MILITARY UPDATE
Initiatives help those hurt in war
By Tom Philpott
Service members and veterans severely injured in Iraq and Afghanistan have inspired two initiatives to help them and their families through difficult times.
The first is a call center, with its title and phone number hard to memorize but worth the effort: the Military Severely Injured Joint Support Operations Center, with "care managers" standing by at (888) 774-1361.
A second initiative is traumatic-injury insurance for the military. By Dec. 1, it will provide $25,000 to $100,000 in financial help to service members or veterans injured severely. The payments will be retroactive to Oct. 7, 2001 to cover members severely wounded in Afghanistan or Iraq.
Here are more details:
SEVERELY INJURED CENTER — It serves as a backstop to every other government program intended to help military members and veterans who suffer severe physical or mental wounds from war. If a severely injured veteran has hit a roadblock with finances, education, job assistance, counseling or childcare, he or she should call the center. The goal is to prevent them from falling through the cracks of more well-publicized programs from the services, the Department of Veterans Affairs or any other federal agency.
Paul Wolfowitz, who stepped down as deputy defense secretary on Wednesday, established the center last December based on his own field experience. He frequented Fran O'Brien's Stadium Steakhouse Friday evenings in Washington, D.C., where service members wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, and recovering at nearby military medical centers, can enjoy free dinners.
There Wolfowitz would hand out his business card and invite the severely disabled to get in touch if they had problems. By October last year, he had gotten so many calls he became concerned.
Though some services by then had their own programs to help severely wounded members — DS3 for the Army, M4L (Marine for Life) for Marines and Palace HART for the Air Force — Wolfowitz decided the Defense Department must do more. He agreed to a new call center to back up service efforts, with registered nurses and social workers on the phones.
When contacted by injured service members or veterans, the center coordinates support with services or the VA. But rather than pass the case on, it will address the problem and follow up at regular intervals. Over time, the center hopes to contact every severely wounded veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan to ensure they get the care and support they need.
TRAUMATIC-INJURY INSURANCE — Severely injured military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan also will get cash payments of $25,000 to $100,000 under a rider to Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance (SGLI) approved as part of the Emergency Supplemental Wartime Appropriations Act signed May 11.
The law directs the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs to establish the traumatic-injury rider by Dec. 1, and to make payments retroactive to Oct. 7, 2001, the start of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
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