Spokane7
58°
June 13, 2011 in City
Army vet battling private insurer for coverage she feels is due
Injured as contractor in Afghanistan but denied specialized therapy at home
Jennifer Barcklay salutes the flag before retiring it for the evening at her rural Spokane County home on June 8.
(Full-size photo)(All photos)
A highly trained helicopter mechanic sits in her Chattaroy home and wonders what will come next: another debilitating brain seizure or the therapy she hopes will help her recover from injury as a result of a mortar explosion 20 months ago in Afghanistan.
Jennifer Barcklay says she is being denied the specialized inpatient medical treatment her doctors believe is her only hope for a normal life.
“These are war crimes, using taxpayer dollars to profit from injuries incurred by people fighting for our freedom,” Barcklay says.
Although she is a U.S. Army veteran, Barcklay, 40, was injured as a civilian working for Blackwater, the private security contractor now known as Xe Services. She and thousands of other civilian employees injured in the defense of their nation have had to navigate an often unresponsive private insurance system.
Xe’s insurance carrier has so far denied Barcklay expensive inpatient treatment known as cognitive rehabilitation therapy, which was recommend by eight Spokane area physicians and mental health care providers.
She suffers from traumatic brain injury, the signature wound of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, for which thousands of U.S. soldiers are receiving care in military or Department of Veterans Affairs facilities. Like many of them, she continues to endure seizures, memory loss, headaches, tremors and problems with her balance that prevent her from returning to work.
Under the Defense Base Act of 1941, defense contractors must provide medical and disability insurance for their workers in war zones. The premiums are included in the companies’ contract with the Department of Defense.
There have been nearly 56,000 such claims for injuries or deaths from the start of the Iraq war to 2009. That year, a congressional investigation found that insurance companies had collected $1.5 billion in premiums, while they paid out about $900 million in compensation and expenses.
Another World War II-era law, the War Hazards Compensation Act, reimburses the employer or insurer for injuries or death to a worker caused by an act of war. The insurer is reimbursed by the taxpayers for 100 percent of the claim, plus 15 percent for administrative costs. From 2003 to 2010, the federal government paid more to insurers for expenses, $19.7 million, than it paid in compensation, $12.1 million, to claimants under the act.
More than three-quarters of the Defense Base Act claims were handled by American International Group, which was rescued in 2008 by the U.S. government in the largest corporate bailout in history.
An AIG subsidiary, Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania-Chartis WorldSource, took months to authorize a neurological evaluation for Barcklay. Now Chartis is refusing to pay for her inpatient treatment.
“Frankly, I am appalled at how many obstacles have been placed in the way of her receiving the treatment she needs,” Spokane neuropsychologist Winifred Daisley wrote in a December letter to Chartis case manager Debra Ragan.
Marie Ali, a Chartis spokeswoman, said she could not comment on individual claims but that the company “is committed to handling every claim professionally, ethically and fairly.”
“We provide the highest level of service to our insureds, which includes the prompt adjudication and payment of claims.”
A spokesman for Xe Services said, “The company has worked diligently with the insurance provider to help ensure Ms. Barcklay receives the level of care and treatment she needs.”
Honorably discharged in 1996
Barcklay, a 1989 graduate of Lewis and Clark High School, studied art and archaeology at Evergreen State College and became an accomplished artist. Despite selling her oil paintings at galleries in Seattle and New York, she found it difficult to pay her student loans and joined the Army in April 1994.
At Fort Campbell, Ky., she learned to repair UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters before injuring her knee in jump school; she was honorably discharged in October 1996.
Despite her small frame, she became a certified firefighter and emergency medical technician before returning to school to become an airframe and aircraft power train mechanic specializing in remote mountain recovery of helicopters.
She worked for the defense contractor L-3 Vertex Aerospace in Iraq from 2006 to 2008. Then she joined Blackwater subsidiary Presidential Airways, repairing military and civilian helicopters in Afghanistan in 2009. Xe Services sold Presidential Airways in March 2010.
