October 2023 — MHCE Newsletter

News from MHCE 

OCTOBER 2023 EDITION 

Black Teens Learn to Fly 

and Aim for Careers in 

Aviation in the Footsteps 

of Tuskegee Airmen 

See page 14 

Monthly Newsletter 

WWW.MHCE.US 

Limits on Medical Appointments Expected in 

Europe as Military Health Records System Debuts 

Patients at U.S. 

military bases in 

Europe may find 

appointments 

scarce starting next 

week as providers 

switch to the 

Pentagon’s new 

electronic medical 

recordkeeping 

system. 

Military Healthcare 

System Genesis 

is expected to be 

launched Saturday 

at Defense 

Department 

medical clinics in 

Europe, Turkey and 

Bahrain. 

All clinics in 

Europe will have 

fewer routine 

appointments 

during the next 60 to 

90 days, Kirk Frady, 

spokesman for 

Medical Readiness 

Command, Europe, 

said Thursday. 

The reduction will 

vary between clinics 

but availability will 

gradually increase 

as medical providers 

Continued on page 8

2 | MHCE - News www.mhce.us OCTOBER 2023 EDITION

WWW.MHCE.US Monthly Newsletter | 3 

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contact Kyle.Stephens@mhce.us



Focus on Oversight a Key for Success at 

CoreCivic 

In the corrections industry, maintaining high standards of 

operation is imperative to meeting the needs of the individuals 

in our care. That's why CoreCivic adheres to a stringent set of 

guidelines set forth by our own standards, as well as those of our 

government partners and the American Correctional Association 

(ACA). 

Founded in 1870, the ACA is considered the national benchmark 

for the effective operation of correctional systems throughout 

the United States. To become accredited, a facility must achieve 

compliance with ACA mandatory standards and a minimum of 

90 percent non-mandatory standards. CoreCivic facilities adhere 

to ACA standards, and in 2020, CoreCivic earned an average 

ACA audit score of 99.6 percent across all facilities. 

Key ACA audit areas include facility personnel, resident reentry 

programs, resident safety, health care, and more. 

holds our facilities and staff to a high standard. To be able to 

represent our facility and receive reaccreditation in person is an 

honor." 

Adhering to ACA standards is only one part of CoreCivic's 

commitment to robust oversight. When government partners 

utilize CoreCivic's services, we are held not only to our own 

high standards and those of the ACA, but we are often held to 

the same or higher accountability of our public counterparts 

through stringent government contracts, unfettered access to 

our facilities for our partners, and hundreds of on-site quality 

assurance monitors. 

We provide access to our government partners, with most of 

our facilities having government agency employees known as 

contract monitors who are physically on-site to ensure we are 

operating in line with partner guidelines. 

Recently, the ACA held in Nashville, Tennessee, its 151st 

Congress of Corrections, an annual convention that brings 

together corrections professionals from across the country. In 

addition to various workshops and events at the convention, the 

ACA Commission on Accreditation also held panel hearings to 

award accreditation to correctional facilities that meet the ACA's 

rigorous requirements. Listed below are the seven CoreCivic 

facilities that earned reaccreditation this year, with mandatory/ 

non-mandatory scores: 

• Bent County Correctional Facility - 100/99.0 

• Citrus County Detention Facility - 100/100 

• Eloy Detention Center - 100/100 

• Lake Erie Correctional Institution - 100/99.3 

• Saguaro Correctional Center - 100/99.8 

• Stewart Detention Center - 100/100 

• Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility - 100/100 

"The accreditation process is very important," said Warden 

Fred Figueroa from Eloy Detention Center, one of the seven 

CoreCivic facilities that was awarded reaccreditation. "ACA 

To maintain our own high standards, annual on-site audits covering 

all operational areas are administered to ensure compliance with 

contractual and regulatory obligations and corporate-mandated 

requirements. Each CoreCivic Safety facility is audited by our 

internal quality assurance division, which is independent from 

our operations division. Facilities are expected to be audit-ready 

year-round, maintaining continuous compliance with numerous 

applicable standards. 

CoreCivic employs 75 staff members dedicated to quality 

assurance, including several subject matter experts with extensive 

experience from all major disciplines within our institutional 

operations. 

"A lot of hard work goes into preparing for these audits," 

Figueroa said. "Once they're complete, the staff can see their 

accomplishments and feel proud." 

Having multiple levels of oversight helps CoreCivic maintain 

a safe environment for those in our care. By holding ourselves 

accountable to our own high standards, along with our 

government partners' and ACA's standards, CoreCivic continues 

to be a trusted partner working to better the public good.


WWW.MHCE.US Monthly Newsletter | 7

8 | MHCE - News www.mhce.us OCTOBER 2023 EDITION 

and staff become 

more familiar with 

the new system, he 

said. 

Some locations 

could see the 

number of 

appointments drop 

by half initially, 

while patients 

should expect 

longer waits to see 

a provider and may 

have to be referred 

off base more than 

usual, military 

medical officials 

said this week. 

Emergency and 

acute cases, 

meanwhile, still 

have priority. 

“We sincerely 

appreciate 

everyone’s patience 

and cooperation 

as our DOD 

clinics undergo 

this monumental 

change,” Frady 

said. 

Bases in the Indo- 

Pacific region are 

slated to switch 

to Genesis next 

month. Officials 

there also have 

forecast delays. 

