RAO BULLETIN 15 May 2014 PDF Edition THIS BULLETIN CONTAINS THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES Pg Article Subject | *DOD* | 04 == Arlington National Cemetery [47] ---- (Still Holds Secrets @ 150) 06 == DoD Benefit Cuts [41] --- (Pentagon Leaders Make A Last Stand) 07 == Traumatic Brain Injury [35] --------- (30K+ Undocumented TBIs) 09 == Commissary Case Lot Sales -------------------- (Returning in AUG) | *VA* | 09 == FHCC Chicago IL ----------------------------- (Final Salute Policy) 12 == VA Healthcare Stories------------------------------ (What's Yours?) 12 == GI Bill [172] ---------------------------------- (TEB Program Rules) 12 == VA Secretary [19] ---- (American Legion Demands Resignation) 13 == VA Secretary [20] ------- (Will Not Step Down | Urges Patience) 15 == VA Secretary [21] ----------------------------- (Let Him Do his Job) 16 == PTSD [166] ------------------------ (Service Dog Treatment Study) 18 == VA Pain Management [04] ----- (Alternative Treatments Pushed) 19 == VA PACT ---------------------------- (Patient Aligned Care Teams) 20 == VA Bonuses [14] ---------------- (House Passes Ban Amendment) 20 == VAMC Phoenix AZ [02] ------- (VA Secretary Issues Statement) 22 == VAMC Phoenix AZ [03] ------ (2nd VA Doctor Comes Forward) 23 == VAMC Phoenix AZ [04] -------- (EWL Guidelines Not followed) 24 == VAMC Cheyenne WY --- (Fort Collins Clinic Falsified Records) 24 == VAMC San Antonio TX ------- (More Wait Time Manipulations) 25 == VA Fraud, Waste & Abuse ------- (Reported 1 thru 15 May 2014) 26 == VA Loans --------------------------------- (Closing | What to Expect) 27 == VAVA ----------------------------- (Group Formed to Eliminate VA) | *VETS* | 28 == Servicemembers' Civil Relief Act [03] ---- (Vet Loan Settlement) 1 29 == National Coast Guard Museum ------------------- (Ground Broken) 29 == Flathead National Park Memorial [01] --------- (Retention Ruling) 30 == Wall That Heals [02] ------------------------ (Additions & Changes) 32 == Burn Pit Lawsuit [02] ----------- (Alan Metzgar et. al. v. KBR Inc) 33 == Bladensburg WWI Vet Memorial -------------------------- (Lawsuit) 34 == POW/MIA [28] ------- (Wauwilermoos Airmen Medal Recipients) 36 == POW/MIA Recoveries ------------------------ (140501 thru 140514) 38 == OBIT | Buska~Donald ---------------------------------- (29 Apr 2014) 39 == OBIT | Barrios~Hector ------------------------------------- (Apr 2014) 40 == Vet Jobs [151] ------------ (Unemployment Rates Continue to Fall) 41 == Vet Jobs [153] --------- (U.S. Cyber Warrior Scholarship Program) 42 == Vet Job Opportunities --------------------------- (Johnson&Johnson) 42 == Retiree Appreciation Days --------------------- (As of 12 May2014) 42 == Vet Hiring Fairs -------------------------- (15 May thru 15 Jul 2014) 44 == WWII Vets 63 ------------------------------------- (Buxton~Winslow) 46 == State Veteran's Benefits & Discounts ------------ (Wisconsin 2014) 47 == America's Most Beloved Vets ------------ (American Revolution 1) | *VET LEGISLATION* || 48 == Vet Jobs [152] ------ (Hire More Heroes Act H.R.3474 & S.2190) 48 == NDAA 2015 ------------------------------------- (Clears HASC 61-0) 49 == DECA Budget Cuts [10] ------- (HASC Considering $100M Cut) 50 == Vet Bills Submitted to 113th Congress ----- (As of 12 May 2014) 51 == Veteran Hearing/Mark-up Schedule --------- (As of 13 May 2014) | *MILITARY* | 53 == DoD Benefit Cuts [41] --------------------- (Troop Survey Launch) 54 == Coastal Command Boat ------- (New Brown-Water Navy Vessel) 55 == USS Saratoga (CV-60) ---------------- (Navy Pays $0.01 to Scrap) 56 == Soldier for Life Website -------- (New Online Home for Retirees) 57 == USNS Spearhead (JHSV 1) ---------- (Maiden Voyage a Success) 58 == Upward Falling Payload --------------- (Navy Cost-Cutter Project) 59 == Army Ranger Beret ------------------------------------------ (Petition) 60 == DoD Mobilized Reserve 29 APR 2014 --------- (Decrease of 937) 60 == Medal of Honor Citations ------------ (Thomas~Charles L WWII) | *MILITARY HISTORY* | 63 == Aviation Art -------------------------------------- (One the Hard Way) 63 == Polar Bears Monument ------------------ (Addition to NRHP Effort) 65 == D-Day [06] ----------- (Dutch Minister Pays Tribute at Arlington) 67 == WWII PreWar Event ------------ (Hitler / Mussolini Meeting 1934) 67 == Military History ----------------------------- (Revolt of the Admirals) 68 == Military Trivia ------------------------------ (Operation Little Vittles) 69 == Military History Anniversaries ------------------- (16 May - 15 Jun) 69 == Arlington National Cemetery [48] ---------------------------- (Origin) 71 == Spanish American War Image 44 ------ (Troops en route to Cuba) 71 == Faces of WAR (WWII) ----------------------- (Eddie Rickenbacker) 2 | *HEALTH CARE* | 72 == MERS-CoV ---------------- (GEIS Detects Earliest-Known Cases) 73 == Medical Marijuana ----- (Health Insurers Won't Be Paying For It) 74 == Traumatic Brain Injury [36] -------------------- (SMART Program) 75 == Insomnia ---------------------------------- (Having trouble sleeping?) 