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The Veterans of Foreign Wars is all in a tizzy about veterans benefits being cut.
They care about ALL of us now?
Because I remember, back in 1992, when what my paltry 10% service connected got me was dramatically reduced.
You now need to have a 30% serviced disconnected disability to get those benefits.
The VFW didn't give two shits about me back then.
The Cold War didn't count, see.
To see the power the VFW had, look at the difference in benefits Nam ERA vets get compared to anyone serving from the end of Vietnam to the beginning of the War on Terror.
I'm not opposed to them fighting this fight, but I remember when they didn't care about me. They still won't support me directly because my DD214 doesn't reflect my entire service.
There still isn't a single veteran's organization that represents all of us.
The smaller VSO's are geared more to discourage us from making claims. Ask me how I know. I am discouraged, they are successful.
If you're about to ETS, look at the dates CAREFULLY on the DD214 they ask you to review. You have that moment and 90 days after that to fix any errors. If you notice that someone typed 89 and not 90 as your separation date, and you notice in 01... It's a nightmare to get fixed inside the VA's system and you will NEVER get a new DD214 showing the correct dates.
"I was popping percocet like M&Ms when I ETS'd," is not grounds for missing the clerical error!
I never served in the military, so I don't know much about any of this. But I do have an anecdote from my uncle that I just have to share. Our small village of around 1,000 people had a VFW hall, with an active membership back in the 1950's and 1960's. Apparently they had a collection of bolt action rifles from the government, most likely 1917 Springfields. When deer season rolled around, they would lend them out to anyone who needed one, with a $5 deposit, returned when the gun was returned.
ReplyDeleteOne year my uncle was too busy and didn't get a rifle in time and they were all gone. A friend of his loaned him an old 30/40 Krag, to use for the year. Later that same friend had my uncle, a carpenter by trade, build him a fireplace. My uncle would not take any money from the man, so the man gave my uncle the Krag.
Later he also got a sporterized version of the same gun, as did my dad. I used that sporterized 30/40 Krag of my dad's to kill a spike horn buck when I was probably around 23 years old. My son in Kentucky now has the gun, and my cousin has one of my uncle's guns, while my uncle's great grandson has the other one.
I've always wanted one of those Krag rifles. A friend of mine who is an ameteur gunsmith and part time gun trader has a couple. Sadly I'm flat ass broke so I can't buy one. I should ask him if he'd trade for something else I have...
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I also never served, and probably would have been rejected due to health issues had I tried to enlist. But I think that cold war era and other veterans who didn't fight in a major skirmish, including people like one of my uncles who served DURING the Viet Nam Era but never were "in country" (he was in the Navy during the tail end of Viet Nam but never got closer than Fanning Island and Pearl Harbor) deserve major respect as well because THEY WERE READY TO SERVE IF CALLED. Whether they got the call or not wasn't up to them. I'm not discounting people who saw the major bad shit., but I don't think that people who were there putting in the service even during "peace time" should get F-ed either.
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