Veterans Affairs

The Baltimore Sun's coverage of Charles Whittington's suspension from the Community College of Baltimore County ( "Campus Bars Veteran over Combat Controversy," Nov. 22) is a painful example of our failure as a community to serve those who have served our country. Eloquently, painfully and without hesitation, Mr. Wittington wrote of his feelings as a combat veteran in his college essay. He reminded the readers that he was lawfully trained to kill. He reminded them that he didn't leave that training behind in Iraq and that he did not receive training to handle the "stress and addictions" of war. In short, he spoke the truth — about war and about his experience as a soldier and a veteran.

The VA Maryland Health Care System will open an annex next spring in the former world headquarters of Catholic Relief Services in Baltimore to help keep up with an increase in its patient population, fueled largely by a new generation of veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Health system officials said the eight-level building on West Fayette Street in downtown Baltimore will be renovated starting later this summer or early fall and will contain a mix of outpatient services for veterans and administrative offices for the health system.

Lt. Col. Juanita L. Warman arrived at Fort Hood less than 24 hours before a gunman opened fire. In the hours that followed, relatives tried to assure Warman's mother, Eva Waddle, that she was likely safe. "I said, 'Mom, it's fine,' " said Warman's sister, Tammy Harper of Pittsburgh. "'There's 51,000 people there [at the base]. There's no way.' " When the phone rang shortly after 10 that night, Harper figured it was her mother calling to say she'd finally gotten word from Warman.

Among the 13 people killed in the shooting rampage at Fort Hood was an Army Reserve officer who had worked in a Maryland National Guard program helping soldiers returning from war adjust to life back home. Lt. Col. Juanita L. Warman, who was 55 and lived in Havre de Grace, had been volunteering with the Maryland National Guard's reintegration program since last year and also worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Baltimore, said Lt. Col. Charles Kohler, a spokesman for the National Guard.

John W. Sloan, a retired partner in a Baltimore law firm who had also been active in veterans affairs for nearly 50 years, died Sunday of cancer at his home in the Winthrop House condominiums on North Charles Street. He was 84. Mr. Sloan, the son of a lawyer and homemaker, was born and raised in Cumberland. The day after graduating from Allegany High School in 1943, he enlisted in the Marine Corps. He served with Air Warning Squadron No. 1 in the Pacific and participated in the Enewetok Atoll, Marshall Island, Okinawa, Le Shima and Toro Shima campaigns.

Wade D. Ward, who practiced law in Crisfield for more than 50 years and was active in numerous civic, Masonic and veterans organizations, died Monday of cardiovascular disease at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury. He was 85. Mr. Ward, the son of a State Roads Commission worker and a homemaker, was born and raised in Crisfield. After graduating from Crisfield High School in 1941, he was inducted into the Army. He served in Europe and the Pacific with an artillery unit. At the end of World War II, he enrolled at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1950.

Keith Church left the Navy in 1974 after a two-year stint, worked for years as a maintenance mechanic and never considered asking for veterans benefits. But in December, Church, 54, was jobless, coping with health problems and on the brink of homelessness - "couch surfing" with friends, he says - when he turned to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for help. Within a few months, he moved into an apartment, thanks to a VA program that started in Maryland this year to help homeless veterans.

Maryland veterans who have been forced to travel long distances and wait for care at heavily used Veterans Affairs medical facilities in the state are going to get some relief. The department is planning two new outpatient clinics here - one at Fort Meade and another in northern Montgomery County. The Montgomery clinic will serve more than 4,000 veterans, while the Fort Meade facility will assist 2,500 who otherwise might have to travel to Baltimore, Perry Point or Washington for primary care, mental health services and other medical specialties.

Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown has been appointed co-chairman of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team overseeing veterans policy, officials said yesterday. At the Agency Review Team for the Department of Veterans Affairs, Brown - an Iraq war veteran and 24-year member of the Army Reserves - will help formulate the incoming administration's policy goals regarding veterans. Brown will be working with Maryland Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez, who is part of a team reviewing personnel and policies at the departments of Justice, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, and Housing and Urban Development.

At 0800 hours yesterday, the lobby of the Veterans Affairs Baltimore Medical Center was filled with dozens of soldiers recently back from Iraq, dressed in their combat fatigues and reporting for yet another one of their duties - to be sure they are holding up both physically and mentally from what they went through in the war zone. About 100 Maryland National Guard troops who returned from missions in Iraq in February and March had time to sit down with medical professionals - doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants - to discuss any enduring aches and pains, any war-related stress they might have.