The FReeper Foxhole - One Vietnam Vets Battle with the VA

Thank you for sharing some of yourself with us. It is very much appreciated here. I would encourage you to lurk often, but I would encourage you even more to give us your input. It is from vets that we learn, and we all look forward to hearing from each one of you who have served. It's about you. Thanks for your service!

Dittos!

State Veterans Homes and National Retirement Homes

Armed Forces Retirement Home

More than 150 years ago, Congress established a home for destitute Navy officers, sailors and Marines in Philadelphia. Some 20 years later in 1851, with money demanded as booty from the Mexican War, Congress established an asylum for "old and disabled soldiers" in Washington, D.C.

Through the proceeding years, the U.S. Naval Home (USNH), now in Gulfport, Miss., and the U.S. Soldiers' and Airmen's Home (USSAH), still in D.C., have operated under separate legislation, undergoing many changes. One of the biggest changes came as a result of the Armed Forces Retirement Home Act, Public Law 101-510, which took effect 1991.

This new law established the Armed Forces Retirement Home (AFRH), which combined the USSAH and the USNH under the unified management of the Armed Forces Retirement Home Board. Regulations such as resident eligibility\resident fee, operating funds, oversight, etc. now are standardized for both Homes.

The AFRH is an independent federal agency. Each Home has a local advisory board, administered by the AFRH Board appointed by the Secretary of Defense. Funding for the Homes comes from a Congressional trust fund that is fed by monthly, active-duty payroll deductions of 50 cents, fines and forfeitures from military disciplinary actions, interest earned on the trust, and resident fees.

Both Homes are model retirement centers, where residents can maintain an independent lifestyle in an environment designed for safety, comfort and personal enrichment.

The AFRH is a living memorial to those who served, and exemplifies the notion of how the Armed Forces "takes care of its own," even after military service is completed. The Homes are communities of friendship and camaraderie made possible by the residents' common background of military service.

Armed Forces Veterans Homes Foundation

The greatest need of elderly and infirm veterans, our living heroes, is quality long term care.

Nearly 25,000 veterans rely daily on long term care provided by the 114 state veterans and two national retirement homes in the United States.

Jen....more than that probably die on a daily basis.

Good night. Another long day ahead of me tomorrow - last day of the quarter!! Then I'm FREE for a few weeks and can be here more.

Night,Jen! Glad to see you almost finished! I am almost finished with my project too! :)

Kipling, too, wrote a number of poems about the same phenomena in Britain at the turn of the last century.

The Islanders

1902

Rudyard Kipling

NO DOUBT but ye are the People-your throne is above the King's.
Whoso speaks in your presence must say acceptable things:
Bowing the head in worship, bending the knee in fear-
Bringing the word well smoothen-such as a King should hear.

Fenced by your careful fathers, ringed by your leaden seas,
Long did ye wake in quiet and long lie down at ease;
Till ye said of Strife, "What is it?" of the Sword, "It is far from our ken":
Till ye made a sport of your shrunken hosts and a toy of your armed men.
Ye stopped your ears to the warning-ye would neither look nor heed-
Ye set your leisure before their toil and your lusts above their need.
Because of your witless learning and your beasts of warren and chase,
Ye grudged your sons to their service and your fields for their camping-place.
Ye forced them to glean in the highways the straw for the bricks they brought;
Ye forced them follow in byways the craft that ye never taught.
Ye hindered and hampered and crippled; ye thrust out of sight and away
Those that would serve you for honour and those that served you for pay.
Then were the judgments loosened; then was your shame revealed,
At the hands of a little people, few but apt in the field.
Yet ye were saved by a remnant (and your land's long-suffering star),
When your strong men cheered in their millions while your striplings went to the war.
Sons of the sheltered city-unmade, unhandled, unmeet-
Ye pushed them raw to the battle as ye picked them raw from the street.
And what did ye look they should compass? Warcraft learned in a breath,
Knowledge unto occasion at the first far view of Death?
So? And ye train your horses and the dogs ye feed and prize?
How are the beasts more worthy than the souls, your sacrifice?
But ye said, "Their valour shall show them"; but ye said, "The end is close."
And ye sent them comfits and pictures to help them harry your foes:
And ye vaunted your fathomless power, and ye flaunted your iron pride,
Ere-ye fawned on the Younger Nations for the men who could shoot and ride!
Then ye returned to your trinkets; then ye contented your souls
With the flannelled fools at the wicket or the muddied oafs at the goals.
Given to strong delusion, wholly believing a lie,
Ye saw that the land lay fenceless, and ye let the months go by
Waiting some easy wonder, hoping some saving sign
Idle-openly idle-in the lee of the forespent Line.
Idle-except for your boasting-and what is your boasting worth
If ye grudge a year of service to the lordliest life on earth?
Ancient, effortless, ordered, cycle on cycle set,
Life so long untroubled, that ye who inherit forget
It was not made with the mountains, it is not one with the deep.
Men, not gods, devised it. Men, not gods, must keep.
Men, not children, servants, or kinsfolk called from afar,
But each man born in the Island broke to the matter of war.
Soberly and by custom taken and trained for the same,
Each man born in the Island entered at youth to the game-
As it were almost cricket, not to be mastered in haste,
But after trial and labour, by temperance, living chaste.
As it were almost cricket-as it were even your play,
Weighed and pondered and worshipped, and practised day and day.
So ye shall bide sure-guarded when the restless lightnings wake
In the womb of the blotting war-cloud, and the pallid nations quake.
So, at the haggard trumpets, instant your soul shall leap
Forthright, accoutred, accepting-alert from the wells of sleep.
So at the threat ye shall summon-so at the need ye shall send
Men, not children or servants, tempered and taught to the end;
Cleansed of servile panic, slow to dread or despise,
Humble because of knowledge, mighty by sacrifice.
But ye say, "It will mar our comfort." Ye say, "It will minish our trade."
Do ye wait for the spattered shrapnel ere ye learn how a gun is laid?
For the low, red glare to southward when the raided coast-towns burn?
(Light ye shall have on that lesson, but little time to learn.)
Will ye pitch some white pavilion, and lustily even the odds,
With nets and hoops and mallets, with rackets and bats and rods?
Will the rabbit war with your foemen-the red deer horn them for hire?
Your kept cock-pheasant keep you?-he is master of many a shire.
Arid, aloof, incurious, unthinking, unthanking, gelt,
Will ye loose your schools to flout them till their brow-beat columns melt?
Will ye pray them or preach them, or print them, or ballot them back from your shore?
Will your workmen issue a mandate to bid them strike no more?
Will ye rise and dethrone your rulers? (Because ye were idle both?
Pride by Insolence chastened? Indolence purged by Sloth?)
No doubt but ye are the People; who shall make you afraid?
Also your gods are many; no doubt but your gods shall aid.
Idols of greasy altars built for the body's ease;
Proud little brazen Baals and talking fetishes;
Teraphs of sept and party and wise wood-pavement gods-
These shall come down to the battle and snatch you from under the rods?
From the gusty, flickering gun-roll with viewless salvoes rent,
And the pitted hail of the bullets that tell not whence they were sent.
When ye are ringed as with iron, when ye are scourged as with whips,
When the meat is yet in your belly, and the boast is yet on your lips;
When ye go forth at morning and the noon beholds you broke,
Ere ye lie down at even, your remnant, under the yoke?

