Vets Under Siege: How America Deceives and Dishonors Those Who Fight Our Battles [Hardcover]

Martin Schram (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0312375735 | ISBN-13: 978-0312375737 | Publication Date: June 24, 2008 | Edition: First Edition

After members of our armed forces bravely serve their nation, they sometimes come home to find themselves battling another enemy---within their own government. Using decades of case histories, statistics, and firsthand accounts, Martin Schram exposes a shocking culture of antagonism toward veterans by the very agency---the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)---that was formed to serve them.
     Schram places our veterans’ current struggles within historical context, going back to the Bonus Army of beleaguered World War I vets who camped out on Washington’s national mall in 1932, demanding their promised benefits, only to be turned away by their own brethren in the U.S. Army---led by future military heroes Douglas MacArthur, George S. Patton Jr., and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Readers will be angered to learn of the legions of veterans---from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf Wars---who are routinely denied benefits to which they are entitled and who die while awaiting benefit reviews that are stalled by institutionalized delays. And they will be downright outraged by the results of a 2002 Mystery Caller test that showed VA representatives treating help-line callers with condescension and even ridicule---one service rep is shown laughing and hanging up on a caller---and providing “completely correct” answers to questions regarding care and compensation just 19 percent of the time. 
     In the most intimate segment of the book, we meet Gulf War vet Bill Florey, who contracted a rare cancer after his exposure to Iraqi chemical weapons that were mistakenly detonated by the U.S. Army. Florey’s crucial medical tests were delayed, he was denied service-related compensation he deserved, and he died before a government study finally linked the exposure to his form of cancer. Schram also highlights accounts of shameless deception of our soldiers, including misleading information provided by recruiters, and discloses how Iraq and Afghanistan war vets were being denied benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder---even after diagnoses by the VA’s own doctors."
     The author not only exposes a chilling pattern of institutional neglect, delay, and denial, but also points us toward solutions: the outsourcing of expertise, the institution of a “Vet-med card,” and the elimination of negative-incentive bonuses for VA officials, to name a few. Schram’s bold bugle call, sounded on behalf of our nation’s beleaguered servicemen and -women, culminates with a proposal to reinvent what has become a department of veterans’ adversaries by giving the VA a new name that makes clear its true mission---the Department of Veterans’ Advocacy.

 

 

Editorial Reviews

Review

“At a time when wounded veterans are once again returning home from distant battlefields, Schram provides unflinching reporting---and vital historical perspective---on a national disgrace. This book should be required reading for all citizens.” --Dan Rather

“Martin Schram has written a powerful, must-read book that delivers an urgent must-act message to all who care about our military veterans.” --Bob Filner, Chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee

"Martin Schram has combined his journalistic skills and policy knowledge to produce a compelling call to action that outlines with clarity and common sense the challenges facing our nation’s veterans and the swift actions required by Democrats and Republicans to ensure that the patriots who fought our battles receive the best possible treatment and care.” --Former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn

“America’s men and women volunteering for military service are the best trained and equipped in the world. But as Marty Schram reveals in his well-documented investigation, government bureaucratic blunders and incompetence too often fail them.
“To address America’s new and evolving threats in the twenty-first century, Schram details how we must care for those who have served and suffered at the same, if not higher, level we expect from their national security service.” --U. S. Senator Richard G. Lugar

About the Author

Martin Schram is the author of five books and has been national affairs correspondent for The Washington Post, Washington bureau chief for Newsday, and a television documentary executive. His nationally syndicated column appears in more than four hundred newspapers.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; First Edition edition (June 24, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312375735
• ISBN-13: 978-0312375737
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,159,616 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required Reading, September 25, 2008

By 

E. Estrada - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vets Under Siege: How America Deceives and Dishonors Those Who Fight Our Battles (Hardcover)

Vets Under Siege: How America Deceives and Dishonors Those Who Fight Our Battles

From Washington, DC to rural California, politicians never miss a chance to proudly state their support for the troops. Across America, one can't miss the numerous public declarations of support through yellow ribbon decals emblazoned on hybrid and SUV bumpers alike. And, today even hometown parades are thrown for local heroes returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thus, with so much public support for those who wear the uniform why are so many discarded by the country they fought for? As a veteran of the Iraq war with close ties to the veteran community I see firsthand the injustices veterans are forced to endure in order obtain the benefits they more than deserve and have already earned many times over.

Martin Schram's, National Affairs correspondent for the Washington Post and syndicated columnist, latest book is a scathing indictment of government agencies that neglect our veterans through callousness, incompetence, maliciousness, indifference, or combination thereof. Schram's primary focus in, Vets Under Siege: How America Deceives and Dishonors Those Who Fight Our Battles, is the Department of Veterans Affairs, often derisively called the Department of Veterans Adversaries by veterans. Researching veteran's movements, government and press reports, and conducting personal interviews, Schram sets out to tell the story of the often heartbreaking fights between veterans in critical need of their benefits and a bureaucracy which systematically denies those benefits. All Americans should be disturbed as they read Schram's detail descriptions of the horrendous bureaucratic red tape and outright wrongs committed against disabled veterans. Take the case of former Sergeant Orville Kelly who during the 1950's witnessed twenty-two nuclear explosions. After developing lymphocytic cancer he filed a claim for benefits only to be denied. For five years he fought the VA for his benefits, which were finally awarded in 1979. However, Mr. Kelly died in June 1980. Or the case of Garret Anderson who was wounded in Iraq when an IED ripped through the truck he was driving, resulting in the loss of his right arm, a broken jaw and a body full of shrapnel. When he applied for disability compensation, VA bureaucrats who never met Mr. Anderson concluded, "Shrapnel wounds all over body [are] not service connected."

Schram dutifully describes the adversarial system veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War I, the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the conflicts in between, have had to navigate and the disrespectful manner with which veterans are routinely denied benefits. Schram also hits at the root cause for why such an inverse system exists. As Schram convincingly argues, the problem is a bureaucratic cultural mindset that assumes veterans are asking for benefits that they do not deserve, especially with regards to disability compensation. As Bob Filner, San Diego Congressman and Chairmen of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs put it, "Inside the VA they see their sole job is to say to the veteran, `You are a liar and we are going to prove that you are a liar and that you didn't deserve your benefits that you have claimed.'"

Vets Under Siege should be required reading for all who believe they "support the troops," because that support must not end when the warrior returns home. As veterans of America's wars can attest to, the war often begins anew when we come home. Indeed, the American people must fight for our veterans by pressuring our national leaders to hold the VA accountable and true to its motto, "To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan."

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Let's hope it gets better, February 8, 2009

By 

Donna Dean "Wolf Child" - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Vets Under Siege: How America Deceives and Dishonors Those Who Fight Our Battles (Hardcover)

A damning and thoroughly researched overview of the deplorable history of the VA and the pathetic results of Congressional playing around with the single system most important to sick and wounded veterans. In a system chronically underfunded and understaffed, which reached tip-over status long ago, our veterans are left twisting in the wind, ignored and forgotten once they've served their purpose fighting the country's wars. No American can afford to ignore this deplorable situation, and reading this book is a good start on becoming aware of just how miserably we treat our vets.