What was Obama thinking about Memorial Day?

What was Obama thinking about Memorial Day?

From the White House website.

President Barack Obama is reflected in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall as he delivers remarks during the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War commemoration ceremony in Washington, D.C., May 28, 2012.
(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)


These pictures were sent by email of what this ended up looking like for all the people trying to go and honor the fallen on the Wall!





Was he thinking about the people traveling from all across the country to honor the fallen from Vietnam and Vietnam veterans or was he thinking about himself?

For all the good he has done for veterans and should be proud of, he does something like this and fuels the animosity. It is doubtful he understood what Memorial Day weekend in Washington means to our veterans.

Several groups are very upset about this. There is one place where politicians should never turn a time to honor into a time to promote themselves. THE WALL IS A PLACE TO HONOR THE FALLEN AND ALL THE VETERANS OF VIETNAM.

Montford Point Marines to receive Congressional Gold Medal

Montford Point Marines to receive Congressional Gold Medal
June 03, 2012
AMANDA WILCOX
DAILY NEWS STAFF
The Montford Point Marines will be awarded Congress’ highest civilian award later this month.

"It’s been a long time coming," said retired Sgt. Maj. Nethaniel James, president of the Montford Point Marine Association, Camp Lejeune, Chapter 10. "I think it’s well deserved and it’s long been waited on."

Congress announced recently that a ceremony will be held June 27 in Washington D.C. to award the Montford Point Marines the Congressional Gold Medal.

The Montford Point Marines were the first blacks to ever serve in the U.S. Marine Corps. Overall, 19,168 black men trained at the segregated Montford Point in Jacksonville from 1942 to 1949.
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In February I interviewed Charles Forman at the Orlando Nam Knights Club House

Feb 12, 2012 Last night at the Orlando Nam Knights there was a surprise guest. Charles O. Foreman, a WWII veteran, member of the Montford Point Marines came. He is part of the group of Marines receiving the Congressional Gold Medal. At 87 he is just amazing. No matter what he had to go through because of the color of his skin, he'd do it all over again. He credits the Marines with making him the man he is today.

Army Sgt. Steve Flaherty's letters home from Vietnam finally going to family

Servicemember's letters from Vietnam to be returned to families
By JENNIFER HLAD
Stars and Stripes
Published: June 4, 2012

HANOI, Vietnam — On the day that he died more than 40 years ago, Army Sgt. Steve Flaherty carried with him a stack of letters he’d written but not yet sent to loved ones back home.

In one, addressed to “Betty,” he thanked her for the “sweet card” she’d sent.

“It made my miserable day a much better one but I don’t think I will ever forget the bloody fight we are having,” he wrote.

After he was killed on March 25, 1969, the letters were taken from him and used as propaganda by Vietnamese forces during the war. Now, Flaherty’s family will finally receive his last written words.

Vietnamese Minister of National Defense Gen. Phung Quang Thanh gave the letters — along with two other sets of letters that may have belonged to other American servicemembers — to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Monday. In return, Panetta presented the diary of a Vietnamese soldier, which had been taken after a firefight in March 1966 by an American Marine.
read more here UPDATE from CNN

June 4th, 2012

Decades after war, US and Vietnam swap slain troops' papers By the CNN Wire Staff

Nearly four decades after the end of the Vietnam War, the United States and Vietnam exchanged personal papers taken from the dead bodies of each others' troops for the first time, the Pentagon announced Monday.

On a historic visit to Hanoi, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta handed over a diary taken by a U.S. Marine from the body of Vietnamese soldier Vu Dinh Doan in 1966.

In exchange, Vietnamese Defense Minister Phuong Quang Thanh gave Panetta letters taken from the body of U.S. Army Sgt. Steve Flaherty in 1969 and later used in Vietnamese propaganda broadcasts.
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UPDATE

Vietnam soldier's letters make it home
Jun. 4, 2012 - Four decades ago, a U.S. soldier wrote home, telling of the horrors he saw in Vietnam. He was killed before he could mail the letters that were later stolen by the North Vietnamese. The letters were finally released by the Vietnamese military as part of a symbolic exchange with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. (CBS News)

POW-MIA Vietnam to open three sites to US remains recovery

Vietnam to open three sites to US remains recovery
By JENNIFER HLAD
Stars and Stripes
Published: June 4, 2012

HANOI, Vietnam – The Vietnamese government will open three previously restricted sites to allow U.S. teams to recover the remains of two airmen, a soldier and a Marine who have been missing since the Vietnam War, the top American and Vietnamese defense officials announced Monday.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Vietnamese Defense Minister Gen. Phung Quang Thanh met at the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense on Monday morning to discuss strengthening ties between the two countries.