MHS Genesis was 

first rolled out in the 

Pacific Northwest 

in 2017. The $4.3 

billion commercial 

software system 

will provide a 

single, common 

digital medical 

record for service 

members, veterans 

and military family 

members once it’s 

fully operational. 

DOD medical 

providers will use 

the program to 

manage delivery 

of everything from 

en route care and 

dentistry to vision 

and pharmacy 

services. 

Once registered, 

patients will be 

able to access their 

medical records 

“at the tips of their 

fingers,” from basic 

training all to way 

through retirement, 

said Air Force Col. 

Dwayne Baca, 

commander of the 

86th Medical Group 

at Ramstein Air 

Base in Germany. 

Personnel will keep 

the same digital 

record as they move 

among duty stations 

and providers, with 

no paper copies lost 

in the shuffle, he 

added. 

But there will be 

growing pains as 

staffers learn how to 

use the new system, 

military officials 

said. 

At Landstuhl 

Regional Medical 

Center, the largest 

DOD hospital 

overseas, and 

nearby Ramstein 

Air Base, which 

serves 17,000 

beneficiaries, 

about 50% fewer 

appointments will 

be available across 

the board in the 

immediate weeks 

following the 

transition, officials 

from both bases 

said this week. 

In Italy, Aviano 

Air Base patients 

with acute medical 

conditions will have 

priority for limited 

appointments, 

officials there said 

this week, adding 

that the squeeze 

will be felt by 

all beneficiary 

categories. 

Appointments at 

all LRMC clinics, 

including primary 

and specialty care, 

will be reduced 

temporarily, 

hospital spokesman 

Marcy Sanchez said 

Friday. The goal is 

to return to the full 

patient caseload 

by Jan. 1, 2024, he 

said. 

At Ramstein, about 

half of appointments 

that are normally 

available will 

be offered in the 

early days of the 

transition, Baca 

said. But “medical


care is going to 

continue the way 

it always does,” he 

said. 

That extends to 

services such 

as lab tests and 

prescriptions, 

although lab test 

results may take 

longer to upload. 

Patients will be 

contacted directly 

with any urgent 

results, he said. 

The two pharmacies 

at Ramstein, 

including the 

satellite clinic in 

the Kaiserslautern 

M i l i t a r y 

Community Center, 

will continue filling 

prescriptions, but 

wait times at the 

counter may be 

longer in the next 

two weeks, Baca 

said. 

in is expected to 

take longer during 

the transition, he 

added. 

Until Oct. 4, medical 

appointments 

should be made 

by phone on the 

medical group’s 

appointment 

line, 06371- 

462273. After that, 

appointments can 

be made online 

through the new 

MHS Genesis 

patient portal. 

Likewise at LRMC, 

patients will be able 

to start scheduling 

appointments on 

the patient portal 

on or after Oct. 3, 

Sanchez said. 

The new portal 

replaces Tricare 

Online for managing 

appointments 

and medications, 

secure messaging 

with providers and 

accessing patients’ 

medical history. 

To limit delays, 

people are 

encouraged to begin 

learning and using 

the patient portal 

rather than calling 

a clinic, Sanchez 

said. 

The hospital at 

Landstuhl will help 

patients sign up for 

Genesis and answer 

questions about it. 

Instruction will be 

offered Monday 

through Thursday 

from 8 a.m. to 4:30 

p.m. in Heaton 

Auditorium. 

For routine 

appointments at 

Ramstein, patients 

are asked to arrive 

about 25 minutes 

early because check-


Air Force’s Enlisted Education Revamp Means More 

Classroom Time, New Curriculum 

Enlisted airmen will be hitting the books harder 

and sooner for professional studies as a result 

of a wide-ranging overhaul of the Air Force’s 

education program. 

courses will replace the existing professional 

enhancement seminars and will be conducted 

at the base level, allowing airmen to avoid 

having to travel to school. 

In a letter to members of the service Monday, 

outgoing Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Brown 

and Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force JoAnne 

Bass announced the introduction of the enlisted 

airmanship continuum plan. 

While details are still limited, the plan 

indicates more classroom time and training 

earlier in airmen’s careers. It calls for 

redesigned foundations courses that will serve 

as prerequisites for the in-house leadership 

academies. 

The curriculum is still under development, 

but beginning as early as October, these 

“Today’s airmen learn faster, and these new 

courses will match that pace, as they are 

designed to be four to five days in length,” 

said Col. Damian Schlussel, commander of 

the Barnes Center for Enlisted Education at 

Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, Ala. 

Similar to college courses that build on 

prerequisites, the incremental courses go from 

the 100 level starting at basic training to the 

900 level, approximately paralleling airmen’s 

rise through the enlisted pay grades, from E-1 

to E-9.


Unlike their predecessors, 

which often relied on volunteer 

briefers, the courses will be 

taught by trained instructors 

following a curriculum 

designed in large part at Air 

University. 

Many building blocks of the 

training remain the same, 

but the timeline will shift 

slightly, according to the Air 

Force statement outlining the 

changes. 

Basic training at Joint Base San 

Antonio-Lackland still lays 

the foundation for all enlisted 

airmen as Airmanship 100. 

After graduation, airmen then 

attend job-specific technical 

training schools.


Likewise, the familiar 

Airman Leadership School, 

Noncommissioned Officer 

and Senior Noncommissioned 

Officer Academies all remain 

in place as their timing shifts. 

