Our Veterans Deserve Our Thanks and Our Service

For the seventh consecutive Veterans Day, we find our nation at war. It is essential that we take time to express our thanks for the service and sacrifice of the men and women who have worn the cloth of this nation. But we must always take care that our gratitude -- as a people, society and country -- extends beyond symbols and words.

As a 31-year veteran of the Navy, I understand the sacrifices service members make and some of the personal and professional challenges they face coming home. I believe it is our duty to serve them with the same respect and dignity with which they served us.

Our newest generation of veterans, including the more than 1.6 million Americans who have served or are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, faces difficult challenges. They were deployed more frequently and for longer periods than their predecessors had been in decades. They were sent into harm's way with less than the best equipment, many were ''stop-lossed'' when their time was up, and tragically they saw 234 of their fellow Pennsylvanians pay the ultimate price for our freedom, while over 1,500 from our commonwealth were wounded. Out of the service, they face the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression and, partially as a consequence of conflicts with no front lines, more than 20 percent live with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The way we care for our veterans is a reflection of our society. We cannot neglect them in their own time of need, as we did following the Vietnam War.

I ran for Congress to bring to Washington the principle of accountability that governs our armed services. Unfortunately, there have been too many instances where our veterans and their families have suffered because accountability has lapsed in our Congress and Veterans Administration. Because congressional leaders from the mid-1970s until 2006 did not provide necessary resources or oversight, there has been a disturbing series of poor policy decisions and incidents of mistreatment and mismanagement at VA medical facilities.

Our returning Vietnam vets did not receive the care they deserved and in 2003 the VA decided to exclude hundreds of thousands of veterans, from World War II through the Gulf War, from access to health care through the VA medical system. Recently we learned that millions of dollars in improper performance bonuses were assigned to senior VA managers in 2007 and 2008 while hundreds of thousands of disability claims remained backlogged.

Despite that history, I am certain President Obama selected the right person in Gen. Eric Shinseki as his Veterans Affairs secretary to lead the necessary reforms in this organization.

Congress is also trying to do its part. We have approved the largest increase in funding in VA history, passed legislation to re-enroll hundreds of thousands of veterans making as little as $29,000 who were locked out of VA services, and restored full four-year college scholarships for those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. I strongly support the plan by President Obama and Gen. Shinseki to end homelessness in our veteran population. The extraordinary number of homeless veterans speaks volumes of our failure to confront and heal the burdens they carried home from war.

My district office is open seven days a week to meet the needs of my constituents, including veterans who have to negotiate frustrating bureaucracies. We're also doing our best to help veterans during this recession by working to increase SBA loans to veteran-owned businesses. In the past year, SBA loans to veteran-owned businesses in western Pennsylvania have decreased dramatically and I am committed to reversing that trend. As veterans are unemployed at even greater levels than the rest of the population during this recession, we must increase the percentage of veterans employed by the VA to more than the current 29 percent. We must encourage the VA and other employers to hire more vets, empower more veteran service officers from veterans organizations to assist veterans and their families, and streamline the process for disabled vets to apply for state property tax relief.

This is not about bigger government. It is about better government. We can and must keep working to meet our commitments to our returning service members. The honor of our veterans and their families -- past, present and future -- demands nothing less.

As a former 3-star Navy admiral, Joe Sestak is the highest-ranking veteran elected to Congress and is a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate.

 

Follow Rep. Joe Sestak on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Sestak2010

Comments

[Elbrando]

Its good to honor the service of our veterans. Veterans give us the rights we to often overlook and take for granted. It is to bad that you don't believe in the right for a woman to take care of her own body.

[poorpearl]

I watched you talking about Tom Coburn's blocking the passage of the Caregiver and Veterans Services Act of 2009 on Rachel Maddow and felt your pain and outrage. I share it.

As a public servant, he took an oath to serve his constituents. As a physician, he took an oath as well; I know, because I took the same oath. Coburn should be ashamed of his behavior, although I imagine shame requires a degree of self-reflection that he lacks. It is a travesty that he is holding this bill and our veterans and their families hostage. The trauma of war does not end at the border or at the end of a deployment. And compassion is not an accessory, like a flag pin.

Admiral Sestak, thank you for your service,

Julia M.Schwartz, M.D.

[Jesster]

The more we learn about Sen. Coburn (in his capacity as a Senator, a doctor and an enabler) the more contemptuous he appears to be.