In a joint press conference after the meeting, Thanh said through an interpreter that both men see the potential for mutually beneficial cooperation.

The U.S. and Vietnam in 2010 signed a memorandum of understanding that outlines five key areas for cooperation: high-level dialogues, maritime security, search-and-rescue operations, peacekeeping operations and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
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Documentary unveils rape in US military with testimonials

Documentary unveils rape in US military with testimonials
Stars and Stripes
Published: June 2, 2012

A new feature film documentary is winning festival awards and garnering national attention for its in-depth focus on the thousands of women raped every year within the U.S. military.

The makers of “The Invisible War” solicited personal stories from victims and interviewed about 70 for hours each.

At one point in the theatrical trailer, one woman, Kori Cioca, who says she was raped by her supervisor in the U.S. Coast Guard, brandished a hand knife with a blade longer than her fingers, explaining how she carries it on her at all times.

“You always have protection with Jesus but sometimes you need just a little bit more,” said Cioca, who was also holding a metal cross.

According to the Defense Department’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response report for 2011, of the 2,617 reported assaults, it is estimated that the figure represents only 14 percent of all actual offenses, making the total number of victims at 19,000 last year.

Of the 2011 sexual assaults, 191 military members were convicted as courts-martial, according to the film’s website.
read more here

Jail Death of Gulf War Veteran Haunts Joe Arpaio

Jail Death of Veteran Haunts Joe Arpaio, 'America's Toughest Sheriff'
Jun 3, 2012
Controversial Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio faces a lawsuit over the suspicious death of a mentally ill veteran in a Phoenix jail.
Terry Greene Sterling reports.

On a quiet day in early January, the family of Marty Atencio, a mentally ill Gulf War veteran who had died under suspicious circumstances at one of Sheriff Joseph Arpaio’s jails in Arizona, gathered to pay their respects at a funeral home in Phoenix. In their tributes to Atencio, who was 44, the grieving family recalled his recoveries, his relapses, his homelessness—and their struggle to help him.

Last Friday, six months after Atencio was buried with full military honors, the Maricopa County medical examiner released an unusual autopsy report that paints a horrifying picture of his last hours.

Atencio’s cause of death was tied to “complications of cardiac arrest” due to “acute psychosis, law enforcement subdual and multiple medical problems,” wrote the medical examiner, Mark Fischione. The medical examiner didn’t specify whether Atencio died of natural causes or was killed by the officers.

Atencio is at least the 12th inmate to die under strange circumstances in the Maricopa County jail system. (The Phoenix New Times lists 11 other such cases here.) And listing “law enforcement subdual” as one cause of death, according to former Maricopa County chief prosecutor Rick Romley, is particularly unusual because it could implicate law enforcement in Atencio’s death.

The former soldier’s allegedly rough treatment by officers at Arpaio’s infamous Fourth Avenue jail in Phoenix was caught on routine jail video tape. By then, Atencio had been in police custody for over four hours and had been showing signs of “acute psychosis,” the medical examiner reports. The video appears to show burly officers from Phoenix and Maricopa County piling on Atencio, apparently after he said something, though exactly what remains unclear because jail cameras don’t record audio.
read more here

Wounded Marine, family stunned by generosity

Wounded Marine, family stunned by generosity
Double amputee will get customized van, power wheelchair
Becca Y. Gregg
Reading Eagle
6/4/12

Sitting in the sun outside the Reading Country Club on Sunday, Lance Cpl. Mark I. Fidler was unsure of what to say.

"We're pretty much blown away by the generosity of people," said his mother, Stacy Fidler, breaking the silence until her son chimed in.

"Right now, we have a little car," Mark explained. "We have to fold the wheelchair up every time we go somewhere."

"This will make him more independent," added his older sister, Amanda Umberger.

