I cant describe the feeling we will all have with a big smile once we pull it off. We did something here in detroit that was not than anywhere else in the world, and it literally saved the world from the axis powers. We did it right here. Michigans Yankee Air Museum is trying to say part of the willow run land and plans to turn it into its new home. Find out more next weekend as the tv and American History tv look at the history and literary life of ann arbor. Span2. Ay at noon on c washington journal. Continues. Host on this veterans day we will take a look at the reasons and ways the u. S. Civilians and military starting to drift apart. It is a topic often referred to as the civilianmilitary divide. Joining us now to discuss this issue is Michael Noonan, a veteran of Operation Iraqi freedom and direct your of the program of National Security at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. What are some of the ways the civilianmilitary divide sort of the ways thatf in people can see what were talking about here . Guest i mean, first of all, we have to nuke there is always going to be some form of Civil Military divide. One people join the military, they are in cultivated into the way the military does things out of necessity. To be able to react to orders and do things most normal people probably would not do. Like the marine corp. Commercial, moved to the sound of guns. There is going to be some form of divide between the military and Civil Society. However, there are ways that us, of exacerbate those of particularly postservice. Phil carter and the tenant general david from center for mayor ken security, for instance, had a piece in the Washington Post where they talk about the divide and how the military actually contribute to it by things like living on the es that since 9 11 have been closed down to the public. They have their own school systems. They are gated communities, basically. And among some because we do have an all voluntary military, there is a feeling among some that perhaps they are better than the civilian society that , so those are just sort of some of the manifestations of the Civil Military divide. Host when did this start . Yourself byple like writing about this and talking more about it . Guest it started in the 1990s really. There were two studies came up. One, a consortium between Duke University and the university of North Carolina chapel hill and North Carolina state, and the center for strategic and International Studies did a big study around 97 or 1998 talking about the culture and what differentiated the views and attitudes of the sort of Civil Military divide. It was kindthought of a byproduct of the clinton administration, how you had a president who chose not to serve and peoplesoft is perhaps as a partisan issue and were looking at things like political identification people saw this perhaps as a partisan issue. At the time it skewed heavily conservative not necessarily republican but a more conservative worldview than Civil Society. Some people thought that this whenoing to change president george w. Bush took office, but it really didnt. Saw with the iraqi and Afghanistan Wars, certain segments of the military itself found certain aspects of these wars to be kind of unpopular. So it is really sort of a post cold war manifestation tied up end of thece the draft, you move to an all volunteer force. Sensen people feel that of volunteered, they are serving certainf of society and segments have felt some time to time that they are sort of unappreciated. Host we are talking about the civilmilitary divide with hael noonan from the policy Research Institute. We want to hear your thoughts. With a special line, again, for veterans on the subject. We want to hear from you on this veterans day. 3883. 85 all others host mr. Noonan, while folk are talk about the knology aspic. Some people who have written about the subject have said technology has further widened the gap. Guest i think it has both the widened and narrowed the gap. ,or instance, when i was iniraq i had access to email and i lived in a small fort with the iraqi army and one of the units before is installed a commercial internet line. So, i got literally come back from a patrol going out with our iraqi battalion an email or call my wife on the phone, which did not generations have the opportunity to do. It was kind of instant communication. I think that could be both a blessing and a curse sometimes, because it could take away some of the distance there. In one sense, it kind of connection you but in the other sense, if he had a bad day it is really not that great to have. Nstantaneous access to people and when you Drone Operators working in a place like the air force base in nevada, actually conducting end of combat operations using remotely piloted aircraft. And they can take out military targets on the ground and then kind of go home and go to soccer practice for the kids and have dinner that night. So that is kind of that some people degrade their service, but on the other hand, it is kind of an unenviable position for them to be in. Host Michael Noonan from the Foreign Policy Research Institute. In 20062007. Correct . And where did you serve . Guest in western ninevah province, up in the northwest corner of the country not far from syria. It was an interesting part of a rack. Heavily kurdish, turk interesting part of iraq. There were a but lot of foreign fighters coming from syria causing a lot of problems. A very interesting and unique place to serve. I am sorry, go ahead. No, i was about to say we were actually able to go back into sh part of the country. That really is the other iraq. Much different than serving down in baghdad but in our area of operations where we were stationed you certainly would not go out like that. Host Michael Noonan with your questions and comments. Mary from Fort Washington on our line for democrats. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking this call. Fromand ask military brat the 1960s in the 1970s. I was a military brat until i was 22. I think the civilianmilitary divide is far less today than it was back in those age. We do live very sheltered. When you are in the military, you have the best px, the postage change, the store, for lehman l ayman. Still today, if you want to go to a real Grocery Store you go to a military base. Because of the wars, extra divide in that sense. Civilian armada are not allowed to go on the military base as they used to, so they are going to feel that divide. But as far as emotional divide, i feel that military families are more openminded because you have more access to the world. So, we try to close that divide as often as we can but every time we have a war, we shut down and closed the gates down, a get wider and it is back and forth. My opinion. Thank you. Host Michael Noonan . Your thoughts. Guest your caller makes excellent points. Generation of veterans experienced nothing like the people who served in vietnam and came back and were kind of really treated poorly by society. Even a society that has the troubles with the post9 11 wars at least thankfully have made that the tension that the people that serve are not responsible is serving there, that there kind of this divide between politics and the soldiers. I think that is a great thing. Isthe other hand, i think it almost too much sometimes. When i came back from leave from hartsfield airport in atlanta and just eruptions of comingnot a plane off the airplane made you feel self conference and there is a difference and awe sometimes that makes many veterans of my current generation of little bit uncomfortable. Host you brought up the Washington Post piece from yesterday on the issue. Who is responsible for this points outt piece the u. S. Military, the way that they howl as activeduty members of the military could be part of the problem here. It notes that u. S. Military bases are some of the most exclusive gated communities. More than a third live on base as with many more living just outside the wire host Michael Noonan, who do you think is sort of more at fault in creating a sort of divide . Between civilians and the military . Or is one side more at fault . , certainlyhat issue post9 11, there was a feeling and a justified one, that there was an increased threat to military bases. So, some of the Family Housing areas are not the traditional areas. They are not as restrictive interface is as their they are in other places. On the one hand, there was probably a good reason to lock down some of the bases. You have things like fort dix bosniacs and others gaming who came to the United States and talked about an attack on fort dix. There was chatter that said these places might be prone for , but we probably took it too far. And we might want to think about starting to kind of throttle back on some of that. But one of the bigger problems is that, you know, the military in particular the army have these big megabases who are not traditionally big urban heavily populated areas. There is some rationale. We have to have access to training areas, ranges, and other things. Of living and other expenses that you would have to pay if you had a place lets say, for instance, for hamilton in brooklyn. If you were going to put a lot of activeduty activeduty troops there, it would be expensive. So the services have kind of factored in some of these costs. That is not to say that maybe putes a call to sort of some of these activeduty places in the northeast and other places. The northeast right now, there is really only one big army base, fort drum in northern, northern new york. There is not a lot of contact with activeduty military people. On the other hand, there are guard and reserve units all over the place. Downtown, the big armory in manhattan, for instance, does show sort of a military base to the public. It is not as much is probably they used to be. Host in their piece on that , they write host on twitter a viewer right in on the subject that the divide is that the military lives with sacrifice daily while many others today expect things given them for free. We are taking a tweets and calls. John from rio rancho, new mexico , on our line for democrats. Caller happy veterans day. For all you guys have done for the country. I would like to just think you for that. I think is so shellpolitical divide, but it is not the military, but definitely between the the classes with the wealth divide between the rich and the poor. In new mexico, we see the otherrs as friends, and people we know and there is really no divide between the civilians in the soldiers, because we have so many soldiers around, and we are thankful for them. But i think there is a huge geopolitical divide. What happened with world war ii is all the technology in thereon somewhere but a lot of gray area. We want to feel like we are the good guys but in these wars in the middle east, we blame the politicians mostly because the people dont feel like we were the good guys in these wars. But we do not blame the soldier. Thank you. Host Michael Noonan . Theres is there is economics contributing to that divide . Is economics contributing to the divide . Guest the pay is not that bad, with allowances and other things. I guess the call is probably down the row where fort bliss is or some of the air force bases there, the there is a heavy military presence in new mexico philhat aligns with what carter in general barnow talked about yesterday with open space. I would not want to speculate on the sociocultural so shell political argument the caller was arguing about. Host lets talk about fixing the divide going forward. What are your suggestions for narrowing that divide . Well, i wrote a piece back on memorial day where i was openg about it was u. S. News world report one of the elements of the Civil Military divide, a conflagration of veterans day today, supposed to be a celebration of veterans for their service and patriotism and sacrifices, and memorial day, which is about those who made the ultimate sacrifice. And they are very different days. If you have known anybody who has passed away, memorial day is a very somber event. It is not just about going down to the beach for the weekend. There are a few ways that you can sort of narrow the gap a bit. One way would be for military and others to accept that there are other forms of service out there. Things like teachers and Municipal Workers and others who are actually serving their community. True, it is not foot of the unlimited liability sense of service that the military does, and in certain cases, police and firemen do. But we need to expand the concept of service. And accept that not everyone has to be in the military. One of the issue is that issues is that less than one percent of the population has served in these wars in iraq and afghanistan and other places around the world since 9 11. I think phil and general barnow puts the number at 2. 