POW benefit claimants exceed recorded POWs

[BMT (RIP)]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090411/ap_on_re_us/too_many_pows


BMT

[Utah Bob]

:mad: Assholes.

[Monsoon65]

:mad: Assholes.


That sums it up nicely! I agree 100%.

What pisses me off the most is that it's not like the VA can't find out how many guys were POWs; they are just too lazy to check with the DoD and just ask!

[Richard]

Read Stolen Valor or Fake Warriors - it'll make your blood boil and you'll vow to never give these liars and wannabes another break - ever. :mad:

IMO - every attorney and judge needs to read them before dealing with such cases.

Richard's $.02 :munchin

[Team Sergeant]

The Desert Storm POW's issue is amazing!!!!!

Idiots in the VA need to be fired for being incompetent and those frauds need some jail time.

This is what happens the Fed Law Enforcement doesn't give a shit.

TS





AP: POW benefit claimants exceed recorded POWs
By ALLEN G. BREED, AP National Writer Allen G. Breed, Ap National Writer – Sat Apr 11, 4:49 pm ET

Prisoners of war suffer in ways most veterans don't, enduring humiliating forced marches, torture or other trauma that may haunt them long afterward. In partial recompense, the government extends them special benefits, from free parking and tax breaks to priority in medical treatment.

Trouble is, some of the much-admired recipients of these benefits apparently don't deserve them.

There are only 21 surviving POWs from the first Gulf War in 1991, the Department of Defense says. Yet the Department of Veterans Affairs is paying disability benefits to 286 service members it says were taken prisoner during that conflict, according to data released by VA to The Associated Press.
A similar discrepancy arises with Vietnam POWs. Only 661 officially recognized prisoners returned from that war alive — and about 100 of those have since died, according to Defense figures. But 966 purported Vietnam POWs are getting disability payments, the VA told AP.

Being classified as a POW doesn't directly increase a veteran's monthly disability check. There's no "POW payment."

But a tale of torture and privation can influence whether a vet receives some money or nothing at all in disability payments — and the VA's numbers raise questions about how often such tales are exaggerated or invented altogether.

For one Korean War veteran, a made-up story helped to ensure more than $400,000 in benefits before his lies were discovered. A Gulf War vet told a tale of beatings and mock executions, though he was never even a POW. Four women Vietnam vets blamed disabilities on their time as prisoners — even though there's no record of female POWs in that war.

At the root of the problem is a disconnect between two branches of government: The Defense Department determines POW status and posts the lists online; the VA awards benefits, but evidently does not always check the DoD list to verify applicants' claims. Result: Numbers of benefit recipients that are higher than the number of recognized POWs.

"They're either phonies or there's a major administrative error somewhere," retired Navy Cmdr. Paul Galanti, who is on a VA advisory panel for POW issues, said when told of the agency's numbers.

VA spokesman Terry Jemison says POW status is confirmed "in conjunction with Department of Defense authoritative records." But the agency has not explained discrepancies between its POW numbers and the DoD's, despite repeated requests for comment.

Galanti, who was shot down over North Vietnam in 1966 and spent nearly seven years in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" prison, calls the discrepancy "outrageous" and adds: "Somebody ought to get fired for that."

But as service members return from Iraq and Afghanistan, he knows an investigation that could bog down benefits would be shouted down as anti-veteran. And so the investigating falls to private watchdog groups like the P.O.W. Network, which says it has outed some 2,000 POW pretenders.

Nothing could be more pro-veteran, such groups say, than to go after people who are taking money meant for their comrades — and also, in effect, stealing their honor.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090411/ap_on_re_us/too_many_pows

[Utah Bob]

The VA employees are lazy and the federal prosecutors don't give a damn. There needs to be some accountability and a lot of people need to be jacked up!
Claiming to be a POW is about as low as it gets. I hope I never meet one.:mad:

[alright4u]

There is no damn excuse for this as the VA is required to validate every service connected claim for disability based on SMR's and hospital records from even private hospitals and MD's while a veteran was on active duty. Yes. they will consider so called "buddy statements", too. They are required to confirm DD 214's, too. This is totally disgusting, and; Richard is correct.

Anyone, who has ever received a VA monetary award can read the penalty for fraud.

[The Reaper]

The VA employees are lazy and the federal prosecutors don't give a damn. There needs to be some accountability and a lot of people need to be jacked up!
Claiming to be a POW is about as low as it gets. I hope I never meet one.:mad:


Exactly.

If people went to jail for this, they would stop doing it. Instead, they are rewarded for it.

TR

[SF_BHT]

Exactly.

If people went to jail for this, they would stop doing it. Instead, they are rewarded for it.

TR

Round all of them up and take them to GTMO and let them earn the money they milked out of the system... Or better yet another country not to be mentioned and hand them over and let them refine their skills..:D

[swpa19]

I've been working with the VA for over a year, trying to get a widow her survival benefits, from her husbands incarcartion in Stalag Luft IV in WWII.

I have never encountered so many stone walls and dead ends in my life.

Her first application was denied. The way she found out was when a female VA clerk called her and said that the camp her husband was in "was not really all that bad".

When she related this to me was the first time I'd ever heard of the "European Death March" that her husband was forced to participate in.

http://www.ww2f.com/battle-europe/23157-death-march-across-germany.html

I just hope that this application will be approved. So far Ive gotten good returns from her VA/POW rep.

[alright4u]

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/04/ap_pow_sidebar_ashley_041209/

[alright4u]

http://www.pownetwork.org/phonies/phonies137.htm

What a man.