Legionnaires are asked to rally support for the flag amendment in both the House and Senate.
House Joint Resolution 47, introduced by Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., currently has 80 co-sponsors.
Thanks to the efforts of Legionnaires in the departments of West Virginia, Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana and Idaho, all of those respective states’ representatives have signed on as co-sponsors.
The amendment, which reads, “The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States,” currently is assigned to the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. H.J. Res 47’s companion piece in the Senate – S.J. Res. 15, introduced by Sen. David Vitter, R-La. – has 26 co-sponsors. The measure has been referred to the Senate’s Committee on the Judiciary.
To keep up to date on the flag amendment and all other pieces of legislation moving through Congress, visit the Legislative Action Center
Today would have been my parents wedding anniversary. They “ran off” to a little town 40 miles from home and got married. It was the middle of WWII and my dad was going back on duty after being home on leave.
It got me to thinking, why do couples do that? Get married during wartime, I mean. Do they feel they would regret it if they waited? Do they want to have an heir just in case their GI doesn’t come home? Do they really consider the consequences or do they do it in the heat of the moment?
“Most of these relationships were forged when the world was a dangerous place and life was uncertain. Couples were forced to confront the profound emotions and passions that come with the reality of separation and the prospect of death.” Tom Brokaw – The Greatest Generation
I don’t know exactly why my parents married at that particular time. Why they felt they had to do it then and not wait. My parent’s marriage lasted till death did them part. Today, many war time marriages are taking place. Unfortunately, many of them are ending as quickly as they happened.
What’s different now than it was during WWII? Is divorce just so much more easy and common? Is it because there isn’t as big a social stigma attached to it? Are the horrors of war that different? Do people just give up easier? Or were there just as many then?
Lots-of-questions? Have you got any thoughts on this subject?If you do, go to www.burnpit,legion.org and write it on their blog.
As National Blood Donor Month, January is a crucial time for raising awareness for the need to give blood. That makes it a crucial time for The American Legion and its members as well.
Legionnaires everywhere are encouraged to give blood and host blood drives at posts as part of the American Legion Blood Donor Program – an organizational effort that has existed since 1946 to help a life-saving cause that becomes even more important during the harsh winter season. Last year, the Legion’s program officially brought in more than 17,500 pints from over 6,700 donors nationwide.
As it does at the start of each year, the American Association of Blood Banks uses January to draw awareness to the need for blood. It’s estimated that 39,000 units of red blood cells are used at hospitals and emergency care centers each day. That number grows, as the weather gets colder.
Legionnaires who are interested in donating or coordinating donation efforts at posts are encouraged to contact their community blood center, hospital blood bank or local medical doctors. Donors must be 17 years old in most states, though some states will allow 16-year-olds to participate with written permission from a parent. You must also weigh at least 110 pounds and be in good health (meaning without infection or fever), not on antibiotics and generally feeling well on the day of donation.
Posts and departments that donate the most blood are honored at the national convention each year. Departments are separated into five categories, according to size, and are recognized in two areas: for post participation and individual Legionnaire participation. Post participation awards are given to departments with the highest number of participating posts. Individual participation awards are given to departments with the highest percentage of individuals giving blood.
The national commander presents both awards at the national convention. Winning departments receive certificates signed by the national commander and national adjutant.
Minnesota Legion family members are requesting help in rounding up global positioning system units to donate to U.S. servicemembers deployed to the Middle East.
The American Legion, Auxiliary and other organizations have been buying and donating Lowrance iFINDER GPS units to U.S. servicemembers; through Operation Waypoint, the St. Augusta American Legion Post and Auxiliary Unit 621 have given away over 200 of these units to date. But with new technology, Lowrance has improved its handheld GPS units, so the sale and distribution of iFINDERs has been discontinued. The company’s new handheld Endura does not have the chip developed for navigation in the Middle East at this time.
With the deployment of 30,000 U.S. troops in the next few months, Operation Waypoint is asking that anyone with a Lowrance iFINDER, H2O, Hunt, Expedition or Pro GPS unit in working condition consider donating them to the troops. The GPS units can be dropped off at any American Legion post or Gander Mountain store. The donor will receive a note of appreciation from the American Legion Auxiliary, with a statement of donation value for tax purposes.
Those donating GPS units (Lowrance only) need to provide their name, address and phone number. The GPS units, along with the personal information, should be shipped to the St. Cloud Gander Mountain store. Store employees will inspect the units and then load the Middle East details on a chip before shipping the units and chips to the deploying troops.
DENVER, COLORADO – U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs – Eastern Colorado Health Care System will host a grand opening ceremony for its new, state-of-the-art Primary Care Telehealth Outreach Clinic (PCTOC) at the Heart of the Rockies Medical Campus, 1000 Rush Drive, Salida, CO on January 15, 2010 at 11 a.m. VA Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Policy and Planning, Ms. Pat Vandenberg will attend and offer remarks.
