The Marine Corps Times:

Issue Date: July 26, 2004

Health study confused with computer spam
Effort to find volunteers lost in junk e-mail

By Deborah Funk
Times staff writer

Spam e-mails are creating hurdles for defense officials seeking volunteers for a long-term study to track service members' health.

Some military members tend to mistake the information they receive for junk e-mail. And researchers worry recipients also may fear that someone is trying to obtain their Social Security number to steal their identity, said the lead investigator, Cmdr. (Dr.) Margaret Ryan.

"'Stop sending me spam.' 'How do I know you're legitimate?' 'You haven't cleared this through my chain of command,'" are the kinds of responses researchers receive from some potential study participants, Ryan said.

Though they've received fewer than 50 such responses, researchers believe this may represent many more people from all services who share the same thoughts but don't take the trouble to voice them, she said.

"The Air Force is far and away the most vocally concerned," said Ryan, director of the Pentagon's Center for Deployment Health Research.

Even some public affairs officers and information systems workers didn't recognize the solicitations as legitimate. Researchers are trying to inform military leadership that the study, launched three years ago, is truly sponsored by the Defense Department.

The Millennium Cohort Study, the largest of its kind, will follow more than 100,000 people for 20 years. It is designed to better understand how military service impacts health and find what health threats may be present in certain areas. Every three years, participants will complete a confidential health survey.

The American Legion helped spread news of the study in the past year by publicizing it in the Legion's magazine.
"Obviously, it's important for people to participate," said Steve Smithson, assistant director of the Legion's Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation Commission. "If you're going to make a breakthrough [in any study], you need people to look at."

Defense officials didn't get as many reluctant responses from candidates when they recruited the first 77,000 volunteers in July 2001. The goal is to enroll another 60,000 people by 2007, two-thirds of them this year.

Study candidates are selected randomly and are contacted by traditional mail and e-mail with a letter of encouragement from Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.

"Your participation will determine the success or failure of the study," Wolfowitz stated in the letter.
Because the study is voluntary, researchers do not want to look for volunteers through service members' commanders because that could smack of coercion, Ryan said.

"We're happy to have people turn down the invitation," she said. "We just want people to read it first."
Senators: Open VA to all vets
Kevin Dobbs
Published: 7/26/2004
Middle-income moratorium has cut costs, agency director says

Senate Democrats, including South Dakota's Tom Daschle and Tim Johnson, are calling on the Department of Veterans Affairs to lift a moratorium on middle-income veterans who want to tap the VA health care system.

In January 2003, VA Secretary Anthony Principi temporarily closed the system to new "Priority 8" veterans: those earning more than about $33,000 in Sioux Falls. With no policy change, federal estimates suggest more than 500,000 such veterans - nearly 4,000 in South Dakota - could be denied care by the end of fiscal year 2005.

The moratorium was made to curb costs at a time when swelling patient bases were overwhelming the VA system, forcing it to make veterans wait months to see a doctor. Last year, more than 2,000 were waiting at the Sioux Falls VA Medical Center and more than 200,000 were waiting nationwide.

But the VA now says it has eased its backlogs, and 34 Democratic senators sent a letter to Principi saying it is time to invite Priority 8 veterans into the system.

Under current policy, Principi's stance on Priority 8 veterans is to be evaluated annually, with August as an unofficial deadline.

Principi "said the ban would be temporary and last only as long as necessary. Now he says the waiting lists are gone, yet the VA continues to lock out half a million veterans. This needs to change," said Daschle, who is seeking re-election in November.

Principi has not said publicly which way he's leaning on the matter, and calls to the VA's Washington headquarters were not returned.

But the VA has said putting off Priority 8 veterans has helped it trim its waiting lists. Reversing that decision now could lead to a flood of new patients and rekindle the VA's capacity problems.

Daschle's Republican challenger, former Rep. John Thune, said he also wants the VA to carefully consider opening its doors to more veterans.

