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Viva Miriya
Jan 9, 2007

Soulex posted:

Iirc, McNally doesn't want media attention or anything public. Letters is a good idea

That situation has changed apparently per discord.

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Viva Miriya
Jan 9, 2007

I'm the thumbs up from USAWTF moments in between posting about some lovely barracks shower in fort polk.

Viva Miriya
Jan 9, 2007

Gonna take some time Sunday to go through all McNally's posts in the Army thread and get the timeline done.

Viva Miriya
Jan 9, 2007

Anyone live in the Colorado 6th - McNally

Viva Miriya
Jan 9, 2007

Viva Miriya posted:

Gonna take some time Sunday to go through all McNally's posts in the Army thread and get the timeline done.

i'm a bitch rear end but this got done

Viva Miriya
Jan 9, 2007

This timeline is an attempt to collate all the ways McNally has been hosed.

October 2015: Wife’s initial suicide attempt. Command response to unit’s request for mental health support for soldier was apparently “Has she completed suicide prevention training?”.

December 9th, 2015: Second attempt, which is unfortunately successful.

January 2016: McNally tries to get a new dependent ID card at the RAPIDS office at Ft. Meade. Wastes 90 minutes of his life there only to be told by a supervisor he was not eligible for any benefits as his spouse’s active duty period had expired. He asks her if she was telling him a military survivor is not entitled to any benefits following the end of the deceased service member’s term of service. She says yes which is as wrong as it is extremely infuriating to hear. McNally doesn’t get a new ID card, because of issues with orders not being in the RAPIDS office system. Instead he must surrender his own ID card, which is his only proof of eligibility of benefits. A week later, McNally reaches out to the base Casualty Assistance Center (CAC) who contacts RAPIDS. RAPIDS responded with a “sorry nobody at fort knox picked up, smdftb.” Fort Meade IG eventually gets involved and he gets his ID card a week later. This theme of having to make noise to be heard and get poo poo done is going to be consistent throughout this timeline.

February 2016: DFAS W-2 bullshit: McNally tries to get a copy of wife’s W-2 from the finance office, is unable to and is referred to base CAC. CAC proves worthless in having wife’s W-2 sent in. They tell him DFAS doesn’t mail in W-2’s for deceased service members. They don’t know how to get copies of W-2s either as they then proceed to call up the local IRS office, fail to get through to anyone, and then suggest McNally make an appointment. FYI the IRS doesn’t issue W-2s. McNally gets the W-2 from DFAS on his own. Additionally, it takes 3 weeks for base legal to get an appointment, at which point he learns setting up an estate to handle his wife’s affairs is as easy as a trip to the county courthouse. CAC should have known this poo poo.

February 11th, 2016: It apparently takes two months for CID to remember to request Mental Health records. Toxicology report still not in.

April 2016: Even in death, the American healthcare industry will bill you for testing to ensure your organs are viable for transplant. Bill was addressed to the deceased wife.

April 2nd, 2016: Insult to Injury: Certified letter arrives from US Army. Addresses wife as daughter.

May 6th, 2016: Redacted copy of Army investigation (completed in February) received. MPs were apparently called because wife called friend and told said friend she was going to commit suicide. Preliminary report MPs found her and bought her story that she was ok. Corrected report notes that that didn’t happen, and instead the MPs responded, found her, stayed with her till the ambulance arrived, and did all they could to save her life.

“Additionally, numerous individuals in [McNally's wife]'s chain of command expressed frustration that after the Soldier's [redacted] requests for information (RFIs) seemed to greatly outnumber offers of help and support. [McNally's wife]'s leaders and support personnel were particularly irritated to receive repeated variations of the question "has the Soldier undergone suicide prevention training?" This question implies that suicide prevention training is an inoculation against suicide. Repeated RFIs seemed motivated less by concern for [McNally's wife]'s well-being than a bureaucratic desire to avoid blame and ensure a specific block was checked. [Redacted] like [McNally's wife] [Redacted]. [McNally's wife]'s leaders in [unit], who worked to get her on orders and linked up with mental health professionals, deserved resources and support, rather than second-guessing of their actions and unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles.”

