Tag Archives: Veterans

Trump extends program allowing some veterans to use local doctors, hospitals

U.S. President Donald Trump smiles after signing S.544, the Veterans Choice Program Extension and Improvement Act, at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 19, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

By Lisa Lambert

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Wednesday moved a step closer to fulfilling his campaign promise to reform the troubled Veterans Affairs department, but some veterans groups are concerned that the administration may be working toward privatizing their healthcare.

Trump signed a law extending the pilot “Veterans Choice” program, which allows some veterans to receive healthcare from local doctors and hospitals closer to their homes than the VA’s 150 hospitals and nearly 1,000 outpatient clinics. The law eases procedures for reimbursing private providers and creates a system for sharing medical records with them.

“This new law is a good start, but there is still much work to do,” Trump said at a signing ceremony attended by VA Secretary David Shulkin and Florida Governor Rick Scott.  “We will fight each and every day to deliver the long-awaited reforms our veterans deserve.”

Trump pledged to hold a news conference next week on “all of the tremendous things that are happening at the VA and what we’ve done in terms of progress and achievement.”

Reforming the agency, rocked by a waiting-time scandal in 2014, was one of Trump’s most-repeated campaign trail promises. He has frequently suggested having the government pay outside physicians to provide veteran healthcare.

During his confirmation hearings, Shulkin said he supported overhauling the agency but did not believe in privatizing it. Still, on Tuesday the VA announced it was seeking cutting-edge treatments from the healthcare industry for brain injuries, mental health problems and chronic pain.

Extension of the “Veterans Choice” program could worry Democrats and other critics that Trump and Shulkin are inching toward sending some of the $65.6 billion the department spends annually on medical care to corporations and private businesses.

Conservatives calling for privatization say the VA provides medical services to only about 45 percent of veterans, and they point to delays and inefficiencies dogging the current system.

Some veterans groups and Democrats have warned against moving funds away from healthcare providers with expertise in injuries and illnesses unique to serving in the armed forces.

In a March report, the Government Accountability Office said veterans in the Choice program still face long wait times, mostly because cases must be referred to private contractors for scheduling.

Last year a congressionally mandated panel of experts found the Choice program was inefficient, but recommended establishing a community-based healthcare system that would include private doctors.

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by David Gregorio)

U.S. to expand mental health care for some veterans

(Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said on Wednesday that it intends to expand mental health care to former service members with other-than-honorable (OTH) administrative discharges.

As part of the proposal, former OTH service members will be able to seek treatment at a VA emergency department, Vet Center or contact Veterans Crisis Line, the department said in a statement.

Veterans who receive do not receive an honorable discharge are not eligible for many Veterans Affairs benefits.

Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin said suicide prevention was one of the top priorities for him and U.S. President Donald Trump.

At an event with veterans last year in Virginia during the presidential campaign, Trump called for better mental health services for those returning from combat, saying that while many are “strong,” others “can’t handle” what they have seen on the battlefield.

The department said Shulkin will meet with Congress, Veterans Service Organizations and Department of Defense officials before finalizing the plan in early summer.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

On 75th anniversary, U.S. veterans recall Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor survivors Delton Walling (C), Gilbert Meyer (R) and U.S. Navy Admiral Margaret Kibben salute during a ceremony honoring the sailors of the USS Utah at the memorial on Ford Island at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii

By Dana Feldman and Hugh Gentry

LOS ANGELES/HONOLULU, Dec 7 (Reuters) – It has been 75 years, but U.S. Navy veteran James Leavelle can still recall watching with horror as Japanese warplanes rained bombs down on his fellow sailors in the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor that brought the United States into World War Two.

Bullets bounced off the steel deck of his own ship, the USS Whitney, anchored just outside Honolulu harbor, but a worse fate befell those aboard the USS Arizona, USS Oklahoma, USS Utah and others that capsized in an attack that killed 2,400 people.

“The way the Japanese planes were coming in, when they dropped bombs, they’d drop them and then circle back,” said Leavelle, a 21-year-old Navy Storekeeper Second Class at the time of the attack.