At their first permanent duty 

station, new airmen first attend 

the junior enlisted foundations 

course as part of the base’s 

own first term airman center 

curriculum. 

Under the system in place for 

the past decade, those selected 

for promotion to the NCO corps 

attended Airman Leadership 

School before adding their 

staff sergeant stripe. 

Under the new model, 

more airmen will attend the 

leadership school prior to an 

NCO promotion selection. 

Before their promotion to 

staff sergeant, NCOs-to-be 

expand their supervisory skill 

sets during the foundations 

course, formerly known as 

the professional enhancement 

seminar. 

This course will be required 

before troops are allowed to 

enroll in the NCO Academy, 

which they attend by the time 

they are technical sergeants.


Those seeking promotion 

to E-7 must complete the 

SNCO foundations course, 

which prepares them for the 

management-focused SNCO 

corps. 

Master sergeants then 

complete the SNCO Academy 

before their promotion to E-8. 

Finally, the service’s most 

senior enlisted leaders still 

attend the Chiefs Leadership 

Academy. 

To ensure a smooth rollout 

of the foundation courses, 

the service has reduced the 

number of NCOA students for 

fiscal year 2024 from 3,500 to 

1,500 worldwide, Schlussel 

said. 

“This will free up many of our 

NCOA instructors for mobile 

training teams, designed to 

help implement the foundation 

courses,” he said. 

NCOA student levels are 

expected to return to normal 

in fiscal year 2025, he added. 

Details on how these courses 

will be operated for reservists 

and guard airmen are still 

pending, the Air Force said in 

a background paper Monday 

outlining the changes. 

Running parallel to these inperson 

training courses, the 

initiative also announced ondemand 

training available to 

airmen of all ranks online, 

slated for launch in late 2024, 

according the background 

paper. 

Unlike mandatory online 

military education courses 14 

and 15 in the past, which were 

largely decried by airmen for 

taking their personal time in 

addition to long duty hours, 

the materials are supposed 

to present helpful resources 

when needed. 

Service leaders say they 

are embracing a different 

approach to better prepare 

enlisted airmen for a modern 

battlefield that prizes agility 

and cooperation across 

specialties, locations and 

commands. This week’s 

announcement follows several 

years of adjustments to the 

enlisted education program.


Black Teens Learn to 

Fly and Aim for Careers 

in Aviation in the 

Footsteps of Tuskegee 

Airmen 

DETROIT — Marie Ronny and 

Kyan Bovee expect their futures to 

take off. Literally. 

The Black teens from Detroit are 

part of a free program teaching 

young people how to fly, while 

exposing them to careers in aviation, 

an industry in which people of color 

are traditionally underrepresented. 

Their classrooms are the skies 

above Detroit’s Coleman A. Young 

municipal airport and inside a 

large hangar there serving as home 

to the Tuskegee Airmen National 

Museum. 

“I want to be a mechanical engineer 

with a pilot’s license so I can fly 

my own creations. I want to build 

planes!” said Ronny, a 16-year-old 

high school student who earned her 

pilot’s license this summer. 

Ronny and Bovee are among nearly 

30 high school students in the 

Tuskegee Airmen Flight Academy 

this year, where a majority of the 

class is Black. 

The program began three decades 

ago and is designed for youths 

ages 14 to 19 who want to become 

professional pilots. It offers flight 

instruction and ground school 

classes leading to a private pilot 

license. 

“Many kids go off to college and 

finish getting their license after 

starting at the museum,” spokesman 

Greg Bowens said. 

The academy continues the legacy 

of the Tuskegee Airmen, who were 

part of an experimental system for 

Black soldiers who wanted to train 

as pilots during World War II after 

the Army Air Corps was forced to 

admit them. 

More than 900 men trained in 

Tuskegee, Alabama, from 1940 to 

1946. The Tuskegee Airmen have 

been the subject of books, movies 

and documentaries highlighting 

their courage in the air and the 

discrimination they faced in the U.S. 

while fighting for freedom abroad. 

The academy’s students learn how 

to take off and land in surplus U.S. 

Air Force gliders and single-engine 

planes from the small airport on 

Detroit’s eastside, as well as aircraft 

maintenance. 

The museum also has academies in 

Indiana and the African countries of 

Ghana and Nigeria, and the program 

is free thanks to private and federal 

government donations. 

Bovee was 13 when a neighbor, an 

aircraft mechanic, told him about 

the program. He had never been in 

a plane. 

“The first time in the airplane, it 

was something I really fell in love 

with,” said Bovee, now 18. “I 

enjoyed it. I thought it was so cool. 

I was actually (in) a small airplane 

at the controls.” 

He attends community college 

and hopes to transfer into Western 

Michigan University’s aviation 

program with the goal of becoming 

an airline pilot. 

When the students are flying “it’s 

amazing to see the expressions on 

their faces,” museum President 

Brian Smith said. “But first they 

have to get over their fear. Then it’s 

mentoring them to be determined to 

stick to the task at-hand. Once they 

overcome the fear, they are on their 

way to be pilots.” 

This is a good time to enter the field. 

The government estimates there will 

be about 18,000 annual openings 

for airline and commercial pilots 

this decade, with many of those to 

replace retirees. 

Earlier this year, American Airlines 

Chief Executive Robert Isom said 

he was ready to give pilots raises 

and higher retirement contributions 

that would average 40% over four 

years to match a contract approved 

by Delta Air Lines pilots. 