6 Million People out of a population of over 300 Million People. So it is a very small percentage of the people. Yes, weto accept that, do volunteer. Service is about serving. Just sort of a lifetime of benefits afterwards. Now, fellow veterans who have been injured, both physically and mentally, obviously the government needs to keep faith with those veterans and make whole the promises they made to them. On the other hand, veterans have the obligation there was an interesting piece yesterday that thats where the author talked about his experience. Andntrymen veteran of iraq he is a student at Georgetown University and he talked about how after the first few years going to school there, he had this chip on his shoulder about being a veteran. Then he came to the realization that he will both have it easier and harder in a sense man some of his former conflict classmates who have not served. The post Second World War generation and others, when they came back from their service, they saw it as just one part of their lives. Not something that needed to define the rest of their lives did so they went out and did things in their community. There are other forms of service. Re are other organizations the mission continues, and others, its really tries to bridge the divide working with the nick and business organizations around the country, civic and business organizations around the country tapping into veterans to make their communities better places to live in an too continues to serve. Program onel noonan, National Security director at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and we are talking about the civilmilitary divide. Taking your calls and comments. Up next, eau claire, wisconsin. Republican. Clay, thanks for calling in. Caller i am a veteran who served in both afghanistan and iraq and i stand in solidarity with the experts demanded an investigation of why Building Seven fell on 9 11. Why arent you or the magazine covering the Scientific Evidence ing Building Seven where host we are talking about the civilmilitary divide with Michael Noonan. Did you have a question on that topic . No . We will go to robert from frostburg, maryland, an independent and a veteran calling in this morning. Robert, thanks for calling in. Caller thank you for answering my call. I am a vietnam veteran, and thank thell, i gentleman there that you have as a guest for his service. G that disturbs me very much today is every single commit American Veterans suicide over their service in wars. Four president s Dwight Eisenhower warned about the militaryindustrial project complex. The four president s eisenhower, kennedy, gerald ford, and George H W Bush, all served in world war ii. En have a tremendous appreciation for the service of veterans. Eisenhower, gerald ford did not work in vietnam and did not commit troops George H W Bush went into iraq and came out out of respect for the troops. Eisenhower warned about the militaryindustrial concerts. Johnson, nixon, george bush ii, they gave into the military industrial complex. Iendse had four of my fr commit suicide over neglect of veterans. My congressman about the abuse of veterans in maryland. Men beingt of these abused, i have been blackballed in the v. A. , because i did something that should have been done. Noonan, part of what he was talking about was the experience of actually going to of u. S. Leaders. Pew Research Center put out a recent survey on veterans in congress. Talked about this issue. Shrinking number of veterans in congress, down to about 20 sent 20 today and both the house and the senate. Does it contribute to the Civil Military divide here . Guest first, i would like to thank robert for his service in vietnam. Say that theike to issue he raised about suicide is a very important one today. And the v. A. And other people really need to step up their game to help veterans coming back, particularly ones that have had mental scars from the service. The issue of veterans in congress, i think that is perhaps one part of it. There are veterans in Congress Today some, but obviously much fewer than the past. However, remember in the past, some of the people served we had the only period of peacetime construction conscription and United States, the end of the korean war until 19649065, whenever you want to count the beginning of the vietnam war. There were a lot of of the people who served and therefore served in congress. So, putting that up as a match metric was one way of perhaps exacerbating the civilmilitary divide further almost because it would kind of disproportionately represented veterans in politics. I dont think that there is any negative thing of former veterans and serving, but i think we need to be careful about sending a message that somehow people that served in uniform are somehow better than their fellow servant the citizens of serving in congress. Now, that being said, yes, obviously something needs to be happening i am sorry to hear about roberts experience in the v. A. But there are issues in the v. A. That really need to be fixed. And really needs to provide Better Service to veterans of all conflicts. Recent cohortost of veterans. Mental Health Issues and the issue of the v. A. , those are important subjects we will get into a little bit later in the show when we have Tom Tarantino on aq and afghanistan veterans in america, coming up that 8 45. We are talking about the Civil Military divide with Michael Noonan of the Foreign Policy institute. He has written on the subject. A veteran himself. Guest does he go back farther in u. S. History . Guest i didnt say it goes back just to the 1990s. There has always been some kind of divide. I think it gets exacerbated during conflicts. You have things like the draft riots in new york. It has always been around. It goes back to plato talking about guardians and people they protect. There always is this divide. Contentious periods of politics. Host a veteran on a line for democrats. Ted. Good morning caller i would like to say all veterans, lets have a happy day. Lets think about all the people we served with. Lets try to keep the conversation civil. I have been around the world and had a great time. Ve in the1978, acti reserves. Butr fired a shot in anger spent all kinds of time training. I just feel that there is a civilian military divide. In my generation, guys that i know, youll see them with hanging off the Rearview Mirror of their pickup. I would ask, where you can get them . You can buy them from a magazine. Something like that. I refer to them as the woulda, coulda, shoulda guys. I think back to this guys generation. Cheney. Of w and mr. I think of it ironic when mr. Cheney in college on a deferment a could not find his courage during vietnam but he could find his courage to send men like your speaker to a shooting war. I just like to say to all people involved. I get my health care at the v. A. I was a plumber in the air force. I am a Union Plumber today. I find that i have done lots of work on the civilian side, hospitals versus the v. A. When the v. A. , makes a mistake they put it on the front page of the paper. I encourage all veterans to use your v. A. Health care. It is very good. I have no complaints. Have a nice day. Host i will let you respond. Guest thank you for your service during the cold war. It is not just about people who served in hot wars but also served the country in other ways during that time. The callers talk about politicians. Somebody on the other side of the aisle could bring up counter examples to that. We will say that when you join the military, you take an oath to support and defend the constitution and those civilian leaders who are elected and appointed above you. We do not get to make the choices of where we go and do not go. This was a contentious issue a few months back. Every tile general wrote a piece talkingWashington Post about relaying comments from people and how they did not want to use force in syria and that is a problem. We do not get to decide and that is the way it is in our system of government. His point about the v. A. Does good things as well. We should not shirk from calling them out when bad things happen. That does happen in other Health Care Providers, not in the v. A. System as well. Comments, does that relate to your comments when you wrote in your piece that veterans should be treated with respect by not absolute deference and awe . Guest there was a book a few civilianabout controlled military and civilian commands and talked about the military, those who serve in the military have one viable perspective and can sometimes make mistakes. He talks about the Second World War, where the joint chiefs wanted to launch the invasion of europe much earlier. Fdr wsaisaid no. That we are going to work her way up to that. That was the right call in the end. The military has an important perspective. They know about those who served with them but they do not have the only perspective and dont always have a monopoly on good strategic sense. Host Michael Noonan is with the Foreign Policy rsearch institute. Explain what the institute is. Independentprofit think tank. It was started in 1955 at the university of pennsylvania that we split off in 1970 as part of the vietnam war. We did Research Education on foreign and defense policy issues. We do not conduct any classified research. If you want to learn more about the Foreign Policy rsearch fpri. Org and you can follow it on twitter. On the subject of the serving or servicing the civilmilitary divide, edwin writes in on twitter. We will go to lc on the phone from jacksonville, alabama. Good morning, elsie. Caller good morning and happy veterans day. Birmingham claims to have one of the oldest veterans day parades in the country. Before the veterans day, we had armistice day. We had a parade when i was a child and that was quite a few years ago. I was a military wife. My husband was in the military before world war ii started. Mr. Noonan was talking about fort drummond, new york. My husband was stationed at the Philippine Islands and that is where he was when world war ii started. The towns that we lived in really supported the military. They were glad to have them there. For most of my life when we were in the service, we did live in areas that were very welcoming to the military. But i will say when we were in the military and lived on the basis, everybody supported each other. Our husbands were gone a good bit. If you had an emergency, you always had friends you could call. Everybody help each other. I had children that were hospitalized. I had to stay at the hospital with them. We had to stay 24 hours a day with them. My friends kept my other children. It is a different life altogether. Remove to alabama when my husband retired. Wasoved to an area that military installation. It was closed about 10 years ago, which made a lot of difference in the economy of our little town here. Enjoyed being in the military. We got to do things, my children were exposed to things, they had things going on about the space program. We got to go out and see things about that. They were exposed to a lot of things that people who lived off the base were not exposed to. Now, he was talking a few minutes about drones. My husband was in a drone squadron in new mexico in 1957. He wasnt Aircraft Mechanic he was an Aircraft Mechanic. We are supporting. Big installations, the towns. I am sure it is different. Host thank you for calling in. Robert is next from indianapolis, a veteran this morning. Thank you for calling in. Caller thank you for taking my call. Like the divide is a result of the Political Climate at the time. The counterculture was in the school and every campus had various protests. Now that counterculture is the leadership of the Democratic Party and most of the media. All they have done is project that style of thinking to the wars they do not agree with. I was treated fantastic by my local community when i came home from the gulf war. Years later the community itself was supportive. Campus,gton, around the people were awful. It is basically an affront to the Political Climate at the time and whatever the Popular Culture is pushing. Host i will you jump in on that comment. Guest i would say about vietnam, the counterculture backs off when the draft ended. Once they were not threatened by having to go serve, a kind of deflated the issue for the counterculture. There were still people opposed to the war. Some of the edge probably came off of it. Just about the partisan tone of things. Went for obama election in 2008 on an antiwar, to end the war in iraq. His first term, he was pretty forceful. Differenty it looks when people i do not think we should be making broad, sweeping generalizations about how one group groups these things. End ofou talk about the the draft. Do you think a return of the draft would help narrow the gap . Guest perhaps but i do not think it is going to happen. There would not be an equitable way to do it. It is about 4. 