Leavelle, now 96, was among 30 Pearl Harbor survivors honored at a reception in Los Angeles before heading to Honolulu to mark Wednesday’s 75th anniversary of the attack.

James Leavelle, a 96-year-old Pearl Harbor Survivor, attends an event honoring 30 surviving World War II veterans who will travel to Hawaii to attend ceremonies for the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., December 2, 2016. Picture taken December 2, 2016. REUTERS/Ted Soqui

James Leavelle, a 96-year-old Pearl Harbor Survivor, attends an event honoring 30 surviving World War II veterans who will travel to Hawaii to attend ceremonies for the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., December 2, 2016. Picture taken December 2, 2016. REUTERS/Ted Soqui

The bombing of Pearl Harbor took place at 7:55 a.m. Honolulu time on Dec. 7, 1941, famously dubbed “a date which will live in infamy” by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt. Fewer than 200 survivors of the attacks there and on other military bases in Hawaii are still alive.

Wednesday’s commemoration at a pier overlooking the memorial to the sunken USS Arizona built in the harbor is set to begin with a moment of silence at precisely that time.

About 350 World War Two veterans and their families will be serenaded by the Navy’s Pacific Fleet Band with a musical remembrance made bittersweet by the knowledge that every member of the USS Arizona band – one of the best in the Navy – died that day.

Attendees will watch a parade, and two families will participate in a private ceremony in which the ashes of crew
members who survived the attack and later died, will be interred in a turret of the Arizona.

Across the United States on Wednesday, Americans will pause to remember those who died at Pearl Harbor, and the long and difficult war that followed.

WAR BEGINS

The shock of the Pearl Harbor attack is vividly illustrated in an exhibit at Massachusetts’ Museum of World War II, which features relics including a West Point cadet’s letter to his father – then-Brigadier General Dwight Eisenhower – on how to prepare himself for the coming war.

The United States declared war on Japan the next day. Three days after that, Germany’s Adolf Hitler declared war on the United States.

Pearl Harbor survivor Delton Walling walks with family members during a ceremony honoring the sailors of the USS Utah at the memorial on Ford Island at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii December 6, 2016. REUTERS/Hugh Gentry

Pearl Harbor survivor Delton Walling walks with family members during a ceremony honoring the sailors of the USS Utah at the memorial on Ford Island at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii December 6, 2016. REUTERS/Hugh Gentry

Will Lehner, 95, was among those who had a chance to fight back in the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack. The 2nd class naval fireman was working in the boiler room at the USS Ward, patrolling the entrance to the harbor when crew members spotted a Japanese submarine.

“That submarine was on the surface and our skipper didn’t know if it was ours or not,” Lehner, 20 at the time of the attacks, said at the Los Angeles event. “He said: ‘Load your guns.'”

“The first shot went right over the top, the next shot right after it hit that submarine and punched a hole in it.”

After the war, a historical discrepancy nagged at Lehner. The remains of the Japanese submarine had not been recovered, and many historians doubted that it existed. That changed in 2002, when the sub was found.

“For 62 years,” Lehner said, “Nobody believed us.”

For his part, Leavelle would be touched twice by the hand of history. After the war, he became a policeman in Texas. On Nov. 24, 1963, he was the Dallas officer handcuffed to Lee Harvey Oswald when the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy was shot to death by nightclub owner Jack Ruby.

(Reporting by Dana Feldman in Los Angeles and Hugh Gentry in Honolulu; Writing and additional reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Peter Cooney)

U.S. veterans to meet with tribe elders in pipeline protest

Trek Kelly of Venice Beach, California, stands with veterans who oppose the Dakota Access oil pipeline on Backwater Bridge near Cannon Ball, North Dakota,

By Ernest Scheyder and Terray Sylvester

CANNON BALL, N.D. (Reuters) – U.S. military veterans will meet with tribal leaders on Saturday as they continue to entrench themselves in a North Dakota camp where thousands of activists are protesting a multibillion-dollar pipeline project near a Native American reservation.

Veterans Stand for Standing Rock members will meet with Standing Rock Sioux elders to determine how the potentially  3,500 veterans arriving over the weekend can aide protesters who have spent months demonstrating against plans to route the Dakota Access Pipeline beneath a lake near the tribe’s reservation.

