First Hand Knowledge I dont know a lot about the military. My dad was a WWll veteran and spent four years in Europe during the war. Like most veterans of his generation, he didnt talk about his experience. My draft lottery number during the Vietnam war was 46. I had the required physical to enter the service but was never called because the war was winding down at the time. Like most individuals of my generation, the things I remember most about the war were the protests against it and the number of soldiers who were killed every day. It was the daily headline in Standard Speaker. I also remember the despicable way our servicemen and women were treated upon their return home from Vietnam. Today, most of us who are not low information voters are fairly knowledgeable about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Everyone, including me, has their own opinion about the wars and maybe even know some individuals who have fought in them. I have a young friend who lost a leg in Iraq because of an IED. He spent 1.5 years at Walter Reed, and thankfully is now able to lead a normal life, at least physically. I know for a fact that the government has fought him tooth and fricken nail every step of the way regarding his receipt of health care, continued treatment and disability payments. Its nothing less than shocking. I naively thought that he would undoubtedly and unquestionably receive everything owed to him. Sadly, its not so. When he fails to jump through some of the ridiculous hoops hes made to in order to keep his so-called benefits, theyre simply cut off. And it takes him months to get them back. Very nice. I have a good friend who retired from the Navy a few years ago. Were the same age. Hes a Naval Academy grad and an MD. His last assignment was in WDC. He served over 30 years and he retired as a captain. About a year after he retired he became bored so he looked for another job. He and another retired military dr. were hired by the VA at its HQ in DC. Their assignment was to help review the enormous backlog of files of servicemen/women who served in Iraq and/Afghanistan and were seeking the VAs assistance. They were hired immediately after the backlog became public. When we last spoke, my friend told me he was looking for a new job. He went on to say that he had never, ever in his life been treated the way he had since he began his VA employment. He said they were totally ostracized. No one would give them the time of day or speak to them. They werent included in staff meetings and were given no direction. He noted that his boss was a young civilian employee. Even though he(boss) walked right by his open office door several times a day, he never once spoke to him or even introduced himself. Never. My friend said he felt as if he was living/working in a parallel universe. In the almost 20 years I have known my friend, I had never, ever seen him as downtrodden as he was when we last spoke. It was sad. He reluctantly admitted that the only reason he and the other dr. were hired was so that the administration could assert that it took steps to alleviate said file backlog. He opined that it would take 20 dr.s years to get through all the files. Even as I type this, I still shake my head in disbelief. Its hard to believe what were currently up against in this wonderful country in which we live. Its just simply hard to believe.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 11:14:39 +0000
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