Larry Scott (former E-5) served four-plus years in the U.S. Army with overseas tours as a Broadcast Journalist at AFKN HQ, Seoul, Korea and AFN Lajes Field, The Azores, Portugal and a stateside tour as a Broadcast Journalism Instructor at the Defense Information School (DINFOS). Larry was decorated four times including the Joint Service Commendation Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster. He was awarded DOD's First Place Thomas Jefferson Award for Excellence in Journalism. After the Army, Larry went back to radio news, working in Indianapolis as a News Anchor on WIFE Radio and then in New York City as a News Anchor on WNBC Radio. He receives VA compensation for a service-connected disability and uses the Portland, Oregon/Vancouver, Washington VA facilities for healthcare. Today, Larry resides in Southwest Washington and operates the veteran's help website YourVABenefits.org. To contact Larry Scott email larry@yourvabenefits.org.
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It's always easier to praise the dead than to deal with the living. And this Memorial Day was no exception.
For me, Memorial Day is full of sadness. I remember friends who didn't make it back from Viet Nam. I remember the ones who did make it back and then disappeared into themselves until they disappeared completely. I remember the stories my father told me about his shipmates who died when a kamikaze hit his ship (USS St. George, AV-16) near the end of WWII.
But, this year, I spent considerable time thinking of the living. Thinking about those veterans who have come home and are disappearing into themselves as our elected representatives continue to underfund the VA, denying benefits and delaying necessary healthcare.
Every Memorial Day there is a service at Normandy, France at the American Cemetery and Memorial overlooking Omaha Beach, site of D-Day's heaviest fighting, on June 6, 1944. This year Representative Steve Buyer (R-IN), Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, addressed the American and French audience.
Speaking of those who gave their lives at Normandy, Rep. Buyer said, "These are the lives we must celebrate." Rep. Buyer's words were the right words on this solemn occasion. But, his actions betray him. As Chairman of HCVA, Rep. Buyer has worked to dismantle veterans' benefits. He has tried to increase prescription co-pays and add enrollment fees for entire groups of veterans, said Congress was wrong when it passed concurrent receipt legislation, tried to create different classes of veterans (saying some deserve benefits and some don't, thereby pitting veteran against veteran), worked to redefine a service-connected disability as being only combat related -- and the list goes on and on. This has been detailed in previous articles.
"So many are now silent forever," Rep. Buyer told those gathered at Normandy. "But are they? Again, if I permit the eyes of my mind to have a vision, I can see them. If I permit the ears of my heart to listen, I can hear them," Rep. Buyer added. Again, a beautiful tribute to those who served and died.
But, as respectful as Rep. Buyer may be to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, he is short-sighted when it comes to dealing with us, the living veterans. As Chairman of HCVA, Rep. Buyer's concern, his calling, his mission should be caring for the living veterans who depend on legislation coming out of his Committee for their VA benefits.
Rep. Buyer also said, "Who can doubt that those who fell ... earned a rest and a reward far beyond the bittersweet glories of this world?" Rep. Buyer, it's time to start caring for the veterans who have to deal with the "bittersweet glories of this world" on a day-to-day basis. Don't wait until they're in the ground before you pay your respects.
The thousands of emails I've received at my website tell the story. Pain, disease, chronic disabilities, broken marriages, substance abuse. Agent Orange exposure, PTSD, cancer, fuel exposure, radiation, assault, rape. The vet who was just told he has to wait two years for necessary orthopedic surgery because there are no funds to hire needed surgeons.
One email from a vet summed it up: "My VA claim? It's been over three years and they say they're still working on it. I think they're just waiting 'til I die. Then, my wife gets a flag and somebody comes with a boom-box to play Taps from a CD."
Today we stand at a crossroads. The VA is critically underfunded. The arguments continue over concurrent receipt. The Veterans Disability Benefits Commission is meeting to decide "whether a disability or death of a veteran should be compensated," an immoral question if ever there was one. As veterans, we know which road to choose. Do our elected representatives? It appears not.
In the June 2005 edition of The American Legion Magazine Rep. Buyer said, "Now it appears that some want to create a theme that all veterans are veterans and all veterans should be treated the same. That theme goes against our military values." Don't tell us veterans don't have military values, Rep. Buyer! It demeans all veterans.
In his book Making the Corps, Thomas Ricks defines military values as "sacrifice, unity, self-discipline and considering the interests of the group before those of the individual." These values are entirely consistent with a fully funded VA that serves ALL veterans.
In the same article Rep. Buyer was asked why he is opposed to mandatory funding of the VA. Rep Buyer's claim is that the eligibility reform act of 1996 was wrong and based on false assumptions -- it shouldn't have been passed -- even though he voted for it.
Rep. Buyer said, "So, it's rather hollow to advocate -- no, it's really rather inappropriate to call for mandatory funding of a system that was created based on false assumptions, as though we should ignore the mistakes that were made." Rep. Buyer, our healthcare was NOT a mistake!
Thomas P. Cadmus, National Commander of the American Legion, sees things differently. In a statement released May 31, 2005, Cadmus, he stated the 2006 VA budget inadequate, adding, "Yesterday as our Nation observed Memorial Day, our thoughts turned to those veterans that paid the ultimate price for freedom. I hope the Nation also remembers its obligation to the men and women of the armed forces -- past, present, and future. Turning veterans away from a VA medical facility falls well short of that expectation."
Dead or alive, all veterans deserve the honor and the benefits they have earned, just as Commander Cadmus stated. Hollow words delivered to a cemetery full of veterans who cannot answer do not serve to fully bestow that honor. It truly is easier to praise the dead than it is to deal with the living. The living can speak back. The living can ask questions. The living can vote!
We live in the here and now. The needs of veterans are greater than ever, in the here and now. Today, not yesterday. But, Rep. Buyer lives in a world where the memory of veterans who died over 60 years ago is used to try to distract us from that reality.
When Rep. Buyer returns from France I'm sure he will be busy, but perhaps his Appointment Secretary can find a venue on this side of the Atlantic with live veterans. Perhaps he can spend some time at a VA hospital getting to know those he claims to serve. Perhaps he will finally do the right thing and work for a fully-funded VA. Perhaps. Perhaps.