The Fidlers of Upper Tulpehocken Township were referring to the handicapped-accessible van and motorized wheelchair that Mark will soon receive in a donation facilitated through the James E. "Bing" Miller Charitable Foundation.

A U.S. Marine and 2007 Hamburg High School graduate, Fidler lost both of his legs after stepping on an improvised explosive device less than a week into his first combat tour in Afghanistan last October.
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Decade of service, no benefits, living in car

Decade of service, no benefits, living in car
Jun. 2, 2012
Written by
Dustin Barnes

Fast Facts

•There are an estimated 205,644 veterans living in Mississippi as of Sept. 30, 2010.
•Veterans comprise roughly 7 percent of the state population.
•In the tri-county area, there are more than 31,300 veterans.
•Nearly 5 percent of homeless veterans in the country are female.
•An estimated 67,000 veterans in the U.S. are homeless on any given night.
•8 percent of the general population can claim veteran status, but nearly one-fifth of the homeless population are veterans.
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; National Coalition for Homeless Veterans

Paula Frazier is an average, middle-aged woman who doesn't draw attention to herself.

But over the last six months, she's had to reach out - make herself known - because she needs help.

Even though she served with the Army National Guard for roughly a decade, Frazier doesn't meet the requirements to receive veterans benefits.
v So, she's living out of her car.

"I feel lost. Empty," said Frazier, 47. "It's just a constant roll of stress going over me.

"What do I do tomorrow? What do I do today?"

Frazier's efforts to reach out may be paying off - not with the local Veterans Affairs office but with a homeless advocacy group.
read more here


Former Army National Guardsman Paula Frazier, 47, lives out of her car. After learning she doesn't qualify for many benefits because she was never deployed, Frazier has been struggling to find work and save enough money to put a roof over her head. / Greg Jenson/The Clarion-Ledger

Secret Millionaire Jacobs brought to tears by homeless veterans

How could a guy that loves Harley's go wrong? After all, with all the motorcycle groups doing good work for veterans, I had a feeling this guy would have his heart tugged more by homeless veterans than anything else. I was right.

I don't usually watch the show but once I heard homeless veterans would be one of the causes, I had to watch and I ended up crying.

Last night ABC Secret Millionaire was Scott Jacobs and his daughter Alexa.
One of the places they went to was G.I. Go Transition Center in New Jersey.

G.I. Go Veterans Transition Center
The transition center was founded after a friend of the men behind the place was killed in Iraq six years ago. They help veterans adjust to life when they get back home. Scott and Alexa take part in a training session for a midnight mission to search for homeless veterans. Alexa meets Ray, a Vietnam vet who suffers from PTSD. Scott is overwhelmed to see his daughter being so courageous so far out of her comfort zone.

Scott and Alexa take part in a "Stand Down" event which provides food, clothing and medical assistance to homeless veterans and their families. They meet the mother of Seth Dvorin, the 24-year-old who saved 18 men in Iraq.

The G.I. Go fund exists to keep his memory alive. Seth's friends don't take a salary, they live at home and they barely scrape by. Scott wants to help them out right away. He presents the organization with a check for $75,000. Tears of joy stream down the face of Seth's mother. His friends are speechless. As for Scott and Alexa, they leave the place with smiles on their faces that will last the rest of the day.

ABC Secret Millionaire Scott Jacobs

Link to the video from last night

If you ever want to find a reason to like rich people again, this show will do it. They are not all greedy and out for themselves. It was easy to see how much Scott and daughter Alexa cared about these homeless veterans.

Jacobs couldn't even wait for the next day to hand them the check once he decided to donate to them. He said another day is one more day they cannot help. Lord I wish I could have given him a hug when he handed the check to them!

GI Go Fund and Mayor Cory Booker Announce the Nationwide Launch of “Midnight Missions” for Homeless Veterans, as seen on the Season Premiere of ABC’s “Secret Millionaire”

Sunday, June 3rd 2012
GI Go Fund Executive Director Jack Fanous and Newark Mayor Cory Booker will reach out to homeless vets in Philadelphia, PA, Baltimore, MD, and Washington, DC. Announcement comes during a screening of the Season Premiere of ABC’s “Secret Millionaire”, highlighting the GI Go Fund’s work with homeless veterans.
Newark, NJ (PRWEB) June 03, 2012

GI Go Fund Executive Director Jack Fanous and Mayor Cory A. Booker announced that they will conduct nationwide “Midnight Missions” for homeless veterans, a comprehensive effort spreading through several major cities that will provide veterans who have the misfortune of living on the streets with critical services that will help them find a home. The "Midnight Missions" will reach the cities of Philadelphia, PA, Baltimore, MD, and Washington, DC.

