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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States is offering up to $5,000 in emergency assistance grants to each of the nearly three dozen student veterans who once attended Westech College, a now defunct for-profit vocational school in southern California.  “The affected student veterans were receiving a monthly stipend to go to school, but with Westech’s sudden closure, they are now left without a school and without an income, yet the bills keep coming,” said VFW National Commander Brian Duffy. “These student veterans are in a financial crisis through no fault of their own, which is exactly why the VFW Unmet Needs program was created — to help veterans and military families through temporary emergency situations.” Since its inception in 2004, the VFW Unmet Needs program has distributed $6.75 million in emergency grants to more than 4,300 families, to include nine student veterans when ITT Tech suddenly shut down last summer. The program is funded by the generous donations of patrons and 62 Burger King franchise owners in 36 states.  “The VFW is working with Congress to restore their lost GI Bill benefits, but the needs of these student veterans are too immediate to wait for Congress to act,” said Duffy. “I encourage them to contact VFW Director of Programs Lynn Rolf at 1-800-VFW-1899, or to logon to VFW’s Unmet Needs program to learn more and to apply.”
A heart irregularity denied Gene Shannon entry into the U.S. Marine Corps following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. But a few months later, a Navy doctor signed off on Shannon entering the Navy. Shannon was eventually assigned to the Torpedo Squadron 81 as the senior radioman. Every torpedo squadron eventually would be awarded the Navy Cross. After his service in the Pacific, which included heavy combat, Shannon eventually returned home, raised a family and became a private pilot. He started and operated several small businesses along the way. But one thing was lacking in Shannon’s life: the medals he’d earned during his military service. But when U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen was able to obtain the medals, Gene’s son Paul wanted to find a venue at which to present the medals to his dad. That’s when Greeley-Parmenter-Harrington Post 27 in Londonberry, N.H., stepped up. Post Commander Bob Stuart said Paul came to the post looking for a venue for his dad to be presented the medals. “Of course I said ‘yes,’” Stuart said. "That’s what the Legion is all about. You want to honor our warriors.” Getting the post ready for what was anticipated to be a large crowd required a team effort. Stuart said members of the post’s Sons of The American Legion squadron volunteered to help rearrange the post’s accommodations for the ceremony. Stuart got delayed the day of the set-up and called the post to tell the SAL members he was running late. He was told “'They’re done. They wanted to take care of it for you,’” Stuart said. “I was like ‘Oh wow.’” Leadership from the Portsmouth (N.H.) Naval Shipyard eventually was contacted and agreed to help present the medals. New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner, a longtime friend of Gene’s, also agreed to attend the ceremony. In front of a packed Post 27, Shannon was presented his medals. “It’s kind of humbling,” Shannon told WMUR Channel 9. “You don’t feel like you’re doing anything extraordinary at the time. It’s what you train for. You just hope for the best.” Paul said his father never really talked about his military service. “As someone who enjoys history and has read quite a bit on the Pacific campaign, it was gratifying to me to see the enthusiastic and heartfelt response from the Navy and local veterans in honoring dad,” he said. “All of the men of his generation served with courage and dedication to our country.” Paul praised the Legion for providing an ideal setting to honor his father. “American Legion Post 27, and Bob Stuart in particular, were instrumental in organizing a most appropriate and memorable evening for dad,” Paul said. “My wife said it best when she commented she had never seen a bigger smile on (Gene’s) face.”