In September 2009, while working at Forward Operating Base Shank in eastern Afghanistan, Barcklay was returning from lunch in the mess tent when an enemy mortar exploded 10 yards from her as she passed an opening in the blast wall.
“It was like every joint in my body separated and then slammed back together,” Barcklay said.
The force of the blast threw her to the ground. A forklift operator and a soldier also were severely injured by the explosion.
“I remember being on the ground, but I don’t remember falling,” Barcklay said. “I saw the smoke cloud, but I couldn’t hear anything. I couldn’t stop shaking.”
She was treated at a nearby Army base for ear trauma and joint pain and returned to the United States in November 2009. She returned to Afghanistan in early January and continued working for about a month despite reporting vertigo and shakiness, headaches, tinnitus and blurred vision.
When she came home to Spokane in February 2010, Barcklay began seeing medical providers for continued problems with seizures, pain, hearing, balance and memory loss.
In March last year, Dr. Neil Giddings, an ear, nose and throat specialist, recommended cognitive testing and rehabilitation. Upon completing the evaluation in July 2010, neuropsychologist Daisley diagnosed “post-concussion syndrome caused by blast injury” and recommended comprehensive cognitive rehabilitation.
According to Barcklay’s medical records, this recommendation has been supported by Giddings, as well as Dr. Madeline Geraghty, medical director of the neurology department at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center; Dr. David Ramey, of Kootenai Neurology; Dr. Karen Stanek, brain injury psychiatrist at Northwest Medical Rehabilitation; Dr. Heidi Heller, neurologist, and Dr. Daniel Hesskamp, internal medicine specialist, of the Spokane Veterans Affairs Medical Center; and Dr. Rod Peterson, psychiatrist, Spokane Psychiatric Clinic.
“I do not believe her symptoms have a psychiatric causality – this is a neurological problem directly due to blast injury,” Daisley wrote.
Peterson, who met with Barcklay six times, wrote, “I do not believe her seizures are caused by a psychiatric condition.”
Caseworker terminated after recommending treatment
Through an independent contractor, Chartis hired a nurse, Theresa Trimmell of Northwest Medical Management, to coordinate Barcklay’s case. After consulting with the specialists, Trimmell researched the options available to her patient.
After determining that there was no appropriate rehabilitative program in Washington, Trimmell contacted the Centre for Neuro Skills in Bakersfield, Calif., which evaluated Barcklay and accepted her for treatment.
Upon submitting her work with Barcklay to Chartis in October 2010, Trimmell’s contract was terminated unexpectedly.
“When I first saw (Barcklay) she had a caseworker with the insurance company who seemed really supportive and seemed like she was going to make things happen, and then she was taken off the case,” Daisley said.
It has been nearly a year since the neuropsychologist recommended cognitive rehabilitation, which is more effective the sooner it is given.
Injured defense workers often have to battle insurance companies that routinely deny medical benefits, causing long delays in treatment, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform discovered in 2009.
Without examination, psychiatrist issues opinion
On April 22, Barcklay’s attorney, David M. Linker, met with Chartis’ attorney, Michael W. Thomas, in a Department of Labor Office of Workers’ Compensation conference. Thomas said Chartis was waiting for an independent review of Barcklay’s medical records.
The review by Dr. W. Curt LaFrance Jr., director of neuropsychiatry and behavioral neurology at Rhode Island Hospital and assistant professor at Brown Medical School, came on May 20.
LaFrance’s primary diagnosis: “Conversion disorder” accompanied by “adjustment disorder with anxious mood.”
Without examining Barcklay, LaFrance determined that her condition was largely a mental condition characterized by physical symptoms. He wrote that he did not see a need for inpatient rehabilitation.
In response, Peterson wrote a letter to Barcklay’s attorney, rebutting Chartis’ independent review and calling for “a more complete evaluation at an institution such as the Centre for Neuro Skills.” In addition, the Spokane psychiatrist wrote, “The American Psychiatric Association has a very specific and rigid stance against psychiatrists rendering diagnoses on patients they have not examined.”
