“And how can man die better, Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers, And the temples of his Gods.”
Horatius, Lord Macaulay
On the evening of December 14, 2010 members of the Police-Fire Post visited patients at Ft. Miley. Post Commander Peter Mellett, along with Mario Gonzalez, Jeremiah Morgan, Paul Wallace, Bill Wakefield, and John Scully participated in our annual visit to the veterans that are spending the holidays in the hospital. We gave gifts, Christmas cards (with a double sawbuck inside), and profuse thanks for their service.
The annual Christmas visit to Ft. Miley is one of the most important activities in which the Post participates. Many of the patients have outlived all of their contemporaries and rarely get visitors. Seeing their eyes light up during our visits is a very special experience.
Private Jason Martin returned home from boot camp in San Diego to marry Hillary, his high school sweetheart and the mother of his twin boys. Following the November 12 ceremony, they went to the Padre Hotel in Bakersfield, where Hillary had booked a room for the night. When the two arrived, Jason in his dress blues and Hillary in her wedding gown, they were turned away. They are 18-years-old, and hotel policy has a 21-and-older age restriction. Minutes later, Hillary was sitting at a gas station, crying.
“He was gone for three months at boot camp, and it was supposed to be a special night,” Hillary said. Fortunately, after roaming around Bakersfield, they ended up at a nearby Doubletree Hotel.
Later, Hillary and her family took their story to the media. A flood of public anger poured down on the Padre. Brett Miller, part-owner of the hotel, said he received 300 “nasty e-mails.” and responded to each one. The hotel should have bent the rules for the Martins, said Miller, whose brother-in-law is a Marine major. “I’m terribly sorry with what happened,” he said.
The Veterans Affairs Department published proposed rules November 17 stating that some gastrointestinal disorders in veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War will be presumed to be service-connected for benefits and health care purposes. This will include irritable bowel syndrome and functional dyspepsia, which are among the unexplained chronic multisymptom illnesses that have appeared in people who served in Southwest Asia in that conflict.
Gastrointestinal problems in Persian Gulf War veterans can range from occasional, mild episodes to something more debilitating, according to the research that led VA to propose making these presumptive ailments, which means service members applying for benefits do not have to prove their illness is directly linked to military service. The proposed policy is open for comment until mid-December and could be implemented early next year.
Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Alaska, chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, wants to expand benefits eligibility for spina bifida victims who are children of veterans exposed to the herbicide Agent Orange (they promised us that it wouldn’t harm us, as they sprayed the bejesus out of us), which was widely used in Vietnam.
Current law covers the children of veterans who were in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. He introduced a bill, S 3953, that would add veterans who worked on Air Force bases in Thailand during the Vietnam War because Agent Orange was handled at those installations. Not only did they lie to us about Agent Orange being harmful, but I have to wonder how many generations has this vile substance poisoned?
At least 18 people who served in the military, including nine who served in Afghanistan or Iraq, were elected to Congress in the November elections, but the overall number of veterans on Capitol Hill continues to decline. The freshmen veterans, all Republicans, were elected in part through an aggressive campaign to get combat vets to run as fiscal and social conservatives.
The San Francisco Police-Fire Post is very anxious to recruit all veterans in the police and fire departments. Please contact Captain Greg Corrales at Mission Station (558-5455) or at gc1207@comcast.net. Happy holidays to everyone!