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Department of Veterans Affairs unveiled a new website Wednesday aimed at providing information on the quality of care at VA medical centers, touting new accountability even as it grappled with fresh questions of patient safety in its beleaguered health system. The VA website, www.accesstocare.va.gov, is a work in progress. It provides preliminary data on the VA's 1,700 health facilities, along with more than a dozen private-sector hospitals and national averages. Three years after a wait-time scandal at the Phoenix VA medical center, the website offers comparative data on wait times as well as veterans' satisfaction ratings in getting timely appointments. It comes at a time of change at the VA, after President Donald Trump promised during his 2016 campaign to give veterans more choices between VA and private-sector hospitals to receive the best care possible. On Wednesday, fresh problems at the government's second largest agency emerged after the VA inspector general's office released a report finding patient safety issues at the VA medical center in Washington D.C. The urgent, preliminary report by inspector general Michael Missal pointed to poor inventory practices that put patients at risk, from dirty storage areas for syringes to lack of checks to remove medical equipment and supplies that had been subject to safety recalls. The findings prompted the VA to announce by Wednesday afternoon that it had relieved the facility's director in Washington D.C., Brian Hawkins, of his duties. Poonam Alaigh, the VA's acting undersecretary for health, told The Associated Press that she had decided to reassign Hawkins to VA headquarters after reviewing the IG's report and indicated he could be subject to disciplinary action pending a fuller investigation. In the meantime, VA senior adviser Lawrence Connell has been named acting director for the Washington D.C. medical center. Alaigh said the VA was adopting immediate fixes and that she would order a broader review of the VA health system for similar patient safety issues. "When it's about patient safety, it warrants immediate action," Alaigh said. "There should not be a situation where a veteran can be harmed." As to its new website, the VA said it had gotten more than 700,000 hits by Wednesday afternoon, the first day of its rollout. Intended to spur competition for improvement among its medical facilities as veterans assess how their local hospital is doing, the site also will allow veterans to compare VA quality of care rankings with private-sector hospitals. As of Wednesday, data for just over a dozen or so private hospitals was accessible. The data is drawn from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The VA said it hoped to have a fuller rollout of data by May 1 and will update data monthly once the site is fully operational. The website was generally welcomed as a good first step, although some veterans groups wondered how meaningful the information will be. The Government Accountability Office has long questioned how accurate the VA's wait time data is, noting that it does not include the amount of wait time from when a veteran initially asks for care and when a scheduler reaches out to set an appointment, which it said could be lengthy. In addition, GAO continues to find evidence that VA data can be unreliable due to schedulers recording wrong dates or changing dates outright, though the VA says it is implementing new checks and training to help identify "outliers" in scheduling. Dawn Jirak, a deputy director at Veterans of Foreign Wars, said her organization is worried that "this is just yet another website that VA has come up with" but said she looked forward to improvements the VA says it will make to the site. "The way VA is depicting its wait times for appointments is skewed from how the typical person would look at it," she said.   BY HOPE YENASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States is applauding Congress for passing legislation last week that extends and improves the Veterans Choice Program. The bill now heads to the White House for the president’s signature. The Choice Program was created by the VFW-supported Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014, in response to the nationwide access to care crisis that embroiled the Department of Veterans Affairs. It provided the VA an additional $10 billion in emergency funding to expand veterans’ access to care in the community. The legislation came with a three-year sunset clause, however, which meant the VA had to either use or lose the funds by this August.  With about $1 billion estimated to remain unobligated, the VFW is pleased the money will continue to help wounded, ill and injured veterans receive the quality care they earned and deserve. The legislation passed this week also addresses two issues that the VFW had identified and had asked Congress to fix. The first issue is to eliminate the confusing secondary payer requirement, clarifying that VA is the payer of care, not veterans. The second issue the legislation addresses will make it easier for VA to share medical documentation with Choice providers, so veterans don’t have to face unnecessary delays when scheduling Choice Program appointments.  “While this bill is an important step, Congress still has a long way to go,” said VFW National Commander Brian Duffy. “Congress must still act on a permanent replacement for the Choice Program, one that consolidates VA’s community care authorities, as well as integrates the best aspects of the VA system with available health care capabilities in the community, both public and private. Congress must also act on legislation to improve VA’s ability to construct and lease facilities; hire, retain and discipline employees; and improve its health processes and systems to ensure veterans have timely access to high quality care,” he explained. “The VFW fully expects this Congress to properly resource the VA while diligently exercising its oversight responsibility,” said Duffy. “Proper leadership, management and accountability is what the VFW demands from the VA — and from Congress, too.”
