From MSNBC:

The U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) is proposing a major initiative to expand federal funding for sports rehabilitation programs for veterans with disabilities, and is hoping to add athletes to the U.S. Paralympic team in the process.

But some critics worry that siphoning funds away from the Department of Veteran’s Affairs for sports programming could deplete already scarce resources for core rehabilitation programs needed by veterans.

At heart, this is a turf war, sparked by the USOC’s pursuit of government funding. But it has triggered a broader debate about how to best allocate limited resources to treat and reintegrate returning veterans facing an array of obstacles, ranging from depression to paralysis.

Swimmer and veteran Melissa Stockwell (above), who is competing on the U.S team in three Paralympic events this week, started swimming after losing part of her leg in a roadside bomb blast in Baghdad.

With video. Star Tribune/MSNBC photo.

See also:

Paralympics: Fighting for USA — Again — Minneapolis Star Tribune

From AP/USA Today, Chicago Tribune, youtube.com:

Tammy Duckworth, an Army helicopter pilot who lost both legs and injured an arm in Iraq, walked onstage on prosthetic legs at the Democratic convention to castigate Republican John McCain for backing an administration that has “let our warriors down.”

“Our troops are courageous, strong, fierce. This administration has redeployed them until they are overstretched, stressed and strained,” said Duckworth, now director of the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs.

Duckworth is among those rumored as a possible appointee to Obama’s Senate seat if he becomes president.

By David Zucchino in the Los Angeles Times:

Marine Corporal Garrett Jones is back on combat duty in Afghanistan, a little more than a year after a roadside bomb cost him his left leg in Iraq. He uses a prosthetic leg. Friends say he demanded to be sent back to combat.

An excerpt:

In previous wars, Jones would have received a medical discharge and returned to civilian life. But in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, the Pentagon has made it possible for some amputees to return to duty — and for a few to deploy overseas again. Advances in medical care and high-tech prostheses have enabled amputees to function far better.

Military spokesmen said that 62 soldiers, airmen or sailors have lost limbs in combat and returned to active duty. It is estimated that more than a dozen amputees have returned to duty in Iraq or Afghanistan.

By Mary Lynne Kelley in the Detroit Free Press:

I fear that McCain is too afraid to appear weak by acknowledging his disability and, as such, is poised to let down those Americans who face their own every day with bravery and dignity.

… A strange dichotomy exists that allows us to view John McCain as heroic for the injuries he sustained as a POW but weak for the resulting disability. Perhaps he is trying to conceal it out of concern for his electability.

… John McCain does not offer a disability policy. A search of the McCain Web site, JohnMcCain.com reveals no disability issue section. McCain’s health care proposals, Straight Talk on Health System Reform, make no mention of the word disabled or disability.

(Detroit Free Press photo)

From the New York Daily News:

The Disabled American Veterans rescinded an invitation for Vice President Dick Cheney to speak to wounded veterans at a convention in Las Vegas next month, saying that Cheney’s office had imposed unreasonable security demands. Many of the group’s 1.4 million members face significant health problems. Without reasonable access to restrooms, officials said wounded veterans would be unable to sit in place for up to four hours, including two hours before the speech, as Cheney’s office had specified.

“It was a huge imposition on our delegates,” DAV official David Autry told the newspaper. To make an 8:30 a.m. speech, he added, the vets would have to get up “at oh-dark-30 and try to get breakfast and showered and get their prosthetics on.”

Cheney’s office denied the report. A spokesperson said the two-hour rule was “a recommendation, not a requirement.”

In a blog in the Los Angeles Times, organizers were skeptical of Cheney’s denial. They said similar security rules were applied during a Cheney visit in 2004.

From USA Today:

The federal government is spending more money on veterans than at any time in modern history, surpassing the tidal wave of spending following World War II and the demilitarizing of millions of troops.

Expenditures hit $82 billion in 2007, because of the rising cost of health care, the expense of caring for an aging population of mostly Vietnam War veterans and a new crop of severely wounded troops from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There is concern that costs will continue to be driven upward by the high incidence of traumatic brain injuries among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. A recent Rand Corp. study said annual costs for a severe head injury can reach $400,000.

From the Christian Science Monitor:

Injured Iraq veteran Andy Robinson found difficulty adjusting to life at home until he focused his intensity on handcycling and managing Team Semper Fi, a group of injured Marines who are endurance athletes.

“When I was riding my handcycle, they weren’t looking at me like, ‘He’s messed up.’ They look at you with a lot of respect,” says Robinson.

Team Semper Fi is founded and funded by the nonprofit Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund and supports Marines by purchasing equipment, working on recruiting, finding events for the athletes to participate in, and arranging the logistics.

Founding member Derek McGinnis, an Iraq veteran who uses a prosthetic limb to participate in races and triathlons, expects the team to eventually send athletes to the Paralympics or Iron Man competitions.