2 million americans turned 18 every year. That would be a tremendous amount of human resources. The military is less than half of that on active duty. Therell not be an adaptable way even if you do things like lotteries. There would still be some issues there. Somethingce it that people talk about and that would solve the problems but it would add some serious implementation problems. Host john from texas on a line from democrats. Good morning. Caller good morning. I volunteered for vietnam. Not everybody was drafted. I was hired when i got back by a big company. They were overflowing with people bucking the draft. The company was actively encouraging getting people in the guards and the reserve, ticket out of the war. I was presented openly by people i worked with. I never once felt my service was acknowledged. There was always a divide. Host i will give you the last comments on the last minute or so we have here. Guest yeah, i mean. I cannot fathom what it was to come back from vietnam. I think it is a credit to the American People that they for most people they separated the politics from those that served and i think that is for the best of the country. Host Michael Noonan is with the Foreign Policy rsearch institute , if you want to check it out. Thank you for joining us this morning. Guest thank you for having me. Host up next, we will be speaking with ward carroll of wardcarroll. Com to discuss the Employment Situation for returning Service Members. Will beer Tom Tarantino here to talk about the continued backlog of disabilities that log backlog. But first a news update from c span radio. Reports the deal for expanded monitoring has been reached in talks with the guided Nations Nuclear chief. The deal could boost water negotiations over tehrans nuclear program. Toks failed over the weekend reach an agreement. The rrated deputy minister of trade was assassinated last night. This according to the state news agency. I Police Official says the likelihood is the killing happened through a personal motive and talk of assassinations is not involved. The u. S. State Department Spokesperson said they had seen media reports of the shooting to have no further information or conmen. The United States and European Union are resuming talks at this hour on a deal to increase two way trade and investment. There is european anger over and reported asp in eyes those talks were delayed because of the u. S. Shut down. The benefits of the proposed transatlantic trade and Investment Partnership are too great for the talks to be affected. Those are some of the latest headlines on cspan radio. Mrs. Kennedy is very well known as a style icon. She put a lot of thought into her wardrobe when she was representing the country at the white house and while traveling abroad. She would think about what colors would mean something to the country i am about to visit. A visit to canada she showed a red suit by Pierre Cardin as a gesture of respect for the red of the canadian maple leaf. I admire the thought she put into her wardrobe. She knew the advantage of choosing a style that would make her stand out in a crowd. First Lady Jacqueline kennedy, live tonight on cspan and cspan3. Also on cspan radio and www. C span. Org. Washington journal continues. Youre looking at a live shot of the Korean War Memorial this morning on the national mall. Later this morning at 11 00, president obama and Michelle Obama will gather with other dignitaries at Arlington National cemetery for the annual ceremony honoring nations veterans. He will be attending a wreath laying ceremony at the tomb of the unknowns and delivered remarks. That happening this morning at 11 00 this morning. You can see that on cspan. The bureau of labour statistics release its october jobs report which of the Unemployment Rate among veterans had jumped to 6. 9 from 6. 5 in september. Joining us to discuss veterans employment is ward carroll, a former navy pilot who serves as editor of military. Com. Put the veterans employment numbers in perspective for us. It is lower than the general population. Guest it is a slight up tack. Over the long haul of the post 9 11 period, it is trending downward. Depending on what demographic youre carving out, it has been as high as 14 and 15 overall and for some groups it has been in the mid20s. It is trending in the right direction. Some of the initiatives are on the right track. There are other things that veterans can do and employers can do to improve the numbers. Host some of those places where the numbers are high. Talk about womens employment, womens veterans employment. 8 , according to the latest number. Stills down from 9. 5 but relatively high compared to the general population. Guest womens employment and if you make a subset at of a younger demographic, the number 20alarmingly high, may percentile. Mid 20 there is a number of factors that you can bring to bear. It is not always unique to gender. How they are looking in terms of the education they have. What are the personal circumstances . All of these things can create an environment that is frustrating for veterans to find jobs. Host you work at military. Com. They were affiliated with monster. Com. Explain what military. Com is. Guest it is a website with the full range of offerings for the military experience. Those thinking of joining and those already in and those transitioning to get out. That is why monster acquired, to find veterans jobs. They are active in the public and private initiatives to find that arends jobs. It is a good marriage to find veterans jobs. We have news letters that we push each other in a and periodically to our members. To get you for us your information in a tailored fashion. News pieces those about female veterans. Insecure female veterans compared to male veterans. They feel their skill was less relevant to civilian careers. They make up 10 of our nations veterans. Talk more about that study. Guest monster and military. Com do an index. Radically. This is a survey to see where they are in terms of understanding of each others needs, skills, and the things that either party rings to bear when it comes time to find a job or to bring somebody into the workforce. Uncoveredecent index female veterans are feeling ill prepared and perhaps Miss Understood by potential employers about what they did when they were in uniform and the attributes that could transform into them qualified for a given job. Host we are talking to ward carrollof military. Com. Happy to hear your thoughts and questions. The phone lines democrats, 2025853880. Republicans, 2025853881. Independents, 2025853882. Phone lines are open. One other segment i want to talk about is younger veterans. The Unemployment Rate for gulf men, 9. 6 ns, 10 for for women. How is this trending for young veterans . Guest it was trending downwards. We are never satisfied we are out of the woods. The overall is in the 10 range. It is twice as high for 20 to 24yearolds. There is some sense that employers are not understand what is these folks did when they were in uniform. These people are not effectively articulating what it was that they did and therefore there is a disconnect which is not allowing them to get the jobs. We have some things to help. You can take your occupational specialty and translated to sell it makes sense to an employer that does not exactly do what you did when you were in uniform. Trainingmostly a transitioning issue . Guest there is a burden on both sides. There is a burden on the job seeker to package themselves in a way that resonates with a potential employer. Employers on not necessarily going to do it for them. Lets say i was a truck driver in afghanistan. I did these high risk convoys. Iw i am ready to get out but want to be a sales rep for a company or want to get into marketing. How you make yourself attract to a potential employer is on you but also on the employer to understand the attributes you could bring even though my company does not drive trucks. That is some of what we are seeing. Numbers fromore the labor department. Post00 veterans from the 9 11 era. We are talking about this with ward carroll. First up is eric underline for democrats. Good morning. Caller good morning. Where are the jobs . Population unemployment for African Americans is 13 . For whites is around 6 . I would imagine the military is higher than that. Project toy kind of bring the Unemployment Rate down for African Americans . Such as giving them grants to start jobs. If the Unemployment Rate was this high among whites, we might have riots. Where are the jobs . Host any specific programs that you know of . Guest i am not aware of any programs that are dedicated to africanamericans. Hiring our heroes. The first lady has been active in veterans transition and veteran jobs. Of one that is specifically aimed at African Americans. I cannot speak to that element. I am aware of jobs for all veterans and all veterans that are transitioning. Host we are talking with ward carroll. There are about 246,000 unemployment veterans. We have a special line for 202 5853880 and Afghanistan War vets. They can call in on 2025853883 , along with our other lines. We will keep rolling those numbers for you. Anthony is next, a veteran. Thank you for calling in. caller good morning. Good morning, america. One of the most important things about being a vet is are anding that we when you have the best athletes, they get drafted. If we have less than 1 that served, then we are the best prospects for our nations defense. When we have the individuals who have served, and i was medevac out of theater and i have top level security clearances, and when i came back and i went through the next some program, because veterans spoke up and i received my results and i knew i 100 away from being totally disabled. I was able to come back to my Civil Service position. My Civil Service employer i think i need to retire and i was denied that. I had to return back to my Civil Service job and it was for the army. I wasnt active duty soldier, a Civil Servant soldier. I left theodore directing an Army Regional computing registry response team. That is cyber warfare. I came back to my job and i entered an environment that was so harsh that my health got worse. What i am saying is i do not let that destroy me. I go to the local police department, fire department. I take and bake goods. I will donate my entire 100 v. A. Disability check back to the community because i did not come into the military for pay but to take the skills that i had learned in the civilian community and make our nation stronger. Host thank you for calling in. Anthony talk about the transition issue. We have this on twitter. Guest i think that is a little