Phyllis Young (C) of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe talks with veterans who oppose the Dakota Access oil pipeline and local law enforcement on Backwater Bridge near Cannon Ball, North Dakota,

Phyllis Young (C) of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe talks with veterans who oppose the Dakota Access oil pipeline and local law enforcement on Backwater Bridge near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, U.S., December 2, 2016. REUTERS/Terray Sylvester

The group of veterans are also expected over the weekend to complete building a barracks and mess hall near where they constructed a headquarters at the Oceti Sakowin camp about 5 miles (8 km) north of the small town of Cannon Ball.

The Native Americans and protesters say the $3.8 billion pipeline threatens water resources and sacred sites.

Wesley Clark Jr, a writer whose father is retired U.S. Army General Wesley Clark, met with law enforcement on Friday to tell them that 3,500 veterans may join the protest and the demonstrations would be carried out peacefully, protest leaders said.

Tribal leaders asked the veterans, who aim to form a wall in front of police to protect the protesters, to avoid confrontation with authorities and not get arrested.

There have been violent confrontations near the route of the pipeline with state and local law enforcement, who used tear gas, rubber bullets and water hoses on the protesters, even in freezing weather.

“I felt it was our duty and very personally more of a call of duty than I ever felt in the service to come and stand in front of the guns and the mace and the water and the threat that they pose to these people,” said Anthony Murtha, 29, a Navy veteran from Detroit, at the Oceti Sakowin camp.

Some 564 people have been arrested, the Morton County Sheriff’s Department said.

The number of protesters in recent weeks has topped 1,000. State officials on Monday ordered them to leave the snowy camp, which is on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers land, citing harsh weather, but on Wednesday they said they would not enforce the order.

A man rests on top of a hill inside of the Oceti Sakowin camp as "water protectors" continue to demonstrate against plans to pass the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, near Cannon Ball, North Dakota

A man rests on top of a hill inside of the Oceti Sakowin camp as “water protectors” continue to demonstrate against plans to pass the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, U.S., December 2, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier spoke by phone on Friday with U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, but assistance for law enforcement and a timeline for a resolution to the situation were not offered, the sheriff’s office said.

Lynch said in a statement that the U.S. Department of Justice has been in communication with all sides in an effort to reduce tensions and foster dialogue.

State officials never contemplated forcibly removing protesters, and Dalrymple said his evacuation order stemmed mainly from concerns about dangerously cold conditions as the temperature in Cannon Ball is expected to fall to 4 degrees Fahrenheit (-16 Celsius) next week.

The 1,172-mile (1,885-km) pipeline project, owned by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP, is mostly complete, except for a segment planned to run under Lake Oahe, a reservoir formed by a dam on the Missouri River.

Protesters, who refer to themselves as “water protectors”, have been gearing up for the winter while they await the Army Corps decision on whether to allow Energy Transfer to tunnel under the river. The Army Corps has twice delayed that decision.

(Additional reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin in Chicago, Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee and David Gaffen in New York; editing by Susan Thomas)

U.S. military veterans flock to North Dakota pipeline protest camp

Veterans have a confrontation with police on Backwater bridge during a protest against plans to pass the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, near Cannon Ball, North Dakota,

By Terray Sylvester

CANNON BALL, N.D. (Reuters) – Hundreds of U.S. military veterans on Friday have been arriving at a protest camp in North Dakota where thousands of activists, braving frigid conditions, are demonstrating against a pipeline project near a Native American reservation.

Veterans Stand for Standing Rock will spend the day building a barracks at the Oceti Sakowin camp near Cannon Ball and coordinating with protesters who have spent months rallying against plans to route the Dakota Access Pipeline beneath a lake near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, organizers said.

Veterans have a demonstration on Backwater bridge during a protest against plans to pass the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, U.S

Veterans have a demonstration on Backwater bridge during a protest against plans to pass the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, U.S., December 1, 2016. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith

Some of the more than 2,100 veterans who signed up on the group’s Facebook page have arrived at the camp, with hundreds more expected over the weekend. The veterans intend to form a human wall in front of police to protect protesters, who say the $3.8 billion pipeline poses a threat to water resources and sacred Native American sites.