No doubt but ye are the People-absolute, strong, and wise;
Whatever your heart has desired ye have not withheld from your eyes.
On your own heads, in your own hands, the sin and the saving lies !

TOMMY

by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

I went into a public-'ouse to get a pint o' beer,
The publican 'e up an' sez, "We serve no red-coats here."
The girls be'ind the bar they laughed an' giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an' to myself sez I:
O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, go away";
But it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play.

I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but 'adn't none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-'alls,
But when it comes to fightin', Lord! they'll shove me in the stalls!
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, wait outside";
But it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide,
The troopship's on the tide, my boys, the troopship's on the tide,
O it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide.

Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;
An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit.
Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, 'ow's yer soul?"
But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll.

We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints;
While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind",
But it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind,
There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind,
O it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind.

You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all:
We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool -- you bet that Tommy sees!

Department of Veteran's Affairs. I won't bore you with the details (it had to do with education benefits) but I found out they will lie to you, they will screw you over, and you have to fight to get what you deserve.

It's an honor to serve.

Yes the VA is a screwed up mess

Thanks Sam

Thanks Doorgunner.

I got nervous when the Doc walked in with those joke eyeglasses, the kind with the "Mr. Ultrapeeper" lenses.
And that was when I was about 8 or so..
And ever since, I've had a special phobia for hospitals.
(When I broke my foot during basic training, the Drill Sars had to detail someone to go with me to make sure I got there. Otherwise I would have just icyhotted and ace bandaged it to death. I thought it was just a bad sprain. the Doc who xeroxed my foot had to show me the x-ray plate before I believed him.)

Thank you so much for your service. Anytime you want to let us know more about your experiences, we would love to hear them. We are here for you and those things that interest and concern you. Your input is valuable. Thanks.

Thanks for the Kipling poems DoorGunner. You got both of the ones I was thinking about.

Army Yes I'm in the TX Army National Guard.

That is a scream indeed ! I've got some other brothers who need to hear that .

Sam while I am sympathetic to your situation I must correct you on one point. The DAV is in no way different from any other Service Organization. In other words JUST AS BAD, JUST AS AFFECTED BY CONFLICT OF INTEREST. Sam the DAV like virtually all other groups, is SANCTIONED by the VA, their VSOs are trained by the VA,Certified by the VA, and can be DECERTIFIED if they make waves by the VA, their VSOs work in rent free offices provided by the VA, their telephone bills are paid by the VA and last but far from least the DAV VSOs like the other VSOs receive "financial bonuses" from the VA. So who do you think they are really working for? If you truly believe that there is any justice in the present system for veterans injured while serving this country you are naive. Have you ever asked why the VA employs hundreds of lawyers while veterans pursuing claims are prevented by FEDERAL LAW from hiring an attorney. Have you ever wondered why veterans are denied, in perpetuity both DUE PROCESS and JUDICIAL REVIEW. The fact is the the existence of these Service Organizations make it possible for this system to continue. If you are a member of any Federally recognized Veterans Organization you are part of the PROBLEM not the solution as none of them support the rights of veterans to be able to hire an attorney. By recommending the DAV you are acting as a
Judas Goat for the VA, whether you realize it or not.

Really ? That sheds a whole new light. Is that true for you first-hand? I've dealt with similar folks here in MN with totally different outcomes. Mark, my partner, is 100% and he was diagnosed back in 1996. He got the MOST help from his VSO, Harold Novotny - voted the best one, by their standards. He DID help Mark out with his rating. He's now RETIRED and good for him, I say. JLO