THE ORIGINAL VA MOTTO
:to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan”.
NEW VA MOTTO
“To fulfill President Lincoln’s promise to care for those who have served in our nation’s military and for their families, caregivers, and survivors.”
In September 1960, a number of young, mostly poor, Kentuckians were directed by their applicable military service recruiter to report to the Military Entrance Processing (MEPS) Center in Louisville, KY for medical examinations and administrative processing for entry into the US Armed Forces. After completing the cited requirements, those of entering into the US Air Force were transported to the Louisville Airport for a C-4 7 aircraft flight to the airport at San Antonio, TX. (For most of us, this was our first flight aboard an airplane.)
Upon entering the airport terminal, we were met by Military Technical Instructors from the Military Training Command’s Lackland Air Force Base. We boarded Air Force Buses for transportation to the base’s Basic Training Induction Center and there assigned s numbered flight squadron and technical instructors and a military barracks for residence.
I will not go into the day to day basic training routine but only relate a point pertinent to this blog which was the following: On more than one occasion, basic trainees were addressed the benefits of being a career airman versus less than twenty years honorable service. To this end, at the end of twenty years or more honorable military service to the United States, the career airman would receive a monetary retirement, a full range of medical care for the retiree and his dependents plus other benefits afforded a honorably discharged career person. The non-career person at the end of their contract would be issued a DD Form 214, Military Discharge Document, identifying pertinent information of their military service which would enable them to seek Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care and Benefits should the injury or illness be determined to be Service Connected or in the Line of Duty.
At my military retirement on October 1, 1980, it was the Department of Defense’s policy to a copy of your military record, etc., to the Department of Veterans Affairs (DOVA). This action, I suppose, was to provided the DOVA with a summary of injuries, illness, and other infractions applicable to the retired career person and schedule the retiree for a medical examination by a certified VA designated Claims Doctor and Clinic. In my case, I was hired, by Northrop Aircraft Corporation, with duty at King Khalid Air Base, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. To this end, the DOVA hired a former British Air Force Flight Surgeon, now employed by the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF), to conduct a medical examination whereas from said examination I was awarded payable and non-payable Service Connected Disabilities plus other disabilities, over the decades, were rated Service Connected with four under review based on a VA Judge’s Order of Remand. I am currently rated one hundred percent Service Connected.
From my tour of duty at the Joint Casualty Resolution Center (JCRC) where our mission was to go into Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam to recover the remains of US Military Mssing In Action and when not on search and recovery missions we would read classified and unclassified documents regarding US military personnel that were injured, wounded, captured, etc. From these reading sessions, we would make IBM Computer Entries regarding the former military person’s Southeast Asia experience. Unfortunately, what we learned was too often the draftee, because of their inhumane treatment in the Jungles, etc at the reassignment to Oakland or Fort Washington would waive all administrative assistance such as discharge benefits, etc they would return to the home of record. Too often these draftees would not obtain employment where they paid social security or other payments to assure a retirement income for their golden years. Also, many, especially in Southeastern Kentucky, lived off a parent, relative, partner or from coal income without attempting to establish a health and monetary retirement fund.
As the draftee and the non-career person retired, without sufficient income and health benefits, they began to complain to the government using their non-career military status as a source of alleged obligation by government. (They failed or wanted to forget their time in basic training where they were told no career no benefits.) The VA has always, since 1960, afforded any former service member with the opportunity to file a claim on a case by case basis to be awarded benefit. However, it wasn’t until the traitor Donald J. Trump, Republican politicians and the insurance company came up with the solution to the draftees failures in that any former military service member with one day in the service, during a period of war, was below the poverty line; he or should could apply for and receive full VA benefits.
You may recall in 1960, I wrote military retirees could receive certain benefits. Well, when I retired in 1980, the US government said the government could not long comply with the contracts we signed and that the military recruiters lied. Thankfully, Congress came to the rescue by establishing Health Care For Life Insurance for military retirees however, the insurance does not cover dental, eyes, and other health care promised in the original contract. We continued to received our monetary pay as promised plus other benefits. Many of career military, such as myself, bit our tongues and endured the mental stress from the untruths and control of the US military by the Federal Reserve private owners until retirement. My retirement papers were approved two years prior to my retirement date.
The traitors Trump and the Federal Reserve owners have turned our military into thieves, debt collectors and revenue seeking ventures in foreign lands such as ongoing in the Bread Basket of the former Soviet Union. We need a change of government consisting of true US Citizens. Our country is a Constitutional Republic, not a true democracy or theocracy … IN FACT THE GODS OF ABRAHAM ARE SCAMS.
FOR ONE’S INFORMATION: The July -August 23 DAV Magazine’s cover page reads, in part:
“A nation with VETERANS HEALTH CARE and DAV explores the catastrophic impact of dismantling the Veterans Health Administration.”
Thank you.
With respect, I remain.
Billy Ray Wilson
Defender of the US Constitution