State officials on Monday ordered activists to vacate the camp on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers land, citing harsh weather, but said on Wednesday they would not enforce the order.

“There is an element there of people protesting who are frightening,” North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said on Thursday. “It’s time for them to go home.”

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday said he supported the completion of the pipeline. His transition team also said he supported peaceful protests.

Members of the North Dakota Veterans Coordinating Council denounced the involvement of veterans in a protest that has damaged property and asked them not to take part.

North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple has said it was “probably not feasible” to reroute the pipeline, but he would try to rebuild a relationship with Standing Rock Sioux leaders.

State officials never contemplated forcibly removing protesters, and his evacuation order mainly stemmed from  concerns about dangerously cold temperatures, Dalrymple said. Engineers interviewed by Reuters also said such weather made some aspects of pipeline construction more difficult.

The temperature in Cannon Ball is expected to fall to 4 degrees Fahrenheit (-16 Celsius) by the middle of next week, according to Weather.com forecasts.

The 1,172-mile (1,885-km) pipeline project, owned by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP <ETP.N>, is mostly complete, except for a segment planned to run under Lake Oahe, a reservoir formed by a dam on the Missouri River.

Protesters, who refer to themselves as “water protectors,” have been gearing up for the winter while they await the Army Corps decision on whether to allow Energy Transfer Partners to tunnel under the river. The Army Corps has twice delayed that decision.

As the U.S. government considers whether to grant Energy Transfer the easement, the pipeline operator said in a legal filing in late November that delays following the projected Jan. 1 startup would cost about $84 million a month.

(Additional reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Lisa Von Ahn)

U.S. veterans head to pipeline protest camp in North Dakota

A tipi is seen in the Oceti Sakowin camp during a protest against plans to pass the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, near Cannon Ball, North Dakota,

CANNON BALL, N.D. (Reuters) – U.S. military veterans were set to arrive at a camp to join thousands of activists braving snow and freezing temperatures to protest a pipeline project near a Native American reservation in North Dakota.

Protesters have spent months rallying against plans to route the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline beneath a lake near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, saying it poses a threat to water resources and sacred Native American sites.

State officials had issued an order on Monday for activists to vacate the Oceti Sakowin camp, located on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers land near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, citing harsh weather conditions. Officials said on Wednesday they will not actively enforce that order.

The Standing Rock Sioux, in a statement on Wednesday, scoffed at the state order, noting that because “the Governor of North Dakota and Sheriff of Morton County are relative newcomers” to the land, “it is understandable they would be concerned about severe winter weather.”

They said the camp has adequate shelter to handle the cold weather, adding that the Great Sioux Nation has survived “in this region for millennia without the concerns of state or county governments.”

The temperature in Cannon Ball is expected to fall to 6 degrees Fahrenheit (-2 Celsius) by the middle of next week, according to Weather.com forecasts.

The 1,172-mile (1,885 km) pipeline project, owned by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP, is mostly complete, except for a segment planned to run under Lake Oahe, a reservoir formed by a dam on the Missouri River.

Veterans Stand for Standing Rock, a contingent of more than 2,000 U.S. military veterans, intends to reach North Dakota by this weekend and form a human wall in front of police, protest organizers said on a Facebook page.

Protesters, who refer to themselves as “water protectors,” have been gearing up for the winter while they await the Army Corps decision on whether to allow Energy Transfer Partners to tunnel under the river. That decision has been delayed twice by the Army Corps.

(Reporting by Terray Sylvester; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)

U.S. veterans to form human shield at Dakota pipeline protest

Dakota Access Pipeline protesters are seen at the Oceti Sakowin campground near the town of Cannon Ball, North Dakota in an aerial photo provided by the Morton County Sheriff's Department.

By Terray Sylvester

CANNON BALL, N.D. (Reuters) – More than 2,000 U.S. military veterans plan to form a human shield to protect protesters of a pipeline project near a Native American reservation in North Dakota, organizers said, just ahead of a federal deadline for activists to leave the camp they have been occupying.

