Free Republic

Three unsung heroes at a Lowe’s Home Improvements store fixed a Vietnam veteran’s broken-down wheelchair, which was much more than his local Veterans Affairs office was willing to do. He wrote this letter to his local newspaper, the Staten Island Advance, to give thanks to the men and the company that went to bat for him, when the government wouldn’t. In 1971, I stepped on a land mine in Vietnam and lost both legs above the knee. For the past two years, I have been waiting to receive a new wheelchair from the Veterans Administration. In addition, I have been...

Doug Chase, a Vietnam veteran who was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2011. In 2012, his wife, Suzanne, tried to move his medical care to a nearby Veterans Affairs hospital. “It was so difficult for him to take the ambulance ride into Boston, we wanted to be closer.” They waited about four months and never heard anything -- Chase died later that year. But two weeks ago, he got a letter, from the VA in Bedford, saying he could now call to make an appointment to see a primary care doctor. “It was addressed to my husband and I...

Veterans aren’t happy with a recent op-ed by the Washington Post, which charged that the Apache, Comanche, Chinook, Lakota, Cheyenne and Kiowa military vehicles were a “greater symbolic injustice” than the NFL’s Washington Redskins’ name. “Even if the NFL and Redskins brass come to their senses and rename the team, a greater symbolic injustice would continue to afflict Indians — an injustice perpetuated not by a football club but by our federal government,” Simon Waxman of the Boston Review wrote for the Post on Thursday. He added that the helicopter names were “propaganda” that needed to end, because Native American...

Imagine how much better off America’s veterans would be if the federal government spent more time delivering actual care and less time compiling tyrannical lists. The death-inducing secret waiting lists for patients are just the tip of the iceberg. Did you know, for example, that the VA keeps a database on “disgruntled” and “disruptive” vets that results in arbitrarily restricted care?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A year after the Supreme Court struck down a law barring federal recognition of gay marriages, the Obama administration granted an array of new benefits Friday to same-sex couples, including those who live in states where gay marriage is against the law. The new measures range from Social Security and veterans benefits to work leave for caring for sick spouses. They are part of President Barack Obama's efforts to expand whatever protections he can offer to gays and lesbians even though more than half of the states don't recognize gay marriage. That effort has been confounded by...

Video of a veteran coming home to his wife and his two kitties.

As I see it, and saw it, serving my 4 years in the US Navy Submarine Service on the USS Grenadier (SS-525) and the USS George C. Bancroft (SSBN -643) as a TM 3 (MT) was a privilege. I owed my country my time & energy for providing me with the privilege of living in the greatest nation ever to arise on the face of the Earth. I'm not owed anything. Thank you America, for letting me serve.

Sometimes that sinking feeling turns out to be well founded. In the case of the similarities between a little remembered movie about the dangers of bureaucratic policy making in the VA hospital system it is well founded indeed. In 1992 Hollywood produced a movie called Article 99 which was set in a Kansas City VA hospital. The film dealt with the struggles of a maverick surgeon who was undoubtedly modeled after Dr. Hawkeye Pierce of MASH the still very popular series that was winding down at the time. The surgeon, played by Ray Liotta has contempt for VA rules that...

A California woman says Veterans Administration hospital guards beat her husband to death after he waited four hours for dialysis. Norma Montano says her husband of 44 years, Jonathan, died of a stroke on June 11, 2011, after he was beaten and had his carotid artery stomped by VA guards. Montano says the hospital also lied to her about what happened to her husband. Montano’s son and daughter are also plaintiffs in the suit. Montano says he husband was tired of waiting, but when he tried to leave and go to another facility, he “was told by the nursing staff...

In his weekly address, President Obama referred to care for veterans as part of a "sacred trust to all who've served." He said our nation has to do "much more … to make sure all our veterans get the care they deserve." The comments come amid criticism of the President Obama's Department of Veterans Affairs has been treating veterans. And the comments come just days before Memorial Day. "[L]et’s keep working to make sure that our country upholds our sacred trust to all who’ve served. In recent weeks, we’ve seen again how much more our nation has to do to...

Thousands of bikers roared through the nation’s capitol on Sunday for a “Ride for Freedom.” The Rolling Thunder displayed American flags in a display of respect for those veterans who lost their lives in the nation’s wars. The Rolling Thunder will take part in the annual National Memorial Day Parade today. God bless you all! WATCH:

A U.S. Marine who has been held in a Mexican jail for two months after mistakenly crossing the border with guns could have been spared his continuing ordeal with a simple phone call - and the kind of courtesy American border officials extend to wayward Mexicans, including members of the military. Andrew Tahmooressi, 25, was trying to visit a friend near the border in San Ysidro March 31 when he missed the last exit on Interstate 5 and inadvertently crossed into Mexico. While his mistake was apparently due in part to a poorly marked - and recently changed - sign...

