Amputees Get New Center

Amputee soldiers once thought losing a limb meant the end of a career, but now they may be able to return to the battlefield, thanks to a new center opening December 2005 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

“Our guys and gals, they don’t want to just walk household distances, they want to be able to return
to running; they want to be able to return to duty,” Lt. Col. Jeff Gambel, clinical chief of the amputee clinic said at a groundbreaking ceremony in November 2004. “And if they don’t return to duty, they want to be able to rock climb and do all those other things.”

The $10 million Military Amputee Training Center will have weapons simulators, a climbing and rappelling wall, and military vehicle simulators to help soldiers adapt their prosthetics to driving tanks and trucks. Besides treadmills, stationary bikes, and a running track, the 30,000-square-foot addition to the hospital will offer a computer lab to help amputees learn to control advanced prosthetics, a gait lab to help them learn to walk and run again, and a hydraulic platform to simulate different terrain. Counseling services also will be offered.

With advances in body armor and battlefield medicine, more soldiers are surviving after losing limbs. Amputations accounted for 2.4 percent of all wounded in action in Iraq, twice the rate in world wars I and II. Walter Reed has treated about 180 amputees from the conflicts
in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Help for Atomic Vets

If you are a veteran who has been exposed to radiation during active duty, the VA offers several services and benefits, including health care and disability compensation.

The unofficial term “atomic veterans” includes veterans who participated in atmospheric nuclear weapons tests; took part in the American occupation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan; or were POWs in Japan. The VA programs also are available to those who served at some Department of Energy plants; those who served before Jan. 1, 1974, on Amchitka Island, Alaska; and those who received nasopharyngeal radium therapy. For information, contact the nearest VA Medical Center, Vet Center, or regional office. Or call the VA at (800) 827-1000 or visit www.va.gov/irad.

CRDP’s Up

Retirees receiving Concurrent Retirement and Disability Payments (CRDP) saw the second of 10 planned CRDP increases in their Feb. 1 checks.

In 2004, payments ranged from $750 a month for 100-percent disabled retirees to $100 for those with 50-percent ratings. Over the next eight years, eligible retirees will get back an increasing percentage of the remaining offset.

Under a new law enacted last November, 100-percent disabled retirees with 20 or more years of service will have their full retired pay restored this year. Members who are 50 percent to 90 percent disabled got back another 10 percent of the remaining offset in January. In January 2006, they will get another 20 percent; another 30 percent in January 2007, and so on. For medical retirees with 20 or more years of service, restored retired pay is calculated on service only, independent of any disability.

For 2005 payment calculations, visit: www.moaa.org/legislative/retirement/crdp_charts.asp.

Stop, Thief!

With more Americans worried about identity theft, the VA has designed a new identity card for veterans that will safeguard confidential information.

Picture This

Submit your photos now for the Military Officer patriotic photo contest. MOAA will accept submissions until March 15, 2005, in four categories: camaraderie, military family, on duty, and vintage. First-place winners will receive $500 and have their photograph published in the July 2005 issue of Military Officer. Download rules and an official entry form at www.moaa.org/magazine/photocontest.pdf or call MOAA’s Member Service Center at (800) 234-6622 to have them mailed to you.

In Review

China Hands: Nine Decades of Adventure, Espionage, and Diplomacy in Asia By James Lilley. Public Affairs, 2004. $30.ISBN 1-58648-136-3.

For James Lilley, being born in China and later serving 27 years as a CIA agent gave his stint with the State Department a unique flavor.

China Hands is Lilley’s entertaining and revealing memoir of nearly 40 years in Asia first as a CIA operative and later as U.S. Ambassador to South Korea and China. This is a personal story of espionage, diplomacy, and political insight from the Korean War to China’s Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.

Lilley’s descriptions of the Chinese civil war in the 1930s and 1940s and his experiences during the popular unrest in China in the 1980s are best. He also discusses conflicts between the CIA and State Department and offers eye-opening and critically honest appraisals of U.S. relations with China, Taiwan, Japan, and the two Koreas.

The Path to Victory: The Mediterranean Theater in World War II By Douglas Porch. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004. $35. ISBN 0-374-20518-3.