Mark Ashley, chairman emeritus of the Brain Injury Association of America and CEO of the Centre for Neuro Skills, also reviewed Barcklay’s records.
“Unfortunately, if we continue to try to treat (Barcklay’s) condition in this fragmented way, the likelihood of her improving is low,” Ashley said. “It requires a comprehensive and intensive sort of intervention.”
Ashley denounced the insurer’s reluctance to cover treatment in his facility and attempt to debunk the collective work of her medical providers through “utilization review.”
“It’s unconscionable that they would be this dispassionate while this human being is undergoing such incredible physical and psychological suffering,” he said.
“These people know the difference between right and wrong, and they simply don’t care,” Ashley continued. “They are playing a game with this woman’s life.”
Barcklay said federal law guaranteed that she would be taken care of if she risked her life in a war zone. Now that she is injured she shouldn’t have to fight for treatment, she said, but she will.
“Every night I go to sleep I don’t know whether I will have a seizure or whether I will wake up at all,” she said.
Rights panel poorly understood 
oneanddone on June 13 at 5:32 a.m.
Nope. Not the US gov’ts problem. Why should it be. These people went back as a civilian contractor for the money, nothing else. Let them fight with the company and let the company pay any expenses out of the billions they got from congressmen.
mikeln on June 13 at 5:57 a.m.
Read the article, she was in a war zone and the government seems to be on the hook anyway. It is a government act that says these insurance companies can opperate without risk, good work if you are well connected and can get it. As I see it, these insurers are greedy crapholes who won’t even help you when it costs them no money at all.
Scoutster on June 13 at 6:13 a.m.
Sounds like rationing to me.
I hope she wins this. She deserves the treatment she needs and the contractors are on the hook.
Orange on June 13 at 6:25 a.m.
Can you say Work Comp? Doubt it’ll help since it happened overseas. Get a lawyer. This is on Blackwater not the Government. Warcrime? I don’t get it.
mikeln on June 13 at 6:39 a.m.
They are useing a WWII law to get the government to pay the claims, sounds like pure profit with no risk to them. How much would it cost me to get a sweet deal like this? I bet if you check you would find that the owners of this insurance company are well connected to members of our government. But hey, these are wars for profit so why not bleed the taxpayer for every cent you can steal? As I sit here and write this there are people out there doing thier best to deny any benifits to our service people and will name it freedom from this or that to make it look good to the ever more ignorant american public. Get this woman the help she needs, you greedy crapholes.
MrBloggy on June 13 at 6:46 a.m.
MrB dreams
of a revolution
of Americans
ending war crime
profiteering
of insurance co
executives tied
to masts on ships
floating to sea
of blackwater thugs
enchained and pulling
carts of medicine
for the needy
of the rich on spits
over bonfires of wealth
redistribution
MrB knows this is
but a dream and is not
a fomenter of anarchy
or nihilism (he does
support hedonism)
or sovereign-ism
or overthrowing
GWB’s third term
He understands
the tipping point isn’t
here
quite
yet
Providing_Buttonholes on June 13 at 7:18 a.m.
The Government is not on the hook for a civilian casualty, however the government is responsible for seeing that her contractors follow the law and provide her coverage. Have good luck on that.
I’m also going to assume that McMorris, Murray and Cantwell have all turned their backs on this veteran which is THEIR signature trade marks for how they REALLY help vets.
I am surprised that she only got a 2 1/2 year enlistment contract for such a technical position. I would suppose the Army should have at least a 4 year contract for this to include the year or so schooling. Its rather wastefull to spend a 1 year schooling someone to then to muster them out after 1 1/2 of productive work.
The MINIMUM these contractors make is $75,000 (TAX EXEMPT) a year so she pulled this money down from 2006 to 2010. Why hasn’t she saved any of it and if I was making that $$ in a foreign country (read combat zone here) I would also have my one medical insurance (cheap at $6K a year or less).