A top-scale captain on a Boeing 737 

would ultimately make $475,000 

yearly in salary and retirementplan 

contributions, while a senior 

captain on a larger plane such as a 

Boeing 777 would earn $590,000, 

Isom said. 

Lauryn Billingsley, who is 16 and 

Black, is considering the U.S. 

Air Force and then a career as a 

commercial pilot. 

“More Black women should get into 

it,” said Billingsley, of suburban 

Detroit. “A lot of Black women are 

good in math and STEM, and this is 

a good job.” 

Billingsley admits she was a “little 

nervous” when she first took the 

controls in the cockpit. 

“As you fly more, you get more 

comfortable,” she said. 

Jibril Hamad, 17, of Detroit, also 

wants to fly for an airline. 

“I do talk to my friends and my guys 

about what I do,” he said. “They 

find it really interesting. Every time 

I go up, I get a question: ‘What’s it 

like? You’re not scared?’ I’m calm 

and collected in the cockpit.” 

For young people already interested 

in flying, fear is not a factor, said 

Sha’Malia Willis, community 

outreach coordinator and director of 

the programs at the museum. 

“It doesn’t take them much time to 

be comfortable,” she said. “In that 

first flight, a calm comes over you 

when you get into the air. I wasn’t 

afraid, I knew it was something I 

wanted to do.” 

Most students average about 40 

hours of flight time before getting 

their pilot’s license, said Willis, a 

Black woman who started learning 

to fly about 15 years ago. 

She wears her flight suit when 

speaking at schools in Detroit. 

“Most of them have never been on a 

plane before,” she said of the Black 

students she meets. “It’s very normal 

that our kids have never seen a pilot 

before. When I leave, they say they 

want to be pilots. Now, they know 

it’s possible.”


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US Air Base in Italy Cuts Medical Care for DOD 

Civilians and Families, Citing Costs 

AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy — The clinic at the largest Air Force 

community in Italy is no longer treating Defense Department civilians, 

their families and others who once paid for their own medical care, 

citing a lack of money and staff. 

The decision has some military employees worried that they won’t be 

able to receive equivalent care at off-base Italian facilities, where fluent 

English isn’t a given and some prescriptions may not be available. 

Col. Jeffrey Fewell, commander of the 31st Medical Group, made the 

announcement Tuesday to about two dozen Department of Defense 

Education Activity teachers. 

“We have to prioritize our resources to our active-duty and Tricare 

enrollees,” he said during a briefing on the policy, which was adopted 

Sept. 1. 

Active-duty service members receive free health care, while their 

families, which are covered by Tricare, pay significantly lower costs 

than many Americans. 

Most DOD civilians are typically covered by large private insurance 

companies, which pay a varying percentage of costs minus any 

copayments. But not all the money those patients pay for their care 

goes back to the Aviano clinic, base officials said. 

A similar move to restrict on-base civilian health care sparked a furor 

last year in Japan, where many said in base forums that they had 

difficulty scheduling appointments with Japanese doctors. 

In March, the Defense Health Agency partially reversed the move by 

allowing civilians with chronic conditions like diabetes to see care on 

base in Japan, but only on a space-available basis. 

Just how many people the new policy at Aviano will affect is unknown. 

Base officials generally know the number of civilians employed there, 

31st Fighter Wing spokesman 1st Lt. Steve Garrett said Tuesday. 

But factors such as family size, veteran status and the nature of their 

sponsorship aren’t as easy to determine. 

A recent review of a seven-month period found that about 19% of 

slots in the Aviano Family Health Clinic had been devoted to paying 

patients. 

Fewell said the new policy affects a small percentage of people at 

Aviano, which has an active-duty population of about 4,600 airmen 

and soldiers and an equal number of their dependents. 

Some worried about expiring medications and a few mentioned specific 

drugs that are either unavailable or prohibited in Italy. 

Jeff England, a fifth grade teacher who’s been at Aviano for 20 years, 

was among them. England and his wife, Rene Alexander, have a 

20-year-old son who has been prescribed Concerta by the base for 

almost a decade. 

Italian doctors cannot prescribe that drug and similar ones such as 

Adderall.


Others talked about increased costs or a language barrier with 

physicians. And some said that even Italian speakers have trouble 

getting an appointment if they’re not citizens. 

“We have seen Italian doctors,” Alexander said. “But I also speak 

Italian fluently. It took me 10 years to find doctors for my kids. New 

families here? They’re just not going to be able to do that.” 

Fewell said he understood those concerns and that his team will do its 

best to help on a case-by-case basis. 

“It’s not my intent to push anybody out,” he said. “But I do have to 

prioritize my resources. And I don’t have the resources that I once had. 

And that’s just a fact.” 

Fewell also told the group of teachers that access to the pharmacy will 

be shut off Sept. 23 through Jan. 1. 

That’s primarily because the base will be implementing MHS Genesis, 

a new computer system designed to consolidate electronic records for 

service members that military facilities worldwide are adopting. 

Fewell expects a steep learning curve at his clinic, so the number of 

available care spots will be reduced for all patients during that time. 

“I think it’s very, very likely that we’re going to be able to turn the 

pharmacy back on (for paying patients) at some point,” he said. 

Told by England that many Italian doctors are required to handle large 

caseloads and that making appointments can be difficult for non- 

Italians, Fewell acknowledged unfamiliarity with the domestic health 

care system. 