bit of a cliche. Thank you for your service, anthony. Just like in the military, sometimes you get with a unit that has a good atmosphere. All results will not be the same with the transition. We are describing what is challenging about the transition. Sometimes it works out where youre in the job for years and years and sometimes it is a toxic environment were the people are not your kind of people and you either move on or you indoor endure. His status off him to get employment. We are talking about people that do not have jobs. Anthony had a job. It was not one that he enjoyed. In terms of the d programming, this is part of what we fight on a daily basis. Stone narrative. Go to war, you are, ties, you are traumatized, you come back, and you are a burden on society. This is not charity. We want job seekers and employers to understand. That is part of the narrative we are trying to dispel. Certainly people are doing some things that are unique to the military experience. Isng a rifleman in a squad not something youre probably going to do stateside. Having embedded with those guys, the most professional, they get it. I would want every one of them to work at military. Com if we had jobs for them. Host ward carroll served in four different squadrons around the world. We are talking about military employment rates. TheUnemployment Rates from bureau of labour statistics are broken down by states. Arizona is here just over 9 . The state with the lowest veterans Unemployment Rate is north dakota. The state with the highest is new jersey, 10 . We are talking military veterans Unemployment Rate. James is next on a line for republicans. Good morning. Caller good morning. Ive been retired for a while. I retired in 2005. I come from a small town in louisiana. There is nothing around this area. It is just tough these days for veterans like myself. Too many jobs around this area. I do what i can. Enjoy veterans day today. There is not much in this area. Find. Re hard to they are just not coming anymore. Host thank you for your Service Guest thank you for your service. I served on a number of aircraft carriers. Do live in northern or southern louisiana . Caller about 20 minutes from lake charles. There is not much in this area unless you go out of state are further down south like new orleans, but i am not going to move. Guest there are constraints in your ability to translate your military skills. You were comfortable at sea. I could see working for a Company Servicing oil rigs or other shipping. That, you have to bring to bear what you learned in the navy. Shop early, stay late, how to be a leader. Every boatswains mate i met was good in terms of creating the right tone moralewise. Im not saying it easy. It could be very challenging. If you were willing to move, i think you would be able to find employment that you would like user than if you stayed near lake charles. T holly on twitter guest that is still going on. They get a tax credit. There are other initiatives that the administration did to create this Awareness Among firms that might not otherwise consider veterans. Dr. Biden and the first lady are doing other programs. I believe these are slowly starting to work. The public has a short memory. A lot of us think the war ended with the bin laden take down. A tight budgetary environment. Everybody feels the pinch of the government shutdown. I am afraid peoples focused on veterans employment might weigh on that and that would be a disservice to those who gave their all. Host robert from missouri honor line for republicans. Good morning. You are on with ward carroll. Caller good morning. I would like to speak on behalf of the veterans coming home. I was a veteran. I was retired in 1971 from the navy. I would like to speak up for the veterans. The media gives the veterans a bad rap. They talk about the veterans coming back, hooked on drugs, hooked on dope. I blame the doctors in the v. A. Doctors i blame the for not giving the right medication to these veterans. These veterans are going in and these doctors are just filling them full of trucks. Drugs. And the out of that poor veteran, some are living on the street. They are turning to alcohol. Well, the media puts out the veterans. They write bad about the veterans. What is an employer supposed to do . Host thank you for the call. The subject is a front page story in the wall street journal. Meds. Demon their guest i do not think that is a new demon. Ptsd is a label that has existed since man first daughter going to war first started going to war. It is an acute problem for the veterans. Thank you for your service. He talked about two things at once. He talked about doctors perhaps overprescribing meds. We have seen that. Objectively the v. A. Has done a lot to solve all of their issues since these wars started. Higher visibility on the amount that meds are prescribed and that is what they are trying to solve. Is a work in ptsd progress. 1600 more psychological or medical Health Professionals have been hired to try to tackle this problem. The other part of the question is about the Public Perception issue. Yes, i see it. It frustrates me. People with no military warpednce tend to have a perception of what the military experience is all about as a function of some of the high visibility stuff they say. I am not going to dismiss the sometimes people do not have challenges as a result of fighting a war. These things are no minor issue when it comes time to just live your life as a civilian. The military experience by and large is one that is very positive for most individuals and orients them to be very reductive in society. He feels like he is a leader among his peers and his neighborhoods and i think that is what is true. This is why employers should take advantage of those with military experience. What they bring in terms of morale. Host you brought up disabled veterans. , courtesy of that slate. Veteransaid disabled 14. 8 billion in 2000. To 39. 4r rose in 2011 billion. Matthew is up next as we talk to iraq ward carroll as we talk to ward carroll. Good morning. Caller is there data on the employment rates of veterans as they go back to a Public University first, private university, trade school, or they go directly into the workforce. Whether military. Com has reports on the flybynight for profit universities picking up veterans there has money been stories about them not finding jobs. Host ward carroll . Guest i cannot speak to the first issue. I have my own opinion about what pedigree does in terms of your ability to find a job. If you can get into harvard or private schools, that probably situates you for an advantage when it comes time to find a job. Those transitioning are no different than High Schoolers that are looking to have an advantage once they start looking for a job. In terms of the for Profit School issues. Been sussingom has out the bad actors. Of new g. I. Bill puts a lot to be usedthe pool by veterans to pursue a traditional education at a a look institution and you will go to college, or perhaps to an online forProfit School. What we have seen more and more is there were some forProfit Schools that were headed toward predatory. No service after the sale and the dropout rate was huge. If they did manage to get their degree and went to find a job, there was no appreciation by the employee or about the degree. That was not a good thing for the vet. There were some congressional committees that went to try to figure out what went on. We sat down and said what we knew. We share matthews concern that there are some institutions not doing a service for the veterans. You only have so many g. I. Bill dollars. Host darius is up from maryland, a veteran. Thank you for calling in. Caller good morning. I am and afghanistan veteran. In 2011. Loyed i was still classified as a crew chief. I believe my skills are very talented. I have a stake clearance. I am akai clique inclined i am mechanically inclined. I still cannot get a job. I could not find any real form of work, other than working at a mcdonalds or some small place that did not pay much. Comet there was unfair to home and have all this experience, all this knowledge, and not to capitalize on. In world war ii, these veterans came home these guys built the country. They put these people to work because they were good men and women. That is what these veterans are today. Not traumatized and braindead. We are hard workers and we want to work. Host the white house put out a chart after that employment report came out last week showing postseptember 11 2001 veterans Unemployment Rate. Veterans, muchce lower there. Ward carroll guest thanks to your service. Chiefs. Pect for crew i guess i would ask, where do you live and have you tried to find employment with the airlines . Is he off the line . I do not know the exact circumstance of his situation. A crew chief has certain skills that would be very germane to the airline industry. I know the airlines have hiring initiatives to bring veterans aboard. Ceos of airlines are military aviation veterans. I think it is a matter of leaving your comfort zone in terms of where you live, in some cases. I am not saying that is something people need to get over. With his profile, i would have to believe that there is employment out there that is right. I am not trying to dismiss his frustration. I know it is a challenge. I think there is a job for him that he doesnt know about. Host joseph from new york. You are on with ward carroll of military. Com. Caller host good morning and hy veterans day. Thank you very much. I have a question. I retired in 1994. War,ved in vietnam, gulf and bosnia. About this job situation. Every caller that called is right. When i cap out the first time, i was very confused. I tried to get a job and they hated us. I was a crew chief also. Out, i couldnt find a job. I went back into the military. I worked in oklahoma for six years. The thing is, i have other experience and linguistic skills. I speak five different languages. When i got out, retired a third time, i tried to get a job in a postal office. They would not hire me. I had an 80 disability. Not care if do youre disabled or if you are a vet. You want everything handed to you. No, we did not. I just wanted a job. I had to go through a federal court. I won my course. I got everything. I am retired and i collect my pension. It is unfair for the people to look at the veteran as bad guys. That is how they look at us. Nuts. Ys, crazy, i get treated now for ptsd. I got skin cancer that i received in the gulf war. They think it is agent orange. It is stress. Is nation of this country letting smart, young people and they are willing to work. Yes, they might have some problems. Host i will let you comment on joseph. Guest he is bringing a lot of experience in a lot of different areas. He was talking about vietnam. Andved in washington, d. C. , i saw the riots and half the city on fire. I would have to say the atmosphere he was saying he got out in 1994. Ishink the public endeavoring to get it. There are hiring initiatives that could potentially solve a problem like those that joseph faced when he got out in 1994. He talks about his linguistic skills. Is joseph willing to live in the greater d. C. Metro area instead of where he is living now . This is part of what you are seeing. It is what you would call bommer omer guilt. I think things are better. From ward carroll military. Com. Thank you for joining us this morning. Guest great to be here. Host up next we will talk about militaryues facing personnel with Tom Tarantino. But first a news update from c span radio. The u. S. Military has dispatched aid and troops to some of the areas in the philippines that were hardest hit by a deadly typhoon on friday. Providing the first outside help of what is expected to be a major aid mission in the coming days and weeks. From ansport planes flew manila airbase where officials fear as many as 10,000 people have died. The united kingdom, new zealand, and indonesia are also giving aid to the philippines. Here in the United States the focus is on veterans. This morning the president is hosting a breakfast in the state dining room for veterans and their families. Later the