Category: Veterans Issues

Let me begin by saying that I’m no fan of Tammy Duckworth. Although I respect her for her service and sacrifice for this country, she’s done nothing that benefits veterans, despite the fact that she worked in positions of leadership at the Veterans’ Affairs Departments of both Illinois and in DC. She has been better at feathering her own nest than making veterans’ lives more comfortable.

Having said that, she’s getting caught up in the actual war against women that the Democrat party is waging. Ms. Duckworth is an amputee and simultaneously she happens to be eight months pregnant and her doctor has recommended that she doesn’t travel back to DC in time for the Congressional leadership votes this Fall. So she applied for approval from her party leadership to submit proxy votes. Unfortunately for her, her party leadership is Nancy Pelosi;

Duckworth wrote a letter to the Democratic Caucus, but her request was denied by Reps. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.).

“Congresswoman DeLauro does not want to set a precedent. There are many meritorious situations where the argument could be made for a waiver, including Congresswoman Duckworth’s. The question is, how do you choose?” said DeLauro’s spokeswoman Sara Lonardo.

According to Fox News, the dispute stems from the appointment for the Ranking member seat on the Energy and Commerce Committee. Pelosi wants Anna Eshoo of California in the position and Duckworth is supporting Frank Pallone of New Jersey, so Pelosi and DeLauro decided that Duckworth can’t vote against their guy or gal or whatever people from California consider themselves.

Can you even imagine the stink if it was the Republican Party who did this to a pregnant woman who is also a disabled Iraq veteran? When I broke my ankle, my office in the Federal government made changes so that I could work from home. When I got the ALS, they did the same thing when it became difficult for me to get to the office. But, I guess the Democrat Party doesn’t adhere to the practices that they force on the rest of the country.

Folks have been sending me this screen shot of a rant that a fellow by the name of Michael Schuette in Alabama posted to social media;

I really don’t care if Michael or anyone else thinks I’m a hero, I’m in complete agreement with them in that regard. And I’ve said as much consistently. I don’t even know where these people get the idea that we think we’re heroes. No one here has said it. I’ve never heard a veteran or active duty member of the military call themselves heroes – even real heroes deny that they’re heroes, so I know the stank-ass hippies who like to proclaim that we’re not heroes actually wish they could be heroes, or they wish that the American people have the same admiration for them that they have for the military…penis envy, if you will.

What I do take exception with is the other generalizations to which Michael subscribes. I haven’t “terrorized” any countries – I terrorized a lot of privates, though. “Corporate interests”? Really? Michael owns a business, so I guess I fought for his “corporate interests” too – helping to secure a safe and profitable environment in which he can operate his corporate interests. His business is buying and selling firearms, according to Yellow Hammer, so I guess he’s on someone’s list of “corporate interests” that run counter to good liberal citizenship.

He lists a few occupations that he considers “heroes” (notice that he doesn’t mention LEOs – probably some of his clients), but he adds in ACLU lawyers, so that tells us something about his politics.

Anyway, he realized how his rant may be costing him business;

Funny how, when folks vote with their wallets, it has an impact in the real world. Then, of course, being the little weasel that he is, Michael goes for the sympathy defense;

You have guns, right, Mike? What’s a few death threats? But I think he’s making the threats up out of whole cloth. Yes, you have a right to express your opinion on the internet, but, when you do, the people who disagree have the same right to express their opinions to you. When you decide that expressing your ill-considered opinion about veterans on Veterans’ Day, expect a loud response. Rants don’t happen in a vacuum on social media.

The Augusta Chronicle tells the story of Ivan Bolgla who bought a Purple Heart at an auction belonging to a World War II pilot, 2nd Lt. Harley Kempter, and got it back to the family through the efforts of Purple Hearts Reunited, a not-for-profit-organization that exists for that reason;

“I try to pride myself on keeping it together, but that was impossible,” Kempter said after being reunited with his uncle’s Purple Heart. “I had nothing tangible I could lay my hands on connecting me with my namesake, other than his engraving on the Honolulu Memorial at the National Memorial Cemetery in Hawaii. This is the only reminder I have of my uncle.”