It comes as North Dakota law enforcement backed away from a previous plan to cut off supplies to the camp – an idea quickly abandoned after an outcry and with law enforcement’s treatment of Dakota Access Pipeline protesters increasingly under the microscope.

The protesters have spent months rallying against plans to route the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline beneath a lake near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, saying it poses a threat to water resources and sacred Native American sites.

Protesters include various Native American tribes as well as environmentalists and even actors including Shailene Woodley.

State officials issued an order on Monday for activists to vacate the Oceti Sakowin camp, located on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers land near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, citing harsh weather conditions.

The state’s latest decision not to stop cars entering the protest site indicated local officials will not actively enforce Monday’s emergency order to evacuate the camp issued by Governor Jack Dalrymple.

Dalrymple warned on Wednesday that it was “probably not feasible” to reroute the pipeline, but said he had requested a meeting with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Council to rebuild a relationship.

“We need to begin now to talk about how we are going to return to a peaceful relationship,” he said on a conference call.

The 1,172-mile (1,885 km) pipeline project, owned by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP <ETP.N>, is mostly complete, except for a segment planned to run under Lake Oahe, a reservoir formed by a dam on the Missouri River.

Veterans Stand for Standing Rock, a contingent of more than 2,000 U.S. military veterans, intends to go to North Dakota by this weekend and form a human wall in front of police, protest organizers said on a Facebook page. Organizers could not immediately be reached for comment.

“I figured this was more important than anything else I could be doing,” Guy Dull Knife, 69, a Vietnam War Army veteran, told Reuters at the main camp.

Dull Knife, a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe from the Pine Ridge Reservation of South Dakota, said he has been camping at the protest site for months.

Morton County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Rob Keller said in an email his agency was aware of the veterans’ plans, but would not comment further on how law enforcement will deal with demonstrators.

Former U.S. Marine Michael A. Wood Jr is leading the effort along with Wesley Clark Jr, a writer whose father is retired U.S. Army General Wesley Clark.

U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat from Hawaii and a major in the Hawaii Army National Guard, has said on Twitter she will join the protesters on Sunday.

The Army Corps, citing safety concerns, has ordered the evacuation of the primary protest camp by Dec. 5, but said it would not forcibly remove people from the land.

Local law enforcement said on Tuesday they planned a blockade of the camp, but local and state officials later retreated, saying they would only check vehicles for certain prohibited supplies like propane, and possibly issue fines.

Dalrymple on Wednesday said state officials never contemplated forcibly removing protesters and there had been no plans to block food or other supplies from the camp. “That would be a huge mistake from a humanitarian standpoint,” he said on the conference call.

He also warned protesters that while emergency responders will try to reach anyone in need, that would be contingent on weather conditions.

Protesters, who refer to themselves as “water protectors,” have been gearing up for the winter while they await the Army Corps decision on whether to allow Energy Transfer Partners to tunnel under the river. That decision has been delayed twice by the Army Corps.

(Additional reporting by Ernest Scheyder in Houston and Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Writing by Ben Klayman; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Matthew Lewis)

Suicide rate of U.S. veterans rose one third since 2001

By Yeganeh Torbati

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The suicide rate among American veterans has increased by nearly a third since 2001, a bigger rise than in the wider population of the United States, a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs study released on Wednesday said.

The report estimated that an average of 20 veterans a day died from suicide in 2014, or about 7,300 in the year, compared to a previous estimate of 22 a day. But researchers have cautioned against relying too heavily on that figure to indicate trends in suicides because it does not take into account that the overall number of veterans is declining because of deaths from old age.

For the first time, a study of veteran suicides drew from 55 million veterans’ records from 1979 to 2014 and from every U.S. state, the report said. Previous studies were more limited in scope and drew from three million records from 20 states or from records of those using veterans health services.

The study found that between 2001 and 2014, veteran suicides increased by 32 percent, while civilian suicides increased by 23 percent in the same time period. After controlling for factors like age and gender, this meant veterans faced a 21 percent greater risk for suicide than those who had not served in the armed forces.