In summary she got a good deal from the Army FREE training which she turned around into a well paid civilian job. She had 4 years of $75K income, oif where that money has gone? Her employers have screwed her regarding government mandated medical care/insurance. It appears the GOvernment should start enforcing the laws that ITS contractors are supposed to follow. Meanwhile Cathy, Patty and Maria all sit back home waving the flag and flicking boogers at our Vets.
dbacasualty on June 13 at 7:20 a.m.
Defense Base Act Insurance is a huge scam between the Insurance Companies, their attorneys, and often the attorneys for the injured themselves.
The Deparment of Labor, whose job it is to administer this program, often assists the companies and their attorneys in dragging these claims out and denying benefits.
The Insurance Company continues to rake in huge premiums without having to pay out for benefits.
The attorneys rack up ever more hours and expenses, which are also paid for by the taxpayer.
The injured contractor or widow and children of those killed go without the benefits that this forced compensation program is supposed to provide.
The already overwhelmed VA system is further burdened by Injured Contractors who are also Veterans.
The DBA insurance CNA refuses to provide even diagnoses of Traumatic Brain Injury to bomb blast victims, much less treatment.
It is a deadly game they play.
greyhound2 on June 13 at 7:44 a.m.
This is a private contractor problem. Why the writer would want to wrap this in a flag as an Army issue is puzzling
eagleproducer on June 13 at 7:47 a.m.
The larger issue here is the use of contractors to fight the foreign entanglements of the U.S. and the wealthy elite who benefit from those wars.
Where are the so called patriots on the right? Why aren’t they calling for a draft, or called for one ten years ago when this ill-begotten and ill-executed “war” began?
Stop the no-bid nonsense
And bring the boys back home
You can’t still call it defense
When your mercenaries roam
The homeland is not safer
And the treasury’s been drained
By chicken-hawk waifers
Who leave our reputation stained
Yet the drones still keep on droning
And the dogs of war still bark
Imperialism’s what they’re honing
And veterans are their mark.
Jojo on June 13 at 8:02 a.m.
Get this lady the help she needs. She not only served our country as a soldier but also in support of our military as a contractor. Look for yourself at the defense base act and war hazard compensation act laws of 1941 and 1942 and the congressional hearing on June 18,2009. Why do we turn our cheeks and let our tax dollars be misused. It is our tax dollars that are paying for the private insurance policies.
SugarShane on June 13 at 8:19 a.m.
Hurt her knee and got discharged only to take a civilian job doing the same thing for much more money. You took the chances, now live with them. How much did your training cost the taxpayers? Will you be paying any of that back? I think not, consider it an advance on your treatment. Im going to a war zone to work for a private contractor and if I get hurt, I want everyone else to take care of me for the rest of my life for free, yea ok, NOT.
USVetVoter on June 13 at 9:01 a.m.
Not all soldiers are patriots and not all contractors are money grubbing mercenaries.
It says this soldier was injured during her service in Jump School, that is Airborne Training to those of you who don’t know. Jump School injures many people, this soldier served 2&1/2 years, then was put out of service for an injury. The article states that, but is vague about that detail.
Many contractors are retired military or as this former soldier, wanted to support the war effort, but was unable to as a soldier.
It is federal law these contractors are supposed to be treated with the DBA and WHCA of 1941 &1942. It is not only the thousands of contractors suffering but all US taxpayers as well.
It is the responsibility of the voter to Stand up and fix this war profiteering and hold Congress responsible to change this unfair system that has been going on since 2001………& who knows how many more billions of $$$ are going to this unfair system.
leekinny on June 13 at 9:08 a.m.
Well, it seems some say that people in the military don’t have real jobs either, like police, fire fighters, teachers and nurses or civilians who get their brains rattled by an explosion.
My wife and I are both vets who were ripped off by a big insurance company. They wouldn’t listen to anybody. MS isn’t long term because it gets better, they would emphatically say.!
Keeping insurance companies from being able to do that to people is a part of ‘ Obama care’ that must stay and be made stronger.
Oh, and it’s the Representative who is supposed to deal with problems a person is having with a government or civilian agency.
jddavis on June 13 at 9:14 a.m.