Veterans, servicemembers and military spouses in can find new jobs at these career events this week: April 12: Chicago Hiring Expo with the Chicago Bulls, 9:30-10:50 a.m., employment workshop; 11 a.m.-2 p.m., hiring fair. United Center, 1901 W. Madison St., Chicago. All registered veterans and military spouses are eligible to receive up to two free tickets to attend that evening's game between the Bulls and the Brooklyn Nets. April 13: Farmingdale Hiring Fair, 8:30 a.m., employment workshop; 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., hiring fair. Farmingdale Armed Forces Reserve Center, 25 Baiting Place Road, Farmingdale, N.Y. April 13: Veterans Job Fair 2017, 8:30 a.m., workshops; 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m., career fair. BB&T Bank Center, One Harbor Blvd., Camden, N.J. April 13: Patrick Air Force Base Military Spouse Career Event, 9-10 a.m., job seeker workshop; 10 a.m.-1 p.m., hiring fair. The Tides Club, 1001 North Highway, A1A S Atlantic Ave Patrick Air Force Base, Fla. Follow the links for full details and keep tabs on upcoming career fairs at www.legion.org/careers/jobfairs.
American Legion National Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation Division Deputy Director Zachary Hearn testified before the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs on April 5 in regards to seven proposed laws that impact veterans. The laws range from financial fraud protection to increased transparency for disability claims processing and adjudication. “The simple fact is (that) serving in our nation’s armed forces is inherently dangerous,” Hearn said in his opening remarks. “Medical conditions may manifest due to service, and we, as a society, have an obligation to compensate for medical conditions related to this service. Many of these veterans depend upon these benefits and for this reason, it is imperative that we ensure these deserving veterans and their family members receive the highest level of consideration.” When it comes to having an obligation to compensate, H.R. 105, the Protect Veterans from Financial Fraud Act of 2017, is designed to ensure that the VA secretary is able to repay veterans who have been swindled by fiduciaries, as well as establish an appeals process for determinations by the VA secretary of veterans’ mental capacity and for other purposes. Hearn said VA’s Fiduciary Program is designed to protect the most vulnerable beneficiaries who are deemed unable to manage their financial affairs. Over 50 percent of these beneficiaries are 80 years old or older, and in most cases, are unable to recover their lost benefits because not all fiduciaries act in their best interest, he said. The Legion supports the passage of H.R. 105, according to Hearn, as all veterans injured by VA fiduciaries should be able to collect on lost funds due to a betrayal of trust. “Veterans who have been impacted by poor acting fiduciaries do not have the ability to recoup their lost funds from VA unless the fiduciary represents 10 or greater beneficiaries,” said Hearn. “(H.R. 105) would now permit VA to provide the lost funds to the veteran regardless of the amount of beneficiaries represented by a fiduciary.” As for H.R. 299, the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2017, Hearn said it corrects a wrong that has plagued the Blue Water veterans community, which includes over 800,000 people who served on open sea ships during the Vietnam War between 1962 and 1975. “(For years,) Blue Water Navy veterans have pointed to a 2002 Australian study that found the distilling of seawater not only failed to eliminate the toxic chemicals, but it (also) enhanced its impact,” Hearn said. In May 2011, the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine (IOM) released its report, “Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans and Agent Orange Exposure,” after the VA requested a review of medical and scientific evidence on the veterans’ exposure to herbicides like Agent Orange, a blend of tactical herbicides the U.S. military sprayed to remove trees and dense tropical foliage that provided cover for enemies during Operation Ranch Hand in the Vietnam War. The report from IOM concluded that there was not enough evidence to support the Blue Water Navy veterans’ presumptive exposure to such herbicides. “In short, VA cannot prove Blue Water Navy veterans were exposed to Agent Orange and it appears they never will,” Hearn said. “The American Legion has long believed that these veterans of the Blue Water Navy deserve to be treated as presumptively exposed and supports (H.R. 299).” H.R. 1328, the American Heroes Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Act of 2017, would seek to provide an automatic annual cost-of-living adjustment for veterans disability benefits. While this bill would prove efficient in the administration of COLA, Hearn said it could come at a significant cost to the nation’s veterans as it uses the Chained Consumer Price Index, or chained CPI, as its foundation. Hearn said the current COLA formula already understates the true cost-of-living increases faced by seniors and people with disabilities. “A 30-year-old veteran with no children and 100 percent disabled would likely lose about $100,000 in disability compensation by the time the veteran (reaches) 75 years of