I understand he ran for office on the pressing issue of the rampant outbreak of lesbianism in school girl's washrooms.

That he would work to (in effect) "withhold" health care to ANYONE is offensive. To block care to our VETS is an abomination.

[lapdogs]

Where are all the newspaper articles and blogs about Senator Coburn (R-OK) who is holding up Health Care for Veterans?

I've look all over and cannot find anything. Hopefully it is I that missed the numerous articles and TV News Reports - and not the media that is overlooking this news.

At least Rachel Maddow covered the story. Hope it gets you just as mad as I am.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908#33871852

I wonder how the media would react if this were a Democrat holding up the health care for our Vets.

[ladyvader]

Here is an article about Sen. Coburn from 4 November 2009.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/04/tom-coburn-put-anonymous_n_346139.html

[GetACluepeople]

What they need is a yearly renewable ID card that allows them to shop on any military installation 3-4 times a month with the money collected from the ID card fee and part of the money they spend on purchases pumped back to help returning injured veterans and their families cope with what will be tough times ahead.

Veterans helping veterans.

[whiskeytangofoxtrot451]

Well said, Rep. Sestak. Though I'm not a registered democrat, I will definitely be rooting for you in next year's primary. I would be proud to have you as my senator.

[Mildmannered]

thank you, admiral, and the rest of the class of 74 (sir) for their service

[phatHawaiian]

I joined for the money and college. that is why I joined the air force. just keepin it real.

[DoctorWhoDat]

Senator Sestak. Sounds good to me.

[Write4U]

I know how to pay for health care for at least one veteran.
Take Coburn's publicly funded medical coverage and give it to the veteran.

[gabemill]

Absurdly naive! See post above for what a great Vet advocate Coburn is.........

[Write4U]

who are you talking about? I was referring to Tom Coburn who is the only senator , who will try to fillibuster a bill, which grants more funds for medical care to the 1+ million veterans created by an unfunded war, for which he voted. Now he claims that it is just too expensive to pay the health care costs for those vets who were in harms way.
Just because he states now that he is so fiscally conservative, let him apologize to those whom he so readily sent to war. Then to show his remorse, let him forfeit his own publicly funded medical insurance, so that a deserving veteran can have a life (even with limbs missing)

[HamletsMill]

My Great Uncle came out of WWI severely brain wounded on the battlefield at the Argonne Forest and lived in VA hospitals for 35 years with the mind of a six year old child until he died in the early 1950's. My Father loaded the MASH units onto ships for the Battle of Tarawa in WWII. I was a 1st Lieutenant in the U.S. Army from 1969-1971. Greetings to all my fellow veterans on Veteran's Day. I will let Major General Smedley Butler, USMC, send my message to the world on every Veteran's Day.

"WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."

Major General Smedley D. Butler - USMC Retired - 1936

http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler

[gabemill]

I appreciate this wisdom, HamletsMil­l........I think we both know the significance beyond what most will.
This is my favorite quote:
Lt. Gen Gregory Newbold
(Marines, director of operations, Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2000-2002):

"My sincere view is that the commitment of our forces to this fight (Iraq) was done with a casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who have never had to execute these missions---or bury the results."

To better times, my brother.......Happy Veterans Day and welcome home!!!

Nam Vet

[HamletsMill]

Peace be upon you my brother too. Honor every day of life that you are given! This is what I try to do in this fearful place of such monumental unenlightenment. I spend the rest of the 1970's getting my head back in gear through my band. We always opened with this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ism9itDvKTk

Happy Veterans Day.

Welcome home indeed!

[faith]

That is a poignant and absolutely eloquent quote. Thanks for sharing the post gabemill. And, I too agree with ched and wrote him several days ago that I thought his anonymous hold was cowardly and wrongful. I hope more bloggers out there do the same.
peace and grace to our Vets-

[HenryDavid]

Thanks for mentioning General Butler. I learned of him 5 or 6 years ago. As a soldier, I had a chance to witness some of what he talked about.

The more I read of General Butler, the more impressed I became. He had qualities as a soldier and as a citizen which I highly respect. He was a 2-star Marine Corp general who had demonstrated bravery almost without equal--a two-time winner of the Medal of Honor and other high awards--and lived through it all. If anyone had earned the right to free speech, this was the person.

After retiring from the corps, he made a statement during one of his speeches which impressed me most of all. He told the crowd, "I was a gangster for capitalism." Priceless. I don't know of any public figure today who could match his ability, honor, bravery, honesty, and candor. He could have rested on his accolades for the remainder of his life. Instead, he began to tell the American public exactly as things really were and are. He's a hero.