"Ideally, anybody who served our country ought to have access to health care," he said.

But Thune questioned the motives of Daschle and the other Democrats who signed the letter to Principi.

"You have to wonder, with all Democrats signing the letter, maybe they were just trying to make a political statement," he said. "I would hope that's not the case, because this is a bipartisan issue that both parties have worked on."

Thune noted that during his time in the U.S. House, from fiscal 1997 to 2003, he voted to increase spending for veterans health by 40 percent.

Priority 8 veterans were singled out because studies have shown most of them have access to care through either a private health plan or Medicare. But veterans groups have complained that Congress promised all veterans access to VA care, and many in the Priority 8 category need the VA program because, unlike other plans, it provides low-cost prescription drugs.

Veterans organizations want Priority 8 veterans to be able to enroll in the VA, but they say it's not as simple as the Senate Democrats want to make it seem. They say it isn't feasible unless Congress acts to ramp up funding for the VA, giving the agency needed money to hire more staff.

Veterans advocates say the VA needs at least a $3 billion boost, bringing its health budget to $30 billion, to keep up with rising costs and take on more veterans. Proposed increases given serious consideration so far have been well under $2 billion.

"The VA health system is a benefit of honorable military service, and the Priority 8 veterans should be allowed to use the system along with everyone else," said Steve Thomas, spokesman for the American Legion. "But what can you do if the system is chronically underfunded? (Principi) can only do what the budget will allow."

The Legion and other veterans advocates have lobbied to make veterans health care a mandatory program, like Medicare. Spending would be based on a formula that provides a set amount per veteran, with the dollar figure based on the number enrolled and the services in demand. It would be mandatory to increase the budget if the formula calls for that.

Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle have backed the idea, but the Bush administration has balked at it. The White House has said that VA funding has increased every year under President Bush, and it wants another bump this year. But it has maintained that the country can't afford to open itself to the unknown cost increases that could come with making the VA a mandatory program.

With a rapidly growing veteran population, the VA has seen its patient base swell by more than 50 percent in the past five years. Most veterans are older than 50, and many are increasingly in need of health care. That, along with Congress' 1996 decision to open VA hospitals to all veterans, not just the poor or those injured in battle, led to the surge.

That leaves veterans groups pushing for a sizable one-time increase this year. They say the increases under Bush, which total about 30 percent, are noteworthy, but they aren't keeping pace with costs and patient demand.

"For us, this is not about a political statement. It's a practical issue," said John McNeill, deputy director of veterans services for the Veterans of Foreign Wars. "The Bush administration, to its credit, has produced increases. That's helped, but it's still not good enough.

"We still need to do more."
American Legion seeks vets
Group makes pitch for more members
By David Goetz

The Courier-Journal
The American Legion will not hold its national convention in Louisville until 2009, but its Kentucky leadership already has begun talking up the benefits of the 85-year-old veterans organization.

There are 25,000 eligible veterans in Kentucky who aren't members of the organization, its state commander said yesterday.

"If they knew what the American Legion had to offer families and children, I think there would be a lot more people interested in it," Fred Staley, commander of the Kentucky Department, said yesterday.

Staley, of West Point, and the rest of the Legion's state executive committee were in Louisville this weekend to train some of its midlevel leaders and take final action on its budget for the 2004-2005 fiscal year.

John Bush, the organization's public relations officer, said the Legion has been trying to lose its image as a social club for veterans.

Staley pointed out several programs supported by the group's $225,000 annual budget.
They include the Boys State mock government exercise held each year in which teens from around Kentucky set up an imitation state government as a lesson in practical civics.The Elizabethtown post sent 25 boys to the event last year, Staley said.

Other programs the Legion supports include the Special Olympics and a temporary financial assistance fund for children and youths. American Legion baseball has been a longtime program for the organization, and two Kentucky youths have won college scholarships through an oratorical program that teaches youngsters about the U.S. Constitution.