The announcement came during a live screening of the Season Premiere of ABC’s “Secret Millionaire”, which shows millionaires concealing their identity while volunteering with nonprofit groups as they assist people in their community. The first episode of the season highlighted the work that the GI Go Fund does with the homeless veteran population, specifically their “Midnight Missions”, where volunteers go out at 4:00 am to areas densely populated with homeless veterans, including Newark Penn Station and Newark Liberty International Airport, to provide them with food, clothes, emergency medical assistance from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), as well as to collect information critical to help homeless veterans get off the street and into a home of their own.

The episode also featured the GI Go Fund’s “Stand Down for Homeless Veterans”, which provides homeless veterans with food, clothing, medical screenings from the VA, legal assistance, haircuts, and connections to housing opportunities. Following these events, the organization was awarded a $75,000 donation by “Secret Millionaire” and acclaimed Harley Davidson artist Scott Jacobs and his daughter, Alexa.
read more here

Fallen soldier in Iraq didn't tell family he was there

One thing about tracking all of this across the country is that some reports stun me. This is one of them. A US soldier, born in South Korea, wanted to join the military and serve this country. He didn't want his family to worry about him, so he didn't tell them he had been deployed. If that isn't strange enough, this part really got me.

"I didn't trust this document, so they called someone in the military. They were told when a soldier is born outside of the United States, they change his birthplace to a U.S. state. His had been changed to Kansas.

Slain Soldier Didn't Tell Parents He Was at War
Knight Ridder
by Imani Tate
Jun 02, 2012

Besides helping freedom-loving citizens of his adopted homeland and countries fighting tyranny, Jang Ho Kim of Placentia was fighting to protect his parents and sister.

Jang Ho, the son of La Verne's Nikuni Japanese Grill owner Steve Kim, thoroughly believed people everywhere should be free of worry and fear, so he enlisted in the Army in June 2005.

Not wanting his dad, mother Sang Soon Kim or little sister Michelle to fret about his safety, he fudged in conversations about his exact whereabouts after finishing basic training at Fort Benning, Ga., and combat training in Germany.

So, when two soldiers came to tell them Jang Ho had been killed in Baghdad, Steve Kim knew it had to be a mistake.

"I had just come back from lunch when I got a phone call from my wife," said Kim, then Samsung's information technology director in La Mirada. "She said two soldiers were at the house and asked me to come home."
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Clydesdales help wounded soldiers

Clydesdales help wounded soldiers
Hundreds turn out to support Yellow Ribbon Festival and Corn Hole Tournament
Posted: Sunday, June 3, 2012
By CHRIS POLK Staff Writer

EASTON The colors were red, white and blue Saturday on the grounds of the Easton VFW Post 5118 when hundreds of people showed up to support services for active-duty wounded soldiers and their caregivers.

The occasion was the Yellow Ribbon Festival and Corn Hole Tournament, sponsored by Kelly Distributing and organized by Big Tuna Promotions.

Front and center were the Budweiser Clydesdales. Eight of the enormous horses were decked out in their finest, with black and gold-trimmed harnesses and tiny red and white rosebuds woven with ribbons into their manes.

They pulled the gleaming red Budweiser wagon around the paved area of the VFW, driven by two green-capped drivers and a decorative Dalmatian hound named "Brewer." After several turns, they paused for photos, with some cameras going off like strobe lights as the crowd pressed forward.

In the background, the down-home strains of Bird Dog and the Road Kings could be heard as the corn hole tournament started getting warmed up in the "Beer Garden" area. Children tried to wear themselves out in the moon bounce games and alternately got their faces painted.
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Obama's focus on unemployed veterans hits close to home

Obama's focus on unemployed veterans hits close to home
Posted: Jun 02, 2012
By Christina Killion Valdez
The Post-Bulletin, Austin MN

On a trip to Minnesota last year, President Obama had lunch with Joseph Kidd, of Stewartville. But when Obama visited Minnesota on Friday, Kidd was happy to be at work instead.

