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David Botti

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Pat Tillman's Legacy Four Years On

1:58 PM, May 9, 2008 | Comments (1)

Though he was killed in Afghanistan in 2004, Pat Tillman's death is still a subject of controversy and tremendous reflection. Tillman, you will recall, was the NFL player turned Army Ranger who was originally said to have died under enemy fire (he was...

Trying to Modernize the GI Bill

10:41 AM, April 29, 2008 | Comments (3)

Interview: An Iraq Vet Runs for Congress

12:57 PM, March 5, 2008 | Comments (3)

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VOICES OF THE FALLEN

The War In the Words of the Dead

Jon Meacham

Read our complete series on the war in Iraq, told through the letters home from men and women who died in the line of duty

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Reservist Employment: "a Walter Reed-like nightmare"

David Botti | Nov 9, 2007 10:20 AM

When I got word back in March 2003 that my reserve unit was getting mobilized to Iraq, I was sitting in my cubicle working for a company I’d started at about two weeks earlier. I went in and told my boss, who could hardly hide his displeasure of loosing a recent hire. But he did the right thing and said the job would be waiting when I got back. I never did go back; partly because I didn’t want to be an imposition (where would they put me if someone else was hired in the interim?), and partly because, well, I hated the job.

Now it’s looking like more and more veterans aren’t as lucky as I was to have an understanding boss. Under U.S. law, if a service member is mobilized he/she is entitled to return to the same job, with the same benefits—no questions asked. According to the Associated Press, a 2005-2006 Pentagon survey of reservists released Thursday found 44 percent said they were dissatisfied with the Labor Department’s handling of employment discrimination claims. That’s up from 27 percent in 2004. Here’s the AP’s partial summary of the survey’s findings:

--About 23 percent of reservists reported they did not return to their old jobs in part because their employer did not give them prompt re-employment or their job situation changed in some way while they were on military leave.

--Twenty-nine percent of those choosing not to seek help to get their job back said it was because it was "not worth the fight." Another 23 percent said they were unsure of how to file a complaint. Others cited a lack of confidence that they could win (14 percent); fear of employer reprisal (13 percent), or other reasons (21 percent).

--Reservists reported receiving an average of 1.8 briefings about their job rights and what government resources were available. This is down slightly from the 2.0 briefings they reported getting in 2004.

Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of Thursday’s committee meeting held to address this issue with the Labor Department said this about vets looking for government help with job issues:

...veterans who seek help face a Walter Reed-like nightmare—a system that is crumbling and failing to serve them when they need it most. They have to negotiate a maze of bureaucracy. They can be shuffled among multiple agencies—only to find after all the bureaucratic run-around that they still may have to pay a lawyer to file their case in court.

The Labor Department agreed there were problems, but stated:

…the solution was to better educate employers — not litigate more cases in court. Most disputes can be resolved with a phone call to an employer explaining what the law is.

According to Sen. Kennedy’s press release, he plans to introduce legislation that holds federal agencies responsible for protecting veterans’ employment rights, as well as setting up a uniform way to collect their employment data.

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Update: VA Doctor Punished

David Botti | Nov 9, 2007 08:54 AM

A few weeks ago Soldier's Home blogged about a VA hospital in Illinois where an abnormal number of patients recently died. Partly at issue was the performance of Dr. Jose Veizaga-Mendez, a physician with a suspect history of practicing medicine. Now authorities in Massachusetts, where the doctor once worked, have barred him from ever practicing in the state again. From the Associated Press:
The resignation also requires Veizaga-Mendez to resign any other state medical licenses he may hold, as well as to withdraw any pending license applications.
Veizaga-Mendez was under investigation in Massachusetts on allegations of substandard care made against him in 2004 and 2005. He was being investigated for botching seven cases, two of which ended in deaths, before he relocated to Illinois in 2006.

The board had issued formal allegations that Veizaga-Mendez provided substandard care to several patients. The case was slated to be heard by an administrative magistrate when Veizaga-Mendez opted to resign instead.

The matter is now closed, the board said.
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