The Legion also maintains a service officer, a retired Veterans Affairs employee, to help needy veterans obtain pension and disability payments and get admitted to VA hospitals.

Membership in veterans groups runs in cycles, but on the national level the group loses about 30,000 World War II veterans a year, Staley said.

Last year a membership drive added about 4,000 members to the Legion's Kentucky rolls, lifting membership to about 30,000 in the state and moving it to 21st from 47th in per capita membership.

The Legion is not politically active, Staley said, but it supports constitutional amendments against flag desecration and for prayer in public schools.

Local youth a party chairman at Boys Nation
Jordan Friel serves as a senator in the mock government exercise bringing young men from across the country together in Arlington, Va., for a hands-on experience with the political process. He received the honor Saturday, which comes with the responsibility of overseeing the Federalist Party's Convention and selection of the party's candidates.

In his role as senator, Friel's committee deals with legislation that normally would be handled by the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, Appropriations Committee, Armed Services Committee and Bank, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.

Photos from Boys Nation activities can be found online at www.legion.org/boysnation/2004. <http://www.legion.org/boysnation/2004>

washingtonpost.com
Officers Question Visibility of Army in Iraq
Some in Military Urge Lower Troop Profile
By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 26, 2004; Page A01
Some top U.S. military officers are questioning whether the practice of keeping U.S. troops highly visible in Iraq is doing more harm than good, challenging a key tenet of the Army's approach to occupying the country.

Advocates of the new approach say U.S. troops would be more effective if they were kept out of view of the Iraqi public, and even removed to remote desert bases, appearing only when needed to conduct operations beyond the capacity of Iraqi security forces.

For most of the Iraq occupation, the U.S. military has assumed -- based on lessons drawn from peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Kosovo -- that maintaining "presence" through extensive patrols, large-scale raids and other highly visible operations would increase stability. Now, however, some officers are saying that such operations are doing more to inflame anti-American feelings among Iraqis than to secure the streets, and the resulting debate may shape the military's future structure and tactics in Iraq.

"Sometimes the best way is to be less present, and to be focused in your presence and successful in what you do," Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, said in little-noticed comments made last week during the final moments of a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee. "And by exposing more and more of your formation to this kind of [guerrilla] warfare may not be the smartest thing to do. And we're looking and working very hard to do that through the commanders over there."

The view that high-profile U.S. military operations may be counterproductive departs from the basic U.S. military approach in Iraq over the past year. As one 1st Armored Division soldier put it in summarizing his unit's operations in Baghdad for the past 14 months, "We were everywhere all the time day and night 24-7 for a year -- I mean everywhere. You could not go anywhere in Baghdad without seeing a 1st AD patrol or convoy or soldiers on some point."

The changing view on presence also presents a new challenge to critics of the Bush administration's Iraq policy, such as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), who have called for boosting the number of U.S. troops there. In May, Murtha, a decorated Marine veteran of the Vietnam War, said the administration should either increase its troop strength in Iraq or withdraw. Until now, U.S. commanders have generally agreed with the need for troops, postponing plans for cuts this summer and instead maintaining a level of about 145,000 troops.

Somewhat belatedly, the revised approach to presence also provides new ammunition for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's approach to Iraq, which, beginning with the government- toppling campaign in the spring of 2003, favored maneuverability and speed over sheer bulk and big troop numbers.

Asked Wednesday about the continuing debate over troop levels, Rumsfeld said, "There's no magical number. There's no formula for this." But he went on to say at a Pentagon news conference that the Soviet Union had a large troop presence in Afghanistan during its war there in the 1980s, while the U.S. military had just "a few handfuls" in its own offensive there in the fall of 2001. "The Soviets lost and we won," he pointedly noted.

The new argument against "presence" as a military goal was put most strongly by Keith W. Mines, a former Special Forces officer who served a tour last year as the U.S. occupation authority's representative for Al Anbar Province in western Iraq. "The presence of foreign security forces is provoking the very instability that must diminish in order for the process to work," Mines, who is now a State Department diplomat, wrote in an essay published by the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a pro-defense think tank that tends to espouse mainstream Republican views. "Coalition forces are not only not stopping most of the violence, they are the active force which is provoking it."