When he met the president at a Cannon Falls restaurant, Kidd, a Navy veteran, had been unemployed since he was discharged in April 2011. The frustrating part, however, was that his years of military medical training didn't transfer to civilian experience, he said.

Obama is trying to change the situation for veterans, though, and on Friday, while speaking at Honeywell’s Golden Valley facility, he called on Congress to pass Veterans Job Corps legislation. The bill would leverage skills developed in the military to put Afghanistan and Iraq veterans to work as cops, firefighters and other jobs serving the community.

The president also announced a "We Can’t Wait" initiative to help thousands of service members with manufacturing and other high-demand skills receive civilian credentials and licenses.

"That would be great to help other veterans," Kidd said.

Kidd, though, is already looking to change his career track, from medicine to business, after following a friend's recommendation to apply for a job as a meter reader for Minnesota Energy Resources.
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Deaths under investigation at Camp Lejeune

Deaths under investigation
June 02, 2012
AMANDA WILCOX and MIKE MCHUGH
DAILY NEWS STAFF

The deaths of a Lejeune Marine and a Jacksonville man are under investigation, Jacksonville police said Friday.

The bodies were discovered late Thursday night. Jacksonville police were notified that someone was shot in the parking lot of Navy Federal Credit Union at 422 Yopp Road.

JPD, along with the N.C. Highway Patrol, found a black Dodge truck in the parking lot backed into the building. Jason Eimer, 30, of Jacksonville, was found dead inside the truck with multiple gunshot wounds, according to a release.

JPD.were then notified that a shooting suspect, Christoffer Apger, 32, of Jacksonville, was at the New River Harley Davidson at 2394 Wilmington Highway. As police officers arrived, Apger walked to the rear of the building and shot himself.

A Marine Corps spokesman confirmed that one of the men involved in the shooting was a Marine, but he could not confirm whether that man was Apger.

However, neighbors said Apger was an enlisted Marine from Texas stationed on Camp Lejeune who recently returned from a deployment to Afghanistan.
read more here

Camp Lejeune Marine murdered posted on Facebook

Soldier Killed, 2 Injured In Overnight Bar Shooting

Soldier Killed, 2 Injured In Overnight Bar Shooting
Shooting Happened Outside Colorado Springs Bar
Written By Justin Adams, News Editor
POSTED: 10:02 am MDT June 2, 2012

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A soldier was killed outside a Colorado Springs bar Saturday night in a shooting that also injured two other people.

The shooting happened around 1 a.m. at the Golden Cue Bar near the intersection of South Academy Boulevard and Hancock Expressway.

According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, police reported there were several fights at the bar that night. The soldier who was shot was taken to Fort Carson in a private car.
read more here

A Lone Marine Salutes

A Lone Marine Salutes
POSTED BY PATRICK EDABURN, ASSISTANT EDITOR IN AT TMV
JUN 2ND, 2012

Every year the veterans group Rolling Thunder holds a special event in Washington DC. They ride from the Pentagon to the Vietnam War Memorial both to bring attention to POW/MIA issues and to pay honor to the fallen.
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Widow pushes for change in treatment for PTSD

Our job really begins when they claim the title of Veteran and it does not end as long as they live. They will be a combat veteran 365 days a year.

The general public assumes it is all over for them and their families when they come home but as we've seen with the backlog of claims and the long lines at the VA, they may finally be getting the fact that for them and us, it is not over.

Widow pushes for change in treatment for PTSD
Jun. 3, 2012
Written by
JESSE BASS
American Staff Writer

Camp Shelby
Petal military widow Alicia McElroy cares for her 4-year-old son in the absence of his father.

"I see myself as raising a hero's son and not as a poor, single mom," she said.

Staff Sgt. James "Mac" McElroy had served in some of the most dangerous - and deadly - war zones.

A deployment with the U.S. Marine Corps to Afghanistan in the early 2000s.

A tour in Iraq with the Mississippi Army National Guard in 2005.

A return to Afghanistan in 2010 for a tour of duty with the National Guard.

But it wasn't on a battlefield where James McElroy lost his life.