May 16th, 2016: McNally submits travel claim to Ft. Meade CAC since he’s entitled to be reimbursed for traveling to his wife’s funeral. Cue a few months of email tag that ends in namedropping IG regarding this and the LOD investigation.

July 7th, 2016: Call from Casualty Assistance Center, Ft. Meade. Line of Duty (LOD) investigation being handled by wife’s unit. Travel Claim bullshit from May still ongoing.

September 30th, 2016: McNally meets with a Brigadier General Nixon from wife’s Chain of Command (CoC). General conducts powerpoint presentation that confirms/is practically the same as the redacted investigation McNally received in May. McNally provides General with letter detailing all the issues he’s dealt with from the Army during this entire ordeal. Same letter is also sent out to the Secretary of Defense, Secretary of the Army, Sergeant Major of the Army, McNally’s Senators, McNally’s Congressman, and both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees.

October 11th, 2016: First response received from the mass mailout. McNally’s senator provides some canned form letter that talks about forwarding McNally’s concerns to the VA and reporting back when they get a response. McNally did not write about the VA at all. McNally responds by inquiring as to why his letter was not read in full and responded to generically i.e.: why didn’t they make it less obvious they didn’t give a gently caress.

October 25th (ish), 2016: McNally calls said senator’s local office, explaining the situation, and requests a callback. Callback request is responded to by another form email virtually identical to the previous email, addressing the Department of the Army instead of the VA.

Week of November 2nd (ish): After venting on his congressman’s Facebook page, the congressman’s veterans service rep emails McNally is forced to have the explain the situation for the umpteenth time. Vet Rep promises to reach out to the Army on McNally’s Behalf. A couple of days later, McNally receives a response from someone in the Secretary of the Army’s office. Although not a form letter, it might as well be with its generic message about “suicide prevention is taken seriously.” Below is an excerpt from the letter.

“Your heart-felt letter highlighted significant areas that we will evaluate and target as our processes evolve to address the emerging needs of the force. Additionally, your letter has been forwarded to the Fort George Meade RAPIDS Office and Casualty Assistance Center to address your concerns regarding the lack of service and information provided to you by Fort Meade after the death of your wife.

Please be assured that there is no greater priority for the Army than the safety, well-being, and care of our Soldiers, their Families, and our Army Civilians. Thank you for the service and sacrifices of both you and SGT (NOT MY WIFE'S loving NAME, rear end in a top hat) to our Nation.”

If Suicide Prevention was taken serious, McNally’s wife would have been in to see a MH provider within a week of her first attempt, been on a medication and therapy protocol, and would likely be alive today. Also loving up her name is just more insult to loving injury.

November 11th, 2016: Happy Veteran’s Day! McNally is defrauded of over 2800 dollars before USAA fraud protection kicks in. Unrelated to the whole “getting hosed by the Army and ignored by everyone else” theme but very relevant to the getting hosed in general theme. USAA apparently does do right by McNally.

November 16th, 2016: Related to the November 2nd entry: McNally gets a phone call from one his senator’s staffer. gently caress all happens. McNally reaches out to SMA Dailey on twitter and gets DM’d the email of his PAO. Fuckall happens as well.

November 21st, 2016: VA calls McNally all confused like “homie your senator called. What is it we need to help you with?” McNally dies a little more inside whilst blueing a musket or whatever he does in his spare time as he explains for the umpteenth time “IT’S THE GREEN WEENIE THAT’S loving ME, NOT THE WHITE ONE.” Congressshitters cannot or will not keep it straight that it’s the Army that’s responsible for this debacle. They seem to automatically assume if it involves Vets it’s the VA’s fault. Also, on this day the XO to the Army G-1, a full bird, reaches out to McNally. He’s actually a standup guy about this. He assures McNally he’s going to get a response to his original letter that addresses its points one by one and actually had some empathy and poo poo about his situation.

December 30th, 2016: CID report comes out (MCNALLY, FILL IN THIS ENTRY PLS) “In addition to people who had never met me making remarks about my character, they also managed to misquote me in my statement to them: I told them that my wife had quit her job in October. The report said I said that *I* quit my job.”