In a follow-up internal cable sent last month on the State Department's formal "dissent channel," Mines also argued for a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops, with a reduction from dozens of bases now to just seven in January, followed by a complete pullout in the spring.

Some Army officers, especially those who specialize in civil affairs, the art of military relations with the local population, say they agree with Mines's thesis.

"I certainly think Mines is on to something," said Army Maj. Christopher Varhola, a reservist who served in Iraq earlier this year. Varhola, who is writing an academic study titled "The American Military in Iraq: Are We Our Own Worst Enemy?," said he came away from Iraq believing that U.S. military operations "have alienated parts of the Iraqi population, and continue to do so."

Not everyone in the Army supports that view. Capt. Oscar Estrada, an Army Reserve civil affairs specialist, found that out the hard way when he published an article in The Washington Post last month detailing his concerns that even feel-good missions, such as fixing water plants, are harmful if soldiers shoot at Iraqis on the way to and from the task. In response, he was transferred to a post near the Iranian border, resulting in the loss of a home leave during which he planned to get married. According to the Army Times newspaper, he also was reprimanded by his brigade commander, Col. Dana J.H. Pittard, who told him he was "aiding the enemy."

Likewise, Brig. Gen. Mark P. Hertling, deputy commander of the 1st Armored Division, which occupied Baghdad for most of the past year, argued that Mines's views are "interesting, but also somewhat slanted, geared toward what he saw in Al Anbar (versus the entire nation, which has different challenges in each area) and uninformed."

At the same time, Hertling said the Army already has taken many of the steps Mines advocates. He said the 1st Armored Division has long conducted the kind of focused operations Mines says are necessary. "If our units didn't have a specific mission, the soldiers didn't go out," he said. In addition, he said, the division steadily reduced its number of outposts in the capital from 60 in spring 2003 to eight early this summer.

Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack Jr., who commanded the 82nd Airborne Division in western Iraq for much of the past year, said he generally endorses the idea of putting Iraqi security forces at the fore while U.S. troops move to the background. The problem, he said in a talk in Washington last month, was that the U.S. aid program has been too sluggish to put that theory into practice. "I never got to the point where we had the equipment to do that," said Swannack, who worked with Mines in Al Anbar. "I couldn't get the flak vests, communications and vehicles to do that."

Even so, the new view is clearly gathering steam. Defense analyst Michael Vickers, who has long advocated sharply cutting U.S. troop levels in Iraq, said that some Pentagon insiders agree with him that it would be possible to have the same military effect in Iraq with half the number of U.S. troops. "They're moving in the right direction," he said, by making U.S. operations less obtrusive. But he said the Bush administration will not sharply reduce troop numbers for fear of looking as if it is cutting and running from Iraq.

The alternative approach is finding support in Congress. Rep. Jim Marshall (D-Ga.) said he learned as a reconnaissance platoon sergeant fighting in Vietnam that "just being out there poking around . . . is strategically counterproductive."

Reducing the U.S. profile as appears to be already happening in some parts of the country almost certainly will reduce U.S. casualties -- which could be significant in Iraq and the United States as the presidential election approaches. However, the tactical shift also is likely to place new burdens on Iraqi security forces, which in several instances proved not up to the job in the last major spike in violence in April.

Marshall, who has made two trips to Iraq in the past year, said the issue for U.S. commanders will be finding a way to reduce their presence without simply surrendering turf to insurgents. "The real dilemma is when you leave a vacuum," he said, "because that lawless environment will be filled by hard-liners, so there's a balance that needs to be struck."

Pentagon Finds Contamination at 14 Bases
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: July 26, 2004
Filed at 8:41 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon says it found contamination from a toxic chemical, perchlorate, at 14 abandoned or scheduled to be closed military bases nationwide. But a Democratic senator said Friday more facilities should have been examined.