Where VA has taken veterans, Obamacare is leading all Americans: Kevin O'Brien

Editor's note: This story is the second of two parts. A high-ranking official with Veterans Affairs Pittsburgh Healthcare System wanted the agency to keep quiet about a deadly Legionnaires' disease outbreak rather than warn the public, internal emails indicate. ... The email is among nearly 7,000 pages of internal VA emails and documents the Tribune-Review obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Seven decades after ­Allied troops stormed Normandy’s beaches and saved France from the Nazis, the surrender-happy nation is turning its back on hundreds of US veterans who want to return next month to mark the invasion’s 70th anniversary. France has broken its promise to pay for the vets to fly to this year’s commemoration, according to Rep. Michael Grimm. “Our chief-of-staff heard it from the French Embassy in DC — that they would be flown out to France [for free],” said Nick Iacono, a spokesman for the Staten Island congressman. But when The Post contacted the embassy Friday, the French...

<p>Amid contrived outrage over Benghazi and the improving fortunes of its healthcare reform, the Obama administration could be facing a genuine scandal about its treatment of military veterans that has the potential to attract broad political condemnation of its competence. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is facing mounting evidence that some of the hospitals it runs have been keeping two sets of books to make it look as if they were reducing waiting times to see a doctor. More ON THIS STORY Global Insight Benghazi probes riddle US politics Edward Luce The waning of US power Obama recalls Iraq to hit back at critics Global Insight US foreign policy comes home to roost IN US POLITICS & POLICY Fannie Freddie wind-down bill advances US Senate rule changes leave empty chairs Energy bans on Russia aim to shield west Fannie case papers spark anger More damning, the department is investigating the claims of a whistleblower doctor in Arizona that dozens of patients at one hospital died while they were languishing on a hidden waiting list without ever being given an appointment. Richard Griffin, the department’s acting inspector general, admitted on Thursday that its review could lead to criminal charges. In the first political casualty of the scandal, Robert Petzel, the department’s undersecretary for heath, resigned on Friday. If the evidence of mismanagement continues to accumulate, the Obama administration will find itself not in another partisan knife-fight, but under fire from both parties in a Congress where the uniformed military is venerated.</p>

That’s an incredible statement given what we now know. To wit, at least seven Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities have now come under heavy criticism for essentially leaving veterans to die. This is not hyperbole. Wait times for routine procedures have been unconscionably long at some VA hospitals; patients sometimes wait for care that never comes, or if it does, comes much too late. (As many as 40 veterans at one VA hospital alone, in Phoenix, AZ, have died waiting for care). These deaths were preventable. Meanwhile, bureaucrats have invented new ways of meeting basic wait-time standards without actually doing...

Student loan servicer Sallie Mae and formerly affiliated companies have agreed to pay a total of $97 million to settle claims that it charged members of the military too much interest on their loans — and the Education Department will review whether additional federal action, including termination of its contract with Sallie Mae, is necessary. The Justice and Education departments on Tuesday announced a $60 million settlement with Sallie Mae and related companies, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced a separate $37 million settlement with Sallie Mae Bank and Navient Solutions, Inc., over deceptive lending practices and violations of...

Above: Afghanistan combat veteran Andrew Tahmooressi- by Brian Hayes | Top Right NewsSo our last report saw Mexican troops invading our borders -- even drawing weapons on our agents on U.S. soil -- and facing absolutely no consequences by the Obama Adminstration. But let one American make a wrong turn into Mexico -- and there will be hell to pay. That's exactly what happened to a U.S. Marine veteran last month, after he accidentally drove into Mexico with three legally owned guns in his truck. And he has been rotting in a brutal Mexican jail in Tijuana ever since.California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter...

A Texas Veterinarian Allegedly Kept A Family's Dog Alive For Blood Transfusions Paul Szoldra April 30, 2014, 9:58 PM     A Fort Worth, Texas veterinarian has been arrested on suspicion of cruelty to animals after a family alleged their dog was kept alive without their knowledge for blood transfusions instead of being euthanized, The Star-Telegram reports. The veterinarian, 71-year-old Millard Lou Tierce, turned himself in on Wednesday and was released on $10,000 bail. He denied the complaint, telling the Telegram it was "all a bunch of hooey." The dog at the center of the allegations, a 5-year-old...