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Page 4 • December 2011 • Military Medical News www.militarymedical.com
Marine enrolls in NIU’s graduate program for rehabilitating blind veterans
“I fell in love with NIU,” Nathan
LaForte explains as he reflects on
his first campus visit. “I felt like
this is what college should feel like.”
A native of Zion, Ill., LaForte enrolled
in NIU during the fall of 2007. He
received his undergraduate degree in
Psychology in May of 2011.
Now a graduate student with the
College of Education, he is enrolled
in the Masters in Special Education
program with an emphasis on Blind
Rehabilitation and Orientation
Mobility.
LaForte is one of just five students to
receive a one-time grant that instructs
them to work with veterans who have
lost their sight.
The special Congressional awarded
grant was offered shortly after NIU was
nationally recognized for being a veteran
friendly campus.
LaForte is learning to instruct visually
impaired veterans how to live day
to day and to do the same things they
did before they lost their sight.
LaForte’s journey began when Dr.
Gaylen Kapperman, Professor and
Coordinator of the Visual Disabilities
Program, came into LaForte’s undergraduate
class to give an informational
speech about the unique opportunity.
At the time, LaForte’s studies were
preparing him to become a social studies
teacher; however, the closer he came
to reaching his goal, the more anxiety
he felt about teaching an entire classroom
full of adolescents.
LaForte may have been looking for
a different path when Dr. Kapperman
walked into his classroom that day.
LaForte recalls Kapperman’s persuasive
speech. He laughs and says “Dr.
Kapperman is a good salesman.”
As Kapperman talked about the program
designed to rehabilitate blind veterans,
LaForte couldn’t help but recall
NATHAN LaFORTE
what it was like to work one-on-one
with people in the military.
He served eight years in active duty
with the Marine Corps and one year in
the reserves.
In that time, he worked as a mechanic
and as a journalist. LaForte recalls,
“They always had me do the on-the-job
training, which really trained me to go
one-on-one with someone.”
Kapperman’s announcement of the
program evoked these memories in
LaForte. Now that he could work oneon
one with students, he began to regain
confidence about his original goal of
becoming a teacher.
The program focuses on the rehabilitation
of soldiers that return sightless
from Iraq and Afghanistan. In reference
to loss of sight, Kapperman states, “It
is seen by many to be one of the most
disastrous things that can happen to a
human being.”
And in stating the significance of the
program he says, “We are here to help
those people regain as much of their
former lives as possible.”
In part, the program teaches participants
how to use and teach others to use
products that can help re-socialize the
visually impaired with the everyday
world. These products include braille
computers and electronic devices, such
as, GPS systems for the blind.
In addition, the program emphasizes
the relearning of everyday tasks, like
cooking. Kapperman calls the course
“cooking without looking.” Kapperman
stresses that the adjustment to life after
losing one’s sight is as much of a psychological
adjustment as it is physical;
the program prepares its students for
this obstacle.
The program specialized for veterans
includes instruction like the traditional
classes for blind rehabilitation, in addition
to coursework to help support veterans
who suffer from post-traumatic
stress disorder or traumatic brain injuries.
LaForte believes there are no limits
to what individuals with visual impairments
can do. He plans to expand the
learning experience beyond the classroom,
to include “outward bound” kinds
of excursions.
“They don’t think they can do these
kinds of things, but they can,” he says
with conviction. Kapperman emphasizes
the significant impact of LaForte and
his fellow classmates : “Without the
training that our students provide [for]
their clients, the blinded soldiers would
remain dependent helpless individuals
relying on everyone else.”
The five students are taking six courses
for two semesters and then one year
of internships. The six courses are keeping
LaForte up till 2:30 in the morning,
studying rigorously. LaForte says, “I
feel that it has really been a team effort
for the faculty to keep us going through
our first semester. And without our
faculty members, like Dr. Kapperman,
Sean Tikkun, and Dr. Bill Penrod and
everyone else answering our frenzied
e-mails and phone calls about course
material at all hours of the day, we
couldn’t make it.”
