Update on the Iraq vet who shut down the US 101 overpass in Santa Barbara

[Hekate]

This was one of the original threads
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=7734083

Today I got an email from a friend in the Vets for Peace here. Somehow, even as I said a prayer for that tormented soul while he was on the overpass, I knew that Lane would be involved in some fashion. Please keep writing your Congresscritters about treatment for our returning veterans.

Hekate
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Lane's email to the SB peace community:

The story of Edward Kyle Van Tassel has not really been told. I attended the arraignment today and spoke with Kyle's lawyer and family. Kyle's mother told me that he goes by that name because his father was Edward. Edward Van Tassel senior was a Vietnam veteran who died in February and who once set up crosses at Arlington West on Santa Barbara's waterfront when his son Kyle was in Iraq.

Surprising was the absence of members of the veterans community other than two members of Veterans For Peace and Disabled American Veterans. Perhaps other veterans feel that holding one buddy while he bled to death in combat and having another friend commit suicide should not be things that cause a soldier to protest as Kyle did? Maybe the larger veterans community will show up at Van Tassel's trial. I hope so!

Kyle Van Tassel's attorney cited Penal Code 1170.9, which allegedly allows disabled veterans to receive treatment rather than incarceration. Kyle Van Tassel stated that he would rather be in Santa Barbara where his grandmother and mother could visit him. Kyle's military training was obvious as he always replied with a Sir!
He was in a separate glassed enclosure in an orange jump suit and spoke via intercom. Between questions and remarks he stood at attention, holding his hands together in a prayerful position. It is not clear at this time whether Kyle is considered a disabled veteran by the government or not, since we have not yet gotten a DD214 or discharge summary. If he is suffering from PTSD, as seems likely, he should have been medically discharged and received extensive psychiatric testing and treatment.

Just a week before Edward Kyle Van Tassel stood on the overpass surrounded by police, I met with Congresswoman Lois Capps and her staff about the returning veterans who are falling through the cracks in our discharge and treatment process. Capps Legislative Assistant Amy Fisher is currently working on a method to improve the way disabled veterans of the current wars are reintergrated into our society. The system currently offers most of them an honorable discharge rather than a medical discharge under honorable conditions. The Disabled American Veterans were banned from Walter Reed Army Hospital for counseling returned disabled veterans to demand medical discharges rather than simple honorable discharges so that they would receive better long term treatment. This is something the current new administration should work with congress on! Post 1649 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the largest combat veteran organization, has also endorsed this change in the way returned vets are treated.

The Veterans For Peace and Disabled American Veterans will continue to monitor this case and ensure that this veteran gets the treatment that he deserves. I invite other veterans and veterans organizations to join us.

R. Lane Anderson, Adjutant,
Disabled American Veterans Ch. 37
Lifetime Member of Veterans For Peace and Veterans of Foreign Wars