She is entitled to some level of care from the VA because 1) she is a veteran, and 2) she has a service connected disability from her time in the Army.
The VA “prioirity” of her medical care depends on her percentage of disability from time on active duty. I am unsure if her care would be limited and not cover any subsequent issue(s) such non-service related TBI. The insurance company should be taking care of this in anyway.
Best of luck!
eagleproducer on June 13 at 9:24 a.m.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/06/06/110606fa_fact_stillman
That is a recent article in The New Yorker about the use of hundreds of thousands of support personnel for U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The workers are recruited by shady subcontractors in third world nation and placed into conditions that resemble indentured servitude. All on your taxpayer dime.
What we are doing and have done with these wars should press upon every citizen’s conscience and force you to ask yourself what you’ve become, what you’ve allowed to happen.
Osama bin Laden might be dead. But he still won.
WHS on June 13 at 9:31 a.m.
Just another sad of example of the failed for profit medical insurance system in our country…
The reality is, this should be a simple case.
She got injured on the job, a hazardous job at that. She had insurance, insurance knew it was hazardous, insurance should pay, period, done, end of story.
When people that our system is broken and does not work, and honestly never has.
I am reminded of the old joke - A customer asks an insurance man what Life Insurance is.
The insurance man answers, “that’s where we bet you will live long enough to pay more in premiums than we pay in benefits”.
The customer says, “but what if I die young?”.
“Then you win!” replies the insurance man.
liberal_in_right_wing_land on June 13 at 9:34 a.m.
Shocking that a private insurance company is screwing someone. And this is the system the republicans and tea baggers are fighting to save? Yeah, that makes sense.
nslopeofw on June 13 at 9:51 a.m.
There goes liberal in a right wing land, again.
Yesterday it was all about not hating the gay folk. Today its about throwing out the teabagger word to incite “denied” hatred. Get some help with your hate. It scares me that you teach our children, yet cant control your hatred in a public forum.
leekinny on June 13 at 10:08 a.m.
Private contractors page from the good people at Amnesty Int. USA
http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/business-and-human-rights/private-military-and-security-companies
liberal_in_right_wing_land said:
“this is the system the republicans and tea baggers are fighting to save? ”
You would have to be playing ostrich to not know he got that right.
hawken on June 13 at 10:39 a.m.
Insurance policies are quite specific as to what is covered and what is not.
If the insurance company is not living up to the specific terms of the policy they will not be able to hide that for long. I’m sure the insurance company doesn’t want anymore bad press. It’s not good for the bottom line.
According to this article, which is all we have, the insurance company and their “experts” say she does not qualify for the claim she has filed. Even the article makes it clear that the cause and legitimacy of some of her injuries are highly questionable.
Insurance companies are an easy target. Especially,when they don’t hand out claim money simply upon request. Insurance companies can’t simply “print more money” to cover their bad decisions. What they can do is ask for and get a government bailout, if they “are too big to fail.”
But, what a great flame throwing, emotionally charged, article this is. The responses are predictable.
BTW: Government denies claims by the hundreds of thousands every day. Simply denying a claim does not mean the insurance company nor the government is trying to avoid a claim they are legally required to pay, per the specifics of the policy.
She should receive that which is due to her, according to the specifics of the policy.
Moreover, the government is far more demanding in paperwork required, than private sector insurance companies.
There are many facts we don’t have in this article.
greenlibertarian on June 13 at 11:24 a.m.
That year, a congressional investigation found that insurance companies had collected $1.5 billion in premiums, while they paid out about $900 million in compensation and expenses.
$600M in profit is not enough, every company MUST maximize shareholder return on investment, if some pipsqueak VOLUNTEERED to work for a mercenary company in a war zone, and got injured, TOO BAD, the profits for the shareholders of this insurance company trump her pathetic claim for expensive treatment, EVERY TIME.
Maximizing mercenary companies’ profits is God’s Will.
Woe be to those who would challenge the Will of God.
bbski on June 13 at 12:39 p.m.
