Inside Opinion » veterans

Vets deserve a soft landing in employment

TNT Editorial Board — Tue, 21 May 2013 03:15:50 +0000

This editorial will appear in Tuesday’s print edition.

What America’s veterans tend to need most is quite simple: good jobs.

Some positive news on that front has come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

According to its latest numbers, Americans who’ve served since 9/11 – many Iraq and Afghan war combat vets among them – having been breaking into the civilian work force in greater numbers. Their unemployment rate reportedly fell to 7.5 percent last month, though it remains higher among those 24 or younger.

But the raw numbers don’t tell you what kind of jobs veterans have been …

VA’s delays, errors create hardships for veterans

TNT Editorial Board — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 00:45:11 +0000

This editorial will appear in Tuesday’s print edition.

The Department of Veterans Affairs’ delays in acting on disability claims isn’t just inconvenient. Congressional testimony Thursday indicates that at least two veterans may have died “due to delay in care.”

That would be the most extreme result of the VA’s backlog, which doesn’t appear to be decreasing. Most regional offices are experiencing longer processing times, according to auditors and a review of VA data by McClatchy Newspapers.

The average wait to begin receiving disability compensation is now 337 days at the Seattle office – more than 11 months – up from …

Benefits go begging when vets aren’t informed

TNT Editorial Board — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 01:45:15 +0000

This editorial will appear in Tuesday’s print edition.

Ignorance isn’t bliss if you’re a military veteran unaware of the benefits and services available to you.

Unfortunately, that’s the case for millions of America’s veterans. A McClatchy Newspapers analysis of 2010 Veterans Affairs survey data found that more than half of veterans have little or no idea what benefits they’re entitled to – including access to VA health facilities, payment for disabilities incurred during military service, home loans and money for education.

Even among the best-informed cohort – younger veterans who served since 9/11 – 40 percent say they have little …

Please, Pentagon: Give us a Stolen Valor database

TNT Editorial Board — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 00:54:46 +0000

This editorial will appear in Thursday’s print edition.

The Stolen Valor Act, which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a week ago, went a very long way to avoid a quarrel with the First Amendment.

It didn’t threaten just anyone who falsely claimed military honors. If there was any way a claim of combat distinction could be theoretically argued, the law didn’t apply. It didn’t apply even to the vast majority of false claims of heroism.

Under the 2005 law, you could still lie about being a military veteran. You could lie about being a brave veteran.

You could lie …

Intolerable jobless rates for America’s youngest veterans

TNT Editorial Board — Sun, 20 May 2012 22:27:52 +0000

This editorial will appear in Monday’s print edition.

Barack Obama recently declared victory in Afghanistan – sort of – and announced plans to bring the last combat troops home in 2014. As the war winds down, our commitment to the troops who served shouldn’t wind down with it.

The unemployment rate among the country’s youngest veterans – the ones who volunteered after 9/11 – is intolerably high. The best current numbers, from 2011, were released in March by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Here are the low points:

• Last year, 12.1 percent of all “post-9/11” vets were out of …

Massacre excuses: Guilt by association for U.S. troops

TNT Editorial Board — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 23:47:48 +0000

This editorial will appear in tomorrow’s print edition.

Too many cheap explanations are being tossed around for the March 11 massacre of what appears to be 17 innocent villagers in Afghanistan. As a result, untold thousands of combat veterans risk getting indirectly smeared.

Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, a Lake Tapps man who’d been deployed from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, has been charged with the killings. The public knows very little about the crimes and very little about him; the Army has not been particularly forthcoming.

Into the vacuum of information has blown a whirlwind of speculation. Plus, in this case, …

Did Madigan’s PTSD team break faith with soldiers?

TNT Editorial Board — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 03:52:35 +0000

This editorial will appear in tomorrow’s print edition.

The United States has a history of losing interest in its combat veterans after they’ve lost their military usefulness. Shame on all of us if that has happened at Madigan Army Medical Center.

The Army has been investigating the practices of a psychiatric team charged with confirming diagnoses of service-related post-traumatic stress disorder among soldiers. The question is whether doctors were dispassionately looking at symptoms or trying to save the Pentagon money by minimizing disability claims.

Someone deserves credit for taking this seriously. Both the commander of Madigan and the leader …

Thank a veteran today; even better, offer one a job

TNT Editorial Board — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 02:55:47 +0000

This editorial will appear in Friday’s print edition.

We have a lot of people to thank this Veterans Day – somewhere in the neighborhood of 21.8 million, according to the 2010 census. That’s how many men and women have served in the U.S. military, both in war and peace, and are still alive.

At one end of the spectrum, the ranks of veterans are marching into history. The last American veteran of World War I, Frank Buckles, died in February, a few weeks after his 110th birthday. And the soldiers of World War II – the so-called “Greatest Generation” are …

Our 2010 agenda for community action

Kim Bradford — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 04:01:09 +0000

This editorial will appear in Sunday’s print edition.

Human needs, education should be top priorties

Yes, The News Tribune’s editorial board does have an agenda. And here it is.

The guiding principles behind our editorials are no secret. We publish them at the beginning of January, each and every year.

This civic agenda is our way of emphasizing priorities we consider essential to the health of the South Sound’s communities.

It evolves each year to reflect changing circumstances, but the underlying principles largely remain the same: educational opportunity, responsive and responsible government, the …

A drug court for Tacoma’s veterans

Patrick O'Callahan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:46:10 +0000

This editorial will appear in tomorrow’s print edition.

Drug court is one of the best ideas ever to hit Pierce County’s criminal justice system. It’s just been joined by another great idea: veterans drug court.

The county’s drug court – one of the nation’s first, in 1994 – operates on the premise that treating addicts instead of merely jailing them works better for everyone. Substance-abusers accused of drug- or alcohol-connected crimes – small-time trafficking, theft, drunk driving, for example – must voluntarily opt in. They waive their right to a trial and accept the maximum sentence for their offense.

The …