"THE FIRST WOUNDED FROM IRAQ LANDED AT WILLFORD HALL IN SAN ANTONIO YESTERDAY!
These guys will have the best medical care in the world.
Our military primary care units are some of the best hospitals in the world. We can be proud of them.
What we can't be proud of is our long term care in our VA hospitals.
If these guys require long term care they will be transferred to one of the hundreds of VA hospitals across the country, and that's what I'd like to talk about:
We take our dogs to the vet when they're sick, and the vet takes care of them and usually gets them well.
While they're there the vet can give them a bath, cut their hair and trim their toenails.
Now....who pays for this? The dog doesn't have any money.
We pay for it because our dogs are faithful to us and guard our homes from intruders.
Our vets go into the VA hospitals, and, usually, they're nursed back to health.
It would be nice to believe that while they're there they could have a bath and a haircut and be made at least as comfortable as our dogs are in the kennel, but in a lot of cases, that's not true.
We have a responsibilty to our vets, no matter in which war they fought.
They were faithful to us and guarded our homes against intruders.
YOU CAN HELP!
Call your local VA hospital and ask for the Volunteer Services Department. Ask them what you can do to help.
If you have time to get involved go down and fill out one of their Volunteer Service forms and become a volunteer.
These are the people who make life livable for these vets in long term care.
You will be asked to take a TB test because Tuberculosis has morphed into a much more deadly and tenacious disease than it was formerly. It's for your protection as well as the patient's.
If you can become a volunteer, here's some ideas:
Talk to the manager of your local grocery store and see if they will donate a box of fresh fruit once a month. Get soft fruit like bananas, peaches and strawberries. These guys don't get fresh fruit, just canned stuff loaded with perservatives.
If they have a bakery try to get them to donate a box of cookies once a month. Get the sugar free. A lot of our vets are diabetic, and it's too big of a hassel for them to sort out what they can eat and what they can't.
Go to garage sales and yard sales. Buy the old paper back books that people throw away when they finish them. The vets love these!
If you see any eyeglasses, buy them. Some of these vets can't see to read.
See if the vets in your hospital are participating in Operation Uplink. Southwestern Bell donated $250,000. worth of phone cards that the vets can use to call home.
Each card is good for twenty minutes of phone time from anywhere in the US.
If they are not, freep me or e-mail me and I'll get you the name and number of the lady to contact to get them included.
Find out if they have a barber on contract to cut the guy's hair. Most of these guys can't afford a haircut. If not, talk to the barbers in your area about donating some time each week to work at the VA hospital.
Collect baseball caps! The guys love those things!
When you stay at a motel you pay for every tolietry in that room whether you use it or not. It belongs to you. If you don't take it the motel makes an extra profit from your stay.
Take all the tolietries! Give the maid five bucks and she'll collect the tolietries from all the rooms she cleans and give them to you. This is not stealing! It's stealing when you take the towels or the bathrobe. The tolietries are included in the price of your room and everyone else's.
Take these to your VA hospital. They don't have the normal amenities we consider necessary to live.
Collect playing cards and board games from garage sales and yard sales. Just put yourself in the vets place and wanting something to pass the time.
Below is a picture of some bed slippers that were crocheted by a couple of ladies in San Antonio for the vets in the Audie Murphy VA Hospital.
These ladies make a pair of these in two hours. They had made forty-five pair when I talked to them yesterday.
I don't have the pattern, but I suspect that the old hands at crocheting can make them without a pattern. I can get the pattern if it's needed.
These are bed slippers to keep their feet warm in bed or in their wheelchair. People with poor circulation know how difficult it is to keep the feet warm.
Again, work everything through the local Volunteer Service Department.
There's a lot we can do for our vets.
We owe them our life, our liberty and our pursuit of happiness."
cob1@addr.com
For the volunteers of the HAT group of Houston:
I will shortly rent a small storage unit and furnish everyone a key.
Everything you can collect that's nonperishable can be put in the storage unit, and once a month one of us take it to the VA hospital.
I have an appointment with the Service Coordinator in the morning. I'll collect the forms to be filled out to become a volunteer.
LET'S ROLL!!