The report did not provide numbers associated with the percentages it recorded and a department representative could not immediately be reached to provide more information.

While the suicide rate was highest among younger veterans, aged 18 to 29, most veteran suicides – 65 percent – in 2014 were among those 50 or older..

The study found sharp differences between the suicide rates of those veterans who used VA services compared to those who did not, though it did not draw conclusions about why. Of an estimated 21.6 million veterans in the United States, about 8.5 million receive VA health services, the report said.

Suicide rates for male veterans who used VA services increased by 11 percent since 2001, compared to a 35 percent increase among those who did not. That contrast was even sharper for female veterans. The rate of suicide among female veterans since 2001 increased 4.6 percent for those who used VA services, and increased 98 percent for those female veterans who did not.

As a whole, the risk of suicide among female veterans was 2.4 times higher than among civilian women in 2014, the study found. By contrast, male veterans faced an 18 percent higher risk for suicide than their civilian counterparts in 2014.

(Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati; editing by Grant McCool)

Supervisors falsified U.S. veterans’ wait time for care: USA Today

A volunteer and veteran who did not want to be identified poses with his memorial-patched vest

(Reuters) – Supervisors instructed staff to falsify patient wait times at Veterans Affairs medical facilities in at least seven states to show they met performance measures, USA Today said on Thursday, citing reports by the agency’s inspector general.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has been under scrutiny since 2014 when a cover-up of long waiting lists and shoddy medical care for veterans at a hospital in Phoenix embarrassed the Obama administration.

“The reports detail for the first time since the Phoenix VA wait-time scandal in 2014 how widespread scheduling manipulation was throughout the VA,” USA Today said.

It said the manipulations gave the false impression that wait times at facilities in Arkansas, California, Delaware, Illinois, New York, Texas and Vermont met agency targets.

The paper said its story was based on 70 reports released following a Freedom of Information Act request from USA Today. About half of the 70 reports are from investigations that were completed more than a year ago.

Investigations launched by the inspector general into more than 100 facilities after the Phoenix scandal found that manipulations had been going on in some cases for as long as a decade, USA Today said.

Asked by Reuters to comment on the report, the agency referred to a statement it had issued in February which said the inspector general had substantiated intentional misuse of scheduling systems in 18 reports. Twenty-nine employees were disciplined as a result, the statement added.

USA Today said according to agency data, more than 480,000 veterans were waiting more than 30 days for an appointment as of March 15.

“VA whistle-blowers say schedulers still are manipulating wait times,” it added.

(Reporting by Washington Newsroom; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Military Vets Fighting Child Pornography

A group of wounded military veterans are taking their experience as soldiers to turn into elite law enforcement member aimed at stopping exploitation of children.

The H.E.R.O. Corps, or Human Exploitation Rescue Operative Corps, is a unique government-private partnership of National Association to Protect Children (PROTECT), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM).

The Corps takes veterans and those transitioning out of the military and gives them intensive training on computers and digital forensics.  The training is followed by a 10-month internship with law enforcement usually at a field office for Homeland Security.

“The HERO Corps is beautiful in its simplicity,” Laura Junor, deputy undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, told the recruits at their graduation ceremony. “It takes those of you who were born to serve and whose careers were cut short for reasons beyond your control and allows you to reapply your gifts.”

ICE officials say the former soldiers are the perfect ones to fight this battle because of the horrific imagery that can be found in this fight.

“They’re mentally strong. They’ve seen some horrible things, but these are also people who have the ability to compartmentalize,” says Danielle Bennett, a spokeswoman for ICE.

The veterans serving with the Corps say the mission is as serious as anything they’ve faced in the military.

“People ask me, ‘How do you do it?’ My answer is that pedophiles are worse than the Taliban,” says retired Staff Sgt. Nathan Cruz, who served for a decade with the Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. “At least the Taliban is fighting a country that has an army that can defend itself. The pedophiles are targeting innocent kids that cannot do anything to defend themselves.”

“You put yourself in that perspective where that could be my kid,” Staff Sgt. Dahlia Luallen says. “Also, what I’d been through as a young lady, you think, ‘These guys are still out there. And I have to find them.’ ”