“We have some homework to do on that,” he said. 

The clinic does employ Italian liaisons to engage with a network of 

local providers, but they don’t help those considered “pay patients,” 

including DOD civilians and family members. 

The clinic makes approximately 6,000 off-base referrals for its Tricare 

population annually, as it employs almost no specialists. 

The number of medical personnel on base has dropped dramatically 

since the Defense Department downgraded numerous military 

hospitals to clinics in 2017. 

The Aviano family clinic has two general care doctors and two 

pediatricians assigned to it. 

Not long after the hospital became a clinic, the base announced it 

would restrict pay patients’ access. 

But that directive largely didn’t apply to school-age dependents, and 

some pay patients could still book appointments. 

England and Alexander said the change reflects a deeper divide 

between services available to service members and their families, and 

others affiliated with the military. 

“It just kind of reinforces the second-class citizen sentiment,” England 

said.


TOWER HEALTH 

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approximately 11,500 employees, Tower Health consists 

of Reading Hospital in West Reading; Phoenixville 

Hospital in Phoenixville; Pottstown Hospital in Pottstown; 

and St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, 

in partnership with Drexel University. Tower Health is 

strongly committed to academic medicine and training, 

including multiple residency and fellowship programs, the 

Drexel University College of Medicine at Tower Health, 

and the Reading Hospital School of Health Sciences in 

West Reading. The system also includes Reading Hospital 

Rehabilitation at Wyomissing; home healthcare provided 

by Tower Health at Home; TowerDirect ambulance and 

emergency response; Tower Health Medical Group; Tower 

Health Providers, our clinically integrated network; and 25 

Tower Health Urgent Care facilities across our service area. 

For more information, visit towerhealth.org. 

Reading Hospital is a 697-bed nonprofit teaching hospital 

that provides high quality healthcare, cutting-edge 

technology, and experienced, caring medical professionals. 

As the nationally recognized, Magnet-designated flagship 

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many top-tier specialty care centers and services, including 

the McGlinn Cancer Institute, Miller Regional Heart Center, 

one of the state’s busiest Emergency Departments and a 

Level I Trauma Center, and Beginnings Maternity Center, 

which houses the region’s only Level III Neonatal Intensive 

Care Unit (NICU). Reading Hospital was named one of 

America’s 50 Best Hospitals for 2023 by Healthgrades. 

This is the second year in a row (2022-2023) that Reading 

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Reading Hospital has a long history of medical teaching, 

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if they spent less than a year at 

Camp Lejeune between 1953 and 

1987; $300,000 if they were at the 

base between one and five years; 

and $450,000 if they were there for 

more than five years. 

Those with “Tier 2” diseases — 

multiple myeloma, Parkinson’s 

disease, kidney disease or end-stage 

renal disease, and systemic sclerosis 

or scleroderma — would be entitled 

to $100,000, $250,000 or $400,000, 

again depending on the time spent 

at Camp Lejeune. 

In addition, the government will 

pay another $100,000 in cases of 

premature death from the diseases. 

“The Elective Option is a 

critical step in bringing relief to 

qualifying claimants impacted by 

the contaminated water at Camp 

Lejeune, who will now have an 

avenue for receiving quick and 

early resolution of claims under 

the Camp Lejeune Justice Act,” 

Associate Attorney General Vanita 

Gupta said in a statement when the 

plan was announced. 

Erik Raven, the Navy 

undersecretary, also said the process 

will “streamline” many settlements. 

“We are committed to ensuring that 

every valid Camp Lejeune claim is 

resolved fairly and as expeditiously 

as possible,” he said. 

Plaintiffs call offer inadequate 

A group of plaintiffs’ attorneys led by 

Bell, appointed by North Carolina’s 

federal judges to take charge of the 

plaintiffs’ cases in July, called the 

settlement offers inadequate. 

“After thirteen months of silence, 

the Department of the Navy 

has expressed an intent to make 

settlement offers in the near future, 

and we are encouraged by that,” the 

group said in a statement. “But it is 

important to acknowledge that the 

Navy’s proposal does not provide 

a just resolution for the majority of 

claimants.” 

Two Camp Lejeune victims who 

have led efforts for government 

accountability for decades agreed. 

Mike Partain, a Florida man who 

was born at Camp Lejeune in 1968 

and was diagnosed with breast 

cancer at age 39, said he would not 

even be eligible for a settlement 

because the elective option is 

available only for those who were 

diagnosed with a disease connected 

to the contamination within 35 years 

of their exposure. 

Partain also noted that he has been 

through chemotherapy eight times, 

with each treatment costing around 

$120,000, so any compensation less 

than $1 million would not begin to 

make up for the damages done. 

Jerry Ensminger, a 24-year Marine 

Corps veteran whose daughter Janey 

was conceived at Camp Lejeune 

and died of leukemia in 1985 at 

the age of 9, also scoffed at the 

settlement offers. Ensminger started 

a campaign for compensation in 

the mid-1990s after he first learned 

that the contaminated water likely 

caused Janey’s death. 

“I don’t give a damn how long it 

takes,” Ensminger said by phone 

Friday. “Unless they make me a 

decent offer, I’m going to court. I’ve 

already waited 25 years.” 

The government has estimated that 

settlements and verdicts in the Camp 

Lejeune litigation could ultimately 

cost more than $20 billion. There 

were as many as 1 million Marines, 

family members and others who 

were exposed to the contaminated 

drinking water, the Navy has said. 