March 20th, 2017: Related to the November 21st entry: McNally, after months of calling, finally gets in touch with the case manager at his senator’s office. She’s apparently horrible at reminding McNally she’s still on the case. And whenever she contacts the Army they forward her to the VA. You’d think she figure out how to raise some more hell and get through to the right but but she’s just a civil servant, she did the best she could! gently caress McNally!

October 18th, 2017: McNally’s friendly Colonel apparently works at the Pentagon and is still staying in touch. Just gonna quote the post below
As it happens, it might not even be necessary. Yesterday I emailed that colonel who contacted me after I responded to the letter that called my wife the wrong name. He started making calls and today I received a phone call from the SES who signed that letter and then a phone call from the colonel who runs the office that trains casualty assistance officers. In the course of the conversation, I've learned some of the things I had issues with have changed (for example, I was eligible for travel pay to and from my wife's funeral. The funeral was in January, the casualty assistance center [which, it turns out, is completely different from the casualty assistance officers: one's a civilian office, the other is a .mil function and they're run by different people] gave me the form to fill out at the end of May, and I didn't get paid until August, before which I had to contact the IG because the casualty assistance idiots had stopped responding to my requests for updates. Travel vouchers for survivors are now part of the casualty assistance officer's checklist, is handled directly by the .mil office, and is a "this must be done within 30 days item).

It turns out that I was supposed to have received an official response to my concerns but never received the letter. Anyway, once we established my beef is with the DA civilians in the Casualty Assistance Center and not with my Casualty Assistance Officer, she said she'd have the person who runs that department contact me. She told me to call her if I don't hear anything by Friday afternoon. Reading between the lines, it sounded almost like I'm an urban legend at HRC.

October 21st, 2017: The Ft. Meade CAC hits up McNally. Apparently, they got a call from higher and had the impression McNally was stirring poo poo because he was still waiting on benefits. Not at all related to them loving him over the better part of a year. To make this even sweeter, its not the person in charge of the office who calls, it’s a call from someone McNally put in an IG complaint in about over a year ago! Ayyyyyy lmao

November 1st, 2017: Unrelated to McNally poo poo but Mustang starts dying inside on this date.

January to February 2018: McNally reaches out to his friendly colonel, who is now at Human Resources Command. He puts McNally in touch with the colonel in charge of casualty assistance. It turns out the Army has two casualty assistance programs: One deals with the uniformed officers who act as Casualty Assistance Officers (CAOs), the other is the civilian-run Casualty Assistance Office (also CAO because lol). The military office started making adjustments as soon as McNally’s letter arrived (the travel claim is now an item on the military CAO’s checklist, meaning it’s way more likely to get done). A detailed letter was supposed to have been sent to McNally in response to his letter detailing all the changes that were made, but somehow some DA civilian forgot to send it. McNally was also supposed to get a call from the DA civilian running the civilian CAO but never did. McNally’s senator finally receives a response from the Army because McNally did the legwork.

May 26, 2018: McNally sends out a letter to all his congressshitters related to the SBP-DIC bullshit. The content can be boiled down to “stop making surviving spouses pay for their own benefits” – A SOF DEPENDA

June 22nd, 2018: McNally gets a form letter response from one of his senators thanking him for his input on the 2019 NDAA. Lol ok fuckers.

June 25th, 2018: Senator’s legislative correspondent emails McNally on his fourth wedding anniversary to be like “ayy so we support eliminating the SBP-DIC offset but legislation is hard and finding money for it is harder. Sorry pal.” Said correspondent gets roasted for his bullshit.

July 23rd, 2018: McNally gets a generic form letter from his congressman thanking him for his input.

August 1st, 2018: McNally follows up with his senator’s legislative correspondent only to get a “message can’t be delivered because you don’t have permissions to send to this email address.” Suspecting he’s been blocked, McNally calls his senator’s office only to learn that the legislative correspondent no longer works for the senator. McNally is promised a callback from a case manager.

August 2nd, 2018: McNally receives a phone call from the case manager who promises to get someone over at legislative affairs to look at this. McNally forwards the email chain to the case manager.

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Viva Miriya
Jan 9, 2007

I guess this is the part where I develop some sort of form letter and tell you guys to "go forth and stir poo poo" but I honestly have no clue what the next step is. All I know is McNally doesn't deserve any of ^

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