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"Vietnam Veterans Organization
Accomplishments"
Tom Berger |
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Vietnam Veterans of America, the nation's
largest and most successful Vietnam veterans
organization, and the only Vietnam veterans
organization chartered by Congress, is proud of
what it has accomplished over the last twenty
years. Those accomplishments are many and
varied. They include:
* Rebuilding the camaraderie of Vietnam-era
veterans and providing a sense of self-worth and
pride in service.
* Holding biennial National Leadership
Conferences and National Conventions, which
provide a forum for veterans and their families
to interact with community leaders and their
counterparts from across the country.
* Creating and maintaining our Vietnam Veterans
Assistance Fund (VVAF), a philanthropic effort
that provides financial assistance to VVA, its
state councils, and its chapters.
* Taking the lead in working with homeless
veterans, including sponsorships of national and
local symposiums and stand-downs. Among many
other milestones in this area, VVA worked with
congressman Lane Evans to hold the first-ever
hearing on homeless veterans in the House of
Veterans Affairs committee in September of 1986.
* Developing a unique program as a national
advocate for Vietnam veterans who were
subsequently incarcerated, helping them gain
access to VA benefits and services to which they
are entitled.
* Leading the fight for full accounting of
POW/MIAs for twenty years. We hold as a profound
trust and obligation the responsibility to
account for those American service members who
remain unrepatriated, missing, or otherwise
unaccounted for as a result of their service to
our country during the Vietnam War.
* Initiating the successful Veterans Initiative
program, a veteran-to-veteran effort that, since
1991, has promoted the direct exchange of
information on unaccounted-for American
servicemen and Vietnamese war casualties between
American and Vietnamese veterans. The Veterans
Initiative has produced measurable results
towards full accounting on both sides.
* Taking the lead on women veterans' issues,
including ensuring recognition of service access
to benefits and appropriate medical treatment of
women veterans in VA facilities.
* With "never again will one generation of
veterans abandon another" as its founding
principle, VVA has reached out to veterans of
other conflicts, including providing office
space and significant tangible support to the
National Gulf War Resource Center.
* Single-handedly leading the fight for judicial
review of disabled veterans' claims for
benefits. The result: In 1988, Congress passed a
law creating the U.S. Court of Veterans appeals.
This allowed veterans to appeal VA benefits
denials to a court and required VA to obey the
rule of law.
* Spearheading a long and successful lobbying
effort to establish and maintain the Vet Center
program.
* Providing unwavering advocacy for
congressional passage of laws supporting
increased job training and job-placement
assistance for unemployed and underemployed
Vietnam-era veterans.
* Taking the lead on minority veterans' issues,
including early and staunch support for the
creation of the Center of Minority Veterans and
the Advisory Committee on Minority Veterans
Affairs.
* VVA has been the major force on the issue of
Agent Orange for the past two decades. Our
Nehmer v. Veterans Administration lawsuit, filed
in 1986, forced the VA to begin compensating
veterans with diseases linked to Agent Orange.
VVA convinced Congress to pass the Agent Orange
Act of 1991, which required the National Academy
of Sciences to report on what diseases were
related to Agent Orange. As a result, VA now
pays compensation for nine such diseases.
* Being responsible for a 1996 law that, for the
first time in our nation's history, provides
medical care and compensation to the children of
veterans whose parents suffer genetic damage
from their military service-in this case Vietnam
veterans' children with the birth defect spina
bifida, which has been linked to their parents'
exposure to Agent Orange.
* Running the Veterans Benefits Program, which
provides education to veterans about government
benefits to which they are entitled and trains
individuals to represent veterans in their
claims to secure benefits from the U.S.
Department of Veterans Appeals.
* Consistently winning a higher percentage of
cases at the VA's Board of Veteran's Appeals
than any other veterans organization. VVA also
has increased the number of cases they handle at
the BVA, to an all-time high in FY 1998. Bob
Bambury of the South Florida Veterans
Multi-Purpose Center is a veterans service
officer for Vietnam Veterans of America |
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