An attorney for about 4,800 victims 

of Camp Lejeune’s poisoned 

water, Hunter Shkolnik, said he 

is counseling his clients, none of 

whom have filed lawsuits yet, about 

the pros and cons of the settlement 

offers. Shkolnik works at NSPR 

Law Services based in Santurce, 

Puerto Rico. 

“I think it’s a huge step forward that 

the government has stepped up and 

offered a compensation program,” 

Shkolnik said in a phone interview. 

“I think that those family members 

that want closure, they have the right 

to and should exercise their right to 

participate in the program.” 

Lawsuits may take years 

The downside of not accepting a 

settlement now is that lawsuits in 

federal courts will likely take years, 

Shkolnik said. 

“I understand there’s a lot of very 

upset people who have been fighting 

with the government forever,” he 

said. “But the U.S. government is 

not going to give millions of dollars 

to every person who has been 

exposed.” 

A case management plan proposed 

by the Justice Department and 

the plaintiffs’ leadership group in


August calls for a process of arguing 

cases in groups based on the types of 

damages alleged, but the plaintiffs’ 

lawyers and the DOJ disagree on 

when trials should start and which 

cases should go first. That will have 

to be decided by the four federal 

judges in North Carolina this fall. 

Bell, the lead lawyer for the 

plaintiffs, argues the trials should 

begin in the first quarter of 2024 

because the government has had 

plenty of time to prepare. 

“My firm has consistently advocated 

for speedy trials working in tandem 

with efforts to drive an efficient 

resolution of this case that provides 

compensation to those harmed by 

the water at Camp Lejeune in a time 

period that is meaningful to them,” 

Bell said. “It is never lost on me that 

every day we lose someone to the 

effects of Camp Lejeune, and that 

burden animates my desire to act 

with speed.” 

Shkolnik said he was concerned that 

some attorneys for the plaintiffs are 

pushing for trials because they stand 

to gain higher fees for their efforts. 

“The bottom line is this is a play 

to make common benefit,” he 

said. “It’s unfortunate because the 

military and our veterans and our 

veterans’ families don’t deserve 

that. They don’t deserve to have 

lawyers looking to have a common 

benefit fee and pounding their chests 

and saying I’m great and ultimately 

coming out with numbers that are 

pretty close” to what victims could 

get now in settlements. 

Bell said the law passed by Congress 

did not include a cap on attorneys 

fees, leaving it to plaintiffs to 

work that out when choosing their 

lawyers. 

“However, it is incumbent on each 

attorney in these cases to deliver 

value to the client to match the fee 

charged and, every day, we strive to 

make sure that we not only deliver 

that value to our clients but that we 

exceed their expectations,” Bell 

said. 

There have been a number of bills 

introduced this year that would 

cap legal fees in Camp Lejeune 

litigation, including one offered by 

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., to set 

limits of 12 to 17 percent. 

“At this point with the legislation, 

getting justice for these individuals 

is as close to a slam dunk as you 

can have,” Issa said in an interview 

in August. “So it’s not like they’re 

going to have to do a lot of discovery 

or any fancy proof. All you really 

have to do is present somebody and 

their presence [at Camp Lejeune] 

and their medical records.” 

None of the bills has seen any action 

in the House or Senate, however.


Suicides are multifaceted and complex, 

Miller told the committee, thanking 

senators for granting the VA several 

new authorities via legislation in recent 

years that are helping the department 

improve. 

‘We’ve got to do better:’ Senators 

Plead for Improved Response to 

Veterans Suicides after Report 

Reveals Hotline Failure 

The Department of Veterans Affairs 

must improve mental health care access 

for veterans with suicide risks, senators 

told VA officials on Wednesday in the 

wake of an inspector general report that 

found problems with the agency’s crisis 

hotline for suicide prevention. 

“We’ve had so damn many hearings on 

mental health, and it doesn’t seem like 

anything has changed,” Sen. Jon Tester, 

D-Mont., told VA officials during a 

hearing of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs 

Committee. “There’s no doubt in my 

mind that you want to do your best for 

veterans, and you’re trying to do the 

best for your veterans. 

The committee would “probably give 

you anything you asked for when it 

comes to mental health,” Tester, who is 

the chairman of the Senate panel, told 

Miller. “We just need to make sure that 

what you’re asking for is something 

that can actually make a difference.” 

The VA’s most recent veteran suicide 

statistics show a slight decrease in 

suicides among veterans in 2020, 

but suicides among Americans with 

military service time far outpaced the 

rate among civilians. That year, 6,146 

veteran deaths were ruled suicides. 

Data for 2021 is expected to be released 

in the coming months. 

Nonetheless, Miller acknowledged the 

VA faces many challenges in suicide 

prevention from technical issues 

implementing telehealth services to 

a shortfall of qualified mental health 

specialists to hire. 

“With no single cause, there is no single 

solution to suicide for veterans,” he 

said. 

The hearing came just days after the 

VA inspector general published a report 

“But this is really frustrating for me to 

say, but we’ve got to do better. We just 

have got to do better.” 

Wait times to see mental health 

specialists are too long, and too few 

veterans at risk for suicide are actively 

in the VA’s health care system, multiple 

senators said. New authorities for 

expanded mental health care access 

via telehealth have been implemented 

too slowly, Tester told Matthew Miller, 

the executive director for suicide 

prevention at the VA’s Veterans Health 

Administration.


that found a Texas veteran 

died by suicide within an 

hour of receiving subpar 

help from the VA’s Veterans 

Crisis Line in 2021. 