I am amazed at all the negativity here! No matter the reason of her choosing to support the war effort through a private company, paid for by the United States of America, she got injured on the job!
Read the article title again everyone!
Through her long battle with the “hoops and hurdles ” she has to overcome, her family has suffered alot.
Someone please post some incite on how to explain to her nieces that Aunt Jen is not healthy, and is pump full of medication and has missed every school function and most of the Volleyball tournaments since returning from Afghanistan.
Brian Barcklay
US ARMY, 101 airborne, infantry
Brother
bbski on June 13 at 12:48 p.m.
….We should be thanking her and shaking her hand, in the least, for putting herself in harms way for the greater good of those who can’t stand up for themselves.
SK on June 13 at 2:00 p.m.
Brian,
I too am shocked at the attitudes on display. I went to High School with Jennifer, and I’m so very saddened to hear of her situation. I know what an amazing person she is and has always been. Please convey my best wishes to her! May she keep fighting and may the best outcome possible be hers.
Samantha
jddavis on June 13 at 2:07 p.m.
bbski—
I do empathise with your sister. The problem is who is responsible for her treatment, the govt or the employer. I believe the employer/employer’s insurance carrier is responsible. For the insurance company to imply that this type of injury is outside of what is covered for that type of work is beyond belief.
Without knowing her VA rating from her Army service, and the loopholes in the VA system, I am hopeful she can find some remedy through that channel. I note the article has one VA doc on-board with her diagnosis.
There are many resources available for veterans in the Spokane area. Perhaps contacting the DAV, American Legion, VFW, or other like service organization can get her what she needs. The VA Veteran’s Center at 100 N. Mullan in the Valley is a good place to start—they are experts at what they do and are excellent to work with.
The very best!
JDDavis, USAF (ret)
eagleproducer on June 13 at 2:19 p.m.
JDDavis: According to DOD records more than 2000 contractor fatalities and more than 51,000 injuries have been reported in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since contractors self-report, that numbers are probably much higher. They are almost on par with military casualties. Employees who are injured on U.S. bases are “usually entitled to medical care and disability compensation, but few workers are aware of their rights, and fewer still are able to navigate the byzantine process required to receive payment.”
The U.S. is supposed to draw down forces in Afghanistan this summer. It won’t matter, because they are already being replaced by civilians and CIA officers.
empyrius on June 13 at 2:21 p.m.
Jennifer states, “These are war crimes, using taxpayer dollars to profit from injuries incurred by people fighting for our freedom”.
So Jennifer is accusing the government and her insurance company of being war criminals; b/c they are practicing capitalism, b/c they are practicing that which she “fought for”, they are now the war criminals!
The insurance company for the private terrorist organization Jennifer works for, Blackwater, is putting her through the hoops to get paid; and one should be surpirsed a terrorist organization would hire AIG?!?!?Well she fought for AIG’s bailout so what does she expect? That AIG is going to bail her out???
Not a chance.
USVetVoter on June 13 at 3:18 p.m.
Yes it was a risk for this lady to work in a war zone, but it is the tax payer paying billions of $$$$ for the worker comp ins policies that are making AIG and other ins companies billions in profits. what the problem is, these workers, in a high risk zone or not are entitled to treatment by the Defense Base Act 1941, and if the injury was a “war-risk hazard”, which this traumatic brain injury was, because she survived a mortar attack,the insurance company and policy holder are going to be reimbursed over 100% for any treatment for this WHCA injury. This woman is entitled by Federal Law to the treatment recommended by her AIG approved treating physicians. That is the truth.
Watch the House oversight Committee Hearing on June 18,2009., Educate yourselves before you make such crass judgments on a
very complicated issue that is draining our country dry.
AIG and the other insurers have denied death benefits to widows, denied prosthetic limbs and surgeries for war injuries for thousands of contractors and the longer they deny treatment for these severely disabled US citizens, the more money the ins companies make. I believe that is what she meant by the denial of treatment as a war crime. This statement is also used by Congressmen in the June 18th 2009 hearing, if you have the desire to watch anything of value on U-Tube….
johnclarke on June 13 at 3:19 p.m.