Prolific historian and professor at the Naval Postgraduate School Douglas Porch has written probably the best single volume on the Mediterranean theater’s importance in World War II. With solid research and well-crafted narrative, Porch provides superb analyses of the political, military, and geographic considerations of the French, British, Germans, Italians, and Americans who fought there. He argues that while the Mediterranean theater produced no decisive battles, it allowed decisive victory elsewhere.
Porch offers excellent, surprisingly critical profiles of commanders and politicians. He also describes the unintended strategic and operational effects of costly political intransigence and miscalculation and battlefield blunders and brilliance.

This is an outstanding wartime history, marred only by tiny, worthless maps, which are poorly reproduced and unreadable.

— William D. Bushnell

Give Me a Break

The Jobs and Growth Reconciliation Tax Act of 2004 has a hidden gem for residents of Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming (states with sales tax but no income tax). For tax years 2004 and 2005, they will be allowed to deduct state and local sales taxes from their federal income taxes, provided they meet the following qualifications:

• They must itemize their deductions on Schedule A, Form 1040.
• They must have receipts to support the deduction.
• The deduction will not help those subject to the Alternative Minimum Tax.

The provision is set to expire at the end of 2005.

Attention!

Check out these military-related entertainment offerings.

Winning Under Fire (McGraw-Hill, 2004, $20): Dale Collie, a former U.S. Army Ranger and professor at West Point, offers strategies to help soldiers reduce their anxieties. He recommends families send
letters, care packages, and news from the homefront.


The Military Channel: Discovery Communications will transition its Discovery Wings Channel to a new channel that focuses on the military, broadcasting compelling, real-world stories of heroism, technological breakthroughs, and turning points in history.


Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag: If you’ve never been part of a Red Flag exercise, you now can catch it at the movies. A new IMAX film is the first large-format film to showcase the U.S. Air Force. For theater locations, visit www.fighterpilotfilm.com.

A Number for You

The Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) has completed processing the backlog of more than 9,000 Combat-Related Special Compensation (CRSC) retroactive payments that had been approved for more than 60 days. The backlog was created when legislation changed entitlements and required additional policy and coordination between the military services, the VA, and DFAS. CRSC applications normally will be paid within 60 days of military service approval. Military retirees whose applications have been approved but who have not been paid for more than 60 days since the approval can call (800) 472-7098 between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Eastern time. This number should be used only by those whose eligibility has been verified and whose payments are overdue.

Tee Time

Practice your swing and head to the 22nd annual National Retired Military Golf Classic, held in Myrtle Beach, S.C., May 31–June 4. The tournament will be played on five courses at Myrtle Beach National and Wild Wing golf clubs.

The event includes 864 men and 132 women and offers $125,000 in prizes and cash. As of Feb. 1, acceptance has been on a first-come, first-served basis. A waiting list will be established once the tournament is full. Applications can be found at most military golf courses, or write to National Retired Military Golf Classic, P.O. Box 3608, Myrtle Beach, SC 29578.

Scholarship Spotlight

Michael DeMarco, now a first lieutenant in the Army, had completed his initial tour at Fort Benning, Ga., and was slated for another assignment in the United States. But when he realized that many of his friends from ROTC had been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, he requested a transfer. Now, Michael is serving with the 10th Mountain Division in Iraq.

“He volunteered for this,” says his father, Col. Richard DeMarco, USA-Ret. “He could have gone to Fort Erwin or Fort Polk, but he went over to Iraq with the right mindset, absolutely upbeat and prepared for anything that happens.”

Michael, a platoon leader, delivers water pumps, hands out MREs, and performs 36-hour security patrols. “Michael has a way with people,” Richard said. “He gets along with people, tries to follow their customs.” Michael also helps his fellow soldiers, repeatedly giving his phone cards, toiletries, and other gifts from home to those lacking such items.

Michael was commissioned and graduated from Tulane University, La., in 2002 with a dual degree in political science and history. Both Michael and his sister, Carol, received MOAA scholarships.
“Every little piece helps,” says Richard.

Michael was wounded Jan. 2 when an improvised explosive device went off near his humvee. He received shrapnel in his face but will make a complete recovery and return to duty. “The man’s tough and he’s OK,” says Richard.