Additionally, LaForte believes his
participation in extracurricular activities
made him successful at NIU. LaForte
was uninvolved and unfulfilled when
he first arrived at NIU, but quickly he
became a member to multiple organizations:
Alpha Phi Omega (APO),
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Club, Gymnastics
Club, University 101 and 201 (UNIV),
Orientation Leader, Military Student
Services office.
APO is a national service fraternity
where LaForte participated in food
drives, fundraisers, and auctions to
help others. At the Gymnastics Club,
LaForte learned how to push himself
physically and mentally. “You have to
commit to a movement or else you will
fall. I have taken this and applied it to
my personal philosophy. If you don’t
commit in life, you’ll never reach the
heights you can.”
LaForte emphasizes the influence his
extracurricular activities had on him,
“I would not have stayed in college if
I had not joined [these organizations].
Joining them made NIU a home.”
LaForte’s dedication to higher learning
and achievement has been recognized
by the academic domain when
he was the recipient of the Kevin D.
Knight Leadership Award and was
crowned Who’s Who on NIU’s campus
in 2010. LaForte remains on his path of
commitment to higher education as he
pursues his graduate degree to become
a lifeline for visually impaired soldiers
and the rest of the world.
McCain: Tricare fees must rise to control costs
By Rick Maze
Staff writer
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Thursday that “dire
circumstances” are the reason he’s willing to make
military retirees pay more for health care benefits.
McCain, a decorated Vietnam veteran and former
prisoner of war who is the ranking Republican on the
Senate Armed Services Committee, has drawn fire
from retirees because of his suggestion that they can
pay more for Tricare health coverage for themselves
and their families.
“Military retirees and their families deserve the best
possible care in return for a career of military service,
and nothing less,” McCain said on the Senate floor
during debate on the $526 billion defense authorization
bill for fiscal 2012.
“But we cannot ignore the fact that health care costs
will undermine the combat capability and training and
readiness of our military if we don’t begin to control
the cost growth now,” he said.
“I am solemnly aware of the commitment this
nation has made to the men
and women who have served in the military regard-
ing health care and benefits. This nation has made
promises for many years and has endeavored to
keep those promises. We are faced with a set of dire
circumstances regarding the long term viability of
entitlement programs that threatens to undermine
a whole range of promises we have made to every
American,” he said.
The defense bill being debated by the Senate
includes two provisions to hold down health care
costs, and McCain said he wished it did more.
The bill trims $330 million off the $16.4 billion
account to cover private-sector care for family members
and retirees, a reduction made when the armed
services committee voted Nov. 15 to cut an additional
$21 billion from the version of the defense bill it had
approved earlier this year.
The bill also allows the Defense Department to
increase Tricare Prime enrollment fees in the future,
but caps the increases at the rate of annual cost-ofliving
adjustments in military retired pay.
“This is the first step and important progress in
helping the Department of Defense control spiraling
health care costs. But, as with other challenges we
faced in this bill, we could have and should have
done more,” McCain said.
Separately, McCain has proposed barring military
retirees from enrolling at all in Tricare Prime -- the
health plan with the lowest out-of-pocket costs for
most retirees -- while also supporting the creation of
a $200 enrollment fee for Medicare-eligible retirees
using the Tricare for Life benefit and an increase in
copayments for prescription drugs.
McCain’s views have drawn sharp criticism. In a
Nov. 16 letter, retired Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Jack
Klimp, president of the National Association for
Uniformed Services, expressed “deep disappointment”
in McCain’s views.
“Certainly, Tricare costs have increased in recent
years. We have, after all, been at war for more than a
decade,” Klimp said, predicting costs will decline as
the number of people in the military shrinks when
U.S. troops withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Caring for our casualties, the moral responsibility,
most certainly, helped drive up costs,” Klimp said.
But he added that at the same time senior military
leaders were complaining about skyrocketing health
care costs, some lawmakers were diverting Tricare
funds to pay for military medical research.