This Primary Care Telehealth Outreach Clinic represents the VA’s commitment to moving top-quality health care into rural areas to speed delivery and increase convenience for rural veterans.This commitment was demonstrated in May 2009 when the VA Office of Rural Health announced a grant award of over $7 million to create ten PCTOCs in VISN 19.The Salida Clinic is the first of the ten PCTOCs to be opened.
Medical care will be delivered to veterans at the Salida PCTOC using the latest in telehealth technology.Telehealth is the delivery of health-related services and information via telecommunications technologies. Veterans at the Salida clinic will see and be treated by a physician located at the Pueblo, CO VA Community Based Outpatient Clinic via sophisticated videoconferencing equipment.Medical staff is also on sight to attend to veterans’ needs.
Veterans enrolled and receiving health care through VA may change their preferred facility to Salida. They will be assigned to the primary care provider and issued an appointment if necessary.
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Legionnaire Jimmie Foster believes it’s important to bring new members into The American Legion. But the leading candidate for 2010-2011 national commander believes renewing former members is just as important.
That’s why Foster, if elected, will focus his national commander’s incentive program on renewals. His Lucky 7 program – introduced during last Friday’s National Membership & Post Activities Committee meeting – will provide a special pin to Legionnaires who bring in at least two new members and up to five renewals.
“I want you to continue to get new members,” Foster, the national commander’s representative to the National Legislative Commission. “But also I want you to keep the ones we have. We do a dynamic job getting new members. But I think we do a terrible job with those going out the back door.
“I think a lot of that is after you get their money the first time, you don’t actually communicate with them. You might meet them one time at the post. You don’t ask them what they would like to do, or how involved they would like to become in your post, your organization. The lack of communication drives them out the back door.”
When the Post-9/11 GI Bill became law over the summer, veterans and their family members showed up in masses to take advantage of it. As a result, VA became clogged with a backlog of claims and only had estimates of exactly how many individuals were using the landmark legislation. At the close of the first academic semester, VA has released a report that answers those questions, providing official statistics and giving an explanation for the backlog.
In the report, VA says 164,144 individuals have enrolled in classes under the GI Bill, and 130,309 of them have received payments. That leaves 34,000 students still waiting – a number which is down from about 240,000 in August but still seen as unacceptable by vet supporters. Currently, the VA says it is paying about 4,500 students per day, and that it takes on average 47 days to process payments from the day the school certifies enrollment in VA. In all, 352,281 people have applied for a Certificate of Eligibility, and 292,896 have received one. They will receive funding when they enroll in a school.
VA reports that $517 million has been paid out to students and $385 million to schools. An additional 65,282 payments totaling $193 million were made to students this fall during the emergency payment period, which sent advance funding to destitute individuals who were still waiting on their first GI Bill checks.
VA says that the sometimes-controversial claims process takes about one to one and a half hours to process a single payment. Four nonintegrated systems store, calculate, pay and send letters – a setup that VA calls “a burdensome entry and reentry of data”.
The backlog was especially bad in the beginning of the semester, when many students were enrolled in school without having received payments. To remedy the situation, VA reports that it hired 230 employees beyond the 520 original ones. They all are required to work overtime at least three days a month.
To improve the system, VA says it continues to review the process and streamline letters to veterans and their dependents who are attending school on their behalf.
On Aug. 24, 2009, The American Legion National Executive Committee adopted Resolution 1, The American Legion Policy on VA and National Health Care Reform, and Resolution 2, The American Legion Policy on DoD’s Medical Health System and National Health Care Reform. The goal of these resolutions was to make sure that neither DoD’s or VA’s health-care delivery systems were adversely affected by legislation introduced and passed in each chamber.
Very early in the process, The American Legion received assurances from key congressional leaders and the president that nothing in the national health-care reform legislation would adversely affect either the DoD or VA health-care systems. Both the House and the Senate have passed their versions of national health-care reform legislation, and both bills span over 2,000 pages of legislative language. In a review of each bill, it appears neither DoD or VA health-care systems will be adversely affected; however, the current ongoing negotiations between House, Senate and the White House are being conducted in “closed sessions” with little to no detailed information being officially released or reported.
The American Legion will continue to closely monitor developments and keep The American Legion family informed as specifics are revealed. Clearly, changes to Medicare’s reimbursement rates to participating health-care providers could possibly have an effect on TRICARE and TRICARE for Life beneficiaries. This is just one of the many provisions The American Legion has publicly expressed concerns over.
