VAnguard Features Warriors in Transition 6 VA, Defense, Army team up to improve veterans’ care Building for the Future 8 VA is in the midst of an historic surge in construction and leasing 8 One-Stop Service for Soldiers 10 Newly expanded Fort Bragg facility offers easier access to VA benefits Doctor, Teacher, Role Model 12 Tampa VA’s chief of medicine is one of the youngest in the country Turning No Veteran Away 14 Former homeless veteran now helps others get off the streets Return of the Native 16 Kenyan returns to his homeland to help eradicate disease 12 The Files Behind the Faces 18 VA’s massive Records Management Center stores veterans’ records The Problem of Pain 22 And what two VA researchers are doing about it A Day to Remember in South Florida 25 VA’s 125th national cemetery is dedicated near West Palm Beach National Cemetery Volunteers: A Vital Force 26 Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery has a dedicated group National Salute 2008 27 26 Honoring veterans hospitalized at VA facilities nationwide VAnguard Departments VA’s Employee Magazine March/April 2008 Vol. LIV, No. 2 3 Feedback 32 Medical Advances Printed on 50% recycled paper 4 From the Secretary 33 Have You Heard 5 Outlook 34 Honors Editor: Lisa Respess Gaegler 28 Around Headquarters 35 Heroes Photo Editor: Robert Turtil 31 Introducing 36 Memorial Day Photographer: Art Gardiner Staff Writer: Amanda Hester Published by the Office of Public Affairs (80D) U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs On the cover 810 Vermont Ave., N.W. Deborah D. Berry, acting Support Services Washington, D.C. 20420 Division Chief at the VA Records (202) 461-7427 Management Center in St. Louis, inspects a E-mail: [email protected] claims file at the RMC’s main storage www.va.gov/opa/feature/vanguard complex. The stacks hold the records of 18 million veterans. The employee behind her is one of 20 on shift pulling 2,100 folders a day. photo by Robert Turtil 2 March/April 2008 VAnguard feedback Oldest Survivor of the VAnguard (March/April 2007 some three years and five George as we were both survi- Bataan Death March issue) depicting the back- months’ imprisonment by the vors of the Death March and The former POW community ground and experiences of Japanese. POW camps during the pe- of northern Nevada is sad- George Small. He was consid- George was looking for- riod April 9, 1942, to Septem- dened by the death of its old- ered to be the oldest (at the ward to celebrating his 100th ber 10, 1945. est survivor of the Death time) known survivor of the birthday on Feb. 28. I was George had recently fin- March. An article appeared in Bataan Death March and personally involved with ished his personal story of his past experiences and it had SVAC Member Named Chairman of West Point Board of Visitors been submitted for inclusion Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) has been elected chairman of the Board of Visitors in VA’s Oral History program. (BOV) at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. “I am honored to serve as chairman of the We here at the Reno VA Board of Visitors at West Point,” said Hutchison. “For more than two centuries the Academy has Medical Center shall most cer- been one of our nation’s finest institutions, developing cadets for the challenge of national service. tainly miss George. I look forward to working with the Board’s members over the next year to continue their standard Ralph Levenberg of excellence at West Point.” POW Consultant/Coordinator Created by the Federal Advisory Act of 1972, the BOV meets quarterly to review and receive VA Sierra Nevada HCS updates on the academic, physical and military programs at the Academy. Specifically, the Board Reno has oversight of the Academy’s morale and discipline, curriculum, instructions, physical equip- Editor’s note: Levenberg spoke ment, fiscal affairs and academic methods. The board consists of presidential appointees and at a tree-planting ceremony members of Congress. Hutchison previously served as chairman of the BOV from 1998 to 2000. held at the Reno VA Re- She is a member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. gional Office on Feb. 28, which would have been George Small’s 100th birth- day. Plans had been made to host a birthday party for him. The tree and plaque honor the struggles of Small and all former POWs. We Want to Hear from You Have a comment on something you’ve seen in VAnguard? We invite reader feedback. Send your comments to [email protected]. You can also write to us at: VAnguard, Office of Public Affairs (80D), RAMONA PHILLIPS Department of Veterans Remembering a Fallen Hero Affairs, 810 Vermont Family, friends and community leaders