[…]

A final report showed that Harley Curtiss Kempter was born in 1915 in Clinton, Iowa, and enlisted in the Army National Guard on May 16, 1942.

He later served in the Army Air Corps as a P-47N fighter pilot in the 333rd Fighter Squadron, 318th Fighter Group, one of the first units credited with destroying Japanese bombers during the war.

The report further stated Kempter was killed in action Aug. 8, 1945, while flying a protection mission in Fukucko Wan, Japan. After word of his death spread, Fike said, Kempter’s brother, William, an Air Corps mechanic, had a pilot fly him for an aerial search but could not find Kempter.

Vermont National Guard Captain Zachariah Fike, founder of Purple Hearts Reunited says he’s returned a hundred or so of these medals with the rightful families;

“It wasn’t supposed to be lost,” said Fike, an avid antiques collector for the past decade who has found hundreds of items that belonged to veterans by browsing vintage shops. “Somehow, it just lost its way over time.”

This year, like every year, I posted my portrait as a young platoon sergeant to my Facebook avatar, not as a way to attract the inevitable “thanks for your service” comments or even the flirts that I get (obviously from blind women). No, I posted it because I’m proud that I had an opportunity to serve my country. I never did anything heroic, nor do I claim that service in itself makes me a hero. But, those two decades of service has had a huge impact on my life and the lives of my family.

Another reason I do it is because my military antecedents of the Vietnam generation weren’t encouraged to discuss or advertise their service. When they came home from their war, they took off their uniforms and their service remained in the duffel bags in a dark corner of their basements. Even the soldiers who fought in wars before them didn’t respect their service. The Korean War veterans experienced the same treatment from the World War II generation when that war was fought to a draw.

Somehow, that black scar across the landscape on the National Mall etched with 58,000 names changed that. I won’t try to explain the phenomenon, I’ll just recognize that was the turning point for Americans’ appreciation for military service. Now, I can be publicly proud of my service because of the sacrifice that Vietnam veterans made, the sacrifice that came after they returned from war.

The pendulum has swung all the way back to the other extreme, now people who never served want to strap on a uniform and tell wild tales about wars in which they never really served. Our Stolen Valor page is chocked full of them. I guess we should feel better that everyone wants to be like us, but trust me, we don’t.

The appreciation that Americans have for their military has even prompted the people who haven’t served to denigrate our service in an attempt to elevate their own station in life by attempting to drag our reputations down to their level. They even make it attractive for veterans to come out this time of year and write articles about how they don’t think they should be thanked for their service. We have a word for that, now – it’s called being a Blue Falcon.

I’ll admit that I’m a little embarrassed every time someone thanks me for my service, because being in the military was the best times of my life, and I’m embarrassed that someone thinks that I need to be thanked for the privilege of getting paid for being the best asshole I could be.

But, I know the feeling that I got the first time I went to downtown DC on Veterans’ Day and, encountering a lone Vietnam veteran hanging out on the periphery of the activities, I reached out my hand and said “Welcome Home”, he shook my hand and then quickly brushed away a tear, embarrassed by his own emotional reaction to those two simple words.

Maybe that’s what we all want – instead of the thanks, the martial pageantry, the placards, the cheers – maybe we just want to feel welcomed back here in our home.

My special thanks to all of the Vietnam veterans who made sure that we didn’t have to wait two decades to feel welcomed.

Republican Senator Tommy Coburn is on a tear again – this time it’s about “triple-dipping” veterans who get a retirement check, a VA disability check and social security. Coburn claims that the weight of the payments to veterans is what is causing the debt, I guess. According to Military.com, there are 60,000 veterans who are triple-dipping.