76 == Ankle Sprains -------------------------------- (Cause and Treatment) 78 == VA Medical Records [01] ----- (Backlogged Consults Cancelled) 80 == TMOP [17] ---------------------------- (TFL Pilot Program Options) | *FINANCES* || 81 == Price Coding --------------------- (How to Determine if it is a Deal) 81 == Homeownership [01] -------- (Tax Liens | Do You Owe Interest?) 82 == Saving Money ------------------- (Plumbers 2 | Tricks of the Trade) 84 == Craigslist Job Scam ----------------------------------- (How It works) 85 == Lottery Scam w/CPB --------------------------------- (How It works) 86 == Tax Burden for Louisiana Retirees -------------- (As of May 2014) 87 == Thrift Savings Plan 2014 ----- (Share Prices + YTD Gain or Loss) | *GENERAL INTEREST* | 88 == Notes of Interest ------------------------------- (1 thru 14 May 2014) 88 == WWII Vet Incarcerated ------- (Decorated Vet Age 90 Gets 3-yrs) 89 == Mothers Day 2014 Index --- (Equivalent Pay for What She Does) 90 == Landline Phone Service ------------------- (Reasons Not to Cancel) 91 == Forced Arbitration -------------------- (Cable Company Contracts) 92 == Have You Heard? ------------------------------------- (The Bagpiper) 93 == Photos That Say it All ------------------------------- (Memorial Day) 94 == They Grew Up to Be ---------------------- (Arnold Schwarzenegger) 94 == Interesting Inventions ------------------------ (Hidden Power Outlet) 95 == World Peace Day --------------------------------------- (21 SEP 2014) | *ATTACHMENTS* | Attachment - Veteran Legislation as of 12 May 2014 Attachment - Wisconsin Vet State Benefits & Discounts May 2014 Attachment - The Revolt of the Admirals Attachment - Military History Anniversaries 16 May thru 15 Jun Attachment - Retiree Activity\Appreciation Days (RAD) Schedule *DoD* 3 Arlington National Cemetery Update 47 ► Still Holds Secrets @ 150 A lingering image for any Arlington National Cemetery visitor — more than caissons bearing the soon-to-be- interred or even the white-gloved honor guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier — is the perfect symmetry of alabaster headstones endlessly arrayed. The stone sentinels give up their dead only on close inspection to visitors who leave pathways to gingerly step close and read the black lettering etched into marble. “Christopher David Horton, Spc. U.S. Army, Afghanistan, Oct. 1, 1984, Sept. 9, 2011, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Valiant Warrior, Fearless Sniper” are words on one of more than 900 graves from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in the cemetery’s Section 60. For the dead — like Horton, killed in a hail of enemy AK-47 fire — the words are a spare summary of sacrifice; what Abraham Lincoln called “the last full measure of devotion.” More than 400,000 are buried here. The epitaphs are reminders that ever since Union Army Pvt. William Henry Christman became the first to be buried here on May 13, 1864 — 150 years ago Tuesday — this place has always been less about grandeur, stone and protocol than about people. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus touched on this theme before a congregation at an Arlington burial service a year ago for two sailors killed in war: “We are joined as Lincoln again reminded us by ‘the mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield, and every patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone.’” The sailors’ remains were recovered years earlier from the sunken wreckage of the USS Monitor, famed for battling a Confederate ironclad to a draw in 1862. As the Civil War dead were carried to their Arlington graves, hundreds gathered. Scattered throughout were sailors of today in dress uniforms eager to link with this moment, each crisply saluting from wherever they stood. The place is about people. It was the bitterness of Quartermaster Gen. Montgomery Meigs that first led to the cemetery’s creation. Angry that his former mentor, Robert E. Lee, had joined the rebellion and desperate for more space to bury the accumulating dead of the Civil War, Meigs recommended that the Lee estate overlooking Washington be turned into a graveyard. Burials had already begun by the time approval came through on June 15, 1864. A century later, it was with a simple nod of her head that Jacqueline Kennedy acquiesced to the gravesite for her husband on the slope below the Lee Arlington House. She insisted that the assassinated president be laid to rest in a public, accessible place because “he belongs to the people.” A half-century after that, it was the outpouring of grief by young widows, parents and