president travels to Arlington Cemetery for the traditional wreathlaying ceremony. He will also be making remarks. You can listen here on cspan radio or watch on cspan. It all begins at 11 00 eastern time. Those are some of the latest headlines on cspan radio. Timehave spent a lot of dealing with the fcc in my life. It is important the agency make decisions and make them in a timely fashion. There is nothing worse for investment, innovation, job creation, all the things that flow from investment then businesses not knowing what the rules are. The chairman is absolutely right. With a slowmoving agency like this that bill of rights for , iths and years on end does create uncertainty. Uncertainty is the enemy of businesses. Businesses need certainty to be able to invest. If theres one thing we need, we dispatch,tment with as chairman will or might say. The challenges for the new fcc chair, tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspan2. Washington journal continues. Host you are looking at a live shot of the world war ii memorial on the mall in washington, d. C. Veteranslking about issues all morning. Just before the start of the weekend, Eric Shin Sankey said he was slowing down a program aimed at the disability claims waiting to be processed. Joining us to talk about Mental Health and other issues facing veterans is Tom Tarantino, a former army captain and current chief. Announcement last weekend a good sign for veterans waiting for their benefits claims to be processed . Guest it was an expected announcement. The backlog has been reduced by about 1 3, which is outstanding news. There is some light at the end of the tunnel. We have about 400,000 claims still in the inventory. They were going to halt the mandatory overtime. We expect it to resume after the holidays in february. We have 400,000 claims. If they want to make their goal, it is going to require overtime and other initiatives that have put into gear that have started this trend downward. Host 400,000 claims that is down from 600,000 claims in march. Talk about the impact of the government shutdown. How did that affect the claims . Guest it slowed it down. We averted a potential disaster. The processors were technically protected. The v. A. Could not accept any new claims but they could continue to work. The reduction went down to a few thousand during those weeks. Normally we were see numbers like 10,000, 11,000 a week. The shutdown hindered their ability to do it. It is not just about the v. A. They get information from all sorts of agencies that were affected. We would have seen them running out of any of the mandatory funds that had been appropriated. They would have had to stop paying benefits and furlough more workers. We could have seen it grind to a halt, which wouldve been potentially disastrous. Host you talk about wait times for veterans. Here is a front page story talking about a different issue but involving wait times. Many veterans face frustrating delays for Mental Health care. The agency failed to schedule a third of appointments within 14 days. Host you did a survey that discussed mental Health Issues with those veterans you survey. What did you find . Guest mental Health Issues are impacted beyond those suffering from Mental Health injuries. 30 of our members said they knew someone who tried to commit suicide. This is an alarming number. The visible wounds go beyond those who were injured. You are looking at 20something percent, and you added major depression and youre looking at 1 3. T Overall Health care does a good job of providing health care. They are my health care provider. They have struggled in keeping up with Mental Health care. They were extremely understaffed. They have filled the 1500 remaining positions they were supposed to, but it depends on whether it is a counselor, psychiatrist. There isnt the full breath of care providers that you need to get coverage that is desired out there. Veterans who are going to the v. A. Are having trouble getting timely care. They are starting to look at Building Partnerships with nonprofits and Health Care Providers locally. But this is a new program and we havent seen the impact of this. With tomare talking tarantino of the iraq and afghanistan veterans of america, talking about disability benefits, mental Health Issues that impact veterans coming back from the battlefield. If you want to talk about this subject, our phone lines are open. Host we will get right to the calls. Farmington, minnesota, on our line for democrats. Good morning. Caller hello. Yeah, i was a vietnam veteran. My younger brother was, too. He died four years ago, cancer. There was a lot of problems with his paperwork when he got out of the marine corps. And he wasnt a very aggressive person. He had a lot of problems with life, marriages, this and that and the other thing. Just a tough life in general, making a living. Too. Enough stuff, as it turns out, really aggressivetype person. Anyway, i finished college and so forth on the g. I. Bill and everything. 4spent, in addition to my years in the navy, the last 20 years the Minnesota National guard. I am a Management Consultant and im reaching the age where im thinking of retiring. But over the years ive hired a lot of employees for companies for management positions, supervisor positions, and so on and so forth. And i always knew that military , those that worked in some kind of purchasing or, you know, receiving, you know, those kind of jobs, they were very good logistics, that kind of thing. Host thanks for the call from minnesota. Darwin brings up the g. I. Bill and the hiring help you received over the way. He received over the way. About theobama talked g. I. Bill and returning veterans. I want to play a little bit now. [video clip] doing everything we can to connect more businesses with highly skilled veterans. More help with job searches, more tools to connect veterans with job openings, chances to run licenses and credentials with civilian jobs, new tax credits for countries that hire wounded warriors, cash credits which congress should make permanent. Americas businesses have worked with michelle and joe bidens joining forces campaign to help euros fine jobs in the private sector. They have hired or trained 290,000 a veterans and spouses and of committed to hiring 400,000 more. We are committed to giving todays veterans and their families the same shot at a great education my grandfather got when he came home from world war ii. We are helping them earn their degrees under the post9 11 g. I. Bill. We are setting new standards to protect against his honest reporting and predatory lending practices that target veterans and dishonest reporting and lendingry practices that target veterans. Thanks to these efforts and the efforts of the private sector, we have made progress getting our events back to work, but we have got a lot more work to do. As more than one million of our troops returned to civilian life, we will have to work even harder, because of the skill, dedication, encourage of our troops is unmatched. When they come home, we all benefit from their efforts to build a stronger america and a Brighter Future for our kids. Host we are talking with Tom Tarantino of the iraq and afghanistan veterans of america. Mr. Tarantino, your group conducted a survey of over 400,000 iraq and afghanistan veterans earlier this year and you asked a few questions about the g. I. Bill that the president and the last caller brought up. What did you find in terms of attitudes about the g. I. Bill . Guest the g. I. Bill is an incredible he popular program, and for good reason. I think in the last year or so, the problems they had with processing and wait times have started to go down. We will start you see well start seeing this next year, this winter semester, start seeing and work a lot more smoothly as the computer wrinkles are ironed out. But the point is that the g. I. Bill has been a great success. One million veterans apply for benefits under the g. I. Bill and he will transfer my generation it will transform a generation and it will help this generation readjust. The original g. I. Bill was not called the g. I. Bill. It was called the reinvestment and readjust and act. The idea is that it gives veterans structure to do something when they transfer it to civilian life and provides the needed buffer so that you are not just walking out of a battlefield and into an office. It also allows veterans to make up the gaps in some of their skills. The military spends billions of dollars teaching you an amazing skill set, but it doesnt teach you everything you need for the civilian world. The g. I. Bill is a great benefit to get those few things that you dont need that you didnt get to learn and the military that you might need in your civilian career. Twitter. Uestion from you talked earlier in this segment about bbva and the processing of this ability claims. Guest the answer to that is yes. They have done both. The a has a completely new digital process. Theyre not even excepting paper. You file everything digitally now. The processing system, whereas before you would have wants us are working through a large envelope and then it would go to the next person and they would put it in a box and ship it to another building now it is all digital and you can have multiple processors looking at the same file at once. Theyve increased by several thousand of the amount of claims processors. Forcesnt just a brute and ignorance method. This is a comprehensive adjustment in how they process claims entirely. We are hoping that as they work the bugs out of the new system, we will start seeing start regularly seeing claims get processed faster and hopefully in a few years im cautiously optimistic the backlogs could be a thing of the past. But we have to make sure that the v. A. Has the resources that they need so that they can keep modernizing. This is in a sixmonth initiative and they are done. This is going to be a very long term thing. Host alfred is up next from North Carolina, a veteran on our. Ine for democrats thanks for calling us money. Tv down and gour ahead with your question or comment. All right, we will try to get back to alfred. Is in providence, rhode island, also a veteran and an independent. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am 100 disabled for ptsd. I was sexually assaulted. Was, after a lot of work, given the ptsd therapist. I saw her 7 times. On the seventh visit, she told me she would only see me once every three weeks. Instead of once every 2 weeks. I said no. She told me she wouldnt see me anymore. I went to the director of psychiatry in the hospital. He took her side. And now i have no Mental Health at all. The problem the v. A. Has a lot of problems. And we are not getting proper care. Lynn, thanks for the call in this money could Tom Tarantino from iraq and afghanistan veterans of america, our Women Veterans getting the care that they need . Guest not entirely, no. For yournk you service. This is in a couple of huge problem in our community. Sexual assault has been rampant in the department of defense and the military. It has not been rampant in the last 2 years, it has been rampant in the last 40. Everyone needs to start being honest about this, especially in the department of defense. Their response has largely been treating Sexual Assault like it is something that occurred in the last two years and they need to get leadership around it and they can fix it. Not true. It is a pervasive cultural problem, and there are several things were trying to fix. For example, modernizing the electric Justice System. This is senator joe brand senator gillibrands bill. The military has been resistant to this because they have this mental inertia when it comes to change. Our is something that allies across the world have done and it has been successful and it would put that her fidelity in the Justice System theyat victims feel that will get a fair shake, their day in court, and they will report the crime. Mentals of the followon health care, we are seeing extreme problems with men and women suffering from military sexual trauma not being able to get the care they need out of the v. A. This is largely because