gathered in Granite City, Ill., to dedicate a billboard Ave., N.W., Washing- that went up there a few days before Veterans Day in memory of Army Sgt. Steven P. ton, D.C., 20420. In- Mennemeyer. Mennemeyer, 26, was the son of Ramona L. Phillips, IT specialist at the St. clude your name, title Louis VA Medical Center. On his second tour of duty in Iraq as an Army flight medic, he and VA facility. We was killed when his helicopter crashed on Aug. 8, 2006. In an effort to pay tribute to her won’t be able to publish son, Phillips envisioned a memorial billboard that would remind the public of the ultimate every letter, but we’ll sacrifice made for freedom. The billboard, which was financed completely by donations, use representative ones. stands 24-by-10 feet tall. “[The billboard] has been very healing for me,” Phillips said. We may need to edit Mennemeyer, assigned to the 82nd Medical Company based at Fort Riley, Kan., was buried your letter for length or with full military honors at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis. clarity. March/April 2008 3 from the secretary VAnguard Beyond the Beltway: Learning What the ‘Real’ VA is Doing James B. Peake, M.D. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Since becoming Secretary of nership with the Department continued provision of world- leader in telehealth-based care Veterans Affairs, I’ve made a of Defense to provide a seam- class health care and benefits delivery, and that requires point of getting out of the of- less transition from military to VA and DoD beneficiaries, continued restructuring of ele- fice to find out what the “real” duty to civilian life. It means including the development of ments of our clinical, techni- VA is doing and what veterans embracing the recommenda- secure, interoperable electronic cal and administrative pro- expect of us. I’ve traveled tions of the Dole-Shalala com- medical record systems; cesses. thousands of miles, talked mission to ensure that service- I Improve the timeliness and A major challenge in im- with veterans and talked with men and women injured dur- accuracy of claims processing; proving the delivery of com- VA staff and leadership. ing the Global War on Terror and pensation and pension ben- This is the message I am receive their health care ser- I Ensure the burial needs of efits is the steady and sizeable leaving with them: I am proud vices and benefits and return veterans and their eligible increase in workload. The vol- to be a part of a system of ex- to full and productive lives as family members are met and ume of claims receipts is pro- cellence. Great men and quickly as possible. maintain veterans’ cemeteries jected to reach 872,000 in women serve veterans every VA care also means meet- as national shrines. 2009—a 51 percent increase day with dignity, compassion, ing the needs of our wounded The challenge is clear. since 2000. Disability com- respect and technical excel- warriors injured by improvised During 2009, we expect to pensation claims from veter- lence, whether in health, ben- explosive devices and suffering treat about 5,771,000 pa- ans who have previously filed efits delivery or in creating the from traumatic brain injuries, tients—90,000 above the a claim comprise 54 percent lasting tribute of our cemetery burns and loss of limbs. It 2008 estimate. Our highest of the disability claims re- system. That must be our means helping them and all priority patients will comprise ceived by the department each standard and we cannot rest Operation Enduring Free- 67 percent of the total patient year. upon our laurels! dom/Operation Iraqi Free- population in 2009, but they We are now working For our most senior vet- dom veterans reenter the ev- will account for 84 percent of closely with DoD to develop a erans, that means respecting eryday world of civilian life, our health care costs. pilot of a new Disability the reality of their advancing confident that VA will be In 2009, we expect to Evaluation System for years and providing geriatric there for them with the best treat about 333,000 OEF/OIF wounded, ill and injured war- care, long-term care, and, when they die, honored trib- Great men and women serve veterans every day with utes in our national cemeter- ies. It also means making cer- dignity, compassion, respect and technical excellence, tain we respond quickly and whether in health, benefits or our cemetery system. efficiently to their compensa- tion and pension problems. health care and benefits they veterans, an increase of 40,000 riors being processed through For veterans at the higher have earned through selfless above this year’s number. the disability system. This has end of middle life, VA care service.