The IG report released 

Sept. 14 found crisis 

line responders failed to 

recognize the veteran’s 

suicide risk or implement 

a prevention plan after 

engaging in a 75-minute, 

80-text conversation. The 

veteran — a male in his 

30s with diagnosed posttraumatic 

stress disorder, 

major depressive disorder, 

alcohol-use disorder, 

obstructive sleep apnea and 

documented past suicidal 

behavior — advised he was 

in a “shed with a belt around 

a hook that hangs from 

the rafters of the shed.” 

Less than an hour after the 

crisis line conversation, the 

veteran hanged himself, the 

investigation found. 

In that incident, crisis line 

staff also failed to properly 

document communications 

with the veteran and failed 

to inform local VA officials 

in Texas about the death, 

according to the IG. The 

inspector general also found 

the VA was not properly 

monitoring or reviewing 

responders’ conversations 

and actions with potentially 

suicidal veterans to ensure 

the highest quality of care. 

Miller said Wednesday that 

the crisis line has since 

improved. The VA has 

installed silent monitors 

to track call responders’ 

actions and is working on 

improving its ability to 

maintain records of text 

messages. 

The VA’s crisis line has 

grown in use in recent years. 

The hotline received more 

than 750,000 calls before 

July 2022 to July 2023, 

about a 12.5% increase from 

the previous year. Another 

250,000 veterans contacted 

the crisis line via text or chat 

message during that time, 

according to the VA. 

Miller said the VA has 

vastly expanded its crisis 

line, hiring more than 

900 individuals to work 

as responders and quality 

controllers since 2021 when 

it had about 550 responders. 

He told lawmakers that 

he believes the problems 

highlighted in the IG report 

have largely been addressed, 

and more improvements are 

imminent. 

“I, as a veteran, grieve the 

loss of this veteran. From the 

painful lens of retrospective 

review, we wish we could 

have done some things 

differently. It’s our earnest 

desire and pledge to apply 

the wisdom gained through 

this review to strengthen 

processes as we continue to 

serve veterans, who are at 

the center of all we do, even 

at this very minute as we 

answer calls,” Miller said. 

“We’re better than what was 

depicted in that report, and 

we have to do better than 

what was depicted in that 

report.” 

Senators from multiple 

states lamented the wait 

times that veterans face in 

attempting to receive care 

from the VA, including 

mental health care. Sen. 

Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., 

said waiting periods in her 

home state stretched from 

about one week in Nashville 

to more than 90 days at 

a rural clinic in northern 

Tennessee. 

“I hear a good bit about 

this” from constituents, 

Blackburn said. “This 

access issue is one we have 

got to solve.” 

Miller said the VA is working 

toward ensuring veterans 

in crisis receive immediate 

mental health care when 

they need it. If a veteran is 

in crisis, he should be seen 

at a local clinic, he said. 

“Same day access is the 

first step that should be in 

place at every local facility 

regarding this,” he told 

senators. “That’s what 

should occur.” 

Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, 

said the VA needed to 

speed up its telehealth 

improvement efforts to 

decrease wait times and 

better respond to veterans 

when they face a crisis, such 

as suicidal thoughts. Miller 

agreed. 

“I think telehealth is an 

opportunity to provide the 

care nationwide that perhaps 

might not be available, 

particularly in a rural area,” 

King said. “What I hear 

from my veterans in Maine 

– they really like the care 

they are getting from the VA 

… The question is access — 

when do they get the care? 

And that’s a large issue.”


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Senators Call on DOD 

to Explain Whether its 

Medical Records System 

is Causing Recruiting 

Delays 

Two senators are questioning 

whether an electronic records 

system is partly to blame for 

the military’s failure to get 

enough recruits into basic 

training because it has led 

to delays in clearing them 

medically. 

Sens. Elizabeth Warren of 

Massachusetts and Richard 

Blumenthal of Connecticut, 

both Democrats on the Senate 

Armed Services Committee, 

said they have requested the 

Defense Department describe 

the severity of the delays and 

called for an evaluation of the 

impact the delays have had on 

recruiting. 

Recruiters from each service 

branch have had difficulty 

in the last two years finding 

enough candidates for basic 

training. The Army missed 

its recruitment goal in 2022 

by about 15,000 soldiers, 

according to the service. The 

2023 recruiting deadline 

ends Sept. 30, the last day 

of the fiscal year, and the 

Air Force and Navy have 

joined the Army in saying the 

services will likely miss their 

enlistment targets. 

“It is essential that recruits 

are healthy enough to enlist 

in the military. However, 

DOD needs to examine the 

steps it is taking to ensure 

that the process of enlisting 

and obtaining waivers does 

not impede the recruitment 

process,” the senators wrote 

in a letter sent Wednesday 

to Defense Secretary Lloyd 

Austin. “If this backlog 

continues, we may lose our 

next generation of military 

leaders who are well-qualified 

but may be deterred from 

applying because of long past 

and fully addressed medical 

issues.” 

In March 2022, the Defense 

Department employed a new 

congressionally 

mandated 

health information system 

called Genesis at all 67 

military processing stations. 