Some lawmakers say the report shows the need for better coordination among government programs that are facing severe financial constraints. The Social Security Disability Insurance trust fund could run out of money in as soon as two years, government officials say.

“We should fulfill our promises to the men and women who serve, but we need to streamline these duplicative programs,” said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who requested the study.

Veterans groups disagree. They say the retirement money was earned for years of service in the military, while disability payments are compensation for service-related injuries and wounds.

In most cases, veterans who receive a combination of benefits are severely disabled. About 4 in 5 veterans who got triple payments had a disability rating of at least 50 percent, the GAO said. Nearly half of those receiving triple payments were at least 60 percent.

Well, if that such an odious thing, the government should pay back, in lump sum, our contributions to Social Security if collecting Social Security is going to put the program in danger.

Besides, I call bullshit on paying veterans what they earned. I know a fellow back home who was fired for smoking pot on the job, he was fired and can’t find anyone stupid enough to hire him now – so after a while on unemployment, then on welfare, he’s on SSID, and I’m sure that there are far more of those cases than there are veterans collecting on benefits that they earned.

Veterans are the easiest to blame for the government’s overspending. For decades, retired veterans paid for their own disability from the VA by reducing our own pensions by the amount that the VA paid us. I didn’t hear anyone stand up for us then, but now, suddenly, were getting enough money to live on and it’s too much.

The article says that there is someone getting more than $200k in benefits. I’m not thinking that’s an enlisted soldier – but guess what, it’s the enlisted soldiers who make up the bulk of those who will pay the price for this one guy (I’m guessing that he’s a general officer) if Coburn gets his way.

In the interests of full disclosure, I’m not a triple dipper yet. I earned too much money this year to qualify for Social Security Disability, but I probably will qualify next year. I’m not a six-figure dipper, though, but I’m comfortable.

Mostly, I’m just tired of veterans being the target of the budget cutters because the politicians don’t have the cojones to cut where the real waste lies.

Thanks to Chief Tango and Chockblock for the links.

Chief Tango sends us a link to the Department of Justice which reports their lawsuit against Pima Community College in Arizona for discrimination against a National Guardsman who is a member of the PCC police force. Timothy Stoner is a sergeant first class in the Arizona National Guard as well as a police officer since 2001. Stoner served 21 years in the Guard which included three years on active duty and deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. He was the Lead Police Officer until the department abolished the position and created the new position Police Corporal;

According to the department’s complaint, PCC created the supervisory position of police corporal in 2010. Prior to that position being created, Stoner effectively performed his assigned duties as a lead police officer, an assignment that was replaced by the creation of the police corporal position. In 2010 and 2013, Stoner applied for promotion to police corporal, but both times he was not selected. The lawsuit alleges that, in each of the two years, Stoner’s military service was a motivating factor in PCC’s decision to deny him promotion to police corporal. According to the lawsuit, for both promotions, one of the two PCC officials who made the decision not to select Stoner exhibited anti-military bias against Stoner that was directly related to his military obligations. According to the suit, PCC conducted an investigation of Stoner’s internal complaint that his denial of promotion in 2013 was the result of anti-military bias by PCC selecting officials, and the college found that his complaint was substantiated. As a result, the PCC investigator recommended that remedial action be taken, including placing Stoner in an acting corporal position.

According to the Daily Caller, Police Chief Bay made numerous anti-military remarks;

Chief [Stella] Bay stepped up her anti-military rhetoric, saying that “military service members are so used to taking orders that they cannot think for themselves and do not do well in stressful situations,” in the words of the DOJ suit.

Chief Stella Bay has resigned.

The Arizona Daily Star reports that Chief Stella Bay resigned this week after allegations surfaced that she had poisoned officer morale to the point of imperiling campus safety.

Matthew Cline, executive director of an officers’ union, said in a letter this month that the majority of campus officers had no faith in Bay and that she had created a hostile work environment.