it is really hard to prove. Until the last few years ago, records of Sexual Assault were routinely destroyed very quickly. Iw they have to be kept for, think, 50 years for this is another bill that were looking oore actd the ruth m that says that if you are in the military and you have diagnosis from Sexual Assault, we will assume it comes from your military service. We do this with agent orange manic poster posttraumatic, stress. Lynn is right. This is a symptom of the v. A. Health care not being where we needed to be. We are seeing other problems, such as opiate prescriptions at ava has risen to several hundred percent. This is where the demand for care is so high that hospitals cant keep up trade if you have a veteran who is coming in in pain, you want to do something. This isnt a nefarious thing. They want to help the veteran not be in pain. But theres not enough Mental Health care providers to treat the need. This is causing huge problems not just for Mental Health but all over the pa system. Host stats on military Sexual Assault. This is a headline from the new york daily news. This is a story from last week. 3553 assault reports in the first three quarters of the last fiscal year, up from 2400 34 in the previous year, according to the defense department. From willow springs, North Carolina, on our line for republicans. You are on with Tom Tarantino of iraq and afghanistan veterans of america. Caller good morning. I am from North Carolina. I live 40 minutes from fort bragg and the air force base, and also, we have cap lejeune in jacksonville for the marines. I see every day on the news quite often these soldiers coming home, they have served their country, and they saw the family, they either kill the family or kill themselves because of the gst. Because of ptsd. And the governor patrick for rehearing has defunded all Mental Health care pat mcrory has defunded all Mental Health care. I dont know where these people are supposed to turn to. It is pathetic to me that American People would let their people who served in war do this to them. Friend who is 22 years old who watched his body blow his brains out in war in afghanistan. And that is very sad. 22 years old, he could not take the war and had to commit suicide. They need help and the Unemployment Rate here is horrible. Like a do get a job, is dollars or nine dollars and hour. Who can support the family on that . Host Tom Tarantino . Guest your point about suicide is extremely timely. It is an epidemic right now. Not only is it a huge problem within the military, but in the Veterans Community it is about one suicide every hour or 22 a day. The problem is in the past we look at suicide, especially if you served in the military anytime before the last 2 years, it was always a powerpoint presentation, and Suicide Prevention was essentially telling guys just dont kill yourself. It looks at suicide as if the suicide itself is the problem. Suicide is the end result of a string of problems and a string of failures. If you want to, suicide, especially in the Veterans Community, you have to make sure that health care is available, that Mental Health care is up to par, that there are employment opportunities, that all the things that end up failing to the point where the veterans get to that moment of despair dont fail. In the military, this is about training not generals and commanders, but those sergeants and those lieutenants and those how to looked guys for these signs and understand that if someone is struggling, someone is having a hard time, get to them before they hit that point of despair could this is a massive cultural change not just in the military but also within the Veterans Community and Civil Society because the civilian community doesnt do a very good job of this either. Host on twitter guest a lot. Unfortunately, the closest raw numbers we have are from 2004. But we know that this is a huge problem. The good news is that the Justice System has responded incredibly well. There are over 160 veterans courts, which are specialty courts if you have offenses that are not necessarily violent but are definitely related to an untreated Mental Health or, injury, the combat court, rather than being adversarial or punitive, is focused on treatment. The veteran has pure mentors peer mentors there and the focus is on treatment. The recidivism rate for these crimes is virtually down to nothing, statistically zero. Doingst about 1 8 less this then putting them in the jail or prison system or prison system where the Mental Health injuries would become worse. What is happening is that veterans are coming out transitioning much more successfully, and they are getting the treatment and care they need. This was completely driven by local courts. It started in buffalo with the judge who created the first veterans court, and it has swept across the country in a way because communities realize that not only is this a more effective way of dealing with a problem but it is more efficient and it is helping these veterans getting the care and services they need. From northis up next providence, rhode island, on our line for independents. Caller good morning, how are you . Im a korean vet i spent 2 years in, and training and then i was sent overseas. We had trouble with the base because the base was full of mold. I went to the hospital and they send me paperwork, you didnt go on sick call, then he went to sick call, then he went to the mike,al, you had asked pneumonia you had asked mike, neumonia. Johnson went to the base and 200 beds, thenut 400 beds, then 800 beds. In, i hadhad a claim a hearing, the first of may. Judge kennedy told me this should be handled in 30 days, 5. 5 months ago. All they did was send me more paperwork, say i didnt go on the service, i had to prove it could i had to have my friends wife write a letter stating that id served with him on a base. Rhode island, as far as the Veterans Hospital let me tell you something, they put someone in charge over there which answers the phone who was supposed to be a nurse. He has no confidence in nothing. He tries to roll you over, no matter what you did. He changed my medicine and then set the doctor changed it. He did not change the medicine. He changed the medicine host concerns over getting buried in paperwork, this is something that in your server you are seeing concerns by the other veterans on this issue . Guest yes, this is a big problem. We talk about the disability claims backlog of 400,000 waiting over 125 days. We are not talking about the appeals. If you appeal your case, youre talking 2 to 4 years, and that. S if you are lucky the backlog is enormous and it has not been addressed yet and hopefully it is something that will get addressed soon. Is thatiggest problem he went to a doctor, he had a condition, it was definitely environmental, totally related to his service. It should have been as easy as going into the medical records and seeing it. The problem is that the department of defense has not been very good about keeping medical records. The v. A. , a completely separate branch of government, doesnt talk to the department of defense very well. What we have to do to fix that in the future is make sure that those records are completely seamless, so that your personnel and medical records from the department of defense can be viewed and used by the department of Veterans Affairs. The place that makes the veteran should talk to the place that treats the veteran coul. Right now that is not really true. The v. A. Is Getting Better at it and says that by next year their medical records system will be completely interoperable. Ive been hearing this for the last five years, and we have spent half 1 billion trying to make this happen and they still havent gotten it done. I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt, but this is totally inexcusable that the v. A. And dod cant talk to each other. The way they talk to each other right now just isnt working very well. This is something that has to get fixed, and it is about leadership, sitting down and within these fiefdoms the dod and v. A. To work together. Host talking about the v. A. , on twitter host is this an issue you effort of . An issue you have heard of . Guest ive never heard of a specific one is for denying claims. This has actually been a problem, where in years, where the backlog has been atrocious and the managers in the Veterans Administration have been getting bonuses. They canceled the bonuses while the backlog is still around which is appropriate, but the issue of bonuses is controversial, and bonuses are supposed to award performance, network. You get paid for your work to ward performance, not work could you get paid for your work. You get rewarded for performance. On our lineom maine for republicans, he is a veteran. Thanks for calling in this morning. Caller youre welcome. I love the cspan. I have a question of how come veterans dont get reimbursed for the public stay at a hospital or the emergency room at a Public Hospital . A kind of gets held over there had sometimes. I was wondering why the v. A. Wont pay for Public Hospitals like on the weekend, or you can get an appointment at the v. A. When it is an emergency and you have to go to the emergency room. That is my comment ah, my question. Thank you. Host mr. Tarantino. Guest this is actually a great question. Technically, they are supposed to. If you go to the emergency room and you are registered with the v. A. , a Health Care Patient with them, you are in one of the isht categories, the v. A. Supposed to reimburse you for emergency room care. What they see is that not everyone is supposed to get to a v. A. Hospital. This is something that the v. A. Is supposed to do, contracting with Health Care Networks across the country so that if you have to get care outside the v. A. System or the doctors does not have the availability in the hospital or the agreement, you dont just come to some random doctor and help the v. A. Hope the v. A. Pays you back. You go to a network that has an agreement with the v. A. So this doesnt have a problem. The doctors, not only can they communicate and share records, which is also a huge benefit, but the doctors get paid and the doctors you are going to, the v. A. Knows who they are. It sounds like pretty basic stuff, but this is all very new in the v. A. And hopefully in the 3ext year what they call pc network will activate and veterans will be able to get care much easier than they are today. Host we are talking to Tom Tarantino, the chief policy officer of the iraq and afghanistan veterans of america. We have been talking about his survey that they conducted earlier this year. You can see that at iava. Org and follow his group on twitter, iava. A question from james on twitter to you. Guest theres a couple things. The Inspector General in the v. A. , which has been pretty aggressive, and then there is sort of outside rating agencies it is less about it is more about how effective the v. A. Is as a medical system. The v. A. Always gets extremely high ratings in terms of Customer Service and customer care. You bring up an interesting point. If you have a private hospital or state hospital, there are agencies within the state that inspect hospitals. They dont necessarily inspect is v. A. Hospitals, which something that the Inspector General and the federal government has to do. By and large the majority of v. A. Health care is outstanding. We have seen Serious Problems at v. A. Hospitals, such as in and the one in illinois a few years ago had huge problems. You have a Healthcare System in the v. A. That is broken up into 21 little kingdoms and most of them are fairly independent and we need to write those fiefdoms we need to break those fiefdoms down so that there is enforcement of standards and quality across the board and provide a more robust Inspection Network so that these few outlier hospitals that are doing funky stuff that held accountable and the veterans there dont suffer because of it. Chicago, illinois, on our line for democrats. Good morning. Caller good morning. Mr. Tarantino, one of the things i would like to bring to your attention is that the in him thats vietnam vets are forgotten vets. We were forgotten when we came ink, and i spent 2 tours vietnam, and we are still forgotten, still pushed back. Im glad theyre giving help to those trips that are coming back from iraq and afghanistan. But those of us who were in vietnam, we were not treated properly when we came back and we still are not. We are still pushed to the back of the line. I had problems and i didnt know anything about i had problems in vietnam that i didnt know anything about. I didnt know anything about ptsd or anything else that came with that. I found a claim after so many things years because of things i didnt know. It took 2 years to be in the system. I found it here in illinois. 