The system is intended to 

improve the department’s 

ability to track the recruits as 

they move through the service 

because it holds all medical 

records in one digital location. 

A year after the rollout, Lin 

St. Clair, deputy director of 

the Defense Department’s 

accession policy directorate, 

said the program did cause 

initial delays in medically 

clearing recruits for basic 

training. 

The process now takes about 

three days longer on average 

than it did before Genesis. 

From the time a recruiter 

submits an applicant for 

evaluation to the time that the 

recruit signs a contract takes 

about 27 days on average, 

according to the Defense 

Department. However, half of 

applicants make it through in 

nine days or fewer. 

However, the senators wrote 

that processing times are 

much longer. The Navy’s 

average processing period 

is almost 60 days — double 

what it was before Genesis 

was implemented, according 

to Warren and Blumenthal. 

Aside from delays, the 

senators were also concerned 

Genesis might be creating 

barriers to accessing benefits 

information and invading the 

privacy of service members 

and military recruits. They 

cited reports that a credit card 

is needed to access Genesis, 

which has led to fears that 

personal information could be 

sold to third-party companies.


Long Road to Compensation for Camp Lejeune 

Victims Takes a Turn 

The government this month took the first step toward 

settling some of the nearly 100,000 claims by veterans 

and family members who say they were harmed by 

contaminated drinking water at Marine Corps Base 

Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. 

But while the offers of between $100,000 and $550,000 

from the Navy and the Justice Department to settle 

claims are likely to be accepted by some victims, many 

others and their attorneys are still pushing for action on 

more than 1,100 cases already filed in federal court. 

“I’m committed to vigorously advocating for trials 

to begin in 2024,” Ed Bell of Bell Legal Group in 

Georgetown, S.C., the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, 

said in an emailed response to questions. “The veterans, 

their families and others that have suffered from the 

water at Camp Lejeune and, after decades of waiting, 

they deserve to have their day in court.” 

The actions in the decades-old saga were prompted by 

a 2022 law known as the PACT Act, which provides 

compensation for servicemembers exposed to toxic air 

from burn pits used by the military overseas, including 

in Iraq and Afghanistan. The law included provisions 

allowing those harmed at Camp Lejeune, where the water 

contained a host of contaminants from the mid-1950s 

through the mid-1980s, to file damage claims with the 

Navy and, if those were not resolved after six months, 

to file lawsuits in federal court in North Carolina. 

When the one-year anniversary of the law passed in 

August without settlements of any claims, pressure 

mounted on federal officials to start moving on the more 

than 93,000 claims that have piled up at the Navy’s 

Judge Advocate General’s Office and the more than 

1,100 cases filed in federal court. 

The DOJ and the Navy responded on Sept. 6 with a 

process called the “elective option” offering settlements 

based on the amount of time spent at Camp Lejeune and 

the damage that was done later. 

Those who contracted any of five “Tier 1” diseases — 

kidney cancer, liver cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, 

leukemia or bladder cancer — are eligible for $150,000

WWW.MHCE.US Monthly Newsletter | 27


US Military Hospitals in Japan Further Ease DOD 

Civilians’ Access to Health Care 

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan 

– Three military hospitals in 

Japan are relaxing their rules 

on access to medical care for 

Defense Department civilian 

employees and other clients 

not covered by Tricare Prime, 

the military’s highest level 

health care plan. 

Health care providers at 

Yokota, the airlift hub in 

western Tokyo; Camp Zama, 

the headquarters of U.S. Army 

Japan southwest of Tokyo; and 

Naval Hospital Okinawa at the 

Marine Corps’ Camp Foster 

all freed additional time for 

DOD civilians to make spaceavailable 

appointments for 

chronic medical conditions. 

Starting March 27, patients 

limited to space-available 

appointments at Yokota’s 

374th Medical Group may 

schedule visits up to three days 

in advance for routine care 

like annual check-ups, urgentcare 

follow-ups and care for 

chronic issues like diabetes 

and high blood pressure. The 

medical group announced 

the change Wednesday on its 

Facebook page. 

Naval Hospital Okinawa also 

loosened its rules to permit 

space-available clients to 

schedule appointments at any 

time at the hospital and branch 

clinics, according to a post on 

the hospital’s Facebook page 

Monday. Active-duty service 

members, their families and 

other priority patients still have 

priority on the appointment 

calendar, according to the 

post. 

“The precedence of care is 

still the same; active-duty 

service members and their 

families have priority. All 

other patients will be seen 

on a space-available basis, 

while efforts will be made 

to maximize space-available 

access,” said a March 8 post 

on the hospital’s Facebook 

page. 

The Brig. Gen. Crawford F. 

Sams Army Health Clinic 

at Camp Zama rolled out a 

pilot program Monday that 

permits DOD civilians and 

others not covered by Tricare 

to schedule same day and 

some future space-available 

appointments at its primary 

care and optometry clinics. 

Patients must call starting at 

10 a.m. to schedule same day 

appointments or sign up for 

open slots or cancellations 

over the next three days, 

according to a Monday post 

on the hospital’s Facebook 

page. 

Local exceptions apply. 

For example, obstetrics is 

unavailable to space-available 

patients on Okinawa, but the 

Yokota medical group still 

provides care to expectant 

mothers. The mental health 

and physical therapy on 

Okinawa have been at capacity 

since December 2022 and 

are closed to space-available 

patients, the hospital said.

October 2023 — MHCE Newsletter

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