Another concern deals with any requirement for mandatory public or private health-care insurance. Neither TRICARE or VA health care is an insurance provider, but rather a health-care provider. So The American Legion has publicly expressed its concerns with “cookie cutter” approaches in mandating health-care insurance coverage with the threat of fines or penalties for noncompliance. Both DoD and VA health care are earned benefits for honorable military service and the thanks of a grateful nation.
In keeping with the constitutional intent of the democratic process, the voice of We, the people, remains absolutely critical in the representative form of government we enjoy; therefore, you are encouraged to ask your two senators and your representative specific questions you may have on the issue of national health-care reform as it relates to veterans, servicemembers and their families.
An old Chinese proverb declares, “May you live in interesting times.” The upcoming year will likely show why these words are a blessing and a curse.
Change is always interesting, and in an era marked by the global spread of democratic governance, change often comes at the ballot box. In 2010, elections will be conducted in a number of key countries.
The United States will hold congressional elections. A shift in power would probably influence domestic policy more than foreign policy. But, as George W. Bush learned in the Beltway battle over the Iraq troop surge, and as Bill Clinton learned in the Balkans, and as Ronald Reagan learned in Central America, a determined Congress can have a significant impact on foreign policy.
Britain will hold elections and will likely oust the party of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, after 13 years in power. David Cameron, the would-be prime minister, has staked out a decidedly independent, pro-sovereignty position, promising that he would “never allow Britain to slide into a federal Europe.”
Iraqis will vote for parliament, testing a fragile political-constitutional system. The good news is that post-Baathist Iraq has risen to the occasion before, most recently in November, when the parliament hammered out a crucial set of rules for administering the 2010 election.
But elections are only a small part of the big picture for Iraq in 2010. By the end of August, the United States will withdraw all combat forces from Iraq, leaving 50,000 troops behind for training, counterinsurgency/counterterrorism and protection of U.S. facilities. In other words, August will mark the end of the war for American troops.
Beyond Iraq, there are elections in the Philippines, Ethiopia, the Palestinian territory, Brazil and elsewhere, but the elections in Ukraine, Poland and the Czech Republic could be the most interesting in relation to U.S. foreign and defense policy.
Still smarting from Washington’s retreat on missile defense, Czech and Polish politicians face electorates that could punish them for taking a risk on the U.S. missile defense program – something that appears to have yielded only Russian anger.
In Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, the pro-Western sitting president, is facing Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and Viktor Yanukovich. The bad news for those who want Ukraine to remain independent and Western-oriented is that Yushchenko’s poll numbers are dismal. Yanukovich was “Moscow’s man” in 2004, according to the BBC, and Tymoshenko is viewed as co-opted by Moscow. “We are happy working with the government of Yulia Tymoshenko,” Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said.
Given Moscow’s military presence in the Crimea and refusal to view its former vassals as independent countries, who’s in charge in Ukraine – and how he or she relates to Russia – could have serious implications for the United States and NATO. Ukraine is not a NATO member. Of course, neither was Georgia in 2008, yet the Russia-Georgia war badly damaged Western relations with Moscow.
NATO, by the way, will complete work on a new Strategic Concept in 2010. The Strategic Concept is a mission statement of sorts. The last time NATO adopted a new Strategic Concept was in 1999. Much has changed since then.
While on the subject of change, a big one that is supposed to happen in 2010 is the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facilities. However, it won’t happen on schedule. Missing the president’s January 2010 deadline is probably a good thing. Understandably, the American people oppose by a 2-1 margin the plan to shut down GITMO and move the detainees into the United States. Leaving much to be desired are the alternatives to GITMO: handing over the detainees to other countries, where many have been released; transferring them to federal prisons; and/or trying them in U.S. courts. Stateside trials like the preparations for the Manhattan trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other al Qaeda terrorists already figure to dominate the news in 2010.
That brings us to Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed hatched their mass-murder plan. After a thorough re-review, the president has ordered 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan; this follows his early-2009 deployment of about 20,000 troops. Perhaps by this time next year, we will be able to say that the Afghanistan surge worked as well as the Iraq surge. However, it would seem that letting the Taliban know when the United States will end its offensive – the president promises “after 18 months, our troops will begin to come home” – won’t make Gen. McChrystal’s mission any easier.
Next door to Afghanistan, only Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a handful of clerics know what 2010 holds for Iran. If 2009 is any guide; we can expect plenty of gamesmanship from Tehran and tough talk from the United Nations, but no real action. As French president Nicolas Sarkozy recently observed, “Since 2005, Iran has violated five Security Council resolutions… An offer of dialogue was made in 2005, an offer of dialogue was made in 2006, an offer of dialogue was made in 2007, an offer of dialogue was made in 2008, and another one was made in 2009… What did the international community gain from these offers?” His answer: “More enriched uranium, more centrifuges.”
Exasperated, Sarkozy finally concluded, “There comes a time when facts are stubborn and decisions must be made.”