2 years, my claim just floated around. Then they sent it to another state. Within one month of the time that other state received my claim, they disapproved it. So i appealed. And it has gone on over 2 years. It was in the system here. One month they send it to another state. Back toed it, a came illinois, and it is going to be all most another year and im waiting to see some of to appeal. See someone to appeal could im involved with the Medical Center here is a problems that were made more difficult while i was in vietnam, in reference to my feet and my legs and everything. They are very quick to take an disapproved claims of the veterans who went for many years i didnt realize the realize and didnt the problems that they were having mentally and physically. They just quickly disapproved it. Host mr. Tarantino . Guest yeah, this is a big problem, and im glad you bring this up, because the majority of backlog claims are actually Vietnam Veterans. Alot of this is because of lot of the past that practices time to v. A. , from digitize these records you have onefootlong before those of medical records that the v. A. Has to sift through. Thereve been processing problems. I get to do this job because of them. My organization exists because of vietnam generations grabbed my boss early on and said, hey, this is what you have to do. They really led the way and showed us how to be advocates. Posttraumatic stress exists as a mental condition in the diagnostic book because of a Vietnam Veterans. Hating the way, paving the w ones thatere the allowed this generation to be as successful as we have been. The debt of gratitude is immense. One thing i want to say about the vietnam generation and v. A. Health care and disability is we have to start refocusing on this. Vivienne on generation just turned on average age 66 and the vietnam generation just turn on average age 66. In the world war ii generation hit retirement age, we saw an uptick in usage of v. A. Health care and Mental Health conditions and disability. As they are retiring, guys are remembered, especially as there is a war going on as their was back then. We have to start refocusing on the care for Vietnam Veterans because they are our brothers and sisters in arms and we have to make sure that we care for them as well as we are coming for the vet caring for the vet and get some from afghanistan tomorrow. West james from virginia, democrat. Caller how are you doing . Host good. You are on with Tom Tarantino. Caller im a returning iraq vet, came back in 2001. Ive been diagnosed with severe chronic ptsd. I dont know exact what it is, except that it makes me have a heightened sense of awareness that i guess that comes from being through war. Share one thing that is affecting a lot of these young boys to come home. I was staying in martinsburg, West Virginia the moment. When i went to war, then president george w. Bush that we would have that we wouldnt have red tape when we came home and that the great citizens of america would do whatever they could to help us and that red tape wasnt justifiable. My extremes was this experience was this i took it to the troopers, and they locked me up and told me that no care about the paper, all they want to do is put me in jail. Im saying this to say that i feel like im still at war. And it is wrong. Weve got a lot of soldiers back here. I dont understand this killing yourself, but then again, i dont know what the situation is. A lot of times it is what happens when they come home. Host Tom Tarantino, in our last 30 seconds here. Guest this points out that we still havent gotten this figured out. The world today for veterans is better than it was six or seven years ago. Health care is better, the disability process is Getting Better, we have a system of veterans courts, the g. I. Bill is running at full steam could but we are not quite there yet. Problems finding jobs, veterans still need the care and services to transition from warrior back to civilian. We will never be truly successful until as a country we wrap our arms around that and it will be difficult considering that the veterans population is dynamically shrinking. On veterans day of all days, we cant forget that there are men and women who fight for us and we have a moral and practical obligation to make sure they come home from war and transition back home safely and soundly. Host Tom Tarantino is with the iraq and afghanistan veterans of online. Iava. Org thanks for joining us this money. Guest thanks for having me, john. Host we will be back to open our phones up to you on this veterans day edition of washington journal. As you do, we will show you a live shot of the Arlington National cemetery, the tomb of the unknowns, where at 11 00, president obama will be participating in a wreathlaying ceremony and offer some remarks. Cspan we bring Public Affairs event from washington directly to you, putting you in the room at congressional hearings, white house events, briefings and conferences, and offering complete gaveltogavel coverage of the u. S. House all as a Public Service of private industry. We are cspan, created by the cable tv industry 34 years ago and funded by your local cable or satellite provider. You can watch us in hd. Ive spent a lot of time dealing with the fcc in my life. And it is important that the agency make decisions and make decisions in a timely fashion. There is nothing worse than investment, innovation, concretion, all the things that flow from investment job creation, all the things that flow from investment, then businesses not knowing what the role czar. What the rules are. Ischairman wheeler absolutely right. With a slowmoving agency like this that bill of rights for months, even years on and, it really does create uncertainty, and uncertainty is the enemy of business. Business needs certainty to be able to invest, and if there is one thing we need in the United States in terms of broadband acting medications rastructure, we need broadband and communications infrastructure, we need investment with dispatch as the chairman might say. Tonight on the communicators at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan2. Host and you are seeing a live shot from Arlington National cemetery, the tomb of the unknowns, where president obama will be participating in a wreathlaying ceremony at 11 00. You can see that here on cspan at 11 00 a. M. In this last segment of washington journal, we are opening up our phones to you on this veterans day on any of the issues that we have talked about so far this morning, whether it is the civilian military divide issues affecting veterans returning from the battlefield, ptsd, and several of the other issues we have covered this morning on washington journal. We also asked you at the beginning of the show who is the face of veterans day for you, and whether iraq and afghanistan veterans have changed the face of veterans day. We are taking your calls and comments on any of those issues this morning. Our phone lines are open right now. Host as we wait for you to call and, we want to show you a few of the front pages around the country that have to do with veterans day. The front page of the tallahassee democrat. Vigil honors veterans. Getting ready for the veterans day parade in tallahassee. This is the Orange County register. Military wives suddenly become caretakers, forced to tap resources they never knew they possessed. Front page of the virginia pilot. As a navy corpsmen, he fought to save lives. Now he helps vets. Front page stories about veterans issues. We will keep showing you as we go through this last segment of the washington journal this morning. We want to read you that piece we talked about a little bit earlier, the front page of the wall street journal. For veterans with ptsd, a new demon their meds. Than 2of the more million americans who served in iraq and afghanistan suffer from a mixture of pain and ptsd. The v. A. To stem with powerful opioid painkillers for their pain. But opioids can be a combustible mix with Mental Illness because of a heightened addiction risk. Some quick say it amounts to treating Mental Illness with addictive narcotics. A study found that veterans with ptsd were twice as likely to be prescribed opioids as those without Mental Health problems. They are more likely to get opioid painkillers and get the highest doses. Veterans with ptsd with more than twice as likely to suffer bad outcomes like in and overdose if they were prescribed. Oid painkillers front page of the wall street journal. Fromll start with george florida on our line for republicans. Good morning to you. Caller yes, good morning could im so, so glad i got through because i something to kill all the thats. Im a vietnam something to tell all the vets. Im a Vietnam Combat vet. Three months in the hospital for anxiety reaction. I went back to a psychiatrist and i was 140 pounds, 62, i went back to the psychiatrist. Nd i stood in line for 2 days the Second World War guys cruised right past us. I got to a psychiatrist and he interviewed me in the hallway and threaten me with three weeks back in the hospital and wouldnt let me out. Short, 35ong story years they told me i needed my hospital records from the army hospital, which i could not obtain because they kept giving the records that they lost. Ive got a stack of excuses. To cut a long story short, about, i dont know, three years ago am i tried the freedom of information act. All you guys commit they are stopping you from getting your records, freedom of information act, i got it in 19 days. They have to give it to you within 20. 19 days i got my records from the hospital and i prove my case and i got my disability for ptsd. That was an anxiety reaction, and they still refused me. Almost. It took me, i put in claim after claim after claim. Host george offering his story from florida. Jackie in West Virginia on our line for republicans. Good morning. Caller hello. Host go ahead, jackie. Caller ok, im sorry, theres the delay business. I am the mother of a vet who killed himself 2 months ago. He shot himself in the head. After a weekend of wonderful opportunities and having a great time, he had just gotten a new job, he was very excited about it. He had a child on the weight who was born a month after he died and had recently married and we were very, very happy, they just bought a house with benefits. Something happened that just ptsd, which he was not diagnosed with. However, they did send him for. Ounseling in a ptsd group but that is not the diagnosis hat he had with the v. A. Because he had received counseling for the v. A. , does not allow you to assume that he did have the disability . And i have a different question i want to ask you if the answer to that is yes. Host jackie, i appreciate you telling your story on this veterans day. What are you doing on this veterans day today . Caller i am sitting and watching you, and i do a lot of staring at the walls right now. It is very difficult, especially on today. Im sorry, i can get myself together. The reason i am asking this question is he had insurance that he had purchased when he was getting some medical testing done, it made him more mortality, and he had a child coming, and a new wife, and all of the expenses, they were getting their life started together. The Life Insurance well, the Life Insurance, it it being denied because he killed himself. And it was insurance through usaa. So my question is if my son had ptsd, which we all know that he did we have lived with his momentary triggers of anger and despair that he didnt even understand where it was coming. Rom whenever he would finally get over it, he would say i dont know why that happened. This would not come when something difficult happened. Well, it would come when difficult things were happening as well. But there were times when things were wonderful and it was still triggered. Host jackie, thanks for sharing your story on washington journal. Bill is on from cincinnati, ohio on our line for independents. Caller good morning. Happy veterans day. One of the things i want to reiterate is the reason veterans dont get hired is veterans are not observed by the civilian community the way they should. 