age. This is the equivalent of years of benefits lost due to (H.R. 1328),” Hearn said. Although the Legion understands and appreciates the efforts to remove affected veterans from the political debate in determining appropriate annual adjustments for disability benefits, Hearn said the Legion opposes any legislative efforts to automatically index such cost-of-living adjustments to the cost-of-living adjustment authorized for Social Security recipients, non-service connected disability recipients and death pension beneficiaries, as noted in American Legion Resolution No. 187. Unlike H.R. 1328, Hearn said the Legion supports legislation to provide a periodic cost-of-living adjustment increase and to increase the monthly rates of disability compensation. H.R. 1329, the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2017, would provide a COLA for VA disability and other monetary benefits effective this year on Dec. 1. “For nearly 100 years, The American Legion has advocated on behalf of our nation’s veterans, to include the awarding of disability benefits associated with chronic medical conditions that manifest related to selfless service to this nation,” Hearn said. “COLA is not simply an acronym or a minor adjustment in benefits. Instead, it is a tangible benefit that meets the needs of the increasing costs of living in a nation that they bravely defended.” H.R. 1390 authorizes the VA to pay costs associated with transporting deceased veterans to state or tribal-owned veterans cemeteries. VA currently pays transportation costs for national cemeteries – Hearn said the Legion supports this bill as it would expand options for veterans’ families. H.R. 1564, the VA Beneficiary Travel Act of 2017, specifies a funding source for travel related to examinations by medical professionals, not employed by VA, for compensation and pension examinations. This Legion-supported bill properly designates where VA draws funds for veterans to receive payment for travel to compensation and pension exams and does not impose additional funding requirements. In terms of disability compensation claims, the Legion has reviewed tens of thousands of claims in regional offices around the country for the last 20 years through its Regional Office Action Review program. Hearn said the Legion has even testified to Congress that VA schedules unnecessary and duplicative examinations, despite already having the evidence necessary to grant such claims. “This second exam comes at a cost to VA and delays an adjudication,” Hearn said. “Despite enduring medical examinations for Social Security purposes and having the benefit granted by the agency, VA would conduct their own examinations to determine the veteran’s employability. Some in the veteran community refer to this needless development of disability claims as ‘developing to deny.’” While it’s unfortunate that a bill has to be passed to force VA to do what it already has the authority to do, Hearn said H.R. 1725, the Quicker Benefits Delivery Act of 2017, would compel VA to release data that establishes acceptable clinical evidence and increase transparency for claims development and adjudication. “The American Legion believes that the treatment of the evidence received from private medical providers will receive higher consideration,” he said. “This will expedite adjudications and increase claims processing transparency.”   By Johnathon Clinkscales
HONOLULU (AP) -- Military and Veterans Affairs officials are digging up the remains of dozens of unidentified Marines and sailors killed on a remote atoll in the Pacific during one of World War II's bloodiest battles. The 94 servicemen were killed in the Battle of Tarawa in 1943 and buried as unknowns at a national cemetery in Honolulu after the war. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency spokeswoman Maj. Natasha Waggoner says advances in DNA technology have increased the probability of identifying the unknowns. National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific spokesman Gene Maestas says the disinterments began in October. The cemetery expects to transfer the last eight servicemen to the military next Monday. More than 990 U.S. Marines and 30 U.S. sailors were killed in the three-day battle. About 550 are still unidentified. BY AUDREY MCAVOYASSOCIATED PRESS
Newswise — ROLLA, Mo. – It was the “War to End All Wars,” and America’s entrance into the conflict on April 6, 1917, dramatically shifted World War I in favor of the Allies. “The U.S. had a major impact on the outcome of World War I,” says military historian Dr. John C. McManus, the author of 12 books on war and military history. Advances by both the Allies, led by France and Britain, and the opposing Central Powers, led by Germany, essentially stalled along the Western Front between 1915-1917. The reasons for this stalemate were many, including the horrors of trench warfare. Soldiers on both sides were holed up in trenches to avoid the persistent spray of machine gun bullets and shrapnel from artillery shells. Whenever an offensive attack was made, infantry soldiers were met with barbed wire, the hail of bullets, artillery explosions and, eventually, poison gas. “American soldiers entered combat in large numbers at just the time when German offensive power was beginning to wane,” says McManus, Curators’ Distinguished Professor of history and political science at Missouri University of Science and Technology. “France and Britain were also nearing exhaustion.” Soldiers were demoralized and sick, dealing with ailments like trench fever, which caused them to suffer from high fever, headaches, aching muscles and sores on the skin. When the first 14,000 U.S. troops arrived in France on June 26, 1917, more than two months after America joined the Allies, it provided a major boost to not only firepower, but also morale, McManus says. By the summer of 1918, and after the Selective Service Act had drafted 2.8 million men into service, the U.S. was sending some 10,000 fresh soldiers to France every day. But the U.S. was providing the Allies with more than fresh, healthy soldiers. “The U.S. government's Food Administration, headed up by future presidentHerbert Hoover, infused the Allied world with vital shipments of all major foodstuffs at a time when the Allied populations greatly needed it,” says McManus. “By contrast, the German public was beginning to deal with malnutrition and this was a major factor in the political instability that led to the collapse of the German government and the end of the war.” When Germany agreed to an armistice on Nov. 11, 1918, it marked an end to the war and victory for the Allies. But the cost of victory was steep. Approximately six million Allied soldiers, including 50,000 Americans, and 3.5 million civilians from Allied countries died in the conflict. “There are some enduring lessons as well, especially in relation to working with allies, dealing with firepower, brokering international disputes and preparing soldiers properly for combat,” says McManus. McManus is an internationally recognized expert in U.S. military history. He joined the Missouri S&T faculty in 2000. In 2014, he was named Curators’ Distinguished Professor. He was the first Missouri S&T faculty member in a humanities or social sciences field to be named Curators’ Distinguished Professor. McManus earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of Tennessee in 1996. He earned a master of arts degree in history in 1991 and a bachelor of journalism degree in 1987, both from the University of Missouri-Columbia. A member of the editorial advisory board at World War II magazine and Global War Studies, McManus is the historical advisor for a PBS documentary titled “The American Road to Victory.” He recently received a National Endowment for Humanities Public Scholar Grant Fellowship to help fund research for his next major project, a two volume history of the U.S. Army in the Pacific/Asia theater during World War II. McManus received the 2012 Missouri Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and was named the 2012 Research Fellow by the First Division Museum at Cantigny Park. In 2007, he was named to History News Network’s list of Top Young Historians and in 2008 he received the Missouri Conference on History Book Award for “Alamo in the Ardennes: The Untold Story of the American Soldiers Who Made the Defense of Bastogne Possible.”
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate on Monday approved legislation that would extend a troubled program aimed at widening veterans' access to private-sector health care, the first step in an overhaul of programs at the Department of Veterans Affairs. The bill passed by voice vote. It would allow the VA to continue operating its Choice program until its money runs out, expected to occur early next year. Without legislation, the program will expire on Aug. 7 with nearly $1 billion left over in its account. The VA says that money can provide stopgap care until a broader revamp is designed. The Choice program was put in place after a 2014 wait-time scandal at the Phoenix VA medical center in which some veterans died. Intended to provide veterans more timely care, the Choice program allows veterans to go outside the VA network in cases where they had to wait more than 30 days for an appointment or drive more than 40 miles to a facility. Yet it often encountered long wait times of its own due to bureaucratic glitches and other problems. The Senate bill calls for fixes in the program to address some of those concerns, by helping speed up VA payments and promote greater sharing of medical records. It now goes to the House, which was expected to easily pass the measure Wednesday. "This bipartisan legislation cuts some of the red tape that slows down veterans' access to care in their communities," said Montana Sen. Jon Tester, the top Democrat on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee. "I'm proud that Republicans and Democrats in Congress worked together to provide these solutions for veterans." Tester sponsored the bill along with Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Johnny Isakson of Georgia. Major veterans' organizations and Democrats were not opposed to continuing the Choice program as a stopgap. But they are closely watching the VA's subsequent overhaul, after President Donald Trump's transition team signaled last year that it would consider a "public-private" option in which veterans could get all their medical care in the private sector, with the government paying the bill. Veterans groups generally oppose that as a threat to the viability of VA medical centers. While