Thank a veteran with "care for veterans" - echo veteran's opinion

https://pilotonline.com/opinion/letters/article_cecba91c-e949-11e8-be85-7b793c677320.html

Echo opinion letter published in The Virginian Pilot


I AM A U.S. NAVY veteran who served from 1964 to 1968.

In the past week or so, I have noticed a lot of fanfare, photo ops, parades and other events related to Veterans Day. TV news shows, The Pilot and other outlets gave our veterans lots of attention.

Now that Veterans Day is over, we need to turn our attention to what really matters for our veterans.


I don't want people to thank me for my service. I don't want to see veterans' organizations supporting political parties or particular politicians.

I watched a TV news report recently that Veterans Affairs hospitals are proud to report how the wait of number of days for a veteran to see a primary health care provider has been reduced. Days! And the VA officials were proud of this progress!

If I need medical attention, I can drive a short distance, go to a "walk-in" clinic, see a doctor and be treated quickly. The comparison with how our veterans are treated is ridiculous. Could a draftee or enlistee tell the federal government that he or she would like to wait days or weeks before they would enter the military, when they are called to serve?

These are the men and women who volunteered to serve our country. And this country (USA- Defense Department alert!) has a defense budget that is larger than the defense budgets of all the other developed countries on the Earth. We can send people off to war, it seems, but we cannot provide them proper medical attention when they need it.

PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) has always been a factor for our veterans. I know a World War II veteran who could no longer see food being thrown away after he was part of the liberation of Jews from concentration camps. And I personally knew a man who returned from duty in Southeast Asia, left the barracks at Oceana on a sunny day in 1967, drove to the Virginia Beach Oceanfront, sat on the steps leading to the beach and took his own life.


When it comes to veterans' benefits, talk is cheap. I'm tired of the rhetoric. It is a disgrace.

Harold Smith  Virginia Beach