[ched]

Another good and concrete way for us to honor our veterans today would be to let Sen. Coburn know that you do not appreciate his blocking benefits to veterans of the wars he supported, via his anonymous "hold" of S 1963, the Veterans’ Caregiver and Omnibus Health Benefits Act of 2009.

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/11/military_veteransbill_coburnhold_110309w/

[Rep. Joe Sestak - Huffpost Blogger]

I will be on Rachel Maddow tonight to discuss this. These benefits are too important.

[gabemill]

Amen, ched........and thank you Rep. Sestak......
While Coburn waves the flag of hypocrisy, our men and women attempt to endure the onslaught of those who self righteously proclaim "support for the troops," while legislating for their warped political ideology. As Vets represent the highest percentage of suicides and homelessness, by category, in our nation....­.....isn't it time we do something for those who've given so much? As the party who overwhelmingly voted against the New GI Bill, the republicans have a long way to go in showing the support that our Vets deserve.....in action, not rhetoric.

[DreamerWeaver]

Thanks for writing, Representative Sestak. I'm glad you are in Congress and can help develop policy in the area of your military experience. I'll expect to see you in the Senate soon.
Yes, I agree that General Shinseki, a man of integrity, is the perfect choice as the president's secretary for Veterans' Affairs. He is a man who speaks truth to power. There is so much work that needs to be done .... Each day we hear statistics that seem unbelievable in their numbers. We all have to pay attention to the problems and lend a hand where we can ...
Thank you for being one the responsible members of Congress.

[alex61]

Being a Viet Nam era veteran (Marines) I remember well the way that returning troops from that conflict were treated. Many "enlightened" Americans wanted to blame the soldiers for the decisions made by the politicians these same people elected in the first place. Pitiful.
Fortunately, as a country, we seem to have learned from that sad experience. Most people today understand that they can honor the troops even if they are against civilian policies.
Our military has never let us down. Politicians, and sometimes the people themselves, have.
Happy Veterans Day to all my fellow vets!

[DreamerWeaver]

Happy Veterans' Day, and thanks, Marine.

[gabemill]

You are completely correct!
Semper Fi, my brother, and welcome home............

Nam Vet

[viper234]

The men and women who volunteer to join the armed forces are doing a tough job, a job the vast majority of them wish they did not have to do. They are professionals, some of the best trained warriors in the world and they do their jobs well. Thousands have died on the job and for this I am deeply troubled because their lives are precious and while this country says it "supports the troops," I do not see how this can be so overwhelming true when the nation is not fighting at home to stop the promotion of foreign policies that allow civilians in government to send our military to sovereign nations to fight wars that are not absolutely necessary. The Iraq is an unnecessary war. The Afghanistan war is 8 years old with little consensus as to what the US is doing there or how long the US plans to be there. Cheering on the troops, calling every man and woman who serves a "hero" is easy. Standing up for those you herald and making sure our government does not put them in harms way for wrong, murky or profit-driven motives is another matter. This country must send a much louder message to those who serve that we not only honor them, but are fully engaged in the debate that directly affects their lives.

[Minks09]

1) Yes, they are doing a tough job.
2) They volunteered to serve (at least the ones in the service now). They know what that means.
3) Their lives are, indeed, precious. ALL lives are, even those not yet lived.
4) Regardless of our beliefs we should thank a veteran every time we meet one. They do lay their lives on the line, even here at home.

[biwee]

The best, and most patriotic, thing that the nation can do for the US military and its veterans is NOT to send them into unnecessary wars of choice that are based on LIES!!! Now, THAT is supporting the
troops!!

[alex61]

Is that what happened? No. It's what you think happened. It makes you feel good to believe that. I sincerely doubt that most of the troops you seem to be "concerned" about agree with you at all.

[lode runner]

The reality is that the troops you're talking about worshipped GWB.

Which says all you need to say about them.

[gabemill]

Regarding Iraq, that is conclusively what DID happen. My justification for Nam was "never again," in the hopes that good people would never again be sacrificed for so little reason. That excuse was voided when the chicken hawk/never served bush administration came to power.
Lt. Gen Gregory Newbold
(Marines, director of operations, Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2000-2002):

"My sincere view is that the commitment of our forces to this fight (Iraq) was done with a casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who have never had to execute these missions---or bury the results."