Instead, nearly a year ago, the 30-year-old died suddenly - and unexpectedly - on American soil in a military hospital while undergoing treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Now, his widow has joined a list of families who want to see change in military standards for treatment of PTSD.
read more here

also
Soldier's widow wages war against meds she says killed her husband

Armor of God Military Ministry

1st. LT Ryan Presnal talks about going to war and coming back but the danger of combat is not over when they come home. He is stationed at Fort Hood. Members of his unit got divorced and some committed suicide.

The story of how one family dealt with the deployment and return of their son and the issues they dealt with and how the Armor of God Military Ministry was formed to offer hope and healing to our troops and their families. Armor of God Military Ministry is an outreach ministry of the WoodsEdge Community Church of The Woodlands, Texas.

Combat loss of genital or urinary organs now covered?

This is something veterans were not paid for before this? WOW!

TSGLI to start paying $50K for loss of genitals
By Rick Maze
Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jun 1, 2012

The Veterans Affairs Department announced Friday it will begin paying $50,000 in traumatic injury insurance to service members who suffer severe genitourinary losses.

The $50,000 payment of Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance traumatic injury payments will apply to the loss of genital or urinary organs as a result of military service, for injuries incurred on or after Oct. 7, 2001, VA announced in a Federal Register notice.
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Injured Iraq war vets to take lap around Belle Isle's Grand Prix track

Injured Iraq war vets to take lap around Belle Isle's Grand Prix track
June 2, 2012
By Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki
Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Nick Koulchar is a former Army sergeant who lost his legs in 2008 in Iraq. Since then, he has become a hand cycle marathoner with the Achilles Freedom Team and can go 26 miles in about two hours. / Larry Sillen/Special to the Free Press

Nick Koulchar won't be driving a race car when he does his lap around the track just prior to Sunday's Detroit Chevrolet Belle Isle Grand Prix. But fans are likely to cheer him all the same.

Koulchar of Macomb Township will pedal a hand cycle around the track just before the pace car leads the racers around, as part of the Achilles International Freedom Team of Wounded Veterans.

Koulchar is a former Army sergeant who lost both legs above the knee in 2008 when a car bomb exploded while he was on a routine patrol in Iraq. Since then, he has become a marathoner with the Freedom team and participated in last fall's Free Press/Talmer Bank Marathon. He can go 26 miles on his hand cycle in about two hours.

His goal is to help raise awareness about veterans such as himself, who came home with life-changing injuries.
read more here

Increase Funding for the VA Health Care System

Increase Funding for the VA Health Care System
June 1, 2012 Update


Earlier this year, DAV and our partner organizations in The Independent Budget, recommended that funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) FY 2013 health care budget be increased by $3.8 billion in order to meet increased demand and rising health care costs. By contrast, the Administration’s budget proposal called for a $2.3 billion increase for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), a difference of $1.5 billion. We strongly believe the additional funds we identified can be put to effective use within VA, including better meeting the needs of new veterans of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

On May 31, by a vote of 407-12, the House passed the Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 Military Construction-Veterans Affairs appropriations bill. The bill includes a measure that would boost suicide prevention and homeless assistance funds for veterans. It would also provide $71.7 billion in discretionary funding for veterans’ benefits about four percent above the FY 2012 level, but $1.5 billion less than The Independent Budget recommendation.

Recently, we saw evidence of the negative effects of inadequate funding at a Senate hearing when witnesses testified that VA is failing to meet the mental health needs of the veterans it should be serving. VA’s Inspector General reported that these problems were caused by a multiplicity of factors, including funding and staffing shortages, and lack of quick, easy access by veterans to VA’s many mental health programs. The Inspector General’s findings are consistent with DAV’s own internal survey of the VA mental health care system that showed serious problems with access and response for veterans seeking care.

If you or a family member have experience with VA mental health care and would like to add your voice to our continuing survey, please complete the survey here.

We need grassroots support: please use the prepared e-mail to write your Senators to urge them to increase funding for VA’s FY 2013 appropriation by at least $1.5 billion for medical care services to match or exceed the recommendations of the Independent Budget. We are concerned that failure to provide this increase could lead to further disruptions of VA health care and other vital programs, including its critical mental health efforts.

As always, we at DAV are grateful for your participation in our legislative and grassroots advocacy program. Without your active assistance DAV would not be able to accomplish many of our goals in support of the interests of sick and disabled veterans.