VA Secretary David Shulkin has promised not to privatize the department, he says he wants to build stronger partnerships with the private sector to improve VA care. A newly formed White House Office of American Innovation led by Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is also now examining ways to improve the VA. --- BY HOPE YENASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Grilled by lawmakers, the Department of Veterans Affairs insisted Tuesday it was well on its way to fixing problems with its suicide hotline and largely brushed aside the worst criticisms in an internal watchdog report released two weeks ago. A March 20 audit by the VA inspector general had found that nearly a third of calls to the Veterans Crisis Line as recently as November were bounced to backup centers run by an outside contractor, as well as other problems including weak leadership and inadequate data to measure the quality of calls. The rollover calls happen when phone lines are busy, leading to possible waits of 30 minutes or more. It was an early test for new VA Secretary David Shulkin, who has made suicide prevention a signature issue at the troubled agency, riven with scandal in recent years since reports of delays in treatment at veterans' hospitals. Approximately 20 veterans take their lives each day. Testifying before a House panel, Steve Young, VA's deputy undersecretary for health for operations and management, pointed to a dramatic turnaround in calls answered by the hotline since November. He said it was now a "rare instance" that calls are bumped to a backup center and that calls are answered by live counselors within 8 seconds, on average. The crisis hotline "is the strongest it has been since its inception in 2007," Young told the House Veterans Affairs Committee. But pressed by lawmakers, the VA acknowledged it was still working to make other improvements it had promised to do by last September. It pledged to beef up quality control and hire a new permanent director as soon as possible. "Fulfilling the IG's recommendations is a key step in raising the bar," Young said. Shulkin, who previously served as VA's top health official, has previously described the issue as resolved. "Fixing the Veterans Crisis Line was a critical step in keeping our commitment to veterans," he said in a March 21 statement. Lawmakers were unconvinced. Minnesota Rep. Tim Walz, the top Democrat on the House panel, pointed to "re-occuring issues we see time and time again at VA." For more than a year, the crisis hotline has operated without a permanent director and has yet to issue a policy handbook. "I would be very careful in saying you fixed the problems," Walz warned. Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., a physician who chairs the House committee, questioned whether the VA intended to fully implement reforms after repeated promises. "There is very clearly a need for more to be done - and soon - so that we can be assured that every veteran or family member who contacts the VCL gets the urgent help he or she needs every single time." According to internal VA data, calls to the Veterans Crisis Line that rolled over to backup centers steadily declined from 31 percent in early November, to just 0.1 percent as of March 25. That came despite growing workloads in which weekly calls to the hotline jumped from 10,558 in November to 13,966 last month, the VA said. As recently as mid-December, when the IG was finalizing its audit, the share of rollover calls had declined close to the VA's goal of 10 percent. That figure dropped to less than 1 percent by early January, according to the VA. VA inspector general Michael Missal said he cannot confirm the most recent VA data, and stressed that it was vital that the Veterans Health Administration follow through on proposed reforms dating back to February 2016. "Until VHA implements fully these recommendations, they will continue to have challenges," Missal said. Launched in 2007, the crisis hotline has answered nearly 2.8 million calls and dispatched emergency services more than 74,000 times. Featured in a documentary that won an Oscar in 2015, it later received negative attention after its former director reported frequent rollovers due to poor work habits. Last year, Congress passed a law requiring that all calls and messages to the hotline be answered in a timely manner. The most recent problems appear to stem from the VA's opening of a second call center last October. Spurred by veterans' complaints, the IG said the department launched a follow-up review to its February 2016 audit. Instead, it found many rollover calls, due in part to the VA's decision to divert some staff from its upstate New York call center to help train new workers in Atlanta. The IG suggested the Atlanta center was slow in becoming operational, but the VA says that rollover calls in fact began to fall significantly as workers became trained. The Veterans of Foreign Wars organization said it worried the VA sometimes focuses too much on metrics - the number of calls received and handled. "The VFW believes that while the number of calls going to backup centers decreasing at such a rapid rate is a positive, it is not a sign of the quality of work being provided," said Kayda Keleher, VFW's legislative associate. --- BY HOPE YENASSOCIATED PRESS