4 years in who spent the military should at least be automatically accepted as if he had an associate degree. Any young man who served eight years, 10 years in the military, they ought to be at least a bachelors degree. Youve got these guys going to medical school and things like that. They should at least be considered an ran. Certification can be satisfied by military work. Host all right, we want to bring in joe with the disabled American Veterans on the phone with us about the putting of veterans funding first act. Thanks for joining us this money. Thanks for joining us this morning. Guest good morning, john. Pleasure to be here. Host talk about the act. Yes, been several it has come up in several pieces and members of congress are expressing their support. Guest yes, it is a very important piece of legislation. It would bring the remainder of discretionary funding, 14 of , and toall funding advance her preparations, which would be decided a year in advance, just like the health care funding. It would also bring in mandatory funding, the disability compensation, pension, survivors benefits, education benefits paid to veterans. It makes sure that the funding was in place a year before the fiscal year began. Disabled your group, American Veterans, is promoting this bill. Here is 2 pieces in todays Washington Times from 2 different members. A member of the Veterans Affairs committee pushing for this legislation. And a democrat from maine, Ranking Member on the Veterans Affairs committee, mentions in his piece today for the Washington Times. How close is this to actually becoming law . Guest i wish i could say it was very close could we have bipartisan support in the house and the senate. What we are trying to do is line at the leadership in the house on the senate to make sure this legislation moves forward. In the house, the house Veterans Affairs committee has already marked up their bill. I understand that in the senate, either next week or the week after, they will be marking up their bill. We will have 2 bills that ive been reported out of committee in the next couple of weeks. Then it is up to the leadership to bring the bills forward on the floor of the house and the senate. Host we are looking at another budgeting deadline in mid january. Is there a chance this happens before then . If it doesnt, will happen in terms of the funding issues you are talking about . Guest it would be great if we could get this legislation enacted before the next budget crisis comes up in the middle of january. If not, lets hope that members of congress dont think that shutting down the government is a good idea again, because that would create problems. But if they continue to fund it, veterans and their families will be ok, but it is just nice for this money to be in place a year in advance so that v. A. Can plan for the future and that means they are able to take care of veterans when they need it. Is theoe violante National Legislative director disabled veteran American Veterans. How would this impact of the cuts that are coming down the road through further rounds of sequestration . Guest well, thats a good question. It is not likely to impact that. If congress chooses to make these cuts, they are going to happen. The only thing that advance appropriations would do would be to put in place the funding level a year in advance. But again, congress has the ability to make changes to that at any time. This year, sequestration did not affect v. A. , and we hope we can stay out of the crosshairs on that. Is theoe violante National Legislative director of disabled American Veterans. Appreciate you coming on washington journal this morning. Guest thank you. It was my pleasure. Host we have opened up our phones to you to talk about veterans issues. If you didnt have a chance to call in our first segment of washington journal today, the question we asked in that segment was who is the face of veterans day for you and have the wars in iraq and afghanistan changed the face of veterans day . North carolina, our line for immigrants. Our line for democrats. Brenda, good morning. Caller yes, im calling in, i live with i would like to say happy veterans day to all the veterans, living, dead, their spouses, their families, and everyone. Person, and im a spouse of a veteran who died of agent orange. I followed up my claim and it came through could i would like to tell all of the veterans out there, just hold on and be patient. Its very rough for me. Im fighting right now with cap. A. For medical assistance because the spouses didnt go to war, but we were there. Our men were there. I sent a man to vietnam and vietnam sent me back a man i didnt know longer know, that i had to get to know. But i thank god for that man, and i thank god for all of the men who went and women that went to fight for our country. And as a democrat, all of the laws, we are waiting. We are waiting. Nda this morning a calling in. Thanks for your call this money. On twitter, to our question of who is the face of a veterans day for you host a few more front pages of similar newspapers around the country. Here is the Frederick News post. Aterans services depicting korean war veteran saluting during the Opening Ceremony of the sunday walkers fill Veterans Day Service in Memorial Park there. One other front page i want to show you is the times herald record. Walden honor sacrifices of veterans. Health, emotional issues remain. Greensboro, North Carolina, on our line for veterans. Caller good morning. I have a couple observations. Theis that prior to volunteer army, there were americans in other words, every adult 18 years old and males, was considered one of going into the military. Now with the volunteer military, it is sort of like a separate world. He comes into the military and he has kids. These people now, it is like they have their own community. The military have their own community. That weee happening is are saying thank you to the American Veteran for his service, when it is his duty under the old military, it was his duty to go into the military. Now as a volunteer, as long as the people who dont volunteer saying, ok, you chose to go there, so the things that happen to you, that is your problem. That is the thing that is areging for many, that we putting the military, the people who are in the military, somewhere out there bank somewhere out there. We as americans, it is like we are not involved. The question im asking, and this is for anybody that wants to and see if that wants to call in and see if they can give me some feedback on how they see this, the volunteer army and the old what you would call sequestered army if you want to call it that, in terms of the defense of the reaction is and the money that military costs now, because they have families and they have got to deal with whole communities, as opposed to the prior one where just the guy went. Host john from North Carolina talking about an issue we talked about in one of our earlier segments, the civilianmilitary divide. I want to show you a live shot of the amphitheater at ellington National Cemetery at Arlington National cemetery, where president obama will participate in a wreathlaying ceremony and offer remarks at about 11 00. That wreathlaying ceremony will be at the tomb of the unknowns. California next in on our line for independents. Thanks for calling in this veterans day. Caller hello. It is about time. I was about ready to hang this phone up. Host thanks for staying on, bobby. Caller im a veteran and i can trying to get in on on any one of your last couple of hours. Host we asked folks at the beginning of the show who is the face of a veterans day and have the wars of iraq and afghanistan changed the face of a veterans day . Caller well, it has for a lot underple, especially for the lady you had just a minute ago saying about she had lost her husband through vietnam. I am right at the end of vietnam. But it doesnt matter, a veteran is a veteran. But a lot of the topics you had, like them trying to find them returning home and then ,inding jobs and their families the hardest part is going to be with the families because they only have one person in the family that went in the military. Homeinute that boy left was the last time they were going to see them as they know him. Us veteransme back, we have to live by double standards. Your main topic was civilians vs. Military. Once weve made that commitment, whether we joined, we volunteer, or were drafted, from that day on, even for us, we didnt know what we were getting into, but from that day on, our life changed and we were never the same person we were when we left home, no matter what. Host bobby, thanks for calling in this money from california. One other piece i want to point out to you, the front page of the commentary section of todays Washington Times. Were one step closer to filling a promise to honor the cycle races of so many. This is the last date our Nations Capital will be without a permanent memorial to honor those men and women who serve our country and suffered emotional and physical disabilities as a result of their service. Next year at this time we will have a place together at this purpose come at the american disabled veterans for life memorial currently under construction. It will be open to veterans and other visitors alike next year. That piece includes an artists rendering of what the completed memorial will look like. Times. Ays washington texas onis waiting in our line for republicans. Good morning to you. Caller good morning good i actually have a couple of questions. My first question pertains to a comment that mr. Tarantino made regarding the availability of emergency room care outside of the v. A. Administration. Im dealing with an issue with the Veterans Administration here. Based upon some guidance that i received from the director of cbo, the chief Business Office for national monde veteran , cal care Program National monde veteran medical care program, if the veteran meets the criteria and has made the appropriate contact with the , usc1703 should be utilized in determining whether or not the Veterans Administration should pay for that emergency room care. Otherwise, if the v. A. Denies the claim and tricare pays, tricare will only pay the first 20 , and the veteran will be required to pay the remaining 80 . And so although i meet this stillthis criteria, im having the battle with the Veterans Administration because they are refusing to acknowledge 703 and they are opting to imply apply usc1725 as theiras far decision to pay for those medical bills. Host patricia from texas offering her situation. We will and with we will end albert from maine on our line for democrats could thank for calling in this veterans day. Caller good morning. Im calling in reference to the unfair treatment being given to the socalled peacetime veterans. I was drafted in 1957 under the korean war statues. 2 years. My yet many of these ava benefits are being denied to me because i am a peacetime veteran. Can you explain this, why there is inefficiency in the government to treat us . We served. A lot of us went to lebanon, a lot of us served in the berlin area, and served in other conflicts. Why are we being denied because of our time was socalled peacetime veteran . Host albert from maine this morning. That is going to wrap up todays installment of washington journal, this veterans day edition. We will see you right back here at 7 00 a. M. Tomorrow morning. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute] tolling] toll hering]