So just one question. If socialized health care were in effect would this be a story?
Ok, two questions - What is the point of showing a civilian saluting the flag? She got out and cashed in on that gubmint training for a paycheck. Those are the dice you roll when you go to a war zone.
jddavis on June 13 at 4:03 p.m.
Eagle
Your numbers are certainly an eye-opener! I don’t know the laws for civilians injured on a US Base in a war zone, nor where the liability truely falls (govt or contractor).
What I do know first-hand is the diffuculty dealing with the govt (VA) on claims. As far as I know, an injured contractor employee who is not a veteran has no ties to the VA for medical care.
misjustice on June 13 at 5:29 p.m.
Wow, if we had Universal Health Care 4 All this would be a moot point; Jennifer and everyother injured vet/mercenary could/would receive the care their health professionals decided that they required.
It is past time to remove the health care rationers/deniers; the mega insurance racket, which stands between patients and their doctors.
bbski on June 13 at 5:34 p.m.
johnclarke,
As an American, you should salute our flag!!!! And, she has every right to do so as depicted in the photo….Please follow link.
http://www.americanflags.org/docs/etiquette.jsp?pageId=0690200091781119362391255
“To salute the flag, all persons come to attention. All persons in uniform should give the military salute. Members of the Armed Forces and veterans who are present but not in uniform may also render the military salute. All other persons should salute by placing their right hand over their hearts. Men wearing a head covering (a hat, cap or other headwear) are to remove it. Women do not have to remove their head covering.”
Most of us honor our flag respectfully and hold dear to our hearts the sacrifices many have given to have such a symbol of freedom. Have you, johnclarke, ever served our country? Have you ever, johnclarke, had another person’s life in your sights of an M-16? Have you, johnclarke, had your life in someone else’s weapon sights? It is not as pretty as you may think it is.
Unfortunatley, we are at war in many places on this earth. Those wars are fought by MILITARY and CIVILIAN personnel. Those MILITARY and CIVILIAN personnel are VOLUNTEERS. Those VOLUNTEERS deserve to be welcomed home with respect and treated with WHATEVER medical treatment is needed at any cost. And to question that? That is sickening. What do you say to those that have horrific, life long injuries and to those families that lost someone they love in a war? “Those are the dice you roll when you go to a war zone.”?????
YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF, johnclarke
Brian Barcklay
US Army, 101 Airborne, B Co. 1-327th INFANRTY
BROTHER
bbski on June 13 at 5:50 p.m.
edit…bb
Most of us honor our flag respectfully and hold dear to our hearts the sacrifices many have given to have such a symbol of freedom. Have you, johnclarke, ever served our country? Have you ever, johnclarke, had another person’s life in your sights of an M-16? Have you, johnclarke, had your life in someone else’s weapon sights? I HAVE!! It is not as pretty as you may think it is.
reservedparking on June 13 at 6:47 p.m.
@hawken:
“According to this article, which is all we have, the insurance company and their “experts” say she does not qualify for the claim she has filed.”
The so-called ‘expert’ rendered his opinion WITHOUT EVEN EXAMINING THE PATIENT!
Treat the patient, not the paperwork!
Yet another victim of the Bush WMD lies.
lewis8457 on June 13 at 8:46 p.m.
Thank you to all those serving in our military past and present.
That said I am sorry our country has lied to you we have not fought a war that has had to do with saving our freedoms since WWII.
You are not fighting and dieing for our freedoms. While you are over seas our freedoms are slowly being whittled away for the sake of our “safety”, back home.
When you come home you will find no jobs and a administrative branch that can kill you with no recourse. If you don’t believe me ask Mr. Grooms widow, he was a Iraq veteran that was killed in cold blood ruled justified. By our police.
So I am sorry freedom is a word they use to get you to go and fight so they can fill their wallets with you and your brothers blood.
The wars you are fighting only have to do with one thing.
Money, money, money, money.