Research - Rehabilitation - Re-Employment

Sgt. Shaft 01/03/2005

Dear Sgt Shaft,
After reading the article in the Washington Times about the need for phone cards at Walter Reed, I posted this to a blog I frequent and quickly got a response saying NO MORE phone cards. I thought I would verify this so I called the number that your "nutty buddy Jim Mayer suggests you contact Aster Black, American Red Cross station manager, at 202-782-6362" suggested to verify. Indeed they do have loads of cards right now.

I was told they have so many cards they are in boxes all over the place and they can barely get around. So they suggested to check with them again after the holidays and see if they have room for more perhaps in late Jan or Feb timeframe.

Thank you
Julia D.
Elgin TX

Dear Julia,
Michael J. Wagner, director of the Medical Family Assistance Center at Walter Reed recently stated

“Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the American Red Cross thank everyone for their generosity in supporting the wounded Service Members at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. There has been an overwhelming response by the American public. Donations have included telephone cards, clothing, cold weather clothing, personal hygiene items, CDs, CD players, DVDs, DVD players, cookies and candy, and many other items.

There have been so many donations that storage capacity has been exceeded. The Service Members have all that is required and there is a supply that will sustain support to the incoming wounded through at least February 2005. It is requested that no more donations of phone cards and other goods be collected and sent to Walter Reed Army Medical Center through February.

There is always a need for cash donations to be used by the organizations that provide support to Service Members at Walter Reed. The Walter Reed Society, the Fisher House at Walter Reed, the American Red Cross, and the Helping Hand Chaplains Fund at Walter Reed all provide assistance to those in need through tax deductible cash donations by providing patients and their family members meals, lodging, transportation, and other living expenses while in the Capital Region.”

Shaft Notes
Idaho Senator Larry Craig recently announced that he has decided to step down as chairman of the Special Committee on Aging and seek chairmanship of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

“I am not leaving Aging Committee issues behind, because I will still serve as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic Security on next years’ White House Conference on Aging. I will also continue to press forward with legislation important to America’s senior citizens – in such areas as long term care, Medicare, flu vaccines, Social Security and more,” Craig said.

Approximately 122,000 military veterans reside in Craig’s home state of Idaho. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that there are 29.4 million veterans nationwide.

About a quarter of the nation's population – approximately 70 million people – are potentially eligible for VA benefits and services because they are veterans, or family members or survivors of veterans. The VA operates hospitals and clinics nationwide and spends about $68.2 billion a year.

Craig will seek to replace Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn., who has been serving as Chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee. Specter is leaving that post to seek the chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Coincidently as Idaho Senator Craig prepares to assume his new position

Idaho has added a landmark event by opening a state veteran’s cemetery in Boise. The state was the only one that did not have a veteran’s cemetery. It gave up that distinction on Nov. 16 with the aid of a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) grant of $8.2 million for construction.

There is now an operational national or state veteran’s cemetery in every state of the union, as well as Puerto Rico and Guam.

"This new state veteran’s cemetery means that Idaho veterans no longer have to go out of state to receive the burial benefits promised to them by a grateful nation. The VA grant to building the cemetery was awarded in 2002. A dedication ceremony occurred July 31, 2004, before construction was finished. The initial construction plan calls for development of 30 acres of the 77-acre site and includes a total of 8,640 gravesites. That includes 2,930 traditional casket gravesites, 2,226 pre-placed crypts, 2,204 in-ground cremation niches and 1,280 columbarium niches. Other elements include a committal service shelter, an administration and maintenance building and an assembly area.

Approximately 122,000 veterans reside in Idaho. Before the state opened its cemetery, the closest open national cemetery for local veterans was Willamette National Cemetery in Portland, Ore., about 425 miles northwest of Boise.

One burial took place while the new cemetery was under construction. Governor Dick Kempthorne gave special approval to inter Army Specialist Brandon Titus, a Boise resident who was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad, Iraq.

VA's State Cemetery Grants Program complements VA's national cemeteries. The grants have helped establish, expand or improve 57 state veterans’ cemeteries that provided more than 19,000 burials in fiscal year 2004. Five additional state cemeteries are under construction. Since the program began in 1980, VA has awarded 137 grants of more than $209 million to 32 states and Guam.

More than three million Americans, including veterans of every war and conflict - from the Revolutionary War to the current war in Iraq - are buried in VA's national cemeteries.

Information on VA burial benefits can be obtained from national cemetery offices, from the VA Web site on the Internet at http://www.cem.va.gov or by calling VA regional offices toll-free at 1-800-827-1000.

Send letters to Sgt. Shaft, c/o John Fales, P.O. Box 65900, Washington, D.C. 20035-5900; fax to 301-622-3330; call 202-462-4430 or email sgtshaft@bavf.org.

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