How The Government Betrays Our Veterans
Suspicious July 12, 1972 fire at the St Louis, MO National Personnel Records Center
where millions of Veterans records were destroyed.
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Perhaps now with the advent of Wiki Leaks and their growing list of competitors, some people in the Justice Department and Veterans Administration will begin to watch their (emailed and other transmitted words). But thankfully for us old veterans they are just a bit too late. Then of course are all of those investigations about the VA's process for relieving stress on it Mail-Triage-Teams,. I seem to remember in the many reports something about the VA's new "Drop Mail" process. That's where veterans letters, medical documents and even military discharge papers when dropped, are supposed to be "dropped" into the veteran's file. But in the modified process, they are dropped instead into those giant VA shredders by the box-full. Oh well, and there were those arrests which cost the VA employees their promised bonuses, and their freedom.
The Veterans Administration: Numerous emails between VA employees as well as upper echelon management individuals reveal a disdain for the extra work posed by elder veterans seeking pensions. and benefits. With their records destroyed in the July 12, 1973 the search into the vets’ stated previous assigned bases is terribly time consuming, and often futile. And allusions were allegedly made in inter department communications that rewards might have been forthcoming to the more successful employees in modifying the standard Drop Mail processes.
In one email the vast pool of elder vets who could rightfully apply for aid an pensions, were referred to as being "financially toxic to VA's funding." In another it was outlined how in many cases of vets past their 70s, the problem could be solved by simply procrastinating past "their own expiration dates." One referred to it jokingly as the new "Stall Till They Fall Program," and the acronym "STTF," no doubt pronounced "Stiffing," was used frequently in subsequent communications.
Our Veterans Administration has clearly demonstrated just how callous they are to older veterans. The means they use is described in detail below, and we older vets cooperate by either feeling too old and tired, or now lack the facilities (memory of names from half a century ago) or the health required to continue. A lot like myself are those mentioned in the Wiki Leaks below as those who, if they stall our applications, will fall and begin looking up at grass roots.
I personally believe what happened was undoubtedly a deliberately set fire at the St Louis National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in 1972, in St Louis. And what they have done since was deny thousands of veterans their benefits, thus being responsible for the untold suffering and death of veterans who were successfully "stalled" by the VA and "fell" like refuse. That's criminal. I believe something has to be done about it - about the VA and about those lost, and still-struggling, veterans. And the shredding is spreading!
I intend to spread the message through this Blog and any other Internet avenue available to me, as long as I can afford to do so. This is my contribution to all of those American Heroes who have had their lives ruined, and those veterans like myself and those mentioned below. Left to finally "fall" as they - the VA, and whatever other entities involved - have planned.
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More Leaks . . .
The Veterans Administration: Numerous emails between VA employees as well as upper echelon management individuals reveal a disdain for the work posed by elder veterans seeking pensions. With their records destroyed in the July 12, 1973 the search into the vets stated previous assigned bases is terribly time consuming, and often futile. And allusions were made in interdepartmental communications that rewards might have been forthcoming to the more successful employees in this callous denial of pensions.
In one email the vast pool of elder vets who could rightfully apply for aid and pensions, were referred to as being “financially toxic to VA operations.” In another it was outlined how in many cases of vets past their 70s, the problem could be solved by simply procrastinating past their “own expiration dates.” One referred to it jokingly as the new “Stall Till They Fall” program. And the acronym “STTF” was used frequently in subsequent communications.
The fire at the Army Records Center on July 12, 1973 where millions of service men and womens' records were destroyed coincidentally took place the same week that the military draft ended. Others believe that the federal government itself started the fire to destroy unwanted and sensitive files, or to erase certain World War II records. Some went as far as to say the government set the fire intentionally to reduce budget costs by destroying an entire floor of a federal building.
FBI investigators looked for evidence of arson, but they could never determine its point of origin or pinpoint the exact time it started. They did find cigarette butts in trash-cans on the sixth floor, but the agents were never convinced that cigarette embers started the conflagration. A 1975 investigation indicated that the top floor of the center had little ventilation and that air pressure in the cramped overcrowded space may caused the dry records to erupt in flames.
But now with Wiki Leaks and their competitors for truth, internal governmental department conversations and memos are being brought to light. Statements like “we know the fire was not accidental” and “it could save the government billions in veteran claims!” of the destroyed records. Plus, we fully expect to be supported by our own interviews with witnesses who have survived. One, a former member of the Olivette, MO Fire Dept. we have contacted; a janitor in the building who called the Olivette Fire Dept., and a motorcyclist who was passing by.
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According to Scott Levins, the NPRC's assistant director, it may still be possible for veterans to get their records even if they were damaged in the fire. "The center receives more than one million requests each year for military records," Mr. Levins said, "and many of those are requests to reconstruct records that were lost in the 1973 fire. The number is dwindling as the years go by, but we still have enough requests to staff 30 full-time employees. Reconstruction efforts will go on indefinitely."
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That is little solace to one World War II Navy veteran and his wife. The 80-year-old Indiana resident, who asked not to be identified, took part in South Pacific combat operations on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. In June 1945, he was in a landing craft attached to his ship during a raging typhoon. Violently thrown from side of the craft to the other, he suffered severe back and knee injuries that would affect him the rest of his life.
"I didn’t know about it until I finally filed for service connected medical benefits in 1980. The first time I ever heard about the fire was when I received a letter denying my claim. They said my records were destroyed. I was so disgusted that I dropped the whole thing. I never followed up on it; I just dropped it. I thought the government should have had more than one set of records," he continued, "but I wasn't angry. Just disappointed."
Today, the combat veteran says he can "still get around," but he's in intense pain and now going deaf in one ear. The Veterans' Administration told him it might be able to reopen his claim for medical benefits, but he's skeptical. "The only thing I got from my military service was my GI Bill benefits," he said. "I guess I need some witnesses, but a bunch of dead Marines don't make very good witnesses."
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