In the report sent to lawmakers, the Pentagon said it found the chemical in ground water and soil samples at closed sites in 10 states.

Perchlorate, a toxic chemical from rocket fuel and weapons production, has been linked to thyroid damage.
The amounts found ranged from 1.2 parts per billion in ground water at Fort McClellan in Alabama, to as high as 2,890 parts per billion in some samples of ground water at Fort Wingate Depot in New Mexico.

There is debate about what constitutes dangerous levels of perchlorate, but the Environmental Protection Agency's draft proposal for drinking water is one part per billion. Some but not all drinking water supplies draw on ground water.

Perchlorate has been found in drinking water supplies in 29 states and has also been found in vegetables.
The eight-page report, issued in response to a congressional mandate, was more than two months overdue. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., released a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Friday saying it didn't meet congressional demands.

Feinstein said the report should have addressed 74 potentially contaminated closed bases -- a number contained in a General Accounting Office report from 2003.

She also complained that the Pentagon shouldn't wait for the EPA to issue a final national standard for perchlorate to develop clean-up plans. The final standard isn't expected until 2006 and the report indicates clean-up at most bases will wait until then.

``This report makes clear that the Defense Department intends to continue to drag its feet until a federal standard for perchlorate is adopted, wasting precious time and exposing millions of Americans to the hazardous effects of perchlorate contamination of water supplies,'' Feinstein wrote. ``This is an irresponsible and unacceptable approach to a serious problem.''

A Pentagon official defended the report, contending that in some cases remediation wasn't needed because the amounts of perchlorate found weren't significant.

``We believe that our response to the congressional request for the report was responsive, and that the concerns that Sen. Feinstein has raised were really outside the request of the report,'' said Alex Beehler, assistant deputy undersecretary of defense for the environment, safety and occupational health.

The 14 bases listed in the Pentagon report were:
Fort McClellan in Alabama; Fort Ord, El Toro Marine Corps Base, McClellan Air Force Base and Mather Air Force Base in California; Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado; Savanna Army Depot and Chanute Air Force Base in Illinois;

Jefferson Proving Ground in Indiana; Fort Wingate Depot in New Mexico; Umatilla Chemical Depot in Oregon; Red River Army Depot in Texas, which is open, but scheduled to be closed; Camp Bonneville in Washington; and White Oak Naval Special Warfare Group in Maryland.

Agreement Reached on Moving U.S. Forces in Korea
The Department of Defense announced today that representatives of the Republic of Korea and the United States finalized agreements to relocate all U.S. Forces from the Seoul Metropolitan Area to the Pyongtaek area. The decision was reached during the 10th round of the Future of the Alliance talks held in Washington D.C. this week. The agreement fulfills a commitment made by President Bush and President Roh at their summit meeting in Washington in May 2003.

There are approximately 8,000 U.S. servicemembers in the Seoul Metropolitan Area.
The relocation of U.S. forces out of Seoul will be completed by December 2008.
U.S. and ROK representatives also finalized amendments to the Land Partnership Plan that allow for the eventual relocation of 2nd Infantry Division from its existing camps north of Seoul to enduring facilities in the Pyongtaek area, approximately 50 miles south of Seoul. A final decision on the timing of the 2nd Infantry Division relocation will be decided by the respective national leaders at a later date, taking careful account of the political, economic and security situation on the peninsula and in Northeast Asia.

"This relocation agreement helps us meet our enduring commitment to the defense of Korea and to the security and stability of the region," said Richard Lawless, the U.S. deputy under secretary of defense for Asia Pacific affairs.

The delegations were led by Lawless, from the U.S. Department of Defense, Evans Revere, from the U.S. Department of State, Ahn Kwang Chan, from the ROK Ministry of National Defense, and Kim Sook, from the ROK Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Joe March, Director
National Public Relations
The American Legion
(317) 630-1253